Chapter 678: The Bad Maid Who’s Always Plotting Rebellion

"Astrid... you’re not exactly any better, are you..."

In the warm bedroom, Lyra, her body temperature steadily rising, pressed her cheek to Astrid’s and nuzzled lightly like a little puppy.

Her cool pink hair brushed and kissed her lover’s skin, giving Astrid a sensation as soft and smooth as silk being rubbed.

"If Astrid hadn’t kept teasing me, the one in the worst state today definitely wouldn’t be me."

Every time, it was Astrid who made the first move.

A few small gestures were enough to make Lyra’s limbs go weak, her delicate body turning scorching hot, so much so that even a knight’s supposed physical advantage over a mage couldn’t be brought to bear.

She could only let Her Highness the Regent, atop her, take whatever she wanted.

Unfair, unfair. Next time she’d be the one to flirt first, wait until Astrid had no strength left to resist, then go in deeper.

She wasn’t some silly girl who fell apart the second her lover touched her with a hand, or breathed against the base of her ear.

Hearing Lyra’s stubborn defense, Astrid only became more aware of the slick sensation surrounding her legs, as if they were submerged in something impossibly warm and velvety, so soft she could barely sense the bones beneath.

"Oh? Is that so?"

"Of course!"

The blush on the pink-haired girl’s cheeks hadn’t faded.

She deftly skipped over that embarrassing topic from earlier, yet didn’t deny that Astrid was telling the truth.

Her fair feet quietly coiled around Astrid’s calves, and she controlled her tone as she spoke:

"Next time... I’ll make Astrid even weirder than me..."

She’d replicate every single "play" Astrid had experimented on her, prove that Astrid was nothing but a paper tiger with high attack and paper-thin defense.

Then she’d use action to tell the wicked woman in her arms that the difference in physique between a knight and a mage was an absolute chasm no one could cross.

At that, Astrid fluttered her lashes, lowered her pretty face, and obediently draped herself over Lyra’s shoulder.

"Then I’ll... look forward to it~"

Since both of them wore only thin nightdresses, that movement made Astrid’s lips press tightly to Lyra’s neck.

The porcelain-white skin came into view at once, while the girl’s natural citrus scent and a trace of sweet, post-bath floral fragrance surged into Astrid’s nose.

Noticing Astrid’s lips against her neck, Lyra’s body trembled involuntarily.

Her chest rose and fell slightly, and along with it her delicate, fair collarbones were exposed to Astrid’s gaze, several points of most tender snow-white skin pressed against the nightdress, like layered clouds half-veiling an arrogantly upright snow mountain.

Forcing down the palpitations in her chest, Lyra, already having lost one round, kept talking tough.

"Astrid, just you wait and see."

She will definitely turn Princess Astrid, who always looked noble and composed in daily life, elegant at every moment, into the same mess Lyra was tonight: unable even to struggle, soft all over, as if she were trying to please.

Seeing how Lyra really seemed to think she could do it, Astrid let out a soft breath through her dainty nose. Warm, scented air fanned over the neck, and she spoke.

"I wonder who it was, so brave at first, thinking she was going to measure my waist with her legs, but after two or three moves she collapsed. In the end she had to hook around my calves just to barely stay in place."

"And later she was blushing while telling me to slow down, harder, faster, while stretching her legs like a kitten kneading. But her strength had long since been drained. She wanted to step on my face to show she was unhappy but couldn’t, so she could only overlap her ankles and hang them around my neck, pretending to be a creamy little bow."

"Who could that person be? So hard to guess, huh?"

Astrid’s string of cannonballs sank Lyra on the spot. Remembering everything from just a few hours ago, Lyra’s cheeks turned crimson, and she couldn’t get a single word out.

Is that something you can even say?

When the indecent thoughts in her mind finally cleared, Lyra bit Astrid’s shoulder at the edge of her ear, leaving a faint red mark on the woman’s smooth, rounded, fragrant shoulder.

"Y-you... you... don’t say any more..."

Her performance earlier really was a little too humiliating.

But anyone facing someone they liked, liked very, very much, couldn’t that kind of reaction be excusable?

It wasn’t that she was weak.

Hearing Astrid let out a soft hum from her throat after the bite, Lyra seized the moment before Astrid could speak again and lifted her lips to kiss her first.

If she did that... the wicked woman wouldn’t be able to say anything anymore...

Perhaps because Astrid truly had exhausted her stamina in the great battle, the recovered Lyra easily captured that smoothness, accompanied by the intimate hums and low moans that came from a distance already beyond zero, and took her fill of sweetness.

After a long while, Lyra, letting action replace words, finally released her lips. She watched a crystal-clear thread trail down, while her fair neck faintly flushed pink.

"Anyway... next time Astrid isn’t allowed to bully me like that..."

"Did I?" Astrid replied lazily.

All she’d done was use her foot, wrapped in smooth black stockings, to lightly rub Lyra’s leg, press her pink lips to her earlobe, then give her knee a slight nudge. That wasn’t excessive at all, was it?

"You absolutely did!" Lyra answered without thinking, her voice carrying a touch more coquettishness.

"Next time, Astrid, give me your hands. No moving them around."

"Otherwise... otherwise I’ll, like that time, tie them up."

Even though the white silk used to bind her wrists could be pulled loose with a gentle tug, until the very end Lyra still hadn’t managed to break free.

"..."

When her words fell, Astrid kept staring at her, scarlet eyes carrying little glimmers of light. Lyra pressed her lips together, and then she heard Astrid speak.

"So that’s how it is... no wonder sometimes when Lyra reached her limit, she can’t help calling me ’Your Highness’..."

"Having the usually aloof and noble Regent tie up her own hands, blush, and let herself be taken, Lyra enjoys it more that way, doesn’t she?"

That low, bewitching voice echoed between the sheets, paired with that flawless, breathtaking face and the shining silver hair that spilled over her black silk nightdress like a galaxy.

Listening to Astrid dissect her one point at a time, Lyra’s sense of shame hit its peak.

She did seem to have dreamed something like that before. But back then, the maid Lyra hadn’t even realized she was into girls, nor that she liked the mistress she served.

In the dream, Princess Astrid wore a magnificent black gown, pressed beneath her.

Her beautiful silver hair was scattered messily across the sheets.

Her cold red eyes stared her down, wanting to struggle, yet with no way to do it. She could only gently grind with those smooth legs wrapped in black stockings.

Her cool, gorgeous cheeks were filled with blush, like a warning and like a plea.

But it had only been a dream, and not something she’d consciously intended. Now, with Astrid laying it out so carefully, it feels like all her secret preferences were displayed naked before her lover.

That feeling, there was nothing but shame in it. Lyra even had the thought that maybe she should just pass out right now and be done with it.

Seeing Lyra’s darting eyes, especially the tension and shyness hidden under that pale-blue sheen, Astrid believed she’d guessed correctly. Her lips curved upward, alluring.

"I understand, darling~"

"Lyra... you really are a bad maid who’s always thinking about usurping her mistress."

As Lyra was about to curl into a ball and hide in the corner, Astrid’s hand gently rested on the beautiful butterfly bones on the pink-haired girl’s back. Her tone was a little frivolous.

"But whether you can actually do it will depend on your own ability. I won’t be easily accommodated in this sort of thing."

In truth, she could absolutely accommodate Lyra.

After all, her little maid really did get bullied by her, several times in a row she’d practically become a pillow princess.

But given what they were discussing, if the dominant party voluntarily softened, it would instead reduce the pleasure the whole process brought the other. And so Astrid wouldn’t give in.

It all depends on whether Lyra was strong enough.

After hearing Astrid, Lyra surrendered completely. She didn’t say a word, only hugged her other half and played dead.

This kind of thing... was too weird...

Knowing that if she kept thinking she’d be completely finished, Lyra forced her mind to flash through a bunch of unrelated images, from the ceiling in her room to the opening ceremony at Elizabeth academy of Magic, then the empty academy plaza, and the class bell that often echoes in her ears.

In any case, absolutely, absolutely she couldn’t pick up Astrid’s thread again.

.....................

After playing dead for several minutes, feeling that the topic should have passed, Lyra loosened the knees she’d been clamping tightly around Astrid. Astrid smoothly hooked her legs back over, still keeping them tangled together.

Breathing in her lover’s pleasant rose-cold scent, feeling as if she were about to drown in a sea of flowers, Lyra spoke softly.

"Astrid..."

"Mm?"

"..."

"Um... I..."

Lyra paused, burying her head against Astrid’s chest, then spoke in a small voice.

"I’m really happy you can be here... fighting alongside me."

Not only as lovers, but as comrades.

If Astrid hadn’t come to the border, there was no way she could’ve managed both military affairs and logistics at once, nor could she have handled the prisoner issue so perfectly, both following her heart and achieving complementary benefits.

The silver-haired beauty in front of her not only gave her comfort and relaxation when needed, but also always played the role of guide, believing in her, forever, and telling her what she should do.

This road was so difficult. If she had to walk it alone, it would be far too hard.

Astrid fluttered her lashes a few times. She didn’t say something like "this is our shared goal," but instead accepted Lyra’s thanks openly.

"I wouldn’t feel at ease letting Lyra come here alone, either."

"Despite everything I’ve taught her, Lyra has only recently learned that those who refuse to bend are the first to break, and that so long as she remains true to her original convictions, there is no shame in making temporary compromises to reach her destination."

"Even so, Lyra Beckett is still only a young woman just past twenty. At that age, most noble ladies in the Imperial Capital are occupied with deciding what to serve at afternoon tea or which lovely dress to wear that day."

Lyra was amazing, Astrid knew that very well. But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t worry. Just like even knowing your child is an adult, as a parent you still fear they’ll go hungry or cold, or meet with some accident.

Only by seeing it with her own eyes could she feel at ease.

Lyra blinked, then spoke in a fine, soft voice.

"But Astrid is only past twenty too. Why does it sound like you’re a whole generation older than me?"

When she first arrived in the Imperial Capital, she met Astrid at Astrid’s eighteenth coming-of-age ceremony. Strictly speaking, their age gap wasn’t even a full year, yet almost everyone felt Astrid was more mature.

That likely had something to do with the "buff" from her daily attire. Astrid liked mature-style aristocratic gowns; From dress to stockings to heels, she was always in black, dignified and elegant.

Lyra, meanwhile, preferred something more youthful and lively: a pink-and-white blouse with a little skirt, paired with white thigh-highs and glossy black leather shoes, fitting her age’s bright vitality.

Hearing Lyra mutter softly, Astrid only the girl’s head, letting Lyra fully experience what she’d once felt at Carlotta’s, then spoke.

"Maybe it really is possible?"

If you count both her lifetimes, she really was a whole generation older than Lyra.

It was only because her memory had been wiped clean at the start that so much of her earlier life overlapped, leaving her with some youthful spirit, she wouldn’t be so old and stodgy.

Lyra pouted and answered under her breath.

"Astrid is joking again... about some impossible...thing"

Princess Astrid was twenty-three, every young noble in the empire knew that.

Through the thin gauze of the nightdress, Lyra gently kissed that fine snow. With her cheeks slightly red, she continued.

"Anyway... with Astrid by my side..."

"I’m very happy... and I’ll feel very at ease..."

Leaning on someone who in her heart was occasionally as fragile as glass, but most of the time omnipotent, she could feel grounded no matter what she did.

Astrid responded by kissing Lyra’s forehead with affection, her voice soft.

"Me too. As long as Lyra is by my side, I don’t feel lonely."

Teasing the pink-haired puppy every day, watching her blush and clamping her legs together, sitting at the bedside like a put-upon little thing, was so adorable it was unbearable.

"Then... see you tomorrow," Lyra said.

Astrid slowly closed her eyes, leaning into the girl’s hair as she murmured gently.

"...See you tomorrow."

After her words, a few more seconds passed, and Astrid heard Lyra speak again on her own initiative.

"Astrid... it will be a bit hot if we sleep holding each other..."

Sleeping embracing, Lyra felt cool, but thinking about it a little, Astrid would certainly feel she was warm all over, like holding a heater. And with several warming stones installed indoors, it will only be hot, not cold.

"It is a bit hot," Astrid parted her pink lips, not loosening the arm around Lyra.

"But I still want to hold you."