Chapter 760 - Captives Together
—Click. I heard a sound, and my consciousness surfaced.
Still unable to shake off my drowsiness, the first thing I registered was the coldness of my body. Then, its warmth. And then a dull, aching pain in my joints, like muscle soreness.
Slowly, I lifted my eyelids...
"........................What are you doing, Itsuki-san?"
"That is my line, is it not? Sir Knight."
My eyes fell upon a beautiful woman in a yukata, smiling as she held up a camera.
I processed her drowsy reply, understood its meaning—and then looked at the reason my body hadn't frozen over despite having fallen asleep against a wall without a blanket. I let out a sigh.
"...My deepest apologies. I was careless."
"Well, I do not mind it in the least."
"I think you should mind... whoa."
We must have slumped over while we were talking. The girl, still on my lap with her head resting on my chest and breathing softly, stirred, and I gently supported her.
No sign of waking up...
"Fufu... —She might stir from a nap, but when she's this sound asleep, she will absolutely not wake up until morning. You have my word as her big sister and maid."
"I see..."
"Incidentally, if you were to forcefully wake her, you would be treated to the sight of a very dazed and adorable girl. ...So, what shall we do?"
"We're not doing anything. Let her sleep."
I'd been talking at a normal volume, influenced by Itsuki-san, but my partner in my arms didn't even twitch. It seemed her guarantee was no joke.
In any case,
"Oh, you could have left her as she was."
"No, I couldn't have. She'll get a sore back."
Since she wasn't going to wake up, I lifted her without hesitation and gently landed the truly peacefully sleeping Sora-san onto the fluffy futon.
............I had to roll her around rather unceremoniously to get her properly between the mattress and the comforter, but her breathing remained perfectly even. It seems 'absolutely' really meant absolutely.
Growing children need their sleep. That's a good thing.
"...It seems she has always been like this. I was told a legendary tale by my master about how she did not even wake up after a spectacular fall from her bed when she was five."
"Seriously...?"
"In short, Sora's sleeping posture was... fufu, quite wild. That has since calmed down, somewhat, but even now I could not exactly call it ladylike—"
"Why are you so casually revealing a maiden's top-secret information? I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that, so please stop. And no, that wasn't a dare, you damn maid."
And so, we exchanged our usual, hard-to-define conversation.
"...So, Itsuki-san, you weren't with her from the very beginning, then?"
"Oh, how unusual."
I thought if I showed a sudden, whimsical interest, she'd just tease me and that would be the end of it—
"—It has been three... no, nearly four years now, I believe. It was right around the time the door to the virtual world opened in reality that she became my 'master'."
—or so I thought. She sat down beside the sleeping Sora, gently stroking the girl's hair as she began to speak in a calm voice.
"When he... Chitose Kazuharu-san, first approached me with the proposition out of the blue, I was so bewildered by what he was saying that I considered reporting him as a suspicious person."
"Huh? Kazu-san... ah, on behalf of Mr. Togo?"
"Rather, he was the one who recommended me to the master—the 'Chitose' family has been a line of 'retainers' for generations, and my master first consulted with his father."
"R-Right..."
This sounded like it was going to be a long story... but well, whatever.
We were on a trip, after all. There was no more meaningful way to spend the time than to leisurely fill the gaps in my knowledge about my acquaintances.
"And so, to get to the root of it, I myself was once a respectable 'young lady'."
"You just dropped a huge piece of information so casually."
"In that case, we naturally had our own servants... and that is how the Natsume and Chitose families were connected. At the time, the head of the Yotsuya family, Yotsuya Togo-sama, who desired a retainer more skilled than any other, made a request to the Chitose family. They followed their vast network of connections and eventually found me."
"..."
"Of course, it was an outrageous proposal. We are not so grand as to be nobility, but to ask for the daughter of a prominent family to be sent over as a servant. My father and mother were furious at the time... —or so you would think, but that was not particularly the case."
"It wasn't?!"
I had no idea what state of mind I was supposed to be in while listening to this. She really was, in a sense, a terrifyingly skilled storyteller (and a former young lady).
"To begin with, I was a troublesome child who never listened to my parents. By the time I decided to study abroad on my own, they had more or less given up on me."
"On your... huh? W-Wait... hmm???"
"I believe I was just over ten years of age. It was the result of me trying my very best to make the impossible possible through every means at my disposal... fufu, it was quite an amusing experience."
"This woman is terrifying..."
I couldn't understand a single word she was saying.
In other words, like her parents, I was better off giving up on understanding her anytime soon.
"In any case, that is the long and short of it. My father apparently introduced me, saying if they desired a 'supremely talented eccentric,' then he knew just the person. He told them to do all the scouting and persuading themselves."
"Is your relationship with your parents okay?"
"We have not been disowned. They are happy to see me when I occasionally show my face."
"'Occasionally' ...I'll just accept that you have a unique family."
Different strokes for different folks. There must be all sorts of families in the world. As long as she says there's no problem and is telling the story happily, it's not my place to overthink it.
"And... —this is getting tedious, so I will skip right to the end."
"'Tedious'???"
"They had me meet Sora, and I fell for her at first sight. I thought I would not mind spending my life supporting and helping this child. ...At least, in my eyes."
She brushed off my interjection as if it were nothing, as usual.
"This child seemed brighter, more brilliant... and more fragile than anything else in the world."
Her words were just as they sounded, her eyes and heart filled with affection as if cherishing the most precious thing in the world.
"I had to be the one to protect this child. I was made to think so at a single glance—and I was confident I could fulfill that role."
She smiled happily, as if cherishing the present that was spun from the past.
"After all, I was... a 'supremely talented eccentric who could make the impossible possible'."
"..."
As I fell silent, feeling the weight of her emotions, her truly mature eyes turned to me. As if to say it was an exaggeration, and I was free to laugh... and that is precisely why,
"I can't laugh at that."
Indeed, who could laugh at her?
"If you're 'Captive Number One' in the real world, Itsuki-san, then I'm 'Captive Number One' in the virtual world."
We were two comrades whose hearts were captured at first sight.
I alone could nod and say I completely understood her 'exaggerated story.' When I said that, Itsuki-san looked at me with a rare expression... like she was looking at something strange.
It's a little late for that.
I consider myself to be no different from the average person in terms of my core mentality and way of thinking—but at the same time, I'm fully aware that I'm a profoundly strange eccentric.
"........................Is that so. ...—Nozomi-san."
"Yes. ...Huh, yes? Nozo—why so suddenly?"
"Hinting at a shared position to feign empathy is a common tactic for getting closer to a woman... could it be that I am being courted right now?"
"Save your sleep talk for when you're actually sleeping. I'll be taking my leave now."
Though, trying to be friends with this person was far too difficult for me at my current level. So, for a little while longer, I'd have to resort to fleeing from her skillful teasing.
"Good night, Itsuki-san."
"Fufu... —Yes. Good night, Kasuga-san."
And as I left, once again.
Seeing her eternally calm smile, I had a feeling that 'a little while' would probably extend far into the distant future... and yet, for some reason.
It didn't feel bad at all.
I hereby declare that we are now entering the climactic Maid Route. 04/01/2025 11:50
As if. 04/01/2025 23:59