I suddenly take in a gush of air. My chest feels heavy.

What the hell?

It's getting dark outside. Rain is hammering incessantly on the shutters, which are rattling, and there is the smell of... a strong alcohol?

But I'm not hungover? I'm back in the bed of the inn for sure... but why is...

I get a memory.

Oh my god.

I was attacked!

My right-hand shoots up involuntarily. But there it is... right as rain. It's whole. I flex the fingers. They all work. If anything... the hand feels ~more~ energetic than usual. I press my chest, where I was certainly stabbed. Nothing.

I surely remember the agony. I'm confused. How did...?

Something groans next to me whilst I try to figure out something.

Suddenly... I realise why my chest felt heavy. A sheet rises up, and beneath it, almost like someone preparing to be a cheap Halloween ghost in a sheet, there is Aria.

She is naked, yawning whilst rubbing her eyes groggily, and as the sheet slips off her back, I get an eye-full, even in the dull light.

It's truly a thing of much beauty. Porcelain and Silverware.

"Ngghhh... onii-chan... you're..." her eyes go wide. "You're alive!" She exclaims, and leaps at me.

She nuzzles her whole body up against me furiously, and a scent of much appeal enters my nostrils, her flat chest grinding against mine.

"Onii-chan! Elijah! Ellliiijah!" Some light tears spill off her.

Well... if little Elijah wasn't awake before...

It seems I literally cannot restrain my body from automatically hugging her.

Her faces rises to stare, looking very wistful, and mature.

Her eyes are narrowed, and she starts to blush furiously.

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"Erm... you're naked..." she gulps.

"So are you." I smile.

"Ah." She blinks. "T-then I just... you just saw... and now... Uuuu..." she starts to look upset as she squirms in my grasp, and her leg brushes something.

"Erm... onii-chan... Isn't this w-what you would call a d-dangerous situation?" She queries, her lip quivering.

"I'd say so." I nod.

Funny how my heart is my throat but I can still talk in such a level tone.

She doesn't pull away, though. She looks aside for a moment. She gulps, and sighs the biggest sigh. Then she turns her head back. She looks resigned, takes in a deep breath and lets it out.

Then her face lurches forwards.

Her tongue invades my mouth clumsily as she shoots her arms around me and squeezes.

An old instinct kicks in, and I kiss her back, furiously.

"Mmmmmpphh!" She mumbles, as I intertwine her tongue in mine.

I let her lips go. A line of drool briefly connects us.

"Pahhh!" She exclaims, and stares me right in the eyes, her face the colour of a tomato.

"T-this... this is how you get all the girls... is it?" She splutters.

Her blue eyes and blushed cheeks are surely the most beautiful thing in the universe right now.

"Well... you got me." She smiles.

I devour her. Like the monster I have, at last, become.

...

...

...

"Uuuu... I feel so sticky..." Aria moans. "But..."

She nuzzles up to me affectionately, and I kiss her again briefly.

Then she leaps away, almost like she was dodging an attack. She suddenly looks shocked.

"Ah... Father... Leanne...! They'll be rolling in their graves!!" She squirms and backpedals.

"And... however will I explain this to the others!? Where even is Rish?! Uuuu..." she panics as she paces. She is still naked.

"You're only ~now~ thinking of this?" I grin.

"S-shut up! I'M STUPID, OK!" she shouts. "I... I got caught in the moment!! Uuuuu..." she face-palms with both hands and grasps her face, looking humiliated as she peeks through her fingers.

It's mega cute. I kinda want to ravage her again.

"P-put some clothes on, Elijah! Quickly like! We need to erase the evidence!" She splutters, staggering back and grabbing up her top from the table.

It's basically red from dried blood, even in the twilight. A medical scalpel that was left on top of it clatters off, and she drops it again.

"Ah..." she stops.

It's getting dark now, the rain has turned to a light pitter, and downstairs is quite loud with sounds of people eating and engaging in merriment. So, I turn on the lantern in the room, and stride up to her.

"You protected me, right?" I say. "What even happened?"

"I... I don't know." She stops, still staring at her top.

She looks back at me.

"After the demon... it was a demon assassin... after they..."

She looks upset, so I pat her bare shoulder. She shivers.

"I should be dead... I didn't have my spear... I tried to fight but..."

Her hands run to her bare, sweaty midriff.

"But they won..." she gulps.

"But then... I... I couldn't... I thought I couldn't let you die... and a voice spoke to me... reverse... etranger... protection... bond..."

Oh.

But before I can think to check the status of either of us, the door slams open, showing a casually dressed Kiku in an apron, breathing rapidly from a panicked run.

She looks up, and her big green eyes stare at us, getting bigger and swimming. A Seria wanders up behind her shoulder, and sighs in exasperation, putting a finger to her forehead.

Oh.