Exiled Prince and His Succubus Army-Chapter 31: A prince shouldn’t be serving himself
Renji got up from the bed, stretching his lean frame as he rose. His muscles felt pleasantly relaxed, the tension from the day’s hunting completely drained away. He rolled his shoulders and ran a hand through his already messy black hair, making it even more tousled than usual.
Behind him, Aya still lay there on the bed, completely shattered and breathing raggedly. Her dark hair was spread across the pillow in disarray, her chest rising and falling with each labored breath as she struggled to recover.
He turned back to look at her, a teasing smirk playing across his features as he took in the sight of her utterly spent form. "So," he drawled, his voice carrying that characteristic sarcastic edge that came so naturally to him, "I take it you won’t be joining us for dinner then?"
He tilted his head, watching her with amusement dancing in his dark eyes. "The others have probably finished cooking by now. Wouldn’t want to miss a hot meal after such a long day of hunting, would you?"
Aya opened her mouth as if to respond, but no words came out. She was still too shaken, too overwhelmed to form a coherent reply. Her lips moved slightly, attempting to shape some kind of answer, but her body simply wasn’t cooperating with her intentions. All she could manage was a weak, breathless sound that might have been an attempt at speech.
Renji chuckled at her inability to respond, the sound warm and genuinely amused rather than mocking. There was a certain satisfaction in knowing he’d left her in such a state, a boost to his ego that he wasn’t too proud to admit he enjoyed. "I’ll take that as a no," he said, still grinning as he turned away and headed toward the door. "Take your time recovering. I’ll save you some food if there’s any left."
With that, he stepped out of the room and made his way toward the main area of the shrine where they typically gathered for meals. The smell of cooked meat and vegetables reached his nose before he even arrived, making his stomach growl in anticipation. He hadn’t realized just how hungry he was until that moment, the day’s exertions had burned through his energy reserves completely.
When he entered the main room, he found Kaede and Rei already there. They were sitting in the middle of the room on cushions they’d arranged around a low table, and to his surprise, they appeared to be just finishing their food. Empty bowls sat before them, chopsticks laid across the rims, and both women had the satisfied expressions of people who had already eaten their fill.
Renji stopped in the doorway, his expression shifting to one of dumbstruck disbelief. His mouth fell open slightly as he processed what he was seeing. They had eaten without him. They had cooked dinner and then simply... started eating without waiting for him to join them.
Kaede noticed his expression and simply shrugged, her blonde hair shifting with the casual movement. "What?" she asked, her tone completely unapologetic. "Did you expect us to starve and wait around for you to be done with your... activities?" She raised one eyebrow, her aristocratic features arranged in an expression of mild disdain. "We were hungry. The food was ready. We ate. It’s not a complicated concept."
Rather than being offended, Renji’s expression shifted into something more mischievous. He recovered from his initial surprise quickly, a sly smile spreading across his face as he sauntered further into the room. "Well," he said, his voice dripping with implication, "I hope you at least enjoyed the entertainment that came with the food."
Kaede’s eye twitched almost imperceptibly, but she didn’t rise to the bait. Rei, however, suddenly found the empty bowl in front of her absolutely fascinating, her pale cheeks coloring slightly.
Renji came to sit down next to Rei, lowering himself onto the cushion beside her with casual ease. Before she could react or move away, he draped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her slightly closer to him in a gesture that was both possessive and oddly comfortable.
The effect on Rei was immediate and dramatic. She flushed deeply, the color spreading from her cheeks down to her neck, and she froze completely in place. Her entire body went rigid, like a small animal caught in the gaze of a predator, unsure whether to flee or remain perfectly still. Her short hair, which fell just to her ears, seemed to bristle slightly with her tension.
Renji observed her reaction with genuine curiosity, his dark eyes studying her face. The intensity of her response surprised him—
, it seemed like more than just embarrassment or discomfort. There was something almost... unfamiliar about her reaction, as if she didn’t know how to process the simple gesture.
"Wait," he said slowly, realization dawning on him. "Has no man ever put his arm around you before?" The question came out more surprised than teasing, genuine curiosity replacing his usual sarcastic tone.
Rei swallowed hard, still stiff as a board under his arm. "Yes," she admitted quietly, her voice barely above a whisper. "I mean... no. No man has ever..." She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence, her flush deepening even further if that was possible.
Renji blinked, genuinely taken aback by this revelation. He hadn’t expected that answer. She was beautiful in her own delicate way, and she’d been a saintess, surely she’d had admirers, people who wanted to be close to her? But then again, he supposed, being a saintess probably meant keeping people at a certain distance, maintaining purity and separation from worldly things like physical affection.
Feeling suddenly awkward about the situation in a way he hadn’t anticipated, Renji pulled his arm away from her shoulders. The gesture that had felt natural and teasing moments ago now felt like something he shouldn’t have done without thinking it through more carefully. "Right," he said, clearing his throat slightly. "Well. Anyway. Where’s my food?"
The abrupt change of subject was transparent, but no one commented on it.
Kaede gestured vaguely toward the back of the shrine without looking up from cleaning her bowl. "It’s in the kitchen," she said simply. "You can serve yourself."
Renji stared at her for a moment, then straightened his posture with exaggerated dignity. "Excuse me," he said, his voice taking on a commanding tone that was only partially serious, "but you’re my succubus. I order you to go get my food for me."
Kaede finally looked up at him, and her expression was one of complete and utter disinterest in complying with his demand. She met his gaze steadily, not an ounce of submission in her golden eyes. "Our bond," she said slowly, as if explaining something to a particularly dim child, "only requires me to make sure you never die or get seriously hurt. That’s it. I’m compelled to protect your life, not to wait on you hand and foot like some kind of servant."
She paused, and a dangerous smile curved her lips. "In fact," she added, her voice dropping to something more threatening, "the bond is the only reason I haven’t skewered you with my sword at this very moment for even suggesting I fetch your dinner like a common maid."
Renji held her gaze for a long moment, trying to determine if she was bluffing. The look in her eyes suggested she was absolutely not bluffing—that she would genuinely enjoy running him through if given half a chance and no magical compulsion preventing it. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
He scoffed loudly, breaking eye contact first and pushing himself up from the cushion with exaggerated reluctance. "Fine," he muttered, already walking toward the kitchen. His voice carried back to them as he went, full of theatrical complaint. "I’ll get it myself then. Even though I’m a prince. Even though I spent the entire day fighting monsters and protecting everyone. Even though I should have people serving me rather than the other way around."
He continued muttering as he disappeared into the kitchen area, his complaints growing more elaborate and ridiculous the further away he got. "A prince shouldn’t be serving himself. This is completely beneath my station. Back at the palace, I had servants who had servants..."
