Chapter 51 — Relationships

Chapter 51: Relationships.

A few days have passed since the beauty contest raid incident.

In the end, neither the saint nor anyone related to the Church of Medine has paid me a visit. I thought that maybe the saint just didn’t want to talk with me in public and she’d come to visit a few days later, though.

The Area Heals at the time of that Krankheit Turtle incident were called a miracle from god by the citizens. So, in order to preserve that rumor, there might have been no way she could talk to me in that jam-packed beauty contest plaza. That thought occurred to me after the fact, but seems like it was off the mark too.

There’s a possibility that she’s observing me without making contact, but if someone was shadowing me then Yuel would’ve noticed them to begin with. I indirectly asked Yuel about it, and it seems she hasn’t sensed any indications of that.

Somehow, it would appear that the “found you” really was my misunderstanding.

Which is to say, things are peaceful.

「Master, here’s your towel.」

「Yeah, thanks, Yuel.」

I was worried about what Ruruka kissing me would do to Yuel’s mental state, but she didn’t particularly have a problem with it. Well, it’s not like it had no effect, but she isn’t sobbing over it like she did that last time when I rubbed Ruruka’s breasts.

As far as the effects are concerned, lately there’s been the danger of Yuel starting to sleep in such a way that her lips will touch my cheek just by rolling over in her sleep. Or the danger of suddenly noticing her staring intently at my cheek at such a close distance that it seems like I’ll bump into her. Also, like just earlier, the danger of feeling her gaze more intensely than usual when we enter the bath together.

It’s at most to that degree.

If Yuel were to become severely depressed or anguished, I’d be stressing out about how to deal with it, but at this level it’s fine. I get the feeling her behavior has had this sort of aspect to it since the beginning, too. Well, this time, in the end all I did was get kissed by Ruruka, so it’s not like I did anything myself. Perhaps for Yuel that was just barely on the safe side. She recovered surprisingly fast.

Unexpectedly, she may not be bothered that much by Ruruka.

Which is to say, things are totally peaceful.

I take the towel from Yuel, wipe my body, and put on my clothes. I’m about to leave the bathroom just like that… but,

suddenly, in the dressing room, I notice Yuel stop in the middle of changing and start craning her neck around. Plopping down on the ground, arching her back against the wall, all the while moving her neck this way and that. What the heck is she doing? Is she stretching or something?

…That reminds me.

The tavern where she occasionally works part-time as a waitress is flourishing, so it’s a reasonably strenuous job. Quite possibly, she might have hurt her body somewhere while working. Knowing Yuel, there’s a chance that she’d hide injuries and fatigue like that so as not to trouble me.

I can’t ignore it.

「Yuel, whatcha doing?」

「Umm, a waitress at the tavern told me that breasts get bigger if you suck them, but it seems impossible for me after all… I was hoping that my body would soften up after a bath and I’d be able to suck them myself, but…」

I should have ignored it.

「And Ruruka’s are big, so if mine get big too… then…

The waitress said she could do it by herself, though.」

As she’s saying that, Yuel shyly lowers her head.

…So she was worried about Ruruka after all, huh.

Although, looks like it was something I should really pretend I didn’t see. Saying “I can’t suck them myself”, Yuel makes a face like she just realized something and stares intently at me. But I can’t sympathize with the intent behind that gaze.

Hold on, that Waitress-san can do it by herself? That’s awesome. Just how limber is her body? No, maybe she’s not flat-chested like Yuel. I bet she has huge tits… and apparently she’s making them bigger by sucking on them herself. I want to be introduced to her by all means, but right now Yuel is restlessly rubbing her fingers and thighs together as if she’s going to turn to me and say something at any moment. This isn’t the time to think about such things.

「Umm. Maste-」

「C’mon, Yuel! Hurry and get dressed! That’s right, I’m gonna teach you healing magic today! Apparently when you’re with me your mana increases, So you might be able to use a spell or two soon!」

「If you don’t mind, could you su-」

「Alright, I’ll be waiting in our room, so get dressed and join me! Make sure you’re properly wearing clothes, okay!」

I ramble on in order to drown out Yuel’s voice as I escape towards our room. I’m not listening. I can’t hear a single thing.

Man, what do I do?

As I feared, Yuel is seriously worried about Ruruka. At the time, Ruruka herself quickly left, so I was somehow able to calm Yuel down. But I wonder how she’ll react the next time they see each other? After that beauty contest, I was kinda nervous about what I should do the next time I see Ruruka, but at the moment my emotions are a complex mixture of wanting to meet her and not wanting to.

As for what I really think, I want to meet her without Yuel or Eris finding out. In secret. Eventually, I want to raise my goodwill with both Eris and Ruruka and create a harem.

…Come to think of it, Eris as well. The way she is, lately as soon as I think she’s making eye contact frequently, she makes a difficult face and immediately averts her eyes, which is to say it’s happening increasingly often. She too seems to have a lot on her mind about that thing with Ruruka. I justified myself more or less, but it didn’t feel very effective.

Well, with Eris’ personality, she seems like she’d be considerably resistant to kissing and stuff between an unmarried couple. It wouldn’t be strange for her to have such a strong sense of virtue to the level of “kissing comes after marriage”. I mean, she makes a subtle face even when I’m just rubbing Yuel’s head or her ears.

…I get the feeling that Eris would absolutely never accept a harem.

No, but, polygamous harems are apparently common among a part of the noble and wealthy classes. Although monogamy is standard for common households, and those are the values that Eris and Ruruka both hold.

But, beyond being approved institutionally, as long as I keep steadily raising my goodwill points there should still be a way to bring her into my harem. I don’t have any definite prospects yet, though.

-And, as I’m contemplating the future,

the very same Eris shows up, coming from the other end of the hallway. Perhaps she’s planning on taking a bath. When our eyes meet, she abruptly looks away as she continues down the hallway.

「Yo, Eris. Going to take a bath?」

「…Yes.」

「Ah… oh yeah, I think Yuel is in the dressing room, so if she’s not dressed yet could you tell her to put on some clothes?」

「…Alright. I’ll tell her.」

When I call out to her, Eris keeps looking down as she gives curt replies. Our rhythm is always like this lately. It’s undeniable, that issue lowered her opinion of me after all. I made progress with Ruruka, but I feel like I took a step back with Eris. Wait, rather than losing favor… I could still see it as her feeling down and just getting lost in thought. But with Eris’ personality, it’s natural to think that I lost favor with her due to that issue.

I take a look at Eris as I’m thinking it over. A real good look at her body that’s about to enter the bath.

Suddenly, Eris raises her head.

「Ah…」

And, the moment she sees my eyes, she immediately averts her gaze again. I wonder what’s the matter? It looked like she was about to say something, but I also get the feeling that she just noticed that I was openly staring at her tits.

「Master, I got dressed!」

Whoa, you sure are fast, Yuel-san. Alongside her voice, Yuel herself comes racing out from the dressing room.

I’m worried about Eris, but letting Yuel speak freely right now would be exceedingly unfavorable. As much as possible, I need to lead the conversation away from the topic of breasts.

「Yeah! Healing magic, right, healing magic. Leave it to me, if I’m the one teaching then you’ll be able to use healing magic in no time!」

「Yes, I’ll work hard so I can heal Master when you get injured!」

But I can just heal myself. Although, Yuel is brimming with motivation. Like this, she probably won’t blurt out anything dangerous. Yet the second I feel relieved, Yuel suddenly glances at Eris.

「Eris-san, what’s wrong?」

I take a look, and Eris hasn’t moved from that spot. Even though she said she was going to take a bath, she’s been watching me and Yuel in a daze.

Then when she notices me looking at her, Eris hurriedly averts her eyes,

「Nothing at all, Yuel-chan. Well then, I’m off to take a bath.」

and she quickly enters the dressing room.

…As I thought, something’s definitely a bit off with Eris.

I wonder if I should ask someone like Aria for advice? No, but if I show my face in front of Aria now, something tells me she’s going to cross-examine me about Ruruka first. After that incident, between the monster corpse disposal and directing the spectators, Aria didn’t have much time to talk to me.

When we meet, she’ll no doubt accuse me of cheating and whatnot. Or perhaps I should say, if things don’t go well with that overprotective Aria, then I can kiss my chances goodbye of ever including Eris in my harem.

Besides, maybe it’s because Aria is busy with her knight brigade job, but she hasn’t shown her face once at the hospital and we haven’t been able to meet in the first place. Well, with a monster raid incident happening in the middle of the city, I guess there’s no helping that she’d be busy.

「Master?」

Perhaps sensing a problem when I show no sign whatsoever of heading towards the room, Yuel timidly peers into my face. Well, I can’t think of a good solution. Guess I’ll teach Yuel healing magic for now.

「Nah, it’s nothing. Alright, why don’t we do some healing magic practice!」

「Yes!」

As she answers, Yuel’s ears twitch up and down. I can tell the flow of her emotions just from her ear movements. She seems considerably pleased to learn healing magic. It makes me want to teach her not just to the level of Heal, but all the way up to EX Heal.

-However, those ears of hers suddenly go stiff.

And, for some reason she latches onto my clothes.

I check Yuel’s expression, and it’s a mixture of anxiety and loneliness.

「Shikiii, you theeere!?」

And the reason soon becomes clear. It’s a familiar, cheerful voice. I can hear it coming from outside the hospital.

Coming by so late at night… it’s Ruruka-san.