“Ah. Are you alright, Eina?”
I didn’t know why she was so surprised just from opening the door, but I couldn’t just leave a girl who had fallen on her backside in the hallway.
Putting aside any questions about the circumstances for now, I offered Eina my hand.
“Uh, um, well… s-sorry.”
With a strangely timid demeanor, Eina took my hand.
Her grip was incredibly reserved, so I firmly took her hand and pulled her up.
“…Ah.”
I tried to be gentle, but perhaps I pulled with more force than I intended. Eina almost collided with me as she was pulled up.
We stopped just in time, and at that moment, the scent of soap wafted from Eina’s hair, tickling my nose.
“S-sorry…!”
However, it was fleeting.
Eina immediately distanced herself from me as if she had been flicked away and bowed her head.
“No, my apologies as well…”
As I replied, I was more distracted by Eina’s unusual atmosphere than the content of our conversation.
In “Nekoneko,” the AI didn’t have the setting to remove armor indoors, so it’s common for adventurers in this world to remain fully equipped even at home.
Eina should have been wearing a full set of Mithril armor at dinner earlier.
But Eina was now wearing what seemed to be loungewear—a thin, dress-like outfit.
Wearing clothes that looked somewhat familiar, with her face half-buried in a floral cushion, Eina looked more feminine than usual.
And also…
“Um…”
As Eina fidgeted, the faint scent of soap wafted again.
Looking up, her chestnut-colored hair, which symbolized her bright personality, was damp and lustrous, more so than usual.
“Ah. Did you perhaps just come from the bath?”
“Eh, h-yes!”
The moment I asked, Eina’s shoulders jumped.
Then, the cushion Eina was holding was squeezed tightly, its shape changing visibly.
A surprisingly large reaction.
(Ah, I see. My mistake…)
I thought it was a bit insensitive to ask a girl about baths, but in our case, the situation was a little different.
The bath in this mansion was dangerous; entering without caution could lead to drowning from continuous water damage.
I couldn’t not warn her just because it was awkward.
Incidentally, if one wore the Water Dragon Ring, the Aquatic Aptitude effect would prevent drowning, but it would also negate the water’s effects, making the bath pointless.
“Ah, no, sorry for asking so suddenly.
But the bath here is dangerous.
There’s a chance of drowning if you go alone, and, well…”
As I said it, I almost lost heart at how unbelievable it sounded.
However, Eina shook her head vigorously.
“Um, I understand.
Hisame told me, and even stood guard.”
“Huh? Oh, really…”
Mitsuki must have already told her about the bath.
While she might seem like a battle-maniac, Mitsuki was surprisingly considerate in subtle ways.
(I should thank Mitsuki.)
I had a lot to think about today, and in this world, which still carried over Game settings, one’s body and clothes rarely got dirty.
It was easy to neglect bathing customs, but for Eina, being a girl, it was probably different.
As if to support my thoughts, Eina nodded slightly.
“Y-yes. I really, um, wanted to take a bath today…”
Thinking from Eina’s perspective, today had been eventful: riding a Magic-Sealed Ship only for it to crash, running away from high-level areas, ending up in this strange mansion, and agreeing to live there.
It made sense she’d want to relax in a bath.
“But I’m sorry. You probably didn’t have much time, did you?”
Given Eina’s personality, she probably wouldn’t have been able to truly relax in the bath with Mitsuki standing guard the whole time.
That’s what I thought, so I asked…
“N-no! Um, I, I, I washed myself all over, properly.”
Eina said quickly and buried half her face in the cushion again.
I meant to ask if she had a relaxing time, but she seemed to think I was suspecting whether she had washed herself properly.
Perhaps in this world, baths were merely for cleaning off dirt, and there was no culture of relaxing in them.
As I watched Eina, I noticed her legs trembling slightly.
It was chilly for her to be wearing such thin clothes after a bath.
“It’s no good standing around here. Let’s get into the room.”
Eina seemed hesitant, but I couldn’t have her catching a cold standing in the hallway.
“Here, let’s go.”
I gently pulled her arm to guide her, and Eina took a small, deep breath.
“…Y-yes.”
She replied with a slightly trembling voice before stepping into the room.
“This is Soma’s room…”
Eina said as she looked around the room. However, there wasn’t much in it.
This room was originally a room with trompe-l’œil paintings.
We had most of the wall paintings repainted with the help of the mansion’s dolls, but since most of the furniture was also part of the illusion, the room ended up rather sparse.
“I’m sorry, but there are no chairs.
Please, just sit on the bed over there.”
“B-bed…?”
When I said that, Eina, who had been looking around the room, stopped moving.
With stiff, jerky movements, she approached the bed.
“E-excuse me.”
She said, her voice like a timid student entering a staff room, and sat down.
However, she hadn’t settled in; she held the cushion as if it were her last resort, and her posture was incredibly shallow.
She was perched on the very edge of the bed.
She looked like a small animal, startled by every sound in a dangerous place. From an adventurer’s perspective, it might be commendable, but it certainly wasn’t how a person would relax in their room.
Seeing this, I opened my mouth to say something when—
—Knock, knock.
My room door was knocked on three times.
A lot of visitors today.
“Hya—!!”
Perhaps startled by the sound, Eina leaped up like a small animal genuinely afraid of noise.
I ignored her and walked to the door.
“I apologize for bothering you so late. I have something I’d like to ask about…”
From beyond the door, I heard Mitsuki’s polite voice.
I felt a sense of relief and said—
“Mitsuki? Oh, good. I was just—”
I was about to say that Eina had just arrived too, but I caught sight of Eina shaking her head violently out of the corner of my eye and stopped myself.
“Just what?”
“No… I was just about to go to sleep.
Could your business wait until tomorrow?”
When I said that, Eina behind me let out a sigh of relief.
It seemed I had made the right choice.
“I see. In that case, I can’t help it.”
“Yeah. Sorry about that. …By the way, what was it you wanted to ask?”
“It’s nothing major.
I was just looking for someone I hadn’t seen, so I came to check on those who might know something.”
At Mitsuki’s words, Eina flinched again and slipped off the bed.
(Ah. She’s completely figured it out…)
Mitsuki spoke as if she were looking for someone invisible, but she had the Explorer’s Ring and was skilled at sensing presences.
There was no way she hadn’t noticed Eina was here.
I couldn’t guess her intention, but it was probably to apply pressure on either me or Eina.
“Well then, good night.”
“Ah, see you tomorrow.”
However, she didn’t press the issue and left quite easily.
“…U-um, has Hisame left?”
“Eh? Ah, yes.”
I was listening to Mitsuki’s retreating footsteps, but Eina’s words snapped me back to attention.
Turning around, I saw Eina sitting on the floor in a child’s pose.
“Ugh. My heart felt like it was going to leap out of my mouth…”
Her dejected state somehow felt nostalgic, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“You still don’t like Mitsuki, do you?”
“It’s not about not liking her.
It’s just… being seen in a place like this… U, u, uaaa!”
Eina flailed her legs as if she couldn’t bear it.
I hope she didn’t mean she’d rather die than be seen with me.
With Eina, I wanted to believe that wasn’t the case.
“W-well, she’s gone now, so you should be fine.
More importantly, Eina, about what you wanted to do…”
—Knock, knock.
“Hya—!!”
Just as I was about to finish speaking, the door was knocked on again, and Eina jumped.
“What is it now…”
I sighed and opened the door.
Standing in the hallway was a doll.
“Oh, it’s Christina. What’s up?”
Christina was one of the dolls in this mansion, a kindhearted one who readily helped with chores.
Except for her vacant eyes that never seemed to focus on anything and her habit of producing a blood-stained knife from somewhere when excited, she was a very easygoing companion.
She seemed excited now,brandishing a blood-stained knife with her unfocused gaze, trying to communicate something, but I couldn’t understand what she wanted.
When she realized I couldn’t understand her, Christina’s eyes grew vacant, and she left.
I hoped this wasn’t a prelude to some major incident, and turned my attention back to Eina.
Eina was still sitting on the floor, pointing at the now-closed door and opening and closing her mouth.
“A, doll, a doll with a knife…”
“Ah, that’s Christina.
You know, she brought the dishes at dinner tonight, right?”
Well, Christina was a name I gave her arbitrarily, so like the Bear, I didn’t know her real name.
“I, I wouldn’t know that!”
As I was about to start lecturing Eina, who was making pathetic noises, on how to tell the dolls apart…
—Knock, knock.
The door was knocked on again.
Eina obediently jumped and sent a fearful gaze towards the door, but I was getting tired of it.
I wondered if the abundance of visitors today was related to my defeating the Demon Lord.
Lost in such trivial thoughts, I roughly opened the door.
Standing in the hallway was, indeed, one of the mansion’s residents.
“Oh, Reiko. What’s up?”
Reiko was the only human-like resident among the mansion’s original inhabitants.
She always hid her face with her bangs and tended to retreat into the TV whenever something happened. She was a shy girl.
Her default posture was on all fours, which made the height difference awkward when talking, and she never made eye contact while speaking. These could be considered drawbacks, but if you overlooked them, she was quite a friendly companion.
Reiko seemed to have something to convey, desperately shaking her hair, but unfortunately, I couldn’t understand a word she was saying.
“Ah, right.”
Even if she couldn’t speak, perhaps she could write.
As this thought occurred to me, I took a Memo Pad and a pen from my pouch and handed them to Reiko.
It was just a sudden idea, but Reiko accepted the pen and Memo Pad without hesitation and immediately began writing something on the notepad.
This might be promising.
I waited for about ten seconds with anticipation.
Then, Reiko put down her pen and, still on all fours, held out the Memo Pad to me.
“Let’s see…”
I took the Memo Pad and looked at the writing on it.
“Useless expectations!”
The moment I saw it, I slammed the Memo Pad onto the ground.
Most of the page was filled with characters of curse.
And the slight empty spaces were infuriating.
However, Reiko seemed to have been confident.
Seeing my reaction, Reiko drooped and returned to her four-legged posture.
But now, I could finally talk to Eina.
As I turned back to Eina,
“O-out of the box, a woman, a handprint on the wall, *jiriri*, *jiriri*…”
Eina, with the cushion covering her, was trembling, as if a trauma had been triggered.
It took several more minutes to somehow get Eina to calm down.
Furthermore, whenever she heard a noise, even after she had settled down, she would cry out “Hya!” or “Hii!”, and I had to comfort her each time.
“No, it’s probably just the wind blowing something against the window. That happens sometimes.”
“R-really? I’m sorry.”
In reality, the window in this room was a trompe-l’œil, so nothing could actually hit it, but I decided to go with that explanation.
Just as I thought she had calmed down, or rather, just as I thought she had calmed down, a rattling noise came from the hallway.
I soothed the trembling Eina with a smile.
“No, it’s probably a Hundred Oni Procession or something. That happens sometimes.”
“R-really? …Wait, that’s just scary, isn’t it!!”
It was like that.
Under such circumstances, conversation was hardly possible.
Eina kept looking nervously at the door, so I devised a plan.
“Silence!”
I cast a Silence spell on the door.
I was worried since I couldn’t do this in the Game, but when I tried knocking on the door, no sound came out.
Success.
“Soma-san?”
“With this, you shouldn’t hear any outside noises anymore.
Also, I think this will prevent any sounds from inside from being heard outside.”
However, the spell would expire soon.
And I couldn’t cast the same spell again until it wore off, nor could I overwrite it.
So, I repeatedly cast the Silence spell, queuing up the next cast to activate just as the current one expired.
If my calculations were correct, this should last for about an hour.
But Eina’s face still looked anxious.
Perhaps she was worried that someone, realizing the knock wasn’t working, might just burst in.
So, I picked up the room key from the desk and approached the door.
Without hesitation, I locked the door and then said,
“Magical Pocket.”
This time, I cast a wind magic, Magical Pocket.
I threw the key into the dimensional rift created by the magic.
“Ah!”
A few seconds later, the dimensional rift, its effect worn off, dissolved into the air as if nothing had happened.
Naturally, the key didn’t return.
“S-Soma-san!?”
Eina exclaimed in surprise, but I responded calmly.
“That was a spell called Magical Pocket.
Simply put, it’s a spell that summons an infinite item box.
With this, no one but me can retrieve the key.
So, no one can open the door.”
To be honest, that was a complete lie; Magical Pocket had terrible security, but Eina’s peace of mind was the priority now.
I smiled at Eina, thinking I’d retrieve the key once my business was done, without letting it show.
“I can’t hear sounds, and no one can get out, that means…”
Eina’s voice, as she murmured with a blush, echoed strangely loudly in the closed room, isolated from the outside world by magic.
—Their night alone had begun.
