Drifted Into a Reversed World ~ The One Method for Me, a Japanese Guy, to Survive in a World Where Men and Fertility Are Scarce ~ - 27

Chapter 27: The Shock

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー

At first, Elraine did not understand what that “voice” vibrating against her eardrums actually was.

Pain and pleasure. Relief and tension. Reason trying to suppress it, and instinct spilling over. The voice, which for a moment sounded like a groan, possessed an indescribable, glossy luster. The house was made of wood, and the walls were thin. The voice was muffled and faint… yes, so very faint, and its resolution was lowered further by the sound of something creaking and groaning.

“…”

Elraine checked her surroundings suspiciously, swallowed the small amount of saliva that had pooled in her mouth, and took a step forward. She pressed her small ear against the wall and concentrated all her senses on her hearing. To be blunt, eavesdropping on a space where a man was present was an outrageous act. It was hardly a commendable behavior, and it was inevitable that she would face some kind of penalty if she were ever seen by her subordinates.

However, Elraine’s curiosity, and a premonition that made her chest stir uncontrollably, began to dilute her reason. Tormented by a sense of immorality and tension, Elraine’s heart gradually rose in pitch.

“…Th-this is…”

Elraine closed her eyes tightly. She was able to surmise that the true identity of the “voice,” which she could now hear more clearly than before, did not belong to Sota, but to Firis. And though she could surmise it, the voice possessed a quality so far removed from the Firis she knew that she felt compelled to doubt her own judgment.

Firis’s voice was dignified and, for a woman, somewhat low and composed. It was that voice which raised morale when shouting commands and forced one to straighten their spine when whispered; now, it had transformed beyond recognition. The high-pitched voice seemed to spill from the deepest part of her throat, as if she were clenching her teeth to endure. It sounded as though she were withstanding pain, yet also as though she were trembling with joy—it carried a certain lewdness, a luster that evoked a “sexuality” not usually associated with the strong “martial” image of Firis.

Once her thoughts reached that point, the identity of the voice… or rather, the act being performed inside this house, began to take a definite shape.

(Wh-wh-wh-whaat…!?)

Elraine’s thinking speed slowed down significantly. As if rust had suddenly spread through the gears, her brain’s productivity dropped, and she could only be utterly crushed by the answer she had arrived at.

(Sota-sama and Firis-sama are having sex.)

Before jealousy, before envy, before excitement, there was simply pure bewilderment. Pornography was suddenly thrust before the innocent Elraine, who had no connection to men or such sexual topics. A self-questioning of whether she was jumping to conclusions. A heat thicker than the breath of a dragon exhaled from within her body. Her body temperature rose and fell, even causing headaches and dizziness. Elraine’s body continued to produce nothing but errors.

(Wh-what, what, what!? Sota-sama and Firis-sama are… eeeek!!)

And then, misfortune visited Elraine without mercy. In her flustered state, Elraine’s boot forcefully snapped a dry branch beneath her feet.

“…!!!”

A voiceless scream tore through Elraine’s throat. To an ordinary person, it might have been a negligible sound. However, for a battle-hardened warrior like Firis, detecting even a sound of that magnitude was easy. Losing her composure, Elraine fled from the spot while stifling her voiceless scream. Even for her, someone who had experienced battlefields, this became the most stimulating night of her life.

• ●●●

The next morning.

Sota woke up feeling a heavy, dull languor. Due to the battle yesterday, rest and sleep were still insufficient for his exhausted body. And above all, what made his body feel so heavy was, as expected, because he had shared intimacy in bed with Firis last night.

She must have been keyed up after the battle, but Firis’s behavior last night had been quite something. The moment she visited the house in the middle of the night, she was acting suspiciously, incredibly restless. Even when she said, “I can’t sleep, so why don’t we talk for a bit?” her goal was far too obvious from her demeanor.

Sota found that side of Firis cute, and it was his mistake to provoke her a little mockingly. In the blink of an eye, he was pushed down onto the bed, and they joined bodies for three rounds… To the point where it was hard to believe he was a person who had been in a coma until recently, Sota had been loved passionately by Firis.

“There aren’t any marks, right?”

He felt around his neck, but there wasn’t such a thing as a mirror here. For the time being, he checked only the parts he could see that had been thoroughly sucked the night before, and for the rest, he could only pray that no traces remained. As he was absorbed in checking his body, there was a knock-knock on the door.

“Sota-sama, are you awake?”

The voice from outside the door belonged to Elraine. However, Sota felt a sense of incongruity, as if a certain tension was being conveyed, or perhaps the edges of her words were trembling slightly.

“Yes, I just woke up.”

“…May I come in?”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

When he invited her in, Elraine entered hesitantly, saying, “Excuse me.”

“Good morning, Elrai—Whoa! What’s with those dark circles under your eyes!?”

“Ah, um! …Haha… I just couldn’t sleep much last night…”

Sota was shocked the moment he saw Elraine’s face. That was because large dark circles, which weren’t there yesterday, had formed under her eyes. Sota forcibly took the washbasin filled with water and the plate with a round bun that Elraine had brought, placed them on the table, and peered into Elraine’s face with concern.

“Elraine-san, are you okay? Maybe you should sleep a bit more today…”

“N-no, please don’t mind me… I just couldn’t sleep a little, it’s not something that will cause any hindrance.”

“No, it doesn’t look that way to me…”

“Thank you for your concern… B-but, as scheduled, we will depart in half an hour… We will depart shortly, so please be ready.”

“Elraine-san…”

“W-well then, I will come for you again in half an hour, so please finish your preparations by then.”

Elraine stated this businesslike and stood up quickly. As she left with an “Excuse me,” Sota felt a sense of incongruity again, as her behavior seemed somewhat rushed or distant.

“I wonder if Elraine-san is okay…”

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー