Chapter 32: Stella: My world has lost its color
After they calmed themselves, they sat on the sofa since they needed to set this straight.
"Sorry, it was a natural reaction for a male when they saw a beautiful girl," Tsukasa said with a sigh.
"Be-Beautiful?! How could you say something like that so easily?!" Stella's face was burning red.
'Do you have to worry about that now?' Tsukasa was speechless and decided to take a cola from the fridge. "Do you want a cola?"
"Is there one with the blue color?" Stella asked.
"No, it's all red," Tsukasa said.
"Why didn't you have the blue one? It's more delicious, right?" Stella asked in doubt.
"...If you want, let's buy it later at the convenience store." Tsukasa took the can of cola and asked, "Do you still want this?"
"Yes." Stella didn't reject and took the can from Tsukasa's hand. She used a lot of calories in her battle before, so she wanted something that could fill her stomach, but then she realized something and asked in doubt, "Why did we sit down relaxedly while drinking a cola now?"
"Is that bad? Or do you hate me?" Tsukasa asked curiously.
"No, no, I don't hate you!" Stella quickly refuted with a panicked expression.
"That's good. I thought that you wanted to beat me up earlier," Tsukasa said with a sigh of relief, pretending that he didn't realize what was happening.
"....."
Stella suddenly felt guilty since her first intention to touch Tsukasa's body was to defeat him, but she didn't expect that she would lose to her desire and kept touching his body intoxicatedly.
However, how could she say that?!
Stella was a princess!
'If this is known to father and mother...'
Stella felt that she might cause an international problem which made her quite panicked.
"Don't catch me!!"
"......."
Tsukasa looked weirdly at Stella and thought that this girl's head wasn't good. He looked at her chest, wondering whether all of her nutrition that should go to her head was absorbed by her chest.
'What naughty boobs.'
Tsukasa thought he should punish them in the future, but he was afraid that he might be burnt by 3,000 degrees celsius of flame, so he decided to abandon his plan. "So Stella, are you alright?"
"Ah, yes?" Stella was quickly awoken, and she realized that she wasn't in prison. Instead, she was in the same room as Tsukasa. She looked at him and wondered whether she might cause a stain to the Vermillion Empire since she felt that something might happen when a man and a woman stayed in the same room together.
"Stella?" Tsukasa asked.
"Ah, um, I'm alright. I'm healthy!" Stella said quickly.
"Now that you mention it, is it alright for me to call you Stella? I was caught up in the moment of heat, but when I thought about it clearly, it was quite rude, right?" Tsukasa said with a guilty conscience.
"No, no, it's alright, you can call me Stella since I don't like formalities," Stella quickly said since she was more comfortable being called by her first name.
"Then you don't need to hesitate to call me Tsukasa too," Tsukasa said.
"Then I'll call you Tsukasa from now on," Stella said with a smile.
"....."
Tsukasa looked at Stella for a moment, and he must admit that this girl was beautiful.
"Um, Tsukasa, can I ask something?" Stella asked hesitantly.
"What's wrong?" Tsukasa asked.
"Er... how did you defeat me?"
Until now, there were many things that Stella didn't understand when she lost against Tsukasa, and she wanted to know how he defeated her. "But you don't need to tell me if it is a secret." While she wanted to know, she also felt that it was impolite if her question might reveal his secret, so she quickly said.
"It's alright. It isn't like a secret or anything, so I don't mind telling you."
Tsukasa then explained to Stella how he defeated her from the first step until she released her Noble Art that engulfed the entire field.
"..."
Stella could only stare at Tsukasa in a daze when he explained how he had defeated her, and the more she listened, the more she was speechless. She couldn't say anything and felt that she was a butterfly that was trapped in the spider's web.
"But - but... how can you dodge my Noble Art?"
While his movement technique and how he had copied her technique had already been explained, Stella didn't understand how Tsukasa could escape her Noble Art and suddenly stuck on the domed roof before falling and giving her a thrusting his sword on her head.
"Before I explain, do you know about my ability?" Tsukasa asked.
"I have heard it from Director-sensei. It's a manipulation of the concept of a weapon, right?" Stella tried to confirm, then she became confused and asked, "But with that ability, how did you dodge?" There was no relationship between how he could stand vertically on the domed rooftop and the manipulation concept of weapons.
"It has nothing to do with my ability, but it is one of the applications of magic that I have developed. It is hard to explain it, and it is better to show it to you, but I don't have the magic anymore." Tsukasa had to sigh with his F-rank magic.
"The application of magic?" Stella was surprised and asked, "Then I can do it too?"
"Yes." Tsukasa nodded.
"..." Stella would be lying if she didn't have an interest in Tsukasa's technique, but there was no way she could ask something like that to someone that she had just met for the first time. However, she suddenly realized something and asked, "Tsukasa, is this alright?"
"What?"
"I mean, for you to tell me all of this." Stella squinted her eyes and said, "What if I become stronger?" After she understood how Tsukasa had defeated her, there was no way that she would fall for the same tricks again, and she wondered whether he was alright with it.
"I tell you this so you can become stronger," Tsukasa said calmly.
"Huh?" Stella was dumbfounded.
"You should become stronger that way. I'll become stronger too," Tsukasa said with eager eyes since he really wanted Stella to become stronger that way. He would be even more motivated to become stronger.
"....."
Stella stared at Tsukasa in a daze, and somehow something had sprouted out from her heart. While it might be her first time to feel this feeling, she knew the name of this feeling well.
"Now that we're done with this. Let's talk about another important matter," Tsukasa said.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Stella was confused.
"Did you forget about our bet? The loser will become the slave of the winner, right?" Tsukasa said with a smile.
Stella panicked, and her face was as red as her hair. "Wh --?! Th - that was just a figure of a speech! And, like, I got too excited and I...!"
"Hmm... I wonder what I should ask first..." Tsukasa was full of imagination about what kind of request he could ask Stella. "You'll do anything, right?"
"An-Anything?! N-No, th-that... I did say I'll do anything, but anything isn't alright! Totally not alright, right!!"
Stella dove into a corner of her bed and covered herself with blankets as if trying to hide from Tsukasa.
However, how could she escape from Tsukasa?
"Stella, are you going back on your word?" Tsukasa asked calmly.
"Ugh..."
"Well, if you're that unwilling, it's okay. Ahh, I guess Vermillion's imperial family can't keep its promises?" Tsukasa let out a disappointing sigh.
"Aa, ugh…."
"It's a bit disappointing."
"Wa-Wait a minute!"
As expected, Stella reacted to Tsukasa's shameless taunting. Creeping out of the blankets, she glared at Tsukasa with half-crying eyes.
"Who says we can't keep them!? Fi-Fine! I'll become your slave or dog! I'll do whatever you want! I'll do indecent things too! You pervert! Idiot! I hate you!"
"Weren't you the one who came out with that bet?" Tsukasa was speechless. While he wanted to remind Stella that she shouldn't bet herself so easily, especially on a bad man like him, he would be lying if he didn't have a dirty thought on Stella.
"Ju-Just... what do you want to ask me?! Do you want me to lick your feet? Do you want me to let you spank my butts?" Stella asked curiously.
"...No, it's our first time, so I won't ask something as perverted as that," Tsukasa said.
'So if this isn't our first time, then is it possible to make such a request?' Stella thought so, but suddenly she saw him move closer to her. 'Eh?' She was in a daze, and she didn't move when he became closer and closer. "N-no, it-it's a bit too early..." Still, she closed her eyes, waiting for her kiss, but her forehead was flicked. "Ouch!" She held her head and opened her eyes abruptly, looking at him with questioning eyes as if asking, 'What are you doing?'
"Next time, don't bet on yourself too easily, alright? You're a beautiful girl. What if someone asks you something perverted?" Tsukasa asked.
Stella rubbed her forehead and could only lower her head shyly when she saw his gentle smile. However, while she felt happy by those words, there was also a disappointment.
"What is it? Did you feel dissatisfied?"
"Eh, no, no!" Stella quickly shook her head.
"Really? Maybe..." Tsukasa held Stella's chin as he stared into her lips. "I should have those delicious lips for my winning reward."
"I-I-I..." Stella couldn't say anything and could only blush by his sudden change, and when she thought that her first kiss would have been taken...
"Just kidding," Tsukasa said with a smile.
"..." Stella.
"Come on!" Tsukasa slapped Stella's butts and said, "Don't sleep on my bed. Someone might misunderstand you."
Stella was furious when Tsukasa slapped her butts, but his words caught her attention. "Someone?"
Before Tsukasa was about to answer her question, the door of his dorm was knocked on.
Tsukasa and Stella looked at each other for a moment before he said, "I'll open the door."
"Who?" Stella also followed Tsukasa and saw him open the door was opened.
"Tsukasa, I have brought the ingredients here. So let's have a party with everyone," Touka said, and behind her, there were Kanata and Utakata.
"Er..." Stella looked at the three people in front of her with a confused expression.
"Uta-nii, it has been a while," Tsukasa said with a smile.
Utakata glanced at Stella for a moment, then looked at Tsukasa. "You're doing so well, Tsukasa."
"......" Tsukasa.
"By the way, is this the princess of the Vermillion?" Kanata suddenly asked.
"Ah, yes." Tsukasa's expression was a bit difficult, but he introduced Stella. "She's Stella Vermillion. My dormmate."
"Hello." Stella nodded curiously, looking at the three people in front of her, wondering who they were.
Tsukasa looked at the expressions of Kanata and Touka, who still maintained their graceful smile, which made him sigh inwardly since he had a feeling what they were about to say, but he knew he couldn't stop them.
"Hello, Vermillion-san. I'm Toudou Touka," Touka said.
"Toudou Touka?!" Stella was dumbfounded and asked, "Are you the champion of last year's Seven Stars Sword Art Festival?"
"Yes." Touka nodded with a smile and said, "I'm also the student council in this academy, so if you need help, you can ask for my help. You're, after all, Tsukasa's dormmate from now on."
Stella was surprised with Touka's identity, wondering how Tsukasa knew Touka, but then, from what Touka called Tsukasa, she could tell that they were pretty close. It might be her instinct as a woman, but she hoped that this instinct was wrong. "Um, what's your relationship with Tsukasa?"
"I'm his girlfriend," Touka said with a smile.
"......"
Stella suddenly felt the world had lost its color.