Chapter 188 : Chapter 188
Chapter 188: Queen's Invitation (3)
“......Um, isn't the test over?”
“If it's about whether I can leave you by that child's side, yes. It's over.”
So I thought I should test the other side as well.
Chuckle, Lilith added with a mischievous smile.
“Since I found out what kind of person you are, shouldn't I now also find out what kind of desires you are hiding?”
“...D, do you have to find out?”
“Even if you are hiding it well so far, it will eventually be revealed someday, but whether that child can handle it is another story. So I should find out beforehand, before you touch her more.”
“.......”
Listening to Lilith talking as if it were all too obvious, I felt like my common sense was being denied entirely.
“So...... That, putting aside that the premise that I will... touch Lily is already wrong...”
“Oh my, you won't touch her?”
“I... won't...?”
“Hmm. I see.”
“Anyway, putting aside that part is very different from my thoughts... just in case you enter such a relationship with my daughter... you first, that...”
As I hesitated because I was troubled about what to say, Lilith spoke nonchalantly as if asking why I couldn't even bring myself to say it.
“You want to sleep with me?”
I flinched unknowingly at that direct remark, but soon nodded.
“Yes. But why?”
Lilith smirked again as if finding such me cute.
“I am a Succubus. It's fine to treat me as the same ‘person’, but don't treat me as a ‘human’. Because our way of thinking is different from yours. That is an unchanging fact.”
“It seems... so....”
“We don't need to follow your ethical views or common sense.”
“Aha...”
Is that so. ...Well, it might be a valid point.
“If you are bothered that having a relationship with me behind that child's back feels like betrayal, it would also be fine to bring that child here and sleep together, the three of us.”
It really is different.......
“No, come to think of it, that would be best. You could also teach her various things she needs to learn someday directly.”
I wanted to tackle right away what on earth she meant by teaching, but I decided not to poke the beehive for no reason.
Just... different is different.
Let's just understand it to that extent.
“Also, it's all a one-night dream anyway. I told you. So if it's here, even if you reveal all those immense desires you've been hiding──”
Lilith, who had approached my side before I knew it, whispered in a coquettish voice.
“There is absolutely, no problem.”
“...I, I will decline.”
Of course, I gently pushed such Lilith away though.
...No, would I accept that?
“For an ordinary human like me, that... is a way of thinking that is still too much to follow....”
“Oh my. What a pity.”
At my refusal, Lilith showed a rather cool retreat as she was.
“I also respect your way of thinking, so I understand.”
“...That is, a relief.”
“Although I will never understand your words that you are an ordinary human.”
I am worried about that child.
Lilith continued with a bitter smile.
“If the vitality she tasted properly for the first time has such a dangerous taste... she will never be satisfied no matter what vitality she tastes from now on.”
That was certainly... hard to deny.
Actually, Lilith wasn't teasing me, but rather speaking in a scolding tone if one had to be precise.
Like scolding a relative(?) who fed a child fast food to their heart's content without her permission or let them play games all night.
“You will have to take responsibility properly for letting that child taste this kind of flavor.”
“That part...... I will try my best.”
“Actually, how is more important than how much. ──Yes. I'm not talking about giving more blood.”
Above all, her expression too, although not to the point of being stern, had become much more serious than just before.
“You know well too, right? That the current method is ultimately nothing more than a temporary measure. It will happen eventually, sooner or later. How long do you think that child can be satisfied with just blood?”
Lilith continued immediately.
“Of course, I know you chose that method to treat that child preciously. And I also know well that whatever the reason was, I am not qualified to say anything.”
But, saying that's why she wants to advise even more.
“A Succubus is a Succubus. That is also a fact that does not change. We are creatures that need vitality to live.”
That no matter how strong that child's mental power is, she won't be able to suppress that instinct forever.
It was true.
Because the disturbance in Sista Village happened because of that.
“You might know about that child better than me, but if there is one thing I know better than you, it is my blood that child inherited. Do not underestimate the impulse of a Succubus Queen.”
That child is a predator.
Lilith said.
“If you cannot take responsibility for that impulse until the end, it would be better for both of you to clear up ambiguous relationships like now before it's too late.”
Ultimately, Lilith's words, in essence... to be blunt, were telling me to embrace Lily.
And if I don't want to do that, to leave before it's too late.
Well, I can't really express it in a roundabout way.
Because it's true.
With a ‘human’ way of thinking, advice to embrace her child was somewhat... a difficult remark to understand, one I didn't know how to respond to.
However, Lilith's expression while saying those words, really, no matter how I looked at it, looked like nothing but a mother worrying about her child.
That heart was absolutely not something I couldn't understand just because our species were different.
“......I will think about it, a lot.”
So I had no choice but to answer seriously too.
Because I knew it wasn't a question I could just slyly gloss over like usual.
Hearing my answer like that, Lilith smiled faintly.
“That is a relief.”
Different from the somewhat mischievous smiles until now.
“Because you are a person who knows how to worry like that.”
It was a gratified smile.
“Good. I heard everything I wanted to hear. Now I will really let you go.”
Then turning away without lingering attachment, Lilith looked back at me, giggling mischievously again as if she had never been serious.
“Of course, if you ask me to send you somewhere else, I will gladly send you as many times as you want.”
“...As expected, you are testing me again, right?”
“Well? I wonder?”
Living up to the one responsible for spreading the perception in this world that succubi generally have mischievous personalities.
“...Then, see you at the castle.”
“What a pity.”
Should I say, as expected of the Succubus Queen.
Just facing her like this with almost no contact felt somewhat draining.
Still, finally I can escape──
“──Ah. One more thing before you go.”
“Yes?”
“I did not find that child's appearance from within your memories and project it.”
“What does that...?”
Without even a moment to hear the answer to that puzzling remark, I began to gradually move away from Lilith── from this ‘space’.
“Then. At the castle.”
Seeing me like that, Lilith waved her hand lightly, still showing a mischievous smile.
With seeing that appearance as the last thing, I woke up from the ‘dream’.
***
“Ah, are you awake?”
When I opened my eyes, the face I had been seeing all this time until just now was in front of me.
“......Lily?”
However, the attire I saw before that face told me she was not Lilith.
Why did I see Lily looking down at me as soon as I opened my eyes?
I could realize the answer to this question immediately through the soft sensation felt on my head.
I was receiving a so-called lap pillow.
“No, since when...?”
I was startled and tried to get up from the spot immediately, but eventually couldn't because of Lily's hand stroking my forehead first as if to stop me from doing so.
“This is... my room... right?”
Instead, I turned my head and glanced around, not upwards which was filled with Lily, and could know that this place was definitely my tent.
Definitely, it was right that it was the place I was in before entering the ‘dream’.
However, up to that point, surely, Lily wasn't there?
“Well, because I used... a lot of power today, I'm sorry but I came to ask you again, Bin, but...”
At my question, Lily answered hesitantly, somewhat embarrassed.
“Th, Bin seemed extremely exhausted too, so I wanted to make you comfortable even a little bit...”
Listening to the story, she said when she came to ask me for blood, she saw me sleeping almost as if I had fainted while just sitting, not even lying in the sleeping bag.
That was... not strange at all even if it was so, because although I was certainly exhausted from the fight today, above all, I had practically fallen asleep regardless of my will because I was receiving Lilith's ‘invitation’.
Although the memory before falling asleep is not vivid yet, probably I suddenly fell asleep while sitting or something.
Just that why that led to a lap pillow like now, there is a somewhat puzzling part though.
“I remembered that at the church, children who wouldn't sleep even though it was time to sleep often fell asleep quickly if I let them rest their heads on my lap like this...”
...Looking back, last time when I was suffering from seasickness, she immediately suggested a lap pillow saying she would make me comfortable.
Was that also for such a reason?
“By any chance, if you felt bad because you were treated like a child, I apologize, but...”
“Huh? No, there is no way I would feel bad about something like that.”
“Is, is that so? That is a relief.”
How could it be bad?
As I said back then too, it was a more comfortable pillow than any pillow I had used in my life.
...Rather, that's why, thinking it would be dangerous in many ways if I kept resting like this, I had no choice but to get up quickly back then and now too.
Should I say it makes a person useless?
Or that the desire to just quit everything and sleep on Lily's lap forever creeps up?
Besides, isn't the situation what it is?
From the position of having heard a ‘lecture’ from her mother who has almost the exact same face just a while ago... should I say I feel more guilty?
Lily showed an expression of lingering regret that I got up from her lap, but she didn't force it any further.
“...Th, then. You must have been very tired, please rest well.”
Unless I was fast asleep, it seemed difficult for her too in many ways to keep sticking to me who was wide awake.
“I apologize for the middle of the night.”
“...Wait.”
Seeing that anxious expression, I unknowingly called out to stop Lily who was trying to stand up.
“Lily, you too... used a lot of power, today, right?”
“Th, that is true but... Bin seems very tired too...”
I am fine.
Falling asleep as if fainting was actually her misunderstanding, and it wasn't because I was exhausted.
However, the reason I couldn't answer immediately like this was that the words I heard in the dream kept coming to mind.
“Just for today...”
But sending Lily, who was showing such an expression, just like this was also a difficult thing.
“I, I think, I can endure it.”
It meant she absolutely couldn't endure it.
That voice that seemed to lack confidence was one thing, but above all, her expression said so.
“...Actually, thanks to Lily earlier, my fatigue has completely gone away.”
So, eventually I pulled down my upper garment.
“Now it's Lily's turn.”
“...!”
Sure enough, Lily, who flinched in surprise, soon nodded quietly.
Then, she pierced her two fangs into my exposed neck as usual.
Naturally, unlike in the dream, there was no suggesting ‘other methods’ or anything like that.
Lilith's words were right.
It might not work with such an ambiguous method forever.
No, it definitely won't work.
Probably.
...Still, just for today, a relationship like now should be fine.
Eventually, Lily, who slowly took her mouth off, carefully wiped the blood on her lips and examined my reaction.
Perhaps because she was more tired than usual as expected, despite it being a similar amount of time as usual, she still had an expression that seemed completely unsatisfied.
...As expected, tonight seemed likely to be much longer.