https://ncode.syosetu.com/n5562hc/33/
Rescue
My body is shaking. Jostling actually, and it hurts. I guess this means I’m still alive. And I was right, someone did find me.
I slowly opened my non-swollen eye. I don’t know if it’s eye mucus or blood, but something was blurring my vision.
Some girl is carrying me in her arms. There’s a lot of shaking. They’re running somewhere, and I appreciate it, but if you don’t be more gentle with me, my wounds are going to get worse.
“Ah…. ugh….”
I tried my best to voice that request, but the best I could muster was something akin to a dying pig.
“Are you awake? We’re almost to Melia, so hold on until then!”
That voice sounds familiar. As my head started clearing up, so did my vision. I was able to recognize the person carrying me after I finally got a look at their face. Olive. She’s usually looking down on me, or rather commoners in general, but I guess she wants to help those people being bullied. Is it for charity?
Before long, I heard a door open and was laid down on a soft bed.
“Melia-san! Treatment! Quickly!”
“Huh!? Lily-chan!? What’s wrong!?”
“Talk later! Treatment now!”
“Ah….I understand….”
Melia didn’t seem enthusiastic about healing me for some reason, but Olive completely bowled over her. I could make out a warm light–one I’ve seen before. Someone grabbed my hand. Thinking it was Melia, I squeezed their hand back, but when I was able to open my eye again, I realized it was Olive.
I didn’t have a chance to voice my surprise. As the pain started to fade away, my body gradually began to feel hot. Something is wrong. Especially around my chest and arms where the pain was its worst, I felt….really good. The pleasure kept building, and I was beginning to think they had become erogenous zones.
This time I wasn’t able to hold my voice back from the pleasure. It might be the best I have felt in my entire life. Anything Lily ever did to me can’t even compare.
My body involuntarily arched upwards. The pleasure from my chest and arms was now spreading throughout my body. I was able to hold on and stay conscious through all that pain, but this pleasure was too much for me to bear. I let out one loud moan, and my vision went black.
♠
I woke up and immediately sat up. Melia and Olive were still here, and it didn’t look like they moved since I went under.
“Hey….it doesn’t hurt anymore….”
I could open and close my eyes normally, and my arms and chest felt fine. I still felt a bit dizzy, but that was it. My body was back to normal as if that cruel incident had never happened.
“Melia-san. Thank you for your assistance. I will certainly repay you for this kindness.”
“Lily-chan is my best friend, so there is nothing for you to worry about Olive-san. More importantly, Lily-chan, how did this happen?”
Olive’s eyes also turned towards me after Melia asked that question. They weren’t her usual meanness either. She looked kind, like an older sister looking after her younger siblings.
But I can’t tell them the truth. I owe Melia everything, and if she were to tell Olive, the story will spread. Things will only get worse.
“Oh…. I drank too much alcohol and fell down some stairs before stumbling out a window.”
“Don’t lie. Those marks on your face weren’t from someone who fell out a window. Who hit you?”
“I-I fell down some stairs first! Then a window!”
Olive tried interrogating me more, but she quickly gave up with a short sigh.
“You’re so stubborn. I would love to torture you until you spill out what I want to know, but I have other business I must attend to, so please excuse me. Melia-san, no matter who else comes, do not open the door until I have returned. We will use this as a signal.”
Olive tapped on the wall with a unique rhythm. She then left the room after making sure Melia could repeat that same signal back to her.
As soon as we were alone, Melia took my hand and started talking to me.
“Lily-chan, was Olive-san the one who hurt you? Please tell me the truth.”
“No! Honest. I think….Olive saved me after I fell in that hedge.”
I can’t be sure Olive was the one who rescued me from the hedge since I was unconscious, but when I remember how desperate she looked running down that hallway, I can take a guess.
Melia didn’t ask me any more, probably guessing I had a strong reason for not mentioning the culprit’s name.
“Um….was what you used there Cure?”
“Yes. Did it feel good?”
“Eh….yeah. Does all healing feel like that? I rarely ever get hurt, so I’ve never gone to see a healer before.”
“No, just for me. I can heal wounds that normal healers can’t. And do it a lot faster too. But because the wounds close up all at once, it apparently feels really good.”
My injuries were probably pretty bad, but they were healed up really quickly. If I see Dahlia tomorrow she’s going to be stunned.
Anyway, I’ve never heard of healing and pleasure going hand in hand before. It might just be a unique Melia thing.
“But that’s amazing. You can kill two birds with one stone right? Heal wounds and make people feel good doing it.”
“It’s not that great. If someone gets addicted to it, they’ll die.”
A shadow fell across Melia’s face.
“Die? From pleasure?”
“Hmm….well, the deeper the wound is, the greater the pleasure, but it also means your injuries are more likely to be fatal. I have had patients who have started hurting themselves so they could be healed again.”
“That….sounds awful.”
“It is. One person stood right in front of me and kept stabbing themself with a knife over and over again. I tried healing them right away, but they wouldn’t let me. They said, ‘It won’t feel good unless it goes even deeper.’ When you hit that point, there is no going back.”
“Then, what happened?”
“I couldn’t bear to watch them anymore, so I said it would feel great if they stabbed themselves in the heart. After they fell to the ground, I pretended to heal them. Even though I wasn’t doing anything, they still died with a very pleasant look on their face.”
Melia….had a small smile. It’s eery. Considering what we’re talking about, it would be insane to laugh. Yet I can tell she is using all her self control to desperately stop herself from doing just that.
“I uh….I’m fine. I hate pain. I definitely don’t want to feel good if it means feeling that first.”
“I see! That’s good to hear!”
The usual gentle smile was back. I’m not touching that. I only saw it for a brief moment, but I decided I never wanted to see Melia’s dark side ever again.
After the two of us fell silent, Olive returned. And directly behind her, was Lily. She looked a little depressed and upset, like a child who had just been yelled at by their parent, so Olive must’ve said something to her.
“Liffy-san. I would also like to apologize for Lily-san’s blunder this time. It is an unbecoming act for a noble to throw out someone they said they would take in and force that person on someone else.”
Olive bowed her head down deeply.
“No no! This all started because I was just going along with things. My injuries came about for the same reason.”
I showed off my exposed arms and legs to show that everything was all better now, but Olive shook her head.
“Even so. It was clear that Melia-san and Liffy-san would need to be protected when we first decided to break into that mansion. This is because of Lily-san’s negligence.”
Olive is pretty strict when it comes to taking responsibility. Not just for me and Melia, but for Lily as well. I’m guessing she’s trying to say it’s just part of her role to take on those bigger responsibilities.
She’s usually looking down on commoners, but with this kind of moral bedrock, my impression of her is changing. Honestly I feel stupid for holding on to that whole tripping incident for as long as I have at this point.
“Lily-san. I leave Liffy-san to you. Hold onto her tighter than ever.”
Lily silently nodded. I didn’t make any objections. If I did, I would need to tell everyone that the real reason I was kicked out of Lily’s room in the first place is because I told her how I felt.
“Liffy-san, I apologize. Let us grab your things from Ran-san’s room.”
Lily walked me out of the room while looking like an emotionless doll. We walked to Ran’s room, I grabbed my things, then walked back down the hallway to Lily’s room without ever saying a single word to each other.
Lily moved the moment we returned to her room. She hugged me tight and whispered in my ear, “I’m sorry…. Liffy…. I’m so sorry….”
Lily and Olive feel way too responsible when this is someone else’s business. It’s almost enough to make me not assume that all nobles see commoners as nothing more than pebbles on the side of a road. Or maybe the two of them just have high aspirations.
“It’s fine. As you can see, I’m doing okay now. I think my skin might actually be nicer now than it was before I got my ass kicked.”
I was rubbing Lily’s back, trying to calm her down through her tears when I suddenly remembered the last time we spoke was her rejecting me.
However, as if to drown out those thoughts, Lily pressed her lips against mine with all her strength.
Experimental Translations 