Chapter 70: Was There a Mistake?

When I woke up, it was already morning.

Brilliant morning sunlight streamed through the window, and the elegant morning was accompanied by the sound of birds chirping from somewhere.

I sat up with a start.

While the soft, fluffy feeling of the bed was somewhat regrettable to leave behind, once I separated myself from the warmth of the futon and felt the outside air, my consciousness snapped awake all at once.

…What was I doing again?

An outrageous situation had occurred where I ended up bathing together with Eleanore-san, and my head had boiled over so much that I couldn’t really remember much.

Did I maybe collapse while still dizzy from the heat?

…Well, that probably wasn’t it. If that had really happened, it would seem like quite a serious health issue.

Then did I just fall asleep while half-asleep?

But if that were the case, I wouldn’t be sleeping so properly in a bed…

…Wait, a bed?

I suddenly looked to my side.

There, still breathing peacefully in her sleep, was Eleanore-san’s figure.

And her outfit was a bathrobe that looked like it could come undone in various ways…

“Whoaaa…ohhh…ohhhh????”

I let out a voice that wasn’t quite a voice, like scraping at my throat.

It seems that when a human’s confusion and panic reach their peak, they apparently lose the ability to speak.

And now that I looked closely, I was also dressed in a bathrobe.

“O-ohhh, did I, did I do it? Did I DO it!?!?”

Sharing a bed.

A man and woman together.

Both in bathrobes.

Even someone without a pink-minded brain would have no choice but to make such lewd assumptions when presented with this much information.

Could it be that I made a tremendous mistake…!?

“Mmm…fwaaah”

Perhaps due to my outrageous lament, Eleanore-san slowly woke up.

After stretching with a big yawn, she turned her gaze toward me, now stiff as a tin soldier, and blinked repeatedly.

Then with a gentle, floating smile,

“Good morning, Arcs”

No wait wait what’s with that satisfied look on your face?

Moreover, her cheeks slightly flushed red with embarrassment made it seem even more like “the aftermath,” and could it be that I really did do it, no surely not, there’s no way…

“…Did something happen last night?”

What my short-circuiting brain spat out was a brief but grave one-line question.

“Oh come on, don’t make me say it”

Eleanore-san pulled the futon toward herself, hiding her mouth.

Ah, so we did do it.

So this is what we did.

Ahhh, so we really did it.

All the strength visibly drained from my entire body, and I finally transformed into an existence like a withered radish.

My whole body sank into the bed just like that, and I became like a doll with its stuffing removed.

It seems this is as far as I go.

It was a short but good life.

“Fufu, fufufu”

With me wilted beside her, Eleanore-san started laughing as if she couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“I’m sorry. I teased you a little”

“Huh”

I regained my vitality all at once and sat up vigorously.

That was something I couldn’t just let slide.

“Yesterday after Arcs got out of the bath first… when I came out, Arcs, you had fallen asleep on the living room sofa. So I carried you to this bed. If you slept in this outfit without anything covering you, you’d catch a cold”

Haa…haa.

I see.

In other words,

“Th-then there were no mistakes at all, right???”

“Yes, of course”

Thank goodness.

Thank goodnessss…

Apparently my life didn’t have to reach its final curtain just yet.

“…From now on, please just leave me alone even if I fall asleep”

“What kind of joke is that”

No really, if this kind of thing happened multiple times, my heart couldn’t take it.

Just sleeping together in a bed is already a pretty high hurdle, but dressed like this, it would be beyond an emergency situation.

For now, I let out a grand sigh of relief.

Well, if nothing happened, that’s good…

However, the conversation didn’t end there.

“By the way…what did Arcs think we had done?”

Eleanore-san leaned her body toward me.

Her tone carried something different from the atmosphere just moments ago.

What did we do, you ask…well, you know?

“Well, uh, sort of, um…”

As I stumbled over my words since it was such a delicate matter, Eleanore-san crept even closer to me. You could even call it close contact now.

I tried to back away, but her intensity wouldn’t allow it.

She brought her face close to mine, lightly grasping the collar of her bathrobe while looking up at me.

“Does that mean you would ‘make a mistake’ with me?”

…What exactly does that mean?

What does that “mistake” refer to?

If it’s hypothetically the same “mistake” I mentioned earlier…why are you giving me such bewitching eyes?

“I’m going to wash my face”

Overwhelmed by her approach, I jumped out of bed.

And I spun out those words in a choppy manner.

I ran away from answering.

“Yes, please do”

Eleanore-san smiled brightly, as if what just happened was all a lie, and approved.

I hurriedly rushed out of the bedroom.

What a tremendous time I had just experienced.

It felt like sweat was pouring out.

I need to…I need to calm down.

However, at the very end, as I was closing the door, she…

“Next time, I won’t let you escape, okay?”

I felt like she said that.

“What is this”

When I stood in front of the mirror and took off the bathrobe, there were several reddish mark-like things carved into my body.

On my neck, chest, stomach—not in any particular location, but distributed evenly all over.

“…Bug bites?”

It’s summer, so it’s not strange.

Though it does seem like I got bitten way too much, maybe my blood is a supreme delicacy.

If I’m in this condition, Eleanore-san might have been eaten up quite a bit too, so maybe I should cast some insect-repelling magic later.

For now, there’s no itching, and fortunately they seem to be in positions that clothes will cover…

Ah, but the area around my neck might be impossible to hide.

They might be slightly visible.

…And today we have naval combat training exercises.

I grumbled while thinking of ways to cover them up.