Chapter 123: Stella Is a Little Too Eager!
"Mm~ As expected, nothing feels better than a bath after exercise."
Inside Dorm 406, Stella stepped out of the bathroom with graceful steps.
At this moment, she had only a bath towel wrapped around her body. Her delicate collarbones formed a perfect line, and her exposed skin was smooth and fair with a faint blush, making one want to pinch it hard and leave a few red marks.
Stella sat down on the sofa. Fire flickered at her fingertips, instantly evaporating the water droplets she had not wiped clean. Steam curled around her, adding a faint, hazy charm to her current figure.
Perhaps because she was in a good mood after resolving Rebellion's matter, she hummed a tune and turned on the television. Her full, straight calves swayed lightly.
"You were peeking at me just now, weren't you~?"
Stella's voice suddenly rang out, making Shiro shift his gaze from her legs back to her face.
She half-covered her glossy lips with one hand, a fox-like sly smile appearing on her face.
'Hmph, you finally fell for it.'
Stella cheered in her heart.
Originally, after learning she would be living with Shiro, she had been very worried. After all, he was a hot-blooded young man, and Stella understood what her beauty meant to a spirited boy.
Because of that, when she first moved in, she spent every night on edge, afraid he would plot something in the middle of the night and do 'this' or 'that' to her.
But!
During the days she had lived in Dorm 406, every time she finished bathing, Shiro would only glance at her twice before saying he was going out to train.
She was a pure maiden, yet in Shiro's eyes, she was not even as important as training?!
She had clearly already prepared herself mentally for him to make a move!
At that moment, Stella's pride as a woman suffered a serious blow.
So after Shiro went out these past few days, she painstakingly studied romance novels.
According to the novels, a woman was most charming right after leaving the bath.
Stella had carefully planned this scene for a long time. For that reason, she had even specially asked Shiro whether he would stop going out to train these few days.
She did not know why Shiro had looked strangely depressed when he answered that he could not train for the next few days, but it happened to increase the chance of her plan succeeding.
Now was the time to settle things!
She would make him bow before her feminine charm!
"Mm, because Stella is beautiful. As a hot-blooded young man, it's only normal for me to sneak a few looks."
Shiro calmly took a sip of tea from his cup and replied.
"Eh?!"
His honest attitude left Stella unsure how to respond.
'T-This isn't right. According to the book, isn't he supposed to get embarrassed here? The book never said what to do if he just admits it so openly.'
The expression on Stella's face was practically one step away from having question marks hanging above her head. Naturally, Shiro could see such obvious emotional changes.
And after spending these days together, Shiro had realized Stella's personality might have been stifled by spending too long in the palace. To put it nicely, she was a little secretly bold. To put it bluntly, her head was full of dirty thoughts.
She could twist many things into strange directions, and this time, Shiro had no idea what she had imagined.
So he teased her.
"I remember Stella usually changed clothes before coming out. Could it be that this time was intentional?"
After having her thoughts exposed, Stella sprang up from the sofa like a startled cat.
"N-No! I just felt hot. Yes, the weather is a little hot today, so I dressed like this."
To make her words sound more convincing, Stella blushed and slightly pulled open one corner of her towel, gently fanning inside with her hand. That movement gave Shiro another feast for the eyes.
"But it's only the middle of spring. And Stella can use flames hotter than three thousand degrees. No matter how I look at it, you don't seem like someone who would feel hot."
But Shiro would not be bought off by the sight before him. Today, he wanted to see what Stella was really planning.
"A-Actually, I'm curious about your ability. Look, ever since I met you, I've never seen the true form of your ability, so it must be some very important secret, right?"
Stella's mind spun rapidly, and she finally found a reason. Even if it sounded clumsy, it could barely hold up if examined.
"So if I want to understand that secret, paying this small price is only natural, right?"
Unexpectedly, Shiro fell silent after hearing those words.
"Stella."
After a while, he looked at her crimson eyes with a frown and asked,
"There's something I've always wanted to know. Is your ability really controlling fire?"
This was something Shiro had been thinking about ever since he heard about Stella's ability.
According to Stella herself, her Blazer ability was fire control, a nature-interference type.
It was not that fire control was weak. Rather, this kind of nature-interference ability was simply too common.
Among the people Shiro knew, Shizuku, Toudou Touka, and Stella all had nature-interference abilities.
A Blazer ability was closely tied to one's soul.
And in this world, [Desperado] was also a kind of rank, an existence that had broken free from its original fate.
During their previous battle, Stella had clearly shown an increase in her magic limit. Even if it was only a tiny amount, it was enough to prove she was also a natural-born [Desperado].
Then, for someone born as a [Desperado], would her Blazer ability really be something as common as controlling fire?
"Of course my ability is controlling fire. Look."
As Stella spoke, she produced a ball of flame at her fingertip. Under the movement of her fingers, it constantly changed into all kinds of shapes.
"No, that's not what I mean."
Shiro first shook his head, then extended his finger and drew a line in front of him.
In the next moment, he teleported onto the sofa where Stella sat. The distance between them was so close that he could smell the fragrance on her body, though he did not know whether it came from body wash or her own scent.
"Eek!"
Stella was startled by his movement. She thought he had finally figured things out and was about to give in to his beastly instincts, so she subconsciously shrank into the corner of the sofa and let out a small, animal-like cry.
"After seeing that, what do you think my ability is?"
Shiro smiled helplessly at Stella, who lowered her head in embarrassment over her own reflexive reaction.
"Causality interference... or conceptual manipulation-type teleportation... something like that?"
Stella grabbed a cushion from the sofa and hugged it, speaking with some hesitation.
"My real ability is concept manipulation-type severing. This teleport-like function was something I developed when I wondered whether I could cut the concept of distance."
Shiro looked at Stella, who had fallen into thought, and continued.
"So just like teleportation is part of my ability, could controlling fire also be a byproduct of your true ability?"
…
(Don't forget to vote and leave a comment below! :D If possible, share your review to show your support.)
...
Read more than 20 chapters in advance:
patréon.com/U22
(Note: Replace "é" with "e" on your web browser.)