Chapter 25 – Determination

I noticed how she didn't say anything about bathing and sleeping together. It seemed she wasn't ready to give up on those.

"Interesting. I don't know why you're taking it as a challenge but that's fine with me. It's a massage to make you feel good and relax, you know?"

"Y-yeah. But it felt a bit weird."

"Didn't you feel relaxed after it?"

"Well… Yes."

"It'll be even better if we can go until the end."

"Hm…"

She didn't look so convinced. I would have to try my best to change her mind.

"Anyway, we can do that later. I've got a present for you."

Her hesitant stance completely changed when she heard this. Startled initially, she tried her best not to smile, without much success.

"A present? You didn't need to…"

Her body language said otherwise and it couldn't be seen as anything but being positively surprised. Even the corners of her lips were twitching in happiness, even though she tried to stay stoic. It was great she wasn't a trader since she had no skill in hiding her feelings. That job was all about convincing people and sometimes even deceiving them.

"It's nothing big. Let's go in first."

I waited for her to enter the house and when she couldn't see me anymore, I took out five metallic bottles filled with water from my storage, the whole stock that I borrowed from her in the morning. I entered the house and gave her my haul. She recognized her bottles and looked like she didn't understand, at first. That was until she took one of them and felt the weight. She let out a small exclamation and opened the cap.

"Water… All of them?"

"That's right."

"How did you get these?"

"I worked hard for two days."

"So much water in two days? That's amazing, even though you don't speak the language."

"I told you I could take care of myself."

She nodded a little and gave the bottle back to me.

"It's too precious for me to accept. It would be best if you took care of them. Five bottles filled with water are worth a lot. Well, you should know since you paid for them."

I shook my head with a grin and handed her the rest of the bottles instead.

"No, keep them. It's the least I should do for the savior of my life."

"What savior. I only helped a little…"

"No. I won't forget your grace for the rest of my life."

"Look at how you're speaking. You're always exaggerating everything."

She complained a bit but, just like before, it was obvious she wasn't unhappy about my words. If I had to guess, the words "for the rest of my life" pleased her a lot since it meant I wouldn't go anywhere anytime soon.

"Alright then. Thank you. With all this water, we can drink to our fill for some time. That's great news. Let's go eat now. I'll prepare more food to celebrate your hard work."

She joyfully headed to the storage room to fetch the same vegetables we always ate, peas. Even though they didn't taste bad, I couldn't wait until I earned enough to buy more diverse food for us. Eating the same thing every day felt a bit too monotonous.

Just like she claimed, we had double portions of food today. I gladly devoured everything as she watched me with a smile, slowly eating her share. She put one of the bottles I gave her on the table and we gulped the fresh liquid from the river until we had enough.

"It tastes a bit different from the water I normally buy."

"Yes. It's not bad. I like it."

"Me too. It has a slightly pleasant taste to it."

That was a given. Water in the domes was mostly created by water mages. It was bland and tasteless. This was pure unpolluted river water, with all the minerals that came together with it. It tasted great and felt even more refreshing than its counterpart. All hail to the medieval outside world that still didn't pollute its water sources, unlike what happened in my world!

We finished eating and cleaned the table. Then, Suuru started to squirm anxiously.

"Okay… I'm ready now."

"Good. Since you say you'll let me finish today, let's do it a bit differently. I'll massage you on the bed."

"Sure…"

We headed to the bedroom and I continued.

"Remove all your clothes and lie down on your belly."

She nodded and obeyed without protesting. Soon enough, she was in her birthday suit and I admired the view she offered without any need to hide my gaze. This was the fascinating part of the inner world, where showing skin inside the home wasn't considered shameful. There was no concept of gender, after all. I couldn't help but appreciate it now that I was more used to the idea. As always, my eyes were focused on her breast and hairless snatch, which felt as beautiful and magical as always. Thinking about how the inner world worked, I probably was the only one who ever laid a hand on her body since other people wouldn't even know of the concept. This was also quite an arousing thought.

When she was on the bed, she turned her head to look at me nervously.

"I'll start now."

"Hm…"

She nodded again and I went to it. Just like the previous time, I began with a more normal massage, the part she enjoyed the most. Since she was lying down on the bed, I straddled over her back, making the bed crack a bit under our combined weight. I put my hands on her shoulders and initiated the massage. Using a little strength here, and more force there, I patiently unraveled the knot in her muscles. Whenever this happened, she would let a pleasant sigh out, feeling the tension leaving her. I did her nape, went to the sides to work on her shoulder muscles, and then descended slowly toward her lower back, kneading everything on the way. I then did her legs, making her feel a bit ticklish at first, followed by her feet. When this was done, I reversed my direction and progressively returned to her shoulders, sparing nothing on the way.

It took some time but she eventually reached the relaxed state I aimed for.

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