Reiru felt dizzy and wanted to get out of Gio’s arms, but no matter how hard he writhed or clutched at Gio’s chest, Gio deftly suppressed his movements and wouldn’t let go.
Gio’s tongue rolled and rolled, caressing Reiru’s mouth in its entirety. Occasionally Gio softly nibbled on his lips, sending shivers crawling over Reiru’s skin.
Reiru could only tremble at the unknown pleasure that made him uncomfortable.
When Reiru’s shoulders finally rose after taking in a breath, Gio loosened his arms.
Reiru was irritated with the way Gio had berated him, so he pushed Gio away.
“S-shut up! You might be familiar with this stuff, but this is my first time!”
Gio cooed, “Relax. This is my first time, too.” while holding Reiru’s arms and hugging him tightly again.
While catching his disordered breath, Reiru curiously looked up at Gio’s face that was close by and mindlessly blurted an audible, “Huh?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Is this really your first time?”
“Is that bad?”
Gio’s attitude as if to say, “What about it?” left Reiru baffled.
“No, because you’re kind of good at it… and that… ehh…?”
Gio, who became the hero, was now one of the most renowned knights in the capital.
After all, there was even talk of him marrying the princess, so Reiru was sure that Gio would have been very popular in the capital.
Reiru convinced himself that since it was Gio, maybe he studied it or something.
“Leave it to me, I’m a pretty experienced person in image training.”1
Gio said it in an unpleasantly confident manner, which was in stark contrast to Reiru who had various insecure thoughts roaming inside his head.
“H-hey… I don’t know if I can leave it to you.”
Reiru chuckled unintentionally. What kind of confidence is that? No, it was definitely amazing though.
But for Reiru, who had absolutely no experience with this sort of thing, he could only roughly classify Gio as being better than him.
“Then let’s try some more.”
Gio’s eyes flashed with mischief, and his lips pursued Reiru’s again.
When Gio pressed into him, Reiru felt both scared and suffocated. However, Reiru’s quiet trepidation was slowly dissolved by Gio’s embrace and passionate kiss. Reiru remained motionless at Gio’s mercy.
“Hng… ah… hum… hngg…”
To teach him how to breathe, Gio deliberately covered Reiru’s mouth with his own.
With that, Reiru managed to get the hang of breathing, albeit awkwardly, and Gio’s kisses became more and more intense, long lasting, and obscene.
Then, he felt Gio’s fervent desire in the hand that stroked his back, and Reiru went pale as he had a suspicion as to what would come next.
Reiru, who had no sexual experience, had at least some knowledge of it due to the need for sex education for children.
“G-Gio, I can’t do anymore today… my heart will explode…!”
The way Reiru pleaded for mercy with his moistened eyes while stifling his emotions, fueled Geo’s inner urges even more.
However, Gio couldn’t help but hate Reiru’s thoughtless words that allowed him to have hopes of there being a next time. Gio loosened his hands that had cornered and captured Reiru.
“That’s a problem. If it’s your heart, I’ll have to take better care of it than anything else.”
“In the end, I couldn’t make him cry.” Gio thought to himself in a pleasant mood.
Still, now that he could finally touch him, it was hard to readily let go of the warmth, so Gio hugged Reiru tightly and savored the feeling.
Gio wanted to revel in the warmth of Reiru’s body forever, feeling the radiant heat seeping through Reiru’s clothes, hearing the deep sounds of their heartbeats drumming together, and feeling the weight of Reiru’s head on his shoulder.
Reiru’s lower body had reacted uncontrollably during their mutual touching. As he rested his head on Gio’s shoulder, the heat in his body slowly subsided. Then, without looking at Gio’s face, Reiru sheepishly murmured,
“…I-I’m gonna go back to work.”
“Ok, I got it.”
Gio quickly unfastened his arms.
“You’re gonna go home too, right? Should I call for a carriage?”
“There’s no way I’m going back without you. This is perfect. I’ll just stay here. I am on special leave from the Knights right now too.”
“Uh… but the orphanage… aren’t you going to the children?”
Reiru asked reflexively, and then hung his head from embarrassment.
There were occasionally people who would not donate or lend a hand, but there were also those who would interfere with the way Reiru ran things at the orphanage.
I pried into the orphanage’s affairs. I thought I wouldn’t do such a thing, but I did it right away.
However Gio smiled softly and stroked Reiru’s hair, seemingly unaffected.
“I evacuated the little ones to another place the day you disappeared, since I didn’t have any idea about how the royal family might react. They’re currently being taken care of at a facility in the beastman territory. The royal family can’t readily touch the border either. I went with them and it was a nice place. Given the culture of the beastmen territory, It appears that the children will be treasured and in good care by the entire community. So you don’t have to worry.”
“I… I see.”
Reiru breathed a sigh of relief when Gio explained to him that the facility was supported by both the family of the beastman who had just left and Milvance.
It seemed that the one thing that had been weighing on Reiru’s mind for a long time had been slightly abated.
From what Reiru had heard, it was said that Gio had returned the money that Reiru had received from the princess, and it seemed unlikely that he would ever see the children again.
As if he could read Reiru’s mind, Gio appealed to him,
“If you want to go, I’ll take you there right now… but, Reiru, what do you want to do? You can go to the little ones, or you can stay here and keep working, or you can also quit when you are ready and go somewhere else. And… Well, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to wander around this town with me for now, would it? We came all this way. It wouldn’t hurt to take a break once in a while.”
Reiru looked back at Gio in a daze.
Gio told Reiru that he didn’t have to go back to the orphanage, but Reiru subconsciously assumed that the fact that he and Gio were in a relationship that went as far as kissing meant that he would eventually have to go back together with Gio.
Reiru was bewildered by the options that were suddenly presented in front of him.
What do I want to do?
Of course, Reiru was worried about the children.
But when Reiru thought about his fellow co-workers and the little Miss, he felt like he still wanted to work at the inn.
Reiru hadn’t been able to look at the sea properly yet, and wandering around the town with Gio sounded fun, and he also wanted to see the play about the hero just one more time.
One of the employees who worked at the inn said that he worked short-term jobs wherever he went, and when he saved up enough money to travel again, he would go on another journey. As Reiru listened to such stories, he thought that such a way of life didn’t sound too bad.
Gio’s question sounded quite difficult to Reiru, who up until now had seen only a limited number of options outside of dealing with pressing matters.
“It’s difficult to be asked all of a sudden, right? Well, I’m not planning on leaving your side for a while, so let’s take our time deciding.”
Gio’s voice was velvety as he caressed Reiru’s cheek, who had fallen silent in contemplation.
Gio mentioned he was going to make the formalities for the stay, so Reiru led him to the reception desk. From there, he apologized to the master and went back to work.