“Let's sleep together!”

At Marianne's suggestion, Rina needed a few seconds to restart her brain, which had shut down from hearing something so outrageous. “EH? Why?”

“I want to cuddle with you! When I first came to the Dragonherz mansion, you wanted us to sleep together in your bed... but that has never happened since! I'm dissatisfied!”

“Because it was an emergency back then. And because you have your own bed, you don't have to sleep in mine. By the way, why all of a sudden?”

Marianne tightened her arms around the girl. “Isn't it normal for me to want to cuddle with the girl I'm in love with?”

“...” At first, Rina felt how her heart was beating faster. But after thinking about it for a few moments, it calmed down again. “... This again... don't you get bored of declaring your love for me like this? You've been doing it for three years now. And besides...” Rina pointed to the bed near the exit of the room, where Fran was already asleep. “...please keep your voice down.”

After realising that they were practically alone now – with Fran asleep (whether or not she was truly sleeping was not important) – Marianne continued with a hushed voice. “You know... now really, without me acting... it really hurts when you don't believe me like this... I really want to be together with you for as long as possible. My feelings are sincere.”

It was true. Even though Marianne had had ulterior motives in trying to seduce the red-haired girl at first, she had really grown to like Rina over the time they had spent together. And it was not just her face she had fallen in love with.

She couldn't help but find Rina's personality likeable too, even her tendency to overthink and overinterpret things. The most important thing for her was, that her target of affection didn't know how to hide her feelings from appearing on her face. That way, Marianne always knew, that she wouldn't be betrayed or lied to by Rina, and even if she would, Marianne was sure, that she could see through her.

Unaware of the brunette's thoughts, Rina could only sigh in resignation at her words. “But why do you want to sleep together now? I mean you could have just asked me when we were at the mansion. I think that it's a particularly bad time now, considering that Fran is also here.”

“You'd better ask this to your overprotective mistress then.”

“Hmm? Why?” Naturally, Rina was confused as to why Clara was suddenly mentioned right now.

“I have tried sneaking into your room on several occasions now. But it seems that Lady Clara had suspected my move and had placed guards outside your room.”

“...” It took Rina a few seconds to digest what she had heard. “What did you just say?”

“Lady Clara had placed guards outside your room to prevent me from entering.”

“...” There were so many things, that she wanted to retort to in that one sentence, so that she wasn't able to process the information properly, even after hearing it for the second time. “I have never se-...”

So, after thinking for a moment, Rina was about to deny the brunette's statement first, as she had never seen guards standing outside her own room. But then she remembered, that she had in fact never left her room through the door leading to the corridor in the morning. After all, she always left through Clara's room when she woke up, after picking up Clara's daily laundry, so she never got around to noticing the guard watching the door to her room.

Therefore, realising that she had no tangible proof against Marianne's statement, she could only reply in a broken voice. “Ahaha... you a-and your j-jokes... t-there's no way that Clara would do t-that.”

“Are you sure?”

“...” Naturally, Rina couldn't answer that question, because she knew that it would be like Clara to do something like that.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

After they had told each other their feelings three years ago, Rina was able to see her blonde mistress in a new light. Looking back, all of the blonde's behaviour had indicated her feelings for her, and it was clear, that Clara was a girl who was prone to jealousy. And that was already putting it mildly.

So putting a guard in front of Rina's door because Clara was afraid that Marianne would take her away? Rina could really see this scenario playing out.

Therefore, after gathering her thoughts, she could only smile wryly as she replied to the girl hugging her. “So you chose to approach me now when Clara is not around?... Wouldn't it make her even angrier if she found out about this?”

“Well... it's not a problem if you don't tell her about this, is it?”

“...” Naturally, there was no way that Rina could confirm or deny Marianne's suggestion. In fact, she didn't even know what to do in this situation. After all, neither had she ever thought that she would ever have the privilege of being in such a situation like this, nor had her heart been properly prepared for it.

When Marianne, on the other hand, saw how the red-haired girl in her arms was paralysed by not knowing what to do, she chuckled inwardly and spoke up again to reassure Rina of whatever thoughts she might have had. “Fufufu... it's really cute to see you thinking so hard about this... but don't worry... I have your mistress' consent.”

“... Eh? W-what do you mean?”

“She allowed me to get a little touchy-feely with you... so you don't have to be concerned about making your mistress angry.”

“I somehow find that hard to believe.”

“Then feel free to ask her when we get back.”

“...” Rina couldn't question Marianne's statement about Clara's consent anymore, after Marianne had said this much. So she just remained silent.

“So? Let's sleep together, okay?”

But even then, Rina was reluctant to just agree. After all, although she was already in love with Clara, she knew that she was also rather fond of Marianne. And sharing a bed with a beautiful girl, who she might even love, was certainly not good for her heart... even though she had decided not to pursue love. So she couldn't help but still resist the brunette's suggestion. “It's still the best if we both sleep in our own bed-...”

However, before Rina could even finish voicing her refusal, Marianne interrupted her. “Remember your promise in the carriage? That you would grant me a wish?”

Even though Rina could already guess what the girl hugging her wanted, she still asked, “W-what do you want me to do?”

“Sleep together in the same bed for the duration of our stay here.”

Seeing no way out of this highly unfortunate predicament, the red-haired girl exhaled loudly. “F-fine... if that's what you really want, then I r-reluctantly agree.”

Marianne chuckled slightly at these words. Additionally, noticing Rina's red cheeks from behind, and knowing about her preferences, she understood perfectly, that the girl in her arms wasn't that reluctant to grant her that wish.

At first, Marianne wanted to point that out to tease Rina a little about this, but she stopped before she even started. After all, she didn't want Rina to pull back out after making her more embarrassed than she already was. So, Marianne just silently led the way to the bed furthest away from the one Fran was sleeping on and they both slipped under the covers.

It wasn't until they were already cuddling, with the older girl spooning the younger one, that Rina realised that she hadn't finished changing yet. “W-w-w-w-wait... I'm s-still in m-my underwear...”

At first, she had thought that her words would cause the arms wrapped around her to loosen so that she could get up and finish putting on her nightgown. However, what they did instead was make the girl behind her tighten the embrace even more. To make matters worse, Rina could feel, how Marianne's hands were moving around her stomach area. So, slowly starting to feel hot inside, she mumbled as a last act of resistance against the horrors that awaited her. “M-Marianne... c-can you p-please let m-me go, so I can put on my s-sleepwear?”

Unfortunately, the world was a cruel place, or rather, Marianne was relentless. “Why? Let's stay like this. It's not like you're naked. Besides, cuddling like this keeps us both warm.”

“I-It's embarrassing...”

“Hmm? Why?”

'Because I'm ashamed of my ugly body,' was what Rina wanted to say, but it got stuck in her throat instead. True, she had considered herself from her former life to be unsightly. She had always thought, that if she had not been so ugly back then, her life might have been different from what it ended up being. She had thought, that in another body, she could have been more confident and happier.

But now, after twelve, almost thirteen years of living in a healthier and fitter body, she knew that it was not true. After all, she still couldn't help but feel extremely self-conscious, whenever Clara, Fran, or Marianne hugged her like this, actions that showed her that they were attracted to her. But still, even after twelve years in her new life, even after all the happiness, that the trio had given her, she still found it hard to forget her old self.

Meanwhile, Marianne noticed that the girl in her arms was becoming self-conscious again. So, to get her out of her thoughts, she pinched Rina's belly with her thumb and index finger, causing a funny squeal to escape from the younger girl's mouth.

Surprised by the brunette's sudden pinch, Rina broke free of the embrace and turned around to face her. “W-what are you doing all of a sudden, Marianne!?”

“Pssshht! Fran is sleeping! Keep your voice down!”

At these words, Rina reflexively covered her mouth with her hands but still glared at Marianne angrily. A few seconds later, she removed her hands and continued with a hushed voice. “It's your fault for shocking me like that! Why have you done-...”

As Rina whispered her protest at Marianne's sudden actions, her eyes darted from Marianne's face to her body. Only then did she notice, that the older girl was also in her underwear. For some reason, however, her eyes stopped, when they reached the level of Marianne's breasts, which were only covered by a thin, black, semi-transparent brassiere. It wasn't the kind of underwear one would normally put on.

Seeing that, she gulped visibly as all sorts of thoughts ran through her mind.

Unfortunately, that didn't go unnoticed by Marianne, as she began to smirk at the red-haired girl.

“Do you like what you see?”