Chapter 407: He’s Stroking Me!

Riley froze. She couldn’t admit it. She couldn’t bring herself to confess that she had been reduced to begging children for food.

The shame would be unbearable!

But before she could formulate a denial, Nella answered for her.

"Don’t bother asking her, Evil Hero. She’ll never admit it! She’s far too embarrassed to ask you for favors directly!"

"Nella!" Riley’s voice cracked with indignation.

"Come now, Big Sis. We both know I’m right."

Nella pressed on, adopting an irritatingly adult tone.

"You act as though you never wanted anything, but I saw the way you were eyeing my apple. You were practically drooling."

She turned toward Luca with a magnanimous gesture.

"But it’s alright. As your niece, I’ll help you out! I’ll ask for apples on your behalf!"

The other centaurs stirred with sudden interest.

They too had been wondering whether to approach Luca for some of that mysterious fruit, but the shame of asking the enemy for favors had held them back.

If Nella were to negotiate on their behalf, however...

"Don’t!" Riley snapped, her face burning. "Shut up, you brat! I never asked you to be my broker!"

"Now, now, Big Sis." Nella drawled haughtily, folding her arms and smirking up at her aunt. "There’s no need to get so embarrassed. Just let your sweet little niece do you a favor!"

Riley’s eye twitched and she decided to fight back.

"You’re acting so high and mighty right now, Nella." She sneered before adding, "But do you remember who used to clean your bed after you wet yourself as a child?!"

Nella was frozen stiff for a moment when she heard her secret get aired out.

"Th-That never happened!" She finally stammered. "I have no idea what you’re talking about! Me? Wetting the bed? Never!"

"Even as a baby, I always used the bathroom perfectly! Unlike the other little ones! Because I was so smart!"

Nella’s smirk only grew wider. "Is that so?"

"Yes! Absolutely true!"

"How interesting." Nella said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Because from what I remember, when I was younger, your nappies had the most terrible stench. And your bed was always soaked."

The other children turned to Nella with expressions of gleeful betrayal.

"Wait, Nella—is that true?"

"You told us you never wet the bed!"

"You even made fun of me for doing it when I was little!"

"And now we find out you did it too?"

Nella’s composure cracked slightly. "No, no, no! That’s all a lie! She’s is making everything up!"

Grasping for survival, Nella’s eyes locked onto Riley, her mind desperately retrieving classified family intelligence.

"Oh yeah, Big Sis?!" Nella fired back, a sinister, vengeful smile spreading across her face. "What about the time you got stuck in the front doorway because your rump was too big?!"

The centaurs gasped!

Nella crossed her arms, gloating wildly. "No matter how much you wiggled your body or shook your hips around, you were wedged tight in the frame for two whole hours! We had to grease the doorframe just to slide you out!"

The adult mares burst into fits of laughter!

"Wait, really, Riley?! Is that true?!" One mare asked, inspecting Nella’s lower body.

"I always thought her flanks were looking a bit wide!"

Rileys face flushed bright pink. "S-SHUT UP!"

"Oh? And what about you, Nella?" She fired back, her voice dripping with vengeful satisfaction. "Should I tell everyone about how you used to be terrified of your own tail?"

Nella’s smug expression froze.

"That’s right! When she was four or five years old, she would get jump-scared by her own tail! Every time her tail swished around into her side vision, she thought a monster was attacking her!"

Riley wheezed with laughter. "You’d scream at the top of your lungs and run around the house in circles trying to escape your own butt!"

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Nella shrieked, stammering frantically as her cheeks burned. "W-WHAT ABOUT HOW YOU ALWAYS SINGING LULLABIES WHEN YOU’RE TAKING A POOP?!"

Riley’s laughter instantly died.

"YOU PROMISED NEVER TO TELL ANYONE THAT!"

But Nella was on a rampage.

"AND WHAT ABOUT HOW YOU STILL SLEEP IN MY MAMA’S BED WHEN IT THUNDERS?!"

"YOU CLAIM YOU’RE A FULLY GROWN WARRIOR, BUT YOU STILL CRAWL UNDER MY MOTHER’S BLANKETS LIKE A BABY!"

"AHHHHH! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"

Within seconds, the aunt and niece devolved into a full-scale, mud-slinging shouting match!

Years of deeply embarrassing, highly classified family secrets were detonated in the middle of the courtyard for all to hear!

But, the real victors of the war were their respective friend groups.

On Nella’s side, the revelation that she wasn’t as mature as she pretended to be was a source of endless entertainment.

And Riley’s image was similarly crumbling.

The hot-blooded warrior who presented herself as fierce and composed was being exposed as someone who got stuck in doorways and wet the bed as a child.

Both groups were gleefully cataloging every embarrassing detail for later use.

—

Luca, meanwhile, was processing a different piece of information.

Nella had called Riley her aunt. And now that he looked at them more closely, he could see the family resemblance—the same facial structure, the same bright eyes, the same general build as Nella’s mother.

The only notable difference was coloration: Nella’s mother had chestnut hair, while Riley’s was a fiery red.

But if they were aunt and niece, why was Nella calling Riley "Big Sis" instead of "Auntie"?

He turned to ask Sigrid about this discrepancy, but the moment he caught her eye, she immediately looked away with a pout.

"Hmph!"

’There’s no way she’s still angry about that.’ He thought.

"Sigrid..."

She turned it the other direction.

"Commander Sigrid..."

Her tail swished once—a sharp, dismissive motion.

Luca bit back a laugh. It was exactly as he’d feared. She sulked like a princess who had been denied her favorite horse.

"Come on, Sigrid~" He said, lowering his voice. "You know I was just playing around. I was trying to defuse the situation."

No response.

"Those little ones were about to start an actual war with your soldiers. Someone had to intervene."

Her ears twitched. Progress.

"I didn’t mean any of it. You’re not actually a bully. You’re—" He paused, searching for the right word— "You’re probably the most honorable person I’ve ever met. And I’ve met a lot of people."

Seeing that nothing was working out, Luca did the only thing that came naturally to him in that moment.

He reached out...and began stroking her centaur body.

It was pure instinct. Back in his world, when a horse was agitated, you soothed it with long, gentle strokes along its side.

Calm, steady pressure. It worked every time. And since Sigrid’s lower half was, for all practical purposes, a horse he did the same.

"Hmmm!" Sigrid made a sound that was somewhere between a gasp and a whinny.

Luca, oblivious, continued the rhythmic stroking.

"See? No hard feelings. We’re still allies. Still partners. Right?"

Sigrid did not answer. She could not answer.

Because her face had gone so red that she was fairly certain steam was about to start rising from her ears. Her heart was hammering against her ribs like a blacksmith’s hammer on an anvil.

’He’s stroking me!’ Her mind repeated, over and over, like a broken record. ’He’s stroking my body! In public? In front of everyone? Does he not—does he not understand what he’s doing!?’

Luca, of course, understood nothing.

He was simply petting her the way one might pet any horse, with the casual, thoughtless familiarity of long practice.

And the worst part was that it felt good.

Better than good. It felt incredible!

The pressure of his hands, the warmth of his touch, the way his fingers seemed to find every knot of tension and work it loose—it was better than any grooming she had ever received?

If she were a dog, her tail would be thrashing with joy.

She couldn’t keep this up. If he didn’t stop soon, she was going to do something unforgivable—like lean into his hands, or make a sound, or—

She turned around.

"Fine." Her voice came out steadier than she felt. "I forgive you."

Luca’s face lit up. "Really?"

"I was never angry at you in the first place."

Luca gave her a knowing look. "Sure, sure. Whatever you say."

He stepped closer, lowering his voice.

"Now, can I ask you something?"

She nodded, grateful for the change of subject.

"Lean down a bit."

She complied, lowering her head until he could speak directly into her ear. His breath was warm against her skin, and she had to suppress a shiver.

"What exactly is the relationship between Riley and Nella?" He whispered. "Are they really aunt and niece? And if so, why is Nella calling her ’big sis’ instead of ’auntie’?"

Sigrid forced herself to focus on the question rather than the proximity of his lips to her ear.

"They are blood relatives." She explained. "Nella’s mother, Claudia, is Riley’s older sister. However, the age difference between Nella and Riley is not particularly large."

"Nella is around eleven years old, while Riley is twenty, perhaps twenty-one. Because of the small gap between them, they don’t really behave as aunt and niece. They act more like sisters."

She glanced at the arguing pair with a small smile.

"Nella particularly enjoys playing pranks on her aunt. Riley is so straightforward that she’s an easy target. It’s become something of a hobby."

"Like Mavis does to you."

Her smile vanished. "I have no idea what you’re talking about."

"Sure you don’t."

Luca looked at the scene with new understanding.

What he had initially perceived as genuine conflict was actually the kind of affectionate bickering that only existed between people who were truly close.

That also explained how they knew so many embarrassing secrets about each other.

Only those who shared a deep bond could wound each other so precisely.

Sigrid sighed. "Can you do something about them? Even though it’s just friendly fighting, they seem like they’re about to actually come to blows."

Luca nodded, then clapped his hands together.

"Alright, alright. Let’s put a stop to this and get back to the important matters—specifically, the apples and apple juice."

The bickering ceased instantly.

Both parties turned to face him, but it was Riley and her companions whose eyes widened with sudden, desperate hope.

Luca smiled. "Is it true that you want some apples from me?"

Riley’s mouth opened, then closed. Admitting it felt like surrender—like accepting the enemy’s charity.

But the scent of apples still lingered in the air, sweet and enticing, and her stomach growled audibly.

Finally, she gritted her teeth and forced the words out.

"Yes...It’s true. We really do want apples, Sir Hero."

She quickly added, with as much dignity as she could muster,

"I mean, it’s not like we wanted them that badly! B-But Nella was waving them in our faces, and we became curious about whether they’re actually as good as she claims. Probably not, honestly. We just wanted to verify."

The other centaurs nodded along with her explanation, though their eager expressions betrayed their true feelings.

"Well..if you want to have a taste, I don’t really mind."

The young centaurs’ eyes lit up with hope. Finally—finally—they would get to taste the mysterious fruit.

"But unfortunately." Luca continued, and their faces immediately fell. "You should have come earlier. The little ones have already eaten my entire supply. I don’t have any apples left to distribute."

"No way..."

"It can’t be..."

"Please tell me you’re joking!"

"My apples...my sweet apples..."

Even though none of them had actually tasted an apple before, they mourned as though they had lost something precious.

Riley especially looked devastated, as though all hope had been ripped from her life.

Luca, of course, had more apples. He probably had an entire orchard tucked away in whatever dimensional pocket he pulled things from.

But the glint in his eye suggested he was angling for something else entirely.

He stepped forward with an inviting expression.

"However! Even though I don’t have apples, I have another product from my world that you might enjoy."

The centaurs perked up immediately—both the older ones and the younger ones, who had been pretending not to listen.

"What is it?" Nella asked eagerly. "Is it even better than apples?!"

"Nothing could be better than apples." Another child declared. "Right?"

Luca shook his head with a mysterious smile. "It’s not a fruit. Instead it’s something you can drink."

He pushed his hands into a portal he summoned and pulling out something hefty.

But the moment everyone saw they were baffled.

’A glass jar?’

It was strangely a large glass bottle that was filled to the brim with a white creamy liquid that caught the light beautifully.

The bottle held at least a couple of liters, and the substance within looked almost impossibly rich.