Ch.15Sleeping Together (1)

*

“Ash, let’s sleep together.”

Silvia said that as soon as I opened my eyes.

“Huh?!”

Having just woken up, I responded to her words with a rather peculiar sound that could hardly be called an answer as I sat there in a daze.

Silvia continued speaking, paying no mind to my strange outburst.

“Starting tonight, let’s sleep together.”

“…”

I rubbed my eyes, forcing my half-asleep brain to work as I tried to comprehend what she was saying.

Did I hear her correctly?

I think I heard her say “let’s sleep together.”

No way…

I decided to assess the situation first.

“…Why haven’t you gone hunting yet?”

“I was waiting for you.”

“…Why?”

“To ask you to sleep together.”

Wow, I hadn’t misheard.

It seemed she had been waiting for me to wake up before going hunting, just to say this.

What’s going on? This is scary.

I suddenly felt wide awake.

“Uh? Um? Why…exactly?”

Silvia grinned and slowly approached the bed where I was sitting.

I unconsciously flinched and backed away.

She stared at me as she carefully perched on the edge of the bed where I had been sitting.

Then, slowly caressing the cushion with her hand, she said:

“It’s too hard. If you keep sleeping on this, your back will be ruined.”

“…Pardon?”

“But if I give you my bed, where would I sleep? Right? So I thought about it all night, and I think sleeping together would solve all our problems.”

“…”

Wait, she stayed up all night thinking about this?

“What do you think? Good idea, right?”

“…Excuse me?”

I could only respond with a dumbfounded question as I felt my common sense slipping away.

In truth, the bed I was sleeping on was indeed too hard and uncomfortable to really be called a bed. It felt like something that had been forcibly converted into a bed despite not originally being one.

However, during my commoner days, I used to sleep on makeshift mattresses made of straw woven together with more straw stuffed inside.

Compared to those days, this bed was actually quite decent.

“I’m fine with it. It’s not uncomfortable.”

“My goodness, even I, who has camped countless times, feel like my back would break if I kept sleeping on that thing.”

“…”

“If you’re being considerate because you think I might be uncomfortable, don’t worry. My bed is quite spacious. It’s big enough for both of us.”

I wondered just how wide her bed could be to make her say such things.

Although cleaning every corner of the cabin was part of my daily routine, I had never actually entered her room.

It wasn’t that she had forbidden it, but I felt a psychological resistance to barging into a woman’s room.

The manners and common sense I had cultivated throughout my life made it impossible for me to do so.

Therefore, I had no idea how wide her bed was.

But even if the bed was large enough to fill an entire room, sleeping together with her would be too much for someone as timid as me.

Moreover, it was just last night that I had impulsively revealed aspects of the world she didn’t know about.

After seeing her drop her head weakly and enter her room in shock, I had fallen into indescribable self-loathing at my own thoughtlessness.

Perhaps because I was facing this morning right after deeply reflecting on my actions, her proposal felt even more uncomfortable.

“No matter what, sleeping together is a bit…”

“Why?”

“…”

Silvia grabbed my chin and forcibly pulled me to meet her eyes.

Our identical red eyes reflected each other.

“S-Silvia?”

“Don’t you want to?”

What is this? What’s going on?

Flustered, I tried to turn my head away, but my chin was firmly held in place.

She was slowly examining my eyes, nose, lips, and even my neck below.

Suddenly, the image of her burying her nose in my blanket and sniffing it a few days ago flashed through my mind.

‘…Could it be that Silvia…?’

She raised her gaze again to meet my eyes.

She had said it was a misunderstanding before, but could she possibly have feelings for me?

I carefully looked into her eyes, trying to discern her intentions.

Her red eyes, shining through her fluttering platinum blonde hair, were too beautiful to be merely traces of a curse.

The beautiful irises had a slight purple tinge within the red, reflecting white light like the calm surface of a lake.

They were like beautiful rubies.

Above and below these rubies, long yellow eyelashes, as soft as peacock feathers, decorated the gems.

Her eyes were fascinatingly beautiful, captivating even after a long gaze.

Suddenly feeling my face heat up, I quickly lowered my gaze to avoid eye contact with her.

From what I could see, her expression hadn’t changed at all.

Of course, she was the Hero.

She must have been surrounded by countless impressive men displaying physical masculinity among her companions and others. There’s no way she would make such a proposal because she saw me as a man.

I spoke carefully in a timid voice:

“It’s not that… But a grown man and woman sleeping together in the same room is a bit…”

“…Ah-“

Silvia let out a short sigh as if she had just realized something, then broke into a chuckle.

She was still holding my face.

I smiled back at her, thinking she had understood.

She nodded and said:

“You fool, do I look like someone who couldn’t resist if you tried to pounce on me?”

“…No, I’m worried about you pouncing on me…”

“…What?”

“Nothing.”

Silvia’s expression instantly hardened.

I broke into a cold sweat and tried to explain:

“No, well, like that time with my blanket…”

“Hey.”

“Ah, ah, if you try to sniff me while I’m asleep, how could I resist?”

“…Hey.”

Oh no.

Silvia’s expression was growing even more rigid.

I carefully chose the most respectful and trustworthy tone I could muster and began to speak:

“I-I believe it’s not unusual for you to be sensitive to others’ warmth or scent after having been isolated from human interaction for so long… Ack!”

Her hands firmly gripped both my cheeks, forcibly closing my mouth.

I quickly examined her face.

She was blushing all the way to her ears.

“…Eek,”

“…Mmph”

I needed to beg for mercy, but I couldn’t open my mouth.

Laila, your brother is in trouble.

“That.”

“…”

“Don’t you remember I said it was just to determine whether the blanket needed washing or not?”

“Mmph…”

“Nod slightly if you remember.”

I nodded with all my might.

Of course, my full strength was far weaker than the light grip of her fingertips.

She spoke with a voice as firm and fierce as her grip:

“Then why are you bringing it up again? Are you that confident about your smell?”

“Mmph…mph”

Once again, I tried with all my might to shake my head from side to side.

However, her strong hands pressed firmly on both my cheeks and forcibly moved my head up and down, making me nod.

“…Mph?”

“Oh, so you are confident.”

“Uh… no”

She grinned with her reddened face and slowly approached me.

Then she slowly buried her face in the nape of my neck.

“Eep,”

The tip of Silvia’s nose slowly traced down my neck toward my collarbone.

The hands holding my face gradually loosened, then suddenly grabbed both my hands and forcibly pushed me down.

With her face still buried in my neck, she lifted her leg to straddle me and said:

“Yes, not bad at all.”

“Ah, uh, Silvia?”

What is this situation?

Am I perhaps still dreaming?

Her breath, inhaled and exhaled, tangibly touched my skin and scattered.

For some reason, the small of my back tingled.

I tried to push her body away somehow, but her stone-like shoulders didn’t budge an inch.

Her nose and lips slowly traveled up along my neck.

The tip of her nose parted my skin like pushing through underbrush, and eventually slowly burrowed behind my ear.

“Ngh,”

I had heard it somewhere before.

One of the places where human scent concentrates most strongly is behind the ear.

That’s why no matter how thoroughly you wash your face, if you don’t clean behind your ears, you’ll seem to emit a bad odor.

With my head about to burst from embarrassment and an inexplicable shyness, confused between a slight daze and urgency, I pleaded with a heated voice:

“Silvia… please, stop…”

Her lips touched my earlobe with a soft tap.

She slowly brought her lips to my ear canal and whispered.

Her voice and the hot breath flowing between her lips sounded so loud, as if they would pierce through my brain.

“Ash…”

“Eep,”

“Let’s sleep together.”

Sleep together, she says.

Does she even know what she’s saying?

Of course, her intention is probably nothing more than kindness—seeing that my bed looks uncomfortable and wanting to share her better one.

But does she really not know that in the outside world, those words subtly, no, rather directly imply sexual activity?

So, is she trying to seduce me now?

I struggled to hold onto my reason as my vision kept rising upward.

If I sleep with her, will I have to endure this kind of treatment every day?

Goosebumps rose all over my body.

I was scared.

I had felt fear when she showed killing intent, when she sniffed my blanket, but this was a different kind of fear.

A fear that I might disappear somewhere, that I might never return to who I am now.

I bit my lip and looked down at her.

Though there was no trace of magic visible, I wondered if this was what it felt like to be under a succubus’s spell.

With such thoughts, I slowly moved my lips.

“…N-no.”

She blew a puff of air into my ear, then raised herself up and got off the bed.

I was staring at her with dazed eyes, breaking out in a cold sweat.

“Fine, your loss.”

She turned her gaze away from me and rubbed the tip of her nose with her sleeve.

Her face, half-hidden by her hand and sleeve, was red all the way to the tips of her ears.

So Silvia was embarrassed too.

Thinking that, I suddenly let out a sigh of relief.

“Silvia.”

“…What.”

“You don’t have to go that far. I already owe you a debt so large I don’t even know how to repay it.”

“What debt do you…”

“Even aside from saving my life, I’m living in this forest without getting rained on or covered in dew thanks to you.”

“…”

“If the bed is uncomfortable, I’ll find some cushioning material myself. Please don’t worry too much.”

“…Hmph, fine.”

With that, Silvia went into her room and came out with a bow and arrows.

“Are you going hunting?”

“I’ll be back soon. Don’t expect too much today since I’m heading out late.”

“Understood. Please be careful.”

With those words, Silvia left the cabin without making eye contact with me.

Just before she closed the door, I heard her mutter softly:

“…What have I done?”

SLAM.

“…I wonder the same.”

It seems people tend to have strange thoughts when they stay up all night.

Hoping she wouldn’t needlessly stay up late again, I slowly got up.

There was so much cold sweat on my face that I lifted my top to wipe it off.

“…Ah,”

Silvia’s scent was on my top.

I unconsciously sniffed that scent.

.