Side Story: Liz Loves Being Touchy-Feely
“My Krai Babyyyyy!” Liz called.
“You’re always so cheerful,” I said.
She threw herself towards me, and as always, I caught her in my arms. Our cheeks touched, and she rubbed her warm, soft skin against me. She emanated a faintly sweet, pleasant scent. I could probably tell Liz from her scent alone.
There wasn’t any excess fat on Liz’s limbs, and she seemed supple like a wild beast, but when she was so close to me that I could hear her heartbeats, her body was soft to the touch. I reached out and patted her head. She let out an ecstatic cry while burying her face in my neck.
Liz Smart loved to be touchy-feely. Sitri didn’t seem to hate it either, but Liz would jump on me every chance she got. She would sometimes try to hug me even if there wasn’t an occasion. The other members were usually gone and busy with their training, so since old times, it was my role to catch her embraces. She rubbed her nose against me and brushed her lips against my neck. As though to answer her passionate affection, I wrapped my arms around her back and squeezed tightly. Liz’s touching had grown more extreme by the day, and though I was nervous about it at first, I’d gotten used to it. Now, I only got a little nervous. Though it rarely happened, I made sure to tell her that she shouldn’t cling to me when she was naked. She lacked modesty.
“C’mon, Krai Baby. Let’s continue,” she whined. “We can, can’t we? Please?”
Tino, who was left behind, placed a hand over her mouth, her cheeks beet red as she watched her master nuzzle against me.
“L-Lizzy, you can’t be so sh-shameless...” Tino said.
“Mmm...” Liz murmured sweetly. Her apprentice’s words fell on deaf ears, it seemed.
“She must’ve been tired recently,” I said. “This isn’t shameless or anything, but just an effective way to provide care for her mental health.”
“Huh?” Tino asked.
Liz’s actions weren’t sexual, of course. We were so close that we could feel each other’s body temperatures, and outsiders might have thought that we were lovers, but Liz and I didn’t have that sort of relationship. I could feel her warm breath tickling my neck. Her ears red, Liz entrusted her entire body to me as I rubbed her back in a circular motion.
I explained myself to a shocked Tino. “Being a hunter is a tough job. You’re always out there risking your life, and that does a number on your mental health. I’m doing this to calm people down so that they won’t snap.”
“I-Is that so?” Tino asked. “I’ve never heard anything about it before.”
“But it’s the truth. It’s written in books too, you know. I’m sure that she can do stuff like this with her lover when she gets one, but until then, I’ll be hugging Liz instead.”
“I-I don’t think she ever will...”
Liz, your apprentice is being pretty rude. While it was true that Liz was violent and short-tempered, she also had plenty of good points. Feeling sorry for her, I undid the ribbon that tied her hair and ran my hands through her beautiful strawberry-blonde locks. Though she was always in combat, her hair was silky smooth, and my fingertips didn’t get stuck in any tangles. Liz loved it when someone brushed her hair. Just touching her head was enough to make her tremble as she squeezed me even tighter. I would’ve been able to brush her hair properly if I had the tools to do so, but she had to make do with my fingers for now.
Liz first started clinging to me when she was ten. She’d decided to become a hunter and just started her training. Back then, our physical capabilities were practically the same, and there wasn’t a noticeable gap in talent either. We each found our own masters to study under and began training. Among our group, Liz’s master was the strictest when it came to training.
Our hometown was a small city, and the person she apprenticed under wasn’t of high level, but her master had given her absurdly difficult and harsh training. One couldn’t have imagined a mere child going through it all. The worst bit was that this merciless method wasn’t done out of love—no, Liz’s training was just unnecessarily rough. Liz wasn’t even taught the techniques required to become a Thief. From sunup to sundown, she ran around, trained her muscles, and was forced to do mock battles. When she came home after her day was done, I couldn’t bear to see her look so worn.
Compared to the ridiculous regimen that she had to go through, the training that she gave to Tino displayed affection. I tried to stop Liz on numerous occasions. Her daily regimen was absurd no matter how you sliced it. No child should be forced to suffer like this. However, the strong-minded Liz didn’t lend an ear to my words and pressed on.
It was then that I noticed that everyone was only looking towards the future. The only person with time on their hands was me—I had been chased away at the front gates by every person that I went to and had been told that I lacked talent. I was the only one with meaningless spare time. And so, I quickly searched for what I could do.
I found a single book. It listed methods to soothe and calm one’s mind and soul; it looked easy enough that I felt like I could follow these steps. I still remembered the first time I hugged Liz’s tattered body. She cried. She was so tired that she could hardly move another step, and tears spilled from her eyes as she answered my embrace.
Since then, Liz loved to rub against others. She didn’t give up. She continued to undergo severe training, and it’d become a daily routine to hug her exhausted body. Her no-good master only knew how to tire people out and didn’t teach Liz a single technique, but she quickly surpassed her awful master within a year. In fact, she half killed her master in a mock battle and had quickly been switched to a new one. The only thing she learned from her former master was to be merciless, and that was precisely what had beaten them half to death. I could only find irony in this situation.
It was rare for her to become extremely fatigued these days, but she still liked to be touchy-feely. This led to a talentless person like me to misread the situation and cling to the false belief that even I could do something worthwhile. This was why I’d worked hard immediately after Luke made me the leader. I should’ve just gone by the book and not had any funny ideas. The world’s a tough place... But since this ultimately worked in Liz’s favor, I had little room to complain.
Liz didn’t seem at all angry when I played with her hair. Her cheeks were tinged pink and she gave me a broad smile. To me, she was a lady with superhuman strength, but she wasn’t squeezing me to death. There were numerous cases of a powerful hunter accidentally exerting too much strength and injuring their normie partners, but our embrace was also a way for Liz to control her might. Or so the book told me.
“Krai Baby... Go on, keep ’em coming...”
“There’s more to this?!” Tino cried.
“The trick is to pet her head with plenty of love,” I replied. “Do this to her when I’m not here, okay, Tino?”
“There’s no way I can do that! Uh... Master?”
I lifted Liz, her arms still around me, and lay on the sofa while facing the ceiling. Liz’s damp eyes stared up at me. I brushed aside her bangs, and she took my palms nuzzling her cheek against my hands.
“Because she’s proud and has self-control, you have to praise her well,” I explained to a stunned Tino who silently watched on. “Look, when she shows me her tummy like this, it means she’s showing her affection.”
I pointed to Liz’s soft, exposed belly. She had a nice tan going on, and it made her seem alluring.
“Master... Um, what book did you read?” Tino asked gingerly.
“Hmm? I think it was volume 2 of The One Who Traverses Paradise,” I replied.
“M-Master, that’s just a novel. And why did you only read volume 2?”
“That was the only volume that was being sold. And besides, there’s plenty to learn from novels.”
It was a novel about adventure where the main character was a hunter. I knew that it was a work of fiction, but it was jam-packed with tribulations and growth, and I learned plenty from the book. I loved reading it, but as I started to grow busy, I’d only managed to read the second volume. Some of the faux strategies that I told Luke were actually based on that book.
“I especially thought that the bond of trust between the main character and his partner was ideal,” I said. “I can lend the book to you next time, though I only have volume 2.”
“N-No, thank you,” Tino replied. “I actually have the books and read the entire series. Um, by partner...”
I looked at her in astonishment. It felt like a huge coincidence that Tino knew about the series; it was written over a decade ago. I glanced at Liz’s exposed stomach and rubbed her soft, supple skin. She let out a shrill cry and squirmed, but it was evident that she liked it. The novel depicted that their partner’s signals needed not to be overlooked. Liz was in a good mood today, and I gave a firm nod of satisfaction before I moved to the next step. I took out a boomerang made from bone from my desk drawer.
“Er, Master...” Tino said delicately. “The main character’s partner in The One Who Traverses Paradise is Reanne. And if my memory serves me correctly, and I could be wrong, mind you...wasn’t Reanne a wolf?”
“What?” I asked.
I was shocked to hear those words and the boomerang slipped from my grasp. Liz panted happily as she jumped forward and caught the toy, displaying her superb reaction skills.
“Krai Baby, I don’t get this training at all,” she pouted, twirling the boomerang around her finger. “I don’t like it. Maybe it would’ve been useful back in the day, but my agility is already really good, isn’t it? I feel like this won’t do anything for me at all. I’d rather you pet me more.”
Unlike the novels, Liz, as per usual, didn’t like playing fetch. Wait, a wolf? Seriously? That can’t be...
“But that wolf talked,” I insisted.
“Er, I’m pretty sure that the main character had the special ability to understand the wolf’s words...” Tino answered with downcast eyes.
I looked away and turned to Liz, who was gazing up at me with damp eyes. Seriously? I mean, yeah, there were mentions of a wagging tail, but I just thought that the wolf was a human, like a half-beast girl or something. I’m pretty sure volume 2 didn’t clearly state that she was a wolf, and she was stronger than her partner and pretty intelligent.
“It’s a tale of adventure between a very intelligent, large female wolf and a boy who can understand the wolf’s words, isn’t it?” Tino asked.
Now that she mentioned it...there was some weird stuff going on. Reanne would often lick the main character’s face whenever they hugged, and there were times when she was carried around. During the bathing scene, her entire body was scrubbed meticulously, and she was used as a pillow when they slept. I did think that they might’ve been a bit too close to each other, but I just assumed that hunters were like that. I’d tricked myself. I guessed that the main character didn’t seem at all nervous or embarrassed to be with his partner because he was a profound guy.
Wait, seriously? A wolf? So my displays of affection towards Liz for the past five years were something shown to a wolf?! Really?! Whoa, I’m freaking stupid! Liz got up and rubbed her body against me. I hugged her and gave her headpats. The sheen on your fur is splendid!
“I-I knew that, of course,” I stammered. “I was just testing you, Tino.”
“R-Right, of course!” Tino replied. “You surprised me for a moment! But I didn’t think you read my favorite series. Reanne is such a good girl and absolutely adorable! I can see why she’s the ideal partner! And the main character sees Reanne like a person even though she’s a wolf.”
“Mhm, uh-huh. Reanne really is so cute...even though she’s a wolf.”
I always thought that Liz was a naughtier kid than Reanne. Oh god, what do I do? To hide my panic, I copied what I read from the book and started scratching behind Liz’s ears.
“Krai Baby,” she whispered in my ear. “Let’s continue this in the bathtub, hmm? It’s been a while, so could you please wash my back? Please?”
“You can do that by yourself, can’t you?” I replied. “You should be more modest. It’s not like you’re a wolf, after all.”
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