The Wrong Hero

Chapter 52 - A Night to Forget

Groggily, Dante felt his senses slowly return to him. He saw dark green walls illuminated by fluorescent plants and realized he was back in the village. He felt warm, comfortable, and relaxed. It felt like it was a long time since he was this calm.

Dante pushed himself up to look around—

"Ah!" He heard a quick exclamation below him.

It was at this point Dante realized one of his hands wasn't on soft bedding, but something more firm, and warm. Hesitantly, he looked down. A boy was below him, a pair of dog ears sticking out of his head.

"...Keel?" Dante stared wide-eyed at him.

"H-Hey, Dante..." Keel said in a slightly shaky voice. His arms were pressed against his sides. "How are you feeling?"

Horror started to fill him. Dante saw both he and Keel were completely naked, save for a single sheet that partially covered the both of them.

"Keel." Dante's voice was strained.

"Yes?" Keel seemed to shrink back at his name.

"Please say you came onto me." Dante said.

On Keel's body were countless blemishes. Hickeys, bite marks, and bits of dried blood covered Keel's neck and upper body. With the dried sweat Dante could feel on his own body, it wasn't hard to figure out what they did.

"What?" Keel asked, still looking up at him.

"Please tell me you had sex with me last night, and those marks on you were from me trying to push you away. I won't be mad." The alternative was far more distressing to Dante at the moment.

"I'd never do that!" Keel shouted, though he immediately shrank back again.

"I don't care what it was, just please tell me I didn't force myself on you." He'd done a lot of things, but Dante never did that to someone. He prayed that hadn't changed last night.

Keel slowly shook his head. "Not really..."

"'Not really'?" Dante repeated the words. "Keel, either I did or I didn't. There's not a lot of in-between."

"I'll tell you. But first, can you...cover yourself?" Keel turned his head away.

Dante winced. He moved himself off of Keel and pulled the sheet over his chest. He could feel the soreness in his body as he did so.

He took in a breath and asked, "What did I do?"

Keel pushed himself up, making sure he stayed covered down below as well. "What do you remember?"

Dante rubbed the side of his head. "It's...hard to remember. There were the parades. I rode on the dragon to the next town. You were there. Then..."

After that, it was too hazy. He knew he teleported them to the village, but he couldn't really recall anything else.

Keel nodded. "I brought you to your room here and got Rat. She examined you and said your curse was making you act weird."

"How did it get so bad so quickly?" Dante asked. "I thought it wasn't progressing."

"She said it didn't. It was getting stronger, but it wasn't becoming permanent or anything. She told you that, didn't she?"

Dante thought back. He vaguely recalled her mentioning it, but it didn't seem like anything was happening to him, so he disregarded it.

"And...the reason we're in bed together?" Dante went to the heart of his concern.

"She said...being with a man should bring you back to normal for a while." Keel said sheepishly.