房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"...whew... that said- I didn't lose control like that since before I awakened to magic. I think that Miriette saw me freak out over a stable boy groping one of the kitchen hands... which probably made her think that I don't like lewdness in general... Huh...?"

He thought to himself while leaving the room and ended up looking down as a reflex - after the heroine started actively avoiding him the black-haired boy wasn't expecting a mana potion to appear at his doorstep again.

That would be simply silly – or would mean that it was someone else giving those away for free without any apparent reason...

"..."

But then Zoemi froze.

"..."

Because the vial with the blue liquid was right there, ready for him to be picked up and added to the already existing stockpile.

"Huh...?"

Zoemi was baffled.

"Wait, what...!? So she doesn't think I'm a threat after all?"

He gasped to himself, picking up the vial and pocketing it before looking around in confusion.

This really was surprising – but also kind of reassuring – for the black-haired boy it seemed like the potion was a sign of the heroine showing that she is no longer scared of him.

|She must have realized that we are both reincarnated people and we can work together!|

Zoemi thought to himself with an enthusiastic smile and went to the kitchen with spring in his step.

-----

When he arrived, the kitchen was still mostly empty but that was what he was aiming for.

Zoemi knew that Patishi would usually come earlier than Teo and Veo and so he aimed for catching the girl right then and there.

And, just as he wanted, the young brown-haired girl entered the kitchen alone a few minutes later.

"Hello, Patishi, do you have a moment?"

"What do you want aga-?! Ah!"

Zoemi approached her from the side and unintentionally made Patishi flinch and glare at him with a frown but as soon as she realized the identity of the person calling out to her, the brown-haired girl beamed with happiness.

"Big brother Zoemi it's you!"

She cheered out breathing out with relief.

"...?"

Her reaction to him was friendly, but Zoemi couldn't just ignore the initial anger that was rather uncommon for the younger girl to show some openly, so he tilted his head and looked at her with concern.

"Is someone bothering you?"

The black-haired boy asked curiously. Patishi was a rather cheerful girl, she wouldn't usually show such an annoyed face to just anyone.

"No, it's just that..."

At first, she wanted to deny it out of reflex, but in the end, Patishi's smile disappeared and she lowered his head.

"Yes... there is someone... It's miss Teo..."

The brown-haired girl murmured while nervously rubbing her forearms while looking to the side with a cold expression.

"...?"

Zoemi raised his brow but said nothing, Patishi clearly wasn't done talking after all.

"She's a really awful person! Big brother, don't let her deceive you!"

"...oh...?"

Suddenly Patishi straightened her back and looked Zoemi in the eyes with conviction and anger, making the older boy go wide-eye and let out a curious noise.

"She is playing the victim while she is the one being awful to others! Not only did she leave all of her duties she was getting paid to do around the first prince to Veo - but she also ended up picking a fight with her many times! On her own, while Veo was just doing her best! It came to that they couldn't even stay in the same room together! And when miss Teo was packing her stuff she had the audacity to call Veo a useless cripple! And even after she and I switched rooms, she had the audacity to come to our door and shout that she is right and we are the bad ones! I really, really dislike her! She is awful and mean and selfish and she made Veo cry! I will not forgive her, ever!"

Patishi got bright red from anger and she called out while clenching her fists, really shocking Zoemi with her words – most importantly, it definitely didn't seem like she was lying or exaggerating, as far as the black-haired boy knew her, Patishi wasn't good at making things up as she was an honest one.

"Wait – sorry for interrupting you, but did you say that you two switched rooms?"

Even so, Zoemi couldn't help himself and interrupted the feverish rant.

"Ah! Right, you don't know!"

Patishi raised her head and

"I switched rooms with miss Teo, since she became the attendant of lady Espine and I became the attendant of the first prince that arrangement was deemed acceptable by the academy."

She explained.

"They did? That's great! Before they made you stay in the male part of the staff quarters, didn't they?"

Zoemi smiled and patted the girl's head while wondering out loud.

"Ah! That's because my prince talked directly with the headmaster! The previous arrangement was done by the head of the staff and he didn't allow me in the female quarters..."

Patishi flinched and explained, fidgetting while sounding slightly ashamed.

|Ah, so when Horeo went straight to Aspakeony she did the right thing at once – I knew I had a good feeling about her~!|

"At least now everything is goo... wait – does that mean that now Teo lives in the male quarters...?"

Zoemi thought to himself with satisfaction but then spoke out loud in concern.

"My prince looked into it and said that it's fine because there is no one strong enough there to mess to Teo anyway."

Patishi explained while pouting, grumpy over the fact that she had to say something positive about the younger one out of the twins.

"I see..."

Zoemi nodded, realizing that indeed, most of the staff didn't even have magic, to begin with, and those who did were of the weaker sort – Teo really wouldn't have any trouble dealing with all of them at once actually...

"Did you and Veo keep the arrangement of the beds in the sahred room?"

The black-haired attendant asked, trying to change the subject.

"At first we did."

Patishi nodded and even smiled a little bit.

"Veo is really nice to me but in the end, we had to split the beds apart – it turns out Veo is extremely clingy when she sleeps and she tends to subconsciously activates her enchantments too – While she was sleeping together with Teo it was okay because they were both earth magicians and were tough – but I'm a lot more squishy, and Veo almost crushed me during the second night – of course by accident!"

The younger girl explained hurriedly, waving her arms to assure there were no bad intentions from the older of the twins.

|...she did ger more squishy – Horeo must have been keeping an eye on her properly eating her meals...|

Zoemi nodded in silence while looking at Patishi's face, especially her cheeks that have become much fuller from the last time he had a good look at her.

"Alright – I think I get the picture now – still, why would Teo come by and still bother you even after moving out?|

The black-haired boy asked curiously wanting to clear up one last mystery.

"Hmph! That's because for some reason miss Teo thinks that we're friends!"

Patishi pouted and crossed her arms.

"She even keeps insisting that Veo stole me from her! She went so far as to trick me into thinking she was Veo a few times and I made a fool out of myself! I really don't like her! She's awful!"

|Uwah... kids are harsh!|

Zoemi raised his brows at Patishi's comment.

|Wait, now that I think about it, I don't remember either Teo or Veo interacting with other attendants or servants at all... Could it be that besides me and Patishi they don't have any friends!?|

Zoemi came to a surprising conclusion - and a correct one at that.

|But still, useless cripple, huh? And they keep on fighting... No matter how I look at it, Teo's is the one at fault. Did she actually hate working together with Veo for the first prince that much?|

"I will certainly try to have a talk about that with her, alright? I will not try to talk you into reconciling with her without her at least trying to apologize first!"

Zoemi spoke and hurriedly added, seeing the bitter expression on Patishi's face.

|It's just that I wanted both of them to help me with keeping an eye on the potential threats that happened in the game and could show up here, like the serial killer and the assassin, and it might be a problem if they can't work together...|

The black-haired boy added but only in his thoughts....