房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

Chapter 480 157 - Perserios territory - part 4 - Countering the plan that was thirty years in the making (part 12)

　　"I am still pretty annoyed that they didn't give us a room for our own."

　　"That was the most ojou-sama thing you could say, Miri. Is one family supposed to move out of their house for the time being so you could stay in?"

　　Burushi rolled over on her own bed and looked up at the dark-haired girl from behind Zoemi.

　　"...maybe, they already gave us beds, didn't they...?"

　　"Pffft...! Seriously!"

　　Miriette pouted rather adorably and muttered while looking to the side, which caused the blond-haired girl to snort in amusement.

　　"You do know that I can join you or put our beds together, right?"

　　The black-haired boy glanced back at Burushi before turning to Miriette and asking while raising his brow.

　　That certainly caused quite a stir in two separate beds – the one occupied by the blond-haired girl and the one on the other side of the room, occupied by the brown-haired corpse puppet.

　　None of them had expected Zoemi to be so forward with his words.

　　"Hmph. Of course, I know – but I am not Teo! I do like showing off our relationship, but I have a very firm grasp of common decency."

　　Miriette did not react to the gasps and instead burrowed herself under the blanket provided by the people of the Far-South Tusk Tribe, so thoroughly that it was actually hard to tell whether she was there or not.

　　"Only handholding, please."

　　But then, only a moment later her pale arm emerged, reaching towards Zoemi's bed – the same bed that the black-haired boy pushed towards her.

　　"As you wish."

　　Zoemi snickered and laid down, before grabbing the offered hand that immediately affectionately intertwined their fingers.

　　"You are enjoying the ojou-sama experience to the fullest, aren't you?"

　　Burushi murmured getting back down onto her pillow and looking over at the softly smiling boy.

　　"Why wouldn't I? I wasted enough time not even considering myself an option for her, let me have this."

　　Zoemi shrugged his shoulders and gently caressed Miriette's hand with his thumb, to which the girl reacted by trembling happily and peeking at him from under the covers with eyes sparkling with excitement.

　　"...I hate to be the one to bring down the mood, but aren't we still very much in danger? We captured the acid magician but that doesn't seem to get us any closer to getting out of the Perserios territory or interrupting the plan of the Barbariacca nation..."

　　"I hate to agree with that person, but he does have a fairly good point."

　　Xeonith cleared his throat nervously before speaking up in hesitation, worried that he would be either scolded or shushed down, but instead what he got was an approval - although not too keen one – from none other than the blond-haired healing magician, who honestly was the last person that he expected to act like that.

　　"Since you know how we worked out detaining the acid magician, you should be aware that we are keeping an eye on the surroundings. Calm down."

　　Miriette groaned from underneath her blanket, annoyed that they were messing with her semi-private time with Zoemi, reminding her about their presence.

　　"Is your air emperor able to spot someone teleporting here though? We know that our enemies have the aid of mages capable of using that type of spell - one less person than before, but still."

　　Burushi furrowed her brows, glancing over at the black-haired boy because she certainly didn't want to share eye contact with the corpse puppet that was controlled by the unique shadow of the person that tortured her and put her behind a fake wall to later do something even worse to her – no matter how much she agreed with him on the particular point,

　　"You really are being really difficult today, you know? If they have enough light magicians to go around, they would have already sent someone here to check on the acid magician. And as for the other supposedly teleporting person – Zoemi and I were the only ones who witnessed them show up, and it was only a flash of light and voice. If it was a light magician and not another odd experiment with their attribute changed, then true, they really could pose a problem, depending on what kind of magic they wield."

　　Miriette dug herself out of the blanket and glared angrily at Burushi, while murmuring under her breath, and clenching Zoemi's hand with all her feeble physical might.

　　"You expect that other magician to wield a variant attribute too?"

　　The black-haired boy decided to calm the situation and said while sitting up and getting in a way of the dark-haired girl's glare.

　　"Hmph... yes, I do. You saw Horeo teleporting, right? He is the most talented light magician in centuries, and even he has to show up at the place he teleports to or wants to teleport someone from. And that person just made some snarky remark, even though they could use that chance to attack us or something, and took the girl away. Even if they are more talented than Horeo, I would like to see them try teleport onto an erratically moving air emperor."

　　Miriette pouted grumpily and looked upwards at Zoemi before shrugging her shoulders.

　　"You all seem to forget about my sentinels guarding you. In other words – let's go to sleep."

　　Zoemi looked around at all the others – including the two corpse puppet sentinels who were peacefully enjoying sleeping while innocently cuddling together in a single bed.

　　--------

　　"(Pssst... Master's lover. Could you wake up, please? I have a problem with the acid magician.)"

　　It was still dark when a slight pressure brushed against Zoemi's mind and he heard a voice of a troubled girl resounding in his head.

　　"|What is going on? Is she attacking you? Even though you are so high up? Or did another light magician show up and took her away?|"

　　The black-haired boy woke up immediately and asked in response, slowly getting up to not disturb the peaceful sleep of Miriette he was still holding hands with, as else as everyone else in the room.

　　"(No, it's nothing like that. She is crying really, really hard. I think she is afraid of the hights. Ugh... and now she even pe... nevermind.)"

　　The air emperor sounded as if she shook her head and then explained, sounding slightly irked off, before cutting herself off realizing she didn't have to share everything that the acid magician did.

　　"|If she is so scared, why her personality didn't switch? Isn't that how it should work?|"

　　Zoemi raised his brow in confusion, about to ask one of his remaining sentinels to check on the prisoner and her guardian and prison at the same time.

　　"(The one that peed herself was the other personality.)"

　　"|Ohhh... I'm sorry.|"

　　The air emperor sounded absolutely done when she said the last part, making Zoemi freeze in place, unable to muster any better reassuring words.

　　"(AARGHH! It's acid too?! HEY! Watch what you're doing or I will drop you! I am not joking with you, filthy girl! I don't care that you are scared! Do you know how many people you already killed? Do you expect me to pity you?)"

　　"|!!!!|"

　　The air emperor then shared some thoughts that she probably didn't intend to, making Zoemi wide-eyed in the process.

　　Unfortunately – or maybe fortunately – the spell that the air emperor was using was the normal message spell so it didn't transmit anything other than the words of the person affected by it, so the black-haired boy was spared the sobbing, panicked response that either Mirienne or Roiso gave to her.

　　"|Are you okay over there? Please do not actually drop her. After all, she might have been under the hex after all.|"

　　Zoemi said in a cautious voice, not sure whether the air emperor is still listening or not.

　　"(I know, I am just trying to make her stop – although if she will flood my stomach with acid, I would have to move her around... and in that case, she would end up with half of the corpse of the man who teleported her in.)"

　　The massive vibrant-green serpent responded, sounding as if she was rolling her eyes – which really showed that the spell really did take after her caster because honestly the way she said it was exactly how Miriette would have said it too.

　　"|Do you want me to send you a sentinel so that you would have someone else to talk to up there? Or we can just chat like we are now. It must be frustrating to hear constant wailing and nothing else.|"

　　"(!!!)"

　　Although the pressure was slowly getting away, signaling that the air emperor was about to release the message spell, Zoemi asked and heard the gasp of surprise.

　　"(Geez... master's lover, if you will talk like that to me, my master will get jealous. Thank you. If you have one of those little guys free, I wouldn't the company... please. It really is annoying up here with this magician. I'll be waiting, bye~!)"

　　The air emperor breathed out all giddily, agreeing with Zoemi's proposition and cutting off the connection.

　　|Little ones, you heard the pretty lady. Who wants to keep her company? Out of the free ones, of course.|

　　"(AH! The cute snake!? I want! I want! I will go to her now! HELLO! MASTER SEND ME TO KEEP YOU COMPANY!)"

　　"Aww, cute~!"

　　Zoemi thought and got an answer even faster than ever, as one of his sentinels cheered out as if they were waiting for that exact moment this entire time – and allowed themselves to immediately teleport to the air emperor so fast, that their next words to her transferred back to Zoemi, making him snicker.