The Last Rising Sun

She wondered what kind of business Reines would have with her. Even after she appeared out of nowhere along with her mercury maid, she acted as casually as if nothing mattered. It all happened so fast that, from one moment to the next, she found herself sitting in Reines' limousine, eating cookies and staring into nothingness. Her body was stiff and her mind pensive. Next to her, oddly enough, was Assassin, who was looking out the window with that depressing aura surrounding him.

"I'd like to have you two to myself for a whole day."

That seemed to be the important issue. Reines was having fun with this situation, something Gray could see in that mischievous grin. Still, that was enough to make her wonder something.

"Is that all you sought us out for?" the uncertainty could be heard in her tone of voice. "I don't think it's worth wasting time on-"

"I never waste my time," she interrupted. "I always do things for a reason. I think we all do the same thing, though. It's not that I'm wasting my time, I'm just investing it in a relaxing evening together with you."

"But...," another hesitation. "Why did you tell Assassin to be with us in his materialized form?"

"Because it would be fun to have a guy after so long. Dating among girls is always fun, but sometimes you need the male touch to enjoy it more."

Gray felt sweat trickle down her forehead. Her expression showed that she had understood Reines' intentions, and that beneath those words, there was a double meaning that she preferred not to delve into.

"Isn't that right, Assassin?" she leaned in to look at the servant.

Assassin only turned to look at her and lifted his shoulders in a sign that he didn't know what to answer.

"I think you are making me spend mana in vain," he said, his voice monotone.

"I don't think you're spending your mana in vain. I mean, you've got two pretty girls with you, why don't you smile a little and enjoy it?"

"I...," Assassin was about to say something, but stopped himself before blurting out any sentences.

"What Assassin boy means is that he doesn't understand what you mean," Add said. He rattled inside his cage causing Gray to pull him out of the depths of the cape. "It seems the boy doesn't like being surrounded by so many people, am I wrong?"

Assassin denied. Gray thought what Assassin meant was about wasting mana. He sees no point in staying materialized for something so mundane. She understood that. Besides that, if Assassin wasted mana in vain, she'd have to give him some blood for him to get that mana back, that's not even counting the fact that they were training a bit earlier.

Thinking about that, she hid inside her hood. Her face turned red and her gaze was lost in the void. The experience she had was something new she had never felt in her entire life. She felt very strange when she felt Assassin's tongue on her finger. Just remembering that made her feel the servant's warm tongue on her hand.

***

The afternoon passed without any problems. Two girls walked through the streets of the city accompanied by a strange boy who hid his face with a hood. People looked at the boy with curiosity. His clothing was not normal in this country, as he looked like a monk or samurai.

She would look at him on occasion, trying to understand a little more about him. There were times when Assassin walked with his eyes closed, not noticing where his feet were stepping. Every step he took was shaped by a mysterious sense of superiority. All his gestures were smooth, she saw it when they entered one of the coffee shops. Maybe he was elegant as he walked, or he was just a show-off trying to look good in front of everyone.

Although Assassin doesn't need to eat to live, Reines forced him to order something to eat. Assassin ended up ordering a salty bread and a glass with milk and coffee, no sugar.

He always took small bites of the food. Watching him eat, she inevitably couldn't help but stare at his lips. She was enraptured watching him, discovering more and more about him. This was the first time she had seen Assassin do so many things. Eating in a cafeteria. Walking around the mall attracting the eyes of women with his aura of mystery. Watching the advertisements in the various shops in the area. Even stopping to pet a wolf dog along the way.

In the end, what she saw in Assassin was a normal boy. A boy, perhaps very laid back, but elegant and understanding despite the fact that he hardly said anything the entire walk.

"You're not looking at him much?" asked Reines. She smiled mischievously.

"What, me? No, I-"

"You can't lie when the evidence is on the table."

Assassin walked behind them rather bored. He didn't seem to be listening to anyone.

"It's not that. I just thought that... I thought I'd know more about him if I analyzed him a little."

Reines took her by the hand and moved closer to her. She got so close that she could talk Gray's ear off with no trouble.

"Well, I'm not saying you like him or anything. But when you want to look at a man, you should at least pretend you don't."

"Pretend...," somehow that brought her to her senses. She looked back to where Assassin walks.

The boy at first didn't look at her, but as he felt someone else's gaze, he inevitably looked in that direction as well.

The scene was a bit comical, to tell the truth. Assassin was carrying a bunch of shopping bags, including the briefcase where Trimmau hides so as not to be seen by normal people. He seemed to have no problem carrying all that weight.

Of course, Reines wasn't being entirely truthful. There was something she was hiding, something to have fun with at the moment. Gray had no way of knowing that, plus trying to guess what Reines is thinking is completely impossible.

The evening ended with these people riding home in the limo.

***

If for some reason she thought back, she would undoubtedly realize Reines' intentions. But she is not powerful enough to remember when it is necessary. She hoped to return home, relax in her room, take a bath, perhaps and read some book until she fell asleep. She immediately realized that was not going to be possible.

If she thought about it again, she would regret not running away sooner. But it was inevitable. It was something that had to happen sooner or later.

Reines made Assassin stay materialized for a particular reason. That was obvious, as the servant wasted a lot of mana in the process. That was this girl's idea. She wanted to see Gray share her mana to Assassin, even if it involved manipulating them both, which she accomplished in a very simple way.

It all started with a couple of words after they entered the house.

"You look tired, Assassin."

From those brief words alone, Gray could understand what was going to happen. Even Add seemed to laugh as if he knew everything from the beginning. Assassin only denied.

"It's your imagination," he said, as calm as ever.

Gray thought Assassin wanted to save her by responding with those words, but she understood that he wouldn't be able to do something so corny for someone. And he certainly looks tired. Even if he doesn't show it, he looks as if his very existence is weighing on him, something she could somehow understand. Assassin is tired. But that somehow is strange. His mana shouldn't run out so quickly. At least she came to that conclusion, after all she doesn't know that a servant's need for mana only increases over time, like an empty, infinite battery. Servants, despite being spirits of fallen heroes, are also mana eaters.

"Aren't you going to help him, Gray?" said Reines. She looked eager to witness something as intimate as a mana exchange.

"No need," but Assassin interrupted. His body dismantled like dust in front of them. He vanished.

"Is he shy?" she asked, looking at Gray.

She just looked at the ground. She didn't understand this. In the end, maybe Reines just made Assassin uncomfortable. It was the normal thing to do. Still, Gray felt guilty. She participated in this to fulfill Reines' whim, but that also dragged that servant down. Now he was tired, surely standing in front of Sakura, waiting for her to open her eyes.

"He's always contradicting himself," he muttered.

Reines paid special attention to those words.

"You could say that his very existence is a contradiction. He's dead, but he's still walking among the living, helping them as if he were a slave," in that respect, Reines was right. Servants only exist as slaves to magus.

"Do you think a slave can ever see the light of freedom?"

"I don't think so," she took a seat on the couch. She waved a hand at Gray to tell her to sit down. When Gray sat down across from her, she continued, "If you are a prisoner, being a slave for so long, despite embracing freedom with devotion, you will always be clinging to the customs of your own slavery. If you are beaten, you will feel that if you are not beaten you are not yourself. If you are insulted, if you are mistreated, if you are made to suffer... Not feeling any of that will make you feel that it is not worth going on," she smiled contentedly. "It's such a beautiful thing...", because seeing others suffer fills her with joy and other feelings unbecoming of a lady with her social status.

"Then... you will never stop being a slave," she understood.

She stood up without saying anything to Reines and went upstairs to look for Assassin. Seeing her, Reines just smiled. She hadn't expected Gray to bring that subject up out of the blue, but she sure had been thinking about it for a while.

'Let's see what this girl will do," she followed her silently.

***

This time he was in the library. Gray had to go downstairs again to find him. When she opened the door, he was there as usual.

She sat down across from him in an act unbecoming of her. She even felt like a different person. When she saw herself, she remembered that she was not herself. When she saw Assassin, she felt something similar.

"Should I help you?" she asked him. Even if the shame of the act overwhelmed her, there was something she wanted to find out. The cowardly Gray was taking another step toward her own growth.

Assassin, face in a book, looked at her.

"I thought it would be a hassle for you to do it in front of someone else."

That didn't make sense.

"Why would you think that, do you care about me that much?"

Assassin said nothing. In fact, he hid his face in the depths of his hood. He stood silently in front of her, as if he wanted to erase his presence completely. Obviously he didn't succeed.

And she again thought about it.

She can't understand Assassin. Everything he does is always shrouded in mystery. When she feels she has managed to discover something, Assassin hides it under his mysterious aura, under a sepulchral silence.

'He's not going to answer...,' she concluded. 'Sometimes I think it's like I'm talking to a wall... Talking to him... talking to someone... I... I'm not the type to start a conversation. That's not like me'

What changed in her in all this time? Two months in this place. Meeting people, getting to know the world. She thought about the people she had talked to and realized she had never talked so much before in her life. She fled the cage that was her village of birth and set out on a journey into the unknown. But in that, she also thought of what she had said to Reines earlier: 'A slave never ceases to be a slave.' Those words also applied with her. A slave to the ideals of her people.

When she looked at Assassin she wondered if he too was going through something similar, but finding out was like trying to clear the desert with a broom.

"Let me help you...", it was not a question, but a request.

Assassin put the book down on the table and looked at her. With the same expressionless face as always, he nodded.

Gray then stood up and looked at Assassin. Her face turned red with embarrassment. Again she hadn't thought things through.

'Am I changing?" she wondered, as she held out her hand.

Assassin also stood up and took her hand. At some point she thought that somehow this servant looked like a knight taking his maiden by the hand. Though then she thought of Sakura as that maiden.

The maiden, saved by the knight in shining armor.

A story that will never be told....

Before he knew it, Assassin had done the same thing as last time, only now he wasn't kneeling. She felt the boy's fangs piercing her finger. She felt the warm, wet tongue caressing her hand. She felt a strange shiver touch her entire body.

This scene, from Gray's eyes, looked so obscene. Having Assassin lick her like that in itself was already kinky.

Finally, Assassin finished licking the blood and pulled away from Gray's hand. She felt cold in her hand, as if something important had been taken from her.

"This is strange...", Assassin whispered. "Somehow... it wasn't enough..."

Assassin's weariness did not fade.

"Why don't you give him some spit," and suddenly Reines was at the door.

Before she could feel embarrassed, Gray was grabbed from behind by Reines, who was silently gloating at the girl's embarrassment.

"It's almost as effective as blood. If you give him blood and saliva, you're sure to succeed in helping him."

"No, I- Reines, let go of me..."

She whispered in her ear.

"Just do it-he'll thank you."

She felt overwhelmed. She could find no way out of this situation. If the only thing she had to do was to give Assassin spit, she could do it. But the embarrassment of doing something so strange prevented her from even moving. She wondered how long Reines had been watching them from the doorway. Her embarrassment only increased at the thought.

"Stick your finger in your mouth, cover it with saliva and give it to Assassin in your mouth."

This was already getting really strange. Everything seemed even kinkier than before and Assassin wasn't doing anything to stop it, maybe because he knew they had to.

"Do it, Gray. Don't feel shame for something we magus do all too often."

This was the consequences of being a magus. At least Gray didn't want to know about it. Her legs were shaking. Her face was very red with embarrassment. She was being pressured to do it and felt like she was giving in too easily.

She hesitated several times, but finally gave in as she understood that she could not escape this. She shyly opened her mouth, brought the same finger Assassin had licked earlier closer and looked at it very nervously.

'Indirect kiss...', something only elementary school children would think of. But in that respect she was like a child. Never in her life had she ever thought of kissing a boy, let alone going further, as she was still a virgin.

She even felt a little afraid of what might happen from now on.

With Reines whispering in her ear, she stuck her finger in her mouth feeling like she was doing something wrong. She tried not to taste the saliva Assassin left behind earlier, but that was impossible. Almost immediately she pulled her finger out of her mouth and nervously reached out her hand pointing it at Assassin.

The servant, without a word, reached over and opened his mouth slightly, placing Gray's finger on his tongue.

As Assassin licked and Gray was about to die of embarrassment, Reines watched this with heavy breathing. To her this was for the best. The misery of these two was so satisfying that she felt her body spasm. It was hard for her to hide what she was feeling in this situation.

Assassin swallowed the sage and walked away. He let out a tired sigh and sat back in the chair.

"Lady", he whispered. "You are dangerous..."

"Thank you for the compliment. What should we do with this," Reines looked at Gray, who seemed to be blowing steam out of her head. She hadn't fainted, but she was in a strange trance as she babbled things that couldn't quite be understood.

This was only going to get worse,,,,

To be continued...