Chapter 873: Ristia Asmodeus ③

Is the tea that Risty-san brewed Rose tea? Anyhow, placing a cup of tea with a faint scent of roses in front of Chris-san and I, Risty-san opened up the box of sweets I gave her and spoke.

[How about we talk about the most basic information first? The target of affection for us Lustful Demons, including me, are people who are covered in lust and have twisted personalities…… Our kind prefers those what society calls scoundrels and trash. Both of you should stay away from anyone that a Lustful Demon refers to as a target of affection. No matter how good they look on the outside, they are almost certainly trash.]

Transferring the sweets to a plate and placing it in the center of the table, Risty-san also sat down across from us and took a sip of tea before continuing.

[……If you look hard enough, you might find one or two exceptions, but basically, the people that Lustful Demons refer to as targets of affection are generally bad people…… Of course, that also goes for me too. That's why, a child like Kaito who is a good person at heart wouldn't be an object of affection.]

[I see.]

[Ahh, being a half, that isn't the case for Chris-chan, okay? That's only for pure Lustful Demons.]

After listening to what Risty-san said, Chris-san and I understood the meaning of her words earlier. If you consider that the people Risty-san sees as love interests are bad people, you could certainly say that calling someone isn't an object of her affection is a compliment, since it would directly mean that they are good people.

[Also, you could say that for me, someone who isn't to my taste would be someone I high value much more than those that were within my taste.]

[And why is that?]

When Chris-san asked this, Risty-san smiled as she crossed her legs.

[Let's go back to the basics. When I judge someone to be a love interest, I consider them more like "food" or "toy", having no more value than that. Me, telling someone I'm in love with them is equal to saying "That meat looks so juicy and delicious".]

[……In short, Mother is saying that Miyama-sama is someone you highly value?]

[Of course, I do. Me telling someone of the opposite gender that they aren't a target of my affection is a compliment I rarely give. I've naturally been a pretty good judge of character, so if I had to evaluate you, I'd say that Kaito passes.]

[Unnn? Pass? Pass what?]

Hearing Risty-san suddenly say that I passed something, I tilted my head and asked, to which Risty-san lightly pointed at Chris-san and answered.

[That you pass as Chris-chan's romantic partner.]

[……Mother?]

[Chris-chan is so pure in love that I'm even wondering where my succubus blood in her veins went, so I'd like her to be with someone like you who's too good-natured compared to other good people. Chris-chan also seems to like you anyway…… Well, being completely useless in matters of love, I'm sure she can't approach you properly though.]

As Risty-san spoke like she was having fun, Chris-san looked a little flustered. Well, I guess that's to be expected when your own mother starts talking about your love life.

Even so, Chris-san is so pure that she's useless in matters of love? I don't really feel that though, or rather, within the letters we exchanged, her letters would always be started with shameless lines, and there were some times write things that either seduce me or tease me, so I imagined that she was a skillful love master……

[Mother, with all due respect, I have been very proactive with Miyama-sama in the letters I write to him……]

[In any case, you're probably just "appropriating lines you've heard in romance novels or plays", aren't you?]

[……T- That may be the case but…… I don't see the problem……]

[With those exaggerated words being obviously straight out of romance novels, then you wrote the rest of the letter in a serious manner, as a result, even though Chris-chan thinks that you're seriously writing to him with such an intent, it looks like she's joking around, right, Kaito?]

[……Eh? ……Is that…… how it is?]

Chris-san looked at me with some kind of shocked expression on her face. A- Arehh? Something unexpected is happening…… Could it be that I had been seeing things wrong from the start?

I thought that Chris-san's sexually suggestive behavior and those shameless flirting lines in the letter were some kind of practical joke, like a big sister teasing someone younger, so I just skimmed through them…… but was Chris-san seriously trying to flirt with me?

[E- Errr, to be honest, I thought the beginning of every letter was your idea of a practical joke.]

[……It was that bad huh…… It really worked in that novel though……]

When I saw Chris-san muttering that with a shocked expression on her face, I felt my impression of her change.

To be honest, I've always been slightly uncomfortable with Chris-san. I thought that she was one of those adult women who was trying to manipulate me for her sake……  and that if I wasn't careful around her, she would make me dance in her palms.

[Chris-chan is incredibly serious and hard-headed, you know? Heck, I bet that there were hardly anything private related in most of her letters, and were just like she's introducing you to sightseeing spots in Archlesia Kingdom, isn't it?]

[……It's not polite to pry into private matters in a letter…… Moreover, I'm not just talking about the country……]

[You're just talking about common topics between you, being your pets, right?]

[……………………Yes.]

Even so, now that she mentioned it, apart from her embarrassing flirting lines, Chris-san's letters are extremely serious and don't have any jokes inserted in them.

Just as Risty-san said, the topics were overwhelmingly about Archlesia Empire, and sometimes about pets. I thought she was just trying to appeal to me about the charms of Archlesia Empire, but could it be that she just didn't have anything else to talk about?

Looking at Chris-san, who had shrunk her shoulders when Risty-san pointed her actions out, I was beginning to get the impression that Chris-san might be quite a cute person.

<Afterword>

Serious-senpai : [Now that I think about it, that event where Kaito ended up walking in while Chris was changing her clothes was a real cliche, isn't it…… When Kaito asked her about how she's a woman while she was changing, she must have thought "Ahh, I've seen this scene play out in a romance novel!", and decided to put it into action…… Isn't this girl more useless in love than I thought?]