Episode 13: Secret Rendezvous

As night deepened, the lights in the mansion gradually began to go out.

I took a short nap… or rather, I dozed off, and thanks to that, my head felt refreshed.

Perhaps because of that, my vision was somewhat clearer too. My eyelids weren’t naturally drooping either.

Having finished cleaning up and completing my reports, I walked alone down this now pitch-black corridor.

Combined with it being a Western-style mansion, it felt somewhat like a haunted spot from my previous life.

I wouldn’t be surprised if a semi-transparent person appeared saying “curse you~”. …No wait, in the West it wouldn’t be “curse you~”, would it.

While thinking such trivial thoughts, I arrived at Eleanore’s private room, as promised.

It was around the time when the day would either change or not.

I worried that she might have already gone to sleep.

In case that was true, I gently knocked on the door in front of me twice, making light, cheerful sounds so as not to wake her.

There was no response.

Perhaps I was a bit too late after all. Well, it’s already past the time she’d normally be asleep…

I wonder if she’ll forgive me tomorrow if I apologize and offer her my free time during breaks.

Such thoughts crossed my mind, but just in case, I tried to knock on the door once more.

However, at that moment.

“Whoa!?”

The door swung open.

Something pulled at my feet.

My body was dragged by that something and sucked into the room.

This all happened in a matter of seconds.

Not understanding what had happened, before I knew it I was on the inside of the door, collapsed on the floor.

(What in the world!?)

I tried moving the foot that had presumably been grabbed.

It seemed to have already been released, and there was nothing particularly unusual about it.

However, when I directed my gaze there, something clearly abnormal caught my eye.

“A black… tentacle?”

Something that wriggled and undulated was at my feet.

I raised just my upper body, quickly pulled my feet back, and carefully observed it. Or rather, I was so shocked that that was all I could do.

But even so, the black tentacle didn’t take any action.

It simply continued to writhe and twist its entire body (though it didn’t seem to be a living creature).

“No, seriously, what is this…?”

This was probably the true identity of what had pulled me in, but why on earth was this in Eleanore’s room…

…!

(What about Eleanore!?)

The thought that something dangerous might have happened to her raced through my mind, and reflexively I turned around toward the interior of the room.

What dominated my vision was something long and slender, and white… what appeared to be legs.

They were at an extremely close distance.

“Uwah!?”

Without restraint, I let out an odd cry and shuffled backward while still sitting on my bottom.

Only after putting some distance between us did I confirm that those were indeed someone’s legs.

When I timidly raised my gaze upward, as should be expected, there was the face of a person looking down at me.

However, I couldn’t make out the expression. A face painted over by the shadows of darkness stared at me without speaking.

It would have been cool if I could have drawn my sword or cast a magic spell at that point, but I couldn’t move my body even a bit, like a frog paralyzed by a snake’s glare.

I couldn’t even blink.

I remained like that for some time.

The other side was the first to move.

Suddenly, those pale legs bent, bringing their line of sight to match mine.

What are they trying to do…!? Before I could even think such thoughts, the person in front of me whose gaze had reached this level opened their mouth with that familiar voice.

“…Arcs?”

“…E-Eleanore-sama”

Behind her suspicious-looking expression, I could see black tentacles writhing.

***

“It was supposed to be magic that automatically invites in whoever knocked… but it seems it was a bit too violent”

“No, really! I ended up letting out a weird voice!”

In response to Eleanore giggling, I voiced a modest protest.

Apparently, this is what had happened.

While she had called me to her room, she knew my work was taking longer than expected.

Though she thought about waiting, she couldn’t fight off her sleepiness, and the idea she came up with after much deliberation was magic that “automatically lets whoever knocks enter the room.”

It was supposed to work by having tentacles move in response to the knocking sound and pull the person in, but apparently there was a mistake in the adjustments, resulting in that violent form from earlier.

“What would you have done if it wasn’t me…”

“At this hour, Arcs is the only person who would come to my room”

Well certainly, not limited to her private room, there probably wouldn’t be anyone visiting someone’s room at this hour…

But then conversely, that raises the question of why she invited me at such an hour.

And what was probably the reason for that was lined up on the desk in front of me.

“So… is this why you called me?”

“Yes. Because Arcs, you weren’t able to eat much today, were you?”

That’s right.

Lined up on the stylish desk were various foods.

…To be precise, it was a lineup more like teatime sweets than a meal, with things like cakes and macarons.

Apparently, seeing how I hadn’t eaten much during the dinner party and hadn’t seemed to eat anything throughout the party, she had secretly secured leftover sweets and such out of concern.

While that itself is truly touching… the fact that she chose sweets rather than something more meal-like makes it sound like just a pretext…

Well, if I pursue that point, it seems like it would come back to bite me, so I’ll leave it alone.

“It’s true I wasn’t able to eat much… But if I eat sweets at this hour, won’t Adalbert-sama and Nanai-san get angry?”

“They probably would. But today is a special day, so anything goes. …Though the day is about to change… but at this point, Arcs, you’re an accomplice too, right?”

While smiling mischievously, she picked up a macaron and held it out toward me saying “Here, say ahhh.”

…Good grief, where on earth did she learn such tricks.

Me, I guess.

It’s decreased recently, but I feel like I used to do the “say ahhh” thing at every meal and snack time.

I never thought the tables would turn on me now.

“…Well, I suppose that’s true”

Since I was honestly embarrassed, I pinched the offered macaron and popped it into my mouth.

Perhaps because I didn’t respond to the “ahhh,” she looked a little disappointed, but knowing that I had gotten into it…

“Fufu, that’s more like it”

She leaned her body close to me while letting joy show in her expression.

Really, I’m no match for Eleanore…