He felt her sour look and lifted one eyebrow.“Are you having an impolite thought right now?”“You’re the one who was impolite to my lips.”“It wasn’t impolite. It was treatment.”“It’s a truly impolite method of treatment.”“I don’t think you’re in a position to be picky about methods.”“…”It stung, but it was true.If what she’d heard so far was fact, she would already be a dead woman if not for this man’s mouth… meeting hers.…No, wait. He said bodily fluids.Aquila retraced what he had muttered a moment ago.Fifteen minutes. A single mouthful of blood buys about that much time of moving normally.And last night’s haze—one of the few things stamped sharp in her mind—the iron-tanged, bloody kiss.She narrowed her eyes and asked to confirm.“Does your blood work as a remedy too?”“…Hmm.”Maybe he was starting to crave tobacco; Noce picked up the pipe he’d set down, took the mouthpiece between his teeth, drew deep, and exhaled.Through the thin white smoke, his lips held a crooked smile.“If it did?”“…”Through the smoke, Aquila’s red eyes skimmed quickly over his vital points. Places where a light prick would set blood surging.“Ha.”Catching that look, Noce broke off mid-drag and laughed.“Bold little lady. Were you really going to try to kill me?”“…It’d be hard.”All his vital points were within arm’s reach, but she had no proper weapon. Above all, there was no way this monster of a man would take it meekly, and it would only waste the strength she’d barely clawed back.Whether he laughed or not, Aquila abandoned the assassination.For now.As long as you live, chances come. That single conviction was how she’d held out and held out until now.I just have to catch that chance again this time.Aquila lowered her eyes, hiding the last trace of killing intent. In Noce’s gaze, watching her look like a tame creature tucking its tail, something strange glowed hot.“There’s an easier way than killing me.”“…?”“Want to hear it?”There was an ominousness in his eyes, but in her current state she couldn’t not ask.“…What is it?”He slid an arm around her back and, half-reclining as he was, raised his torso. As he came up, her body—lying on top of his—naturally went down.【 How a Competent Assassin Survives on a Pirate Ship 】Letting him do as he pleased, Aquila promptly stopped breathing.Something was under her hips as she went down.“Here.”With a faint sigh and a wisp of smoke, he murmured at her ear.“For starters, what comes out here is also a bodily fluid.”“…”For a second, Aquila didn’t process what she’d heard. But then her lashes trembled, just a little.“…Are you insane?”“A little? Or maybe quite a lot.”Unfazed by the faint roughness edging her voice, he tucked his face into her shoulder. His damp, heavy breath sank into the pale bared neck.“To tell the truth, three straight days of nothing but kissing was its own kind of torment.”“…Wait— ngh.”“No matter how much I took care of it by myself, it wouldn’t go down.”Took care of what?At the kiss brushing her neck, Aquila hunched her shoulders—and her thoughts stalled again. Holding that rigid body slow but tight, he let out a long sigh.“See? Even now.”“Urgh…”Weight shifted downward, and what lay between her spread legs pressed more starkly against her. Even through clothing, the heat and presence were plain; Aquila’s ears began to burn.Judgment she’d managed to keep sharp on the knife-edge of life and death wavered for the first time before a sexual overture she’d never met head-on.“G—get off…”“Why?”“Because you keep… touching…”“Mm. I’m pressing so I can touch.”“You crazy bastard…”“Oh? Already?”Her composure finally slipped; an unfiltered curse popped out. Noce raised his head at her rough voice and met her eyes.“The crazy hasn’t even started yet.”“…”Aquila bit her lip hard. If she could have, she’d have wrapped her hands around his throat, or snapped her knee up and cracked his jaw.But she didn’t have the strength to break his arms cinched so ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ close their chests were flush.“Think about it.”He set the pipe down again. With fingers scented bitter with smoke, he teased at her clenched lips and eased them loose.“I get to have you, you get treated. It’s not a rut season, so there’s no pregnancy to worry about.”Among beastfolk and other non-humans, rut seasons were separate; outside those periods, coupling didn’t result in pregnancy. Aquila, who’d encountered beastfolk more than most, knew that well enough—but that wasn’t what mattered now.Her voice trembled faintly with a feeling that might have been anger or shame.“…There’s no guarantee it treats anything.”“Why would I bother with this kind of lie?”He pecked her lips—smack.“To a young lady who can’t even dodge something like this.”“…”Fire roared up in Aquila’s head.Son of a—But infuriatingly, he kept saying things that were true.If this vicious man decided to, she’d have no choice but to spread her legs just as she was. The strange thing was that instead he was talking in good faith—and in a sense, making a proposal.Struggling to keep an even head, Aquila asked in a lowered voice:“If I say no?”“…Then we don’t.”In an instant, his face cooled; the arms holding her eased.“I don’t have a hobby of taking women who say no.”“…That’s… very…”Kind, even.Which meant that thanks to this refined taste of a savage, mad pirate, she was spared being forced.Heat surged up from her gut, only to be doused again, over and over; in the end, Aquila let out a tangled sigh.Think. The best method. What has to come first right now.Escape from this ship. Safe return.All of it hung on her body recovering.It’s not like I’ve been precious about this body to begin with.Before she ever became an assassin, she’d suffered worse shames, killed more than plenty, crossed death more than once with this flesh. It wasn’t as if being ridden once by a pirate would be some categorical difference.While she sorted her thoughts, Noce let her go and reached for his pipe.“Well then, we’ll do what we’ve been doing. Either way, I’m not going to let you die, so—”But his hand never reached the pipe. A slender foot hooked around his neck and drew him in. He could have shaken it off easily, but he came along, caught off guard.His eyes, rarely opened wide, filled with the deep red of her gaze.“…Do it.”Level, but with a faint hidden tremor—the voice slipped into his ear.“Let’s do it. The treatment…”“…!”Noce’s golden pupils tightened once and then opened. Breath that had halted for a beat burst out hot again.“Do you mean it?”“What would I have to gain from a joke like this.”Her bare, humorless stare made her chest stir, but Aquila made herself sound offhand, adding:“Like someone said—given my situation.”“…If we start, I won’t stop.”“Obviously… you shouldn’t.”His face came closer and closer, and her voice wavered just a touch. Their breaths tangled in the inch between lips that might meet any second.Aquila swallowed. Honestly, she’d thought the moment she said it, he’d pounce; he was slower than she’d expected.If they were going to do it, she wanted it quick and done—before the resolve she’d shored up could shake.She didn’t wait for him to come; she lifted her head and kissed him first.Smack— At the touch, his eyes, already taut, dilated wide.Turned to stone, have you?With her arms around his neck, Aquila tipped her head at an angle. Remembering how he’d kissed her, she slipped her tongue out just a little and reached for his—“Mm—?!”Instead, he invaded in return.His mouth and thick tongue drove in deep in an instant; Aquila sucked a breath. But it was too soon to be surprised.Whip—The world flipped in a heartbeat, and the plush feel of bedding pressed to Aquila’s back.Startled, eyes wide, she saw the wide drift of his long sleeve and the eyes gone low.Like a raptor’s at the start of a hunt—his golden gaze gleamed with a chilling light that made her spine prickle. Her hands, which had twitched to shove him away, locked up on the spot.“Uh— mmph…”Seizing the moment she went still, his kiss turned rougher, more relentless.He pushed his tongue between her parted lips and rubbed everywhere—palate, inner cheeks, every stretch of mucosa without leaving a spot. If he found a place that drew a thoughtless moan from her, he sucked there with focus.Before, his kisses had been to share his saliva; now they were kisses that felt like being swallowed whole. She couldn’t even respond—only carve out tiny slivers of air and endure.Meanwhile, over the legs shadowed by his body, a big hand crept up like a snake.The thin dancer’s costume wrinkled, close to tearing under that sinister touch.He pried one thigh open in his grip; his thigh slid into its place. Even through fabric, the weighty press of a man’s sex was plain where it settled between her unguardedly spread legs. The corners of Aquila’s eyes quivered.He drank in even the breath laced with a bit of tension and drew his mouth back just a little. In that brief gap, a voice already sunk deep settled on her lips.“Young lady—your experience?”

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