Drifted Into a Reversed World ~ The One Method for Me, a Japanese Guy, to Survive in a World Where Men and Fertility Are Scarce ~ - 21

Chapter 21: Lustful Nature

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“Wh-what!?”

Sota’s voice cracked at the unexpected visit. He quickly pulled down the hem of his tunic, frantically straightened his appearance, and pushed the door open with his face flushed deep red. Standing there, naturally, was Elraine, who had arrived carrying a meal on a wooden tray. She looked slightly puzzled, tilting her head as if to ask, “Is something the matter?” Sota could not help but feel ashamed at her innocent appearance and tried to take the meal while struggling to hide his agitation.

“U-um, thank you very much! I’ll wash the dishes and leave them here once I’m finished eating…!”

“No, leaving them as they are is fine, you know? I will come to collect them later. More importantly, how is Firis-sama’s condition?”

However, Elraine spoke as she naturally stepped into the room and placed the tray on a nearby table. Steam rose from a wooden bowl containing a soup of root vegetables and beans, flanked by a round loaf of bread and some seared dried meat. Though it was a simple menu compared to what one might find in Japan, it was more than enough to stir the appetite of the hungry Sota. Sota pressed the hem of his tunic down more than necessary and clutched a cushion as if to hide his member, which was attempting to exaggerate its presence, all while striving to maintain a smile so she would never realize.

“Is something wrong?”

Elraine tilted her head with a slightly blank expression at Sota’s suspicious behavior, but Sota shook his head vigorously to deny it.

“No, nothing! There’s nothing to worry about at all, so please don’t mind me.”

“I see. Sota-sama, rather than that…”

“A-ah, right, Firis-san’s condition. Well, her breathing is calm, and judging by her progress, I think she is heading toward recovery. There seem to be no abnormalities, so I believe there is no problem.”

Elraine nodded along to Sota’s stumbling explanation with a serious look on her face. From her perspective, she supposedly did not know that Sota had been indulging in masturbation until just a moment ago, so it was only natural for her to respond earnestly.

…That was a lie. This woman named Elraine was, in fact, a total closet pervert who had been firmly peeking at Sota masturbating. That said, she had simply happened to see the situation inside when she brought the meal, so it wasn’t a premeditated act, leaving her some room for excuses. However, the fact that she had peeked remained a reality.

In truth, Sota was not the only one panicking internally; Elraine was also in a state of extreme agitation after witnessing the incredibly rare sight of a male’s act of self-pleasure. Incidentally, the reason she had asked Sota for permission to enter just before he ejaculated was that she felt her highly suspicious behavior of peeking was about to be noticed by those around her. Elraine managed to put on a wonderful, fabricated smile so as not to let even a glimpse of her inner thoughts be seen.

“I am grateful that you could look after Firis-sama. Thanks to you, I was able to focus on the meals and the camp preparations, so I was able to finish the work without delay.”

“I’m glad to hear that. It’s an honor to be of use in some small way.”

The mild conversation between the two of them was entirely devoid of malice.

However, their inner thoughts were in total turmoil. On one side was a man hiding his tension so that she wouldn’t realize he had been masturbating until just a moment ago. On the other was a woman whose retinas were scorched with the image of the erect shaft she had just seen, and who had accumulated a magma-like heat in her lower abdomen. Elraine’s state was particularly dire. Beneath the thin ice of her composure, carnal desires and reason, quite unlike a brilliant lady, were clashing violently.

The sight of a man pleasuring himself was something that simply did not exist in this world. A man who would lose himself to sex was nothing more than a figment of female fiction. Elraine’s mind was a battlefield between an overheated intellectual curiosity as to why he would masturbate, and her reason, which argued that because the sight was impossible, it must have been a misunderstanding… or perhaps a phantom created by her own pent-up libido. To be honest, she wanted to ask all sorts of things about the act she had just witnessed, and the intense desire to see that phallus once more… and from up close at that… was only kept from exploding by the reason and intellect she had forged over twenty-two years.

From the neck down, Elraine was steaming with perspiration that carried various meanings. Sota, of course, did not notice this in the slightest.

“Elraine-san, have you already finished your meal?”

“No, I plan to eat with my subordinates now. I could only prepare something like this, but I believe you will be served truly delicious food once we reach the Royal Capital, so please be patient until then.”

“No, no, just being able to have a warm meal like this is a stroke of luck. I have nothing but words of gratitude for you and everyone else, Elraine-san. I wish there was something else I could have helped with…”

Sota’s kind words were like nectar to a woman. Even if it was common consideration or kindness in the world Sota came from, such sweetness was a bewitching magic that seeped into the very marrow of the women in this world. Elraine felt her love juices overflowing from her slit like drool. However, it could not be helped.

“…Sota-sama, you truly seem to possess a sensibility that is different from that of a  ‘normal’ man.”

“Is that so? Firis-san said something similar to me. Am I strange, after all?”

At the question from Sota, who lowered the corners of his eyes, Elraine shook her head side to side.

“There is nothing strange about it. I think it is a wonderful thing. But, let’s see…”

“??”

“You are a bit defenseless, or rather… there are too few… walls between us, so to speak…”

As she spoke, Elraine began to edge closer to Sota. This was not something she was doing of her own will. Her body, gradually being overtaken by instinct, was being drawn to Sota as if pulled by a magnetic force.

“Um…?”

Sota, sensing that Elraine was somehow closer than before, did not lose his friendly expression even as he tilted his head. Elraine’s eyes began to swirl, and a reddish tint started to spread across her skin. Even with Firis present, it was just the two of them… a man and a woman in a sealed space. The stimulation was entirely different from the situation when they were sharing a horse. And then, there was the sight from earlier.

“…”

Elraine wanted to praise herself for holding out this long. At the same time, she began to want to forgive herself.

(That’s right… this isn’t my fault, it’s Sota-sama’s. If he disliked it, he should say so, yet he allows such close proximity. In other words, this can be taken as consent no matter how you look at it…)

There was no way it could be taken as consent. Using every circumstance around her as an excuse and beginning to shift the responsibility onto Sota, Elraine’s reason was already beginning to crumble. It was a slow collapse, so gradual that even she herself could not notice it.

“Um, Elraine-san?”

They were side-by-side, in a state of near-total contact. Elraine, having approached until their breaths nearly mingled, attempted to reach out her hand to Sota’s shoulder―

“Enemy attack!!”

That outstretched hand, and those peach-colored wicked thoughts, were wiped blank by a roar from outside.

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