“Go!! How dare you use sorcery! What do you think this sacred clothing gamble is?!”
“What, what is it? Is it really something to get that mad about?!”
I unintentionally raised my voice, causing Benny to shrink back rapidly. It must be because she was feeling vulnerable.
I felt a bit sorry, but… that’s that, and this is this.
Where on earth would I bring out a nipple patch here!!
“Ugh! Is this really something to get mad about?! Of course it is! I thought Benny would be taking off that unnecessarily sexy dress! But here we are with a nipple patch! No, why are you even wearing that instead of underwear?!”
“To wear something like this, I had no choice but to wear something that doesn’t show underwear lines…!”
“What does that have to do with taking off a dress and sticking on such a sticker?!”
“Plain underwear is one thing, but to show off with just three stickers?! That’s just shameful, no matter what!”
“Ugh…!”
So even according to the standards of the Man World, a woman in just stickers is a no-go.
For a moment, I had a lot to say, but upon thinking about it, it wasn’t that hard to understand.
Let’s say it’s understandable to be in your underwear in front of someone of the opposite sex.
Walking around in just panties in a private space isn’t that unusual. Sometimes, it happens in front of family or close friends.
But to strut around with just three stickers on? Maybe if you were alone, but there’s no way you’d show that to anyone else. Not even family or close friends.
And right now. Benny was being forced to appear in such scant attire in front of someone of the opposite sex who was a bit younger, but still respectable.
I could understand the notion of taking off just the nipple patches. That said, it didn’t mean that the betrayal and emptiness bubbling up inside me didn’t exist.
“Huh?”
Just as I was seething internally, my mind quickly calmed when I saw Benny’s chest, with one side prominently protruding.
This isn’t too bad….
And in that regained inner peace, I realized. I realized it.
“Benny. Did you just say three stickers?”
“Now there are two left….”
Benny quietly covered her chest. I wanted to tell her to move her hands right away, but that wasn’t the priority right now.
“Two on top, but then… what about the last one?”
“……!”
Benny’s face turned bright red in an instant. She stumbled over her words.
“W-well, you see? No matter how thin I tried to find, the clothes clung so much that it was just annoying…!”
“Wait, what?!”
I assumed there wouldn’t be any underwear lines on her backside, so I thought she was wearing a thong, but it turns out that wasn’t the case at all.
Benny, with her eyes tightly closed, confessed to me in horror.
“It’s fine! It’s a long one that covers the back!”
“What?!”
It’s a C-string?!
Shaped like the letter C, it doesn’t so much get worn as much as it gets wedged between the legs to cover the area.
The reality was so shocking that it filled me with excitement.
“Alright. There’s no rule saying we must take off our clothing from the outside, so I’ll give you a break here. But we can’t end it like this. Let’s see it through.”
“I don’t want to?! Why are you so intent on stripping me?!”
“Isn’t that the same reason Benny agreed to this bet?”
“Ugh!”
Benny looked away, seemingly guilty.
That’s right. She was also pretending to go along with my expectations while secretly waiting for me to undress…!
While Benny fumbled, unsure of what to do, I gently took her hand and said,
“We both know what we want, right? We’re just interested in each other’s bodies, but getting into a deeper relationship feels a bit burdensome, doesn’t it?”
“N-no. I….”
“I get it. With Ellie and Lydia around, you can’t help but feel nervous, being that you have only two friends. Of course, I’m mindful of the order too, right? I was planning to start with Ellie.”
“…….”
Benny rolled her eyes in my direction, still glancing at my collarbone.
I wondered why she was looking like that, even though I was properly dressed after taking off the leather armor… only to realize I was just as soaked from sweat as she was.
Benny wasn’t eyeing the collarbone she couldn’t even see. She was following the sweat dripping along my neck.
I subtly took the nipple patch that had been resting in Benny’s hand and placed a coin in her palm instead.
“Just three rounds.”
“What?”
“Whoever wins and loses, let’s only toss three more times. You know, right? A man only has one piece of underwear. If Benny loses three times in a row, she’ll be naked… but that means I would be as well.”
“……!”
Benny’s eyes shook like there was an earthquake. Her tiny body took quickened breaths, and her eyes sparkled with hearts.
Though it lacked the unique allure of a succubus, it was beautiful enough to captivate someone.
Not wanting to lag behind, I tried my best to set the mood.
The image was of a little demon. No matter how small and fragile, it felt like an undeniable offer tempting someone into temptation.
Benny, with a dazed expression, gulped her saliva. I tickled her hand and whispered.
“Don’t think of anything else. It’s just the two of us here, isn’t it?”
“B-but….”
“The only thing Benny should think about is this.”
With that, I lightly tugged on the hem of my shirt, pulling it just enough that my skin was nearly visible.
“Front or back. Which do you think will show?”
“…….”
For the first time, the sparkle of will appeared in Benny’s eyes, which had softened since parting with Shadow.
“…Front.”
“Well then, I’ll be the back.”
With a smile, I lightly tapped her hand.
The impact made the coin spin and bounce. I caught it in midair and slowly opened my fist.
The result is…….
*
To cut to the chase, neither I nor Benny is actually undressed.
We both are still fully clothed.
“Benny. Honestly, I think we’ve gone a bit insane until just now.”
“…Yeah. I think the same.”
Benny lost twice. That means she’s lost both the opposite nipple patch and even this questionable C-string panty.
With a dress clinging tightly to her body, the bold points stood out sharply, and her lower half, with just a slight shift, was sculpting an explicit outline.
But at any rate, we’re dressed properly. Because she’d only lost two times…!
And in other words, the last round means that I lost too.
Just like I’d returned the favor to Benny, I had thrown off my underwear without touching my top or bottom… but….
A sudden uncomfortable sensation from below brought my senses back.
What on earth were we doing?
Now that the last round we’d planned had just finished, what do we do now? That question turned into self-loathing.
Benny now looked very seductive, but… in the end, we hadn’t done the main event, nor could we back out.
So this was nothing less than torture for both Benny and me, wasn’t it?
Why did I push myself into such turmoil? I still have over 20 hours to go!
With a long sigh, I lay back down on the clothes we’d discarded, using them as a pillow, and said.
“Haah… I feel like I’ve suddenly hit a state of enlightenment.”
“What? How do you, Jonah, know about that?”
“Of course? What about the state of enlightenment?”
“That’s right? It’s when a woman solves things on her own and suddenly feels empty, returning to self-loathing, or something like that. Don’t men have that state?”
“Ah….”
The men of the Pan Continent have weak sexual urges. To put it simply, it’s almost like being in a constant state of enlightenment.
Because of that, there may not be a state that can be categorized separately as enlightenment.
On the other hand, women’s sexual urges have slightly intensified, so in addition to the emotional ups and downs they felt, they also felt physical fluctuations greatly.
So, if you were to look at it from the perspective of enlightenment, it means men here feel similarly or even more intensely.
I chuckled at the absurdities of the Man World that I had never thought of and said,
“There may not be other men, but I do exist.”
“Eh?”
“The rumors about those with pink hair aren’t entirely false.”
“Gasp…!”
Benny, swallowing hard, asked with a cautious but expectant voice,
“Is that so? Then the rumor about pink-haired men being all erogenous zones is true too?”
“…That’s a baseless rumor. If that were the case, daily life would be impossible.”
When I shot her a look of disdain, Benny covered her face with her hands and curled up.
She looked embarrassed.
“Well, it is true that I have strong sexual urges, which might have distorted it, right? I can get aroused much easier than other men and have longer stamina.”
“Aroused… stamina….”
Benny murmured to herself, curling up even tighter. At this point, she looked almost like a half-inch softy.
It seemed like too strong a statement for Benny, who had become mentally mushy.
Since I felt like she might lash out if we kept discussing explicit topics, I decided to switch gears.
“By the way, Benny, I have something I’m curious about.”
“Hmm? What is it?”
“You just realized that without Shadow, you become weaker, right? Do you still want to sever that connection with Shadow?”
“…….”
Benny stayed silent, pondering deeply. After a long period of silence, she slowly nodded.
“…Yes.”
Then she straightened up from her curled position and looked me straight in the eye.
“To reclaim my life, I must do that.”
Her voice was filled with earnest sincerity.
