Flesh on flesh.
Chlap, chlap, schlk.
Wet sounds filled the narrow wooden cavern. As Stella’s body tingled with her limbs curling and twisting, a surprising moan escaped from her slightly parted lips.
“Ah, haah, oh, aaah, uuh, ngh…!”
It was so primitive that she couldn’t even imagine that she was making it. As raw as the cry of a mating female.
It was embarrassing, realizing these were her own sounds, but she didn’t have the strength to close her lips.
It had been ten minutes since the half-fairy had begun to move his hips. The air was thick with the rich scent of their mingled sweat.
Hot breaths mingling between thighs. Entwined arms and legs trembling together, as if floating.
So many thoughts crossed her mind.
But she couldn’t focus on any of them.
“Ahn…!”
The repeated sensation of lightning striking from head to toe…. Her entire body tensed, each muscle taut, and quivering from every cell.
She realized this feeling, that she’d already experienced three or four times, was what the other female professors were talking about—climax, or orgasm.
‘… Does climax come this easily? Is he…?’
Schlk, schlk.
“Nngh, haa… oh…!”
Finally, the half-fairy buried his face against her body.
The thick object entered her complete depths. It felt as if a hot, iron bar was piercing inside her—
Something incredibly hot was coming.
Something that would change her long life forever.
Something like an erupting volcano would come over her.
Stella thought that would happen.
But it didn’t.
“…….”
“…….”
By the time the intense heat had faded, what remained was a refreshing clarity.
As if emotions that had been dammed up were finally released.
Though she felt incredibly embarrassed.
When she saw the boy who had just been panting now lying beside her, catching his breath, somehow she felt better.
He must have used far more energy than her. After all, he had to move much more vigorously. She’d heard that men expend a lot of energy during release.
The thought of his little body working so earnestly was cute and endearing. He was like a determined little turtle.
Stella traced her fingers softly over the half-fairy’s smooth stomach and wondered.
‘How was I?’
‘Did I do well?’
She didn’t know.
Usually, she would never ask such a thing, but feeling a newfound openness after her first experience, she voiced the thought she’d been holding back.
“… You know, you could’ve finished… inside. I heard men enjoy that.”
In the end, his final release had been on her stomach. The first ejaculation on her first experience. She felt a little startled and saddened to see it spread over her navel. But on the other hand, she felt a sense of relief.
After a brief pause, the half-fairy responded calmly.
“Bearing children shouldn’t be done irresponsibly.”
There was a hint of admonishment in his tone, as though scolding her with, “Don’t you know better?”
“R-right?”
Stella felt embarrassed to be scolded by the half-fairy, who was so much younger. If he did it inside, there’s indeed the chance of pregnancy.
In the first place, the relationship between Stella and the half-fairy wasn’t like that….
As Stella felt a slight distance between them, the half-fairy spoke.
“I want my child to be born out of love.”
“… Love?”
Love.
Well, he’s still young. He’s speaking so unabashedly about something so tender in a moment like this. Stella almost found it amusing.
“… If someday, the child grows up and learns they were born from a careless fling, I think it would make them sad.”
“… That’s…”
Stella, who was about to say something, shut her mouth.
Theo Gospel. The name meant a poor orphan who grew up without a provider. It’s a common name for the orphans the Church takes in.
“… Are you talking about yourself?”
Stella asked cautiously.
Just as she thought she overstepped, the half-fairy finally opened his mouth.
“I, too, thought that until recently. Born out of a mere coincidence, the heat of one night, and finally discarded in the cold light of reality….”
“……”
“I sometimes thought… if I hadn’t existed, the woman who bore me might have lived more comfortably. I believed things might have been easier for many people…”
Stella remembered when she’d felt one with him, sensing the emotions he kept locked away deep inside.
Loneliness, a calm indifference he forced upon himself, a fierce determination, and an unyielding steadiness, all without a single indulgent whim.
It was like a wounded bird had flown into her arms. And, coincidentally, Stella was the type who couldn’t turn away such a bird.
“Theo-kun, I’ve lived a long life, but finding the meaning in it isn’t easy for me either. We just… keep living. Maybe, one day, we’ll find it along the way.”
Despite her long life, she wasn’t good at comforting others.
As Stella awkwardly opened her mouth to respond, the half-fairy lifted himself slightly, propping up his torso, and gave a glass-like smile.
“Is that so? But you don’t have to comfort me. At least, this body was born and raised between a deep love.”
Is that so.
“I see. Love, you say. Then, can you tell me. Theo-kun, what does love mean to you?”
“Hmm.”
The half-fairy, usually quick with answers, paused for a moment. He seemed to be engrossed in thought, before finally speaking.
“Maybe… it’s something you’d even be willing to risk your life for?”
Theo Gospel was a realist. But the unexpectedly romantic quality of his answer made Stella chuckle.
“So, does Theo-kun fighting the giant centipede love me?”
“Who knows? Depending on how you look at it, maybe you could see it that way.”
The boy scratched the back of his head.
Watching him, Stella felt she might understand why she’d lived such a long life. Perhaps it was to guide this clumsy half-fairy, drawing on all her years of wisdom.
It didn’t matter if it wasn’t.
The meaning of life.
Reasons like fate.
Stella knew that she could attach whatever meaning she wanted. So, before the half-fairy could start spouting any more strange words with that tongue—
She pressed her lips against his.
Warmth passed between them.
Their longing sighs filled the wooden cave until dawn’s first light crept in.