The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'
Chapter 181 - The Candy Chilled Itself Before It Melted, But The Cultivator Felt A Crack

Chapter 181: Chapter 181 - The Candy Chilled Itself Before It Melted, But The Cultivator Felt A Crack

The brunette stiffened in place at the sudden new nickname. Even without her facade in place, a heat rushed to her cheeks. The last time her fortress had tried giving her such pet names was around their wedding day - and none of them had quite stuck. Elua thought she had given up, but this ’mint-drop’...

Her spirit roiled with ’delight’ and ’embarrassment’ as she processed the thoughts that might be behind it. Not just the obvious reference to her eye color, but the deeper meaning it might have been chosen. The tall girl’s voice continued, warm breath stirring her hair.

"I found these candies being sold on my last mission. Hard, sweet spheres the size of your thumb with a chilling sharpness that can hit you suddenly. The merchant called them ’little tricksters’ because of how they fool you into thinking they’re mild at first."

The ancient cultivator’s fingers curled tight around the arms holding her. So much warm emotion was layering inside that she thought she would melt. Of course her Qat would work hard to pick something that captured both her sweet facade and her underlying nature - and use it with full affection rather than criticism.

"That’s..."

Her monotone trailed off as she felt another light kiss being pressed to the crown of her head. The fragment in Qatrand’s chest pulsed and twinkled out an array of feelings over how deeply the ’simple’ gestures affected her wife.

’She shows me her tender side so easily, so why is it even a shock?’

For the ’young’ girl’s part, the other’s careful attention to intimate things like that sometimes still caught her off guard. Whether it was the almost clumsy ’natural’ form of it or something else, she couldn’t tell - and Elua actually didn’t want to, because she enjoyed being a little genuinely flustered.

"So, it feels like you like that one?"

"Y-yeah."

A sense of ’relief’ needled through the tendrils of spirit poking at the Goltbred. While the swordswoman could make a lot of the different emotions out that she felt from the spouse in her arms, hearing it being said out loud was much better. The edges of her lips curved.

"That’s good. I was worried that I was the only one who would like it."

"You think about that?"

Elua couldn’t quite keep the ’wonder’ from her spirit. The Yecine leaned back and sat straight in the seat. She pulled the girl closer to her chest while looking up at the ceiling with a set of unclouded pigeon-blues.

"Of course. I want to call you something special. Something that’s just mine."

The brunette shifted and threw her legs over one side of Qat’s. She hugged the older teen back and looked up at her husband-wife’s upward tilted chin. Seeing it made changing position feel like a *mistake*, but she stayed ’calm’ and pressed close.

"But you always could. Calling me yours is already special. Do you know how great it feels every time I hear you say ’my wife’?"

"That’s different. I like saying that, but this is... more like how you call me your fortress."

Qatrand’s voice softened further as she closed her eyes and continued in her low voice.

"I know it’s just the meaning of my name, but when you say it I feel happy. I wanted what I picked to do the same for you."

The blonde chuckled and shook her head before continuing.

"I still think you picked the better name. A fortress should protect what’s precious inside it. A mint-drop is just a candy I liked when I tried it."

"Just a candy?"

Elua’s monotone carried a hint of challenge as idle fingers traced patterns on her beloved’s shoulder.

"You said it’s something sweet that looks harmless but has a hidden, unexpected strength. That it makes people underestimate it until they’ve already committed. All of that sounds charming to..."

She trailed off as she realized she was praising herself through descriptions of a treat. Elua also wanted to stop the comparisons before she accidentally talked about ’taste’... though it was killing the reincarnator not to teach her how to suck on her tongue and then ask which of them tasted better.

Her spirit roiled with a mix of ’embarrassment’ and ’amusement’ on its top layers, hiding the usual set of ’love’ and ’urges’.

"A-anyway, my love, I’m not sure I’ve ever had such an appropriate moniker. So if you-"

"El."

The heiress raised her averted eyes up to see that Qat was looking down at her. As she stared up, she noticed the swordswoman was lifting up the obsidian mirror from its placement on the seating. The smaller cultivator had left it there when Navuill left the room, not wanting to bother with it getting in the way of their intimate time.

"I feel like I need to change the subject for you. Do you want to explain?"

Knowing that her urge to deeply kiss had been noticed and that her beloved was trying to manage the situation for them... really made her want it more! In fact, she wished that one of the candies were around so that they could ’share’ it!

The extremely tempting idea forced her to close her eyes and breathe deeply... but that just made the spicy scent of the Yecine further warm her passion. The cultivator didn’t feel like she could do anything trustworthy besides *not* move.

"I will, but you have to pick me up and put me on the other side of the cabin first."

With ’concern’, Qatrand did just as she suggested. The brunette held her head in her hands while staring at the ground, cursing her mental age for being both ’useless’ and a big part of the problem at the same time. The air around her cooled and scraped against her as she tried to lower the temperature that had built.

"What are you doing?"

The ’pitiful’ face on her facade tilted up and looked across to Qat’s grimace, whose hands gripped in ’frustration’ on the padded bench. Elua could tell that it was all from the bother of being unable to assist in any meaningful way... and causing *that* sort of look on the person she loved felt even worse than causing a little pain during some massage.

"A new trick I’ve been practicing. I’ll be fine. Please, don’t wear that face."

The soft voice held more ’sadness’ at the last begging than she would have intentionally used on anyone else... especially if the illusion of her persona was *directly* controlled and not part of the mentally deluding construct she had long formed.

’Oh well. It’s true that seeing her like that is making me sad. Should I really do it?’

The ancient cultivator contemplated sealing away the parts of her real self. Making it so that the slightest bit of arousal did not conjure hundreds of well understood possibilities.

Despite being something she had learned how to do in her past life, the idea had always filled her with revulsion. Part of it stemmed from discovering it after witnessing how fiddling too directly with someone else’s spirit had changed them irrevocably.

Elua hesitated every time she had thought of it in the past few years. This would be unlike her facade which, while it affected who she *became*, still allowed her to act without ever forgetting who she actually *was*...

"Whatever you are thinking, no. Just... no."

The flux of ’reluctance’ and ’self-loathing’ that had grown rather rapidly made the blonde stand and march over quickly. She gripped the forehead of her wife while admonishing her with those words in a fierce voice.

"Qat..."

"You... do you think I’ve accepted everything you’ve told me while thinking it would always be easy? I love you, El... and because of that I know you aren’t perfect."

Her hand trembled as she gripped a bit harder, though not from the cooler air. The tones were filled with emotion. Qatrand could understand, she felt, that sense of failure to be as ’good’ at a task as you think you should be.

’If it wasn’t for her, wouldn’t I have also-’

"As much as you don’t want me to be frustrated right now for your sake, I don’t ever want you to hate yourself for mine. I said I’d protect you, so you’re not *allowed* to be my enemy in this."

The Yecine brought her other hand up and held either side of the girl’s face. Calloused thumbs pet the soft cheeks while the pigeon-blue glare stared down. The mix of intimacy and scolding made the girl’s heart shake and the corner of her eyes grow hot.

"Are you giving up already, Elua er Goltbred? Or do we understand each other?"

Two trails of tears slipped out of dull mint eyes. The heiress was very sure that her fortress did not know exactly what she had been thinking of doing. However, she couldn’t imagine that the response would be all that different. She sniffled while closing her eyes and half smiling with her teeth.

"At the very least, you understand me better than anyone else. I’ll try not to get so upset at myself next time. I was just unhappy that I ruined our nice moment."

"...I think it was something more, but we’ll leave it at that. Besides, you didn’t ruin anything my mint-drop..."

Qatrand pulled one of her hands away and looked at her palm curiously while flexing her fingers. She had been too absorbed in speaking her mind and getting a response.

"Though you did get a little chilly after being sweet. Are you turning into the candy in front of my eyes?"