It tasted like the finest nectar in the world.
Every offering numbed his mind and left his entire being lost in bliss.
They had already extracted enough of the special ingredient for the macarons, and he had enjoyed more than enough of it himself.
Reluctantly, he finally pulled away and stopped drinking from her.
He forced himself to resist even though that indescribably delicious nectar was still seeping out.
Meanwhile, at the opposite end of their intertwined position, Lacus was consuming a similar milky-white substance.
Next came their true union.
...
Dawn had only just begun to break.
Before the vehicle had even stopped, a blonde girl vaulted out and raced toward the villa, taking several steps at a time. The moment she reached the entrance, she pressed the doorbell.
Ding-dong!
There was no response.
Not even five seconds had passed before the impatient blonde began hammering the doorbell again.
"Princess Cagalli, that's extremely rude."
Lunamaria stepped forward to stop her.
"Be quiet!"
After snapping at her, Cagalli suddenly remembered something. She pressed her finger against the scanner beside the electronic gate, unlocking it instantly, then hurried inside.
She had been tricked into leaving yesterday evening. By this morning, she could no longer sit still.
"Cagalli, if you keep charging in so aggressively, Mr. Kain might start disliking you."
Murrue had accompanied them, and her warning made Cagalli's fierce expression stiffen.
She immediately restrained herself and tried to appear a little more composed.
As Murrue gazed at the eerily quiet villa, however, unease continued to weigh on her heart.
Would Lacus breaking through Kain's emotional defenses truly lead to a positive outcome?
Murrue had no confidence in the answer. Part of her even regretted telling Lacus the truth about why Kain was afraid of her.
"Murrue, is something going on?"
"I'm sorry, Natarle. I can't tell you right now."
Murrue answered her frowning friend with guilt in her eyes.
She still could not understand what had come over her that night when she dragged Natarle into everything.
Perhaps she had felt that she could never satisfy Kain by herself, yet she did not want him to be left unsatisfied. Natarle also seemed to have feelings for him, and she had already witnessed Murrue in an unbearably humiliating situation.
In a moment of reckless desperation, Murrue dragged Natarle into the same misdeed. If they did something improper together, then perhaps it would not feel quite as embarrassing.
Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that doing so lessened her guilt toward Lacus.
In Murrue's eyes, Lacus was effectively Kain's true partner. Only Lacus was worthy of standing beside him.
That made Murrue an intruder in their relationship.
By dragging Natarle into it, she ensured that there would be one more person who had betrayed Lacus. At least she would not have to face Lacus alone.
She really was despicable.
"Don't worry. This has nothing to do with what happened to you that night."
Noticing that Natarle had misunderstood and was growing uneasy, Murrue tried to reassure her.
"Actually, I told Lacus everything yesterday morning. I explained that you were a victim and that I was the one who dragged you into it."
Natarle's face instantly froze.
"You... You actually told her?"
The usual coldness vanished from Natarle's expression, replaced by panic.
"I did."
"You're not joking?"
Natarle sought confirmation again.
Had Murrue truly told Lacus that she had done something improper with that man?
"I'm not joking."
Her friend did not appear to be lying, leaving Natarle with the sudden urge to faint.
"Come on. Let's go inside."
The villa was just as silent inside. It almost seemed as though no one lived there.
Were the two of them not here after all?
"Princess Cagalli!"
"Move!"
Lunamaria failed to stop the impulsive princess. She could only hurry after Cagalli, with everyone else following close behind as they reached one of the bedrooms on the second floor.
Click!
Cagalli flung open the door.
Only Lacus was inside, sleeping alone on the bed.
She lay on her side, curled as though she had fallen asleep while holding someone in her arms.
Her long eyelashes trembled slightly before she slowly opened her eyes. Still looking dazed, she pushed herself halfway upright and rubbed them.
"Good morning, everyone."
The sleepy princess greeted them.
"What do you mean, 'good morning'? Where's Mr. Kain?"
"Hmm?"
"Don't 'hmm' me! I asked where he is. Did he already go back?"
Lacus tilted her head again, then reached beside herself and felt around the pillow.
There was still a trace of warmth.
It appeared that Kain had only left recently.
Strictly speaking, he had not left without saying goodbye. Lacus had asked him to wait until she fell asleep before departing.
From Cagalli and the others' perspective, however, it certainly counted as sneaking away.
Kain had not left because his second hundred-hour stay had ended. He had left because he was afraid.
He feared becoming too deeply immersed in Lacus's tenderness. It was like refusing to leave a warm bed in the middle of winter. The longer he stayed, the less he would want to get up.
Eventually, he might decide to extend his stay for a third hundred hours.
"Where is he?"
Cagalli stepped forward and grabbed Lacus by the shoulders.
The movement caused the blanket covering Lacus to slide down even farther, exposing a flawless body that made even Cagalli envious.
Cagalli blinked in surprise.
Something about Lacus's figure seemed slightly different.
"Mr. Kain has already returned. I'm truly sorry that he couldn't stay to meet everyone."
As Lacus started to rise and apologize, something happened.
"Ah!"
Kain had described a method that might help stabilize Coordinator genes. As a woman, Lacus required his sperm, and she had stored it inside herself.
When she sat up, the resulting pressure loosened the adhesive patch she had used to keep it from leaking out.
Lacus believed that the genetic material needed sufficient time to be absorbed. Letting any of it go to waste would have been a shame.
If possible, she would have preferred to use a condom again.
"A-Ah? Ugh..."
Cagalli's face began twitching.
No matter how naïve she might be, there was no possible way for her to misunderstand the scene in front of her.
And why was Lacus still exclaiming so innocently? After doing something like that, she still looked completely pure and guileless.
"What's wrong?"
Standing farther back, Meyrin could not understand why everyone's expressions had suddenly changed. She turned toward her older sister for an explanation.
"D-Don't look, Meyrin!"
Lunamaria was too late.
Her younger sister had already leaned around her and seen everything.
A second later, Meyrin went completely still.
Her brain appeared to have overheated, with imaginary steam rising from her head.
...
The spatial jump ended, revealing Kain's new destination nearby: a dark green planet.
This was another former human world containing a buried Standard Template Construct.
The planet could also be considered outside the present-day territory of the Imperium of Man.
Its star system lay within an unusual region of space. After the appearance of the Great Rift, it had likely been cut off from the Imperium for almost four thousand years.
Kain tossed a specially made half-macaron into his mouth and prepared to begin his descent.
He needed the thrill of danger to wash away the urges left behind by the paradise he had nearly lost himself in.
He felt like an aircraft about to make an emergency landing. All he could do was adjust his condition as much as possible before impact.
Then he noticed something strange.
The planet was under attack by an unidentified fleet, and the invasion appeared to be nearing its conclusion.
Kain immediately moved closer.
The artificial objects drifting through space looked strangely familiar.
Some resembled twenty-first-century satellites, while others appeared to be the wreckage of a space station.
He magnified the planet's surface and saw cities reduced to ruins.
Despite the destruction, their architecture was more than eighty percent similar to that of modern twenty-first-century cities.
More strangely, the invaders appeared to be human as well.
Were humans slaughtering their own kind?
(End of Chapter)
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