Chapter - 5

"What's with him!! Only looking at that sempai!"

After going crazy and chasing Ikki around for a while, Stella sat down on the bench in front of the lounge beside the plaza. Shizuku, who was conducting magic training on the next bench, looked at Stella, who was obviously fuming.

"Maybe he didn't want to touch the princess's faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat thighs."

"I-It's not so fat that you had to drag it out that much! It's only a bit chubby! And it's not like I can help it, it was trained that way!!"

Stella protested that sudden and totally unexpected evaluation with a high-pitched voice, but Shizuku averted her face with an 'I don't know anything' expression and made an action figure out of clay that looked just like Ikki.

"I mean, it totally looks like Ikki. Like Ikki. Cool! I want one!"

"Now now, you don't have to get so nervous. Unlike Ayatsuji-sempai, Stella-chan is on a completely different level. I don't think there is anything he could instruct you on."

"Mu―!"

Arisuin's follow up was spot on, and Stella's brain was also in agreement. In reality, Stella did not need Ikki's guidance at all.

―But that was that, and this is this.

…Maybe my heart is the narrower one.

If her arms and thighs were also squished and stroked by another man, would Ikki also feel the same way?

Wait! What the hell kind of rotten thing am I thinking! That's definitely wrong! T-That! Squishing and stroking! That's only for Ikki! I'll only allow Ikki to squish and stroke me!

It was disgusting just to think about it. Stella kicked out that delusion from her mind, and asked Shizuku.

"Hey… is Shizuku okay with this?"

"Okay? What do you mean?"

"I mean…. Ikki touching and stroking another woman all over the place."

"I was wondering what you'd ask. Onii-sama is teaching Ayatsuji-sempai swordsmanship. Unlike some other sow, she's not trying to seduce him, so is there a reason to snarl at her? I'm not a rabid dog you know."

While answering that, Shizuku started to paint the Ikki action figure with the acrylic paint she had brought out of her bag. This was already art so training had nothing to do with it.

"And which mouth was the one who snarled at me so much?"

"This mouth."

Shizuku pointed at her mouth with her two index fingers. Truly an irritable face.

"Stella-san, you seem to have misunderstood something."

"What are you talking about?"

"You seem to have thought that I want to monopolize Onii-sama, but that is a regrettable misunderstanding. My love for Onii-sama isn't something so cheap and selfish. To me, the thing that matters most is Onii-sama's happiness. If Onii-sama becomes happy, then I don't mind if his partner isn't me. If that person truly brings Onii-sama happiness without betraying him or making him feel sad, then I'd be glad and bless them."

This confession was something completely unexpected to Stella, because she thought that Shizuku loved Ikki as a woman.

"Well, I don't think there is a person other than me who could do that anyway."

Saying that, Shizuku smiled at Stella provokingly, and then looked towards the square where Ikki and Ayase had again started to spar.

"Onii-sama seems so happy after Ayatsuji-sempai came. The other students and I aren't strong enough to learn solid sword techniques while Stella-san is too strong for Onii-sama to teach anything, so maybe he was feeling a bit unsatisfied. The Onii-sama who is having fun guiding others is also very cute and fabulous. So I guess I should actually be thankful to Ayatsuji-sempai."

"…Shizuku sometimes seems so mature. Even though you're so small."

"Maybe you're the one who's too much of a child, even though you're big in so many places. And your thighs are too fat."

"They're not fat! You're the one who's too tiny!"

It's enough if Ikki's happy.

Certainly, if Ikki was happy, then that was happiness for Stella too. But still, she can't help but think that she wanted to be the one to make Ikki the happiest.

…But in reality, it was not going too well. After they became lovers, she would become tense just by being near him. And they hadn't done anything lover-like at all. Specially the nights they spent together alone; those were severe. Just by meeting his gaze, her spine would go numb, and she would be unable to even see properly.

Was Ikki restraining himself too? He would never break their personal boundaries.

For Stella, she actually didn't hate that slow going time too much. Even though she'd feel kind of itchy and embarrassed, her heart would beat faster just by being near him. But she had that strong desire to take the next step as lovers.

She also heard that girls who make boys wait were soon hated. 「In the past month, we haven't done anything like lovers at all have we? Then wouldn't it be okay if we returned to our previous relationship?」

…No, definitely NO!

She would cry just by imagining such a thing. If that really happened, then she would never be able to bear it.

But, this kind of thing, should the girl be the one who makes the first move? What if she was thought to be indecent, or if she was hated? No matter how she thought, the wild delusions would come up again. She just couldn't figure it out.

And the worst thing was that even if Ikki made the first move, she wasn't confident that she would obediently comply. She understood her perverseness the best. She was sure, that she'd give excuses like how a princess should act, or what a princess shouldn't do.

"Haa…."

Even though it was so easy to fly at an opponent with her sword, why was it so hard to dive into her lover's chest? The couples around the world, her mother and father, why could they do it so easily? They have way too much courage.

While thinking something so hopeless, Stella looked up towards the sky which was dyed in a mad red and thought―

Haa… I really want to kiss him….

It was the millionth helpless sigh that she had let out in that one month alone.