Chapter 107: How Old Are You? (1)
Unbelievable.
I had always thought that elves had little to no libido—essentially none at all.
From what I'd learned, elven marriages were often more of an obligation, done out of necessity for communal needs. Even their plans for children followed a communal consensus rather than stemming from passion. It was said that elves rarely indulged in pleasures or deep romantic love like humans do.
Of course, if an elf did fall in love, it was said to be unchanging, so intense that it would last until either they or their partner died. According to Professor Pandel, however, that was simply because elves were so emotionally dry that finding another love would be nearly impossible.
The important thing was that elves were, compared to humans, an incredibly ascetic race. So much so that people who were indifferent to marriage and entirely absorbed in their hobbies were often mockingly called "elf men" or "elf women."
Even Professor Pandel himself—despite his age—had never been in a romantic relationship. He had even been caught in one of those incidents where someone spiked the barracks' water supply with aphrodisiacs (thinking it would boost vitality). Even then, as a half-elf, all he did was scowl in irritation, showing no other reaction.
So to see Delphine—an elf—doing something that even the most lustful humans wouldn't do was nothing short of shocking. She had rehydrated the severed, dried tentacles, attached them to her chest, and was using their writhing, textured tips as some kind of masturbation device.
'If I hadn't seen this, I might've thought she was just stuffing her bra for some volume.'
But the movement of the tentacles and her soft moans made it clear—she was pressing the tentacles to her breasts, letting them squirm against her.
"So this is what men have been hogging for themselves… The way the protrusions move so gently, stimulating my nipples... This is perfect for women, too..."
Leaning halfway back on the sofa, she jiggled the tentacles clinging to her chest, occasionally trembling as if experiencing an orgasm.
'This is the first time I've seen a woman masturbate… And my first experience is with tentacle masturbation of all things?'
"Haah…"
Lost in her own world in the dark room, Delphine began slipping off her soaked underwear.
'W-Wait… I-I can see…!'
Though the dim lighting would normally make it hard to see under her short skirt, the angle was perfect. With a little mana infused into my eyes, I could clearly make out everything. Naturally, I wasn't about to let this golden opportunity slip away.
Unlike human women, who had pubic hair to reduce friction and collect pheromones for attracting men, Delphine, as an elf, had no such hair. Her lower body was perfectly smooth.
"Haah... What if I attach it here..."
In a half-exhausted voice, she reached for another tentacle soaking in a basin of water nearby, its moisture restored.
And then, her eyes met mine—their gaze cutting through the dark like sharp blades.
"..."
"..."
Frozen in place, with tentacles still stuck to her chest and another in her hand, Delphine stared at me.
Likewise, I stood there awkwardly, caught in the act of peeking.
After a tense pause, she calmly set the tentacle back into the basin, covered herself as best as she could, and walked toward me with a surprisingly casual smile.
"Well, well. What brings you here, little one?"
Her face was flushed with a deep red, her short skirt dripping with moisture. She wobbled toward me like a newborn fawn, yet she greeted me as if nothing unusual had happened, her 110 years of experience giving her an air of composed dignity.
The tentacles still attached to her chest made her bust appear twice its normal size, but she acted like nothing was out of the ordinary. I couldn't believe her audacity. Still, I stepped out from behind the door and walked in.
"What brings you here? Are you looking for something?"
"Yes, I came to request some dehydration agents."
"Ah, I see. I'll get those for you. Just a moment."
She turned toward her alchemy station to prepare the materials, but something about her movements seemed off.
Her hands were trembling slightly as she began mixing something.
"Did you see?"
"Pardon? See what?"
"I thought I saw a pair of glowing blue eyes watching earlier…"
Wriggle, wriggle.
The tentacles squirming under her clothing were still visibly moving, but I turned my head away to avoid embarrassing her further.
"I only came to ask for dehydration agents…"
What she was mixing didn't look like dehydration agents. As far as I knew, they were typically powdered substances that absorbed moisture. But what she was handling included some metal fragments, a red potion emitting faint flames, and…
"You're avoiding eye contact… especially with my chest."
"L-Looking at a lady's chest is hardly proper for a knight…"
Not that I'd followed that rule much before—having openly ogled Delphine on multiple occasions.
'Wait… what's that in her hand?'
It was a Liberation Potion.
Liberation Potions activate the full effects of any substance they're combined with. The metal fragments she was using were already bubbling and dissolving in a flame potion. If she added the Liberation Potion…
An explosive reaction would occur.
"So, you did see something, huh?"
"Wh-what?!"
Delphine's trembling hand was just about to pour the Liberation Potion into the bubbling mixture when I lunged forward, yelling in panic.
While Delphine had a deep understanding of alchemy, she was no Frederic Endymion, who combined magic and alchemy. She was a researcher and, physically, a regular person. So when I activated my mana circuits and charged, there was no way she could stop me.
I snatched the bubbling flame potion from her hand, flipped it over so the opening faced the table, and cut off the oxygen supply. Without air, the mixture wouldn't ignite, and without the Liberation Potion, it was just a mildly hot concoction.
Thank god for Professor Pandel's lessons on handling dangerous explosives. Without them, I'd be dead!
"What are you doing?!"
"Let me go! Now that you've caught me, I have no choice but to die!"
"Why the hell are you trying to kill yourself over something like this?!"
As she thrashed, I twisted her wrist to wrest the Liberation Potion from her grip. Her struggles made the situation more precarious, so I swept her legs out from under her, just as I'd done to Shuru once, pinning her to the ground. Finally, I threw the potion far out of her reach.
Clang!
The durable flask didn't shatter on impact, but at least it was out of her hands. I forced her back onto the sofa to prevent any further outbursts.
"I can't live with this shame anymore! Just kill me…!"
Tears streamed down her face, and I had no idea how to handle this sudden meltdown.
"I-I didn't even see anything…"
As she cried, the tentacles started slipping out from under her clothes. Without a word, I gently pushed them back into her shirt, trying to calm her down. But my actions only made her sob harder.
"That's right! I'm a pervert! Go ahead, call me a freak—I deserve it!"
"I have no intention of doing that..."
"Ever since that day, I've been... I've been aroused all the time! I'm a filthy, masturbating, half-elf freak who doesn't deserve to live! I can't even set foot in my master's workshop anymore because it's full of men doing lewd things, and hearing their noises makes me feel... weird!"
Ah, so that's why she couldn't return to the workshop.
Apparently, it had turned into a space for providing certain "services" to men, and Delphine, being constantly exposed to it, had understandably been affected.
"Look, even elves... can, uh, relieve themselves once in a while. It's normal."
I wasn't one to judge. I'd been through my share of escapades with Mollang and various… creative outlets. I'd even experimented with things like hollowed-out tree stumps and improvised devices.
And frankly, these tentacles weren't new to me—I'd used similar tools before. Sure, I was surprised by her actions, but I didn't feel disgusted.
"Elves don't do things like that!"
'What kind of life do elves even live? They think a bit of self-pleasure makes someone a freak?'
Did they seriously go their entire lives—centuries—without touching themselves? Even trees spread pollen every year to reproduce. Were elves less sexual than literal plants?
"Sniffle… sniffle…"
As I removed the tentacles clinging to her chest, I noticed how red and swollen her breasts had become from the stimulation. The tentacle's textured protrusions had left clear marks, and slimy fluids glistened as they dripped down her smooth skin.
Pinned between my legs, Delphine's half-exposed chest was right in front of me, making the situation increasingly awkward.
"How… how can you get hard in a situation like this?!"
"Humans usually react like this."
"But don't humans only go into heat, like, once a year or something?"
Delphine might have been an alchemical expert, but she clearly knew little about human biology.
"No, humans get aroused several times a day—seven times, on average."
"Seven... times?! Is that even possible?"
"Well, I'm hard right now, aren't I?"
Delphine glanced down at my cock pressing against her rear, her expression a mix of shock, curiosity, and lingering arousal from her earlier activities.
"So… this isn't unusual?"
"Not at all. Honestly, there are probably guys in the barracks who've fantasized about you while… you know."
If she'd stayed in the barracks any longer, I wouldn't be surprised if my comrades had filled an entire bucket jerking off to the thought of her.
"R-Really? So this isn't weird?"
"Nope."
"But Professor Pandel doesn't seem to have any of this…"
"Professor Pandel is just old, so his dick probably doesn't work anymore."
Her face twisted at my words. Then I remembered that she and Pandel were twins, meaning I'd inadvertently called her old, too.
"I mean, it's not that he's incapable—it's just that he's uninterested…"
She seemed distracted now, squirming as my cock pressed against her ass. Instead of panicking, she cautiously shifted her hips, letting the head of my cock rub against her backside.
"Is this... really normal?"
"For a half-elf, sure. You're half-human, so this level of libido is natural."
Hearing this, Delphine turned to face me, her expression conflicted.
"Are you saying humans can get hard for someone as old as me? Even a 110-year-old woman like me?"
She asked this while deliberately grinding her ass against my cock, letting it slide along her soft curves. Was she… flirting with me?