7:11 PM.
It was after dinner, inside the castle kitchen.
Tiana had her sleeves rolled up high, both hands buried in a pile of foam she had deliberately made. She found it amusing.
Inside the foam pile were the post-meal dishes. She was scrubbing and rinsing them with a dishcloth, but her eyes were stealthily observing the human and the vampire behind her.
“Stupid human, what’s this round, pointy thing?”
“A shaved ice machine. You can use it to turn ice blocks into shaved ice and pour various flavored syrups over it. I want to try making a new type of parfait tomorrow.”
“Parfait… kha kha, I know, it’s ice cream and jelly, right? But human, why do you want to add shaved ice to it? It’ll dilute the sweetness.”
“That’s why I said I want to try a new type.”
Siloque stared at the shaved ice machine with a face full of dark lines:
“That girl seems to have awakened the ‘God’s Tongue’ ability. I don’t want her to taste what I can make at the café.”
“The café?”
Even though his master mouthed various complaints and refused to look directly at him, her body kept drawing closer to the young man, her toes tracing semicircles on the floor.
As expected, my master is…
While washing dishes, Tiana couldn’t suppress the smile tugging at her lips. Her silvery-scaled tail gently swished twice.
“What’s this? I thought you’d go home after dinner. Isn’t your wife Edriel fine on her own?”
“For the sake of opening my dense master’s eyes, I endure it!”
“What are you talking about… I thought you’d go home after dinner.”
“Kha ha ha ha! Edriel and I set up a Sensory Connection Magic. If anything abnormal happens to her body, I’ll know immediately! Ah, but the real reason is that Edriel’s been sleeping and incubating eggs lately, and she said I take up too much space at home.”
Tiana laughed awkwardly, casually tying up her silver hair, then sniffed as she came up behind Inafa.
“Master, what is this? It smells so nice.”
She picked up a square bottle-shaped object with a semi-transparent amber body containing a viscous liquid.
“That’s the shampoo the stupid human presented to me, kha kha. Squeeze it like this, rub it, and it makes my hair as smooth as his. And every time I use it up, he promises to buy me a new one. It’s a treaty he has to fulfill!”
Inafa proudly shook the shampoo bottle in her hand.
“Ptooey! So bitter… what, you can’t eat it?”
“…Tiana, sit down. I’m going to wash your hair.”
It was like watching someone who doesn’t know how to drive frantically shifting gears, or someone buying a Gundam model kit for the first time and not reading the instructions, assembling it into a mess of garbage. Inafa wore exactly that kind of expression.
“Kha ha ha! No need! I’ll just rinse off with water.”
“Sit.”
“Yes.”
“Not on the floor. Sit on the stool.”
“Oh, okay.”
Tiana gave up struggling and let Inafa, like washing a large dog, apply various lotions and body washes to the horns on her head, her body, and her big tail.
“Heh heh heh~ Wash nice and clean, wash nice and clean, make you smell so fragrant~”
Inafa hummed a cheerful tune and sploosh sprayed shampoo onto Tiana’s silver hair. Since the hair was quite long, she sprayed a lot.
The scattered water from the showerhead tickled her skin and fine scales. The scales on her legs and big tail opened and closed more frequently. Tiana held back from crying out, her toes gripping the floor. She silently thought: ‘I should help set up the boy earlier… no, I can tell my master tonight when I sleep with her.’
“Ugh!” ‘Whoa, this sticky, slimy feeling is so unfamiliar.’
After being semi-forcibly washed, Tiana sprawled out lazily and lay down at the bottom of the hot water pool (she could breathe underwater).
“Phew… If it’s just a soak like this occasionally, it’s pretty comfortable.”
Through the water, she saw her small, golden-haired master staring at a magical device called a “Tablet Computer,” tapping it with her fingers.
No!
Think about why you’re here, Tiana!
Tiana immediately floated up and sat next to Inafa.
She said nothing and did nothing.
Tiana thought that her master probably wanted to ask her about that matter too. She simply watched her master play a game called Angry Birds: Star Wars Edition.
“Tiana.”
Here it comes!
“Do you really want to try it? Kha kha, I’ve already made it to Chapter 11. This difficulty is way too much for you. I’ll start you from the tutorial.”
Inafa pointed at the screen, showing off.
Not that!
It looked like she’d have to bring it up herself.
“Ahem, Master, there’s actually something I’m curious about.”
“What is it? Are you hungry again?”
“No, tonight’s dinner was delicious, and I’m still stuffed. What I’m curious about is that I noticed today you seem afraid to meet the boy’s eyes.”
Inafa blushed: “Ugh… no, that’s not true.”
“It-it’s because I’m using a unique communication method. He said he doesn’t mind anyway. And it’s absolutely not that seeing his face makes my whole body tense up and my mind go blank!”
Just as I thought.
The smile on Tiana’s face deepened.
“Do you plan to never look at his face for the rest of your life? You two from Black are collaborating on something recently, right? Isn’t that a bit bad? Do you know the reason?”
“…Tiana, your smile is creepy. Do you know the reason?”
Tiana lifted her head slightly, a somewhat nostalgic expression surfacing.
“Yes, I do. Because before Edriel and I built our Love Nest, I went through a similar period. There was a hole in my heart, and a strong longing filled it. Some anxiety, some sweetness like honey, occasionally bitterness in my mouth, and some unease. Precisely because it was the first time, I was hesitant to act. I longed for change, yet feared it. But that won’t do. Waiting alone won’t work. Face your feelings, take the initiative, and only then can you turn this painful sweetness into true happiness. Right, young man… Siloque. Kha ha ha! Feel free to thank me later! This is my greatest act of repayment to you!”
As Tiana recalled the past with a confident smile, Inafa puffed out her flat chest and asked arrogantly, “Then… I’ll just ask you this. What is the reason?”
“Imagine this, Master. When you think of the boy, what comes to mind?”
“Him?… Good cook, pervert, sis-con, manga fanatic, bad at games, well-informed with gossip. Weighs fifty-one kilograms, birthday is September 11th. Hair is jet black and thick but also has quite a few white strands. A face that’s barely passable… I guess? Kha kha, that’s about it.”
‘Isn’t that quite a lot of knowledge about him?’
“He has white strands in his hair? I never noticed that? No no, Master, that’s not what I mean. Not this surface-level stuff. I mean something deeper, about the ‘heart.’”
“‘Heart’? Since when did you become so poetic, Tiana?”
Tiana showed a mature and patient smile, having her master sit on her lap, leaning against her round, soft chest, which had recently even started producing milk.
“From the moment you two first met until now, all this time you’ve been with him. What kind of feeling is it when you’re together?”
“The feeling when I’m… with him.”
Inafa mumbled, chewing over the words. She pressed her hand against her small chin, closed her eyes, and tried to think.
Her head tilted to the right.
Then to the left.
She twirled her golden hair into curls, occasionally letting out pained sighs and murmurs.
Suddenly, Inafa’s eyes snapped open. Her body went completely still.
Her body temperature slowly rose. Pink spread across her snow-white skin.
Thump, thump, thump—
Inafa’s heartbeat became abnormally violent, drowning out every other sound in the bath.
“Ah.”
The golden-haired, golden-eyed vampire bit her coral-colored lips, blushing, her eyelashes lowered with a fragile expression:
“Is this it…?”