I Took A Succubus's First Time

Aria had been defeated, and for several moments afterward, she honestly could not understand how it had happened.

She had been convinced that she had the advantage. Based on how the fight had gone up until the final exchange, she had believed that she was in a position where she could control the pace and eventually secure the victory.

Somehow, however, that advantage had suddenly slipped away from her before she could even react properly.

It felt almost like standing on solid ground while being completely certain that your footing was stable, only for your body to suddenly lose its balance and fall before your brain even had time to understand what had gone wrong.

"That was a good fight, Aria-san," Saki said, holding out her hand toward Aria.

The gesture was simple, and there was nothing complicated behind it. Saki merely wanted to help her opponent back onto her feet after the match.

Aria stared at the offered hand for several seconds, almost as though she were debating whether accepting it would somehow make the defeat feel more real. Her eyes briefly shifted toward Saki’s face before returning to the hand, and eventually, after what seemed like a small internal struggle, she reached out and accepted it.

Saki pulled her back up.

"Thank you..." Aria said quietly.

Saki gave her a small smile before placing both of her swords back into their sheaths. Her movements were calm and unhurried, as though she had already put the fight behind her and was more interested in what they had learned from it than in the fact that she had won.

"That was a great learning experience, Aria-san," Saki said.

"For me too," Aria replied.

The two of them smiled at one another, and from the outside, everything looked perfectly fine. They had fought, one of them had won, the other had lost, and both had managed to walk away from the match having learned something useful.

Kouhei, however, noticed the small amount of bitterness hidden beneath Aria’s smile.

It was not something obvious enough for most people to notice, and Aria was doing a decent job of hiding it herself, but Kouhei had spent enough time around her to recognize the difference between her genuine smile and a bitter one.

He wanted to go over and comfort her.

At the same time, something about doing so immediately felt wrong.

It was not that Aria did not need support. Rather, Kouhei felt that this was something she needed to work through on her own first. If he immediately rushed over and told her that everything was fine, he might accidentally make her feel as though he was treating her frustration like something insignificant.

He wanted to reassure her, but he also wanted her to come to terms with the loss herself.

"Looks like Aria is getting a little bit hasty over there," Kozue said from beside him.

Kouhei turned his head toward Kozue.

He still had not figured out how to talk to her comfortably, especially considering the things he had to keep hidden from her. There were several subjects he absolutely could not casually bring up, and Via was easily the biggest one among them.

If Kouhei carelessly mentioned that he and the others had already encountered and fought Via, Kozue would probably rush straight toward him without thinking twice.

Knowing Kozue, there was a very real possibility that she would decide that confronting Via herself was the obvious solution.

That would be a terrible idea.

Via was strong.

Calling him simply strong did not even begin to explain it. His power was so overwhelming that Kouhei still had trouble properly putting it into perspective, and sending Kozue after him without giving her the full picture would be reckless at best.

For that reason, Kouhei had to be especially careful about what he said around her.

Still, he could not help being curious about her comment regarding Aria.

"Hasty?" Kouhei asked.

"Yup," Kozue replied, casually nodding toward the battlefield. "You noticed it too, right? She was getting hasty with her movements, even though she absolutely didn’t have to rush herself like that."

Kouhei glanced back toward Aria.

"She kept forcing her movements instead of waiting for the right opportunity," Kozue continued. "Her attacks became faster, but they also became easier to read. Eventually, Saki-san found the opening she needed and took advantage of it."

Kouhei remained quiet while listening.

"Aria could have just fought in her own way," Kozue added. "If she had stayed patient and trusted herself, I honestly think she could have defeated Saki-san pretty quickly."

That was a surprisingly sharp observation.

Kouhei had been watching the fight himself, but his attention had been divided between several things, so he had not analyzed Aria’s movements quite as closely as Kozue apparently had. She had caught something that was easy to miss if someone focused only on the obvious exchanges.

Aria had not lost because she lacked the ability to win.

She had lost because she had started forcing herself to win.

"Okumura-kun, you should probably go and comfort her, you know?" Kozue said.

Kouhei looked at her again.

"I think the reason for that hastiness was because she wanted to become stronger for you," Kozue continued.

Those words made Kouhei fall silent.

He thought about them for a moment.

They made sense.

Aria had always taken her role as his maid seriously, perhaps even more seriously than she needed to. She wanted to serve him properly, protect him when necessary, and become someone he could depend on. Her desire to improve had probably become tangled up with her desire to be worthy of standing beside him.

"I’m going to go talk to her, then," Kouhei said.

"Good," Kozue replied. She gave him a small smile before adding, "Don’t make girls cry, Okumura-kun."

Kouhei turned toward her when she said that.

For some reason, he paused.

Kozue was smiling.

It was different from the usual smiles he had seen from her. She had smiled at him before, of course, but this expression felt more genuine. It reached her eyes, and there was something warm about it that caught Kouhei completely off guard.

"What?" she asked, slightly confused.

"N-Nothing," Kouhei replied.

Kouhei stared at her for another second before looking away.

He was a little flustered.

He had not expected Kozue to smile at him like that. He could not figure out why that particular expression had affected him differently from all the other times she had smiled.

"Oh well... I should probably not think too much about it," Kouhei muttered, deciding that trying to analyze Kozue’s smile would probably only give him a headache.

He looked toward the garden.

After searching around for a moment, he found Aria sitting by the pond.

She was sitting on the edge of a wooden platform, quietly staring at the surface of the water. The pond was mostly still, with only a few gentle ripples moving across it from time to time.

Aria’s reflection appeared on the surface.

She looked strangely lonely sitting there by herself.

Kouhei walked toward her.

"Aria-san."

Aria immediately recognized his voice and turned around.

"Kouhei-sama?"

She looked slightly surprised to see him standing there.

"Can I sit next to you?" Kouhei asked.

"It’s fine, but... why all of a sudden?" Aria asked, shifting slightly to give him room.

"Nothing in particular," Kouhei replied. "I just wanted to talk with you for a little while. Is that fine?"

Aria nodded.

"Of course."

Kouhei sat down beside her.

For a little while, neither of them spoke.

The silence was not particularly uncomfortable, but Kouhei could still sense that Aria was thinking about the fight. Her gaze remained fixed on the pond, and the expression she had worn earlier had not completely disappeared.

Kouhei decided to address it directly.

"Are you frustrated, Aria-san?"

Aria’s expression changed slightly.

She smiled wryly, and the sadness behind that smile was much easier for Kouhei to see now that they were sitting together.

"Well, I suppose that couldn’t help but be noticed, huh?" she said.

She let out a quiet sigh.

"I think I am frustrated," Aria admitted. "I really am, but... I can’t exactly help myself."

"May I ask why?" Kouhei asked.

Aria remained quiet for several moments.

Eventually, she looked toward him.

"I want to be the best maid for you," she said. "I also want to be the best lover I can possibly be for you."

Kouhei listened without interrupting.

"I know I could never possibly have exactly the same special place in your heart as Yuuna-sama, Hina-sama, Nagisa-sama, and Misuzu-sama," Aria continued. "I understand that you have a different relationship with all of them, and I would never want to take that away from you."

Her fingers rested quietly against her lap.

"Still, I want to become someone you can rely on," she continued. "I want to become stronger, better, and more capable, because I want to be someone who deserves to stand beside you."

Kouhei understood.

"Aria-san, I don’t think of you as being below them," Kouhei said. "At the same time, I don’t think of you as being above them either."

Aria looked at him.

"All of you are special to me," Kouhei continued. "I mean that seriously. I don’t want to rank any of you against one another, because you’re all important to me in your own ways."

His expression became more serious.

"All of you are equal to me."

Aria’s eyes widened slightly.

Kouhei continued before she could respond.

"You don’t have to keep worrying about whether you’re good enough compared with someone else," he said. "You can still try your best, obviously, because I know that’s simply who you are. If you want to become stronger, then become stronger. If you want to improve your swordsmanship, then improve it. I would never tell you that you shouldn’t strive for something you genuinely want."

He paused briefly.

"However, you don’t have to push yourself so hard because you think you have to become the best for my sake," Kouhei continued. "That’s the part I don’t want you to misunderstand."

Aria quietly listened.

"I already think you’re the best," Kouhei said. "Honestly, I think all of you are."

He gave her a small smile.

"Sometimes, I even feel like I’m the one who doesn’t deserve all of you."

Aria stared at him.

For several seconds, she did not say anything.

Then her expression slowly changed.

The sadness that had been present in her smile disappeared, replaced by something much warmer and more genuine.

"I’m glad that you said something like that... Kouhei-sama," Aria said softly.

She leaned closer to him.

Kouhei barely had enough time to react before Aria gently kissed him.

The kiss was brief and affectionate, carrying none of the frustration that had been present earlier. It felt more like a quiet expression of gratitude, as though Aria had finally allowed herself to believe what Kouhei had been telling her.

Meanwhile, somewhere else, Asami was watching the entire exchange through her clairvoyance.