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結果

Here is the English translation of the original story with a novelistic style. I have translated 若君 as "Prince Atsumi" in Jubei's dialogue, as requested:

The autumn sky was cloudless as a single black crane glided across it with its long tail trailing behind. Far beyond where the bird flew, there was a river said to have flowed since the age of the gods.

To the east of the river, at the foot of the Hekizan mountains, a training ground had been set up. Under a canopy in one corner, soldiers in black armor were lined up in formation. From above, the lined-up helmets looked like black go stones on a board.

"Spearmen! Your lines are in disarray!" shouted Ogami Jubei, a large man standing in front of the formation, his voice roaring like a lion's.

His mouth protruded further than a lion's, almost like a wolf's muzzle. Two holes at the top of his helmet revealed ears covered in thick fur, and a gray-silver tail hung from his waist. He was a so-called beastman, a fitting description for a wolfman.

The soldiers who had been glared at by Jubei chattered as they reformed their lines.

"We got scolded by Jubei-don. Hey, move a bit more to the right. Your unnecessarily long arms are in the way."

"What's that? A warrior of Soga shouldn't sweat the small stuff."

"Oh? Want me to rip that hair right off your head?"

"You lot, can't you just line up quietly..."

Jubei sighed at the men who were taking their time getting in formation.

Half of the soldiers in formation were beastmen like Jubei. And they were all noticeably large. They had various physiques that differed from humans, with broad shoulders, thick frames, and long limbs.

The differences weren't just in physique. Like Jubei, they all had fur, tails, and fangs. These men with inhuman features were a people known as the Soga clan.

This training ground housed a mixed unit of Soga and human warriors fighting shoulder-to-shoulder.

Ogami Jubei was the leader of the spearmen, the soldiers who wielded spears. As for being a leader, his origins were no different from the other soldiers. He too had come from the countryside as a commoner.

"So... everyone's being jittery, you say..."

Jubei muttered under his breath. The scents of Soga and humans, the smell of earth, and the odors of gunpowder and oil carried on the wind constantly spoke to his keen nose. Jubei cleared his throat and tilted his chin up.

They were waiting for the arrival of a warlord who would become their commander.

"What do you think about His Highness the Fourth Prince becoming our commander when he's barely come of age?"

As the men grew impatient with waiting, one of the soldiers spoke to the man beside him as if to pick a fight.

"Shut up. He'll be arriving any moment now."

"You say that, but we've already been waiting for over an hour."

Thud!

Jubei walked over to where the chattering men were standing and struck the ground with the butt of his spear, scolding them in a low voice.

"You there, shut your mouths. Do you want your tongues cut out?"

The yellow eyes glaring out from under the black helmet pierced the soldiers who had let their guard down. Cowed by his intensity, the men who had been glared at lowered their tails and closed their mouths.

"Tsk...!"

"......"

The men stiffened their postures again under the pressure of Jubei's wordless gaze as he returned to the front of the unit.

Then the sound of hoofbeats drew near. Several of the soldiers noticed and began to stir, but before they could do anything more, a war drum was struck to silence them.

Boom! Bom-bom!

The deep, resonant sound rang out. Everyone brought their feet together, and at the signal from the unit commander, turned their faces uniformly in a single direction.

Jubei's nose caught an unusual scent mixed in with the approaching group—a youthful human scent, yet one reminiscent of aged fragrant wood. His nose twitched involuntarily to chase that scent.

"Sorry I'm late," said a figure who had entered the tent, and Jubei was certain from a single glance that this was the source of the scent.

Clad in a dignified suit of black-lacquered armor that was clearly of a different class from the lowborn soldiers, and attended by retainers, the Fourth Prince advanced to the front.

All the soldiers' eyes were now fixed straight ahead. Jubei too gazed unwaveringly at the figure of the commander as he advanced step by step before them.

The man who now stood before them as their commander was of small stature. The lips visible beneath his helmet were painted red, and his chin was small and delicate. Yet he wore the heavy armor as if it were no more cumbersome than everyday clothes, and his steps were powerful.

However, Jubei had to admit that to him, the prince looked as if he were dressed up for a festival.

"......"

"Hey, can you see him?"

"No... I can't see anything from where I'm standing."

"Did he really show up?"

Although they whispered, the soldiers' muttering carried.

Even Jubei, who had just been scolding his subordinates, honestly felt his own morale waning in a bad way at the sight of how small his new commander was, the delicate bone structure suggested by what could be seen of his face under the helmet, and his stature that seemed almost childlike. Afterwards, he turned his thoughts to how he could boost the men's morale despite all this.

But the atmosphere completely changed the moment the young lord opened his mouth to address the assembled troops.

"My warriors!"

The voice that echoed out the instant he parted his lips was far louder than the howl of any Soga man, and it seemed to make the very air tremble with its clarity. As if a great drum had been struck right beside their ears, Jubei's fur all stood on end in surprise, and the unit fell silent and listened attentively to his words.

"I am Prince Atsumi Yukinari, Fourth Prince of the realm. I have now been charged with leading you, my elder brothers, warriors of His Majesty. I ask you all: what is our mission as we head to the field of battle?"

Although it was phrased as a question, none of the soldiers, still cowed, could immediately answer. A heavy silence settled, with only the sound of the wind rustling the pampas grass to be heard.

The young lord then raised his chin as if to shatter the silence, his voice ringing out.

"Heed me! Our mission is not to defeat the enemy. Much less to protect me! It is to defend the people and the land behind us from the wicked emperor of the West!"

The wicked emperor of the West referred to the other imperial court across the river that divided this country in two.

When the old imperial court attempted to persecute the Soga clan, this land where they now stood was the domain of the king's younger brother who had raised a rebel army to right that wrong. It was the front line of the Eastern Court he had founded, a key strategic point for defending the country from the Western Court.

"We shall never lose to the wicked ministers of the Western Court who despise the people, call us base-born, and covet our lands, forests, and you yourselves!"

The young commander paused then to draw a deep breath, unsheathed his sword and raised it to the heavens, crying out their rallying cry.

"The sacred banner of the divine founding emperor is ours!"

A retainer raised a banner designed after a sacred treasure bestowed by the gods. The unfurled banner flapped against the backdrop of the sky.

Everyone gasped at the divine sight.

"Prince Atsumi! The sacred banner of the founding emperor is here with us!"

It was Jubei who roared in response to the young warrior's powerful voice.

Standing in the front rank, gazing at the young commander, Jubei tightly gripped his spear and trembled with primal excitement. Atsumi's scent, his beautiful yet majestic form that made one forget his short stature, and his clear voice created echoes that stained Jubei's eardrums.

Before he knew it, Jubei too was breathing deeply and raising his voice as if a whirlwind were rising inside him.

Jubei's roar became the trigger for a wave of voices to surge forth as if countless gongs were being struck at once.

"The sacred banner of the founding emperor is here!"

"The sacred banner of the founding emperor is with us!"

Facing the soldiers in whom fighting spirit was seething like an onrushing tsunami, the young warrior with eyes like jade stared intently at the silver wolf, Jubei, who had been the first to howl, with a gaze full of expectation.

And thus, one week later, the small yet ambitious young warrior led his unit to fend off and repel a westward invasion by the armies of the Western Court. The soldiers brought home tales of his ferocious bravery and valor, bestowing a brief moment of peace upon the country and its people.

"Has it already been five years since that battle?"

Far north of that erstwhile battlefield, Soga settlements dotted the mountains.

It was the end of winter. Outside, snowmelt flowed into the rivers, and mountain vegetables that heralded an early spring were beginning to sprout. An old, well-worn waterwheel creaked.

Next to the waterwheel hut, inside a house, a blind man muttered as he massaged the back of a man in his prime.

"Jubei, are you still hung up on Otoki-chan? Ow-ow-ow!"

"Please don't talk about my wife, sir."

The blind man was none other than Ogami Jubei. Jubei arched his large back and placed both hands on his client's hips, pushing, rubbing, and kneading.

His beautiful gray-silver fur that would immediately vanish if he hid in the snow was wrapped in an indigo kimono, and the keen eyes that had once shone amber were lost, hidden behind a blue cloth to conceal his scars.

"You think I can just let it go? The spearmaster Jubei, greatest warrior of the Soga... now reduced to a masseur in a place like this 'cause he couldn't bear to see his wife's death throes."

"Being a masseur ain't so bad... These days, a bamboo cane's taken the place of my spear, sir," Jubei said with a wry chuckle as he massaged his client's shoulders. His beast-like ears twitched and drooped.

"You know, I still have that newspaper even now."

"Why don't you use it to wipe your ass or something?"

"How could I? It says your name, calls you one of the greatest warriors... Says how you shielded that whelp of a princeling even as you were wounded, and afterwards you went and slew, what was it, ten or twenty of those bumpkin samurai from the west."

"Well now... Sounds like the story's gotten quite embellished. At most, I..."

"And then you came back, and your wounds, of all things..."

The client grieved on Jubei's behalf as if he truly regretted what had happened. Jubei had been wounded in the face during the fighting and lost his eyesight.

Jubei changed the subject as he sensed and corrected the distortions in the man's body conveyed through his hands. He patted the client's right shoulder.

"Sir, you always carry your hoe on your right shoulder, don't you? And when you sprawl out, you lie on your right side."

"Oh, now that you mention it, I suppose that's true."

"Your left side's getting lazy."

Now Jubei patted the client's left shoulder with his hand. The client laughed and muttered, "Can't be letting it slack off."

After receiving his payment, Jubei left the client's house and walked through the village with his bamboo cane in hand. Fortunately, everyone in the settlement knew Jubei's situation and treated him well.

"Hey Jubei, I saw someone heading over to your place earlier."

Today too, one of the villagers called out to him, and Jubei stopped in his tracks.

"Someone came to my house? Wasn't someone from the village, was it?"

"Nah, it was a stranger. Dressed in real shabby clothes, looked like a damn ghost. Definitely wasn't Soga."

In other words, an outsider had deliberately come seeking Jubei. Jubei grunted in contemplation, but laughed and bid farewell to the villager.

Jubei's hut was on the outskirts of the settlement. On the path approaching his dwelling, there was a small grave marker.

It was far from grand, but it was neat and well-polished, and here slept Jubei's departed wife. It was blind Jubei's daily routine to offer a prayer at this grave morning and night.

As Jubei searched the ground ahead with his cane, feeling like he should be nearing the grave, a familiar scent reached his nose.

Led by the scent, an image of a certain noble sprang to his mind. And memories of the battlefield. His heart thudded heavily in his chest.

"It can't be..."

Just in front of his late wife's grave, Jubei stopped short.

"...Hmm..."

There was a human presence. It was a path where he normally sensed no one else around. And there, wafting on the breeze, was a scent that had been carved indelibly into Jubei's instincts at some point. Though he knit his brows, finding it difficult to believe, there was no mistake.

"Lord Atsumi," Jubei said, removing the cloth covering his face. He placed his cane horizontally by his side, sank to his knees before that noble personage, lowered his head.

"It's been a long time."

"...Is that you... Jubei?"

After a short pause, a voice like a flute rang out. Though heavy with fatigue, it was the same voice as five years ago. After crouching for a time, as if half-dozing, the erstwhile young warrior slowly got to his feet. Jubei could vividly imagine a lock of his hair slipping down with a swish.

And so, looking down at Jubei whose head remained bowed, he told him gently:

"Do you remember me?"

"Yes. This Ogami Jubei may have set down his spear, but his loyalty to you has never wavered for even a moment—"

"You are... one of the greatest warriors I've ever known."

Leaves crunched underfoot as the small figure stepped forward, and then collapsed.

"My lord!"

"I command you... to look after me..."

His chilled body settled into Jubei's arms like snow sliding off a roof.

"I never thought I would see you again," Jubei murmured as he laid the unconscious prince on his futon.

The chill of his skin lingered on Jubei's arms from when he had caught him in his embrace. The texture of the mud- and grease-stained clothes the prince wore, the beast-like stench of a body that clearly hadn't bathed in days—thinking back on it, he was struck again by the realization.

"I thought you would be making a name for yourself as a court noble, but... maybe this village is too remote... We don't even get any news here. And yet..."

Clearing his throat loudly, flattening his ears, Jubei sighed and covered his face with both hands.

It seemed his heart was beating much harder and faster than when he was simply pleasuring himself. That noble scent wafting on the breeze, condensed into the raw, heavy scent of a living creature. The saliva pooled in his mouth, and he gulped it down with a rumble of his throat.

But no—such shameful and disrespectful fantasies were surely just because he was hungry. Trying to persuade himself of this, Jubei took a deep breath to calm his racing pulse before opening his mouth.

"My lord, are you able to eat?"

"...Yes, I can eat. Something... smells good."

With that, Atsumi sat up, correcting his posture with slow, deliberate motions. The movement was accompanied by the rustle of clothes, and Jubei could hear the exhalation of a faint, smiling breath.

"It's fish meatballs and taro porridge. Made from whatever I had on hand... I don't know if it will suit your taste, my lord..."

"Are you mocking me? Heh..."

The sound of fabric shifting and rustling together with that composed voice told Jubei that Atsumi was sitting up. That alone was enough to make Jubei's head grow hot. His wife's voice had been somewhat like this, he thought. The inside of his nose stung as if he'd eaten wasabi, and Jubei took a deep breath before speaking to the prince for whom he had prepared this evening meal, backing away half a step.

"Apologies for not having a proper dining table in this hovel of mine."

"No matter. Let us eat."

Swish... Atsumi's knees slid across the futon. He blew on the food, sipped the porridge with a soft slurp, and began to eat.

"Jubei, what are you doing? Won't you eat as well?"

"Ah, no... I will eat after you have finished, my lord..."

"It's difficult to eat with you staring at me like this."

"My deepest apologies, my lord. However..."

It seemed he still had more to say, and Jubei felt Atsumi's gaze upon him as he stroked the scarred lids of the eyes that had been horribly wounded and would never open again.

"I no longer have eyes with which to stare at you, my lord... not in the way you mean..."

"...Heh, haha!"

Atsumi, who had been holding back laughter deep in his throat, finally let loose and chuckled out loud.

"Wha... I was just...!"

"You're a terrible liar."

Jubei felt as if his heart had been seized in a vice grip.

"Your mind's eye was surely staring straight at me."

With those few words, Jubei's throat went dry as a desert.

"I... I shall fetch some water, my lord."

Jubei stood as if to flee, his back fur even more bristled and fluffed up than usual.

He made his way to the well behind the hut with a jar in hand, whining weakly in his throat, flattening his ears, and heaving a sigh. Stooping his back, he drew the cold water and downed a ladleful.

"...It's gotten chilly."

From the temperature and dryness of the air he felt on his skin, and the cries of the creatures living in the forest, he knew it was already fully night. He filled the jar with water and returned to the hut, where Atsumi called his name as if he had noticed his presence.

"Jubei."

"Was the food to your liking, my lord?"

"It was a bit salty."

"The miso around here may well taste that way compared to what you get in the capital. Next time I'll make it milder..."

"No, you don't need to do that, Jubei."

Atsumi stood up, the bowl in his hands. Jubei raised his face in response, and he heard a soft, almost laughing exhalation.

"This is your flavor, isn't it? It's fine as it is. Now then... where shall I put this?"

"No, my lord! I will clean up, so please make yourself at ease."

Jubei set the water jar down at his feet and advanced toward where he sensed Atsumi's presence, his hands groping. Atsumi grasped his hand and pressed the empty bowl into his palm.

"Well then, I'm going to bed first. I dislike the cold, Jubei."

"Yes, I'll prepare a hot water bottle..."

"No need."

A chilled, slender palm brushed over Jubei's kimono, then seized his elbow.

"My lord?"

"...Sleep beside me, Jubei. That would be better."

At Atsumi's words, Jubei's sightless eyes flew wide open.

"But... my lord, I'm..."

"Are you disobeying a command?"

In Jubei's mind's eye, a vivid image resurfaced of the young man from five years past, glaring at Jubei reproachfully with his head tilted to one side. Catching his breath, knitting his brows, he reluctantly nodded.

"As you wish, my lord."

Atsumi tugged once more at Jubei's kimono sleeve, caressed the back of his hand as if savoring a last moment of contact, and then let go.

The sound of rustling off to one side told Jubei that Atsumi was feigning sleep, and Jubei hastily finished his own meal.

After boiling water and drinking some hot tea, he approached the futon. Although Atsumi had been lying there quietly, the slight difference in his presence made it obvious he was only pretending to be asleep. After all, Jubei was sensitive to presences now that he was blind.

"...Excuse me."

Jubei lifted the covers and slid in. Lying next to the prince for the first time in five years, he realized Atsumi's back had grown taller than before. Yet when Jubei's head came to rest against his chest, Atsumi's toes only reached to about Jubei's shins.

"Jubei," Atsumi whispered, and Jubei's ears twitched at the thrill that husky voice sent through him.

"Yes?"

"...Hold me."

Every hair on Jubei's body stood on end.

"With all due respect... I couldn't do anything so presumptuous, my lord."

"...It's fine. It's only you and I here."

Under the covers, a body thinner than Jubei's own nestled closer. Skin smooth and hairless, unlike Jubei's own. A concentrated human scent.

The scent of the young lord he had shielded and embraced on that battlefield. A scent he wanted to keep on smelling, primal and entangling.

"Do I... smell, Jubei?"

At those words, Jubei was all the more embarrassed to realize this person could see right through to his heart.

"Ah, we should heat some water tomorrow. Or borrow the bathhouse..."

"...I see."

The young lord, with the stench of a beast clinging to him, settled into Jubei's arms. Jubei's brow only furrowed deeper. That scent was so thick, so close. Jubei, lying facing away, wrapped his arms around the young lord who seemed to be facing away from him as well, and quietly let his consciousness drift off to sleep.

A passionate, aching cry.

Someone was calling Jubei's name.

"Mmnh... hah... ah, aah..."

Sweet, panting breaths, thick with desire. The lewd squelch of soft flesh being kneaded.

"Jubei, Juu...bei... take me..."

A pale hand drew back the hem of its own robe, delving between its knees. Hunching its back, black hair spilling everywhere, it stared at Jubei with dewy eyes.

"Your cock... your seed... your essence... aah, haah!"

Slurp, smack, suck...

Like a woman, he was fondling his own rear entrance with his fingers.

"Look... look, Jubei... my hole... it's already like this..."

As he spread his legs, the air around him seemed to grow hotter. When he exposed the valley between his buttocks, normally hidden, Jubei was transfixed as if bound by a collar at the tantalizing scent that wafted from it.

The ring of his anus was plump and flushed, glistening lewdly. Thrusting three fingers into his orifice, the hole meant for expelling waste, he stirred them around until the fluids frothed. He unveiled that pink, slick flesh to Jubei like the meat of a wet mollusk.

Withdrawing his fingers from the fleshy hole, he stretched out a hand to Jubei.

"Jubei... aah, haah ♡ I... I'm..."

That scorching, aching, melting voice.

He was calling Jubei's name.

In the moonlight, the jade eyes of the debauched whore shone bright. Those eyes that usually looked dark sparkled emerald green, shedding heated tears down his cheeks.

"Gaahh!"

Beside Jubei, who sprang upright, he sensed the presence of the prince, still pretending to doze. He still couldn't feel any warmth of morning sunlight. He felt his sweat-drenched body rapidly cooling.

"What the hell kind of dream..."

It was a dream. It had to be a dream. There was no light in Jubei's world now. There was no way he could be feasting his eyes on such a sight.

"Even if I'm pent-up... dammit."

Growling low in his throat, lowering his ears, Jubei covered his face with both hands in utter mortification. A sigh leaked out between his protruding jaws.

"Haahh..."

On top of that, Jubei's groin was throbbing painfully, achingly stiff.

Jubei's male part was longer and harder than a human's, so much so that even other Soga men teased him for it. And that monstrous thing was tenting the covers.

Jubei slipped out of bed and quietly headed out the front of the hut.

With his cane in hand, he walked in the opposite direction of his wife's grave.

He felt the sensation of hardened snow underfoot that had accumulated over many days. This area still had a lot of snow left because it wasn't regularly used. After searching the surroundings with his cane to make sure no one else was around, he took out his throbbing arousal from his loincloth.

"Nngh..."

Jubei's manhood was already scorching hot and throbbing fiercely even untouched. The scent of his own male musk mingled with the scent of the snow all around.

"To imagine Lord Atsumi doing such things... dammit."

Indeed, there was no way the young lord would ever engage in such behavior. Jubei had barely spent a year sleeping and eating alongside the prince, between training and the war, but he swore he had never looked upon him as an object of lust.

"You big idiot... haahh..."

Jubei's mouth berated himself, but his hand seized his rock-hard shaft, and his mind conjured up an image of the prince drawn from memory.

The black hair he sometimes glimpsed was long and his skin was pale, but when he held a sword and raised his voice on horseback, color rose in his cheeks, and even caked in dirt, he was beautiful. Those eyes that looked black at night shone jade green when they caught the light just so. He had even shared a bath with the prince. Though slender, he had the back of a warrior.

"I am proud to fight alongside you Soga warriors."

Muttered by Atsumi as he glared at the enemy encampment during those long days of war, those words had stabbed Jubei through the heart, telling him that the prince truly accepted them despite their non-human appearance.

Now, reunited after five years with his former lord who had clearly been through an extraordinary journey, Jubei was filled with shame and anger at his own bestial desires, so much so that he wanted to claw at himself.

"Haahh... nngh, ungh...!"

He pumped his cock roughly, violently.

Was it his hand's fault for gripping that obscene thing, or had this been what Jubei secretly wanted all along?

The faintest breeze carried Atsumi's scent to where Jubei stood. Not just a beautiful scent, but a raw, heavy, animalistic one. His mouth watered, and he gulped it down with a rumble.

Using the slickness oozing unbidden from the tip as lubrication, he abused himself with violent motions as if to punish himself.

"Lord Atsumi..."

The sweet, lisping voice he had heard in his dream rang through his head like a bell.

"My... prince..."

He wanted to touch that wind-tossed hair. He wanted to rub his nose against that scalp, damp with sweat. He wanted to seize those outstretched wrists and sink his teeth into those shoulders. He wanted to grab those narrow hips, undone sash and all, and slam his throbbing cock against them. And in the end, he wanted to drench them in the thick, sticky seed that threatened to erupt at any moment...

"Graaahh!"

Jubei had never even indulged in such desires about his late wife. But now, beset by the wanton, debauched image of the prince he had seen in his dream, Jubei couldn't hold back the animalistic urges welling up inside him after so long.

His groin tightened, his thighs trembled... Something came rushing up from deep within...

"A-Atsumi... dono..."

His breath caught in his throat, and his lower belly tightened. Jubei's manhood twitched and throbbed of its own accord. His hands, jumping ahead, made lewd squelching noises as he fantasized about the prince's touch in the darkness. His fangs looked like they might bite into something at any moment.

"Tsk... ah...!"

Spurt, splort! Splurrrt! Spurt, spurt, spurt!

"Hahh, ha!"

Spluuuurt! Splurrrrt!

Jubei's beastly seed, far more copious than a human's, came gushing up his urethra. Hunching his back with one hand cupping his cock, Jubei bit back his voice and scattered the unceasing white fluid on the snow.

The semen spurting from the tip flew as far as Jubei was tall. As it hit the ground, it melted the frigid snow, then was chilled again by the snow until only Jubei's scent suffused the air.

"...My... prince..."

Dripping the dregs that clung to his tip, he exhaled hotly through his fangs once more.

If that had been his lordship's rump... nay, the depths of his belly...

"Jubei?"

At the sound of Atsumi's voice, Jubei spun around without even putting himself away.

"......"

He couldn't see, but he knew. He couldn't make out his expression, but he could feel his gaze. Jaws agape, Jubei stood stock-still, frozen in place.

Steam rose from the wolf-man's body, having just reached his peak.

How long had he been watching? No, Jubei wanted to believe that he would have sensed his presence, but he was also aware he was not his usual calm self.

"Even you must sometimes... miss the touch of your wife..."

Jubei sensed Atsumi's gaze being averted.

"When you didn't come back for a while, I came to check on you... While your lord is here, I would prefer if you refrained, but... I will make an exception. I'm going back to sleep."

Finally, Jubei's shoulders twitched as if his soul had returned to his body. He hastily tucked himself back into his loincloth. And then he called out to the prince, who was about to return to the hut.

"S...snow."

"What?"

For some reason, the prince stopped in his tracks with a startled voice.

"While there's still snow, it's best not to wander around back here too much, my lord."

"Ah... yes... the snow, I see."

Wiping his hands clean with snow, Jubei approached Atsumi with his cane.

"You might step through the snow wrong and fall off a cliff or something."

Jubei still felt like he could smell the pungent scent of his own seed stuck in his beastly nose, but perhaps the prince, being human, wouldn't notice. Even though Atsumi had clearly seen him in a comprising position, Jubei dearly hoped he wouldn't realize.

His heart was pounding harder and faster than it had when he was simply indulging his own lust.

"...Indeed, Jubei."

At Atsumi's affirmation, Jubei felt all the more awkward and rumbled low in his throat.

Crunch. Atsumi walked back along the path he had come, returning to the hut first. Jubei followed a short distance behind so as not to accidentally trip the prince with his cane.

"Ahh... what a... waste..."

Jubei's ears twitched at the prince's hoarse whisper, but before he could ask him to repeat himself, Atsumi had already gone back to bed. In the end, Jubei went back to sleep without clarifying what he meant, until the rooster crowed.

Holding the prince who continued to feign sleep in his arms.