12. Rekachev Circus School Trial (6)
12. Rekachev Circus School Trial (6)
A bright smile bloomed across Reina's face. I had been checking her Status Window, and when our eyes eventually met, she threw herself at me before I could even think of stopping her.
"Dad! You are my dad, right?"
She climbed right onto my lap and wrapped her arms around me tight. She was taller than your average grown woman, and the force of her lunge made the wheelchair rock at a precarious angle.
"Mi-Miss Reina, if you suddenly—"
"Thank you for taking it off! It was so stuffy!"
She settled herself on my thighs and pulled my head against her chest. Then she began bouncing, her hips jostling up and down.
"Mmph... M-Miss Reina?"
I tried to resist, but with my limbs currently useless, there was no breaking free of her embrace.
"Dad! It's Dad!"
She wasn't listening to a word I said. She just kept talking like a little child and refused to let go of me.
"I'm the only one having fun here. Aren't you happy to see me, Dad?"
At that moment, I realized what she wanted from me.
"Reina... my daughter? Please, I'm asking you, could you let go of me?"
"Oh, I'm... I'm sorry! Did I hurt you?"
The moment I played along as her father, she actually listened and quickly climbed off. The way she dismounted smoothly, without the slightest wobble, was exactly the agility I'd expect from her. Come to think of it, the wheelchair had swayed but never tipped during that commotion—that, too, was probably thanks to her sense of balance.
"You didn't ask me to get off because I smell, did you? I did wash every day for the past few days..."
I sorted through my thoughts as I watched her, looking worried and checking her own clothes with her nose.
Apparently her personality hadn't genuinely regressed to age four.
She'd just pulled off an acrobatic move with expert precision. She hadn't asked where she was or what time it was. She'd even recognized me.
Which meant her memory was intact. She was simply packaging herself as a little child through childish words and actions.
This was a departure from how she'd acted before.
Name: Shadow - 4-year-old Reina
Subject: Reina's psyche
Effect: Subject behaves like a four-year-old.
Condition: Remove the mask of 'Persona - Weeping Woman.'
A shadow—the trait that stood opposite the persona.
I had a good guess as to why this curse had attached itself to her.
She'd heard from the dead Reina that any version of herself older than four was a 'fake Reina.' So she wanted to stay in her four-year-old state, to become the 'real Reina' just like the dead one.
It was pitiful, in a way.
She dismissed the thirteen years of her 'real life' from ages four to seventeen as fake, yet embraced a 'fabricated memory' up to age four as the truth.
A childlike, unclouded smile filled the corners of her mouth as she looked at me.
Anyone else would be shocked. They'd never imagine that the girl who always kept such a rigid expression could make a face like that.
The chill you normally saw in her expression seemed similar to Maya's, but it was different.
Maya came across as cold because she genuinely wasn't prone to strong emotions; Reina's emotions seemed suppressed.
Seeing her express herself with such pure, unfiltered emotion was honestly pleasant to watch. But I couldn't just leave her like this.
I gathered my thoughts and opened my mouth.
"Reina, how about we put the mask back on?"
If my theory was right, the moment she donned the persona, the shadow would retreat back inside her mind.
But Reina pressed her lips tight and shook her head vigorously.
"No! I said it's stuffy!"
"But Dad really needs to talk to Reina while she's wearing her mask..."
"Aren't you happy to see me? It's been so long. This is the first time since the Freshmen Welcome Party..."
She puffed out her cheeks in mock anger and turned her head away from me.
A truly childish gesture.
I was in an awkward position.
If she really were a child, I could try coaxing her with sweet talk. But her memory and reasoning were more or less what they'd always been.
How was I supposed to handle her like this?
A familiar concept flickered through my mind.
An avatar.
If a persona was a stage role projected onto the self, it was like an avatar representing a player in a game.
Meaning, from the perspective of 'Shadow - 4-year-old Reina,' the life Reina had lived from age four to seventeen was nothing more than things her in-game avatar had experienced.
Taking off the mask meant logging out of the game.
I was neither a psychiatrist nor a scholar versed in magicology, but at least from the shadow's point of view right now, that seemed to be how she viewed her own life.
I released a small sigh.
If she thought of it that way, I could understand her feelings. The sad part, though, was that the truth was the exact opposite.
Somehow I had to get the mask back on her. But in my current physical state, forcing it on her wasn't feasible.
Instead, I checked the quest that had popped up moments ago.
*Member Quest - I Want to Wash
: Reina hasn't been able to wash properly for days and is feeling gross.
Completion Condition
: Reina's body is clean.
Success Reward
: Reina falls asleep.
Failure Penalty
: None.
The system detected a member's desire and showed me what reward I could gain by fulfilling it.
"Reina, how about we wash up first? My daughter's face is awfully grimy."
Reina, who'd been sulking and pretending to ignore me, glanced sideways at me and muttered in a pouting voice.
"Only if Dad bathes with me..."
I shook my head.
The quest condition was simply to get her clean.
"You're old enough to wash by yourself, aren't you, Reina?"
"No! You wash me!"
In the bathroom, water was gushing and filling the tub. Through the open door I could see white steam wafting out.
Reina had turned the hot water on earlier, planning to dash in and wash her face the moment the mask came off, but with everything that happened right after she'd forgotten to shut it off.
I realized I had no real choice. Dragging this out until someone else walked in and saw the scene would be a much bigger problem.
"...Fine. Shall we get in together, then?"
"Yes! I'll carry you in, Dad!"
My room was the largest in the villa, so the bathroom was fairly spacious.
Two people could fit if they pressed close together.
I entered the tub fully clothed. What I was wearing had been generated by the Costume Room's ability anyway, so getting wet didn't matter.
"Dad, you still have to take your clothes off!"
After lifting me carefully into the bath, she yelled in an outraged voice when she saw me keeping my clothes on.
The bathroom vents were connected between the rooms above and below. If I hadn't applied mute to her voice, the whole upstairs would have heard every word.
Who was directly above me again?
The moment I tried to recall, Reina faced me with a dissatisfied look.
"I'm not getting in if you don't undress."
I released a small sigh and hurriedly applied mute to my own voice too.
"Okay. Sorry. I'll take them off."
I removed my clothes through the Costume Room. She, too, shed her skirt and undergarments without a second thought and climbed into the tub. The girl who'd once been so mortified at showing her underwear now seemed entirely unbothered by baring her naked body.
"Hehe, it's been over ten years since I bathed with Dad! I'm so happy!"
She leaned back into my arms. Then she grabbed my hands and pulled them around her waist, draping her own chest over them.
The Smiling Man was a godsend.
Without it, she wouldn't have been able to press her back against me.
And so, skin-to-skin and pressed tight, we enjoyed a bath together.
To be more precise, I spent the whole time fretting that someone might suddenly walk in, and she was the only one enjoying it. Still, thanks to The Smiling Man, I could outwardly act like nothing was amiss and keep her company.
She seized my wrists and used my palms as she pleased like a shower towel. She had my suds-lathered hands knead her chest, rub her waist, and wipe down her thighs.
Chronologically she was an adult, but hearing her chatter away in that innocent voice kept bringing her mental age to mind and making guilt surge up.
Eventually, when my hand brushed across her more private areas, I started to genuinely worry about her mental state. Would she be so consumed by shame once the mask was back on that she'd try to hang herself?
But I shook the worry off quickly.
This was the same girl who'd come to me completely unabashed even when she was in her right mind, asking me to help her change clothes. She wasn't fragile like Clara. She'd manage.
She'd used my hands to wash her hair, clean her face, and scrub herself down just fine, but she soon hit a limit. No matter how skilled she was, she had no way to wash her own back, where her hands couldn't reach.
"What do we do?"
"Hmm. There's no brush here. Should we just get out?"
"But I feel gross. Can't Dad do it?"
The Member Quest was still unfulfilled. If I didn't finish it, she'd stay awake for a long while. There was no telling what other variables might arise.
I tried to move my hands. They didn't budge. The hot bathwater had made my whole body languid, and on top of that, she'd been swinging my hands around at her whim—they felt entirely drained of strength.
Was there really no way?
As I stared at her back, an idea struck my mind.
I had a tool I'd used far longer than my hands or feet. Back in the other world, I'd used it to pick up a remote, grip a pen, press phone buttons.
I used it less after adopting eye-tracking equipment, but for someone like me who'd had no limbs, it was still a useful implement.
But washing her body with that...
"Dad?"
A deeply embarrassing thought.
Yet I had no other method.
"Could you stand up for a moment and lean your waist this way?"
"My waist? Uh, like this?"
Her rear end suddenly advanced and pressed against my face.
I shook my head vigorously.
"Lower. So the unwashed part reaches my face!"
"Ah, okay."
The curve of her waist touched my mouth. My chin naturally came to rest against her rear. After a deep breath, I extended my tongue and began licking her waist.
"Hyaah! D-Dad!"
She twisted her waist sharply.
"Hold still. It's hard to wash you."
I used Devolut to modify the texture of my tongue's surface, making it as rough as a shower towel, and had it secrete body wash instead of saliva. With that, I licked clean the spots she hadn't been able to reach.
I'd received bath services myself once, hadn't I?
I was simply passing that on to someone else now.
I repeated that to soothe myself, but I couldn't help feeling this act was a whole different category from what I'd received.
"Nngh... D-Dad..."
She bowed her head deeply, exhaling rough breaths, her hips and thighs twitching enough to make my chin tremble.
Seeing her like that brought back the memory of my night with Yurakne.
Just then, a voice came from outside the bathroom.
"Troupe Leader, are you bathing?"
Speak of the devil, as they say.
Yurakne was standing just beyond the bathroom door.
In that instant, I realized whose room was directly above mine. And also that the mute function had only been applied to our voices.
Reina stopped splashing. Perhaps startled by Yurakne's sudden appearance, she froze in place with her rear still pushed out.
And I, who had been licking her skin, froze as well.