Chapter 31
But it was only natural that any pleasure eventually become dull and numb in the end.
No scent could intoxicate me, no pleasure could hold me.
If my past self, who had lamented that holding a woman’s hand would be enough, saw me now, I’d spit, calling it overindulgence. But once the fleeting heat of the moment subsided, all that remained was a deep thirst.
Naturally, the place where my eyes turned to quench that thirst was the vast land of the Central Plains.
After embarking on the conquest of the martial world, riding the carriage made for me, and heading to the Central Plains, I naturally began to distance myself from women.
The desire to engage with the bodies of women was overshadowed by the thrill of battling the vast array of martial arts masters and the satisfaction of conquering the hypocritical Justice Sects one by one.
Maybe that’s why I forgot.
What it was that so intensely captivated men.
When I opened my eyes, the first thing that struck me was the scent.
A sweet fragrance that filled my nose and mouth to the point of suffocation, overshadowing the mystical experiences and even the freely wielded demonic energy I had encountered in my dreams.
An animalistic and sensual scent, unmatched by any perfume or oil.
A deadly poison embraced by women, more potent than any aphrodisiac in the world.
The scent of a woman was so cruel that it could reduce even a king or a hero to a mere beast.
Intoxicated by the poison deeply embedded in her young and innocent body, I ravenously sought her lips as if driven by memories of my past life.
When I reached out to embrace her slender body, the twilight woman opened her ruby-red eyes wide in surprise but did not resist.
“Mmm…!”
She merely entrusted her trembling body to me, like a deer caught in the hands of a predator.
Just before hiding beyond the horizon, her dark hair swayed like sunlight tainted by the night.
Under the black shawl, her sensuous wildness shimmered on her tawny skin.
Most of all, her ruby-red eyes melting with surprise and ecstasy right before me made me surrender to the primal desires I had long forgotten.
“Huff… ha…”
“Haaa, haaaa…”
Breathlessly exploring those lips, I momentarily pulled away, realizing that the woman had forgotten to breathe. Before I knew it, our positions had reversed.
A graceful yet strong feminine form, as if embracing a wild beast.
The softness beyond the fur-like texture gently touched my body, delighting my arms and chest that restrained her. The rustling of her scarlet clothes and accessories pleasantly tickled my ears.
Among all, the most beautiful were those ruby eyes, melting and entranced, reflecting only me.
It was the moment when I was about to press my lips against hers—those eyes that aroused the primal conquest desire of men.
“Dia… nes…”
“Who is it?”
Surprisingly, she knew me.
Facing me with trembling eyes and placing her trembling hand on my chest, she was calling my name as if pleading.
“I have no ties with a goddess like you.”
“What..?”
With moist eyes, the woman smiled slightly, as if she liked the joke I threw.
But in the meantime, my patience was wearing thin at every moment.
“My body is brimming with strength, my muscles and bones that were torn apart have become firm as if they were reborn. My exhausted vigor feels like it’s going to burst out.
Surely, this must be you bestowing some grace upon me?”
My voice resonating in my ears was rough and instinctive, to the extent that the last shred of reason left in my mind was astonishment.
Like a beast growling at its prey, barely holding back my seething desire, I whispered into the woman’s ear as if threatening her.
“Am I wrong?”
“N-no, you’re right…”
Tears melted from her ruby-like eyes, leaving a delectable trail on her chocolate-colored skin in response to my question.
Could she be doing this on purpose?
Did she know that the tears of a woman as beautiful and strong as herself were the most lethal temptation in the world?
“This is driving me crazy.”
“Wh-what? Ah!”
The patience I had briefly mustered while catching my breath quickly ran out, and I ended up devouring those rosy lips like a beast again.
The breath I harshly drew from her was sweet, and the tongue that sought refuge in my mouth was soft.
In exchange, I slowly returned the breath I had hastily taken, and this time, my tongue began to roughly explore her mouth.
Like licking candy, everything in her mouth was sweet.
From her smooth, pearl-like teeth, to her soft tongue, hot breath, and sticky dew.
Each time I tasted everything, her ruby-red eyes melted sensuously, and the more they did, the more uncontrollable energy surged through my body, causing my arms and tongue to tighten around her form with natural strength.
“Chuup!”
A sensual sound escaped from the brief gap where our breaths exchanged, and through that gap, some semblance of focus returned to the woman’s eyes.
The eyes that had melted like cherries in sugar regained their firmness with determination and will, and the woman, as if it were her turn, grabbed my head and took my breath away.
“Chuup… Cheuup..!”
“Heuuup…!”
As we exchanged breaths, the light gradually returned to the woman’s eyes.
Seeing the defiance and sparkling desire in those eyes, I had to retract my misconception that she was my captured prey and acknowledge the truth.
Although I had gained the upper hand with a surprise attack, she was also inherently a hunter.
The vitality and muscles hidden beneath her beautifully adorned clothes were not sweet poison, but a deadly trap.
Her slender hands, which gripped my neck and head, pulled me in like a noose, and her gracefully curved legs ensnared my waist like a trap.
I had been caught.
Inwardly, I bitterly laughed at my absurdly swift reversal of fortune.
This time, the woman stole my breath and, just as I had done, extended her tongue to explore my mouth.
However, unlike her confident entrapment, her assault was clumsy to the extreme.
“Puhup!”
“Pfft!”
Like the fierce spear of an advancing warrior woman, her tongue pierced into my mouth.
But, due to her excessive momentum, her tongue grazed my molars, spreading a metallic taste of blood in my mouth.
The woman shuddered in pain, and I burst into laughter at her cute mistake.
Naturally, we both pulled our lips apart and made a brief truce.
“Nngh…”
“Are you okay? It seems like it would hurt a lot.”
Her ruby-red eyes, stained with lust and shame, glared at me fiercely, but I fanned her shame with a grin.
“Eek! Huh, look (at me)!”
“What? Say it again. It was too cute.”
“Eek! I-I can’t do it!”
No matter how much she spoke with a lisp.
She was just adorable.
“I saw it again. Atalanta.”
“Uh? S-since when. Did you see it?”
“Of course I remember. How could I forget the woman who attacked me so fiercely?”
“Th-that’s… I-I was just…”
Oh, dear.
I tried to hold it in because it seemed like it would completely ruin the mood, but I just couldn’t.
“Hahahaha!”
“Eeeeeek!”
The gap was just too enormous.
Her eyes, which had been fiercely hostile, were now so soft and melted.
Her graceful limbs that had aimed at my feet and that unspeakable place just yesterday now tenderly wrapped around my neck and waist.
And her sweet tongue and mouth that I couldn’t believe had been spewing curses in anger.
Each part delighted me, and each part was incredibly lovable.
“Oh, damn. Did you cast some kind of spell?”
The girl who seemed just pitiful and shocked until this morning.
The young hero, who I thought was too young to hold in my arms.
She suddenly appeared to be a woman I wanted to embrace and explore all night.
I wondered if Eros’s golden arrow, which I had only heard about in stories, had flown in.
But when I saw those bright ruby eyes, I thought it didn’t matter.
“Eek! Let go! I’m strong!”
“Oh dear, I can’t understand what you’re saying.”
When I teased her slyly, Atalanta, red with shame, struggled and kicked her beautiful twilight-colored garment, which seemed like a gift from somewhere.
“Calm down; open your mouth before you get hurt again.”
“Huh?”
Facing Atalanta, who opened her eyes wide in surprise like a startled rabbit at my words, I covered her lips once more.
Carefully pulling at my injured tongue, I slowly licked it as if tasting the blood.
Then, the sweet liquid remaining on my tongue healed the wound, and when I closed my mouth, the metallic taste of blood was gone.
“Huh…?”
“As expected, it was an elixir with healing power. I received something precious.”
The more we kissed, the more my body recovered and filled up.
It was the power of the mysterious seaweed-scented liquid, besides Atalanta’s scent.
In a burst of uncontrollable laughter, the sticky lust and desire that had settled down flew away, and only then did I notice the surroundings.
“Shall we get up now?”
“Huh… huh? Really?”
At my words, Atalanta looked at me as if to ask if I was serious.
Her eyes still flickered with lingering desire like embers, and her limbs that entwined me showed no signs of loosening.
Just like a flame that, once ignited, refuses to be extinguished, Atalanta wanted to desire me. And I felt the same way.
But it wasn’t the right situation to continue.