https://ncode.syosetu.com/n5562hc/70/
Public Opinion
I went straight to the bathroom after we returned to the villa.
Rather than just washing away the sweat from the trip, I wanted to get all the blood clinging to my skin and clothes off of me as soon as possible.
Peony still had to treat my head injury, but since I was not willing to wait, we all decided to take another bath together. But for some reason, Lily didn’t come in with us.
The four of us finished up washing pretty quickly since this was our second one of the day, so when it came clear that Peony would take a little while to finish healing me, Ran and Nerine went back to their rooms on their own.
I’m not especially close to Peony, so it’s kind of awkward sitting alone with her. She was focused on her healing too, so the room immediately fell silent as soon as it was just the two of us.
“How long will this take Peony?”
The water in the tub seems to just generally run hot, so I’m sitting in the tub with the top half out of the water while I wait for Peony to finish. The silence with my top hanging out in the air was just too much for me to bear, so I asked the first random question that came to my mind.
“Ah…. sorry. About ten minutes more. I can’t heal in an instant like Onee-chan. But I’m the normal one. She’s the one who is just way too extreme.”
Melia was the one who took care of me after I got my butt kicked, and even though my wounds then were way worse than this one blow to the head, she was able to heal them almost immediately. There was that small, strange side effect, so I can’t say which one is objectively better. That being said, if we were in the middle of a battle where every moment counted, Melia would be the obvious winner.
“Those are some cute earrings. I feel like I’ve seen them somewhere before….”
“I-It’s probably just your imagination! Yeah. I’ve worn them a couple times now, so you’re probably just confused!”
Once I got the ball rolling, we were able to talk naturally with the tension lifted, but Peony immediately pulled the topic into something I wish she’d leave alone. I did my best to write it off, but then the sound of someone entering the dressing room brought our attentions elsewhere, and our gazes turned that way together.
“Oh? You are still going?”
Lily walked in with her hair tied up and no towel. She probably wanted to take a long soak by herself, but she was surprised to see us and ended up taking a seat next to us. I was sandwiched with Peony on my left and Lily on my right.
“Huh? You two have matching earrings? They look, exactly the same. Now that I think about it, you two have never been on the same team before, but you’re pretty close….”
This part where she can be randomly perceptive out of nowhere is exactly like Melia. I forgot about the earrings and let my guard down, but it’s just bad luck having Lily wear them out in the open like this.
I tried sending out a warning before she noticed. When Lily walked in, I touched my ear while giving her a look so that Peony wouldn’t notice, but Lily just smiled and tilted her head.
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Lily walked in at this time, but that doesn’t mean she can’t use this situation to her advantage.
“Yes. Good friends.“
Lily hugged me and turned turned her face to Peony. Even if I try to escape, Peony’s body is in the way, and I am stuck between them. I don’t know how we’d be able to mislead her anymore.
I never made any promise to hide our relationship. But, I don’t know if this is the time and place to tell Peony of our ‘good friendship’.
“D-Does that…. have mean romance?”
“Well, what do you think?”
Lily started groping my body to show off to Peony before turning my face towards hers and forcefully stealing my lips. Peony’s jaw dropped, and a small scream escaped her lips.
“Stop! That’s against the teachings of God!”
Lily ignored Peony’s words and continued to enjoy my lips.
She is someone who only stops when she’s satisfied, not when someone else like Peony tells her to. It was a long few seconds before I was finally let go.
Peony is a healer, and she has a strong relationship with the church as a result. She seems to be a devout believer herself, but that’s true for a lot of people in the world. In other words, the vast majority of people in the country would react exactly the same as her if they were to see the same thing.
“To be precise, the act of coveting pleasure goes against God’s teachings. How about it Liffy? Was it pleasurable?”
My family has never been the church-going type, so I’m not exactly an expert on scripture. Even so, I can tell just by the flow of the conversation that I should be answering no to Lily’s question.
But, I can’t lie to myself. It feels like I would be denying myself if I were to saying anything else, so I bit my lip and nodded my head.
Peony’s eyes narrowed into a glare. A clear look of contempt. We were just starting to get closer, but all that progress has been lost.
“God must be incompetent then. If they were so against it, why would they make it so that girls could enjoy such pleasures with each other?”
“What? You want to talk doctrine interpretation with me? I don’t mind, but what’s the point of it?”
“I have no lofty purpose. But, I believe inside each person is a fire. For some of those people, that fire can flare up with the smallest of breaths.”
Lily blew into my ear. Goosebumps ran all the way up my body, and a heat grew in my chest, just as she had said.
Lily circled around us in the hot water, and wrapping her body behind Peony, her hands began running up Peony’s youthful body.
“How about you? I believe that with the right breath, you can get anyone’s fire to light.”
“That’s not true!”
Peony bit back with her mouth, but she wasn’t forcing Lily to stop. It looked like she wanted to play it like she didn’t care if she was touched or not.
However as Lily’s hands continued to move up and down Peony’s body, she eventually found a weak point. She’s limited her movements to the area between Peony’s collarbone and breasts, but a point was made to never touch the tips.
As the moment continued on, and Lily continued rubbing that spot, Peony’s scowl slowly broke and changed.
I covered my face with my hands because of the spectacle unfolding in front of me, and yet I couldn’t stop staring at them both through the gap in my fingers.
“Something wrong? Your breathing is getting rough.”
“T-The bath’s just hot!”
If just taking a hot bath were to make you breathe that hard, you’d never be able to handle a long bath. There has to be another reason. And the way she’s rubbing her thighs together is giving her away.
It’s fun to watch, but the fact that Lily is having fun with someone who’s not me is leaving the scene with a bad aftertaste. Normally, I’d be the one sitting where Peony is right now. It’s jealousy. I’m undeniably jealous.
“Lily-san, maybe you should stop here? Peony doesn’t seem to like it.”
I came up with an excuse to justify my actions as I forcefully ripped Peony out of Lily’s arms.
“Ah….” Peony’s voice carried a touch of surprise in it, and after looking back and forth between me and Lily several times, she ran out of the bathroom.
“And I was so close too. Weren’t you curious to see what it would look like to have a lady of the church fall?”
“You’re evil. There’s no way I would be able to handle something like that.”
Lily turned her eyes on me as if she had just found a new bit of prey. I was practically selling myself off as prey though, so if anything, it’s more like Lily fell into my trap this time.
“Can’t handle it? How about we put that to the test and find out? But apparently things are a little too hot in here, so let’s take this back to my room.”
While Lily licked her lips, I stood up and got out of the tub.
Without even bothering to dry our hair, the two of us threw on some bathrobes and ran to Lily’s room.
Experimental Translations 