Sitting alone in the courtyard, Aoi felt a bit sulky.
"Why hasn't Hikari-kun come back yet!", Aoi puffed out her cheeks, looking visibly annoyed.
"We clearly made plans, but after eating he just went back on his word!", Seeing that it was already getting late and there was still no sign of Hikari, Aoi couldn't help but take out her phone and call him.
Then she made several calls in a row, all of which, unsurprisingly, went unanswered.
Sure enough, if he was going to come, there'd be no need to call. He'd show up on time anyway.
And if he was going to be late, then even calling wouldn't make him come.
"Heh, men!", Aoi let out a cold laugh.
"I was even thinking of helping you eat up Nee-san tonight and complete the twin sisters achievement, but you didn't come. Then just go die, you bad guy!"
Fuming, Aoi picked up her chair and quickly walked back into the house.
"Eh, Aoi, is Hikari-kun not coming back to stay over at our place tonight?", Seeing Aoi come back inside after waiting for so long, Suiren asked from the sofa while watching TV.
"That's right! I even told him to sleep with you tonight and he still wouldn't come back. Tell me, isn't he awful?", Aoi said angrily.
Suiren's face instantly turned red. She thought Aoi had noticed something and was just venting in anger, so she hurriedly said, "Aoi, what nonsense are you talking about? There's nothing between Hikari and me! If anyone's sleeping, you sleep with him yourself… no, wait! You're not allowed to sleep with Hikari either!"
Seeing Suiren's pretty face turn shy and red as she spoke, Aoi sighed, didn't say anything else, and quickly went back to her room upstairs.
Lights off, lie down, sleep. All in one go.
'Just let the world end.'
———
The next day, morning—
The unnoticed sun quietly rose, warm light spreading across the land.
Ino Shrine was built at the foot of the mountain, with a very pleasant environment. The morning air was fresh, filled with birdsong and the scent of flowers, creating a wonderful atmosphere.
Many devout believers had already come from all directions to worship at the shrine. At the sacred threshold, holy yet almost worn down by countless steps, worshippers came and went in an endless stream.
Many shrine maidens were already at their posts, faint professional smiles on their faces, adding even more vitality and sanctity to Ino Shrine.
However, the highest-ranking official in Ino Shrine, the one who oversaw all shrine affairs and appeared to outsiders as the most noble, holy, and dignified priestess, Jinno Sumire, had only just woken up.
Hearing the orioles chirping by her ear, Jinno Sumire slowly opened her sleepy eyes, her eyelids drooping heavily as her mind remained hazy.
She realized she was not lying on her usual two-meter-wide soft Simmons mattress, but instead sleeping in some courtyard inside the shrine.
An open-air kind, with the sky as her blanket and the ground as her bed.
Jinno Sumire subconsciously tried to get up from the ground, but the moment her feet moved, a sharp pain surged up from below.
It felt like someone who could only do five squats had done five hundred in one day, or like someone with no boxing experience being brutally beaten by a boxing master for three or four hours straight. Jinno Sumire felt her legs were exhausted and aching, sore and weak, completely unresponsive.
Her normally well-balanced body also felt like it was about to fall apart, numb and painful all over.
With her legs giving out, Jinno Sumire failed to stand and collapsed back down again.
She felt that she did not fall onto the cold ground, but instead into a warm embrace.
In an instant, Jinno Sumire suddenly snapped awake. Certain wild scenes from last night flashed through her mind like a revolving lantern, appearing in broken fragments.
She looked down, and when she saw that familiar handsome young face, her eyes instantly widened.
"Hik… Hikari-kun?"
'So everything that happened last night wasn't an illusion, and definitely not a dream?'
The noble and dignified priestess's brain went into a brief shutdown.
"Aunt Sumire, were you calling me?", Hikari, who had also just woken up, sat up and comfortably stretched.
Then, without hesitation, he pulled Jinno Sumire's soft, jade-like body into his arms, casually and roughly kneading her a few times before finally greeting her.
"Hikari… Hikari-kun! You! You! You! I-I-I!"
Feeling Hikari's hands moving around, Jinno Sumire didn't even have the presence of mind to feel shy or scold him. Extremely shocked, she pointed at him, then at herself, as if trying to express something.
But perhaps thinking too much, she ended up expressing nothing at all.
Hikari, experienced in comforting others, wasn't in a rush. He first reached out and gently patted her smooth, mirror-like fair back, soothing her emotions.
Only when Jinno Sumire's expression gradually recovered and she seemed to come back to her senses did Hikari ask with concern, "Aunt Sumire, how are you feeling now?"
Having mostly regained her senses and recalling what happened yesterday, Jinno Sumire looked at Hikari with complicated eyes and answered honestly, "My legs still hurt a bit…"
"Then should I help you rub them?", Hikari asked.
"No… no need!", Jinno Sumire hurriedly tried to refuse.
But thighs couldn't overpower arms. Hikari's palm had already covered hers, and he skillfully began massaging her slightly bruised thigh muscles.
Feeling his movements, Jinno Sumire's pretty face couldn't help but flush slightly.
Such an overly intimate action was really too embarrassing, yet, as if possessed, she didn't continue to refuse or resist much.
Maybe… she had already gotten used to it yesterday?
In any case, Jinno Sumire simply let Hikari, whose technique really was quite good, help massage and soothe her thighs, which were sore and aching after she had lost herself yesterday and failed to control herself, doing far too many squats.
The two maintained close physical contact, but neither spoke, only occasionally exchanging glances, as if everything was understood without words.
Only when Hikari's massage gradually went deeper did Jinno Sumire hurriedly interrupt, "Stop! Th-that's enough!"
After grabbing Hikari's hand, Jinno Sumire spoke first, "What happened yesterday was an accident…"
Hikari nodded, "Yeah, I know. It was because of the drug that bastard Yoshizawa Eigen brought to try to set you up, right?"
Jinno Sumire nodded, "Yes. Because of that… I lost control a bit. Even though it was an accident, I still have to say to you… I'm sorry."
"It's fine. At least Aunt Sumire seemed genuinely very happy yesterday," Hikari said with a smile. Jinno Sumire's face instantly flushed red.
Hearing Hikari say that, Jinno Sumire only blushed a little.
"And I enjoyed it too."
But when she heard Hikari's second sentence, the already shy Jinno Sumire instantly lost it.
"Hikari-kun, you… you're talking nonsense!", Jinno Sumire retorted with a red face.
Hikari looked puzzled, "Hm? Which part am I talking nonsense about? Me enjoying it is true."
"Could it be that what you said yesterday, about being very happy, about never having been this happy in nearly thirty years was all fake?"
Jinno Sumire slapped her hand over Hikari's mouth, "St-stop it! I already said it, it was just an accident!"
"What happened yesterday was all because of that damned drug that damned Yoshizawa Eigen brought. It was an accident, none of it was real!"
Hearing Jinno Sumire's self-contradictory, self-deceiving words, Hikari just smiled and didn't say anything more.
He simply gently stroked her round, fragrant shoulder and continued, "Back when I stayed over at your place and we were just talking, I already felt like you seemed to have no experience at all. I didn't expect that Aunt Sumire, you really were a first-timer. As for Ai…"
Jinno Sumire's pretty face flushed slightly as she explained, "It's very simple. I never had any contact with that ex-husband before he disappeared. Ai was conceived through IVF."
"Hikari, you really are my… first. But don't worry. This was an accident, and I'm not some young girl who's going to ask you to take responsibility."
"I even hope you don't take what happened yesterday to heart. It'd be best if you forget about it and, in the future, get along properly with Ai."
As the head of the Jinno family and the priestess of Ino Shrine, someone who had always held a position of authority, Jinno Sumire's way of thinking was relatively realistic.
She was even considering Hikari's identity and her daughter Jinno Ai's identity, offering him a few words of reassurance.
Hearing what Jinno Sumire said, Hikari nodded in understanding, essentially agreeing.
But when Jinno Ai was mentioned, Hikari suddenly remembered something from before and said, "Aunt Sumire, do you remember the first time Ai brought me to visit the shrine? You even scolded us for hugging and holding each other inside the shrine."
"And yet you, as a shrine priestess, actually desecrated the moonlight like that in the shrine yesterday, and even did that kind of thing with me."
Hearing Hikari's words, even though she knew he was teasing her, Jinno Sumire's pretty face still couldn't help but turn red.
She stubbornly argued, "It's… it's different! Back then you were inside the shrine, but now we're outside. How is that the same?"
"Alright, alright!", Hikari just smiled and didn't argue.
Seeming to feel a bit awkward, after a few seconds of silence, Jinno Sumire quietly slipped out of Hikari's arms.
But when she had only moved halfway, Jinno Sumire suddenly looked up at him and said, "Hikari-kun, although we can't keep making the same mistake… something like this might still have to happen a few more times in the future."
"Hm? Aunt Sumire, are you reluctant to let it go?", Hikari looked at her in surprise, apparently not expecting someone in her position as a shrine priestess to be so direct and honest.
"Of course not!", Jinno Sumire slapped Hikari's chest with a red face, then explained, "My father said before that if I want to fully inherit the Jinno family, I must give birth to a boy."
"Before, I planned to find other methods or just drag it out. But after what happened yesterday, that probably won't work anymore."
"And then we've already… already done that. So I might as well just have one!"
By the time she finished speaking, Jinno Sumire's face was burning red, too embarrassed to look Hikari in the eyes.
After all, even though she still had some awareness yesterday, she at least had the excuse of the drug's effects, so no matter how wild it got, there was a reason.
But saying something like this today, while fully conscious, really did make her extremely embarrassed.
"Aunt Sumire, you mean… have one with me?", Hikari asked, feigning ignorance with a shocked, puzzled look.
Jinno Sumire immediately flushed red with urgency, her beautiful face so red it looked like it might drip blood, "If not with you, then with who? I'm telling you, I hate men!"
"I will never have contact with any other man in my life. If it weren't for the accident, I wouldn't have… wouldn't have a child with you either!"
Maybe because these words were too embarrassing, after saying them, Jinno Sumire, flustered and ashamed, buried her face into Hikari's shoulder and bit down hard on it.
"Hey, Aunt Sumire, why are you biting people?", Feeling something like an ant bite on his shoulder, Hikari pretended to cry out in pain.
Hearing Hikari's "cry of pain," Jinno Sumire hurriedly let go, feeling distressed, but still stubbornly scolded him.
"Hmph! What's wrong with biting you? Didn't you keep telling me to bite you before? You told me to bite, kept urging me to bite. I'll bite you to death!"
She said that, but Jinno Sumire didn't actually bite again. Instead, she gently pressed the spot where the skin wasn't even broken, as if afraid she had really hurt him.
After a bit of overly intimate playful scuffling with Hikari, Jinno Sumire turned serious again and warned him, "Hikari-kun, what happened today really was just an accident. You not respecting me here today is… is fine, but later on, when we're outside, you have to remember my status as your elder. You're not allowed to talk nonsense, and you're definitely not allowed to act recklessly. Do you understand?"
"Mm," Hikari obediently agreed, and Jinno Sumire let out a sigh of relief.
"It's getting late. We need to head out, or a shrine maiden might come by to clean up," Jinno Sumire reminded him.
Hikari immediately helped her stand up, and the two of them got dressed together.
After Hikari finished putting on his own clothes, he noticed that Jinno Sumire was only halfway dressed, and her movements were a bit stiff, probably because she was still sore from yesterday.
Hikari immediately went over to help her slowly put on the elegant priestess uniform.
"Thank you," Jinno Sumire thanked him, then complained a little, "It's all your fault for messing around yesterday. There are several holes inside this outfit now, and it's all dirty."
"It's fine. It's just the inner lining that's damaged. You can't tell from the outside."
Looking at Jinno Sumire's priestess uniform, which still appeared noble, dignified, and elegant on the outside, while inside it had been left in a messy, tattered state by him, Hikari smiled slightly.
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