Chapter 25 - The Fairy and the Sweet Private Room
Few came to the private room of the Chief Court Mage. In other words, there were no intruders.
Taking advantage of this, the one who pressed the fairy against the sofa and greedily devoured her lips was the master of this private room.
"...Mm, wait... really, st—"
"A little more is fine, isn't it?"
Swept away by the beautiful man who directed his full charm toward her, Elenoa's body trembled with shame.
It was lunch break.
She had come to deliver a bento box to Louis, but at this rate, Elenoa felt as though she herself was about to be deliciously consumed.
Just as her body relaxed and her consciousness began to float, he leaned in to devour her once more, she who had lost even the will to resist—and then, flutter. Something white entered the corner of Louis's vision.
It was a butterfly transformed from a letter by magic.
"Looks like something's coming?"
"...From a subordinate. It seems they successfully laid the Transportation Magic Circle."
After checking the letter, he made it float with a single flick of his finger and tucked it away into his desk.
"Isn't the Transportation Magic Circle something only you can do, Louis?"
"That is true for the official one. For a temporary one, I can leave it to others. However, there is no harm in laying them out across various regions of the country... When I have free time, I intend to go place the official ones."
Louis sat down next to Elenoa.
Although they had been interrupted, it was still break time. Once the bell rang, he would have to forget his personal feelings and immerse himself in work, so while he had time, he was doting on her like this.
Louis looked at Elenoa and said, "Come to think of it."
"You played this game, didn't you? Who was good?"
"Who?"
"Who was your favorite?"
Suddenly, she wondered what he meant.
Let's see, who had been her favorite? As the character sprites gradually surfaced in her mind, Elenoa let out an "Ah."
She had met Louis immediately after recalling her previous life, and all her impressions had been taken over by him, so honestly, she couldn't say she liked them anymore.
"The knight."
"...Huh?"
A terrifying voice came from beside her.
Startled, she looked over, and he was smiling with a fierce blizzard raging behind him.
"No, no, no, no, I completed them all!"
"Declaring your infidelity so boldly is a bit... What do you mean by that?"
"I only answered because you asked. But I like Louis too, he's my favorite."
"What rank am I?"
"Third, maybe."
"...Who is second?"
"The healer."
"I see. By the way, I have been thinking for quite some time about embarking on a journey to exterminate all the knights and healers in the world."
"Ugh, yandere characters are such a hassle."
It seemed that carelessly stating who she liked in front of Louis was synonymous with being put on trial.
When Elenoa gathered her courage and threw herself into his chest, he dispelled the ominous atmosphere and held her tight. She had learned that in situations involving Louis, this kind of bodily 'hospitality' was necessary.
His large hands, touching her as they pleased, were a little scary, yet she found herself thinking it felt nice. When Elenoa buried her red face into Louis's robes, a soft, happy laugh came from above her head.
—Originally, Louis Stylus should have hated this kind of thing.
"Doing this makes us look like lovers."
"Yes, yes, please don't play dumb."
"...Do you have no resistance to doing this kind of thing with me?"
"Because I wanted to do this kind of thing."
"Is it okay that it's me?"
"It has to be you."
Louis looked so happy that Elenoa vaguely thought he was probably striking that pose with flushed cheeks in the game's character sprite. As she thought this, he seemed to have suddenly remembered something. He moved the hand that had been touching Elenoa to her back and gently tightened his hold.
"Even if I am third, you enjoyed yourself with me, didn't you?"
"That phrasing has some very serious misconceptions."
"In other words, no matter what I do, you will be pleased?"
"Wait, I just got chills."
"It is a romance game, so I recognized that 'those kinds of things' were done to please women? I recall seeing it in commercials."
"Erase that biased and useless knowledge...?"
With his finger placed on her chin, things became bewitching.
Because it was such a template composition in the still images, there was a sense of incongruity when he did it.
"You see, other characters were like that, but in Louis's case, it wasn't."
"Huh?"
"Louis Stylus was more story-focused, a character you didn't interact with much."
"You didn't interact?"
"Yeah. On the contrary, the still images you could obtain were, how should I say, more distant than the others. There were many compositions of him smiling in a position away from the protagonist. There weren't many scenes of him being close. It was said that Louis was a character who was bad at physical contact with people."
Louis, who was listening to information about 'himself' with a puzzled look, probably did not know this.
Elenoa said, "Physical contact, huh," and began to ponder. She slowly tried to escape from Louis's demonic hands—but could not. She made an unsexy sound of "Mgh" and returned to his embrace.
"The protagonist and I met too late, didn't we?"
"Eh?"
"I don't know about the others, but I do not like being touched by people, nor do I touch them myself. ...Unless it is someone I have known since childhood."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. Coincidentally, the trigger for my awakening to magic was 'physical contact with people.' That became a trauma. If the protagonist had been in a childhood friend relationship with me, I think the circumstances would have been different."
"...As expected of the person himself, you understand well."
When Elenoa visibly pouted, Louis looked pleased.
Was making people jealous that fun?
"Please don't sulk. I apologize for betraying the Original Work: The Sea Parent, but I have conquered you like this."
"Come to think of it, I was a conquest target too, wasn't I?"
"That's right. You are cute, after all."
When Elenoa slapped his hand and said, "Don't say strange things," he disregarded it and stated an unasked-for opinion, "It's the truth," which made her realize that pure conquest characters were terrifying.
Was this seasoned feeling the instinct of a conquest character?
"Hey, did I have someone I was dating before you?"
"No."
"...Even though I'm your first girlfriend, you can casually say I'm cute, and even though it's your first time, you could do such amazing kissing."
"...Are you talking about what happened in that hut?"
The incident on a rainy day that led to the two of them dating.
Elenoa was embarrassed just remembering it, but Louis calmly said,
"I just do what I want to do."
"This is the power of a pure conquest target character!"
Elenoa was a conquest target in her own right.
However, she surely did not possess such 'advantageous' skills.
'Elenoa' was pure, like a fairy, a character designed to appeal to men in that regard. She would learn about contact with the opposite sex through interactions with the protagonist. Following that character's nature, the current Elenoa, who originally had low knowledge of romantic experience, surely did not have skills like Louis's installed.
She thought it was unfair.
Being tossed about like this was unequal.
"Because at that point, you had already fallen for me by about ninety percent, right? So I just had to push."
"Conquest characters are truly terrifying."
"I can act like an arrogant domineering type if I try hard. Shall I crush you into submission?"
"Stop it."
"It's a joke. The Chief causing disorder within the Research Institute would be too much, after all."
It seemed there were lines he would not cross, even during break time.
Until just now, they had been exchanging vivid kisses, but where did he draw the line of what was permissible? Asking would be fatal, so she decided to refrain from asking.
When dealing with Louis, one had to learn his thought and action patterns, discern the invisible choices, and always choose the correct answer. Otherwise, the one who would be completely devoured would not be the protagonist—but herself.
"...I often think it was good that I was made with a face that women like."
"Hm?"
"Even if it is just my appearance or voice, as long as you like me, anything is fine."