Chapter 253 This is a misunderstanding...

Stepping carefully to avoid the small mounds of salt scattered across the floor, Tanya took the empty bowl Ian handed back to her.

"Was it alright?"

"Yeah. It was delicious."

He was exhausted and wanted sleep more than food, but since Tanya had looked ready to feed him herself, Ian had managed to sit up and eat the porridge on his own.

He hadn’t had much of an appetite, but as soon as the first spoonful hit his tongue, a forgotten hunger awakened, and Ian finished the bowl in an instant.

Getting some food into his system seemed to bring back a bit of vitality.

Tanya gave a small smile and set the empty bowl on the floor.

Ian felt a genuine sense of improvement this time. He felt as though he’d be perfectly fine after a good sleep.

"I think I’ll be okay after some rest, so you can head back now, Tanya."

"I’ll go once you’ve fallen asleep."

Tanya reached out slightly to check Ian’s temperature.

As the heat seeped into her palm against his forehead, she felt the faint traces of perspiration.

"You’ve broken a heavy sweat.... I’ll bring some towels."

Tanya stood up, taking the empty bowl with her.

***

It was the hour when the sun had begun to set and darkness was settling in.

The light from a small lamp flickered, and Mika’s wards hanging here and there caught the glow, casting dark, scattered shadows across the room.

Ian had intended to wait for Tanya and see her off before sleeping, but he felt an irresistible, deep sleep washing over him as he reached the limits of his fatigue.

A short while later, after returning the bowl to the kitchen and bringing back hot water and towels, Tanya quietly re-entered the room.

Seeing that Ian’s eyes were closed, Tanya moved with careful, silent steps.

Ian was fast asleep, his breathing soft and steady.

Perhaps due to the cold, he looked far more exhausted than usual. Tanya looked down at him before quietly setting down the water basin.

The reason Ian had caught this cold was that he had fallen into the water while saving her. Even though he said he was fine, she couldn’t just let it go.

Tanya intended to stay by Ian’s side and nurse him for at least the rest of the day.

"...Captain?"

Tanya picked up a washcloth soaked in warm water and called out to him softly.

Since she would have to touch his body, she intended to wake him briefly to ask permission, but Ian was in such a deep sleep that he didn’t respond.

His body was drenched in sweat, so she couldn’t just leave him be.

After a moment of hesitation, Tanya murmured a tiny "Excuse me..." and began to carefully undo the buttons of Ian’s shirt one by one.

As the buttons came undone, Ian’s skin, which had been hidden by his clothes, was revealed.

Tanya moved the washcloth gently, wiping away the sweat from Ian’s body.

The sound of the towel sliding over his skin and the tiny splashes of water as she wrung it out into the basin echoed quietly in the room.

...Up until this point, Tanya was purely focused on the task of nursing him.

No other thoughts crossed her mind as she looked at Ian’s body.

The problem arose after she had finished wiping his entire upper body.

Her hand, naturally reaching for his pants, faltered.

"...."

A moment of hesitation and conflict.

The thought

Even down there...?

flashed through her mind, but Tanya pressed her lips together and finally took hold of Ian’s pants.

She was in the middle of nursing him; stopping halfway just because she was embarrassed was something Tanya couldn’t justify to herself.

The Captain was a patient who couldn’t look after himself right now, and this was for his care.

With that thought, Tanya steadied her heart, which was fluttering with strange emotions.

Tanya carefully pulled down Ian’s pants.

However.... since it would be quite awkward if Ian woke up in the middle of this, she moved her hands even more cautiously and quietly than when she was handling his upper body.

"...Phew."

After checking Ian’s face several times and taking several times longer than she had for his shirt, Tanya achieved her goal and let out a breath full of tension.

Wringing the water out of the towel again, she reached out with a stiff face, as if she were about to do battle with a monster.

First, from the stomach.

To the thighs.

...Down to the legs.

Tanya’s towel moved diligently, but at some point, her speed began to slow until she found herself repeatedly wiping areas she had already finished.

It was because of a certain place... a place Tanya’s towel had not yet touched.

Tanya’s gaze, which she had been trying not to focus intentionally, darted toward the spot the towel hadn’t reached. Between Ian’s legs... right there.

...Isn’t it more suspicious if I intentionally avoid it?

The thought that this was simply caring for a patient and the thought that *surely not even there* clashed turbulently in Tanya’s head.

After a long period of contemplation, while she continued to fidget with Ian’s already clean thighs, Tanya finally made up her mind.

Avoiding it on purpose means I’m conscious of it.... That’s what makes it weird.

Armed with the logic that it was fine since she had no ulterior motives, Tanya gave a firm nod and gripped the washcloth tight.

Tanya’s slightly trembling hand finally touched Ian’s underwear with great care.

After checking one more time to make sure Ian was definitely asleep, she pulled down the underwear very slowly and cautiously....

Tanya gulped nervously at the sight revealed before her eyes.

This is nursing....

Murmuring that to herself, Tanya closed her eyes and turned her head away.

She tried her absolute best not to look at Ian’s member as she reached out with the washcloth.

A sensation she had never felt before was transmitted through the thin towel.

Tanya flinched and trembled as she carefully wiped Ian’s part with the towel.

"Ugh... huff."

Tanya tried to maintain a cool head, but the sensation of the unfamiliar body part through the towel flooded into her mind, making her dizzy.

Working through those feelings, Tanya’s eyelids twitched as she moved the towel diligently.

Because she couldn’t look, she had no way of confirming if she was doing a proper job.

I should probably check if I did it right.

Just once... should I look?

While Tanya was hesitating over what to do, she felt a strange sensation in her hand.

...It’s hard?

"...?!"

The soft and squishy sensation she felt through the washcloth began to disappear, replaced by something firm that Tanya’s hand now gripped.

Startled by the sudden change, Tanya opened her eyes and turned her gaze.

"Ah, u-uaa...."

The appearance she had first seen was nowhere to be found; Ian’s member had turned hard and was standing tall.

Panicked, Tanya looked around and then checked Ian’s face, but he was still fast asleep.

Tanya frantically wrapped both hands around Ian’s member.

H-how.... how do I change this back to normal?

Distraught like a child who had caused an accident, Tanya looked down at Ian’s hardened member, at a total loss for what to do.

"C-Captain...?"

Tanya called out to Ian in a barely audible whisper, but Ian showed no signs of waking.

Letting out a shaky little sigh, Tanya stared down at Ian’s member held in her hands.

"...."

Checking his reaction once more, Tanya tentatively touched Ian’s member with a trembling hand.

The initial soft touch was gone, replaced by a firm texture that pushed back against her fingers.

Even as Tanya poked and prodded Ian’s member with her fingertips, it showed no intention of returning to its original state.

If I leave it like this... won’t I get caught?

That thought began to fill Tanya’s head.

In truth, all Tanya had done was nurse him, and she hadn’t done anything shameful at all.

Still, her face burned at the thought that Ian might misunderstand if he found out.

Tanya gripped Ian’s member and began to stroke it carefully with her hand.

A hot pulse throbbed within her grasp.

...It’s hot.

And... it’s incredible.

Holding Ian’s member, Tanya reflexively swallowed hard.

It was far more than she had ever gathered from the lewd stories her hometown friends would occasionally tell.

A man’s dick.... it possessed a tremendous intensity.

Tanya briefly forgot her purpose of nursing, as well as the fact that she was trying to figure out how to return it to normal.

She found herself staring intently at the object, absentmindedly fondling it.

The pounding from her chest echoed in her head, shaking her reason.

As she clearly felt its shape through the sensation in her hand, a question naturally surfaced in Tanya’s mind.

...So.

Something like this.... goes in here?

Tanya, wrapping one hand around Ian’s member, cautiously looked down at her own stomach.

A throbbing heat seemed to climb up her spine.

Here.... no, this far...?

Tanya gripped Ian’s member to gauge its size with one hand, while carefully touching her own stomach with the other to compare.

Every time she confirmed the size of it with her hand, Tanya felt a chilling, tingly sensation in her lower abdomen.

It was like the chilling tension that rushes in when a blade’s point is directed at your skin.

Just thinking about such a thing entering her body made Tanya’s body shrink reflexively.

Immersed in that uncontrollable curiosity, Tanya heard the sound of the door suddenly opening and froze in that exact position, unable to react.

Mika, who had been looking for Tanya, swung the door wide and walked in.

"Tanya, are you in here? Let’s have dinner."

"...."

What Mika saw upon entering Ian’s room was....

Tanya, with Ian’s pants off, stroking his member with her hand, her face flushed red.

Perhaps, it was a situation where she could be mistaken for a pervert secretly touching the sleeping Captain’s dick....

"...."

"...."

No.... it wasn’t a mistake.

She was a pervert.

"M-Mika! Wait! This is a misunderstanding...."

Creak.

Mika backed away and quietly closed the door as she left.