Chapter 283 - Lecture
"—Enough already!"
At my roar, the three girls' movements came to a halt.
"Don't tell me you guys actually think I brought Aurora here with ulterior motives?"
"Huh? You didn't?" Rio tilted her head.
"...I just wanted to help a pitiful widow. That really is my only purpose."
"What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"
"And yet, you lot went and cast baseless suspicions on me, and then this whole rowdy mess. ...Don't you feel ashamed?"
"But Dad, you have the kind of face that looks like you'd be weak to breast milk. It's exactly the kind of woman you'd like."
Ayako-chan nodded at Angelica's rude mutter.
Meanwhile, Rio was trembling, her face pale.
"I see. So that's how I'm perceived. ...Fine, whatever."
Telling them to go cool their heads for a while, I shook off my restraints and stood up forcefully.
"A-Are you actually angry?"
I cast a cold glance at Angelica, who was asking fearfully.
"...sniff"
"Wait, this is the first time I've seen Ayako seriously crying! Stop it! When a sex offender like you cries, it feels seriously creepy!"
"...hic. ...Rio-san, there's something I want to discuss with you, so please come to the kitchen later."
As Rio dug her own grave, I left the living room.
Since I had told them "don't follow me" behind my back, no one would likely chase after me.
Hmph, sometimes you just have to lay down the law.
Those girls were practically frozen by the roar full of patriarchal authority that I let out.
It was a shout born from the pathetic reason of 'if I keep having breasts rubbed against me, I'm going to explode right in front of everyone,' but because it had a certain physiological desperation to it, it might have emitted a strange sense of pressure.
Now then... is the best course of action to have a quick release to calm down, and then make up with them?
I entered the bedroom, locked it thoroughly, and sat down on the bed.
Then, I began rummaging for the tissues that should have been by my pillow, but...
"They're not here."
As I muttered "tissues, tissues" while searching under the blanket, a white hand reached out from behind me, and...
"Are you looking for these?"
...and handed me a tissue box.
"Oh, thanks."
I immediately pulled out about two, and let out a sigh of relief.
"..."
Wait, who!?I turned around in a panic and locked eyes with Philia.
"When did you get there!?"
"I've been here from the start. Since you seemed to be searching for tissues with bloodshot eyes, I suppose I simply wasn't in your field of vision."
Philia smiled enchantingly.
What is this feeling, like being caught by your mother looking at an adult magazine?
"I-I-I see. I guess things like that happen, haha."
"What were you planning to do that required such a desperate search for tissues?"
"That's... obviously to blow my nose."
While being pursued by those blue eyes, I blew my nose with a soft sound.
No mucus came out at all, but ignoring that, I crumpled the tissue into a ball and tossed it into the trash can.
"Hmph, direct hit."
Since I was left with nothing to do, I turned back toward Philia.
"What? Do you have a complaint too?"
"..."
"Staring at me with those dead eyes. Let me tell you, this time was purely an act of helping someone, okay? Or should I say, helping a Dragon?"
"..."
"I mean, I'm just a victim caught up in the trouble caused by an otherworldly person, you know? How do you High Priests from another world even think about these things?"
I tried repeating my complaints recklessly, but Philia didn't offer a single rebuttal.
On the contrary, she was making modest gestures, sitting on the bed in a girl-style pose, clutching the sheets and biting her lower lip tightly.
"Um... Philia-san?"
"Hero-dono is a terrible person," Philia said in a tearful voice.
"It is one thing to be distracted by young women. It is the nature of men, so it cannot be helped. ...But that Wyvern woman looks to be in her mid-twenties."
"S-So what if she is!"
Large tears spilled from the corners of Philia's eyes as she sobbed.
...It's true, being cheated on with someone of the same specs as oneself might be more frustrating. That's a possibility.
"You know how I feel... don't you...?"
Philia sobbed, wiping her eyes with her wrists.
Even though she's a woman who is a criminal and a bad person through and through, when she cries like this, it makes me look like the villain, which is problematic.
"Always, always, bringing in other women... flirting right in front of me as if to show off...!"
"No, well... you see? That was partly due to professional relationships, you know?"
"It's been like that since we were over there! The moment you take your eyes off me, you bring in a new woman! Lady Elsa is the same, isn't she!? You suddenly picked her up! And then you started saying you're dating!"
"What time period are you talking about?"
"...Even though I was the first to fall in love with Hero-dono."
"Is it first-come, first-served?"
"Even though I was the first to fall in love with Hero-dono~~~~~~~!"
Hiiiiii.
Letting out a cry that threw away both age and status, the strongest High Priestess of the other world collapsed.
It seems Philia has resorted to a move typical of her: getting emotional by digging up past events in the middle of an argument.
What a pain, this forty-five-year-old virgin.
She's sulking with the same vibe as Ayako-chan before her period.
In a time like this, a man from the Showa era would probably have punched her, but since I am a scoundrel of the twenty-first century, I gently stroked her hair instead.
Please, just cheer up. You know you're my main one, right? As I soothed her in a whisper...
"...If you truly love me, you should be able to hold me, right?"
...she said, becoming quite brazenly demanding.
In the end, she just wants to sleep with me!
"Well, thinking about it, that was the purpose of coming here anyway."
"...Hero-dono?"
This is perfect; it wouldn't be bad to refresh myself using Philia's body.
Since it would also cheer her up in the process, it's killing two birds with one stone.
"Try lying on your back for a moment."
"L-Like this?"
"Yeah, yeah, like that."
I pulled up Philia's negligee, exposing her lower body wrapped in a diaper.
"Why are you hiding your face?"
"...I cannot look directly at you."
Philia was covering her face with both hands. Her ears were so red they looked like they might burn off.
"It's fine, it's fine. It'll be over by the time you finish counting the stains on the ceiling... oh, I can't see them because your hands are covering them. Then just look at your palm lines."
"...It's scary."
"Don't they say 'fear is greater than the pain'?"
"N-No, it's not the act that's scary."
Philia confessed, "It's that I'm afraid of falling even more in love with Hero-dono..."
"...Hey, you're saying something kind of cute. That's not like you."
"Ah, please... have mercy!"
And so.
I indulged in pleasure using Philia for about two hours.
Of course, this time too, it was strictly a 'non-penetrative' session.
I merely engaged in all sorts of man-woman intimacy within the limit of not taking her virginity.
However, when the partner is Philia, the effect is outstanding.
"Why can't you believe in Hero-dono!?"
After everything was finished, Philia had turned into my most fervent advocate.
The sight of her charging into the living room and arguing emphatically, "It's obvious Hero-dono took Aurora in out of pure goodwill!?", was just like a female general.
"I'm sorry, Dad... we were wrong."
"I couldn't fully trust Nakamoto-san. I was an idiot."
"...Please forgive me... I'll do anything..."
I stroked the heads of the completely cowed Angelica and the others, soothing them with, "It's fine as long as you understand."
"I'm the one who should apologize for shouting. I'm a bad father. Come on, let's all wash up together and make up."
"Dad...!"
I took Angelica, Rio, Ayako-chan, Philia, and Aurora to the bathroom to wash away the day's sweat.
After a fight, our rule is to wash away the bad feelings with hot water.
"Six people at once is definitely a bit cramped."
"It is, isn't it. It's a total traffic jam."
Watching me playing with Aurora while soaking in the tub, Angelica tilted her head with a "Hm?". Her eyes seemed to say, 'Isn't something strange going on? Are we being manipulated?', but it seemed that once I washed her whole body for her, she stopped caring about everything.