"Mm..."
A hoarse little moan drifted into Leon's ear.
He turned his head and met a pair of pale violet eyes, still fogged over with sleep.
Their gazes locked. Neither of them said anything.
Leon didn't speak either, just lay there watching her. And the look on Jeanne's face shifted from waking confusion to clarity, and then, as though something had struck her all at once, last night's broken, scorching fragments came flooding back into her head.
The color climbed her cheeks fast enough to watch, spreading all the way to the tips of her ears, and her whole body gave a small jolt, like she'd been scalded.
"L-Leon... let me explain..."
Leon grinned, showing a flash of white teeth, and there was something dangerous in it. His arm swept out and hauled her against him without asking, her warm body fitting flush against his.
Jeanne squirmed, mortified, and he only locked her in tighter. That thin thread of resistance didn't push him off at all. It went into him like a spark into dry kindling, and the fire she'd spent all night stoking caught again.
"Heh..."
His breath brushed her ear, and he leaned in close, his voice all mockery.
"You like playing the knight so much? Fine. Let's see how long you can stay in the saddle."
"Just don't come crying to me for mercy later."
The words weren't finished before his hands had clamped down on her waist and pressed her down, no room to argue.
"N-no! Don't!"
Jeanne's eyes went wide and frantic. Both hands clamped down on the backs of his.
But Leon bore down anyway.
The next second, a sound tore out of her throat, low and shaking, the kind that makes the blood surge.
"Ngh..."
"Leon! You'll regret this!"
...
Leon and Jeanne had started going at it before the sky was even light, and Rose and Kureha, sharing the same bed, could hardly not react.
With senses honed by years of training, Kureha had woken the moment Leon began "punishing" Jeanne. It was just that, feeling what was happening right beside her, the shame was so overwhelming she didn't dare open her eyes, so she kept them squeezed shut and played dead.
"Ara~~"
A soft laughing whisper landed right against her ear.
Two arms slid around her from behind. One crossed her waist to rest lightly on her belly, the other stroked up the smooth line of her back, fingertips wandering as though barely touching her at all. Rose propped her chin over Kureha's shoulder, smiling as she looked past her to Jeanne on the other side, who was being rocked hard enough that her lashes fluttered and her eyes kept threatening to roll back. Her voice was thick with amusement.
"Little Kureha, you're awake, so stop pretending. Burying your head in the sand like that... it does look awfully cute on you~~~"
Kureha's face went red enough to bleed, and no matter how Rose teased her, all she did was let her lashes tremble and keep her eyes stubbornly closed.
Naturally, two people carrying on that openly didn't escape Leon's notice.
He kept working Jeanne over, not giving her a second to catch her breath, and turned his head toward Rose with a curl of amusement at his mouth.
"Looks like... you're ready for me to pay you back?"
"My dear Miss Rose?"
Rose let go of the faintly trembling Sword Saint, rolled onto her side, propped her chin on one hand, and took her unhurried time admiring the spectacular expression on the Holy Maiden's face, three parts shame, three parts pleasure, three parts daze and one part blank. Only then did she slowly lift her eyes to meet Leon's.
"Ara~~ if a man's appetite for payback runs too deep, he might just..."
"Get over here, you."
Leon didn't let her finish. He yanked her over.
"Atone properly for me, Your Majesty."
"Nn!"
The sudden numbing rush and the loss of control froze the smile on Rose's face, and a small shaking whimper slipped out of her before she could catch it.
...
When Persephone came past Leon's door, rubbing at a temple that ached from last night's wine and yawning, sounds she couldn't ignore reached her ears. Moans, faint and then not faint, climbing high and then winding low, threaded through with heavy breathing, and in the quiet of early morning they carried with perfect clarity.
Her steps stopped. Her sluggish head cleared instantly, as if someone had poured ice water over it.
The next second her cheeks flooded red, she spat a curse under her breath, and she turned and walked back to her own room fast enough that it was very nearly fleeing.
Bang.
The door slammed. She put her back against it, tipped her head up, and stared blankly at the warm yellow glow of the Magic Stone lamp on the ceiling for a long, long moment.
"Bastard..."
"Scumbag!"
"He... he actually plays it that wild?"
"Jeanne, Rose, Kureha..."
Persephone bit her lower lip, her fingertips unconsciously fisting in the hem of her clothes, her eyes flickering.
"I..."
A thought went through her head and set a small shiver through her. She hugged her arms without meaning to, and her expression changed several times over, struggle tangled up with resolve.
After a long while, as though she'd finally talked herself into it, her gaze hardened. She turned to pull the door open and march straight to that room.
And then her eyes passed over the back of the chair, where a pair of flesh-toned stockings, a pair of side-cutout heels, and that black evening gown with the high slit lay neatly folded.
Her movement stopped.
Her gaze rested on that dark fabric a moment, and something in it flickered.
...
About a quarter of an hour later.
Persephone, lightly made up and dressed with care, stood in front of that door again.
This time she didn't hesitate at all. She raised a hand, pushed the door open, and walked straight in.
...
"Persephone?"
Watching his elegant superior lock the door behind her without hesitating, her face placid on the surface even as something panicked moved at the back of her eyes, Leon drove up hard, and Jeanne, on top of him, seemed to hit some kind of limit. Her body seized, and a scream ripped out of her.
"L-Leon!"
"Please! Let... let me go!"
"Nghh!"
"Aaaaaah!"
The scream cut off. Jeanne's eyes rolled white, and her whole body convulsed like she'd been put through a current.
After a few short, broken gasps she went completely limp, eyes unfocused, and sagged down onto Leon's sweat-slick chest, only the faintest unconscious tremors still running through her.
"Heh..."
Leon laughed low in his throat, turned his gaze to Persephone standing frozen in the doorway, and tipped his chin lazily in her direction.
"You've come at exactly the right moment, Persephone... 'my lady.'"
The drawn-out title was pure mockery.
"You..."
Hearing the teasing he hadn't bothered to hide, and looking at Jeanne, whose body was still twitching faintly even unconscious, Persephone felt something familiar strike her. A similar tremor stirred awake out of the depths of her memory, and a rush of numbness shot up her spine without warning, tightening her fingertips before she could stop it.
...
...
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