Collector’s Cage - Chapter 75 - END

“It’s a different space, so we can see different sides of each other, right? You have to study, Froy. There’s still so much to learn.”

She made a suggestion tempting enough to distract the anxiously fidgeting Froy. Gazing up at her with a dazed, unfocused look, he murmured.

“You’re right. There really is still so much to learn.”

Froy let out a heavy sigh, his hand gripping Hermie’s b*****k, feeling the soft, yielding texture. She whispered into his ear.

“We can’t go all the way. We’ll be arriving soon.”
“Then what am I supposed to be studying? This isn’t studying.”

Hermie pecked at Froy’s grumbling lips like a bird.
“So greedy.”
“I’m a collector. My greed is immense.”

Lovable Hermie. There was still so much to discover about her, and the impatience churned within him. He wanted to tear away all the clothes hiding her body, to part her flesh and see what else she was concealing. But as she said, he obediently just kissed her, his lips moving gently against hers.

He kneaded her b******s, buried his face in her chest, panting with a low, ragged breath, raised his head to voice his complaints—yet, he did everything as Hermie wanted.

He was learning, for the first time, how to restrain the desire to possess. Holding onto the belief that the fruit revealed at the end of patience would be more fantastical and sweet, he endured to the very end.

This was him, who had spent a lifetime distrusting others, finally opening his heart and beginning to trust Hermie. That if he listened well, if he waited patiently, if he held back his greed… he would try to believe that Hermie would keep her promise.

“W-what else do I have to learn?”
“We have to get down now.”
“It’s not enough yet. We haven’t done a single thing here.”
“Stop whining. Next time… we can do it in the garden, or something.”

Froy’s face flushed crimson. As soon as they stepped out of the carriage, the wide-open garden came into view. Froy looked down at Hermie with a slightly flustered expression.

“Hermie.”
“What.”
“Come to think of it… you’re quite the pervert yourself.”
“That’s because of you, Froy.”
“How did you come to that conclusion?”
“…Because you’re so cute, handsome, and pretty. You get me excited too.”
“Is that so. So that’s why… here…”

There really is an overabundance of things to learn. Froy desperately clung to his unraveling curiosity.

Hermie, who had guessed what Froy was thinking, scrunched her nose.
“You’re crazy! It has to be somewhere we can’t be seen.”
“Ah.”
“So annoying!”
“Sorry.”

With his face burning bright red, Froy followed Hermie, who was walking ahead, and let out a small, stifled laugh.

“So… is today’s study session over?”
“Who… said it’s over…? W-we’ll do it… in the room.”

His laughter, held back until now, finally burst out at her words. Hermie’s face turned red as if it would explode, and her steps quickened even more.

“Let’s go together, Hermie. Or should I let you study alone? I’d kind of like to see that, too.”
“Shut up. Really, you’re infuriating.”
“You said you love me.”
“Yes! Even if I love you, infuriating is infuriating!”

Hermie had promised. That she would love him the most. And that she would make him feel that love.

Just hearing the words made a searing happiness well up inside him. If it felt this good just from that, how much happier would he be on the day he could truly believe and rely on that love?

That is why Froy endures and waits. To obtain that thing of immeasurable value.

On that day, whenever it may come, his cage—once so empty—will surely be filled to the brim with love. So full there will be no room for anything else, leaving no chance to feel lack or emptiness.

<Collector’s Cage> fin.