Chapter 77: Mutual Attraction

Solomon was not a fool. He knew that Jiaoying still had other duties to attend to in Eirbaine.

She was a knight commander, after all. A position that one could spend a lifetime trying to reach and still fail.

It was a miracle that she had been able to stick around this long.

He always knew that she would have to leave one day. But he still felt blindsided when the moment finally came.

“You mourn for me even though I have not yet departed? I am touched.” Jiaoying teased.

Solomon makes a gruff noise as he turns away.

Somehow, the three of them had ended up sitting around a table in Yari’s quarters.

A bottle of alcohol sat open between them, along with three wooden cups provided by their host.

“He’s not the only one… distressed by your looming departure.” Yari stared into her cup. “I also find myself rather upset when I think of the day when you no longer grace these halls.”

Jiaoying smiles at her sadly.

“Don’t think of it like a goodbye… more of a see you later kind of thing. I’ll return one day. Or maybe you could finally get off this island and come visit me.”

Yari does not respond as she returns to drinking.

Jiaoying starts to join her when she feels a pair of eyes on her.

Instead of meeting her gaze, Solomon looks away rather stubbornly, amusing Jiaoying slightly.

“Aww, don’t be like that. You were very persistent, but you can’t be upset that our little game has ended already.”

Solomon put his cup down. “Did my advances truly seem like a child’s game to you?”

“I do not mean to offend. Perhaps if I were younger, or you a bit older..”

“We would still be adults. Nothing would change.”

“The things that people say would change.”

“So you deny me because you are afraid of what people would say?” Solomon brought his cup to his lips again and closed his eyes. “I never took such a fearsome idol to be so timid.”

Jiaoying’s expression hardened slightly. It took all that Solomon could muster not to smile.

“…I am aware that you find me attractive, and I you, but-”

“I believe this might be the first time you’ve confessed to being attracted to me.”

“Did you believe I would allow you to lay a hand upon my waist if I found your face difficult to admire?”

“Indeed not. But it is nice to hear you no longer deny it.”

Yari poured herself another drink, watching the two go back and forth as if it were a stage play.

Jiaoying rolled her eyes as she went back to drinking. “I am sorry… you’ll have to find another attractive older woman to seduce… Might I recommend our Yari here? Her form is… immensely pleasing.”

Yari choked on her wine.

When she looked up, Solomon was staring at her with a look she couldn’t quite decipher.

“…I will admit. The first time I laid eyes on her, I was frightened. Her beauty was greater than any I had ever perceived in my entire life. I believed that, with a look, she could have made a slave of me if I were unguarded and she were so inclined.”

Jiaoying and Yari were both so stunned by Solomon’s words that they nearly dropped their cups. Yari in particular seemed as though her mind was currently swimming with static.

Solomon, not seeing the issue, turned his gaze back down to his drink. “That was my worry before I discovered that you were just a shut-in elf who likes talking to plants and rocks.”

Yari slapped the table. “D-Do not refer to me as a shut-in! And what I do in the privacy of my quarters, during my free time, is my own damn business!”

Solomon chuckled, something that only seemed to make Yari even more frustrated.

Jiaoying swiveled her gaze back and forth between the two of them. “Boy, you really do have a thing for women twice your age, don’t you…? Though it’s not as if I don’t understand in this particular instance…”

A small smirk of amusement formed on her lips, though it was quickly hidden by the cup.

“When I’m gone, you should switch your focus to pursuing Yari instead… You may fare better than I did.”

Solomon was beginning to feel a bit of a buzz from the alcohol. This was his first drink in over two years now.

“I must confess… I have greedily harbored fantasies of holding you both as my own. Though it is a thought I have never voiced aloud before now. It was not my wish to make Lady Assata even more uncomfortable with me than she already…”

Slowly, Solomon began to sober up as Jiaoying’s last words finally sank in to his brain.

He turned to her, his brow raised.

“Wait… Do you mean to imply that-”

“As embarrassing as it is to say, you’re not the only student who went here who had starry eyes for an instructor…” Jiaoying’s brow quirked up, as she finally processed Solomon’s last words as well. “Hang on, why do you say that Yari is uncomfortable with you??”

Solomon scratched the back of his head.

“Well, that-”

“We kissed.” Yari suddenly blurted out.

This time, Jiaoying actually was so shocked that she dropped her cup.

Luckily, Solomon caught it before she could spill all over herself.

“It was… a bit of a slip-up that happened while working together on our project.” Yari lied.

She reached across the table and gently touched Solomon’s hand. “Though I feel you should know… What happened has not changed my opinion of you at all. Nor do I find your presence upsetting. When things were more normal between us… I thought of you with particular high regard.”

Solomon was fairly certain that his heart started beating again for the first time in over a year. “…And now?”

Yari pulled her hand away and rested her chin in her palm. Her gaze naturally drifted to the window on the far side of her room.

“Now…? I suppose much is still the same. The only difference of note… would be just how much you confuse and unsettle me.”

“Unsettle…?”

“I also find your face… aesthetically pleasing. As shameful as it is…” Yari sighs. “Make a joke about it at the expense of your own neck.”

Yari briefly glances at the two of them again and feels her headache intensify.

“The only people I’ve been attracted to in my entire life and you both come with your own litany of complications… just my disastrous luck.”

The mood inside the room shifted after that.

Everyone drank in silence while barely making eye contact with one another.

None knew how to address the elephant in the room.

They were all attracted to each other. Clearly, not to an insignificant degree.

“So… there was a kiss.” Jiaoying said after several minutes of silence.

Solomon nods. “There was.”

Jiaoying stares at him, then Yari, for a long time.

She starts to pour herself another drink only to realize the bottle has already run dry.

“Fuck… I can’t believe I’m actually jealous.”

She turned to Solomon with a slight frown on her face. The alcohol hadn’t affected her mind, but it had made her face a bit warm.

“Feeling left out?” Solomon teased her halfheartedly. “Such a thing is easily rectified.”

“…Alright.”

Solomon was baffled when Jiaoying suddenly scoots closer to him.

She grabs him roughly by his jacket collar and pulls him in.

She is so much more beautiful up close. The warmth of her breath is so alluring that Solomon can barely stand it.

“How drunk are you?”

“Not very…”

Jiaoying’s eyes narrow.

“…I mean I’m very drunk. I probably won’t remember any of this tomorrow.”

“Good boy.”

Jiaoying pulls Solomon in and kisses him without warning.

Though she was the one to initiate, Jiaoying is slowly overwhelmed by a more fervent kiss than she had anticipated.

The warmth of her face slowly spreads throughout her body. In the back of her mind, she questions why something so wrong feels so inviting.

She starts to pull away when she feels Solomon’s hand slip around her waist again. Her strength flees her.

She lets out a small yelp as Solomon suddenly hoists her into his lap.

She wants to scold him for his brashness, but all she can manage is a slight frown.

“I don’t recall telling you that you could place me here.”

Solomon slowly begins kissing Jiaoying from her cheek to her neck. Her attempt at sounding upset had no bearing on him.

He already knew full well that if she didn’t want to be touched, she was more than strong enough to make him pay for it.

The duo hears movement and suddenly remembers that they are not alone.

Embarrassment replaces passion as they see Yari standing up. Presumably to find something to hit them with.

They are both immensely surprised when she comes toward them instead, fists unballed and eyes unreadable.

She sat beside them and, like Jiaoying, she grabbed Solomon by his collar and kissed him.

Instantly, he tried to pull away.

“Wait, this-”

“It’s my choice.” Yari pulls him back in. “Not his…”

As the veil of Yari’s disguise is dropped, Solomon is rendered powerless to resist her.

She is so beautiful.

When she kisses him again, his body turns against him.

The blood rushes to his head so fast that he nearly feels dizzy.

He watches with a foggy gaze as Yari pulls away from him and turns to Jiaoying.

She kisses her deeply as well.

The next several minutes go by at an agonizingly slow pace.

Kisses were exchanged between the trio. They became slightly ravenous, each of them desperately wanting the lips and touch of the other two when even a second passed without it.

After several minutes, they finally take a break.

The three of them took shallow, panting breaths as they admired each other and let the anticipation consume their minds.

Solomon seemed to be experiencing the most intense effects.

His very veins had come alive with an orange glow. His eyes were consumed by fire.

Jiaoying wanted to ask him what he was. What was happening to him.

But in the moment… she truly did not care.

“…We’re drunk.”

Yari nods in agreement. “Very… drunk.”

“It was irresponsible of us…” Solomon pants.

Jiaoying swallows as she prepares to cross the point of no return.

“We’re not going to remember any of this tomorrow, so… it’s probably okay to go a little farther, right?”

The silence is her only answer.

Suddenly, Yari stands up again.

Her hands are shaking as she reaches behind her neck. She is nervous. Possibly even shy.

She gently pulls on the string that keeps her dress in place.

Once it hits the floor, her underwear is the next to follow.

Solomon and Jiaoying are so stunned that they cannot speak.

Yari is a woman. Divine and graceful. Alluring and intoxicating.

With her face bright red, she turns around and walks away.

She enters her bedroom without looking back. The door is left wide open.

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