Despite the twists and turns... being recognized by Irish, Rest's formal entry into House Rosemary as a son-in-law was now settled.
Their father and head of the household, Albert, also reluctantly approved of Rest marrying the sisters, and the relationship between the three had become publicly acknowledged within the manor.
If there was any problem, it was that Rest himself didn't know he had become the sisters' fiancé.
Rest believed he had only been taken into the manor as an apprentice servant, as a reward for saving the sisters' lives.
He certainly felt uneasy about how aggressively the sisters kept closing the distance between them... but he never once considered that it might be love.
Rather than being dense, it probably stemmed from his lack of experience being loved.
In his past life, he had never been loved by his parents and had desperately studied and worked part-time just to get by... he had friends, but no lover.
His current life was somewhat better — he had a mother and was on familiar terms with the priest, and had a few friends from his days as a commoner — but his romantic experience was completely nonexistent.
The very idea that a complete stranger could love him had never even crossed his mind.
That was precisely why the Rosemary sisters launched their all-out assault.
To get Rest to see them as women even a little, they had chosen a thoroughgoing "offensive."
"...Um..."
"Wh-What is it, Rest?"
"What can we do for you, Lord Rest?"
"This situation... doesn't it seem a little strange, no matter how you look at it?"
Rest's face twisted at the impossible situation he found himself in.
The three of them were in the bathroom of House Rosemary. In other words, the bath.
Rest had only a towel wrapped around his lower half to cover the important parts.
The sisters, while not entirely naked, had only thin, robe-like bathing garments draped over their skin.
Soaked through, the white bathing garment clung to her skin, and the lines of her body rose in a provocative silhouette.
A beautiful girl in such a titillating outfit was washing the back of Rest, who sat on the bath chair.
(Th-this is wrong... This is absolutely wrong...!?)
Rest was panicking on the inside.
He understood that Viola and Primula were grateful to him for saving their lives.
But even so, this was going too far.
If it were just tutoring him, that would be one thing, but washing his back clearly went beyond the realm of a simple thank-you.
"How's the pressure?"
"Hh...!"
As she whispered those words, Primula pressed closer.
Something soft and rounded pressed against his back, yielding and reshaping itself against him.
(Wh-what is that...!?)
What was this weight he felt against his back?
He had experienced her pressing up against him during their study sessions before, but the sensation was completely different now.
Of course it was.
Right now, Rest was naked, and Primula wore nothing but a bathing garment thinner than a negligee.
The bathing garment was soaked through too, making it practically no different from direct skin contact.
(...In that case, could her undergarments be just as wet?)
"I-I'll wash you too, you know!"
"...!"
This time, Viola pressed her body against him in a flustered manner.
She was slightly smaller than Primula, but her firm, full breasts pushed against him.
(W-They're the same body parts, but they feel completely different... No, I can't believe I'm actually noticing that...!)
"H-Hey, both of you... Seriously, why are you doing this...?"
"Why, you ask... You still don't understand?"
"...You truly don't know how we feel?"
"Huh...?"
Viola and Primula looked up at him with glistening eyes.
"We wouldn't go this far for just someone who saved our lives."
"We wouldn't do this for anyone but someone special."
"Hey, Rest-kun. Do you really not understand our feelings...?"
"........."
Their bodies pressed against him. Their warmth transferred through their skin.
Two girls his age were being this bold, and he truly hadn't noticed?
"Could it be..."
Finally— or rather, at long last— a sound like a puzzle piece clicking into place echoed through Rest's mind.
(Both of them feel that way about me... You've got to be kidding me...)
Even Rest had finally figured it out.
That Viola and Primula harbored feelings of affection toward him.
(Why...? I don't remember doing anything that would make either of them like me...)
I hadn't done anything special. I just helped them out a little in the forest.
And yet... they fell in love with me over something like that?
In my past life, I wasn't even loved by my own parents. And in this life, I had lost my mother early on, been mistreated by my father, stepmother, and half-brother.
(They... fell in love with someone like me...?)
"Rest-kun?"
"Rest-sama?"
"...Thank you."
Rest expressed his gratitude.
He thanked them for harboring feelings of affection for someone like him.
However, the voices that came back from the sisters behind him were sulky.
"Aren't you thanking us for the wrong thing?"
"That's right. That's not the words we wanted to hear."
"Um..."
Even someone as dense as Rest could tell.
What they were looking for wasn't gratitude—it was a response to their love.
"Um... I'm sorry."
"Eh!?"
"Ah, no, no, no! It's not a rejection!"
Rest hurriedly tried to smooth things over after the sisters let out such sad-sounding voices.
"Your feelings for me make me really happy. Seriously, unbelievably happy! But... I don't know what words I should say in response to your feelings."
Up until now, he had been desperately working hard to change his circumstances.
To get back at his father and stepmother. To put his brother in his place.
He was right in the middle of striving to change a life that had been oppressed and trampled upon.
There was no room to spare for anything as trivial as romance.
"That's why... could you give me some time? When the proper moment comes, I'll give you my answer. I promise."
"...Fine, I'll wait for you. Because you're special!"
"After all, nothing can move forward unless I pass the entrance exam first."
The two accepted his cowardly request to put off his answer while leaning close to Rest.
"Thank you...!"
Rest was truly grateful.
There was no way he hated the two of them.
He just wanted the confidence to be able to respond to their feelings.
*(I'll become strong. I'll grow stronger and climb higher and higher...! Once I can properly protect the two of them, then, and only then...!)* Rest swore in his heart that he would one day answer their feelings, while racking his brain for a way to divert his attention from the warmth emanating from their skin.