Episode 181
"Uh, um..."
"Why is that? Did you not promise to drink with me tonight?"
As Frey stumbled over his words, Kania asked with a smile on her lips.
"Perhaps, has some reason come up that forces you to break your promise?"
"Th-that's not it..."
"Then what are you hesitating about?"
As Kania whispered once more in Frey's ear, trailing off at the end of her words, his heart began to race.
"...I can hear the young master's heartbeat."
Kania, who had been pressed tightly against Frey until then, spoke while feeling that very heartbeat through her own body.
"I can feel the young master's warmth, and even your thoughts and emotions exactly as they are."
As she said this, Kania pressed her stomach and chest even closer to him.
"So, what are you wavering for?"
She tilted her head with an innocent expression.
"W-well then... where are we going to drink?"
"I've already prepared everything in my room on the first floor."
She answered in a calm voice to Frey, who wore a bewildered expression.
"...Come, let's go."
"Huh? Oh, okay."
Finally separating her body from Frey after such a long time, she took his hand and began heading downstairs.
"Hmm..."
Even though they were merely holding hands, a content smile rose on Kania's lips.
"Um, Kania? But earlier..."
"No need to say anything. I know everything."
Feeling the emotions sent her way by the young master she had come to adore more than anyone, Kania descended the stairs with her fingers fully interlocked with his, when...
".....?"
She suddenly stopped walking and furrowed her brow.
"Woof... woof! Woof woof!"
"Haa?"
There was a red puppy at the bottom of the stairs.
"Just what is this..."
Kania, who had been wearing a flustered expression but soon began glaring at the puppy, was about to ask in a low voice when...
"Kania...? What's with that puppy?"
Frey, standing beside her, tilted his head with curiosity-filled expression, so she stopped speaking and bit her lip slightly.
"Uh... um..."
At that, the puppy began to avoid Kania's gaze while panting, and Kania, who continued to quietly glare at such a puppy...
"...It's Irina's pet dog."
"Really?"
She finally answered in a low voice.
"That's strange, I didn't think Irina had any pets?"
"She said she got one to change the atmosphere since the mansion has become emptier."
"Hmm..."
Frey, hearing those words, propped his chin on his hand and stared at the puppy, while Kania, wearing a regretful expression, undid their interlocked fingers and approached the puppy.
"...The young master likes cats."
She whispered in a low voice.
"He dislikes dogs."
At those words, the puppy wore a shocked expression with its jaw dropped, then quickly began panting again.
"What is it, it's cute?"
Watching that sight, Frey came down the stairs and stroked the puppy while muttering.
"Well, at this level it probably won't shed and won't be fierce, so it doesn't matter... eek, that tickles."
"Heh... heh..."
The puppy began to enthusiastically lick Frey's face.
"...Let's go."
"Ah, okay."
Kania snatched Frey's hand again and led him forward when...
"Whimper..."
".....?"
The puppy suddenly bit Frey's trouser leg and held on.
- Shaah...
But as Kania glared at the puppy and quietly waved her hand, the puppy's eyes began to close slowly.
"My, it must have been tired from trying to adapt to an unfamiliar place."
Kania murmured while looking at the puppy with pitying eyes, then left the puppy behind and began moving forward with Frey.
"By the way, where's Irina?"
"She said she's practicing attack magic... no, spirit magic."
Answering Frey's question calmly and arriving in front of her room, Kania said...
"...Ah, wait a moment."
"Hm?"
"I just realized the preparation isn't complete. Please wait here for a moment."
Leaving Frey outside the room for a moment, she quickly stepped inside.
""..........""
And silence flowed.
"Hah."
Kania, who quietly raised the corner of her mouth in that silence, said...
"Did you think I would just keep taking it forever?"
She murmured while looking at the owl and canary busily pecking at the window with their beaks.
"I purposely went so far as to overexert myself to learn advanced black magic. No matter how you are high-ranking spirits, you won't be able to penetrate that barrier and interfere."
"Guuu!!!"
"...Chirp!!"
Like that, Kania, who wore a victorious smile...
- Tap!
She pulled down the curtain to cover the window and quietly swallowed.
"Then excuse me, but..."
Eventually, she touched the bead she had just extracted from Frey...
"...I will dirty it a bit more."
She murmured with a determined expression.
.
"...You may come in now."
"Ah, okay."
Frey, who had been standing blankly outside Kania's room, slowly stepped inside upon being called by Kania.
"Just what and how much did you prepare so diligently..."
Frey, who carefully closed the door, was about to ask Kania with a relaxed expression he had regained when...
"...Ah."
He froze.
"Hello, Master Frey."
Kania was wearing a dress.
Kania, who had never worn anything other than formal attire in the previous timeline or this one.
Wearing a beautiful dress that ladies just debuting in high society might wear.
In one hand she held a wine glass, in the other a star-welcoming flower.
"......."
It was literally a fresh shock to Frey, who was accustomed to her usual businesslike and refined image.
"It seems you like it?"
"Uh... well..."
Thanks to that, Frey, who was standing while feeling a tickling sensation in his chest, began to stutter at Kania's question.
"Of course, you would have no choice but to like it."
Kania, who smiled with her eyes at such Frey, began to speak in a low voice.
"Wasn't this dress originally something the young master intended to gift me?"
"What do you mean by that?"
When Frey asked back with a bewildered expression...
"Do you remember promising to go out on a weekend date with me during the first semester?"
"Ah..."
Kania continued with a slightly regretful expression.
"Unfortunately, the young master received a stack and collapsed back then, so the promise fizzled out."
"Uh... um, Kania. I'm really sorry about that..."
"I saw it."
Kania said in a low voice to Frey, who was trying to say something with an apologetic expression.
"The 10-item bucket list I found in the drawer while nursing the collapsed young master."
"Y-you saw that?"
"...There was magic on it. So I copied it into my notebook without touching it."
Only after hearing those words did Frey realize.
Why Kania would sometimes stare intently at her notebook and then smile bashfully.
And why she would react intensely when he tried to look at her notebook.
"Bucket list number 1, enjoy a date while drinking alcohol alone with Kania in a dress."
Kania, who was looking at Frey whose face had turned red thanks to that, took out a notebook from her embrace and murmured in a soft voice.
"Y-you saw... all of that...?"
Thanks to that, Frey's face became even redder.
"You had written down in detail what brand and what style of dress it would be. You're surprisingly mischievous in that regard..."
"K-Kania!"
"...I apologize, young master."
When Kania looked at him with an expression saying she understood everything, Frey covered his mouth and turned his gaze aside.
"...Anyway, I've been steadily saving money all this time."
"Wait, you don't mean..."
"Yes, I bought this dress with my own money."
Kania, who said that to Frey with a shy expression...
"...I should grant the young master's wish as soon as possible, shouldn't I?"
Eventually, she said with a slightly dark expression.
"No, actually that was... I was planning to fulfill it leisurely after everything ends..."
"Young master."
Eventually Kania, who cut off Frey's words...
"Please sit."
Pointed to the chair in front of her with a soft smile.
"It's time to fulfill your wish."
"........"
When Kania said that and showed a feminine smile she had never shown anyone else...
- Thump.
Frey, who sat down...
"So..."
Rubbing his cheeks that were still flushed, asked in a slightly relaxed voice.
"...So what is this method of getting drunk?"
.
"Ugh? Uuu..."
"Young master."
Young master Frey's eyes had gone unfocused.
"Kania... I feel strange..."
"Congratulations, you're drunk."
When I said that while holding back laughter, Frey opened his eyes wide and said.
"I'm not drunk!"
"Is that so."
"There's just a little... just a very little alcohol effect but..."
Saying that, he was looking at me and giggling.
- Uuuung...
With the unconscious intrusion scroll that I made in collaboration with Irina attached to his chest.
"Did I permit... what was it again? Not counting drugs as mental attacks?"
"...Roughly similar."
"Right, hmm... yes. Even so, I'm very strong against alcohol..."
Of course, the young master was very strong against alcohol.
That's why I prepared dozens of bottles of very strong alcohol.
Although I cannot get drunk at all due to the black mage constitution.
To satisfy the young master whose wish was to get properly drunk even once.
And.
"...Young master, I'm curious about something."
Because I wanted to hear his inner feelings, felt as one body and heart, from his own mouth.
"Young master..."
"Kania."
But suddenly, the young master started to wear a serious expression.
"Instead of honorifics... try speaking casually once?"
"Pardon?"
I was slightly flustered by the words that came out of his mouth, and the young master whispered in a low voice.
"I just somehow want to hear it once."
"Uh, um..."
Because of an unexpected statement, my calmness was broken for the first time. I thought today everything would be within my calculations.
Casual speech? Me speaking casually to the young master? I've never even thought of such a thing in my dreams.
"Hurry."
"U, um."
"Why, don't you want to?"
Thanks to that, when I wore a confused expression, the young master asked with a mischievous expression.
'...I can't let the initiative be taken away after coming this far.'
Thanks to that, getting a sense of determination, I took a deep breath and...
"F..."
Looking at the young master...
"Frey."
I whispered in a very small voice.
"Hello, Frey."
"Pfft!"
Eventually, the young master burst into laughter.
"Puhahahaha... hahaha..."
"......."
Thanks to that, my face turned bright red, and my heart started pounding.
To think my first time using casual speech would be calling the young master's name, goodness gracious.
"...I, I love you."
But I couldn't lose here, so I said with my eyes squeezed shut.
"Me too."
The young master's answer returned as if it were the most obvious thing.
"You are, to me, such a precious existence."
Thanks to that, looking at me who started to space out, the young master spoke gently.
"If I don't eat the food you prepare every morning, I feel empty all day long. It's the same even if I go somewhere alone without you."
"Ah..."
"Every time you open your notebook beside me and give me reports, I feel stability, and when you're by my side, I feel relief."
"........"
"Honestly, in the beginning, if it weren't for you, I might have committed suicide long ago."
"Y-young master."
At the young master's sincere confession that continued to pour out, I...
I...
"I like you, Kania."
"Ugh."
"I love you."
Ended up lowering my head completely.
"Uuuu..."
My face started burning as if I had a burn.
My heart started pounding several times harder.
My breathing started becoming irregular and rough.
And, my stomach started tingling again.
"...Ugh."
Thanks to the words the man before me whispered with a sincere expression.
The thread of reason I was barely holding on to was about to snap.
'Ah, this isn't right...'
I was only going to confirm his feelings.
I was going to warn the other girls.
This was prepared to grant the young master's wish and make him happy...
If this happens, the promise I made with the girls last time...
"Huh?"
".....?"
Lost in the heat gripping my whole body, the young master who was looking at me suddenly looked up at the empty air.
"W-what? Why is the affection point system suddenly..."
"Young master?"
"........Huh?"
Eventually, he started staring blankly at the empty air for a while.
""...........""
Silence began to flow like that.
- Creak...
In that silence, I slowly rose from my seat.
"Young master."
Eventually, I approached right in front of the young master.
- Chu.
I sat on his lap and shared a kiss.
"Ump?"
"Mmm..."
It was an impulsive act driven by inexplicable jealousy because the gaze he had been giving me was focused elsewhere.
But the result seems to have turned out well.
The feelings that had sprouted in the young master's heart began to grow.
"Hah."
Having such thoughts while intertwining tongues for a long time, I lowered my head leaving a long trailing mark...
- Swish...
I pressed my tingling stomach against the young master and...
"You're excited, aren't you?"
Quietly whispered in his ear.
"...It's me."
And the next moment.
- Crash!
"Kyah!!"
The young master pounced on me.
"Kania..."
The thoroughly drunk young master, on top of my stomach, looked at me with completely unfocused eyes and...
"...Ump?"
He intertwined tongues roughly yet gently.
"...♡"
With both hands interlocked, for several minutes.
'I love you, young master...'
The feelings the young master harbors for me are conveyed exactly as they are, and simultaneously, pleasure is also conveyed exactly.
In such an ecstatic moment.
'But...'
I, exercising transcendental mental power, gathered black magic.
- Shaah...
"...Ah?"
Eventually, I poured black magic into the scroll attached to the young master's chest.
"Ah..."
I put the young master who had been penetrating me to sleep.
- Swish...
After tidying the disheveled dress and affectionately stroking the young master who had been before my eyes for a moment...
- Snap!
I snapped my fingers and removed the curtain.
"Guu."
"Chirp."
"...Woof."
Looking calmly at the animals sitting by the window and glaring inside with burning eyes...
"Don't worry. My purpose is to make the young master happy, not to ravage him when he has no consciousness."
Naturally making a proposal to them who would be watching in real time.
"Come to think of it, the rule Lady Serena proposed last time has some unfair aspects, you see."
"......."
"From second year onward, the situation will become several times worse. Terrible situations will strike the young master, and if everything goes bad, it will only get worse, not better."
To them who frowned at those words.
"That's why we resolved to somehow make the young master as happy as possible during this short vacation period. But..."
I said while raising the corner of my mouth.
"...We can't wait for Lady Serena forever, can we?"
Then, silence flowed.
"So I'd like to make a new proposal."
In that silence, I...
"If Lady Serena doesn't resolve the 'problem' within this vacation..."
I made a proposal they couldn't refuse.
"...The person who spends the first night with the young master will be the one who made the young master happiest during the vacation."
"".......!""
"It's too harsh to be last just because the blood oath was made last, isn't it? The initiative is with me right now, so think carefully."
Looking at their avatars shaken by those words...
"Actually, I said last and whatnot but..."
Eventually, I murmured while looking at the young master who had been on top of me...
No.
Looking at Frey.
"...I don't want to miss being first either."
.
Meanwhile at that time.
"...Grr."
Moonlight Mansion basement.
"...Grrr."
"L-Lady Serena?"
"Grrrr."
"Are you alright?"
The assassins around Serena looked at her with worried eyes and asked, as she had been grinding her teeth suddenly.
"...Raise the intensity."
"Pardon?"
But Serena, fixing her gaze only on one place, continued to grind her teeth.
"I-I don't know... I just used it, I don't know well about the principle of the curse of subordination..."
"Double it."
"Aaaaaah!!!"
Serena, who delivered a powerful magic spark to the secret master floating above Irina's scroll...
"One coincidence..."
Whispered in a low voice with an anxious expression.
"I need to find one coincidence as quickly as possible..."
The first day of vacation passed like that.