Episode 21: Events at my Parents' House 1
After Viscount Fabian left. I took a bath and went to greet my father, who was still in the guest house.
As it was a guest house, it was beautifully built, and the bedrooms and dining room had been well taken care of to an excessive degree.
Meanwhile, my father and Elfie were in the office.
Perhaps in the middle of paperwork, a stack of paper was randomly piled up on the desk.
"There was a lot of noise outside."
"No, nothing special."
My father, who stopped moving the pen and raised his face, asked.
From his office, he couldn't see the exchange between me and Viscount Fabian earlier. However, the exchange was seen by some of the servants. Someone must have come to report it.
"I see. If you say so."
But my father believed my false report and looked down again.
"Did your work in the royal capital finish successfully?"
"Well. For the time being..."
What I muddled up was that sex with the young lady might have been successful if one only look at the result, but if one looked at it from a slightly different perspective, she was misled by her poor sexual knowledge, and as to get back at me, she pressed me to have sex with her, ignoring even her own body.
I guess one could call it a kind of mental fragility. I had sex with the young lady a record number of times, but I think my mind was more tired than my body.
On top of that, the visit of the rootless noble. To be honest, I'm exhausted.
"...Because you are too kind."
"Huh?"
Suddenly, as though he had read my mind, my father muttered that with paper in hand.
"What. Don't you want me to console you?"
"No, I just......"
"Fu. You're not convincing me with that face."
When he put down the pen, my father raised his face.
"When you were little, you had the same look on your face when you were with Mashiro and Armes. No matter how big you grow, you're still a kid on the inside."
With that said, I was relieved that my father, who lifted his face slightly and with wrinkled face, was somewhat reliable and dependable.
"I can't compete with my father."
My father looked at me with a puzzled look when he heard my words naturally spilling out of my mouth, and then he laughed.
"It's natural. I know how good you are, but I'm not going to leave yet."
After watching my father stamp one last document with his seal, I left the office and returned to my room.
I returned...
"......So why are you here?"
"What...... shouldn't I be here?"
I thought I could relax for the first time in a while, but for some reason, I found Mashiro in my room, sitting on a chair and holding a cup of matcha tea in one hand. I mean, haven't there been a lot of people waiting in my room drinking a cup of tea lately?
"No, I don't mind if it's Mashiro, but why......?"
Essentially, Mashiro is a servant who worked here, and we don't see each other very often except when I go to see her. Of course, when I am at my parents' house or when I come back from a battle, I always visit her.
"Do I need a reason to meet you?"
When she said that, Mashiro turned her gaze toward me.
"You didn't need to, but when I walked into my room, I was surprised to suddenly see someone there."
"Scaredy-cat~"
"No, I'm not scared or anything. It's definitely not that."
I am glad that I knew the person, but if this were an assassin by the rootless nobles like the imperial spies or Viscount Fabian earlier, all the people in charge of security would get fired.
"......Well, if you're a coward, you wouldn't have done that."
"Eh? What?"
Mashiro's voice was somewhat melancholy, a change from her teasing tone.
"Hora~, come here for the time being."
"H-hey...!"
Mashiro then pulled me onto the bed with a cup in one hand and half-heartedly pulled my arm with the other hand. The bed creaked as we both sit down on it.
"Um, Mashiro-san?"
"Hmm? Do you want some tea?"
"No, I'll drink later. Seriously, why are you here?"
Mashiro sipped the dark green tea.
"Hmm, I just came to see you because I really want to see you."
"I-I see..."
It's a straightforward statement that made my back itch.
Mashiro puts the cup aside and touched my face as though to check it.
"Ah! How about, if I may say so, I'm here to comfort you?"
"Why are you..."
Before I could say that I didn't need to be comforted in the first place, my face was forcibly pulled by Mashiro's grasp.
The place where I was pulled to was on Mashiro's thigh. My right cheek was still sweaty and touched her soft thigh.
Mashiro stroked my hair as she looked down at me with a smile on her face.
"Um, Mashiro-san?"
"Hmm~. What?"
"I'm happy with this, but what happened suddenly......"
Despite my panic, Mashiro continued stroking my hair with a nonchalant expression on her face.
"I'm just trying to make you feel better?"
"O-oh... is that so?"
Mashiro then pats me as though I am a child. It's embarrassing to be petted by a girl I like.
"Your hair is smooth. Did you take a bath."
"Just a while ago."
I was going to take another bath at night, so I decided to just wash my body, but Armes told me to wash my hair properly and washed it carefully.
Incidentally, nobles do not bathe alone but have servants wash their bodies. The servant is usually a man wearing only his underwear, as his job is also to die a martyr's death as a shield when an assassin appeared while I am taking a bath. Of course, we didn't do anything naughty.
However, when Mashiro heard it, she muttered.
"Hmm~. If you had told me, I would have joined you."
"Huh!?"
I turned my face toward Mashiro without thinking.
"What? You don't want to go in with me? Even you went in with that girl and the young lady of the main family."
"No, except for Ojousama...... eh? How did you know that?......"
"Eh? Since before?"
When I was again puzzled by the unexpected answer, Mashiro said blandly and turned my face back to its original direction.
"......Um, I'm sorry."
I was embarrassed that it was known, and my heart ached a little. I had no idea that Mashiro knew.
"You don't have to apologize."
"No... but."
"Generally, if you apologize, it will become much more miserable. So you should be proud, you know."
Mashiro herself didn't really seem to mind, but it was me who was the problem.
Somehow, emotions that I have never felt about Mashiro before run around in my heart.
"But you're going somewhere else, aren't you?"
"Y-yeah."
If the house is this busy, Mashiro must have an inkling of what is going on.
She looked a little melancholy, and when the hand that stroked my hair stopped near my ear, she muttered.
"You'll be back, right?"
"……Yeah."
The reason why I could not answer immediately is that this battle is not a small-scale conflict like the previous ones, but a battle that the Kingdom and Empire will have to seriously contend with.
I would be deployed on the front line of this battle, and I can't lie and say that I would definitely make it out alive.
"I'll be fine. I'll be back here properly."
I squeeze Mashiro's hand, which had been resting on my ear. Her slender, soft hand was shaking just a little.
"Really?"
"I'm telling you the truth. Mostly, I can't die until I can be with you, and we haven't even had sex......"
I gently put a lid on the emotions slumbering in my mind, smiled, and said so to Mashiro.
"What!?"
But that was a bad move, and Mashiro's face turned bright red in no time.
"You, idiot!"
"Ubuu!?"
The hand swung down on my cheek, and pain shoots across my face.
"W-why did you hit me?"
With my vision blurred by tears, I look up at Mashiro, holding my hand on the left cheek where I was struck.
"Because you suddenly said something weird!"
"Weird... it's okay. If it's you and me......"
"That's right, but read the mood right now! You're really an idiot."
"It hurts!?"
She pinched the back of my hand that was caressing my cheek. Apparently, it was a really bad move.
"(I was going to do it for you, but why ruin the mood...... this idiot.)"
"Eh? What did you...?"
Mashiro's voice was too faint to hear as she turned her face away from me, but she turned back to me, not intending to restate her words.
"You better come home."
With that said, she suddenly kissed my cheek.
I was surprised at the soft touch, and Mashiro smiled at me, blushing a little.
Se viene la guerra
ReplyDelete