Picked up a Strange Knight – Ch 18: In the face of farewell *

Advisory Notice
This chapter contains explicit content.

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“Azusa, are you off for the weekend?”

Rising over the sounds of the TV, this question of Ilias’s came up while I was having dinner. I looked over at him in response; there it was again—that weak, slightly lonely-looking smile that had always been on his face ever since we returned from the inn. But since this tiny smile was something he had already put his all into mustering up, no matter how fragile and flimsy it was, I decided not to mention anything about this mood of his aloud. I nodded at his question whilst chewing on my rice, and he smiled. “I see.”

Only the background noise of the TV playing kept the room from being utterly silent after that. Though he didn’t particularly say anything else, I knew without a doubt—the subject he really wanted to bring up was the one we didn’t want to broach the most. It was only after I’d finished my meal and had a moment to take a breath did Ilias reveal that it’d been exactly as I’d thought: earlier in the day, his home country had contacted him again.

“I received a report which said that everything was ready. The teleportation sequence is scheduled for the day after tomorrow.”

“The day after tomorrow… Saturday, huh. So it’s already here…”

“…… Yes, it is.”

Watching his expression steadily darken somehow affected my own emotions, so I exhaled to shake off that mood and reached out to ruffle his hair.

“Why’re you making that face? Smile!”

“Azusa…”

“You’re finally going home, right? You really held on, didn’t you…”

Ilias suddenly captured my wrist. For a split second, I wondered if he’d been bothered by his hair getting messed with just before he brought my hand over to his mouth and pressed a kiss on my fingers.

“Azusa… I don’t think I can’t go through with it.”

“…… Ilias—”

“On the day after tomorrow, if you weren’t by my side anymore… I wouldn’t be able bear it.”

He tugged at my wrist to pull me closer, and my body fell into his chest. As I stifled a cry, I coiled my arms around his wide back, gently colliding against him.

“I wish I could bring you with me… if such a thing were possible.”

His arms around me tightened while he spoke those words that were surely his true thoughts. That’s right; if that were only possible, it would be the best…But, we both knew it wasn’t. If he were able to do it, then he probably would’ve proposed it straight away.

“Ilias.”

His shoulders jumped when I spoke up. The strong grip around me loosened, and as he looked down towards me, I wiped at his tear-damp cheeks with my fingers before pressing a kiss on his slightly trembling lips.

“Let’s spend tomorrow together. We’ll pass time lazily until noon; then we’ll go shopping, and we’ll make some curry. You’ll be the onion-chopper, Ilias.”

“But Azusa, your work…”

“As if I’d rather go to work than stay together a little while longer with someone I’ve lived with for half a year. It’s not like I’m an honor student.”

I grinned at him, and though he was still crying, Ilias smiled back. It’ll be okay, I told myself. During times when he’s crying like this, I can stay strong.

We went to the supermarket and bought ingredients, just as we had done so many times before. The first time Ilias had come here, he’d used his puppy eyes on me to let him push the cart. It’d been January back then, back when it was so damn cold. Those days were completely different to now, when we had to keep the air conditioner blasting all day long.

I absentmindedly recalled such things while the guy standing next to me picked out potatoes. It didn’t feel real that this would be the last time we would ever buy groceries here, or that this would be the last time we would make the trip back home to the apartment together. But even if I couldn’t believe it, I wanted to commit to memory this precious remaining time we had left—thus, my eyes followed Ilias wherever he went.

We returned home and started prepping everything for the curry. I was aware that I was being more excited than usual—just the mundane sight of this guy shedding tears while chopping onions had me guffawing out loud. Even though this wasn’t anything special, I was having a lot of fun somehow, and Ilias laughed along in amusement as if influenced by my mood. I wrapped my arm around his waist from behind while he stirred the pot, uncharacteristically acting spoiled as I told him that I wanted to hurry up and eat.

Once the meal was done, we idly passed time on the sofa. The sunset’s glow flooded the room, the time saying that evening was soon approaching—yet even so, I was reluctant to leave his side. I went ahead and rested my head against his shoulder. Ilias didn’t seem surprised by my sudden behavior at all, and though he had been watching the TV as some plot or another carried on, he even gently combed my hair with his fingers.

“Wouldn’t it be better if time could just stay like this forever…?”

His voice was low as a whisper while he spoke with a dipped head, and I replied with silence. Though I said nothing, he understood that I wanted him to continue, and so he did.

“When I learned that I had been blown away to another world, I had cursed my misfortune—but that was wrong. This experience was a necessity in order for me to grasp within my hands something utterly irreplaceable to me. Once I realized that, I started to appreciate it more and more. I’ve received so many things from you, Azusa. Your knowledge, your way of thinking, your values, and your feelings—all of those had become the things which nourished me. But, if you were no longer to be by my side, those would all turn into shackles.”

I stopped breathing. Alarmed, I raised my face to look at him, yet against my expectations he was simply smiling calmly. He enveloped my cheeks within his hands, his graceful face coming closer.

“But that’s a good thing, Azusa. It means that I will never forget you. You will always be together with me, inside of my heart. Even if tomorrow I return to the world where I was meant to be, I shall never love anyone else. All of me is devoted to Azusa, and Azusa alone. This I so swear.”

“You… are you an idiot, or what…”

Everything in front of my eyes blurred. Just how was it that Ilias could so easily say the words I wished to hear from him the most?

I wanted to be the only person in Ilias’s heart, the person most important to him. But in actuality, even if I held him in my heart, we would no longer be able to contact each other after he had returned. So, from this moment on, I didn’t know what would happen. I didn’t know if he might find a lover after his return, and similarly didn’t know if he would forget all about someone like me, who didn’t have any charm at all.

But instead of going in circles fretting over that, what I should focus on was that all of these words came from his own mouth. For him to say it out aloud even while knowing my personality, it must be because he wanted me to believe in it—to believe in him. He’s really such a can-do guy, seriously. I couldn’t get a hold of my surging emotions, and just like a child, I started crying, big fat dollops of tears rolling down my cheeks. Startled by the sight of me in that state, Ilias immediately smiled as if to stave off my tears.

“It’s as you say. I’m a great big idiot.”

He dropped a kiss on my cheek with a light smacking sound, then brushed at my tears with his lips. Despite looking so damn pleased with himself, he was still so unbearably cool every time he did something like this, and I couldn’t help but love that gentleness of his.

My cheeks, eyelids, and forehead—he traced them all with his lips, and as he continued over the rest of my face, my gaze twined together with his before our lips melted into one. I opened my mouth several sweet, light kisses after to let our tongues tangle even further, winding my arms around his back to hold him closer while he, on the other hand, moved his hand from around my cheek to the back of my head. This was a kiss with no mood at all behind it and yet, I was already panting heavily as if driven by an unquenchable, insatiable lust for him.

His other hand slowly slid down to my back, gently stroking it—that feeling alone was enough to send me tingling with sparks of pleasure. What would become of me once the guy who’d made my body this way was gone? While I was in the middle of pondering that thought, I suddenly found myself lying on top of the sofa.

“Azusa, I want to hold you.”

Seeing him give me that confirmation after he had already pushed me down, I couldn’t help but laugh—pffft. Ilias gave me a look of confusion when I let out that inappropriate spurt of laughter.

I silently chided myself to be more serious, then brought my arms upwards to encircle around his neck.

“Mhm, I also want you to hold me.”

The phantom tail sprung up for the first time in a while, nearly wildly wagging itself into pieces at my agreement.

Lately, I really had to wonder whether this guy had been concealing this doggy-like face all this time, or if it was just me seeing his face as this sparkling and handsome one that I’d fallen in love with. Either way, Ilias’s entire being beamed with happiness, and he once again pounced upon me.

“Hngh, ah…”

The way he sucked on my tongue like this, then softly bit it and caressed it all over with his own left me weak and boneless—these sensations he stoked inside me felt so utterly good that something like ‘my pride as a man’ was worth zilch when compared to it. I couldn’t care less if anyone thought I was becoming like a woman.

My mind had already turned into a muddled mess as we devoured each other’s breaths, and so when I finally realized that my hoodie had ridden up, revealing my chest, my body pricked up on its own.

My nipples instantly hardened at his touch, as they always did. Ilias, however, didn’t play with them like usual today—though his hands were groping here and there, kneading the surrounding area and tracing circles along the areola, he was unmistakably avoiding them.

This slow, deliberate teasing frustrated me to no end, but he ignored how I squirmed and rubbed against him in desperation. I couldn’t even speak with my lips held captive; when finally released, they were already rendered useless as they desperately gasped in oxygen—flapping uselessly like a fish on land, panting shallowly like a dog.

And yet despite all that, I must’ve gotten the message across with my eyes since this guy started smiling.

“What’s wrong, Azusa?”

“Haa, haa… ah, nn!”

“Mm? You want me to touch you, do you?”

I jerked a nod, but he only grazed a light touch over them. At that cocktease of a caress, I shook my head forcefully side to side.

“You don’t want me to touch, is it?”

“More, touch it… more…!”

Shit, he has the nerve to put on such a composed face…! I thrust my chest forward demandingly, before he finally concurred by pinching at a nipple—sending such a strong stimulus throughout my body that my hips could only jerk up in response.

As his tongue swiped over the other nipple and his other hand moved slowly down to my lower body, moans kept spilling out of my half-open mouth at the satisfaction of having been given what I had wanted. I stroked his head as he suckled my chest, then shuddered when his hand made contact with that part of mine down below.

I raised my hips to make it easier to strip me, and he quickly pulled both my underwear and sweatpants off—my dick popped out instantly, standing erect and steadily dripping. As if he wanted to smear the leaking precome, Ilias started pumping my dick with his hand in the way I had become familiar with, before I stopped his hand with my own. He looked over at me in surprise.

“It’s fine to, there…”

“What do you mean…?”

Ilias tilted his head, not getting what I meant. To clarify—I grabbed his hand and pulled it further back, and the moment his fingers hit that narrow place, I heard the sound of a sharp intake of breath.

“Lube’s, in the drawer on that shelf, the second one.”

“But—wait, we,”

“Go on and get it already.”

“But… Azusa…”

“That’s enough; it’s fine, so hurry up. I want to feel you inside me now.”

I knew he wouldn’t refuse if I begged him for it—sure enough, he nodded and got up.

After retrieving the item from the drawer and returning back, Ilias began prepping with a skillfulness I didn’t think he’d have, considering that this was his first time using it in this world. Liquid was poured into his warm palms, and he lathered it all over both hands to warm it up.

I didn’t need him to be that considerate, though. The person you’re doing this with is a fellow man, so you don’t have to be so hesitant, just slather it on—when I told him aloud to just put it in, he nodded in understanding and pushed his slick, wet fingers inside me.

“Unf, ah, aah…!”

I groaned at the pressure. Ilias might have misunderstood something in my voice because more lube was added, dribbling down his inserted fingers, and causing me to shiver at the sudden feeling of coldness. When he moved, the graphic sounds of wet squelches echoed in the room, and all of it just made me more agitated and excited.

“Breathe out.”

It was then that I realized I was unconsciously keeping my breath in, and I exhaled when Ilias reminded me; his fingers moved leisurely, steadily at the same time. These slow, unraveling sensations were unbearable… I wish he’d just thrust them in all at once instead. When he embraces me this gently, my mind gets all mushy and soft for some reason I don’t understand.

In the end, forget about speaking coherently; even just closing my mouth was no longer possible in my state, and I couldn’t even bother wondering if I was already drooling with how sloppily open it was. Even my vision couldn’t focus so I could only blearily see Ilias’s figure. The one thing that remained clear among all of this was Ilias’s touch, which made me throb without end.

At some point, the number of fingers inside me had increased. The two moved roughly, and when they struck my prostate, the voice I let out was about an octave higher.

“Are you feeling good…?”

“Aah, ah…! It feels, good, ah…!”

Though he asked me a question, my brain felt like it was covered in a hazy shroud and I couldn’t reply well. The reason I wasn’t able answer him properly though, was mostly due to the fact that right when I was speaking, he grazed right against the spot that felt good—it was absolutely done on purpose, I swear. I balefully glared at him, and the tears that had been gathering at the corners of my eyes now dripped down.

“Don’t rush,” Ilias said, smiling wryly as he inserted the third finger. I don’t know for sure, but maybe it was because the tension had left me that my ass began to loosen up. He did it gently and slowly, without burdening me in any way; I guess it might’ve been all for my sake, but to me, it just felt like I’d been put on hold.

I wanted more, I wanted to really feel it. I couldn’t help but fantasize about how he was so big, he could just wreck me—as I thought about how perverted I had become to be having this kind of thoughts, my body continued moving on its own. My torso raised up a bit, and I heard an intake of breath when my hand grasped Ilias’s cock through his pants.

“Hurry up—I want, this.”

When I whispered that after bringing my face close to his ear, I heard the faint clicking sound of a tongue unsticking from a dry mouth. He yanked his fingers out all at once, his eyebrows furrowing, and as I looked up at him I could see him breathing unevenly, see him roughly tug at his pants to loosen them. Shivers of anticipation ran through me at the sight of him losing his composure.

I wanted to see his expression become even wilder—as if cornering my prey, I hooked my arms beneath my knees and spread my legs, letting him see.

“Ilias, hurry…!”

Even I had never heard myself use that voice ever in my life before, so I could only imagine how it sounded to him. His reply was just a smile, but with eyes so ferocious he seized my hips and raised them up a bit—without warning, his thick and enormous part penetrated me.

“Uu—aaaah…!”

It obviously couldn’t be easy to take in something that damn huge; I could only breathe in without reacting to the apologies raining down from above me—and on top of all that, the cock inside me was still pushing deeper in.

My eyes flew wide open from the overwhelming pressure. Right before my eyes was Ilias’s expression as he ground his teeth, trying to endure, and seeing that brought a surge of happiness racing through me. Even though I should have been suffering, my face shamefully softened instead.

“Azusa… it’s foul play to make that kind of face…”

His face slowly drew closer, and my eyes naturally slid shut before a soft kiss fell upon my lips. For a short while, there was only our mouths moving as one, smacking together as his tongue gently sucked at me, and then we parted.

“It’s far too arousing… I can’t stand it!”

The thickest part of his cockhead thrust deep inside me at the same time he spoke.

“Hy—aaaahh…!!”

Everything in front of my eyes blanked out for a moment with so much mass inside me. But regardless of the state I was in, the rest went in smoothly after the thickest part had breached the passage—and thus, at some point, Ilias had filled up the distance between us, and hot, burning skin pressed tightly against mine.

“It’s all in.”

“For real? …Haha, I’m happy.”

“Are you feeling alright?”

“Ah, nn… I’m fine, so just, start moving.”

I wrapped my legs around his hips which had been moving slowly in circles and without further ado—pushed myself forward into his cock all on my own, then moaned loudly as he hit me so deep inside.

“You, just when did you become so lewd?”

“Ah, ahh, it’s, ngh, all because of, you…!”

“Azusa…”

“Hya, ah, it feels good, ah, hurry and, fuck me—”

“Tch, how naughty…!”

I kept moving, unable to stop, when Ilias stilled my hips with his hands then adjusted our positions. Just when I realized he was holding them in place, he started pistoning into me—quick, shallow thrusts at first, before gradually driving deeper and deeper inside me until I became a creature only capable of letting out vowel sounds in time with every hard push and every drawn-out pull.

“Ah, ahn, ah, hyaa!”

He pulled out until his cock had nearly popped out, then thrust all the way inside to hit that spot that my back arched from the mounting pleasure. My brain couldn’t even think about holding back my voice anymore.

“Ilia, as, Ilias…!”

I wanted to be closer to him—I held out my arms, and he smiled and brought his body closer. With my arms encircling around his neck to hug him close, he once again captured my lips with his, the steady rhythm of his full thrusts quickening. My head swayed back and forth without any support as our bodies rocked together faster and faster.

Ilias might have been nearing the end; with a strained expression on his face, he reached a hand between our bodies to grasp and work my cock.

“Ahn, ah, no, hya, I can’t…!”

Unable to endure the dual sensations from the front and back, I tried to beg him by shaking my head, but his only response was to raise the corner of his mouth. Aaah, are you serious, why the hell does this feel so damn good… I just might explode when I come if this kept up; it’s just too much.

“Love you…! Azusa, I love you! I love you…!!”

Something warm fell from above and landed on my cheek, slowly sliding down and making it appear as if I was the one crying. I wanted to caress him and tell him not to cry at that time, really; unfortunately—

“I’m coming…! Ah, aah, I’m coming…!!!”

My climax crashed over me, and at that moment all that left my mouth were loud and panting moans.

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Translator’s Note

Azusa… Ilias… T_T

Thanks everyone for your patience. Agent Psyx worked hard to edit this chapter… So much ero, so many feelings…

The next chapter is the final one. Of the main story, at least. There are two omake chapters after that, and there is also a 10-chapter sequel. I really love Taro-sensei’s writing, so I’m glad that there is still more to come…! 。・；´∧｀；・。

Also – the translator of the BL novel Screen Partner very kindly recommended Taro-sensei’s Picked up a Strange Knight on their recent update. I’m very grateful T_T The story that Kleep is translating, Screen Partner, is another amazing story with great characters and spicy smut. It’s about a (straight) Taiwanese actor who fell into debt and went into the gay porn industry, where he meets and works with an experienced (straight) Japanese AV actor. Sparks start flying between them, but then somehow without realizing it they start liking each other and… Kyaa!! It’s so good! The details of the industry are very realistic and the smut is godly level. And somehow, it becomes so sweet (^q^) Also it seems that the author is so knowledgeable about Japanese AV… lol. I really recommend you all to read it too! Psyx and I really enjoy it!!

Be prepared with your tissues for the next and concluding chapter of Taro-sensei’s wonderful story. Please look forward to it.

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Posted in Novel Translations Picked up a Strange Knight and Tagged PSK