The sudden master-disciple showdown had concluded, and after that, with nothing particularly noteworthy happening, the hospitality at the Trackia household continued to unfold.
First, Rose and Yurugen caught up with each other as old friends after returning to the Trackia residence.
Then Katia, Yurugen, Ermes, and Rose all sat down together for dinner.
After that, the day drew to a close, and all that was left was to go to bed—or at least, that was how it was supposed to go.
"...How did things end up like this?"
Katia murmured from inside the bed.
Because—
"Hmm? Did you say something?"
A beautiful voice answered in response to her murmur.
...From behind her, however. At extremely close range. Right next to her ear.
That was right. Currently, for reasons she couldn't understand, she was in her own bed.
With Rose embracing her from behind, the two of them were lying cozily together.
To put it bluntly, she had been turned into a body pillow.
As for exactly how and why things had come to this—
◆
"Hey, El. Let's sleep together tonight, yeah?"
The bombshell Rose dropped during dinner was the catalyst for everything.
Katia's hand slipped, and her tableware clattered loudly.
Ermes went rigid, and Yurugen pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose.
"...Um, Master. I hate to say this myself, but I'm of age now, so..."
"Aww, why not? We're close enough for that, so don't be shy about it."
What exactly is this closeness, she wanted to scream, but she held it back with every ounce of her willpower.
"It's not about being shy..."
"Come on, pleeease. I've been lonely without you around—while you're here, at least let a cute girl use you as a body pillow!"
And as she had observed throughout the day, he was, one way or another, soft when it came to his master. There was probably the matter of his personality making it hard to refuse someone he owed a debt of gratitude to.
Right now, Rose was making the most wheedling voice imaginable—completely at odds with the dignity she had shown during their master-disciple bout earlier—and his attitude was gradually softening. Probably, no, definitely, he was going to be worn down like this.
After that, the two ended up spending the night together on the same bed—no, she knew for certain there was no deeper meaning behind that.
The moment she realized that, her body was already moving.
"Y-you mustn't!"
The volume of her own voice startled even herself.
Rose blinked at her with a puzzled expression. Yurugen and Ermes wore roughly the same look.
Caught up in momentum, Katia rattled off her words in a torrent.
"That is! No matter how much she may be your disciple in your eyes, right now he is our household servant! It would be a problem for him to be treated however you please!"
"Oh come on—"
"Don't 'oh come on' me! While we're at it, aren't you being far too childish in places!?"
Her personality—never hesitating to speak her mind, even to someone above her station—had come out in full force.
...That said, she had also learned throughout the day that Rose was not the type to change her mind once it was made up.
She probably wouldn't listen even if Katia tried to stop her, so in the brief moment she had, she racked her brain for what to do.
"...I...!"
She must have been flustered and confused on multiple levels.
After running through an inexplicable thought process of her own, she ended up shouting this:
"If you absolutely insist—then put up with me instead!"
...And so, here they were.
"You're so comfy to cuddle, Katia. Every bit as good as El, if not better!"
Despite it being a spur-of-the-moment offer from Katia, Rose had surprisingly gone along with it, saying "...That's not bad either."
Right now, she was seriously evaluating Katia's performance as a body pillow from behind.
Or rather—did this woman behind her actually have experience using Ermes as a body pillow, enough to make a comparison? She probably did. How enviable—no, that wasn't quite the right word.
And being held this tightly from up close, she was reminded anew that this woman was an outrageous beauty. The crimson hair falling lightly over her face was astonishingly lustrous, and the sweet fragrance of flowers tickled her nostrils. And what was this—the plush, maternal softness pressed against the back of her head. Was this meant to rub it in?
...Just stay calm.
Actually, what surprised her most was that Rose had accepted this baffling offer in the first place. Because—
"Um, Lady Roselia."
"Just Rose is fine. What is it?"
"...Lady Rose, you... you didn't dislike me, did you?"
She understood by now that Rose doted on Ermes to an almost absurd degree.
If that was the case, then to Rose, she must be a noxious insect hovering near her precious disciple. Someone using old debts as leverage to keep him close. That might be going too far, but it wouldn't be strange to feel the same way.
In truth, Rose's behavior since arriving here had seemed like she was trying to pry Katia and Ermes apart.
Those words came from that anxiety, but Rose answered with perfect nonchalance.
"Huh? Why would I dislike you? I don't dislike you at all—in fact, I already like you quite a bit."
"...Eh?"
The stunned sound escaped before she could stop herself.
Being told she wasn't disliked was welcome, and she could understand that much.
But being told she was liked "quite a bit" caught her completely off guard. Rose continued, watching Katia's bewilderment.
"First of all, you're Yurugen's child, and El hasn't abandoned you—he's stayed at your side. That alone told me you weren't a bad person... but more than anything, it was what happened at noon today."
What happened at noon today—that would be the master-disciple bout.
"You watched that properly, didn't you? Even if Yurugen told you to, you didn't look away. You watched every moment. And you even looked a little frustrated about it."
"That—what about it—"
"They don't even get
frustrated
. The people
in the Royal Capital.
They just
don't."
She felt a shiver run through her body involuntarily.
Because for the first time, something dark had crept into her voice—that voice that had been so bright and carefree until now.
"When people see my magic, they just give up. 'Ah, this person is different.' What they were born with is different. No matter how hard they try, it's pointless. Competing is a waste. They decide that, and either they worship me unconditionally or they band together to cast me out. Either way, there was nobody who would stand on the same level as me. ...Nobody except Yurugen and Theta."
"...Lady Rose."
"That's why I'm happy. Just having someone who can properly see me, the way I use magic, is enough. Whether it's El, who told me when we first met that 'I wanted to be a magic user like you'... or you, who grew up watching him and decided you wanted to catch up to both him and me."
The arms wrapped around Katia tightened.
"I think I finally understand why El didn't give up on the Royal Capital. ...Because in the next generation, there are people who can see magic for what it truly is."
"..."
...She had thought Rose was an incredible person.
Strong, outrageous, someone who feared nothing. An impossibly powerful existence.
But that wasn't really the case at all.
She was the same as anyone else—she had a painful past, she had overcome it, she had wonderful encounters, and she had her own feelings that she wanted to entrust to someone.
She was the same kind of being as the rest of us.
"...I'm sorry. Maybe I was the one who was keeping my distance."
Understanding Rose a little better now, and with a measure of compromise in her heart, Katia went to place her hand over Rose's—but—
"Well, anyway!"
The meek demeanor from moments ago vanished without a trace, and Rose's tone shifted back to normal—or rather, took on an added edge of teasing.
Just as Katia's terrible premonition predicted, Rose tightened her arms as if to say she wasn't letting go.
And she whispered wickedly right beside her ear.
"You're right that I have my feelings about a woman getting close to my precious number-one disciple. So with that said, I'm not letting you sleep tonight! I'm going to spend the whole night teaching you just how deep our bond as master and disciple really is!"
"So that was your goal from the very beginning! You just wanted someone to listen to you talk!"
"That too! You can't just openly radiate that much 'I love him, I love him' aura—it's too obvious. You've got your hands full falling for a tricky one, huh? I wonder how long it took him to understand even the complicated feeling of 'love.'"
"—!"
"The thing is, the other party is simple, so that's nice. I'm just saying—El loves me plenty, even if his feelings are subtle and hard to express, you know?"
"I can see that just by looking at you...!"
After that.
Rose continued cheerfully and gleefully asserting her superiority, and Katia countered with a mysterious attack of her own: "Well, I'm the one he's spoken to without polite language before!"
That apparently hit Rose harder than expected, because she maintained her composure on the surface while speaking just a bit faster than usual about memories from their master-disciple days.
Katia refused to be outdone, sharing her own childhood memories, and from about the middle of the conversation onward, it turned into nothing more than a productive exchange of information.
In the end, Leila—who could no longer tolerate the noise—"Please go to sleep, for heaven's sake," she admonished, and only then did the mysterious conversation finally come to an end.
It seems Young Master El has no privacy whatsoever.
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