The briefing hall smelled like polished wood and nervous sweat.
Every summoned student sat in neat rows while the King stood on the raised platform again, crown slightly crooked, voice already halfway into another speech about duty and destiny. Knights lined the walls. A few mages hovered near the front with scrolls. The scar-eyebrow knight was conspicuously missing.
Word had already spread.
Someone had found the body near the eastern gate at dawn. Head gone. Clean. No blood. No struggle. Just an empty neck and a suit of armor that looked confused about the whole situation. The castle was buzzing with it. An ongoing investigation. Extra patrols. Quiet muttering about assassination or some new demon trick.
Takumi sat near the front with his arms crossed, holy sword leaning against his chair like a loyal dog. He kept glancing back toward the rear rows every few minutes.
Renji sat in the very last row, legs spread just enough. Aya was perched sideways between them, back against his chest, thick thighs draped over one of his. The thin training skirt they had given her rode high. His right hand was already under it, two fingers slowly working through the soft, wet heat between her legs while his left arm rested casually across her stomach like he was just holding her.
No one in the front rows could see exactly what was happening. The angle was perfect. The high backs of the chairs helped. And Aya was very good at keeping her face mostly neutral.
Mostly.
{Knight’s missing head is the talk of the castle and I’m back here turning my girlfriend into a silent mess. Priorities remain undefeated. 5-0, Sir Smug. Rest in pieces.}
The King cleared his throat.
“Last night one of our loyal knights was found slain near the eastern gate. The method is… unusual. We are investigating thoroughly. Until further notice, no one leaves the castle grounds without an escort after dark. Am I understood?”
A low murmur of agreement went through the class. A few people looked genuinely worried. Others just looked excited at the idea of real danger.
Aya’s breath hitched when Renji curled his fingers just right. She pressed her lips together hard and shifted her hips in a tiny, deliberate roll that ground her ass against the front of his pants. Her free hand gripped his wrist under the skirt, not to stop him, just to feel the movement.
Renji leaned in until his mouth was against her ear.
“Too loud,” he whispered, voice barely air. “You’re going to get us caught.”
Aya’s shoulders trembled with a silent laugh that turned into a shaky exhale when he added a third finger and spread them slowly. She was soaked. The soft wet sounds were almost inaudible under the King’s booming voice, but she could hear them. He could feel them.
She rolled her hips again, slower this time, grinding back against the hard line of his cock with clear intent. Her thick thighs squeezed his hand for a second.
{She’s teasing me back. Of course she is. My thick, perfect problem. Keep the face straight, Aya. The Hero’s already looking this way.}
Takumi had turned in his seat again. His eyes locked on the two of them at the back. He saw how close they were. Saw Aya sitting between Renji’s legs like she belonged there. Saw the way her body was angled and the faint flush on her cheeks. He couldn’t see the hand under her skirt, but he saw enough. His jaw flexed. The girl he had tried to take in middle school was currently nestled between another guy’s thighs like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Anger flashed across his face for half a second. Then he looked away, shoulders tight, muttering something under his breath that looked a lot like “I’ll deal with that guy later.”
Renji noticed. He didn’t care.
He kept his fingers moving in slow, cruel circles, deliberately avoiding the exact rhythm that would push her over. Every time Aya’s breathing got sharper he eased off. Every time her hips started to chase his hand he pulled back just enough to leave her aching. Her nails dug into his wrist. Her other hand clenched the fabric of his pants.
She turned her head just enough that only he could see her face. Eyes glassy. Lips parted. Silent, desperate little pleading written all over her expression. No sound. Just pure need.
Renji smiled against her ear.
“Not yet.”
The King kept talking. Threat levels. Recommended grinding routes. The importance of teamwork. Blah blah destiny. Renji timed it perfectly. The second the King finished his final sentence and the mages started dismissing them for the day’s hunt, Renji pressed his thumb down hard on her clit and curled his fingers at the exact angle she liked.
Aya came in complete silence.
Her whole body locked up against him. Thighs clamped around his hand. Inner walls fluttered and squeezed in hard, rhythmic pulses while a fresh rush of wetness coated his fingers. She bit the inside of her cheek so hard it had to hurt. Her fingers crushed his wrist. The only outward sign was a tiny full-body shiver and the way her eyes fluttered shut for three long seconds.
Renji kept her there through it, slow and steady, until the last tremor faded. Then he casually withdrew his hand, wiped his fingers on the inside of her thigh like nothing had happened, and stood up with the rest of the class.
Aya stayed seated for an extra moment, breathing carefully, cheeks still flushed. When she finally rose she shot him a look that promised extreme violence later. Or extreme something else. Probably both.
{Worth it.}
They filed out toward the eastern gate with the rest of the group. Packs were distributed again. Renji got the heavy one, naturally. Aya stayed glued to his side, still a little unsteady on her feet in the best way.
The forest felt different in daylight.
Sunlight filtered through the high canopy in shifting green patches. Birds called. The air smelled like moss and distant blood from yesterday’s leftovers. The class spread into a loose combat formation with Takumi at the tip.
The first wave of monsters barely lasted a minute.
Takumi moved like the concept of friction had personally offended him. Divine Blade flared gold and he cut through a charging pack of iron-tusk boars so fast the bodies were still standing when the last one died. Mika’s wind blades turned another cluster into red mist. Daichi’s shield bash sent a scaled wolf flying into a tree hard enough to crack the trunk. Aya’s orange portal spun open and the familiar bipedal wolf lunged out, jaws already closing around a throat.
They were strong. All of them. The gap between day one and now was obvious.
Renji stayed at the rear with the packs, looking bored and slightly out of breath whenever anyone glanced his way.
Whenever the group pushed forward through dense undergrowth he slowed down, let the distance open, and looked toward the deeper shadows.
Mana gathered behind his eyes. Cool. Heavy. Precise.
A distant werewolf that had been circling for a flank.
“Erase.”
Gone.
A pair of venomous tree-serpents coiled in the high branches fifty meters left.
“Erase.”
Gone.
Something with too many legs that had been tunneling under the leaf litter.
“Erase.”
Gone.
No one noticed. The XP from those kills simply never appeared for the others. They just kept moving, slaughtering whatever was directly in front of them while Renji quietly cleaned the board from the edges.
{Luggage boy is the real MVP. Hero gets the applause. I get the levels and the wet girlfriend. Fair trade.}
Aya suddenly stopped walking. She raised one hand and the air in front of her cracked open with a deeper, richer orange light than usual. Something much larger stepped through.
A tiger.
Massive. Shoulders higher than Renji’s head. Black stripes over dense orange fur. Eyes like molten gold. It opened its mouth and the roar that came out made leaves fall from nearby trees.
The beast didn’t wait for orders. It launched forward in a blur of muscle and claws, crashed into a cluster of armored lizard-men that had been trying to set up an ambush, and simply erased them from the fight the old-fashioned way. One swipe opened three torsos. A bite removed a head. A heavy shoulder check sent the last one tumbling into a tree so hard the trunk snapped.
The rest of the class actually stopped to stare.
Takumi whistled. “Okay. That’s new.”
Aya scratched behind the tiger’s ear when it trotted back like an oversized house cat. “He’s a good boy.”
They kept hunting.
The monsters in the immediate area started thinning fast. Too fast. The group noticed the experience flow slowing. Takumi frowned at his status window, then pointed deeper into the forest where the trees grew older and the light dimmed.
“XP’s drying up here. We go deeper. Stay sharp.”
They moved.
Renji felt it the moment they crossed an invisible line.
A pressure.
Heavy. Crushing. Like the air itself had gained weight and decided to sit on his shoulders. It wasn’t directed at him specifically. It was just… there. Waiting further in. Something big. Something that made the usual forest predators feel like insects.
His private window didn’t give him a name or a level. Just a faint, instinctive warning that whatever lived in that direction was not the kind of thing the current party was ready for.
Aya glanced at him, sensing the shift in his posture.
“You felt that too?”
“Yeah.”
“What is it?”
Renji adjusted the heavy pack on his shoulders and kept his face carefully blank.
“Don’t know. But it’s not friendly.”
{Crushing pressure from deeper in the woods and my first thought is still whether Aya’s going to ride me the second we’re alone again. Healthy. Completely normal. Definitely not a sign that my priorities are permanently broken.}
Takumi was already waving everyone forward, golden light starting to leak from the holy sword in anticipation.
“Move out. Whatever’s in there, we can handle it. We’re the heroes, remember?”
Renji followed at the back of the group, Aya’s warm hand hooked in his, the massive tiger pacing protectively at her other side.
The pressure kept growing with every step.
Whatever was waiting deeper in the forest had noticed them.
And it did not feel like it planned on being erased quietly.