Chapter 116 - Seduction

The following morning, in Renée’s room.

Sprawled on her bed, Renée sighed as she brushed the pillow stuffing off her cheek.

'... I tore it.'

In the end, she had torn the blanket. The pillow, too. Yet she still hadn’t calmed down.

Embarrassment over the confession she had managed yesterday and pride in herself kept welling up together.

Renée slowly steadied her breathing to settle her feelings and continued her thoughts.

'... Yes. I should have done this ages ago.'

Wasn’t Bera’s reaction proof enough? If she hadn’t charged straight at him like that, their relationship would have remained a flat line forever. Only by doing this could she take even a single step forward.

Renée raised a hand and brushed her fingertips over her lips, remembering the moment she had kissed Bera.

Merely recalling it brought the sensations back: the thrill of that moment, hot and soft and damp with their breath. The bliss was so intense she wondered if she might truly turn into an idiot.

As she remembered, the corners of her mouth curled into another giddy smile. Annie watched her with an inscrutable look.

'Something...'

She did seem to have done something. Something absolutely momentous, at that.

Annie ought to have felt proud of her, but worry surfaced before any such feeling could.

Naturally. Renée had torn her blanket and pillow the moment she woke up, and now she was lying sprawled out, grinning to herself. How could Annie not worry?

Even a stranger behaving that way would be cause for concern. How much worse when it was the Saintess she served?

Annie’s expression darkened. She even began to wonder whether Bera had rejected Renée and driven her out of her mind.

And so, having somehow reached the conclusion that Bera had rejected her, Annie was just about to offer a few words of comfort when—

“Annie.”

Renée spoke first, her tone utterly firm. Annie answered with an uncharacteristically disciplined voice.

“Yes, ma’am!”

Still lying down, Renée turned her head toward Annie’s voice and said,

“I need your help.”

“Pardon?”

Annie tilted her head, bewildered by the abrupt request.

Only upon hearing that question did Renée sit up. Sitting demurely, she let out a slow breath and continued.

“Please teach me how to conquer Bera.”

She meant every word.

Yesterday had taught her that she needed to be even more aggressive if she was going to conquer the impossibly stubborn Bera.

“B-by that, you mean...?”

Renée turned toward Annie again, her expression brimming with resolve.

“I want to make him unable to bear it unless he confesses his love to me.”

Annie flinched. Her gaze fixed piercingly on Renée, who continued speaking all the while.

“I want him to think about nothing but me all day. I want him to ache with thoughts of me. I want to drive him crazy.”

These were truly dark desires lurking within her, but Renée didn’t care.

Having realized that embarrassment would solve nothing, she crushed the weakness inside her and went on.

“I want Bera to lose his reason and throw himself at me. So please, teach me how.”

Annie swallowed nervously, her face tense.

“... You’re serious.”

“Yes. I am.”

Silence enveloped the room. Annie nodded, her expression becoming every bit as serious and resolute as Renée’s.

“All right. The time has come to pass ‘it’ on to you.”

“‘It’?”

“The ultimate move.”

Annie’s eyes flew wide open. At the words “ultimate move,” tension began to show on Renée’s face.

Amid the storm of silence, Annie spoke.

“Saintess, it’s time for sex education.”

At last, the secret art passed down to a single successor, never to the unworthy, had found its heir.

* * *

At the same time, in the training grounds behind the manor.

While overseeing Aisha’s training, Bera suddenly stopped moving as his thoughts went blank.

The events of the previous day kept stirring him up, filling him with heat.

His expression was growing clouded.

The words, the actions, the warmth, the sensations of that not-so-brief encounter—all of them swept through him without respite.

He couldn’t shake them off, however hard he tried. He couldn’t even turn away from them.

All he could think of was Renée telling him she loved him.

Above all, the sensation of that kiss kept returning.

That moment when reason had receded far away and instinct had struggled wildly—that frightening, thrilling moment when he had nearly let desire move his body, as he had once before—was engraved in his mind and would not fade.

A tremor spread from his fingertips through his entire body.

The mere memory stirred an impulse within him. An impulse that would lead both him and Renée to ruin scrambled his thoughts.

He wanted to possess her.

As that desire surfaced, as he found himself unwittingly intoxicated by it, Bera bit down on his lip.

'You vile thing.'

The condemnation was directed at himself.

So disgusted was he by his own possessiveness toward Renée, so contemptible was the nature that still lingered within him, that Bera ground his teeth with an audible crunch.

Meanwhile, across from him, Aisha’s eyes sparkled at the sight of Bera standing utterly motionless. Then she charged.

“Hyaaaah!!!”

She thrust her fist forward.

THUD!

A straight punch landed squarely in the middle of Bera’s abdomen. Elated by the sensation in her fist, Aisha broke into a broad grin.

She glanced up to check his reaction, but Bera remained lost in thought.

Seeing that, Aisha began pummeling his stomach even harder, as though venting every frustration she had accumulated.

“Hyah! Yah! Die! Die already!”

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Without reacting at all to Aisha’s fists driving into his abdomen, Bera continued his dazed thoughts.

[“Do you love me?”]

He remembered Renée asking for an answer. He remembered his own inability to give her one. Then he recalled the question she had asked before that.

[“What are you looking at through me?”]

That question resurfaced, and Bera began to ponder it deeply.

'I...'

Whom had he been looking at?

Who was that light he had longed for so desperately? What was it?

Until now, he had never considered it. Never questioned it.

Because the light that had awakened him at the end of his previous life was Renée, he had assumed he was looking at Renée.

But he wasn’t.

His inability to answer her question was the clearest proof of that.

Even if the Renée of his previous life and the Renée beside him now were the same person, they had lived different lives in different times. He could not call the two of them the same.

Even if she continued to grow as she was, she would not be the Renée from back then.

His body had recognized the difference between them before his stupid head had.

His thoughts continued. The question about his feelings surfaced.

[“Do you love me?”]

Love.

Could he call what he felt for Renée now love? Could he call what he had felt for her in his previous life love?

... He didn’t even know that.

The source of the despair he had felt upon witnessing her death in his previous life was so different from the source of his possessiveness toward the present Renée. And both were so complex.

Bera could not yet define these feelings.

“Hah! Hyah! Hai-yah!”

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Bera frowned at the racket and looked down.

The squat little Aisha, who barely reached his chest, was pounding his stomach with her ears perked up.

Her face was alight with more glee than he had ever seen on it.

Finding her an impediment to his train of thought, Bera grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and threw her far away.

“Get lost.”

“Aaaaargh!!!”

Bera briefly watched Aisha sail into the distance, then grimaced again.

He had to go see Renée in only a few hours, yet he had no idea what expression to wear when he met her, or what to say to her. Everything had become so uncertain and confusing.

The nature he had worked so hard to suppress was going wild at the thought of Renée, while the reason he had laid over it was staggering, unable to hold its shape.

“Haaah...”

A long sigh escaped him in his frustration.

* * *

“Hold me.”

Renée smiled with both arms spread wide as she spoke. Bera felt as though his breath had stopped.

“... Saintess.”

“Hold me. That’s an order.”

As Bera continued to hesitate, Renée urged him on.

“Come on.”

Bera bit down on his lip. True to her declaration yesterday, she was trying to seduce him the moment they met.

He could not refuse.

He had said he would do it. He had said he would fulfill her every wish. He could not refuse Renée’s command.

He clenched and unclenched his fists, then drew a deep breath. Stepping forward, Bera carefully embraced Renée. She wrapped her outstretched arms around his waist.

Her scent made his heart race. The sensation of their bodies pressed together was scattering his thoughts.

Then Renée spoke.

“I dreamed about you.”

“... Did you?”

“I dreamed that you held me. That’s why I asked you to. This feels nice.”

As she spoke, Renée buried her face in Bera’s chest.

There was no other reason for it. She was embarrassed.

She was trying hard to seem composed, but doing this sober still brought a rush of shame. She was trying to hide it however she could.

Perhaps the only difference from before was that, even through the embarrassment, she now had the composure to conceal it properly.

Just as the saying went, the first time was always the hardest. Building on yesterday’s experience, Renée continued touching him more easily than she had the day before.

“I love you.”

Keeping up her momentum, she spoke those seductive words.

Renée clearly felt Bera flinch, felt his muscles begin to tighten, and continued.

“You know, don’t you? Why I’m doing this. What you have to do to stop me.”

“... Yes.”

“Then go ahead and try to stop me. I’ll wait.”

As she said that, she stroked his lower back.

She was performing the ultimate move Annie had taught her.

'Stay calm... Stay calm...!'

Hiding her burning face and ignoring the saliva inexplicably gathering in her mouth, Renée continued her “ultimate move.”

“Bera.”

“... Yes.”

“Your heartbeat is so loud.”

Feeling his heart give a great thump at her words, Renée prepared her next line without a moment’s delay.

[“When you say this, you must! Must!! Must!!! Smile seductively! That’s how you have to do it! Understand?!”]

Recalling Annie’s instructions, she recited,

“Unlike your mouth, your body is honest, isn’t it?”

Strictly speaking, even Renée didn’t quite understand what she was saying.

Annie had simply told her to say it, so she had done so, trusting it would have some sort of effect.

Fortunately, Annie’s ultimate move worked even better than expected.

Bera’s body jolted. His words were thick with panic.

“I apolo—um, no. That’s not true.”

Renée inwardly marveled at his reaction.

'Annie!'

It was incredible.

Had Bera ever been this flustered before? Had he ever been so frantic?

Just how far ahead had Annie seen? As Renée inwardly exclaimed in her newfound awe, Bera spoke in a tone bordering on a plea.

“Please... don’t do this.”

Bera’s face, which Renée could not see, had crumpled pitifully.

It felt so cruel of her to try to strip away the reason that kept him in check. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to push her away. All he could do was plead, and Renée answered his plea with laughter in her voice.

“No.”

Once again, Bera felt a crack form in his reason, and squeezed his eyes shut.