Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos-Novel

Chapter 100 - Differences

Hearing that Ais wanted to kiss him, Vahn paused for a moment while thinking about his experiences with her. Much like Tiona, he had only known Ais for a short period of time and, in that time, they shared many of the same experiences. They had both dueled him, seen him n.a.k.e.d, bathed with him, and each had relatively high affections for him. Tiona was leading with her 100 affection, but Ais was sitting at 81, which was very high considering the short period they knew each other.

Ais was still looking toward him as he was mulling over the thoughts in his mind, almost like she was waiting for his decision. Vahn made eye contact with her and, after considering things, decided there was no reason to refute her. She hadn’t done anything to make him dislike her, and according to what he had learned from Riveria, there shouldn’t be any problems. Vahn nodded his head, and Ais walked closer to him before stopping right in front.

Off to the side, Tiona stared at the two with stars in her eyes as she held Lefiya’s mouth shut. Though she didn’t plan to let anyone take away Vahn from her, it didn’t mean she would prevent him from being with other people. For her, as long as she managed to secure all of Vahn’s firsts, everything else just increased her prestige and Vahn’s appeal. Lefiya seemed like she desperately wanted to stop the events that were about to transpire, so Tiona had sealed her mouth shut for the time being.

Vahn and Ais stared at each other without either making any movements for a while. Seeing the blushing Ais and her peerless complexion and doll-like face, Vahn felt the emotions that had been plaguing him lately begin to build up. She really was a very beautiful girl and, though she lacked expressiveness, Vahn thought she seemed to be the kind and gentle type. Well, as long as she wasn’t fighting a monster...

After a while, Vahn got closer to Ais and reached his hands around her waist. Unlike Tiona, Ais actually wore much more armor than she did in the manga. Though there was a gap near her back, it was somewhat awkward to grab around the plating and leather bandings of the armor. Vahn took a moment to find a better spot to seat his hands as Ais’s blush began to grow deeper. Finally, Vahn gave up trying to hug around her waist and just settled in the opening around her back, almost like he was hugging her normally.

Once his ’preparations’ were complete, Vahn looked into Ais’s eyes and noticed they were slightly watery. Though her expression hadn’t changed much, Vahn could see her brows had raised a bit. Slowly leaning his face toward her’s, Vahn overlapped his lips with Ais’s and gently kissed her. The moment they made contact, Ais tensed up a bit, but as the kiss continued she slowly began to relax.

The first thing Vahn noticed during the kiss, was that her lips were both similar but very different to Tiona’s. They were soft, but they had an extra springiness to them which made his head fuzzy. The next thing he noticed was the fragrance coming from her body. Unlike Tiona, who had a somewhat earthly smelling fragrance like fresh greens, Ais’s fragrance actually smelled a little like distilled honey. It was a subtle, but almost addicting aroma and it seemed to seep into Vahn’s mind and settle itself into the fuzzy feelings.

Just like when he had kissed Tiona, Vahn lost track of time as he began focusing on the different emotions and sensations building in his mind and body. He enjoyed kissing more than he expected, and it seemed like the longer the kiss went on, the better he felt. Suddenly, Ais began to squirm in his arms and Vahn pulled himself away from her. He could see that her face was red and she was breathing heavily with watery, almost pain-filled eyes. "Air...can’t breath."

Hearing her words, Vahn felt very awkward and a bit anxious. "Sorry, I got carried away..." Without thinking, he apologized and bowed his head slightly. Ais, who had been trying to recover her breathing, shook her head after hearing his words. "No. It was good...fluffy." Thinking that Vahn was blaming himself, Ais tried encouraging him using her thoughts about the experience. As it was her first kiss, she had blanked out very similarly to how Vahn did so previously. While she was struggling with all the new emotions inside of her, she forgot to breathe and began to panic slightly towards the end.

After she had calmed down, Ais wrapped her arms around Vahn and tried to give him a kiss this time. Before she was able to do so, Lefiya managed to free herself from the somewhat dazed Tiona and shouted. "Noooo~! Ais, you can’t!!!" Lefiya immediately pulled Ais away from Vahn’s grasp, and she gave Lefiya a sad look with her brows furrowed slightly. "Lefiya...you want a kiss too?" Ais thought Lefiya had stopped her, much like she had stopped Tiona previously.

Hearing Ais’s words, Lefiya’s face turned beet red and she began to stutter. "N-n-n-n-n-no way! No way, no how! I can’t k-k-k-k-kiss this, this BEAST!!!" Lefiya was flailing her arms around trying to deny the question before pointing toward Vahn when she shouted ’beast’. Vahn frowned after hearing her call him a beast, as he doesn’t recall doing anything to offend the small elf girl.

Tiona had recovered by now and began to laugh playfully at Lefiya’s innocent actions. "Ahahaha, he really is a ’beast’ in a way~! Vahn is a ’kissing-beast’ that makes a girls heart flutter, isn’t that right Ais~?" Tiona knew which aspect Lefiya was talking about, but decided to twist her words a bit to tease her. Hearing Tiona’s question, Ais paused for a few seconds with her head tilted. After finding an answer, she nodded her head saying, "Nnn, it made my heart beat very fast."

As Lefiya listened to Tiona and Ais talk about kissing, she desperately wanted to try and ’correct’ them, but she felt like if she tried clarifying things she would seem like a pervert. The pressure had been building up in her brain for a while, and the more she tried processing her chaotic thoughts, the closer she felt she was getting to passing out. Lefiya began to feel like today was the worst day of her life when, suddenly and unexpectedly, a hand landed on top of her head.

All of the thoughts in her mind faded away at the unexpected contact as a gentle warmth began to flow through her head. Just like all the other times she had experienced it, it was a very pleasant feeling, but it also made Lefiya feel terrified at the same time. Turning her head slightly, she could see Vahn looking at her with a concerned expression. "It’s okay Lefiya, I won’t kiss you. I am not a kissing beast or anything like that."

Hearing Vahn mentions the words ’kissing beast’ while showing her kindness made Lefiya feel like she wanted to cry. Everyone seemed to be misunderstanding her feelings, but there was nothing she could do to explain it. She had experienced so many ups and downs today, and they were almost all because of Vahn. Lefiya wanted to resent him for inserting himself into her life and making things so chaotic, but no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t seem to hate the naive, gentle, strong, and handsome boy.

All Lefiya had wanted after joining the Loki Familia was to spend time with her friends and try to get to know Ais better. Now, it seemed like Ais was being taken away from her, and it made Lefiya feel like she was losing something she had never had the chance to obtain. She knew Ais didn’t think of her in any strange way, and it was just her own fantasies mixing with reality, but Lefiya still felt very sad at seeing her so affectionate towards another person...especially a handsome boy.

Feeling the warmth flowing from the palm, Lefiya could no longer hold back her tears as she dropped to the ground and started crying softly. Vahn continued trying to ’console’ her, and the more he did so, the more terrible Lefiya felt. Not because he was being kind to her, but because she couldn’t hate him for all the things he had been doing. She could understand why other girls would fall for him as she also felt strange after interacting with him in such a short period of time. Lefiya felt it was very unfair...

Suddenly, Lefiya was embraced by a hard, but warm figure. Ais, who had been watching the incident, felt really bad for the crying Lefiya. She felt like she had wronged the girl in some way, but was unable to understand the reason. Instead of trying to figure it out, she decided to comfort the crying elf, so Ais kneeled down and embraced her gently. Unfortunately, as Ais was wearing armor, it wasn’t a soft embrace, but Lefiya seemed to cheer up almost instantly.

After Ais hugged Lefiya, Vahn removed his hand and smiled at the sight. Lefiya had stopped crying a bit, but there were still a few tears in her eyes. Ais, seeing that Vahn had removed his hand, began gently patting the girl’s head like she was a small animal. "There, there, Lefiya. Don’t be sad." Lefiya, hearing her words, turned her body and embraced Ais in return. She snuggled her face into the hard b.r.e.a.s.tplate of Ais and treated it like the most comfortable pillow in the world. "I won’t be sad anymore Ais. As long as I can be like this for a little bit longer..." In response, Ais just kept patting the girls head and said, "Nn, but not too long."

Tiona, seizing the moment when Vahn was free, ended up dragging him away while Ais followed their retreat with her eyes. She seemed to want to say something, but she was busy coaxing the small elf that was dripping snot and tears on her armor. Vahn allowed himself to be dragged away by Tiona as he gave an awkward smile towards the ’disgruntled’ Ais.

Once they had gotten a far enough distance away, Tiona once again embraced Vahn and quickly gave him a kiss before he could react. It was just a small peck on the lips, and then she immediately pulled away while laughing. "Ahaha~! As expected, a hero has many heroines at his side. Just make sure you always have a place in your heart for me, okay~?" Though Tiona was acting playfully, Vahn could tell she was very serious when she spoke her words.

Vahn nodded his head before giving her a serious response, "I will try, but I don’t know much about love and things like that. There are still a lot of things I want to do, but I will do my best as long as I don’t make anyone I care about sad..." Tiona beamed after hearing his statement, and then seemed to ponder for a while with her index finger to her chin. "That’s right, there were a bunch of others girls around you at Tsubaki’s place. I thought they might be your lovers, but seeing as how you didn’t have any experience, that means I am your first, right?"

Vahn was very confused, and without thinking, he asked, "Eh? We’re lovers?" Vahn knew they had been intimate, but he didn’t think they had crossed that line yet. He thought lovers had to have s.e.x or get married. Tiona saw his fl.u.s.tered state and closed the distance between them. She bent forward with her hands behind her back, low enough so that she could look up at Vahn’s face from below. "Do you not like me, Vahn?" Tiona had a pleasant smile on her face as she asked the question.

With how Tiona had approached him and asked her question, Vahn felt a bit nervous and swallowed his saliva. It was true that he didn’t dislike Tiona, and he didn’t think he would feel so strange if he didn’t like her. "I think I do like you..." Vahn slowly spoke the words, almost as if he was testing them on his lips for the first time. After hearing himself, Vahn realized that this was technically his first confession to a girl...

Tiona smiled with a smile more radiant than the crystals shining overhead. "Good, because I really really like you~! Since we both like each other, that means we can be lovers, right? You don’t have to worry, even if we have a baby it won’t interfere with your life. I will do my best to raise it at the village before I come back!" Tiona was getting very excited since she felt like she had finally found the ’hero’ she had been looking for. Not to mention, the ’hero’ was a boy her age and he was both handsome and strong!

Vahn felt like he was getting caught up in her excitement. Seeing how happy she was, Vahn didn’t think he had enough courage to refuse her. Desperately holding back a sigh, Vahn smiled toward Tiona and said, "Sure, but I think we should take things a bit slower...we are both still young..." Vahn didn’t even believe his own words as he spoke, and Tiona seemed to completely ignore them as well. "Ahahaha, you don’t have to worry about that Vahn~! My body is perfectly capable of having kids already! Don’t underestimate the strength of an Amazon~!"

Hearing Tiona repeatedly talking about kids, Vahn began to feel a cold sweat build up on his back. No matter how he thought about it, he didn’t think he was ready to be a father...as Vahn had that thought, he felt a peculiar emotion build up in his mind. Frowning, Vahn began to think about various things. He wondered if he had a father, and why he had never heard anything about him. Even his memory of his birth, the only person in the room beside the hospital staff was his mother...

Vahn began to realize that, in his mind, he didn’t really have any expectations for what a father should be like. Even in the manga he read, most of the main characters either didn’t have parents, or they would only have a single parent. Vahn had no idea how to be a father, but he also noticed something bubble up from deep inside him. Recalling what Tiona had said about raising their child away at the Amazon village, Vahn felt like it was unacceptable...

Tiona had noticed the grim expression on Vahn’s face, and she began to feel anxious. "Vahn...is something wrong?" Tiona was worried that she had pressed too hard and made Vahn change his mind about things. Vahn, hearing Tiona call out to him, looked toward her with a firm expression on his face. He slowly spoke the words, "If I have a kid, I won’t abandon it. I can’t let you take it away to a village...I just can’t!" Vahn felt like, if he let his kids be raised in a place away from him, he would have failed himself as a person.

(A/N: Alternate Titles: ’Lefiya’s Confusion’,’Ais’s Competitive Nature’,’Tiona is sneaky’)