Chapter 23
In the end, I steeped the tea and waited for a long time, but Lian Qi never came out.
…She really is angry, isn’t she?
So petty. She’s bullied me so many times; what’s the big deal if I counter-attack just once?
I sat on the sofa, hugging the Bamboo Monster plushie, idly fiddling with its bean-sprout-like arms and legs, glancing at the door to Lian Qi’s bedroom from time to time.
I’m still a little worried about her.
Qifeng sat down next to me, holding a biscuit stick in her mouth, and leaned in close. I took a bite, leaving only half a stick behind.
“Drinking tea this late at night, are you preparing to cultivate magic all night?”
“No, it’s not that. I just… felt like I should do something for her. After thinking it over, all I could come up with was making tea,” I stammered.
“…Did you two have a fight?”
As expected, nothing escapes Qifeng’s eyes. I nodded and said, “She’s always been the one bullying me. Today, I bullied her for once, and she couldn’t take it.”
Qifeng let out a long, drawn-out “Ehh—.”
“It’s precisely because she’s always been the one bullying you that she can’t adjust psychologically now that the roles are suddenly reversed, right?”
“Is that really why?”
“It’s just like if you asked me to be the ‘top,’ I’d also be a little unused to it,” Qifeng said with a smile, sticking her tongue out.
I shot her a glare. What a silly girl.
“Lian Qi has a very strong sense of pride, you know,” Qifeng said, the biscuit stick still in her mouth.
“So I hurt her pride?”
“In her eyes, you’ve always been the ‘weaker’ one. Now she realizes that if you got serious, she couldn’t even beat you. She probably can’t accept that all at once.”
Hearing Qifeng say that, I couldn’t help but recall the expression on Lian Qi’s face when she was pinned beneath me—a mix of annoyance, embarrassment, nervousness, and unease.
“No wonder she was so uncomfortable.”
I buried my head in the plushie and rubbed against it. This is so frustrating!
Actually, if she hadn’t used her explosion magic to destroy my skirt just now, I probably wouldn’t have resisted so… over-the-top. Maybe I would have just satisfied her desire to “conquer” me.
But now… it feels more like she’s the one who was “conquered” by me.
“But… how exactly did you ‘bully’ her? Tell me, tell me.”
My face pressed against the plushie, I peeked up at her. “What? You’re actually interested in this?”
“Tell me more details. I’ll help you analyze the situation.”
Don’t be fooled by Qifeng’s M-tendencies; she’s actually an expert at reading people.
“It really wasn’t much.”
I rubbed my knees together, feeling a little embarrassed. The feeling of the stockings rubbing was a bit subtle.
“It was just like that time with you. My magic went out of control, and I unconsciously summoned the Holy Light hammer.”
“The Holy Light hammer? And then? And then?” She scooted a little closer, all ears.
“And then… Lian Qi was pinned to the bed by the Holy Light hammer, unable to move… and… I think I subjected her to a little ‘neglect play’?”
“Neglect play!?” Qifeng’s eyes lit up the moment she heard that term.
“Don’t you get any funny ideas,” I glanced at her. I knew this was her cup of tea. She’s hopeless.
“What does it feel like to be pinned by your Holy Light hammer?” she asked, her face slightly flushed, her mind clearly wandering.
“It wasn’t actually ‘pinning’ her. It was just lying across her chest like a barbell. There was still a gap.”
“A gap? A barbell? I don’t really get it. How about… you demonstrate it for me?” she asked shyly.
I’m truly hopeless against her.
I summoned the Holy Light hammer. Qifeng obediently lay down on the sofa’s chaise lounge, and I carefully placed the hammer across her chest.
Just as I thought. Qifeng’s bust exceeded the horizontal height of the Holy Light hammer. The thin, long handle pressed down on her chest like a barbell, sinking in.
“Fei’er, there’s no gap…” Qifeng said to me in a delicate, breathy voice.
“…Lian Qi has a gap.”
That was the only way I could answer.
“…It’s pressing on my chest. It’s so stuffy… a little hard to breathe.”
“Of course you can’t breathe.”
As I said this, I suddenly sensed a shadow moving. I quickly looked up— …It was Lian Qi!? When did she come out of her room?
She actually caught me in the act of ‘pinning’ Qifeng with the Holy Light hammer… I was at a loss, and I had no idea how much of our conversation she’d heard.
Lian Qi was staring at me with those dead-fish eyes. Is she disgusted? She silently turned and walked away. I scrambled after her—
I orbited around her.
“I’m sorry my bust isn’t big enough, that it leaves a gap!” she said, annoyed and embarrassed.
“That’s not what I meant…”
“Hmph! Were you demonstrating for Qifeng how I was helplessly pinned by a hammer and begging to be let go?”
“N-No, that’s not it! Qifeng was just helping me analyze why you were angry at me!”
Lian Qi stopped, right in front of the bathroom door.
“You care that much about me being angry?”
“Of course!”
“Then why did you do that to me? The two times you accidentally pushed me down in the past, I’ll let slide. But this time… this time you did it on purpose.”
Lian Qi paused, then said in a small voice, “…That’s… never happened to me before.”
So she really is just not used to it? I thought.
“Being pushed down by you… feels more humiliating than losing to the Demon King,” she said, mortified.
“…How can you say that…”
“Since you’re so absurdly strong, you don’t need my protection at all,” she said quietly.
“Did you really only stay with me to protect me? Can’t we… protect each other? Support each other?” I couldn’t help but ask.
Lian Qi turned to look at me. I waited anxiously for her answer.
After a long moment—
“…It used to be like that.”
She said, somewhat embarrassed.
“But now… I’m staying by your side because I want to stay by your side.”
I mulled over her words, which sounded like a tongue-twister but weren’t really a tongue-twister. I nodded. “I understand everything you said.”
“Understand my foot—” She glared at me, annoyed and embarrassed.
“Then let’s protect each other. I want to help you defeat the Demon King. Besides… I’m not really as strong as you think. My hammer is a bit heavy, but that’s a characteristic of the Transmutation school. Just like how you can’t break Qifeng’s chains, that doesn’t mean Qifeng is stronger than you, right?”
“…Don’t think I don’t know you’re just trying to comfort me,” Lian Qi said, glaring at me with a pout.
“It’s true…”
“Looks like I’ll have to conquer you before I defeat the Demon King.”
“C-Conquer…”
Fine…
What’s the big deal about being bullied by her once? As long as it makes her happy.
“I’m going to take a shower now. Are you following me because you plan to shower with me?”
“No, I’ve already washed up,” I said weakly. “Right, I made you tea. After your shower, have a cup to warm up, okay?”
“Hah? Drinking tea in the middle of the night? Are you trying to make me cultivate immortality?1 Don’t think I don’t know you’re just trying to suck up!”
Even though she said that, when she came out of the shower, she still drank it.
Footnotes
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A popular internet slang term for pulling an all-nighter, as staying awake all night is (jokingly) a prerequisite for Taoist cultivation. ↩