MTFBMP Chapter 52

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“Ahh!”

 

It seemed I had dozed off without realizing it. 

 

The sensation of my body sinking downward jolted me awake.

 

Startled, I looked around, but there was still nothing but an empty sky, not a single cloud in sight.

 

Meanwhile, Adele’s body tilted sharply once again.

 

“Adele! I told you to stop messing around!”

 

There were no obstacles in sight. We were still flying over the ocean. 

 

Strangely, not a single bird passed by us.

 

Aside from the distant green land beginning to come into view, the scenery hadn’t changed much.

 

I thought we might be preparing to land soon, but I realized there was no need for such rough ups and downs already.

 

“Ahh!”

 

This time, Adele’s body tilted to the side. Stretching my neck to look down, I noticed we were descending more slowly than before.

 

— I’m sorry, Master.

 

“…Adele?”

 

Adele, who had been silent until now, finally spoke. His words were deeply ominous. 

 

A bad premonition washed over me like a wave.

 

“What’s going on all of a sudden?”

 

— My energy is depleting faster than I expected.

 

“Huh?”

 

— The rate at which my energy is replenishing has suddenly slowed down.

 

Adele explained that more energy was being drained than replenished, as if something was interfering. 

 

With that, he gave one powerful flap of his wings.

 

The motion seemed to lift his body, and we shot through the air at high speed again, but it felt like a last desperate effort as his beastly form soon began to sink.

 

“Are we going to crash? Can’t we land in the ocean?”

 

The land was close by now. The altitude had dropped considerably, and the distant land began to take shape before my eyes.

 

All I could see was lush green foliage, but upon closer inspection, tall white tree trunks came into view.

 

It was a birch forest.

 

— I really didn’t expect this.

 

Adele’s voice, devoid of any sense of urgency, made it hard to grasp how serious the situation was.

 

But his next words left me unable to think any further.

 

— I’m going to change soon.

 

“What?”

 

As soon as he spoke, Adele’s body was engulfed in a burst of light. By now, I knew all too well what this meant. Adele was transforming into his human form.

 

I could feel my body beginning to float, about to lose all support.

 

‘We’re falling.’

 

That thought came to me first. It was a sense of buoyancy I had never felt before. 

 

It felt as if all the organs in my body were scattering in different directions.

 

After flailing in the air a few times, my body suddenly spun around. I realized belatedly that I was falling headfirst toward the ground.

 

I almost fainted right then and there. If it hadn’t been for Adele grabbing my waist, I would have already lost consciousness.

 

“Ah, Adele!”

 

“Shh. It’s alright.”

 

Even though we were falling together, Adele looked calm. Behind his back, I could see golden wings that could no longer flap.

 

“Why did you suddenly turn into a human?”

 

The fact that his body had changed against his will was not a good sign at all. Could something have happened to make his condition deteriorate so rapidly?

 

I wanted to kiss him, but since we weren’t standing on solid ground, it was hard to position myself properly.

 

I must have been squirming in that state, because Adele, who had been quietly watching me, spoke up.

 

“At least I’m wearing pants.”

 

‘Is this really the time for that kind of comment!’

 

If we weren’t in the middle of falling, I would have forgotten the situation and smacked Adele’s back.

 

“It’s okay, close your eyes, Theia.”

 

With that, I had no choice but to tightly close my eyes as he said and lean against Adele’s body.

 

I desperately prayed that if I had even the slightest bit of strength left, it would be transferred to him.

 

💫

 

To be honest, my memories from the moment my body changed, and we started falling, were fragmented and disjointed.

 

Adele looked down at Theia, who was cradled in his arms, and placed his hand on the top of her head before slowly stroking downward.

 

When her round head fit entirely in his hand, he carefully tightened his grip, holding her close.

 

His heart was racing, and Theia was right there against it.

 

That was the only rationality human Adele could hold onto. It was also the last weight holding back his instincts.

 

He used his wings, which could no longer function, to wrap around Theia completely. 

 

The wings were where his spiritual energy flowed the strongest. They would be the most effective in protecting her from the fall.

 

‘She might get hurt again, but there’s no helping it.’

 

He didn’t want to let go of Theia or hurt her.

 

Even at the moment of impact with the ground, all he could feel clearly was Theia in his arms. 

 

Nothing else mattered.

 

The shock of the impact and the pain that followed felt distant. All I could focus on was the small body clutched in my hands.

 

‘She mustn’t get hurt.’

 

I didn’t even care about the wings that had barely recovered. I could shift between the forms of a beast and a human, after all. 

 

A fall like this was nothing to me. With just a trace of the spiritual energy I had left, I could easily withstand such a trivial impact.

 

But humans are fragile. Even the slightest mishandling could shatter them.

 

‘How did I come to know that fact?’

 

As my body grew hotter, fleeting memories passed through my mind. Those thoughts vanished like air swallowed by flames, unable to linger for long.

 

“…Adele! Are you okay?”

 

Instead, Theia’s voice reached me.

 

The thought that I had to respond to my master’s call filled my mind. While other distractions were easily pushed aside, Theia’s voice alone roused me.

 

“…At least you seem unharmed, Master.”

 

I could still speak in a human voice, but that wouldn’t last much longer.

 

The beast’s instincts, which had been gradually pressing down and seizing control, were waiting for their moment of release. Condensed energy bubbled fiercely in my core.

 

“Now, Master. We’ve delayed this long enough. It’s time to make a choice.”

 

It might be unfortunate for Theia, but there weren’t many ways to calm a body that had entered a state of frenzy.

 

The beast still retained a sliver of rationality to exploit this situation. If I just lifted my head and looked around, I could see the dense grove of birch trees nearby, identical to the one I had impaled on my wing.

 

But more than all those stakes, I wanted this small hand to soothe me. There was no reason to refuse when the person capable of doing so was right in front of me.

 

Wasn’t that what a master was supposed to do?

 

“Well then, Master. Do you know… what you need to do now?”

 

Taking advantage of an opportunity was something only a cunning creature could do. 

 

As long as the beast retained its reason, it would seize this chance without hesitation.

 

“Go ahead and tame me, Master.”

 

With those words, Theia pressed her lips to mine.

My master had, at some point, begun to kiss me without hesitation. 

 

This was the reward I had earned by suppressing my raging desires and enduring.

 

Just as a master tames a beast, the beast also tames its master.

 

The beast within me roared.

 

But even with that beast, I didn’t want to share this body. That was not the instinct of a beast but of a human.

 

💫

 

I didn’t have many illusions about what a first time would be like.  

 

But I never imagined that my first time would be out in the open, surrounded by nothing but space, and with a man who was half-beast.  

 

Moreover, I never expected that such an experience would eventually be dismissed as trivial, or that I would later find myself unable to care about it at all.  

 

“Hmm.”  

 

A low, nasal sound escaped intermittently between kisses. 

 

Adele tilted his head, and I tightened my grip on his shoulder to keep from collapsing under the weight of his movements.  

 

As I shifted slightly, a reaction rose from a sensitive area.  

 

‘Ah, down there…’  

 

Something had just twitched. I had been careful not to sit directly on that spot while straddling Adele, but now I could clearly feel something thick and heavy right beneath me.  

 

It was a good thing I was wearing pants. If I had been in a skirt, I would have had to endure this sensation with only my underwear as a barrier.  

 

“Hng, ugh.”  

 

“Um.”  

 

Without realizing it, I tried to lift myself off him, but Adele immediately noticed and pressed me back down. 

 

As a result, I ended up sitting in a slightly different position than before.