Even for me, carrying someone in my arms and walking up to the top of the castle was too much. However, while held in my arms, Tir secretly supported herself using the darkness, and thanks to that, I was able to reach Tir's quarters without much burden.
The door was tightly shut, but as I approached, it opened on its own. It was Tir's darkness. Heading straight to the bedroom, I abruptly threw Tir onto the bed.
Bouncing slightly with a thud, Tir settled on the bed. With both arms still gathered at her chest, Tir quietly looked up at me.
"Um. Hu. So suddenly..."
"It's hardly sudden when you've been wanting this all along, Tir? Don't deny it. I am sensitive to human desires, so I can distinguish that much."
Tir even wanted me to lead the situation somewhat forcefully. The fact that she didn't resist my rough actions and secretly helped me proved it. Leaving Tir on the bed, I took off my coat and stretched my hands.
"Now. Tir. Let's begin our private life."
Fidgeting with trembling eyes, Tir eventually squeezed her eyes shut and let out a voice.
"I-It's my first time, so please be gentle..."
"It's not your first time."
Instantly, Tir realized I wasn't talking about her first time, that bringing up my past experience at such an important moment was inappropriate, and felt disappointed in me for stubbornly bringing it up. These complex emotions surged in a brief moment, and Tir's expression turned cold.
However, that wasn't what I meant. I quickly corrected the misunderstanding.
"What I'm trying to do is restore your senses, Tir. It's an extension of that. Since you've experienced it a few times, you'll be familiar with it."
Realizing it was a misunderstanding, Tir's emotions recovered rapidly. Suppressing her brief embarrassment, Tir asked back.
"...Senses?"
"Yes. You've only regained the senses above your shoulders so far, Tir. It's bound to feel lacking. It seemed like you were enjoying yourself well enough until now, so I was going to leave it be... but if you wish for it."
Leaving only a light shirt on, I pulled a card from my sleeve. Spade 7, Lightning Cluster. Seeing the familiar symbol, Tir was slightly disappointed.
"Private life, you say..."
"Restoring senses is a private life that's hard to show others, isn't it?"
"That is true..."
An undeniable disappointment seeped from her tone. In the past, she would have simply thought to herself, 'This is different from what I expected,' and that would be it. Now, with emptiness added to her expectations, Tir's emotions were full-color, incomparable to before.
Regardless, this too was undoubtedly what Tir wanted. Having let go of her expectations, Tir sat on the edge of the bed and pouted.
"I thought it was something else. You certainly have a talent for teasing people."
"Teasing? What were you imagining?"
"...Enough! Just finish it quickly."
I sat next to Tir, who seemed displeased. Naturally attaching the card to my hand, I grabbed Tir's waist and pulled her close. Seating Tir on my lap, I embraced her from behind, holding her in my arms.
In the past, she would have fainted from shock, but having experienced similar situations when restoring her senses, Tir was used to it.
"Hu?"
"Ah. Tir. There's one thing I didn't warn you about. I really didn't want to do this."
Beneath her tied-up hair, her white nape is visible. The fragile delicacy, as if she would break at a touch, remains even after her heart returned. Lightly stroking her pale skin, I whispered.
"Tir. I am the King of Humans."
"I know."
"No. Just as one doesn't know oneself, humans do not know humans. It's the same for me, the King of Humans. To begin with, claiming to 'know' something is such an arrogant and definitive statement. How many humans are there in the world, yet we lump them together and say we know humans?"
If humans truly knew humans, if they knew what humans were made of and how they would act, mind-reading wouldn't even be necessary. You could just create and control them as you wish.
However, the power I have is only mind-reading, the power to read thoughts and memories.
"Unhuman, lacking humanity. That itself is defining humans as something specific. I don't like that. Even if Tir's heart doesn't beat, lacks senses, and lives for a thousand years, she is not not human. Even if she drinks the blood of others and is branded a heretic by Seonghwangcheong, she is still human. A normal human."
Reaching my arms under Tir's armpits to embrace her, I spoke as if lamenting.
"That is why I didn't want to change you, Tir."
"...Then. Why did you revive my heart and restore my senses?"
"Because you wished for it, Tir, and because you attempted it."
Her snow-white skin is like a canvas of pure white. Whatever is engraved upon it will be strikingly conspicuous. It feels a bit like leaving footprints in an untrodden snowfield—there's a little guilt... Yet, I must proceed.
"You wanted to change yourself enough to reveal your heart to others, and you actually succeeded. By borrowing the power of your Kin. However, because of the Homunculus Dilemma, you couldn't act on your own terms... So I decided to lend a little hand."
"To move according to my will?"
"Yes. I, the King of Humans, am also Tir's King. Therefore, I can bypass the Homunculus Dilemma. Because I was your representative then."
With that extended hand, I traced Tir's collarbone. The collarbone was revealed far too clearly above her thin skin. As I slightly inserted my finger into that concave area, Tir's body trembled faintly.
"It was the same this time. I can restore your senses as your own, Tir. But I didn't want to restore all of them."
"W-Why is that?"
"It feels like I'm changing you as I please. When I'm the King of Humans who should observe humans themselves."
It is truly a difficult task.
The King of Beasts, who represents all beasts, can be seen as an observer. But what if that observer influences the beasts again? If the King of Humans changes humans, what happens to the King of Humans? Extremistically speaking, if the King of Humans kills all humans, they can no longer exist, right?
Even now. The Progenitor Tirkanjaka is the god of a nation and a heavyweight figure who adorned a corner of history. If I revive Tir, an enormous change will occur.
That's why I have a resistance to changing someone.
"Humanhood. Humanity. Human. They are truly curious words. Are those lacking humanity not human? If they are not human, do they become beasts? Humans are not advancing toward something. They are already human as they are. Because they are not trying to become something."
Tir found it difficult to answer. Because she was conscious of my hand roaming over her skin, and because she didn't know what to say to me. After hesitating for a while, Tir finally uttered a single word.
"...So that's why you hate Seonghwangcheong."
"Right. They have a certain expertise in defining humans. Anyway."
Every time my fingers grazed her skin, color briefly returned. The penetrating lightning left a trace in Tir's consciousness and flickered out. Perhaps because the skin was far from her head, the senses didn't easily revive even though I engraved them quite strongly.
I need to apply a bit more force.
"I will return you to as close to your living state as possible."
Imbuing it to the brim with lightning, I covered Tir's body. Even though I didn't grab her very hard, Tir's body rattled.
"Ugh."
'Hu's hands are quite large. To think just two hands cover from my neck to my upper chest...'
It hadn't touched anywhere yet. But because it was clear it would go further, Tir let out a small sigh and looked down at my hand. With only small groans echoing in the room, I gradually lowered my hand. Slowly but surely.
"Ah..."
'It's coming down... If it goes on like this, all the way down.'
Snag. Trying to go lower, I got caught on Tir's clothes. The antique dress exposed her collarbone but didn't permit below that. Because it was the sanctuary of the noble progenitor where not only someone's touch, but even their gaze shouldn't reach. The black dress fulfilled its duty of covering Tir's jade body.
However, I unhesitatingly invaded the inside.
"...!"
Tir's dress turned into cards and flowed down. Tir's upper body, which had been hidden by the dark dress, was fully revealed under the dim light. Surprised, Tir hurriedly tried to grab the flowing cards, but it was a futile attempt, like trying to hold flowing water. The clothes that were once a dress slipped through the gaps of her fingers. Stripped naked in an instant, Tir squeezed her eyes shut.
'W-Wait. Isn't this too early? Is it okay to allow this? W-What should I do?'
In the dim light, Tir's skin is snow-white as if glowing. Beyond her delicate shoulder line, a breast hidden by one arm peeks out. I pulled down the wrist of the arm wrapping her body and whispered.
"Get nervous."
'I'm already nervous enough! How could I not be nervous. When your hand is about to toy with me...!'
Unshed saliva gulps down. Both Tir and I. As the barriers covering her disappeared one by one, Tir closed her eyes as if giving up and answered.
"I am... nervous."
The noble and powerful vampire progenitor Tirkanjaka, too magnificent to be called a flower on a cliff, lay in my arms revealing everything. I reached out carefully but surely along the valley between her breasts.
'It touched...'
The plumply swollen breast fits into my hand. The soft, clinging texture against my hand feels pleasant. However, Tir shuddered at the unfamiliar touch.
Tir still has no sensation there. Her flinching shoulder and trembling reactions stem from psychological resistance. She's just immersed in the atmosphere and the act itself. Tir isn't feeling it in the full sense of the word.
...For now, that is.
"Hik!"
Holding lightning in my hand, I softly swept over Tir's body. From bottom to top, color was added where my hand touched. The sense of immorality from freely ruining a pure white canvas slightly excited me.
'His touch is rough. Different from before. Is Hu... feeling it too? Where Hu's hand touches... something. Something ticklish and strange is, digging into my body...'
Up to this point, it's exactly the same as when restoring senses in other places. It won't be like that from now on, though.
I took my hand off for a moment. The lightning flowing from the Lightning Cluster fluctuated enough to be visible. Especially between my fingers, threads of lightning flashed brightly.
Holding the most intense lightning ever in both hands, I firmly grasped Tir's body.
"Haht?!"
And Tir's body thrashed.
At the unfamiliar sensation, Tir blinked. The hand reflected in her eyes was fondling a slightly sensitive area, but it was essentially no different from before. A pleasant touch that conveyed senses to the places it reached.
But this time. The type of sensation was different. Unlike taste and smell, not for distinguishing... a simple tactile sensation. However, a one-dimensional sensation like a shock shot from the sensitive spot, forming a complex shape.
Not realizing that the utterly unfamiliar sensation was sexual pleasure, Tir merely let out a moan.
"Heut. This is. Strange. Uht. This is."
"It's only the beginning."
"The, beginning?"
"Yes. This is a place far from the head... so it requires a slightly stronger stimulus."
I didn't try to hide it, but my breathing had also become slightly rough. This body is a human body, after all.
There's no need to endure. Where my desire directs will soon change into Tir's sensation. I drew out even more of the lightning's power, caressing the breast in my hand to find the sensory point. I felt the small, soft apex that couldn't even react because it hadn't yet fully felt the sexual pleasure.
It's fine. That's why I and this lightning are here.
Carefully fondling around it, before Tir could even react... I fiercely crushed the tip with two fingers.
A moment later, Tir opened her eyes wide and reacted.
"Hauuuuut?!"
Sexual pleasure she had never felt in her life swept over Tir like a tsunami. Her back arched so stiffly it seemed it would break, and her frail body trembled violently. Though limited to the parts where she still had senses, every single one of them was reacting wildly.
'Wait, wait, wait. Something. Wait.'
At the pleasure she had never felt before, Tir felt fear. The sensation gathering at my fingertips was overturning Tir completely. The unknown accompanies terror. Tir panted pitifully at the shock that shook her head.
"Hu?! Wait. Stop. Something, is weird...!"
"It's normal."
Whispering again, I pinched her breast. Tir's voice failed to form words and spilled out as moans. A pitiful trembling was felt at my fingertips.
"Since this is the most sensitive area, I have to use the lightning a bit strongly."
"Aht, stop. This is, no-hiiit...!"
'Weird. I don't know. I don't know. But, I don't hate it... A little, more.'
I am one to look at the heart rather than words. Even if her words say no, if her inner thoughts say so.
Squeeze. I crushed it as if bursting it with all my might.
Lightning stormed. In my hand, and in Tir's mind. Her fully sensitized body accepted my lightning directly as sensation. Even for Tir, perhaps that was too intense. Biting her lips tightly and shrinking her body completely, she endured the sensation somewhere between pain and pleasure.
"Aht...!"
"It'll be a bit strong. Endure it."
"It hurts. Hu...! Wait, this is...! Ahk!"
Once more, squeezing it tightly as if to burst it, Tir stopped speaking and shook her head vigorously. I gripped her tightly as if imprisoning her pitifully heaving body.
If Tir exerted a little strength here, she could easily escape my embrace.
"Stop, stooop...!"
'A little, more...!'
Trembling, desperately shaking her head, even while grabbing me as if trying to stop my hand. She never did so.
"Hauu. Hu...! Beyond this...!"
'...I want to feel, more...!'
Tir didn't stop me, and I didn't refuse. I persistently tormented her charming breasts. Savoring the soft texture, I buried my face in her nape. When I lightly bit the skin that didn't emit a single scent of flesh, her nape trembled violently.
"Hu, Hut! Weird, it's weird...!"
"If you think about it coldly, having senses is normal."
"That's not what I mea, Haht! Uht, Ah. Eu."
Tir trailed off while speaking and shook her head repeatedly.
Pulling once, sweeping up, and squeezing tightly again. I treated the progenitor's bare skin, which no one had ever violated, like a toy. All the while, toying with the fruit hanging at the tip of her breast.
Before long, that tip of Tir's had also become like a fully ripe fruit. The sensation had returned sufficiently.
Faster than I thought. There's no need to touch it anymore.
Wrapping my arms around her waist, I lifted her slightly and sat her facing me. Suddenly having everything exposed in front of me, Tir turned her head slightly as if embarrassed. Not that it hid anything.
Snow-white skin, thin flesh. A body that looks like a sculpture but is soft. Beautiful, and with a face that had now regained its vitality. I felt it while embracing her from behind, but seeing it from the front brought fresh emotion anew. As I slowly admired Tir's nude body, a red fruit blooming on a hill stood out before my eyes. Feeling a sudden impulse, I opened my mouth and took a small bite of that fruit.
"......!!"
Tir's arms wrapped around my head. Due to her instinctive action, I ended up with my face buried in Tir's chest. Unable to open my mouth or pull my head away, I inhaled Tir's faint scent of flesh. Can one get drunk on a faint fragrance? As if possessed, I crushed Tir's nipple with my teeth.
With a squelch, fruit juice burst out. Panting, Tir threw her head back and convulsed.
"Hauuuu."
It seemed the lightning stimulus went in a bit too strongly. Even things that shouldn't come out came out. Inwardly flustered by the liquid flowing into my mouth, having no way to handle it, I just swallowed it down my throat. Surprisingly, it tasted sweet.
It's an ironic thing. A vampire that sucks human blood. And a human squeezing and drinking its bodily fluids. As I smiled and pulled my mouth away, the gathered bodily fluids stretched out long. As the sweetness faded, my body yearned for more, but it's fine. Because there's still one left.
I raised my head and looked at Tir, who was leaning against me powerlessly.
"Tir."
"Hu..."
"Just the chest alone was this much. Will it be okay to do the rest too?"
Her face, lightly flushed, was sensual. A face soaked in embarrassment, bewilderment, and bliss mixed together, taking on a color that was impossible to fathom. Tir answered with a pitifully trembling voice.
"It was unfamiliar. It was bewildering. It was painful. It hurt and it was terrifying. The sensation that shakes my body and mind will surely change me into something else. Into a completely different existence from what I have been until now."
Initially, Tir was a walking phenomenon. For her, who had already died once, the boundary between the world and herself was blurry. I revived her heart, built walls in the place where only a clearing remained, and made a room.
However, that alone was not enough. A completely enclosed room was no different from a coffin. I opened a window there. Therefore, when light entered and wind blew, it shook the room—a window named sensation.
There was Tir's wind, but ultimately, I was the one who created it. I made this doll human and breathed life into it. The greatest creation of my current life gazed at me with an endlessly lovely smile.
"I am afraid, and anxious, but..."
Tir slowly lowered her head and covered my lips with hers. It was an awkward kiss, but therefore all the more stimulating. Having tasted me for quite a while, Tir answered with a thoroughly melted expression.
"If you do it for me, I will be happy."
The night is short. However, the night of the duchy, where the sun is hidden by fog, is endlessly long. When this long night ends, the girl who has lived for twelve centuries will pass maidenhood, and finally be reborn as a lady.
The night harboring the progenitor's private life, its first day, came to a close.