“Hey, Alicia. I feel like it’s important to settle things properly, y’know?”
It was the first night of our journey. For now, we were setting out toward Snowell, the town where I’d been raised. As we spent a quiet evening around a fire in an abandoned church, Cion suddenly spoke up with a strange look on her face.
“When you say ‘settle’... If you’re referring to the Demon Lord, I—”
“Ah, no... I mean, maybe that too, but that’s not what I meant...”
I stared at her in confusion. She was being weirdly cagey, and I had no clue what she was getting at.
“If it’s about the orphanage, Her Sagacity will be making arrangements to ensure they’re taken care of, so I don’t believe there’s any reason to worry. Or are you concerned about me taking a break from being a bride? I—”
“It’s—! It’s about how I hurt you, Alicia!” Cion blurted out.
“Huh?”
She looked really tense, but frankly, I was long past caring about that whole thing.
“You mean when you tried to leave me behind and drained out my mana? It’s perfectly fine; I’m not upset with you, so—”
“It’s not fine at all! I mean, I bit you really hard, and I sucked out your blood too, even though you’ve been saving me and healing me all this time... I’m awful, aren’t I?!”
“Um... Uh... Huh?”
I’d tried to stab her to death in her sleep within a day of meeting her, but I definitely couldn’t bring myself to say that. “I’ve caused plenty of trouble for you as well, Cion, and there’s also the matter of my divine orders... Honestly, I really don’t think you need to worry about it—”
“No! I hurt you, Alicia! I need to get punished for it!”
“Ummmmm?”
She could be stubborn about the weirdest things, just like her master. It got really annoying to deal with sometimes.
“J-Just to ask, what sort of ‘punishment’ do you have in mind...?”
If she wanted penance, she’d just confessed her sins to a nun—all I’d need to do now was say “I absolve thee.” But Cion, stupidly earnest as always, pulled open her collar to expose her shoulder, baring her pale skin to me.
“Bite me!”
“What?”
“I bit you, so you need to bite me too! Then we’ll be even!”
“Uhhhhh?”
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth—I was pretty sure there was a proverb or something along those lines, but was this how that worked?
I sighed. “I’ll only bite you a little, all right?”
“Okay—as long as that’ll be enough to make it up to you!”
She didn’t need to make it up to me at all—I hadn’t been bothered about it in the slightest. But right now, my own guilt was winning my internal struggle; I felt like playing along with Cion here was my penance, in a sense.
“All right, here goes...”
“Go for it...”
Still feeling like this whole thing was incredibly stupid, I sat down next to Cion and placed a hand on her slim shoulder. She was on the small side for a girl her age, and her shoulder blades stuck out a little from her childlike frame. As I brought my face closer—
“Nn...”
—I heard an incredibly tender sigh right next to my ear.
“Cion...?”
“S-Sorry... It just tickles a little...”
My hair must have brushed against her. I lifted it up and let it fall back behind my shoulder, then brought my lips in once more. In the dim light of the fire, I felt like I could see a faint flush in her skin, and I found myself gulping involuntarily.
A strange tension filled me. My heart was pounding in my ears. Amid the stillness, Cion’s breaths and my racing heartbeat were the only sounds I could hear.
“Omf...”
“Nnh!”
I softly put my mouth to her neck, and her slender body jolted.
“Y-You’ve gotta bite me for real...”
“Mmfhmm...?”
Feeling Cion’s skin on my tongue, I tried to ask whether she was really sure about this. But for some reason, she clung onto me tight and wouldn’t let me go.
“Alicia... Please!”
“Mfhh...”
I still wasn’t crazy about this plan—but if I stopped now, Cion would definitely keep pestering me to do it until she was satisfied. I just had to steel myself and go for it. Hardening my heart, I tensed my jaw and felt my canines puncture her skin. Soon after, warm blood came flowing into my mouth.
“Haaa—!” Trembling slightly, Cion dug her nails into my back.
“Mnhh...” I swallowed down the blood in my mouth and gently licked at her wound.
“Nn... Nnn!”
Cion twitched and shivered each time my tongue brushed against her. This sexier side of her was pretty cute—cute enough that a mischievous impulse reared its head.
“Mmfn.”
“Hwah— A-Allisha?!”
I didn’t bite her hard enough to draw more blood, but I softly nibbled at her over and over. Finally, I let out a breath right in her ear—
“Hyaa—! Fwhaa...”
That got a pretty entertaining reaction out of her.
I pulled back and stared silently at her for a long moment.
“Oh.”
Looking at the thoroughly plastered former Hero sitting by the altar, I realized I’d gone too far. Her fingertips were twitching, and she was squirming and rubbing her thighs together.
“A-Allisha...? Did that...make it up to you...?”
Her fevered gaze turned to me, utterly entranced.
If I said some sort of line like “No, nowhere close. The night’s still young,” what would happen?
“Th-That’s plenty. If anything, I went a little overboard...”
“Oh. I’m glad...” Cion let out a sigh of relief, but why did I hear a tiny bit of disappointment and embarrassment mixed in too? “So...this means the Gods’ll be fine with me standing by your side now, right?”
I drew in a hiss of breath. Her smile was so childlike and innocent that I felt ashamed of my own foolishness.
“Cion... Bite me too!”
I offered up my shoulder, and Cion visibly gulped.
“C-Can I really...? No, I-I mean! Uh, wh-why...?”
“It’s my penance,” I said, my throat tense.
“O-Okay,” she said slowly. “If that’s what you want, Alicia!”
Cion’s slender fingers touched my shoulder, and her hot breath tickled my ear. Her pulse, her warmth, her life spread through my skin and made their way inside me.
That night, we absolved each other, and we found each other...and we had an ever so slightly awkward awakening the morning after.
That’s a little story just for the two of us. The Gods don’t need to know.