WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 428.5: Side Story: The Progenitor's Private Life (R19)

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[This side story is age-restricted on Novelpia. It contains explicit content. Reader discretion advised. It takes place immediately after Chapter 428.]

Even for me, carrying a person in my arms all the way up to the top of the castle was too much. But the whole time Tyr was in my arms, she used her darkness to subtly hold up her own weight, and thanks to that I reached Tyr's quarters without any real strain.

The door was shut tight, but as I drew near it opened on its own. Tyr's darkness. I marched straight to the bedchamber and unceremoniously tossed Tyr onto the bed.

With a small bounce, Tyr landed safely on the mattress. Both arms still gathered at her chest, she quietly looked up at me.

"Er. Hyu. This is rather sudden..."

"Sudden? Tyr, you've been hoping for this all along, haven't you? Don't try to deny it. I'm sensitive to human desires. I can tell that much apart."

In fact, Tyr had been hoping I would take the lead a little forcefully. The way she hadn't resisted my rough handling, and had even subtly helped, showed as much. Leaving Tyr where she was, I shrugged off my coat and loosened up my hands.

"Now then, Tyr. Let's begin your privacy."

Tyr fidgeted, her eyes trembling, until at last she squeezed them shut and let her voice slip out.

"I-It is my first time, so I ask that you be gentle..."

"It isn't the first time."

In an instant, Tyr registered that she had not been asking about my first time; that bringing up my past experience at this crucial moment was hardly appropriate; and that she was disappointed in me for volunteering it anyway. That tangle of emotions swept through her in a heartbeat, and her expression turned cold.

But that wasn't what I'd meant. I hurried to correct the misunderstanding.

"What I'm about to do is revive your senses. This is an extension of that. You've been through it several times, so it should be familiar."

The moment she realized she'd misunderstood, Tyr's mood recovered at a remarkable speed. She swallowed her embarrassment for a moment, then asked,

"...My senses?"

"Yes. Only the senses above your shoulders have returned so far, remember? Something was bound to feel lacking. You seemed to be enjoying yourself well enough, so I'd planned to leave it be for now... but if you want it done."

Down to a single light shirt, I drew a card from my sleeve. Spade 7, the Lightning Skein. Tyr saw the familiar sigil and looked a little disappointed.

"So by privacy, you meant..."

"Reviving your senses is exactly the kind of private matter you can't show anyone else, isn't it?"

"...So it is."

Disappointment she couldn't hide seeped into her voice. In the old days, it would have ended with a single flat thought of 'this is not what I expected,' and nothing more. Now, with anticipation and deflation layered together, Tyr's emotions were in full color, beyond any comparison to before.

Still, there was no doubt this too was something Tyr had wanted. Setting her expectations down, she perched on the edge of the bed and pouted.

"And here I thought it was something else. You have a talent for teasing people."

"Teasing? What were you imagining?"

"...Enough! Just be quick about it."

I sat down beside a visibly disgruntled Tyr. Letting the card settle naturally against my hand, I caught Tyr by the waist and pulled her in. I sat her on my lap and folded her into my arms, embracing her from behind.

Once upon a time she would have been scandalized, but she'd been through plenty of similar situations while having her senses revived, and Tyr bore it with familiarity.

"Hyu?"

"Ah. Tyr. There's one thing I never warned you about. Because I truly didn't want to do this."

Beneath her pinned-up hair, the white nape of her neck showed. That fragile air, as if she would crumble at a touch, remained even after her heart had returned. Lightly stroking her bloodless skin, I whispered,

"Tyr. I am the King of Humanity."

"I know."

"No. Just as one doesn't know oneself, humans don't know humans either. That includes me, the King of Humanity. To begin with, to 'know' something is such an arrogant, presumptuous word. With so many humans in the world, who could lump them all together and claim to know humanity?"

If humans truly knew humans, if we knew what a human is made of and how one will act, mind reading wouldn't even be necessary. You could simply create and steer them however you wished.

But the only power I hold is mind reading. The power to read thoughts and memories. That alone.

"Not human enough. Lacking in humanity. Phrases like that already presume to define what a human is. I don't like that. Even if your heart doesn't beat, even if you have no senses, even if you've lived a thousand years, that doesn't make you not human, Tyr. Even a being who drinks the blood of others, branded a heretic by the Sanctum, is human all the same. An ordinary human."

I slid my arms under hers and around her, and said, almost lamenting,

"That's why I didn't want to change you."

"...Then why did you revive my heart and restore my senses?"

"Because you wished for it. And because you tried."

Her pure-white skin was like a blank sheet of paper. Anything inscribed on it would stand out almost cruelly. Like leaving tracks in a field of untouched snow, it came with a twinge of guilt... but I had to go on regardless.

"You wanted to change yourself badly enough to bare your heart to another, and you actually succeeded, by borrowing the power of your thralls. Only, the homunculus dilemma meant you couldn't act on your own convictions... so I decided to lend a hand."

"So that I might move as I will?"

"Yes. As the King of Humanity, I am your king too, Tyr. Which means I can sidestep the homunculus dilemma. I was your representative back then, after all."

The hand I had extended traced along Tyr's collarbone. It stood out all too clearly beneath her thin skin. When I let a fingertip dip into that hollow, Tyr's body gave a small shiver.

"This time is the same. I can revive your senses as your own. But I didn't want to revive all of them."

"Wh...y is that?"

"Because then it would be as if I were remaking you however I pleased. Me, the King of Humanity, who ought to simply watch over humanity as it is."

It really is a difficult thing.

The king of beasts who represents all beasts could be called an observer. But what if that observer turns around and influences the beasts? If the King of Humanity changes humanity, what does the King of Humanity become? To put it in the extreme, if the King of Humanity killed every human, he couldn't even exist anymore.

It's true even now. Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka is the god of a nation and a titan who adorns a corner of history. If I revive Tyr, tremendous changes will follow.

That's why I feel a resistance to changing anyone.

"Humanness. Humanity. Humane. Such strange words. Are those lacking in humanity not human? If you aren't humane, does that make you a beast? Humans aren't advancing toward something. A human is already human, as is. We aren't in the middle of becoming anything."

Tyr found it hard to answer. My hand wandering over her skin kept distracting her, and she didn't know what she ought to say to me. After a long hesitation, she finally managed a single sentence.

"...So that is why you hate the Sanctum."

"Exactly. They do have a real gift for defining what a human is. Anyway."

Every time my fingers grazed her skin, color returned to it, if only for a moment. The lightning that seeped in left its trace on Tyr's consciousness and flickered out. Perhaps because the skin was so far from the head, the sensation refused to take hold, no matter how firmly I engraved it.

I'd have to put in a little more force.

"I'll return you to how you were in life, as closely as I can."

I filled my hands with lightning and laid them over Tyr's body. I wasn't even gripping hard, and yet Tyr's body jolted.

"Mn."

'Hyu's hands are rather large. Just two of them, and they cover me from my neck to the top of my chest...'

I hadn't touched anywhere yet. But since it was obvious I would go further, Tyr let out a small sigh and looked down at my hands. With only faint sounds escaping into the room, I gradually lowered my hands. Slowly, but surely.

"Ah..."

'Lower and lower... At this rate, he will reach...'

Tap. On its way down, my hand caught on Tyr's dress. The antique gown bared her to the collarbone and permitted nothing below. This was the noble Progenitor's inner sanctum, where neither touch nor even gaze was suffered to reach. The black dress discharged its duty of veiling Tyr's body to the last.

But I intruded past it without hesitation.

"...!"

Tyr's clothes turned to cards and slid away. Her upper body, hidden until now by that lightless dress, was laid bare beneath the dim glow. Startled, Tyr snatched at the cards as they spilled down, but it was as futile as trying to grasp running water. What had once been a dress slipped through her fingers. Naked in an instant, Tyr squeezed her eyes shut.

'W-Wait. Is this not too soon? Is it truly all right to allow this? Wh-What do I do?'

In the dim light, Tyr's skin was so white it seemed to glow. Past the slender line of her shoulders, the curve of her chest peeked out from behind one arm. I drew her wrists down from where they shielded her and murmured,

"Brace yourself."

'I am already braced, more than enough! How could I not be? Your hands are a breath away from toying with me...!'

A swallow with no saliva to swallow. From Tyr, and from me too. As the walls hiding her fell away one by one, Tyr answered, eyes closed, as if surrendering.

"I am... doing so."

Too noble even to be called a flower on a cliff, Tyrkanzyaka, the mighty Progenitor of all vampires, lay bared in my arms. Carefully, but without hesitation, I reached along the line between her breasts.

'He touched...'

The soft swell of her chest settled into my hand. The way it clung gently to my palm felt good. But the touch was too unfamiliar for Tyr, and her shoulders trembled.

Tyr still had no sensation there. The flinch of her shoulders and the trembling came from psychological resistance. She was caught up in the atmosphere, and in the act itself, nothing more. Tyr wasn't feeling any of it in the true sense.

...Not yet, that is.

"Hic."

With lightning cupped in my palm, I swept gently over Tyr's body. From below to above, color bloomed wherever my hands passed. The guilty thrill of freely despoiling a pure white canvas left me a little excited myself.

'His touch is rougher. Different from before. Is Hyu... feeling it too? Where his hands pass... something. Something ticklish and strange is seeping into my body...'

Up to this point, it was the same as reviving the senses anywhere else. It wouldn't stay that way.

I lifted my hands away for a moment. The lightning streaming off the Lightning Skein shimmered visibly. Between my fingers, threads of lightning were bright enough to flash.

Then, with both hands holding more lightning than I'd ever channeled, I gripped Tyr's body hard.

"Hah?!"

And Tyr's body bucked.

Tyr blinked at the unfamiliar sensation. The hands reflected in her eyes were, admittedly, kneading a rather sensitive spot, but they were otherwise no different from before. A pleasant touch that carried sensation into wherever it landed.

But this time, the sensation itself was of a different kind. Unlike taste or smell, it wasn't for telling things apart... just pure touch. A primal, shock-like sensation firing from a sensitive place, weaving itself into something complex.

Tyr, failing to recognize that utterly foreign sensation as pleasure, could only let out helpless sounds.

"Hnn. This is. Strange. Mn. This is."

"This is only the beginning."

"The... beginning?"

"Yes. This part is far from the head... so it needs somewhat stronger stimulation."

I tried not to let it show, but my own breathing had grown a little ragged. This body of mine is human too, after all.

There was no need to hold back. Wherever my desire went would simply become Tyr's senses. Drawing out still more of the lightning's power, I caressed the softness in my hand, searching for the sensory point. I found the small, tender tip, still unable to respond, having never yet learned pleasure.

That's fine. That's what I and this lightning are for.

I toyed carefully around it, and then, before Tyr could react, I crushed the tip hard between two fingers.

A beat later, Tyr's eyes flew open.

"Haa-ah?!"

A pleasure she had never once felt in life swept over Tyr like a tidal wave. Her back arched taut, bent nearly to breaking, and her slender frame shook violently. Only the parts of her that had sensation, true, but all of them were responding beyond her control.

'Wait, wait, wait. Something. Wait.'

Pleasure she had never known frightened her. The sensation gathering at my fingertips was remaking Tyr from the roots. The unknown always carries fear with it. Tyr gasped piteously at the shock rattling through her head.

"Hyu?! Wait. Stop. Something is wrong...!"

"It's perfectly normal."

I whispered again and pinched. Tyr's voice failed to form words and spilled out as moans. I could feel a pitiful trembling at my fingertips.

"This is the most sensitive spot, so the lightning has to be a bit strong."

"Ahn, stop. This is, not... hyah...!"

'It is strange. I do not know. I do not understand. But... it is not unwelcome... A little. More.'

I'm the type to trust the heart over the words. If her mouth says no but her heart says that...

I ground down with everything I had, hard enough to burst.

Lightning surged, through my hands and through Tyr's mind. Her over-sensitized body took my lightning in as raw sensation. Even for Tyr, it must have been too intense. She bit her lip hard and curled in on herself, weathering a feeling that lived somewhere between pain and ecstasy.

"Ah...!"

"It'll be a little strong. Bear it."

"It hurts. Hyu...! Wait, this is...! Ngh!"

One more crushing squeeze and Tyr broke off mid-word, shaking her head over and over. I clamped down as if to cage her small, pitifully heaving body.

If Tyr used even a fraction of her strength here, she could slip out of my arms with ease. And yet...

"Stop, sto-op...!"

'A little. More...!'

Trembling, desperately shaking her head, clutching at my hands as if to stop them. She never actually did.

"Haa. Hyu...! Any more than this...!"

'...I want to feel... more...!'

Tyr didn't stop me, and I didn't refuse her. I tormented that small chest relentlessly. Savoring its softness, I buried my face into the nape of her neck. When I lightly bit skin that carried not a single trace of scent, her neck quivered.

"Hyu, Hyuu! Strange, it feels strange...!"

"Objectively speaking, having sensation is what's normal."

"That is not what I mean... hyah! Mn. Ah."

Tyr kept shaking her head, words abandoned halfway.

Pull, sweep upward, grip tight again. I handled the Progenitor's untouched skin like a plaything, teasing the fruit that crowned her breast all the while.

Before long, that tip of hers had ripened like fruit ready to fall. Her sensation had returned, fully.

Faster than I expected. No need to keep touching, then.

I wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her lightly, turning her to sit facing me. Abruptly left with everything on display, Tyr turned her head aside in embarrassment. Not that it hid a single thing.

Pale skin, delicate and thin. A body like sculpture, yet soft. Beautiful, and now with life returned to her face at last. I'd felt it while holding her from behind, but seeing her from the front stirred something new. As I slowly took in the sight of her, the red fruit ripening on that gentle hill stood out before my eyes. Struck by a momentary impulse, I leaned in and took a soft bite.

"......!!"

Tyr's arms wrapped around my head. The instinctive motion left me with my face buried against her chest. Unable to pull away or lift my head, I breathed in the faint scent of her skin. Can a person get drunk on so faint a fragrance? As if entranced, I pressed my teeth down on her.

With a pop, nectar burst into my mouth. Tyr, already gasping, threw her head back and shuddered.

"Haaa-ahh."

It seemed the lightning's stimulus had gone in a bit too strong. Even things that had no business coming out yet came spilling out. Flustered by the liquid flowing over my tongue, and with no better option, I simply swallowed it down. It was unexpectedly sweet.

What an irony. A vampire drinks the blood of humans, and here was a human drinking what he'd coaxed from the vampire. I drew back my mouth with a smile, and a bead of it stretched long and glistening between us. My body mourned the sweetness as it faded, but that was fine. There was still one left.

I lifted my head and looked at Tyr, leaning weakly against me.

"Tyr."

"Hyu..."

"That was just your chest. Are you sure you'll be all right when I do the rest?"

The faint flush on her face was bewitching. Shyness, fluster, and happiness soaked it all at once, mixing into a color impossible to name. Tyr answered, her voice trembling plaintively.

"It was unfamiliar. It was bewildering. It was agonizing. It hurt, and it frightened me. A sensation that shakes body and heart alike... surely, it will change me into something else. Into an existence wholly different from what I have been."

At first, Tyr had been a walking phenomenon. For her, who had already died once, the boundary between herself and the world was blurred. I revived her heart, built walls, and raised a room where only ruins had stood.

But that alone wasn't enough. A room sealed on every side is no different from a coffin. So I cut windows into it. Windows by the name of sensation, that would let light fall and wind blow through and shake the room awake.

It began as Tyr's wish, but in the end, I am the one who made it. I turned this doll into a human and breathed life into her. And the greatest work of this life of mine gazed at me with the loveliest smile there could be.

"It frightens me, and it makes me uneasy, and yet..."

Tyr slowly lowered her head and covered my lips with hers. It was a clumsy kiss, and all the more electrifying for it. She took a long, long taste of me, and then answered, her expression utterly melted,

"If it is you who gives it to me, Hyu... I believe I shall be happy."

The night is short. But night in the Duchy, where fog veils the sun, stretches on and on. When this long night ends, the girl who has lived twelve centuries will pass beyond maidenhood and be reborn, at last, a lady.

The first day of the night that held the Progenitor's private life drew to a close.

Footnotes:

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