Chapter 111: Worries

"What's the situation?"

Ever since a while ago, this was the standard greeting that I welcomed Ayda's world with whenever I stepped in it. Rather than taking a deep breath of the insanely fresh air that this planet not polluted by advanced human activity housed, I would scan the area around me to confirm it was still safe. Only after all the initial worries of mine would disappear would I dare to relax a bit.

"Hey, it's been a while since you last came."

Sitting a few meters away from the door, Ayda raised her head from the book she was studying. With her lips twisting in a slightly annoyed smile, she responded to my question.

"You know, we are not that useless ourselves. Didn't I tell you that I will protect this place?"

Putting her book on the table, Ayda looked at me with a fit of slight anger glittering in her eyes. But who was this anger directed at? Me? Her own weakness that made me worry about her every time she was outside of my reach? 

My guts were telling me that even Ayda wouldn't know the answer herself.

"It's not that I don't trust you. I'm just worried about you. That's all."

Spreading my arms wide, I placed my small backpack on the ground before throwing myself at the nearby bed. For some reason, be it magical or mundanely practical, the local beds of this world were incomparably better than anything that I slept on, on earth. While they were quite rare with only the Inn being in possession of them in the entire village, this sturdy softness, the way in which the mattress perfectly aligned to the shape of one's body…

The fac that this bed reminded me of all the good times that I had in it with Ayda could also be a reason for my strange infatuation.

"I know, I just can't help but blame myself for that. If I tried harder back then if I didn't let that idiot go… Who knows, maybe the war wouldn't have started in the first place?"

Raising her head up even though the only thing that she could look up to was the roof, Ayda took a few breaths to calm herself down. It seemed that I wasn't the only one with a troubling past… But watching as the girl's breasts jumped joyfully as she breathed in and out, I realised that another trouble was appearing.

"But for now, you don't have anything to worry about. Huskarl told me that the first part of the barrier is already working. The second and third layers are only to make sure nothing bad will happen while you are scrambling to help us all out."

Turning her now smiling face towards me, Ayda inevitably noticed where my eyes were glued to. With her smile only widening, she tapped her fingers against the wood of the table beside her as she pushed her hips down the seat of her chair before pushing with her hands and handing on the back legs of the furniture.

With my head at the level of the bed's sheets, Ayda's current position left very little to my imagination. Just by straining my eyes a bit more, I could almost see what her short dress was only pretending to hide, especially with how it was pulled up right now.

"Should I take it as confirmation that we have a lot of free time at our hands?"

Scanning the girl with my eyes, I was mentally unable to decide where to look at. At the bulging hills of her breasts, decorated with a courageous cleavage? Her thighs leading to the place that I was so infatuated with? Or maybe her eyes, already brimming with both lust and affection?

"Do you seriously need me to answer that, dummy?"

Leaning her head slightly to the side Ayda looked at me with a curious expression on her face before releasing a deep sigh and standing up from her chair. Approaching the bed, she sat on its edge before pushing herself to the edge aligned with the wall. Bending her legs under her hips, she patted her lap before reaching with her arms towards me.

"Seriously?"

Not sure whether to be amazed or shocked, I could only utter this meaningless word.

"If you don't want it…"

Before Ayda could even finish her words, I quickly pushed myself with my hands, slamming my face right on her lap. Surrounding her waist with my arms, I locked my hands behind her back, hugging my face tightly to her stomach.

"Of course I want it. You just caught me off-guard!"

Silently protesting while hiding my face in her thighs, I couldn't rest easy even for a second as her fingers descended down on my head and started gently caressing my hair. As pleasant as laying face first on her lap was, the inability to see her reactions was too excruciating. 

Twisting my body around, I turned over to my back, resting the backside of my head on Ayda's soft flesh. Instantly covered in her arms and upper body that wrapped all over my head, I could only enjoy the moment of this insane comfort, this illusory yet reinforcing safety.

"You look tired."

Letting go of my head and moving back to rubbing my hair, Ayda commented. Be it the grey aureolas around my eyes or the overall aura, I could tell that this gentle snuggling was the girl's way of letting me rest a bit.

"You must've worked really, really hard…"

Leaning forward a bit, Ayda forced me to watch her dangling boobs as she whispered to my ear. Bringing her hands down, her fingers suddenly started massaging my earlobes. At this point, I couldn't help but realise one thing.

If my imagination wasn't wrong, then wasn't my current scenario one of the situations replicated over and over again by nearly anyone who ever tried to create ASMR publications? With the feeling of Ayda's fingertips all over my face, with her gentle flesh below my head and slightly sweet smell filling my nose, I could tell one thing for sure.

No ASMR video would ever come close to the sensations currently coursing through my mind!

"Yes, I worked really hard. While I know its not something easily noticeable, but every day, I was getting closer to solving the problem that makes it impossible to bring you to my home. I'm pretty close already, but I don't want to risk it yet. Only when I'm fully prepared…"

As soon as the worries and doubts started appearing in my mind yet again, Ayda's soft voice entered my eardrums, bringing peace back to my soul.

"I know that you are working really hard. I truly do. At times, it even makes me worried."

Feeling Ayda's hands ceasing to move, I brought my own hand up, clasping it gently at Ayda's fingers currently resign on top of my cheek. Holding her hand like that for a moment, I enjoyed the gentle warmth of her flesh before opening my eyes and looked directly in the girl's pupils.

"There is nothing for you to worry about. As of now, I don't really have any enemies of people that could wish me harm. I'm way too small to be bothered with for the people that have the means to cause me any serious harm. Those who might have some grudges… Well, outside of one particular case, they are all pacified."

With the memory of Martha's family surfacing in my mind, my mood soured. Even the gentleness that Ayda attempted to coat me in didn't seem to help at all. Because as little as I wanted to think about it, the Sarate family was the one actual threat that I failed to address so far.

Thinking seriously, the only thing they could hold against me was how I claimed them to be responsible for the death of my original self and my family. With the matter being dropped due to the overly aggressive response from the city that quickly pushed all the blame on the former governor, it seemed that the topic of this dangerous conglomerate escaped everyone's attention.

But it didn't mean they were powerless to fight against me. While the display their people gave while attacking my mansion and when faced with the soldiers didn't leave any good opinion on the household in me, there was just no way that the entire clan was as weak. If that were to be the case, they would lose their position as the leading family of the conglomerate right after the apocalypse. 

If they were weak, there was no way for them to hold on to power. Even if the entire conglomerate nominally belonged to their family. Thankfully, what I had to potentially deal with wasn't the entire, enormous mass of this huge corporation, but just its local branch. The sad element of this slight happiness stemmed from the fact that this particular branch that existed in the city, was the ultimate headquarter of the organisation, housing the three most important figures in the entire business!

"See? There are things that I should be worried about. But heck, don't you remember how you still react when you return? What's so wrong with me acting the same?"

Suddenly starting to pout, Ayda completely stopped moving her hands, turning her head away with a bothered expression on her otherwise cute face. Seeing her in this slightly angry state, all the sensations of her previous caressing finally broke the dams of my calm, forcing the blood in my veins to rush to the important parts of my body.

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with you being worried. It's me just acting stupid and inconsiderate."

Standing up from Ayda's lap, I grabbed her chin with my fingers before bringing her face closer to mine. One long yet shallow kiss later, she was already lying under me on the bed with her limbs scattered in all directions. By the time our tongues moved to position and started the engagement, our clothes somehow found their way to a small pile beside the wall.

Grasping Ayda's naked breast in my hand, I lowered myself over the girl before whispering right to her ear.

"Hopefully, in just a few days, I will bring you to my home."