I feel something soft pressing against my lips. A familiar yet unique feeling I’d gotten more used to in recent with the practice Juna and I had shared.

The sensation leaves me as I’m pushed back with a strong shove.

“Wh-What do you think you’re doing?!” Marcia yells, red in the face.

“Did we just kiss?”

“I-Idiot! O-Of course we just… That was my...” Her cheeks only grow more flushed. “So you think you can just attack me like that?! I’m going to straighten you out!”

“W-Wait a moment! I’d tripped over! I broke away from your adhesion spell and I’d misjudged my strength! And then…! I apologize. I’ll get up right away.”

Though try as I might to make good on my word, I’m held back by my palm and at once I realize the soft sensation beneath it. I shift my hand about and squeeze my fingers in order to inspect the strange surface. It feels pleasant to the touch. It reminds me of a soft candy I’d had with Juna about a week ago. She’d really wanted to try it out given that it had suddenly become really popular and seemed to be some sort of new creation. It takes a while as my thoughts wander off, but when I finally peer down, it all clicks together.

My hand is still under influence of the adhesion spell, but the target had shifted when I’d collided with Marcia. Sure enough, my fingers are securely groping her left breast.

“W-Well this is… a situation.”

“A situation?! That’s all you have to say?! Quit screwing around and get off already!”

“I would if I could but it seems that I’m having a bit of trouble, you see.”

“What are you yammering about? Take your grubby mitt off of me!”

“That adhesion spell is still on my palm. I can’t just pull it off without taking your top with me!”

“What?!” Her face flushes even more intensely red than it already was. Seems she understands that this was ultimately her own doing.

“I want to take my hand off. I’m not exactly exuberant to be in this position, but-”

“Yeah, yeah! I get it, Mr. Honorable Knight! J-Just do what you did with your sword!”

“Do you not know how to break the spell yourself? Don’t you have any potions for this or something?”

“No! I’d never needed them and it’s not like I do this all the time! Just do that thing you did! Whatever it was!”

“I can’t! If I do, I’ll risk injuring you! The way I’d broke the bond with my sword was to force a small shield barrier in between my hand and the hilt to cut through the contact! If I were to do that to you, it could cause something bad. The simplest outcome being tearing your clothes! It’s hard to judge a surface outside of my body… And this surface is soft… so….”

“Aren’t you supposed to be some magic knight or something?! Where is your precision?!”

She begins to lightly strike at my shoulders in a fit. Her entire body is practically a shade of burning red.

“That’s Juna! I’m nowhere near as well trained with magic as she is!”

“Th-Then go get Juna!”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to walk around with my hand on your chest like this. The best we could do for now would be to remove your top. But even if we were to take off your shirt, I’d likely end up tearing it in-.”

“W-We can’t do that!” She nearly shouts.

“Didn’t you attempt to lift your skirt in front of me before? And you didn’t seem so shaken when you were coming down from a tree those times. I don’t exactly-”

“That’s different!”

“I’m sorry if you’ll have your bra out in the open. But I think that’s the-”

“Your hand is… there! Can’t you tell?!”

“Tell what?”

“That there’s nothing under this shirt!”

“Wait. You’re not wearing-”

“Get with it already!”

“I-I don’t go around groping women, so how would I be able to tell?! Why aren’t you wearing something?!”

“It’s comfortable and I wanted to be lazy today!”

“...Then does Venna-”

“No. She wears bras more often than I do. I saw her put one on this m- Why am I telling you this?! Just fix this situation already!”

We both take a deep breath and ponder in silence. This entire position is anything but knightly. Since taking her shirt off is out of the question, that’s a no go. And there’s no way I’m going to take off my own shirt and reveal the scar. Even if I’d try, being caught on her clothes complicates removing even my blazer. Altogether the entire situation is a veritable stalemate.

Our pause growing more awkward by the second, I give in to a small seed of curiosity to help lighten the thick air.

“So why do you hang out in trees so often?”

“Is now really the time to be asking something like that?” Her face falls deadpan.

“Well, I’d just thought it’d just be something to help learn about you since we’re kind of stuck for the moment. But I’m glad you like that shirt I’d bought you. It looks nice on you.”

“I-I just threw it on is all, okay? I should have worn something more baggy if I knew it would come to this.”

She begins to grow even more flushed and burning red by the second. Given the pace she ascends the scale, I can only imagine a burst is sure to follow.

“Okay, okay… I suppose the first step to bettering this situation would be to get up from the ground and… stop being like this.”

“M-Makes sense.”

We’re both clumsy and lacking in coordination together. At best thanks to our lack of synergy and my dominant hand’s... inopportune placement. She grasps onto my wrist and attempts to right the situation herself. It’s short lived.

“Well, now what?” A sigh escapes her mouth.

“To be honest, I haven’t the first idea. Maybe we should head back to the manor after all. If we’re careful, we might avoid being seen by the others. You can change your shirt, but I’m not sure what we could do about this spell. I guess Juna would be the best bet.”

“Khiron! Marcia! What are you two up to?” Another voice joins our duo, earning a startled jump out of both of us.

Strolling up the hill is Venna who is just as cheerful and carefree as ever despite the clearly embarrassing predicament we’re both scaught in.

“Venna? H-Hello.” I stutter. “This probably looks really bad, but-”

“What’s this? Am I interrupting something? You two shouldn’t let Plutia’s teasing get to you! You really don’t need to do anything like this!”

“It’s not like that! This dunce is just all hands! He won’t let go!” Marcia is impatient and is more than fine with throwing me under a chariot, it seems.

“Oh? It looks like this prank of yours took an unexpected turn.” Venna’s face doesn’t betray its airheaded smile by a nanometer.

“H-Hey… That’s… Um...” She stutters as she’s caught red handed, irony not intended.

“Did she use an adhesion spell on you?” Venna turns and asks me.

“S-She did, but I didn’t mean to get my hand stuck like this. I promise.”

“I understand. Something went wrong here and it seems Marcia has gotten a little bit of comeuppance with this misadventure. Please hold still.”

She gently grabs onto my hand.

“W-Wait! You might tear-”

A small sparkle of light glitters on our skin and I feel the fabric of Marcia’s shirt release from my touch. I’m stunned as I look to my newly freed hand.

“S-Since when have you known that spell?” Marcia too is taken aback, but she quickly regathers and points an indignant finger at me. “And you! What it wasn’t good enough for you or something?”

“G-Good enough? I’m just relieved it’s over.”

She grits her teeth at my response, but Venna quickly cuts in with her own word.

“I’d learned this solvent spell after your first go around with that magic. I couldn’t just let those men be stuck like that without help, so I’d learned it in secret. It looks like now is the time to let that skeleton out of the closet.”

“You mean to tell me that you’d dispelled my magic all those times after I’d left? You’re saying that those guys walked away just fine too?! Well, that ruins the giggles I’ve gotten from those memories.” She sighs discontentedly. “At least that problem is solved. I’ll be getting out of here then. I’m going to take a nap.”

Marcia starts away from us with a partly frustrated huff. Venna and I watch her go on her way. When she’s far enough off into the distance, I strike up conversation with her twin.

“You know magic? I really didn’t expect that from either of you.”

“I do know a little bit. Marcia learned hers for her mischief and I’d learned mine to help counteract the trouble she’d get herself and others into. So I know how to dispel some forms of utilitarian magic. I also happen to know some minor healing spells too.”

“How did you two learn these things? Neither of you went to any magic academies from what I can tell.”

“Marcia learned them from libraries and books she’d managed to lay her hands on, but I’d had to ask a few people for help for my own. In one town we’d visited, an acolyte taught me a few of the healing spells I know. But he did that in exchange for some pictures of me.”

“Pictures?”

“H-He really wanted me to dress up as a shrine maiden. Then when I did he took a few photographs while I was dressed like that. It was a bit embarrassing. But he seemed really happy about them so that was good.”

“That’s an... odd form of payment. Though I suppose I can see the intrigue in it with someone cute as the model.”

“O-Oh! You said I’m cute just now, didn’t you?” She flushes.

“It seems I did. You are… after all.”

“Khiron said I’m cute!” She places her hands on her cheeks and beams as brightly as a star, nearly leaping up to meet the heavens.

Twisting to spin on her heel, she faces me and peers directly into my eyes without waver. Grabbing the hand which had been afflicted with the spell, she looks over my palm quietly.

“Is there something wrong? Did the spell not dispel properly?”

“No, it’s all fine. I was just wondering over how Marcia managed to get you into trouble. She must have really had a good plan figured out to have caught you off guard.”

“It was an incidence to say the least.”

“But I wonder...” She pulls my hand closer and presses it against her bosom. “We may be sisters, but I wonder if you feel any difference.”

“V-V-Venna!” My mind cracks with a spark and nearly ceases functioning.

“If it’s a bit strange for you, please just think of this as a repayment for your troubles. Don’t be shy. Please feel to your heart’s content and maybe tell me what you think.”

“I-I can’t do that, I-”

“But I insist.”

My fight fails and I shyly give in and let my hand rest there. I can’t deny it’s a wonderful, soft and comforting feeling beneath my fingers. Though the two are quite similar, Marcia’s breast feels a tiny bit less soft when compared to her sister’s bust. I’d never known how different two so alike could act. How different they could feel compared to each other.

“You’re wearing that shirt that I’d given you yesterday.”

“It was the most adorable thing and I love a gift. Marcia was so excited to try it on herself too! I can’t thank you enough for making my sister smile like that!”

Speaking of her sister; I think she was right when she’d said that Venna would be wearing a bra today.

And just like that, I feel too mortified to continue. I slowly withdraw from her. With my embarrassment reaching its limits, I bow to knock out two birds with one stone as I show my gratitude and hide my face.

“Th-Thank you. It felt lovely. And yours is certainly different from Marcia’s.”

“It’s my pleasure.”

“Th-Then if all is settled, please have yourself a fine evening.”

I couldn’t dare look her in the eye before I go. I twist on heel and finally leave behind all of the absurdities I’d stumbled into.