Continuing with the story, a bit more interactions with Echidna!
Enjoy!
Echidna’s Temptation
Michel’s breath rose. Echidna was examining the flute’s ability... or in other words, testing the limits of his physical strength. Once she crossed it, pleasure would turn to pain.
“Haanh, aren’t you trying too hard, sonny? Even your ‘flute’ seems to be surrendering here.”
Echidna’s lips left the instrument. Michel was lying in bed, so tired he couldn’t even move.
She claimed that she wanted to know the flute’s limits, and had spent the past several days trying different methods.
The instrument’s most obvious effect was treating wounds, but unfortunately Echidna had suffered none.
There was one time when he had been able to heal Irma of an injury, but only the latter was able to feel the relief of fatigue and such; that kind of experiment didn’t work for the mercenary.
“Oh? Did I take it too far?”
The elf gently stroked his forehead.
“If you’re feeling too drained, it’s because you don’t have stamina here... You too have to train a little, sonny.”
She stroked him slowly as she spoke, so as to calm him down.
He struggled hard not to be lulled to sleep by the comfortable caressing.
[I can’t afford to miss this chance.]
Tonight was the time when Irma would be leaving the place, under Echidna’s orders.
He pad piled a concealing talisman on top of the talisman he had recorded his message in, to make it harder to be detected.
He had to put it into Irma’s baggage while Echidna wasn’t looking.
“M-Miss... Echidna?”
“Hm? What is it, sonny?”
“It’s not ‘sonny’, I have a name, and it’s ‘Michel’.”
“Ok, then I have a question for you, Michel.”
“A question?”
“Do you want to leave from here?”
He couldn’t hide his surprise at the unexpected question.
He had only started the conversation as a means to buy time while Irma arrived, never thinking the conversation would take this turn.
“I want freedom.”
“Don’t you now. I think you’re fairly free here, though.”
“I have a mission.”
“Ooooh, a mission?”
“I have to go to Maramaks.”
“Speaking of which...”
With a sudden movement, she brought her face closer. The flute remained sandwiched in her cleavage.
“It doesn’t need to be the li’l princess Elina who takes you to Maramaks, does it?”
Now that was a proposal he hadn’t seen coming.
“W-Well...”
“I’m stronger than her.”
[She sure is. But, Echidna’s not the one I chose.]
Interpreting his silence as hesitation, she awaited his reply without prodding him any further.
“Teacher.”
Irma’s call ended up breaking the silence.
“It will be time soon.”
It was then that Irma entered the treasure warehouse in her traveling outfit. Unlike Echidna, Irma never went empty-handed in the long-term infiltration duties she often took up.
And that was also something Michel had been counting on.
“Oh, it’s that late already?”
The mercenary stood up, leaving his side.
[Here’s my chance.]
Echidna was facing away from him, and Irma only looked at her teacher.
[I can’t miss this opportunity.]
Michel shot the talisman in one go towards Irma’s luggage.
[I hope they don’t notice.]
The talisman stuck to the luggage as intended, without any of the two seeming to realize. He assumed it would eventually fall off sometime during her mission, so his only hope was that it’d manage to catch someone’s attention.
“Michel.”
After finishing the conversation with her pupil, the elf turned around.
“Take your time replying. Your body and mind will surrender to me soon anyways, so it’ll become a moot point by then.”
With a chuckle, she left the warehouse behind.
No comments:
Post a Comment