episode_0067

After our intense intimacy, utterly exhausted, we sat by the lake under the slowly setting sun, calming our ragged breaths.

“Oh… Ohh…” After our intimacy concluded, Ariel let out a tearful moan, her face covered with both hands, overwhelmed by a belated surge of embarrassment and shame.

“It’s fine. You were incredibly cute and lovely.”

“Ah… Seriouslyyyy!!”

My words, “cute and lovely,” seemed to ignite her further, as Ariel tore at her hair with a crimson face, letting out a scream.

“It was a mess!! My consciousness was half-gone midway… I must have made a really vulgar expression, right!?”

“I said you were lovely.”

“Uwaaah, seriouslyyyy!!”

Despite the praise of being “lovely,” she couldn’t erase the overwhelming embarrassment. She just let out a cute shriek and rubbed her hot, flushed face with her hands.

Watching Ariel, I chuckled softly, then looked towards where Killua and the Hero were.

“They must have found out, right?”

Ariel, having finally calmed her embarrassment, lowered the hands covering her face and, like me, looked towards where Killua and the Hero were.

As the intense moment of primal desire subsided, my reason, clearer than ever, calmly analyzed the reality.

“Definitely…”

Ariel’s moans and screams that escaped her lips amidst the overwhelming waves of pleasure, despite her desperate attempts to suppress them.

Recalling my violent hip movements, driven by pure desire and forgetting Killua’s presence, it would have been stranger if Killua *hadn’t* found out.

“Well, let’s think positively! You’ll be taking responsibility for me from now on, Jazel-ssi, won’t you?”

“Are you serious?”

Surprised by her excessively frank and direct words, I looked at her, sitting right beside me, and asked.

Ariel, smiling with her eyes, then turned her body towards me and lightly caressed her groin, where traces of our passionate intimacy remained, and replied.

“Surely, you wouldn’t do this and then pretend you don’t know, would you?”

My gaze naturally followed her hand to the pristine white traces remaining between her slightly parted thighs at her fingertips.

“You’re the only one I’ve allowed to finish inside, Jazel-ssi.”

It was an assertion whose veracity I couldn’t ascertain, but the words, implying I was the only one allowed such an act, were enough to make my heart pound wildly again.

My face, recalling our passionate intimacy, flushed crimson, and blood began to intensely rush to my lower body once more.

“Gulp…”

Discovering my rising ‘other self’, Ariel gulped nervously, her face quite tense.

“W-Would you… like to do it one more time?”

“To show me that lovely face again?”

I pointed out the messy state she was embarrassed about, just to tease her.

However, unable to shake off the temptation of the pleasure and stimulation that had overwhelmed her for a moment, Ariel shyly scratched her cheek and cautiously made a suggestion.

“W-What if… we did it from behind?”

The position she chose was a rear-entry one, which would prevent her from showing her face.

It seemed she thought that even if her consciousness was half-gone and her expression became loose during intense intimacy, at least in a rear-entry position, I wouldn’t see her embarrassed face.

“It’ll be hard to get back if it gets dark… so I’ll respectfully decline.”

I gently stroked Ariel’s head and softly refused her suggestion for a second round.

Looking at the slowly setting sun, Ariel nodded as if she understood my words.

“Then let’s get ready to go back.”

Before my body, heated from the intense intimacy, could cool down in the lake water, I stood up from the lake.

Following me, Ariel also stood up, her face holding a hint of regret, and began to put on the clothes she had taken off.

“Hm?”

As I also put on my clothes one by one, I found a small leather pouch tied to my belt.

It was the leather pouch containing the magical pellet Killua had prepared for me.

It was a pellet to be consumed if Ariel tried to mentally confuse me with strange magic or herbs.

“Could it be…”

What if Ariel had used a powerful charm spell on me just now?

What if she had refined the slime venom she could freely control to create an aphrodisiac or hallucinogen?

What if this burning affection and sexual desire I felt were all manipulated by Ariel?

As I looked at the leather pouch containing the pellet that Killua, the white mage, had given me as a precaution, numerous doubts began to swirl in my mind.

And there was only one way to resolve these doubts.

I glanced at Ariel, who was still focused on putting on her clothes and tidying herself up, then took out a pellet glowing with a turquoise light from the leather pouch.

I knew it wasn’t right to doubt Ariel, who had been devoted to me, but I couldn’t ignore Killua-nim’s judgment and concerns either.

I squeezed my eyes shut, tossed the pellet Killua-nim had given me into my mouth, and chewed it thoroughly.

Whoosh!

Then, a refreshing coolness spreading from the crushed pellet between my teeth thoroughly pushed away the heat in my body, which had been burning hot from the aftermath of the intense intimacy.

My mind, filled with elation from Ariel’s moans, soft skin, and plush touch, also quickly calmed with the refreshing energy, and my excited breathing gradually settled.

“Jazel?”

Had she subtly noticed my change?

Ariel, who was buttoning up her top, called out to me.

At her call, I slowly chewed and swallowed the pellet, then turned to her.

“What’s wrong? You have the face of a surprised cat caught stealing! Did you secretly eat something delicious all by yourself?”

Experiencing the pellet’s power, which forcefully calmed all my emotions in an instant, I must have had a surprised cat-like expression, just as Ariel described.

As Ariel looked at my expression and chuckled playfully, the warmth returned to my chest, which had been cooled by the pellet’s power.

“It’s like a Cheongsimhwan… My heart was pounding so hard I couldn’t handle it.”

“Oh~ What is it~ Was being with me really that good?”

At my answer, Ariel playfully laughed and, without properly buttoning her clothes, immediately hugged me.

I didn’t dislike her honest and bold expression of emotion, so I chuckled and gently patted Ariel’s back as she clung to me.

Feeling Ariel’s warm, soft body pressing into me, I used my mind, now clear thanks to the pellet’s power, to recall everything that had happened with Ariel today.

“……”

Throughout our date, Ariel cheered me on.

From felling a large tree to learning how to swim.

Ariel firmly believed I could do it and constantly supported and encouraged me in various ways.

Even when I myself felt anxious and doubted I could do it, she passionately cheered me on as if it were her own endeavor.

As a result, I was able to fell the large tree entirely with my own strength, and despite falling into the deep lake water, I was able to swim to the surface by myself.

‘Jazel needs self-belief and courage.’

Before she pulled her hand away from mine in the lake, a single sentence she’d said to me was powerfully etched into my heart.

Thanks to her, I was slowly changing.

Because she was there, I could slowly change.

If only she stayed by my side, I felt like I could become special too.

I didn’t want to lose her.

I wanted to keep her by my side.

“Can I… entrust my heart to you?”

My desire naturally turned into a single sentence that flowed from my lips.

Ariel, nestled in my arms, then poked her head out, looking at me as if doubting her ears, and asked.

“Is that a confession?”

My face belatedly turned crimson at her brazen question, as she looked directly into my eyes and repeated it.

I wanted to turn my head away from her sparkling red eyes due to the boiling embarrassment that made my face flush.

But I barely managed to swallow that embarrassment, met her red eyes gazing at me, and answered with firm resolve.

“Yes. It’s a confession.”

As I gave a resolute answer, meeting her eyes directly without flinching, a gentle smile appeared on Ariel’s lips.

“I’m super greedy and jealous, you know? Can you promise to look only at me forever from now on?”

I responded with a smile, not to be outdone by her mischievous question.

“I’m incredibly foolishly trusting of people, you know? Can you promise never to betray my trust and stay by my side forever?”

My answer seemed infinitely satisfying, as a bright, blossoming smile spread across Ariel’s face, warm enough to melt anyone’s heart.

“Jazel-ssi was cute when he was shy, but confident Jazel-ssi is really cool!!”

She burst into laughter, wrapped her arms around my neck, and lightly kissed my cheek.

At her surprise kiss, I also chuckled softly, wrapped my arms around Ariel’s waist as she clung to me, holding her tightly.

“So, what’s your answer?”

“My answer?”

At my question, Ariel again burst into a playful laugh, and this time kissed my other cheek.

And with a childish, mischievous laugh, she asked.

“You still don’t know?”

“Hmm… I’m still not quite sure?”

“Ahahaha! Really!”

At my cheeky reply, Ariel, as if she couldn’t help it, showered my face and neck with random kisses.

I already clearly knew her answer from her kisses, but as I didn’t dislike her expressions of affection, I simply embraced her and laughed, filled with the joy that my confession had been accepted and the delight of the present moment.

After dozens of kisses, Ariel, embraced tightly enough to feel each other’s heartbeats and with foreheads touching, looked at me with undeniably overflowing affection and love in her eyes.

“Please take care of me from now on, Jazel!”

“You too…”

Confirming our sincere feelings for each other, we kissed.

It was a long, lingering kiss, as if stamping a contract to forever remember this moment’s confession and promise.