Chapter 5. More Villain Than Any Villain

Spring has come for top hero Carbon, 36 years old this year. He has fallen for his sidekick Hyde, a full fourteen years his junior. The relationship is short at just over two months, but one source revealed, “The two have known each other for a long time, so they know each other well. The start was the issue, but now that they’ve begun, good news seems to be on the way.” Carbon has consistently ranked in the top ten of the Hero Popularity Chart since his shocking debut at twenty, and after reaching number one for the first time in year XX, he has held that position ever since. Beloved both domestically and abroad and known by the nickname ‘the people’s hero,’ Carbon has been the subject of countless romance rumors over the years, but this marks the first time he has confirmed a relationship, and the announcement is expected to send significant ripples.

VL News Enrada (enrada@vlnews.com)

Carbon had already anticipated roughly this level of fallout, so he could scroll through the articles and comments without much reaction. What bothered him more was the photo that had run with the article. His face, unable to take his eyes off Hyde, was completely soft and open, lit up with a bright smile. Did I really make that expression? Embarrassed, Carbon touched the corner of his mouth for no reason.

But the moment he sorted the comments by most liked, Carbon’s expression went stiff. The top comment cut straight into him.

“Haah.”

Carbon pressed his fingers to his forehead and exhaled. The comments under the flood of articles that had poured out since confirming their relationship were universally tearing him apart, but it didn’t bother him. Carbon thought the same thing they did.

A piece of trash who devoured a girl fourteen years younger, someone he had sponsored and looked after for so long. A shameless thief.

He admitted it. He couldn’t bring himself to deny his own fault.

But more villain than any villain…… The self-reproach stung. He had lived uprightly his entire life. After becoming a hero he had been even more careful. Watching his conduct, keeping his words as gentle as possible, thinking things through again and again before speaking. He had even started shaving every day because someone once said his stubble made him look rough and threatening.

And yet here he was……

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“Nothing.”

A canary-like voice came from behind him, and Carbon got up. He walked over to Hyde, who had only lifted her head from the pillow and was looking his way with a yawn, and she stretched her arms out toward him with a pout.

The sight made a smile rise on its own. Carbon swallowed it and leaned down to lift her, and she naturally wrapped her arms around his neck, buried her face in his shoulder, and rubbed her nose against him. It tickled.

Carbon tilted his head down and pressed a small kiss to Hyde’s forehead. She beamed. The fondness of it ached in his chest.

“……I love you.”

“Me too. I love you too, mister.”

The hero’s conscience he had maintained for so long stabbed at him relentlessly, but he had no desire to give her up. He could no longer kill the feeling he had for her. He wanted to cherish her. To love her and treasure her and hold her close for the rest of his life. He could spend a lifetime making it up to her that way. Carbon decided to set down his conscience and choose happiness.

But this was one thing he had not been hoping for at all.

“Daddy……”

“What?”

Carbon’s heart dropped.

But Hyde, the one who had just said the word that sent him into shock, only smiled brightly as though she couldn’t imagine what the problem was.

“Hyde, what did you just―.”

“Mmnh, daddy?”

“……”

“Well, Milopy said we look like a dad and his daughter. So I tried it out.”

This was truly…… a blow.

When he looked devastated, Hyde giggled and tried to console him.

“There’s no dad in the world like you, Carbon, so don’t worry. Where else would you find a dad this s*xy.”

“……”

“Oh! Our daughter will have one, though.”

Carbon pulled himself out of his shock and asked,

“Do you want children?”

“Yes!”

Hyde answered without hesitation, then glanced at Carbon’s thoughtful expression and quietly asked,

“What about you, Carbon?”

“……Twenty-two is still too young to be a mother.”

“Thirty-six is just right, though. If we have one now, you won’t be a grandfather by the time the child is an adult.”

Hyde said it with a sly smile, and Carbon, at a loss for words, let out a pained groan.

“That’s…… a conversation for later.”

And to stop his sly little partner from saying anything more, he swallowed her lips. But even though Carbon had started it, Hyde took over before long.

As though the time she had knocked her teeth against his in a clumsy attempt at a kiss had never happened, Hyde kissed him with easy confidence. She bit at Carbon’s lips and sucked at his tongue in a sequence she had grown comfortable with, then went on the offensive. Her small tongue crossed into Carbon’s mouth and moved around inside it. It poked at the inside of his cheeks and scraped the roof of his mouth, and the endearing quality of it made Carbon laugh.

“Hhng?”

Hyde, who had her eyes closed, heard the laugh and opened them wide. Her expression asked why he was laughing, and Carbon answered by biting her lip instead of with words. Hyde scrunched her face at the nip to her lower lip. Carbon cradled the back of her neck and pushed his tongue in deep.

“Hhnp, mmh.”

The difference in their builds meant Hyde was completely eclipsed by Carbon, looking for all the world like something being consumed by a predator. Hyde genuinely felt as though Carbon’s thick tongue filling her small mouth and reaching toward her throat was swallowing her breath along with everything else.

When she showed signs of struggling with the long kiss, Carbon breathed air into her and slipped his hand under the loosely draped T-shirt. She wasn’t wearing anything underneath, and her soft skin met his hand directly. Her full br*asts were more than a handful for Carbon’s large hands, flesh spilling between his fingers.

It still struck him as remarkable that a body this small carried br*asts this large. Carbon liked the way the skin pressed into his palm, and the sensation of her raised n*pples mashing against it. So even as he tilted his head and kept kissing her, he didn’t take his hand away from her chest. If anything, the T-shirt kept slipping and getting in the way, so he broke the kiss briefly, pulled it off, and indulged himself in her bare chest.

The warmth transferred from his kneading hands. Already flushed from the kiss, Hyde now moaned under the hands working at her br*asts. When her n*pples were pinched she felt a sharp jolt of pleasure sharp enough to make her spine straighten.

More, now…… Hyde’s mouth went dry. She knew pleasures beyond this. She wanted to move to the next stage. But Carbon, absorbed in her chest like a child with a toy, showed no sign of intending to touch anything below her navel.

“……Mister.”

Carbon, who had been squishing and playing with her br*asts in his hands, looked up. Hyde was sticking out her lower lip in a clear pout.

“What’s wrong?”

“Don’t just touch there, touch here too.”

Hyde tried to pry Carbon’s hands off her br*asts and gave up, then pointed downward with her finger. The moment his gaze landed there, she felt the arousal that had been pooling inside trickle out.

Carbon moved without delay at her pleading look. He slid the fingers that had been flicking and pinching her n*pples downward, hooked her elastic waistband, and pulled her bottoms and underwear off in one motion. Hyde helpfully lifted her hips to make it easier, and the pants and underwear that had come down to her ankles slid to the floor when she tilted her feet.

“Mmnh.”

Suddenly bare without a stitch on her, Hyde felt self-conscious and tried to cover her p*ssy and chest with her hands. The cool air touching the slick skin between her legs was especially embarrassing.