Chapter 48
"Now that we can both use Space Leap, what do we do next?"
After hearing me, Isty leisurely crossed the training hall and placed her hand against the thick wall at the very back.
"Get over this wall."
Karen's face turned pale. She had clearly imagined something terrible.
Unlike the wall near the entrance where Karen had gotten stuck yesterday, this wall was thick enough to serve as the castle's insulation.
I had never checked whether this castle had been built according to proper architectural design and the laws of physics, but in the worst-case scenario, we might end up imprisoned inside it.
"Trust the spirit. Leaping is something you do together with the spirit. If the user's life would be directly endangered, the leap itself won't happen in the first place."
Isty encouraged us as we shrank back.
Karen barely managed to nod.
"O-okay."
"All right. If we make it through, do we pass?"
"Yes. You just have to get over this wall, go outside, and then return to the training hall."
"I'll go first."
I was confident.
After all, I had already built a relationship of trust with my spirit in the forest where the orcs had appeared in droves.
Even the sight of the thick wall didn't frighten me. I can do this. Right?
I focused on the spirit core, created a leap point in front of the wall and a landing point on the other side, then dove forward as though I were diving into water.
Whoosh!
"Whoa!"
Even though I hadn't jumped particularly fast, some strange inertia carried me along, and I tumbled across the ground.
I sprang to my feet and looked around.
I was outside the castle. Space Leap had succeeded.
"All right!"
What the heck? Once you learned it, it was easy!
All I had to do was leap back to the training hall to pass. Feeling more confident, I faced the wall and prepared to leap.
Then I stopped, bothered by something.
I was fine, but the spirit core didn't seem to be in good condition.
Spirits didn't show it, so I had no choice but to observe it and sense it through feeling alone, but…….
Wouldn't I fail if I leaped like this?
Isty had said that Space Leap was a technique that used the spirit's MP, after all.
As it happened, we were outside, the place wind spirits liked best, and a pleasantly refreshing breeze was blowing.
"Should we rest for a bit?"
I called the spirit core into my hand and decided to sit down and rest.
It really was like having a pet. It didn't assert itself by acting cute or expressing its opinions, but since it was deeply connected to my consciousness, I could feel a strong bond between us.
After I had been sitting and resting for a while, Karen came shooting out of the wall.
"Aah!"
Karen made a spectacular dive straight into my arms.
"O-oppa. Are you hurt?"
"Is this a new way of seducing me?"
I pulled Karen tightly into my arms. The feeling of her breasts pressing against me was excellent.
"It was just an accident. Do you think about things like that all day long?"
Karen primly removed my arms and stood up.
"You'll regret dawdling. I'm going to leap right away and pass."
"Wait…."
Wasn't Karen's spirit just as inexperienced as mine?
As expected, Karen created a leap point and jumped, only to slam into the wall.
Ouch. That must have hurt.
"Ugh, uuuugh…!"
"You almost got buried in the wall again."
"W-why did I fail?"
"It seems you can't do it when the spirit is exhausted. You should know that if you tried it yesterday, shouldn't you?
Isty probably had that in mind when she told us to return."
"Ugh! I-I knew that too."
Karen pretended to be tough.
Even if she was burning with competitiveness toward me…. She couldn't still think I was aspiring to be a hero, could she?
Then again, hadn't they said that once I passed, I wouldn't be free to simply give it up?
"Come sit here."
I had Karen sit beside me.
"What do you think the Hero School will be like? There must be lots of talented people there, right?"
"Of course. The people selected as members of the hero's party are talented enough to rank among the top five in the kingdom."
Hearing that did make me curious.
"Oppa, are you really going to give up your candidate status?"
"You heard what the examiner said. Didn't they say I'd have to attend that school if I obtained the qualification?"
"That was probably referring to the entrance exam.
You can resign if you don't want to go."
"Hmm. What should I do?"
Maybe I would change my mind once I got that far.
Rather than simply resigning, I might as well give it a try once….
Besides, it wasn't just any school. It was the Hero School. Wasn't it the place where the most talented young people in the kingdom gathered to hone one another through friendly competition?
"The Eight-Colored Shell Castle is too big. I think it would be nice if there were more women here."
"……Are you planning to kidnap them?"
"What kind of person do you take me for?"
"I'm joking. But oppa, you can't lay hands on students."
"Of course…… I should make them come of their own free will."
"By persuading them? If it's something like that, I suppose it's fine."
Persuasion was persuasion.
They just wouldn't be able to refuse. For now, I'd think about the school after getting over the wall in front of me.
Both in the physical sense and the abstract sense.
The moment I got over this wall, I could finally say that I had acquired Isty's unique skill.
It was one step toward becoming stronger.
"I'm going first."
I stood up, walked to the wall, set up a leap point, and created a landing point on the other side.
I couldn't see them, but I could feel them. I carefully checked to make sure there was no margin of error.
Then I placed my foot on the leap point.
Whoosh.
"Ugh!"
I supposed there was no helping the way my body swayed when I landed.
I would probably need more proficiency to do it as cleanly as Isty.
"How was that, Isty?"
"Excellent. Correctly assessing the spirit's condition. That is the consideration a spirit mage must never forget."
"Hmm."
(Affinity has increased.)
The spirit core seemed pleased.
Karen arrived right after me.
"Waaah!"
She almost fell on top of me again, but this time I caught her with my arms first.
"T-thank you."
"Are you doing that on purpose?"
I fondled Karen's breasts.
"If I were skilled enough to deliberately fall on oppa, I wouldn't have been so nervous. Wait… don't touch me lewdly…."
"Ahem."
Isty cleared her throat.
"Karen, you did well.
You mustn't be overconfident about your own condition when using Space Leap. Always assess the spirit's condition."
"Yes! Isty. I wouldn't have been able to learn this so quickly without you. Thank you."
Karen clung to Isty.
Perhaps she wasn't used to physical affection from another girl, because Isty stood stiffly, not knowing what to do.
"It's because you two worked hard."
Worked hard, my ass. Honestly, I had just been fooling around while having impregnation sex.
The truly amazing one was Isty. I could tell by looking at her spirit core. It wasn't that the core was especially large or anything, but I could feel the difference. Its density was on an entirely different level.
I couldn't even imagine how many years she had struggled to obtain such a powerful spirit.
On top of that, Karen and I had even been given wind spirits.
We had received help so that we could quickly learn how to see spirits.
Isty had drastically shortened the amount of time it would have taken us to get this far—several years at the very least.
"Can we go to the dungeon now?"
"If you repeat the training and reduce the margin of error a little more. Karen moved three meters farther or closer than her landing point, and darling moved two meters."
"All right. Karen, shall we practice together? I'll help you if you get stuck."
"Oppa. If I get stuck in this wall, I'll die……."
"……."
I stared at the wall and imagined what might be the best way to do it.
"No. You just need to bury your torso in the wall while leaving your lower body and face sticking out."
"Who gets buried like that?!"
"Leap while throwing yourself backward!"
"I'm not doing it!"
Seeing Karen and me go back and forth, Isty burst out laughing.
"Isty! Did you hear what oppa said? If I get buried, you're the only one who can help me."
"If you ask the spirit to help, won't it bury you just right?"
"Do you want to bury me, oppa?!"
"No, I mean, purely in the sense of discussing whether it might be possible or impossible……."
"Ahahaha."
Rarely for her, Isty laughed out loud.
She clutched her stomach and covered her mouth with her hand as though she were embarrassed.
Karen said with a pleased expression,
"Isty's laughing because oppa keeps saying strange things."
"Maybe she's laughing because she's imagining you being comically buried in the wall."
"Pfft. Stop it. My stomach hurts. This is the first time I've laughed this hard."
"I might get stuck instead. If that happens, I'll laugh at you right in front of your face!"
"If you get stuck, will you give me a titjob?"
"W-what are you suddenly talking about?!"
When I approached her, Karen squeaked and covered her breasts with her arms, then leaped over the wall.
"Oh, are you running away?"
I followed her with Space Leap and tackled her.
"You think you can run away from my personal pussy?"
"Ah♥ Don't squeeze my breasts♥ We're seriously training right now."
I held Karen from behind, fondling her breasts while licking her ear.
"As punishment, you'll be my amusement whenever Space Leap is on cooldown. You can do that, right?"
"Okay…♥"
It seemed like training would be quite enjoyable.
Karen and I trained to improve the precision of Space Leap under Isty's supervision.
After two hours, my spirit's efficiency had improved enough to use Space Leap twice in a row.
I think the secret was Karen's tits.
Every time I leaped, I clung to Karen and persistently fondled her breasts. There was nothing better for passing the time.
“Hngh. Ngh♥”
“Mmm. I don’t think I could ever get tired of fondling these tits, even if I touched them all day.”
“You’ve been kneading them for hours already… Please forgive me now♥”
“It’s the last day of special training today. Wouldn’t it be a shame?”
“The last day… I guess it is. Yes♥ Ah♥”
I forcefully kneaded Karen’s breasts, ruining their shape.
“Well, you can come to the Eight-Colored Shell Castle whenever you want, but it’s about time you paid attention to life outside, too.”
I said this while kneading Karen’s breasts as though squeezing them dry.
“Hngh. Talk with your hands off my breasts♥ Big brother, it’s time to leap now.”
“Already? Go on ahead to the other side. Let me touch you a little longer.”
“Again? Honestly, you’re impossible. I suppose it can’t be helped…♥ I’m grateful to be your cock sleeve, big brother.”
“You should be.”
I gave Karen’s butt a sharp smack.
“Go on ahead.”
Karen crossed over the wall with a spatial leap.
“Darling.”
Isti looked this way and spoke cautiously.
“Hm?”
“On the last day… who are you going to do it with?”
“I wonder. Who should I choose…?”
It didn’t really matter, since I could have both of them.
As if she thought this was a selection process, Isti approached me and naturally slipped into my arms.
I kissed Isti, our tongues intertwining.
“Mmm, yes♥ Slurp♥”
“It might be fun to have Isti stand there while I have sex with Karen….”
“I’ll cry.”
“Are you jealous?”
“Yes. I’m jealous. My breasts, too……”
Isti took my wrist and guided it toward her breasts.
I had forgotten. By ordinary standards, Isti was quite voluptuous as well. Her soft breasts were just the right size to fill my hands without quite overflowing them, and they were magnificent.
“I want Darling to touch me.”
“Why would I refuse? I’ll embrace you both. Tonight.”
Isti looked up at me and smiled happily.
“Darling, I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
We shared another deep, lingering kiss.
“Let’s make a few more leaps, then go eat together.”
“Okay.”
We crossed the wall with a spatial leap, now accustomed to the sensation.
Karen was standing there awkwardly.
“You and Isti were being all lovey-dovey, weren’t you?”
“How did you know?”
“Even though you were fondling my breasts like that until just now.”
Karen threw herself into my arms. Bumping her breasts directly against me was an obvious but effective attack.
“You’ll have pregnancy sex with me on the last day, too, right? Big brother.”
She was asking the exact same thing as Isti.
Was it a woman’s intuition? As if they instinctively knew when to press their advantage, they clung to me one after another.
All I could say was that being the one who got to choose was a very happy position to be in.
“What should I do? I’ve already touched them so much that I might be getting tired of them….”
“Y-you kept touching them because you liked them, and now you’re saying that?”
“Maybe I should say I can’t really tell because I’ve only touched them through your clothes….”
“Ngh!”
Karen stepped back and lowered her clothes herself.
She crossed her arms to accentuate her breasts, deliberately showing them off to me.
“W-what about this?”
My hands were drawn to Karen’s tits as though being sucked in.
I fondled them repeatedly, savoring the feel of her nipples brushing against my palms.
“Good. Tonight, let’s have both of you. I really can’t get tired of these tits.”
Karen straightened her back and presented herself so that I could knead her breasts comfortably.
“Then don’t skip your strength training. There isn’t a single bit of sagging flesh on my body.”
“Are these tits one of Karen’s proudest features, too?”
“N-not exactly something I’m proud of. But you’re so obsessed with them. It’s made me think for the first time that I like having big breasts.”
“What did you think before?”
“They’re inconvenient. My shoulders ache, and they get in the way when I fight.”
We had asked each other a similar question when we first met, but I suppose she hadn’t been telling me how she really felt back then.
There was no way breasts like these wouldn’t be inconvenient when fighting.
But they were the best during sex.
“You’re my cock sleeve, so you can be proud of them. If anyone asks next time, introduce them as the tits you’re proud of because they belong to your cock sleeve.”
“……”
I thought she would scold me and ask what nonsense I was talking about, but Karen simply stood there with flushed cheeks, watching me fondle her breasts.
“There’s no way I could say something like that. Idiot.”
After being caressed for quite some time, Karen spoke in a shy voice.
“Shall we make a few more jumps and go eat?”
“Yes! That sounds great. The food Ms. Bella has been making lately is so delicious.”
“Yeah.”
It was no longer surprising, but Bella’s cooking skills had improved by leaps and bounds with every meal.
Now, I looked forward to mealtimes.
Wasn’t Isti, who had taught her, proud as well?
Expecting to see what kind of menu would be served today, I headed to the dining hall.
But something unexpected had happened at the dining table I had been looking forward to.