Damn banquet.
The only good thing about it is getting to see Cassian looking magnificent.
And even that, she couldn't monopolize; she had to share the sight fairly with everyone.
After finishing her business with Leynon, Ollia surveyed the scene outside, and the sight that filled her eyes could only be described as jaw-dropping.
“Hmm? Answer me, Cassian. You looked like you were having a wonderful time. Should I arrange occasions like this more often? If you want, I'll do my best.”
Cassian, at the very center of the floor, pressed close to some young lady he'd only just met, showing off an elegant dance.
She herself had needed a considerable amount of time just to be permitted any contact with him, and even that had come at a price.
The lady had surely been the one to ask for the dance first, but the fact that he hadn't refused, that he'd accepted, was a shock in itself.
When Ollia stared up at him and asked, a chilly gaze met her.
“What were you doing with Priest Leynon?”
“...What do you mean, what was I doing?”
Ollia tilted her head, one corner of her mouth curving up at an angle.
Was he trying to change the subject? Had that woman really pleased him that much?
Her insides seethed.
“I'm asking what you two were doing, alone, on this curtained-off balcony.”
Whether or not he knew how Ollia felt, Cassian pressed the matter as if he were the one calling out a wrongdoing.
As though it were Ollia and Leynon who'd gone out onto the floor to dance.
No, even if it had been, it should mean nothing to Cassian.
“We talked.”
When she answered as if it were the most obvious thing, he raked a hand roughly through his hair and let out a deep sigh.
The look in his eyes as he stared into empty space was fierce.
He averted his gaze for a moment as if suppressing his emotions, then reached out an arm and drew the curtain shut. Then he stepped one pace closer to Ollia.
He loomed over her as if to pin her down, and Ollia's back, naturally pushed backward, pressed against the railing and bent slightly.
“What sort of conversation strips off the other person's clothes?”
Reflexively gripping the railing, Ollia frowned a little, then relaxed her expression as a memory suddenly surfaced.
“That was... Priest Leynon was hurt. He'd just taken off his top for a moment so I could check the wound, that's all.”
“His shirt wasn't stained with blood, and if it was a wound with no bleeding, Priest Leynon could have treated it himself.”
“As you know, self-treatment is inefficient.”
It was a flimsy excuse, but it was the best Ollia could manage.
If I told him the truth, he'd get angry or try to stop me all over again.
For Cassian, ignorance was bliss when it came to this conversation. There'd be no problem at all if he stayed in the dark.
When she met his eyes brazenly, Cassian let out a hollow laugh.
“What exactly did you do, that you'd try to deceive me so openly...”
His golden eyes sank into darkness.
A look that seemed to find her both laughable and outrageous.
In the past he would have swallowed it whole without a shred of suspicion.
But day by day, Cassian was getting quicker to catch on.
It was not a good sign.
“So obsessing over your partner's physical satisfaction wasn't something reserved for me alone, it seems.”
“...What?”
“And to think you'd pull something like that in an open banquet hall like this. Isn't that too bold? No, I suppose I should call it reckless.”
Something like that?
The moment she frowned at the absurd remark, Cassian seized her jaw. Then he tilted her head up and forced her mouth open.
His grip was strong enough to dig into the muscles of her jaw, and the hand clutching the railing tightened.
Cassian seemed to be peering into Ollia's mouth, then abruptly lowered his head.
A hot mass of flesh invaded her parted mouth. The soft warmth roamed as if searching out the roof of her mouth, the underside of her tongue, her even rows of teeth, and her startled tongue.
And around the moment the sharp, tensed tip of his tongue brushed the deep back of the roof of her mouth,
Ollia realized what Cassian meant by “something like that.”
Don't tell me... he thinks I did that sort of thing with Priest Leynon?
If he'd seen the flustered look on the half-undressed Leynon's face, she thought, then such a misunderstanding was understandable.
After all, when she'd slightly parted the curtain to check the situation outside, the man's hands had been trembling even as he fastened his buttons.
In any case.
Is he kissing me because of that misunderstanding? If so, it's a lovely misunderstanding...!
Even as she felt her jaw forced open and her mouth being ravaged, Ollia's eyes sparkled.
When she gripped Cassian's right arm as he pushed her against the railing, he lifted his lowered gaze and met her eyes.
Then he drove his tongue in deep enough to bend Ollia's head all the way back.
Her ragged breath was swallowed, and a tingling sensation kept prodding at the pit of her stomach.
It was a strange, unfamiliar feeling of her mouth being tickled. As if every nerve had gathered in her mouth, a vivid trace remained everywhere Cassian's tongue rubbed.
Ollia wanted to seize this chance to satisfy Cassian, but there was no opening for it.
Cassian acted as though he wouldn't hand over even a shred of control to her.
All Ollia could do was barely keep up with the rough tangling of tongues.
“Mm, nnh...”
A strained moan slipped out between her slack, parted lips.
The fingertips gripping Cassian's wrist bristled, and her other hand, which had been braced on the railing, hastily grabbed at his waist.
Beyond the balcony, screened off by a single curtain, the music of the banquet hall drifted in. It was a bright, lively tune.
But the sounds seeping through that cheerful background music were anything but lively.
The wet, sticky sound of mingling saliva, the clinging moans that flowed from lips that met again the instant a short breath escaped, the rustle of fine tailcoat fabric.
Cassian's thigh wedged in between Ollia's legs. Against the tender flesh of her inner thigh, she felt every movement of muscle as taut as a stallion's.
“Ha, nn...”
Ollia felt her body growing strange little by little. Her temperature seemed to be climbing higher and higher as if she had a fever, and the tingling sensation flowed all the way to her fingertips and toes.
What's more, her center was clearly hardening.
An erection.
No matter how many men she had marked as heroes, given her heart to, and seduced by pressing her body against theirs,
Ollia had never once gotten hard.
It wasn't that anything was seriously wrong; she'd simply never felt in the mood for it.
Physical pleasure wasn't a particularly appealing thing to Ollia, and given her station as a priest, she'd never thought there was any reason to pursue it.
Even when she pressed her body to Cassian's, her only thought had been that she needed to satisfy him; she'd never anticipated getting worked up like this herself.
Would he dislike it if I got satisfaction out of this?
The thought suddenly struck her.
To begin with, the reason Cassian was kissing her this persistently was unclear in the first place.
Perhaps this was some kind of test.
To find out whether her efforts to give Cassian “physical satisfaction” were, in truth, for her own satisfaction instead.
Once her thoughts reached that far, she could no longer regard this act as simply a good opportunity.
Ollia placed a hand on Cassian's chest and pushed him lightly. Naturally, his massive body didn't budge in the slightest, but their lips did part.
Cassian, having opened a gap not even as wide as a finger joint, looked down at Ollia with eyes gone dark with color.
A fervent gaze that looked ready to kiss her again at any moment. As if he recognized her as prey, there was even a hunger to it.
Faltering at an emotion more intense than she'd expected, Ollia cautiously opened her mouth.
“I want to... stop.”
At the tiny voice, something flickered in Cassian's eyes.
“...Did it feel unpleasant?”
At the low question, Ollia shook her head.
“It felt good. It did, but... I like it more when you're satisfied. Me feeling good, that, that doesn't mean anything.”
“It doesn't mean anything?”
“That's right.”
What did it matter whether she felt good?
Even so, Cassian would still dislike her, still be unsatisfied, the power of the evil god would still be lurking in the world, and even now, somewhere, people were dying to the disaster...
Nothing would change.
No matter how steeped she got in pleasant sensation, not a single thing she wanted would come true.
So it was meaningless.
“I really am clumsy at kissing.”
When she pushed firmly against Cassian's chest, he finally pulled his body away completely.
From the long kiss, Cassian's shapely lips were damp and glistening.
Ollia drew a handkerchief from her bosom and carefully dabbed at his lips.
“You weren't satisfied, were you? Sorry. I did my best in my own way, but just keeping up with you was all I could manage.”
Ollia smiled awkwardly and pulled the handkerchief away, its duty done, when Cassian snatched her wrist.
His brow was furrowed, a tangle of complicated emotions on his face.
“I kissed you for my own satisfaction. And that satisfaction includes yours, too.”
“My satisfaction?”
“Yes. Isn't it only natural to want the person I'm kissing to feel satisfied? Enjoying it all by myself... would just be miserable.”
If he was going to put it that way, then was this really not a test?
Could she speak a little more honestly?
Ollia studied Cassian's expression closely.
Whether there was any sign of him trying to see through her intentions, whether there was anything sly in the words he'd spoken.
Then, when Cassian let go of her wrist and turned his head away with a sigh, she made her judgment.
It seemed Cassian hadn't kissed her to put her to some test after all.
“I liked it.”
Relieved at that fact, she threw herself into Cassian's arms and wrapped hers around his waist.
“It felt so good that I got hard down there, too. Not right now, but anyway.”
“...”
“I felt something I've never felt before. Heroes really are different, aren't they? What an extraordinary kiss. If you do it with me often, my skill will improve too, and I'll be able to make you feel even better, right?”
When she poured out her honest impressions, Cassian let out a hollow laugh and patted her back awkwardly.
Feeling that gentle patting, Ollia added, a pleased smile on her face,
“By the way, Cassian, you still haven't answered me.”
“Answered what?”
At his puzzled voice, Ollia, her face resting against his chest, lifted her head and crinkled her eyes.
“Whether you enjoyed dancing with that lady you'd just met.”
