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Sure enough, Selian’s plan was effective; even when I peeked out of the tent, no one recognized us.

Occasionally, someone would turn their head in our direction, but by the time they hesitated in confusion, Selian and I had already moved away.

“Phew, we finally made it out.”

Looking back, I could still see clusters of people caught up in the excitement of the opening ceremony that had dragged on for dozens of minutes.

We took a moment to catch our breath and slipped into a narrow alley where there were fewer people.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

Of course, I didn’t think that Selian, being a Sword Master, would get hurt merely by squeezing through a crowd.

Yet, no matter how much I understood it logically, my worries took hold, and I naturally kept an eye on her condition.

She didn’t appear to be injured, but her clothes were slightly disheveled, and her hair was in a bit of a mess, showing signs of the hassle she’d gone through.

Nevertheless, even while dealing with her own discomfort, Selian was tightly hugging the bag containing my clothes to protect it.

“Want to stay still for a moment?”

Feeling a bit guilty, I took the chance to smooth down her stray hair and tidy her sleeves.

“You really don’t have to do that… Just wait a moment. Before we go, let’s tidy up my outfit too.”

Since Selian looked this way after following me, who had forged the path ahead, it was clear that my own appearance wasn’t any better.

So, I raised my hands to fix my hair.

“Eek!”

I flinched.

Her sound of clicking her tongue made my hand instinctively freeze above my head.

This scene, even though the situation was different, felt oddly familiar.

“There’s no mirror, so I’ll do it for you. Just stay still, El.”

Well, that’s true. It’s not like there’s no one to help me; Selian is right here, so there’s no need for me to fuss over my own appearance when I can’t even see myself properly.

After handing me the bag with my clothes, Selian raised her hands and began to ruffle my hair.

It seemed I had more tangled hair than Selian, so she patted my head repeatedly.

Finally, after several pats, her hands shifted down from my head to my shoulders.

“Hmm?”

As Selian’s hand brushed across my chest, my sensitive senses reacted immediately.

“Um, Selian…?”

“Just a moment. I think there’s a stain here. I can rub it out with my hand, so please bear with me for a bit.”

Looking down, I could indeed see that someone among the crowd had bumped into me while holding an ice cream, leaving melted remnants smeared across my chest.

“But… Ah!”

As I tried to say something to stop Selian from doing that, her thumb lightly grazed across my chest, and an embarrassing sound slipped out of my mouth.

Startled by the sound that had escaped me without my intention, I quickly glanced around, but thankfully, there was no one in the alley except for Selian and me.

Selian seemed too focused on removing the stain to notice my flustered state.

Even though I was currently wearing it, it was her own dress, and she was probably worried about it remaining stained.

After all, if it got stained and couldn’t be washed out, she’d have to discard it later. I had borrowed it, so it wouldn’t be right for me to stop her hand.

Besides, it wasn’t just a single stain that had been left; her hands were now rubbing against both of my breasts.

“Ugh…!”

However hard I tried to suppress it, keeping the sounds from escaping was extremely difficult.

With each pinch of her fingers on my chest, squeezing as if to extract the stain, sticky breaths slipped out past my tightly closed lips.

For now, Selian was focused on cleaning the stain and couldn’t hear my sounds, but I wondered when she would catch on.

Even if I had grown accustomed to a woman’s body, for me, Selian still felt more like the opposite sex than anything else.

Yet, Selian hadn’t changed her gender like I did.

If she discovered that I was feeling things through the innocent touch of a same-sex friend, she would surely think I was a pervert.

To keep seeing Selian’s face in the future, I had to avoid such situations.

So, with the hand not holding the bag, I raised it to cover my mouth.

Thanks to that, the sounds escaping were still there, but the noise was significantly muffled.

Just when I thought I had eased up a bit—

“Mmm!”

Selian’s fingers, which were focused on the stain, squeezed a particularly sensitive spot a little harder.

It seemed the reason I was wearing Selian’s bra was that, through the small space between my thin clothing, her fingers were pinching me from within.

A sensation like electricity coursing down my spine made my mouth go agape with the urge to scream, but thankfully, I could endure it thanks to the extreme patience honed from my Assassin training.

Thud.

However, as it became difficult to muffle the sounds with just one hand, I carelessly discarded the bag I held onto the floor and covered my mouth with both hands.

I slightly cracked open my tightly shut eyes to sneak a glance at Selian, who was still diligently focused on the stain.

Fortunately, it seemed she hadn’t noticed the sudden drop of my clothes bag or my unusual behavior.

However, the stain was placed in a particularly sensitive spot on my chest, and Selian showed no signs of letting go of her fingers.

“Mmm…!”

To make matters worse, Selian rubbed her fingers as if to ensure that the stain was truly gone.

I thought that if I could just feel some pain, it might get better, so I shut my mouth tightly and attempted to lightly nip at her fingers, but her touch heightened my senses even more, drawing out greater pleasure from the slightest pain.

I was on the verge of losing all my strength to a sensation I had never encountered before.

Just then, at the precise moment Selian’s hand pulled away from my chest.

Though I thought I had escaped a crisis, why did I feel more regret than relief?

Luckily, unlike someone as perverse as me, pure-minded Selian didn’t seem to notice my unnatural behavior at all.

“Alright, shall we go now?”

Picking up the bag that had fallen to the ground, Selian smiled at me.

Seeing Selian’s bright smile made me feel a pang of guilt.

“Uh… yeah.”

I tried to respond normally to what Selian said, but the lingering sensations mixed with my reply, leading to a nasal tone.

Checking Selian’s expression to see if she noticed any of this, she merely tilted her head, seemingly unaware of anything else.

“Let’s hurry up and go!”

I felt that if we stayed here any longer, we’d definitely be discovered, so I hurried past Selian and took the lead.

Thud Thud

“Eek!?”

However, as I brushed past Selian, her hand lightly patted my behind.

“Oh, sorry! I thought there was some dust on your backside.”

Seeing Selian’s shocked expression at my unexpected yelp made me feel even guiltier.

*

“Where have you been? I’ve been waiting ages!”

“I’m sorry! I wanted to come right away, but some people recognized me and blocked my way…”

As soon as Anne spotted me running in, she pouted and shouted.

I quickly apologized to comfort her to get her forgiveness.

“…Seems like you know you’ve done something wrong, so I’ll let it slide this time.”

Fortunately, Anne wasn’t really angry and accepted my apology right away.

“Unlike me, I was really worried that something might have happened to El.”

“I-I was never…!”

Anne’s face turned bright red as she stumbled over her words, as if she hadn’t just been angry a moment ago.

“Hehe, thanks for worrying about me, Anne.”

I hugged the cute Anne tightly to show my gratitude; our height difference allowed her to fit snugly in my arms.

“No way….”

Not wanting to reveal her flushed face, Anne turned away with a small voice of denial, but she sounded completely unconvincing.

“…You smell like sweat.”

“Ah! I’m sorry, I guess I must’ve sweated a bit from running,”

Maybe I was holding her too tightly? Whatever the reason, I stepped back immediately when she said I smelled bad.

My reason for sweating was quite different, but I couldn’t be honest, so I quickly made up a plausible excuse.

“I’m sorry if it was too much of a smell.”

“…It’s not like I said I hated it.”

Fortunately, Anne didn’t seem upset, so I felt relieved and turned to Yuli to apologize to her too.

“Sorry for worrying you. And thank you for worrying too, Yuli.”

“No worries. Was that really necessary? But… isn’t that Selian’s outfit you’re wearing?”

“Oh, this? The clothes I was originally wearing were too recognizable, so Selian went back to get some clothes for me. It took a bit of time, but thanks to that, I was able to come back without being noticed.”

“But, you really didn’t have to wear Selian’s clothes….”

Yuli narrowed her eyes, holding the same question I had before. But then, she suddenly turned to Selian.

“Selian?”

“Ah, uh… Yuli? Could you come over here for just a moment?”

Instead of explaining it to me like before, Selian took Yuli a bit further away.

Although I couldn’t hear their discussion because they moved away, they seemed to be having a chat.

A moment later, Selian nodded with a hesitant expression and handed the bag containing my clothes to Yuli.

“Selian is satisfied with the outfit she’s wearing right now. Got it?”

“Yes…”

The two of them returned to me and Anne, conversing about something I didn’t quite understand.

“Why is Selian wearing those clothes? Is there a problem?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. More importantly, I’ll take El’s clothes back to my room. Selian said something important came up. Right, Selian?”

Selian merely nodded silently.

Yet oddly enough, her lips were puffed out a bit.

It seemed that the “urgent matter” that had popped up suddenly wasn’t something she was happy about.