Maelstrom - Chapter 10

Barbara headed to a clothing shop in the center of the island with Ernest.

They got dragged into another scuffle along the way, but the moment Barbara raised her gun, the disturbance died down.

After that, they managed to enter the shop without seeing any more blood.

But.

“Why do all the clothes look like this?”

For some reason, Barbara felt more troubled inside the shop.

“Hoho, looks like you prefer something modest. We don’t have that here. Everyone’s got strong personalities.”

It was an island frequented only by pirates, and sure enough, not a single piece of clothing was ordinary.

There were no normal clothes. Everything was cut open at the back or chest, or clung to the body like a snake’s shed skin, revealing every curve.

As Ernest browsed through the garments, he seemed to find something he liked and grinned, baring his teeth.

“How about this?”

It was a black dress. Cut down to the navel, with a slit up the side to the thigh.

“Y-You, sir… a woman… hm! You’ve got a good eye. Just looking at her, it’d suit that lady perfectly. She’s tall and well-endowed too, she’d catch every man’s attention!”

At the owner’s comment, grabbing and shaking her own sagging breasts, Ernest frowned and said, “What are you talking about. I’m the one who’s going to wear it.”

“….”

The vulgar snickering stopped abruptly, and a dull silence settled over the shop.

But Ernest, as if nothing was wrong, lifted his chin and ordered the owner arrogantly, “I’ll try it on.”

“S-Seeing the size, it’ll need alterations….”

“Do it. I can wait as long as it takes.”

Barbara alternated her gaze between the trembling owner and Ernest, who somehow looked prim, and held back a laugh.

She had already felt it when he agreed so easily to cross-dressing, but she hadn’t expected him to be this cooperative.

He was more serious about the disguise than anyone else, and she couldn’t help but laugh.

A little later, after a shorter wait than expected, Ernest left the shop wearing a dress that fit him perfectly.

On the street, now shrouded in darkness, the murmurs of those who had witnessed Ernest’s grotesque appearance brushed past them like a familiar sound. The attention, more intense than before, the low curses, the men who drew blades and tried to rush at him, and Ernest enjoying all of it.

Having even bought a proper wig and put it on, he was at least somewhat more tolerable to look at. There was still an unavoidable masculine air about him, but compared to earlier, when the grotesque impression was stronger, he looked much better.

“Women’s lives are exhausting.”

Standing close beside Barbara, Ernest muttered as he ignored a man who was leering at him.

He wanted to shove a blade into the mouth that kept whistling, but he couldn’t dirty the clothes Barbara had just bought him again.

“I don’t think it’s because you’re a woman. It’s because of how you look.”

In truth, Barbara, who drew attention wherever she went, didn’t receive a single glance at this moment. The woman beside her was simply too overwhelming.

“It’s just because I’m pretty.”

“….”

Ernest flipped his red hair back over his shoulder and showed off his confidence with full conviction. The red wig he had chosen, saying he wanted to look like her sister, suited him surprisingly well, leaving Barbara with nothing to say.

His fine features helped, too.

“Then let’s see if anyone knows the Skeleton Pirates.”

After finishing Ernest’s re-preparation, Barbara grabbed him and headed toward a nearby tavern.

The narrow, filthy streets were filled with all kinds of people. Even on a pirate island, it wasn’t so different. People doing business, people browsing goods, people drinking and bursting into laughter, people playing instruments, people dancing among them.

The only difference was that somewhere off to one side, a fight that wouldn’t end unless one of the two died was always taking place.

The moment Barbara, urging her steps along without much interest, spotted a tavern a few paces ahead, an unpleasant sound reached her ears.

“Wh-What the hell! What’s wrong with him!”

“This fucked-up shit! It’s the Siren’s curse!”

The rough rhythm cut off in an instant, and people gathered around the man who had collapsed.

The man clutched his chest with a deathly pale face, gasping for breath. His eyes were wide open without focus, and a metallic groan slipped out of his slack mouth.

Seeing this, Barbara felt her own heart begin to pound rapidly as well.

“Get him into the water, quick!”

“It’s no use. Looks like he’s been afflicted for quite a while. Either he’ll live like this, driven mad for the rest of his life, or he’ll die soon.”

The old man’s words were true. The Siren’s curse grew more vicious as time passed.

At first, it only manifested at midnight, but later it began to appear even just as the sun was setting. In the early stages, simply plunging into water eased the pain slightly, but even that small miracle didn’t last long.

The pain only grew worse, and the days when she thought of death increased.

“If you want to get rid of it, you need….”

“Move! I’ll just kill him.”

The old man’s words, which had briefly caught Barbara’s attention, were swallowed up by the rough shout that followed.

“Did you just say….”

“What use is a bastard who’s going to die soon anyway!”

Barbara’s words toward the old man were also drowned out. It was the moment she was about to deal with the man shouting.

Thump!

Her heart jolted violently once.

At the chilling sensation, Barbara grabbed her chest like a middle-aged man.

It’s the curse.

The curse that had been quiet for a while now revealed its presence as if resonating.

And Ernest, who noticed the sign from her as if by instinct, immediately lifted her up and began running toward the inn.

“Haa… haa….”

Her breath came out ragged, but perhaps because she was in contact with Ernest, the pain wasn’t as severe as expected.

“Just hold on a little. I’ll fuck you to my heart’s content and cum inside you one after another.”

Barbara’s abdomen tensed and released repeatedly. Every time the pain surged, she held her breath and tightened her stomach.

“How vulgar.”

He was running so urgently that even the wig that had been fluttering neatly had come off. In the darkness, his blond hair was revealed.

During the day, he was like the sun, but at night, he was like the moon.

Barbara buried her face in his chest and erased the useless thought.

“Stay still.”

Perhaps because he had sprinted at full speed, Ernest arrived at the inn quickly and immediately tore Barbara’s clothes apart. The buttons that snapped off scattered across the floor, and at the same time, the heat of bare skin pressed against her body.

“Ah….”

A groan slipped out on its own. She could feel her pounding heart easing slightly.

“You should’ve just accepted it instead of pretending not to know. Why do you keep resisting?”

After holding her still for a moment, Ernest lowered his body. His damp breath passed over her lower abdomen and moved between her legs.

“Haht! I don’t have a fetish for getting fucked by a man in women’s clothes.”

The sound of sloshing liquid echoed through the room. It sounded like waves, making it feel as though they were still on the ship.

“And you’re worrying about preferences even now.”

His speech was slightly slurred, but the movement of his tongue was unmistakably vivid. The tongue that swept over her entrance brushed against her clit. Ernest pressed down on her hips when she jerked upward and began to torment the part that had already swollen at even the slightest stimulation.

“Haaah…!”

The small nub, rolling back and forth beneath his broad tongue, pushed waves of pleasure into Barbara. The heat that climbed up her spine stirred her mind. Every time he pressed down firmly on her clit, the heat that seeped in burst in small explosions.

When he pulled his tongue away and sucked only with his lips, slick fluid flowed from her entrance and dampened her hips.

“Sweet.”

Was it because Ernest’s saliva was flowing into that hidden place? The pounding of her heart, beating like a drum, eased slightly.

But even if it wasn’t as severe, pain was still pain, so Barbara wanted to skip this unnecessary process.

“Hurry, put it in.”

At her breathless words, a grinding sound came from below. When he lifted his head slightly, the jutting line of his jaw was visible.

As if clenching his molars, he took a few deep breaths before raising his body. Then, swallowing Barbara’s involuntary moan, he thrust into her all at once.

Her inner walls scraped inward, then quickly clung to the intruder. The sticky walls pressed against him as if they had a will of their own, drawing him even deeper inside.

No matter how many times he felt it, Ernest felt as if his brain was melting at that maddening sensation. He tightly embraced Barbara’s trembling body, already shaking from just the insertion, and pulled his cock out to the tip before pushing it all the way back in to the root.

A numbing pleasure surged through the place where their tongues had been touching. As he rolled her hardened nipple between his fingers, he breathed life back into Barbara’s stiff tongue.

“Hng…!”

The sound that escaped through her nose seemed to invade his ears. Leaving his accelerating thrusts unchecked, Ernest devoured Barbara.

The female body that never grew tiresome always drove him insane.

“Ah, ah, ahng!”

As Ernest began to stir her insides into a mess, the curse that had started to rise quietly began to lose its strength.

It felt as if a small stream of water was cooling the burning curse.

Like a gentle rain soaking into dry land, like a massive wave crashing along the shore.

“Haa, Barbara….”

But he seemed to be feeling something entirely different. Unlike her, who was cooling down as she accepted the pleasure, he burned like molten lava.

It was only natural. As their most sensitive flesh rubbed together, an unbearable heat burst out.

Every time the blunt tip pressed firmly against her sweet spot, the heat spreading into her brain felt as though it would melt everything.

“Ah… hurry, Ernest.”

For a moment, it felt as though she was floating in the sky. At the same time, the sharpened sensations dulled for an instant.

As abruptly as they had come together, the climax arrived just as abruptly.

The numbed sensation, as if time had stopped, broke all at once, and a climax that made her entire body tremble surged through her.

“Hng…!”

Feeling her inner walls contract strongly, Barbara accepted Ernest as he buried himself deep inside her. The curse had already vanished.

But because the curse had appeared even while Ernest was with her, Barbara grew uneasy and did not let him go.

“If you rush me like this, I can’t hold out.”

“Have you ever held out?”

At Barbara’s question, he gave a deflated smile and replied, “I always fall apart in front of you.”