Being beaten would break your pride.

Being beaten by a girl was even more humiliating for Yu Valarfin.

There was a saying on the street that ‘you don't learn how to beat without being beaten’ and he knew that when he started training he would be beaten to get stronger. Yet being beaten by Sivina still wounded his pride and made him feel helpless.

“I don't have a problem with that.”

If he hadn’t been able to ignore his pride, the training would have ended as it had begun, but for the time being he let his pride go and continued to be beaten by Sivina so that his pride would not be hurt further in the future.

“Keep your back straight, please.”

One blow from Sivina was enough to make Yu lose his balance and stagger.

He was a beginner in his training and Sivina was polite, he could tell when it was Ana's turn to train. Yu was terrible, though. As he was now, a fourteen-year-old knight's squire could pick up a sword and beat Yu.

“Spread your legs! How can you retreat? Not like this!”

Sivina thrust the wooden sword in her hand in a straight line towards Yu's chest. If it was a real sword, it would have pierced a hole in Yu's chest.

Yu hesitated between using his wooden sword filled with sand to defend himself against the move or fleeing.

By the time he decided to flee, it was too late, Sivina's wooden sword struck Yu in the chest, knocking him off balance and onto his back.

“Are we sure this is beginner level?”

It was the third day of their journey to Virgo. They were traveling with a larger caravan than when they arrived in the Mora and their speed of movement was slow.

They were coming to the end of February and would soon welcome spring. Although there was still snow on the ground, it would soon melt and a green ground would emerge from under the white blanket.

Leoral's caravan consisted of three hundred people. Two hundred of them were soldiers and the rest were servants or their families.

On the way from the Mora they didn't stop much during the day, but on their journey to Virgo they stopped many times and lost time. The reason was that Leoral had difficulty traveling for long periods of time.

On the bright side, Yu had plenty of time to train during breaks. Sivina also had nothing to do, so she trained Yu.

“Theory in the morning and practice in the evening. And I treat you kindly.”

“I know. Don't look at me, no matter how much I whine, go ahead because I'm going to whine like this for a while.”

He took Sivina's outstretched hand and stood up. In the mornings she had shown him how to hold the sword, how to position his body and how to move his feet and hands.

In the evenings it was for practice. Sivina would appear before Yu and ask him to demonstrate what he had learned.

“Still, I wonder what a terrible experience I would have had if you hadn't been kind.”

He spoke with a laugh. He turned his body sideways, straightened his back as he spread his legs and pointed his sword at Sivina.

“I'll be angry with her if she's rude to you, Yu. Don't worry.”

“It's embarrassing to be protected by a little girl...”

When Yurine found out that Yu was going to receive sword training from Sivina, she was angry and opposed. Yurine said that she could protect Yu if necessary. Yu was happy that she thought so, but one of the reasons he wanted to learn the sword was that even though he had a daughter of his own and loved her, he didn't like being dependent on the protection of a small child.

Still, Yurine's willingness to protect made Yu smile.

When Yu insisted on the sword, Yurine said she would watch them during the training. Yu wondered if it was because she was worried about him or to prevent him from having love with Sivina.

“I can empathize with Mr. Valarfin. I was once in the same situation.”

Yurine sat on a rock and Ana stood next to her, waiting for her turn. Since Ana was ahead of Yu in training, she sometimes helped him too.

“Coming.”

Sivina took the same position as Yu. Yu's back was facing Yurine while Sivina's chest was facing Yurine. Yu's chest was facing the sea, near which they had set up camp.

“Don't run, defend!”

Sivina tried to strike Yu's hand, knocking his sword away. Yu met the move with his own sword and was happy to meet Sivina's sudden move for the first time.

This was because Sivina had told him to defend himself, but he was still happy that he had managed to protect his hand from Sivina's sword.

But his happiness did not last long. As joy and excitement filled Yu's chest, the tip of Sivina's sword struck Yu's chest again.

Sivina was slow, so he did not fall to the ground this time, but fell back a few steps, groaning.

“Are you afraid? If you are scared, you cannot defend yourself.”

“It's impossible not to be scared with you coming at me like this...”

“As a warrior I take it as a compliment, as a girl I find it rude.”

Sivina took up her battle stance again and waited for Yu to do the same.

“How many times tonight has my chest been pierced by Sivina's sword? I have died so many times.”

Yu was preparing himself for his next death when he heard the voice of a blond man.

“Don't be angry with him, it's hard not to be afraid. Every man is afraid when someone comes to kill him. There aren't many who aren't scared shitless in their first battle.”

Link, who had come to watch their training, joined Yurine.

“My father told me a similar story. It's good to be afraid, a man who is not afraid is a fool, but he must not let fear take over his mind, or he will die. Take position, Yu Valarfin!”

Seeing that Yu was still not in position, Sivina shouted and Yu immediately took the same position.

Then Sivina attacked him again. Yu was still scared, the few sentences he had heard in ten seconds were not going to help him overcome his fear.

Sivina aimed her wooden sword at Yu's chest. Yu met her with his own sword and tilted it to the side. When the swords were side by side, Sivina took a step back and freed her own sword from Yu's sword. With the sword free, she took two steps forward for the one she had just taken. It was the fear of failing this time that occupied Yu's mind. Yu was overcome with fear and froze. Sivina's wooden sword slammed into Yu's chest again.

Yu hadn't lost his balance and fallen this time, but in a real battle he would have been dead. Still, Sivina didn't give her dead opponent any rest, she raised her sword and struck Yu's sword-holding hand.

Yu was incredibly hurt and dropped his sword as he screamed. Then he looked at his hand. The white glove on his hand was getting wet and blackened, and Yu felt an extraordinary warmth there.

“Are you all right?”

“Tch... Uh...”

Yu took off the glove as he moaned. His right hand was bleeding. It was natural to bleed during training, so of course he wasn't going to complain about it.

But something frightened him, the blood was black and dripped from Yu's hand onto the ground. When the blood hit the ground, the white ground darkened and smoke rose from the snow.

“Yu!”

Yu was still staring at his hand as Yurine and Ana ran to him. The black blood was hot enough to melt the snow instantly, but it didn't hurt Yu. He felt the heat but not the pain.

He saw that the purple ribbon under the glove and attached to his pinky finger had melted.

Soon after, he realized that he couldn't move his fingers as he wanted. His hand was numb.

“I'll heal Yu, don't worry!”

Yurine cleaned Yu's hand with a handkerchief from Ana and immediately threw it on the ground. When the handkerchief hit the ground, it melted the snow.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“I...”

“Sivina.”

Yu muttered as Yurine cast a healing spell and closed the wound. His murmur reached Sivina and silenced her.

“When you have finished training with Ana, gather small animals like birds, mice, snakes, etc. in a cage and bring them to my tent. A few will be enough.”

Yu's eyes were still on the melting snow. His ribbon had also completely melted away. If he had only used that ribbon, he would have been sad, but since he changed his ribbon every day as a reminder of his duty, he had no emotional attachment to them.

“I'm not trying to punish you. Don't misunderstand and feel bad.”

The skin on Yu's hand was red. Yurine's healing spell had healed the peeling, but without it, Yu's hand would have been a mess.

“Why is your blood like this?” Link, who hadn't spoken since he saw the blood running down his hand, walked through the snow to his side and looked at the hand on which Yurine was still casting the healing spell.

“I'm just learning with you that's what my blood is like,” he replied to Link. He was not lying.

"Is that because?" Ana asked. She was referring to the curse on Yu's shoulder.

“Probably.”

The curse on Yu's shoulder had turned his blood black, that was the only explanation. He knew his blood was red because his body had bled before he was cursed by the demon.

For the first time since the curse he was wounded and now the blood flowing from his body was black. The color wasn't the only difference, he could feel the heat of the blood, abnormally hot. If his hand could feel the pain of being burned, the heat would have made Yu cry out.

Melting the thin ribbon tied around his finger was something to worry about. Yu didn't know how to deal with such a thing.

“I don't understand, so what is it?” Link bent down and began to examine the melting snow. The snow had turned into a black liquid with smoke coming out of it.

“You don't need to understand. You won't tell anyone what you saw,” Yurine said. She said what Yu wanted to say.

Link was forced to remain silent because of an order from the Virgo Cardinal.

When the healing spell was over, Yu's hand looked as if nothing had happened. There was no wound and the skin was normal.

“It's scary to think of this coursing through my veins.”

No one spoke and Yu put his left hand to his heart.

“If it's not killing me yet, either I'm immune or it's killing me slowly. All I can do now is hope that the first option is true. I already have a short lifespan because of my illness, this shouldn't shorten it any more.”

Knowing that there was poison coursing through his body made him feel like a spider.

“What would happen if this thing got into someone else's body?”

“Is there any problem left?” Link asked.

“No.”

Even though it was the end of winter, it was still winter and it was cold. Yu put his hands in his pockets to keep warm.

“I came here for that job. He did yours.”

“Uh... That job?”

Yu averted his eyes from the girls and looked away.

“I don't want to take such a drug at my age. How can there be one here? It's just a detail to humiliate me.”

“Yes.”

They were both hesitant to speak. The drugs were not something that either Yu or Link wanted to use. He mean, as far as Yu knew, he didn't want to use them himself. Link might have wanted to use them. Yu wouldn't be surprised if he did.

“Let's go get it.”

“I'll go alone.”

“I want to talk about something, that's why.”

Yu nodded with a sigh and accepted Link's offer.

“Then I'll come too.”

“No!”

Yu's sudden reaction scared Yurine. When Yu saw that he had scared her, he immediately kneel down and grabbed her hands.

“I didn't mean to yell, Yurine, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.”

Yu didn't want people to find out that the medicine for constipation was suppositories. He especially didn't want Yurine to find out.

“W-well...”

“I apologize.”

“Yu, it's okay.”

He bit his cheek. He would rather bite his tongue and make it bleed than give her such a sudden reaction.

“You stay with them, I'll be back in a little while.”

Yurine resented being left behind, but Yu didn't want it to be known that he was going to use a suppository. He had a reputation to protect.

Yu and Link went to the apothecary's tent while Yurine sat on the rock again and watched Sivina and Ana train. Link had already taken his own medicine, Yu couldn't understand why they were going together.

The physician who prepared the medicine for them was a man from the Vannes family, who lived in Andromedia and had been a pharmacist for many years. When Yu learned that the solution was suppositories, he thought he was being made fun of.

“Why are you coming with me?”

“There's something I want to talk about.”

“What could you possibly have to talk to me about? I hope you're not going to ask about the blood...”

“I have an order from my master, I won't deal with that case any further.”

Link was walking looking at the ground. Suddenly he changed his path and turned in the direction of his tent instead of walking straight ahead to the pharmacist's tent.

“I've got your wicks, I'll give them to you.”

“What's it to you? I'd take it.”

“I got it, come on.”

Link started to walk ahead, hoping Yu would follow him.

“Something is wrong with this,” Yu thought.

He was getting suspicious. He followed Link to his tent and they went inside. It was small compared to Yurine's or Leoral's, but spacious compared to the other tents.

As one of the Knights of Virgo, it was only natural that he was given a bigger tent than the others.

Once inside, Link picked up the wooden box on the table in the center of the tent and handed it to Yu.

“Here it is.”

“So what were you going to say?” he asked as he opened the box and looked at the wicks inside. There were seven wicks and they were large in size. He wondered how they were prepared.

“I've been constipated for a week and it will go away on its own soon, I don't know if it was really necessary... Two more days and I think I'd be fine. It's the first time I've ever been constipated for so long, the gods are messing with me.”

Link scratched his head as Yu closed the lid of the box.

“Shall we take turns putting each other?”

.........

......

...

“I knew you were a fucking faggot! What do you mean, fuck each other? What are you gonna do? Fuck you!”

He did not want to stay in Link's tent for a moment. His ego was satisfied that his prediction had been correct, but he was also depressed. He turned around to leave the tent where there was a chance he might lose his ass.

“You misunderstand. I'm saying let's help each other, you can't do it alone.”

“What the fuck? You just take it and shove it in!”

“It feels so weird. And if we both do it to each other, maybe it won't feel weird.”

“Fuck-fuck you. You're a grown man, and look what you're saying.”

If Link hadn't caught his arm, he would have been out of the tent. The grabbing of his arm frightened Yu and he pushed Link hard. Pushed, Link hit the table in the center of the tent.

“Look, beautiful brother, I'll explain it to you properly; girl to girl is okay, but boy to boy is against me.”

“Yu, don't exaggerate, we're not going to fuck each other, we're going to insert medicine to heal. Look at the suppositories in this box, can you insert them by yourself?”

He looked again at the suppositories in the box, larger and intimidating compared to those in the world, but even so, how hard could they be to sting?

“I will.”

“Stick it in.”

He looked at the wicks again, they were really big and their size was extremely frightening, he swallowed.

“God damn it! But I'll go first.”

“No, maybe you won't make me do it after you do it?”

He turned his head towards the entrance of the tent so that his eyes could not be seen and answered with a flushed face and a low voice.

“Who else but you can do that...”

“Let's flip a coin. Heads or tails?”

Link opened a drawer in the tent, took out a money pouch and took out a copper coin.

“I always say tails,” Yu said. He was very sure of himself.

Time slowed down for Yu when the coin was thrown into the air. The copper coin spun and fell to the ground and continued to spin. When the coin came to a stop, the face that remained above... was heads.

“How can you throw money like that? You catch it in the air and hold it with your hand, then put it on your other hand. Don't do nonsense.”

He picked up the money and threw it in the air again. While the coin was in the air, he caught it, turned it over and put it on his other hand. The result was heads again.

“You won't object to that either. Go on.”

“H-here? Aren't we supposed to lie down afterwards until it melts?”

“You can lie there for ten minutes.”

Link's finger pointed to his bed. If Yu would lie there, where would Link lie?

“Gay asshole.”

Yu pulled down his pants, stripped down to his boxers and bent over in front of Link. It was the moment when the embarrassment level went through the roof. He had never imagined himself like this before.

“Be gentle.”

“Uh-huh, don't worry.”

Link giggled with such joy that Yu had to swallow.

“I fucked up.”

He spread his ass with both hands and opened the way for Link to insert. He closed his eyes and waited for him to put it in.

He held his breath as the cold suppository touched his anus, then began to take deep breaths in and out, realizing that he was squeezing himself and that it would hurt if he did.

And Link thrust hard into Yu.

“Asshole! I said gentle!”

Yu was hurt by the suppository that suddenly entered him, but it wasn't only his ass that was burning, his pride was burning too and he had to avenge it.

“I apologize.”

His apology wasn't sincere when he said it with a mischievous grin. Yu needed revenge. If he didn't get revenge, he would always regret about it when he went to bed at night.

“Fuck you.”

He pulled up his pants and rubbed his hands together to insert them into Link. He opened the box of Link's suppositories and took one out.

“Okay, but don't overdo it.”

“Lie down.”

Yu pulled up his own pants while Link bent over in front of him and down his pants. Link's smooth white ass was exposed.

“It’s pink.”

Yu took the suppository, readied himself and put it on Link's anus. Then he pushed it in with all his might.

“YOU PUT IN, YOU ANIMAL!”

Yu's middle finger was inside Link's ass. Yu never thought his finger would go in. He just wanted to push the wick in as hard as he could, but Link's ass easily took the wick and then Yu's finger.

“Why the fuck did it go in so easily?”

“I'm glad I told you not to overdo! Take it off!”

“You're straining yourself, I can't do it, don't strain yourself, don't squeeze! My finger will smell of shit!”

Yu's finger was stuck inside because Link had squeezed himself with incredible force. He was trying to pull his hand back while pushing Link forward.

“Take it off...”

The entrance to Link's tent was opened by a girl. She had green hair and was holding a cage with three crows in it.

“I was going to say crows...”

“You misunderstood.”

With his finger still inside Link's ass, telling him she had misunderstood was not effective at all.

“Don't think I'm condemning what you did, I respect that you love each other and the choice you made, I'll come back later.”

“Y-you got it wrong, Ana!”

When Link shook himself out of his daze, Yu's finger came out as fluidly as a hair from butter, and Yu ran after Ana, who was walking away.

He was about to leave the tent when two roarons entered. Blocked by Kigaro and Dimen, Yu could do nothing but watch as Ana walked away.

“What do you want?”

Kigaro and Dimen showed him the boxes of suppositories. They had also been given medicine because they were constipated.

“We failed, Yu.”

“What the fuck did you fail at?”

The two-meter-long lions that had roared when they took a shit now looked like cats in milk. Their heads were bowed and their voices were hoarse.

“We couldn't do it, otherwise why would we ask someone else. Can you help us?”

They were both looking at the ground. They were silent and they were holding the suppository box in their hands. Yu took the boxes from their hands sharply and cursed.

“God damn it! Get over there, I'll fuck you all up.”