Transmigrated Into A Tragic Romance Fantasy

“Kyaah—!!”

For Ariel, someone who despised anything with large bulging eyeballs, be it an animal or monster, the appearance of the [Big-Eyed Frog] was more terrifying than any grotesque monstrosity they encountered till now.

So it was only natural that she reacted rather strongly.

And that reaction, was, of course, to jerk away from the perceived ‘threat’.

Just as a normal person would run away from a lunatic wielding a knife, or from a dangerous beast...

It was a natural law and instinctive response to be propelled forward, opposite the direction of the shock.

And so,

“Eek!”

It was unavoidable that Ariel propelled forward, and pointed at the big-eyed frog that had jumped from her shoulder onto a rock, terrified while being unaware of where she herself had landed.

“A-Ariel?! P-Please, S-stop...”

“It’s a b-big-eyed frog—!!”

Unknowingly, Ariel had landed right over Elden’s thigh.

As she writhed, a certain place received quite the stimulation with Ariel’s bubbly...bottom.

Moreover, that place...was completely bare...

“Ariel...Just stay put for a bit...”

“Eek! D-don’t come this way—!”

Ribbit, ribbit-.

As if taunting Ariel, the frog looked at her and croaked.

During their Culinary Journey, the young bookworm had once fainted when a similar frog jumped closer to her face in a forest.

Now, with a frog twice that size reaching closer to her, Ariel couldn’t help but scream and shudder.

Elden understood where she was coming from.

He really did.

After all, what a person perceived as a simple cat, could be akin to a feral jaguar to others.

The problem here was that...

Something began to awaken(?)...as it rubbed against Ariel’s bottom.

It was a reaction that couldn’t be resisted, suppressed, or opposed.

As if long waiting for this moment, nothing could stop its mighty rise.

At this rate, an unmanageable predicament was inevitable.

Crackle-!

Elden hurriedly summoned a bolt of lightning from his hand, blasting the large frog right in its bulging eyeballs.

Only then did Ariel stop writhing and screaming, sighing in relief as she stared at the well-done(?) frog.

“Phew... Th-thank you, Elden.”

Embarrassed by her behavior, Ariel smiled sheepishly.

“Ha, haha... I guess memories from that other time in the forest made me overreact. Sorry.”

Though she had always disliked amphibians, Ariel grew to hate them even more after a frog jumped onto her face one day.

It was natural for her to react with such shock and try to escape.

The problem was, that she had fled in an unfortunate direction and didn’t realize what she had sat on.

“......”

“...Elden?”

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Silence.

No response came to her question.

As her wild heart began to calm down, she noticed the... uncomfortable silence.

The only other sound was of someone breathing,

Right behind her.

And....

She felt something unfamiliar....on her bottom.

After a moment, Ariel gradually pieced together the current situation

And then...

“Um... Ariel...? Could you get off now?”

Another look of shock began to dawn on Ariel’s face.

She finally realized where she had fled and what she had done while there.

And she had an inkling of what that strange sensation beneath her might be.

“—!!”

She was well past the age of maturity.

Even if she had been ignorant and indifferent about the opposite sex, she knew about male physical characteristics and how they changed with stimulation.

And of course, she also knows what usually happens when such...changes occur.

Because once upon a time, a young Ariel had witnessed its use(?) when she stumbled into her parents’ bedroom, rubbing her eyes, awakened by the thunder of a storm.

Therefore.

She had an inkling of what such a...hard thing beneath her bottom was.

Especially when the thing began to...Rise like a drawbridge closing its gates.

Her panicked writhing from the frog scare had inadvertently ordered the drawbridge to close.

And then, she had sat on top of it, preventing it from doing so.

Her body froze at this unfamiliar, sensual feeling she had never experienced before.

Her mind went blank, unsure of what to do.

Cold sweat formed, and a heat more intense than the hot springs rose up, threatening to melt her rigid body.

“......”

The current situation was beyond embarrassing...Indeed, it bordered on despair.

After mustering all her courage to seek an innocent(?) way to get even with Rachel, she felt like she had become a lascivious seductress.

She despaired at the thought that Elden might misunderstand her purity.

Ariel wanted to explain that this wasn’t her intention, but she didn’t know how.

So, Ariel’s fever-addled brain opted for the only course of action it could think of.

Indeed,

She slipped off his thigh as if she hadn’t felt anything.

“Ah....I...S-sorry..... I was so S-Scared, I didn’t realize what I was doing...”

When in doubt...Pretend that nothing has happened!

And who knows?

Perhaps she might have misunderstood the situation.

...Perhaps that hard...thick...Thing...Was it just a tree branch that fell into the hot spring...?

One couldn’t rule out that possibility, so hasty assumptions and misunderstandings were best avoided.

However, she had felt that thing...so vividly...as if it was only separated by a single thin cotton towel.

If it had been Elden’s...Surely...It wouldn’t have felt so... explicit...Since he was also using a towel...

Hahaha...Silly me! It must be a stick! Yes! Just a...Thick branch...! Pff...Really Ariel? panicking over a single stick...Hahaha...

Of course, had it been a branch the wood’s buoyancy would prevent it from sinking to the bottom of the hot spring, but Ariel’s mind was already too dizzy and confused to consider that.

Wanting to deny the sensation imprinted on her bottom, Ariel chose to believe it was a piece of wood and looked up at the sky, muttering to herself.

While also trying to play off her embarrassment and shame.

Alas...

“Wow. The m-moon looks really beautiful tonight...”

The moment she said it, clouds appeared from nowhere and covered the moon.

First the big-eyed frog, and now these cruel clouds preventing her from feigning ignorance.

Finally,

Splash-.

Ariel squeezed her eyes shut and dunked her head underwater.

Bubble, Bubble-.

The bubbles rising around the back of Ariel’s head once again disturbed the water’s surface, which had been about to calm.

***“Ah! I just remembered that I have yet to finish the epilogue! Yes! That...! Must finish it! Bye, Elden-!”

“Okay...”

After screaming her lungs out under the water, Ariel bid Elden farewell without even looking a him, fleeing the scene as fast as she could.

It was a disaster.

All her expectations and plans had been overturned, and with no way to salvage the situation, retreat was her only option.

The sensations imprinted on her bottom were so...vigorous...and distinct that Ariel felt it might have been less mortifying to bare herself naked like Rachel.

Thump, thump, thump-.

She rushed towards her room.

Then, she saw Rachel closing the door to her own room.

“D-Dame Rachel...?”

“Ah.”

“What are you doing?”

“I was merely checking the room since I couldn’t find you.”

“Why?”

“Ah...”

Rachel trailed off.

In fact, she was caught off guard by Ariel’s early return.

Fortunately, Rachel had finished reviewing the information, but the serious Knight wasn’t prepared to encounter her in the hallway and couldn’t think of an answer to the simple question ‘why?’.

Her only way to gloss over the situation was to naturally change the subject.

“I see you went to the hot spring. I thought you said you weren’t planning on going there?”

“Ah, well, I-I suddenly changed my mind.”

“You must have gone with Lord Elden?”

“Yes. Why?”

Luckily, Ariel raised another question without much suspicion, and this one was easier to answer.

It was just part of the love rivalry that had already begun.

“From what I can see you didn’t enjoy it much? Since you came back so quickly.”

Little did Rachel know that Ariel’s thoughts on that particular event were far from such a mark.

She practically made a spectacle of herself.

Hearing Rachel’s question, Ariel’s hand unconsciously moved towards her bottom.

“S-something came up, that’s all.”

“...Something came up...?”

Rachel’s eyes narrowed.

Something came up.

Those words, along with Ariel’s blush and the hand moving towards her bottom, suggested this wasn’t something to be taken lightly.

“Yes! Just...things...you know...”

“And pray to tell, My Lady...What kind of things are you speaking of?”

Confronted by Rachel’s sharp tone, Ariel crossed her arms and lifted her chin.

Though she felt utterly ashamed of her unseemly behavior towards Elden, she didn’t want to reveal it in front of her rival.

If she did, Ariel felt like she would be losing to her.

Moreover, Rachel had claimed her nudity was ‘intentional’.

To deal with such a cunning fox, one must become equally cunning, so she mustered her courage.

As long as Elden wasn’t listening, she needed to show her rival that she too was prepared to go that far, that she had her own ways of enticing men.

“Curious?”

“I must confess Lady Ariel, I find myself a bit curious, yes.”

“Something did happen. You could say it was... quite bold and daring?”

Though it was neither intentional nor desired, it wasn’t a lie.

It had indeed been bold and daring.

However, just as she thought she’d gained the upper hand, Ariel easily reacted to Rachel’s next words.

“......Did you copy me, My Lady?”

“What?”

“Ah, forgive me, I was simply wondering if something similar happened.”

Ariel’s brow furrowed briefly.

‘Copy’ - that single word from her rival was enough to wound her pride.

Especially for her, who had no intention of copying in the first place, it was a provocation that cracked her self-esteem.

And.

Provocation breeds retaliation.

But of course,

The retaliation of one unskilled in conflict can only be clumsy.

“As if.”

“Then...?”

“Tehehehe.”

Ariel’s head lifted triumphantly.

Her smile exuded confidence.

Her delicate shoulders rose proudly.

But then, the reality of what she was about to say caught up to her, and she hesitated, stumbling over her words.

“I... I was sitting.”

“Pardon...? Sitting where... exactly?”

“On... on Elden’s lap...!”

“—What!!?”

Rachel’s lips froze in shock, at the unladylike behavior of the one she thought a proper lady.

Ariel’s lips also froze in shock, at the unladylike words she herself, a proper lady, had just uttered.

The rivalry between these women who never experienced a man, and who also never fought over a man was intensifying.

On the night before their departure for the Grand Duchy.

“—!?”

Neither of them would know until morning that a third competitor(?) bringing them dessert had overheard their passionate exchange.