Laura and Massage (Edited)

A/N: This is totally a personal service of a chapter. I'm not apologetic for writing it as I enjoyed writing it. Anyway, next chapter we'll have some serious drama.

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I walked back to my room, completely spent. My legs hurt, my hands hurt, and my back hurt the most. Honestly, everything hurt. My whole body felt sore.

As expected, an hour simply wasn't enough time to recuperate from the new daily training and Knight Commander Joseph didn't go easy on poor old me either. Though he only made me do basic exercises, so maybe I am wrong to demand an easier session. It was my fault for training right before my formal training. But I wanted all the stats I could get for this, so I could show my talents, even if paltry. But still.

'To think he would make me do sit-ups, push-ups, and running. What were the odds?'

The repetition was kind of annoying. Especially because I was not getting any of the usual stats for it as I did with my daily training.

Honestly, the only reason I wasn't losing my shit for this unfairness during the repeated training was that I did manage to gain a few points in my Endurance stat for the continuous training and overexertion on my body.

Now, if only I was a masochistic pervert who enjoyed extra training and pain. I could have probably raised it a lot daily.

'Not gonna happen again.'

Too bad I wasn't that kind of pervert. Being an Otaku gamer who spent his days in front of his computer screen had made me both physically and mentally unfit. Every day was a painful reminder of it.

Not to mention in this new life, I had a much younger body, and it was pretty frail. And my mind trying to procrastinate also didn't help much, though I could override such impulses, thanks to my System.

"Fuck. It hurts."

I groaned as I tried to find the least painful position to sleep on my bed after reaching my room.

'Seriously, who the hell thought training like crazy before my first practice was a great idea?!'

[I believe it was you, Alex.]

'Zip it, Iris. Nobody asked you to state the truth.'

I retorted, feeling annoyed that she would meddle in my private ranting.

Honestly, I'd lost any semblance of privacy in this life.

Even my thoughts were not private from my System. By the way, 'Iris' is the name that I had finally chosen while coming to the room. No, it's not simply the opposite of Siri! That was just a coincidence, I swear.

I had thought of a proper name for her for a couple days now. But I couldn't think of any decent names. Iris herself was quite picky about it. So, most of my initial suggestions were denied.

My System was really adamant about getting a good name, especially one that she liked.

Finally, she settled on this one today, saying she really liked it and it was a deep and beautiful name. It was. I had given a lot of thought to it, even if it sounded like a simple name. Again, NOT the opposite of Siri!

Anyhow. So, from this day forward, my System was called Iris.

[My bad. But Alex, you shouldn't be so down. Remember that all of this is helping you grow stronger. Isn't that what you wanted?]

Iris's even-toned and pleasing feminine voice reasoned. And I couldn't fault her here.

I sighed in resignation.

'... Yeah. The growth is not bad, I guess. For simple training anyway.'

I couldn't level up by killing monsters as I wasn't even allowed to set foot outside the mansion gates, let alone outside the city gates and beyond, where the monsters couldn't be found nearby anyway because they were culled for the city's safety. So, I had to rely on this training to gain the stats. For now anyway.

Naturally, it was not as efficient as the growth I could get from leveling up. From what Iris told me, I could easily gain all my week's worth of training gains by simply leveling up a few times. That's how easy it was. Well, I still had to kill monsters for it, possibly risking my life. But it was only fair. It was high risk, high rewards.

Unlike me, the people of the world had to do this kind of training and hone their skills and mana to grow stronger.

Leveling up could be called a cheat on its own. But alas, I couldn't utilize that cheat yet.

I closed my eyes and felt my consciousness drifting into calm nothingness.

'Guess I'll take a small nap…'

...

I woke up—but my eyes were still closed— feeling a strange sensation on my body. It felt like my body was in the air. I couldn't feel the bed. And also I could feel a cold sensation followed by a warm sensation, entangling parts of my body, making it feel nice. The warmth, in particular, felt really good.

I felt something slither on my body, moving from my chest and stomach, and then to my arms and then finally to my legs.

"Mmm~"

I moaned as I felt my body relax; the pain I had felt before sleeping and which was still lingering started to mellow down.

I didn't know how long I was asleep but judging by my still-aching body that barely showed any improvement otherwise, it probably wasn't that long.

I slowly opened my eyes when I felt a cold sensation on my face.

What greeted me was a close-up of a cold-faced young woman with straight, black hair tied in a ponytail and unusually cold yellow eyes staring at me.

All my fuzziness and pain suddenly disappeared as I sprang back up into a seating position.

But it turned out to be a bad idea, as the pain I had stopped experiencing for a moment quickly came back and to a much greater degree.

"F—Ugghh!"

I groaned as I held my body, somehow avoiding swearing in front of the woman.

Still, it really hurt everywhere.

'Fuck!'

I leaked the swearing inside my head instead.

"Please lay down, young master. Your body is hurt from excessive training."

Laura, the head maid, spoke politely as she stared at me with her characteristic expressionless face. I turned to look at her looking at me with the same cold face—... Actually, there might have been some difference this time. Her expression seemed less cold than usual. If I didn't know any better, I would dare say she almost seemed... worried?

'Wow. So she can make that kind of face too, huh.'

It wasn't much different from her usual face, to be honest. But up close you could notice that tiny little change from the normal.

Seeing it, for some reason I felt a strange urge to see more of her expressions. It just felt so surreal watching the usually expressionless and cold maid show different reactions that she doesn't normally show.

"Yeah, my body aches really bad."

I replied to her as I went back to laying back on the bed.

"By the way."

I continued as I looked at her.

"Yes, young master?"

By this point, her face had sadly gone back to the usual expressionlessness.

'Pity.'

"So, why am I in my underwear? Did you strip me?"

I already had some inkling as to what might have transpired, but I wanted to hear her explanation anyway. And I got just that.

"Yes, it was I, Young Master. I removed your clothing so I could wash off the sweat and dirt from your body."

She said with a straight face.

'… Yeah, I can't argue with that. Not sure what I was trying to accomplish with it anyway.'

I knew from my memories that she took care of all my needs. She had stripped me down hundreds of times to help me take a bath. So, this was no big deal, really.

'She might be cold, but she is very diligent and cares for Alex properly at least.'

I noted idly as I lay on the bed, thinking.

'Well, that's that, I suppose.'

"Can I have my clothes back? I don't like lying on the bed naked."

'Not when the other party is fully clothed and we're not doing anything interesting. Not that that will happen anyway given my age… well. Never mind that, actually. Olivia exists."

"Yes, I'll dress you right away."

She complied and soon she took out a new set of fresh clothes from her storage ring.

'I wonder if she keeps all my clothes in her storage ring?'

She must be the reason why I didn't have that many clothes in my closet.

'It's coz she keeps a bunch of it in her storage ring.'

Suddenly, I felt her hands touching my legs, bringing me out of my thoughts.

Before I realized it, I was already wearing my pants.

Finally, after she put a light frilly t-shirt on me without much effort or strain on my body, I was clothed.

I lay on the bed, in relief.

"Young Master, your body seems to be aching. Would you like me to massage it?"

'Hmm?'

I looked at her straight face after she suggested it.

"A massage?"

She nodded.

"It'll help your body recuperate better."

"…Yes. I would like that."

Are you kidding me?! Hell yeah! I should have asked her for one anyway. But I would happily accept her kind offer. Seriously, I could genuinely use a massage. My body was still sore and aching.

I smiled internally as I moved a bit more to the center of the bed, allowing her to climb up from the side.

[Congratulations on finally getting a beautiful woman on your bed. Maybe you'll get lucky and get a kiss on the forehead.]

Iris seemed quite cheerful and innocent when saying that, but damn it hurt my pride.

'… Ouch. Geez, I know I died a virgin. You didn't have to rub it in.'

In this life, I was determined to at least find a girl (and get laid). And I had more than one opportunity lying ahead.

But alas, that day wasn't today. Or tomorrow. Or anytime close.

'Damn this young body. I wanna grow up already.'

Regardless of my thoughts, I was enjoying the feeling of her touch.

"Please tell me if it hurts somewhere I go and also where you would like me to massage, young master."

"Hmm…"

I hummed a reply as I felt her soft and gentle hands touching my left hand. Her hands kneaded and caressed various parts of my hands with the care one wouldn't expect from such a cold-looking young woman. The upper arms, the elbow, the forearm, my palm, and even the fingers. She made sure to go through every bit and get rid of any soreness I had in those parts. And she did it all expertly. If someone told me this woman had taken courses on massaging, I would have easily believed them. She was simply too good.

Once she received a hum of satisfaction from me, she moved to my left leg. She made a mushy mess of my left leg, from the upper thighs, which tickled when she touched them, to the toes, which she cracked to release all the residual stress.

I couldn't put into words just how amazing the feeling that came when she did that. Pure heaven!

She then did the same to the right hand and leg, literally extracting all the pain from my appendages.

'Fuck, who knew massages can be so damn good! I think I might be hooked to it now.'

In my entire past life, the number of times I had gotten a massage could be counted on 10 fingers. And none of them felt THIS good.

I was ready to believe she had a skill like 'God Hands' or 'Euphoric Hands' or even 'Touch of pleasure.'

No way there was no magic involved in this shit.

Of course, while I was thinking that, Iris had to put a damper on the mood.

[I doubt she's using any active or passive skills for it. If I had to guess it's all her training and experience, used on a body that's weak to a woman's touch.]

'… You really had to put it that way, huh.'

I deadpanned at Iris's rude remark.

[Oh. My bad again. But you can make me eat my words in the future. I'm rooting for you. :) ]

'Uh, sure?'

… Was my System encouraging me to do something there or was I overthinking?

That question at the time was left hanging, forgotten soon, as I instead basked in the pleasure of Laura's divine hands. And not long after, once again I fell into slumber.

The next time I would wake up with a refreshed and no-longer-aching body. All thanks to the diligent head maid who seemed to have continued the massage for an unknown amount of time even after I fell asleep.

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