Chapter 40: He… Called Her Cinderella

Most of our remaining days were simply filled with sex, intimacy, and more sex.

With my sisters, who now looked at him with adoration instead of arrogance.

With the female attendants who blushed and trembled whenever he smiled at them.

With Usagi and Silverøse and even Lily, whose golden-brown ears would flush crimson every time Benjamin squeezed them. As if she wasn’t the leader of a district… Well, I’m not one to talk.

Sometimes we took him together; our bodies entwined in a warm, moaning pile of fur and silk and erotic cries.

However, I mostly seized him alone at night, locking the doors, and drawing the screens closed. Then riding him leisurely until dawn painted the room gold and we were both too spent to speak.

Every time I looked into Benjamin’s blue eyes I felt these twin tides rise inside me: great joy to be alive that threatened to burst my ribs, and a great depression that threatened to drown me.

I had not felt this strongly for any single person since the day I was born, except towards my late father. So the realization was both exquisite and terrifying.

My sisters, who had always been proud and untouchable, now behaved like kittens around him.

Each of them would occasionally come to Benjamin and lay her head on his shoulder, muttering things they had never even told me: their secrets, their deepest fears, their ambitions, and their small hopes.

Midori, the fiercest and most foul-mouthed of us all, now listened to him with wide eyes and blushing cheeks, actually obeying when he told her to dress properly, or wait till dark for intimate times.

Ayaka and Ayane, who once embodied arrogance so perfectly they looked down on the gods themselves, had become far gentler, well-behaved, and now almost reserved.

They would flock around him like bright birds to their mother, each one saying something different to win his attention, and he gave it to them all equally and effortlessly, as though his heart were large enough to hold the entire kingdom.

How he managed it was beyond me. He was superhuman in more ways than one.

*

One night, after hours of hot, slippery intimacy that left us all flushed and panting on the tatami, Aoi suddenly sat up among the sprawl of limbs and tails and cried, “Ben-sama! Tell us a bedtime story!”

“Huh? So suddenly?!”

“Yes!”

The others agreed at once, their sleepy voices overlapping in eager chorus.

I watched them, amused and strangely moved, as Benjamin smiled that gentle smile of his and pulled the nearest blanket over the pile of us, then began.

He told them a warm fairytale from his world about a common lady who snuck to a party wearing glass slippers, and danced with a prince, then lost one slipper at midnight and was later found by the same prince who had apparently fallen in love with her in that single night.

He… called her Cinderella.

Somehow, the sisters had gathered around Benjamin again, almost piling on him. But they listened with wide, shining eyes.

However, before long, one by one, they drifted into sleep; their heads pillowed on his chest, on his thighs, and on each other, breathing gently and steady.

I smiled at them… You see, one would never realize these were fully grown women, powerful fox demigods feared across continents. They looked like homeless children who had finally found shelter.

Though, I enjoyed the story too. Far more than I wanted to admit, truthfully.

And as always, Benjamin hurried to arrange them properly once they were asleep: He tucked the futons around their shoulders, brushed the hair from their faces, and adjusted blankets so no one would be cold.

Which was always silly—an ocean of magma would sooner freeze over than we to ever get cold.

When he was finished he stood back, his hands on his hips, and smiled proudly at the sleeping forms of my sisters.

They loved him like a father, like an elder brother, and like a companion.

And I did too.

That he loved everything I held dear was a thing of profound gladness to me. And I love him back for everything he showed me in the past few times we spent together.

*

On the night of the twelfth day my heart began to sink.

While he slept beside me I watched his face for hours, memorizing every line of it, every soft breath he took, and the way his lashes rested against his skin.

I watched him sleep until the thirteenth day dawned pale and relaxed outside the screens.

I honestly did not know what to do.

Benjamin had shown no signs of wanting to stay.

He loved Shishi-no-su and her people; I could see it in the way he had laughed and played with the children, the way he bowed respectfully to the elders, the way he defended even the lowliest attendant from my sister’s careless words…

But it is to be understood that his love for this place did not automatically mean he wished to bind his life to it.

He still… He still absent-mindedly spoke of the Verdant Spire with so much fondness, much to my dismay. He still clearly carried Elara and the Amazons in his heart.

I had perished the thought many times: the consideration to simply crush those apes in secret, then have Benjamin for myself.

But the level of pain and grief that it would cause him… and knowing I’m the one responsible for it…

I’d rather not.

…But I felt anger and sadness every time—at myself, at my utter incompetence.

I, who had always plan every single move on the chessboard of nations for centuries, could not plan a single way to keep one man at my side without hurting him.

I feel so… wholly useless right now.

Then, all of a sudden, Benjamin opened his eyes.

“Morning, Sys,” he muttered sleepily.

…Sis? Who was that?

Then he turned his head and saw me lying beside him, watching him.

“Ah, Sakura?!” His voice sharpened with palpable distress. “Why are you crying?”

Eh…?

Only then did I lift my hand and touch my face. Tears were indeed pouring down my cheeks, warm and hushed.

I had been so lost in my own thoughts that I had not even noticed it.

So this is what love can do to a lioness? How terrifying.

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