Crossroads (1)

The morning after accidentally witnessing Ethan’s naked body in a small incident.

The morning’s events were more or less concluded after confirming that the rooms Ethan and I were staying in were connected by a single door.

“D-don’t worry too much about it, Lillith. You’ve seen me before… well, twice already, right? I don’t really mind you seeing me either.”

“I’ll be more careful from now on, Young Master Ethan. If you’d like an apology, perhaps you could also see me naked-“

“N-no, it’s fine…! I trust you, so you don’t need to apologize like that. A-and you already show me enough as it is… W-wait, that’s not what I meant-“

After that awkward exchange, we more or less settled on knocking before opening the door connecting our rooms. …Even so, just knowing that Ethan was right next door, separated only by a door that could open at any moment, made it hard for my heart to calm down.

‘Even when we shared a room at the academy, I don’t remember feeling this conflicted.’

As far as I could recall, nothing had really changed between us since then.

Sure, on our last night at the academy, I had… *serviced* him with my mouth, but we’d already done that kind of skin-ship before.

And though we’d shared a bed for several nights at Blackwood Manor due to nightmares, that was only to maintain peak condition before taking down Machart.

Then there was last night, when the operation went sideways and Ethan barely managed to save me from being captured by Machart…? …Come to think of it, that was definitely something worth getting flustered over.

No, really, that was an unavoidable emergency. If Ethan had been even a second later, I would’ve been dragged away by Machart, spent months in his mental world being treated like a virginity-taking slave, and ended up as an unidentifiable corpse.

…Honestly, any guy would’ve fallen for him after that.

‘Come to think of it, we still haven’t talked about that wish…’

I distinctly remember telling Ethan that I’d grant him a wish once we took down Machart.

Of course, when he uses the wish is up to him, but I’d at least like to know what he wants beforehand so I can prepare myself-physically and mentally.

Since I already said it had to be something I could reasonably fulfill, he probably wouldn’t ask for money or material things. That left only one obvious category of wishes for a young man like Ethan: lewd requests.

I’d already made it clear multiple times that actual penetration was off the table, so he wouldn’t ask for that, but anything else on the borderline would have to be granted since I promised.

…To be honest, just imagining the possibilities made me doubt whether I could actually go through with it with a straight face.

Rubbing *that thing* between my breasts or doing it with my mouth again would still be within the realm of acceptability.

My chest had already been groped by Ethan dozens of times, so I didn’t feel much resistance there, and I’d already done the mouth thing once before.

But what if he asked me to rub it *down there* instead? Or worse, if he asked if the *other hole* was okay and demanded I use that instead…?

‘…If it comes to that, how should I even react?’

A promise is a promise, so would I have to allow it? But wouldn’t that be crossing the line?

At that point, I couldn’t even use the excuse of “it’s just simulated sex, so it’s fine.” It’d practically be actual s-no, intercourse between a man and a woman, just in a different form.

Of course, if he asked, I’d have no choice but to comply, but I’d at least need time to mentally prepare…

‘Ugh, I can’t focus.’

I could only hope Ethan’s imagination didn’t stretch that far.

As for clothes, I ended up borrowing a maid outfit from the servants’ quarters on the first floor. The maids gave me weird looks when I insisted on wearing it, but since I was comfortable, I didn’t care.

After changing into comfortable clothes and finishing breakfast, we gathered in the conference room where we’d met with Seraphine the night before to continue discussing the “temporary alliance.”

“In ten days, we’re heading to the Witch’s Forest in the southwest.”

“Huh?”

An involuntary sound escaped my lips at Kyetmajosyegigot’s unexpected statement.

As the others turned to look at me, I quickly tried to play off my slip-up as naturally as possible.

“Uh, I-I mean… Did you just say you’re going to the southwest Witch’s Forest in ten days?”

“Yeah. I have some things to discuss with the witches there. Lara asked me to.”

“I-I see. If you’re planning to arrive at the Witch’s Forest in ten days, that means you’d need to depart from the royal villa in about a week.”

“No, ten days from departure. …So, accounting for travel time, roughly two weeks from now.”

“……Excuse me?”

It had sounded ridiculous from the start, but the more he spoke, the more absurd it became.

What? Two weeks from now? Are you joking?

The “Lara’s Secret” episode starts in just six days. Are you saying you’re going two weeks later? Is this your roundabout way of saying you’re skipping the episode?

Hearing him suddenly spout nonsense like this after everything had been going smoothly naturally threw me into confusion. You weren’t like this before.

‘Shouldn’t you be going to save either Lara or Lilia at least?’

If he disliked Lara or liked Lilia enough to choose her, I could grudgingly accept that.

This crossroads event was designed to force that choice, and since the Hero only has one body, of course he can only save one of them.

But missing the golden window for the event and showing up days later? That just didn’t make sense. It wasn’t like he was refusing to go because it was too far or troublesome-so why?

I almost blurted out that he must’ve gotten the event schedule wrong, but thankfully, his next words naturally resolved the question forming in my mind.

“So, I want you guys to go ahead and help Lara with her witch trial before Celista and I arrive at the Witch’s Forest in two weeks.”

‘Ah.’

Once Kyetmajosyegigot said that, I could roughly guess his intentions behind the earlier proposal.

The “ten days later” departure wasn’t from the royal villa but from the northeastern grasslands.

It seemed Kyetmajosyegigot had no intention of giving up on either the Barbarian Territory Battle event in the northeastern grasslands or Lara’s witch trial event in the southwest Witch’s Forest.

Of course, even the Hero can’t split himself in two to handle both events, so he must’ve planned to send others ahead to one of them to buy as much time as possible.

Normally, sending non-Hero characters would be pointless since they wouldn’t know how the events unfold, but this time, my presence made it possible. Like Kyetmajosyegigot, I had perfect knowledge of how the events in *Luminor Academy* played out.

In fact, I’d played Lara’s route at this crossroads over 80% of the time. I knew exactly what the episode entailed and how to help Lara.

Just as I was thinking I’d have to buy some insect-repellent perfume, Agnes asked Kyetmajosyegigot a question.

“Go ahead? How soon?”

“About six days from now… so you’d need to leave here in roughly four days.”

“What will you and Celista be doing in the meantime?”

“We’re making a quick trip to the northeastern grasslands. Lilia asked me for a favor during the semester.”

“Lilia? Who’s that?”

Apparently, Agnes hadn’t met Lilia yet.

Well, the earliest she’d normally meet her would be during the second semester’s final hunting festival in their second year.

Given the frequent mock battles between the Swordsmanship and Spearmanship Departments, they might’ve crossed paths once or twice, but the Magic Department usually sparred with the Archery Department, so there wouldn’t have been much opportunity.

Conversely, this meant Ethan, being in the Swordsmanship Department, would know about Lilia, the first-year Spearmanship Department’s top student.

“Lilia? You mean Lilia Marasendar Galenhar Sorbene Pionis Barbakus from the Spearmanship Department’s freshman class?”

“……”

“……”

“…Yeah, Lilia from the Spearmanship Department.”

…I hadn’t expected him to know her *that* well, though.