Class (2)
Allen’s face went blank for a second, then twisted into pure shock.
“W-wait… what? You’re staying the night?”
“…Yes.”
“Augh, augh, augh… no!!”
Words failed him in his panic, so he just watched what Letisia was doing. She still had her back to him, refusing to meet his eyes, but there was no sign she was changing her mind.
“Why not? A party member could be in danger. Guarding him is only natural.”
She tossed out the bold, shameless line like it was nothing. Allen shook his head hard.
“W-what kind of misunderstanding are you trying to start? I appreciate the worry, but I’m fine. If that guy shows up, I’ll just scream my head off.”
“…Do you even know what Kael’s class is?”
“…Assassin?”
“Then do you think you’d have time to scream?”
Allen chewed on that for a moment and reached the only possible conclusion.
Nope.
He could easily end up dead without a soul noticing, but that still didn’t make it easy to accept Letisia’s “I’m sleeping over” declaration. Even if she meant nothing by it, people would get the wrong idea, and Allen didn’t rate his own self-control that highly.
So he floated a compromise.
“Okay, but… couldn’t you just leave one spirit here?”
“Spirits might not be able to sense him either.”
“Uh…?”
“Is an assassin really that useful in a hero’s party? He can scout like our thief, and they look similar at a glance, but… assassins and thieves are a little different.”
Letisia kept going.
“Assassins specialize in killing people. Thieves specialize in stealing things, disarming traps, gathering information. Our thief is a bit… different, though.”
“So the fact that he made it into a party means he’s that skilled?”
“Yes, exactly. All those rumors and never once proven guilty—doesn’t that tell you something?”
Allen thought back to how Kael had reacted earlier when he’d been caught waiting in the room.
For someone like that, he sure looked pretty clumsy when he got spotted…
Whether she noticed his thoughts or not, Letisia delivered her verdict.
“Anyway, leaving you alone right now is extremely dangerous.”
“…I see.”
The words of understanding slipped out before he could stop them. Was it really okay to just let himself be talked into this? Even if he had zero ulterior motives, was it right for a grown man and woman to sleep in the same room…? The doubt hit him late, and he spoke carefully.
“People might get the wrong idea…”
“If that was your worry, you shouldn’t have let me into this room in the first place.”
He had nothing to say to that. She was right. A woman of marriageable age walking into a man’s room late at night—who wouldn’t jump to conclusions?
“Besides, we don’t need to care what other people think.”
The “I don’t care” line made Allen look at her a little sourly. She fretted endlessly over those cute cat ears of hers, yet claimed not to care about this? The priorities didn’t line up.
He buried the question where it belonged and asked something else instead.
“…So how are we sleeping?”
“Pardon?”
“There’s only one bed…”
Letisia stared at the bed for a moment, then turned a teasing little smile on him.
“Allen can take the sofa.”
“……No.”
“Wow. Are you saying you want to sleep with me?”
“I’ve never even gotten to lie on that fluffy bed once!”
He was not giving up the bed. After nights of rock-hard inn mattresses, this was finally his chance at a proper one. For a modern man used to soft mattresses, it was a long-awaited, honey-sweet opportunity.
This one I refuse to surrender.
He’d rather die than give up that fluffiness. Allen dug in his heels. Letisia seemed to realize she wasn’t breaking that stubbornness; she let out a soft sigh and spoke like she had no choice.
“Then I’ll take the sofa.”
“That’s…”
Hearing it put that way made him look guilty again. Maybe he’d been too selfish.
She’s staying to protect me… should I really just hand over the bed?
The bed’s softness and the human duty to yield collided head-on. Allen frowned, sinking deep into thought.
Letisia read the expression differently.
“You don’t like that either?”
“No… more like I feel a little bad.”
“A minute ago you said you’d never give it up.”
“…Well, yeah.”
The look she gave him said so what am I supposed to do? Allen had no choice but to glance away. The earlier dilemma kept grinding on.
…She’s doing all this for me. The right thing is to give her the soft bed and take the sofa, isn’t it?
Conscience finally beat comfort. He was about to announce he’d take the sofa when—
“…Then we could just lie down together.”
“Huh?”
Letisia narrowed her eyes a fraction, as if annoyed she had to say it again.
“I said we should lie down together.”
The brazen proposal left Allen thoroughly rattled.
“What are you talking about…!?”
“You understood me.”
“W-well, yeah, I understood, but that means…!”
“I won’t do anything to you, Allen.”
Those soft green eyes held nothing but honesty as they met his. She really seemed free of any ulterior motive. Everything she was doing was purely for his sake.
Allen, however, was a different story. Letisia was one of the party members whose looks he had personally selected to match his tastes—the kind of beauty that made you think “pretty” just from looking at her from afar.
Sharing a bed with her?
Holy moly.
Rational thought abandoned him. The way she’d been half-embarrassed yet still spitting out these bold lines all night almost felt like flirting.
“…Le-Letisia.”
“Yes?”
“Let’s just study magic instead…”
“…I’m tired.”
Even the last escape route was blocked. Allen heaved a long sigh.
“Fine. I’ll sleep on the sofa…”
“We can share the bed, you know.”
“Please stop saying things like that so casually.”
He narrowed his eyes at her, then lightly tapped her shoulder.
“Even if I understand, other people will get the wrong idea. Especially when a pretty girl like you does it—they’ll jump to even bigger conclusions.”
“Pardon? Pr-pretty…?”
“By objective aesthetic standards.”
The added qualifier made her ears droop a little in what looked like mild disappointment. Allen carefully ignored that and repeated himself.
“I’ll take the sofa.”
He dug a blanket out of his luggage. The bed was so huge it needed two of them, or maybe they just kept extras; either way, there were two pillows, so that was fine.
Watching him, Letisia felt it clearly.
He was different now. Definitely.
The old him would have hopped into the same bed without a second thought.
The Allen of today, at least… was no longer a man who casually laid hands on his party members.
That impulsive act Erinn had committed the day of the accident… might actually have been a stroke of luck for the rest of the party, Letisia included. She felt a little sorry toward Erinn for thinking it, but the change was too real to deny.
“…Allen.”
“What?”
As he pulled the blanket free and headed for the sofa, Letisia lightly caught his arm.
“It’s fine. Just lie on the bed. Being… not right next to you could still be dangerous.”
“…He’s that good?”
“Yes.”
It wasn’t a lie. One of the people believed to have been killed by Kael had been murdered while sleeping right next to his own wife.
Of course that was partly because ordinary people couldn’t sense him, but among the party Letisia’s sensory ability ranked near the bottom with Freya’s… so too much distance might still be risky.
Allen’s face twisted with serious deliberation at that. Letisia’s fingers, still holding his arm, twitched slightly.
“…I’ll understand if you act a little selfish.”
“…Huh?”
“H-hurry up. I’m really sleepy.”
She let go of his arm after saying it. The words had come out on impulse. Maybe the alcohol still lingering in her system, maybe because he’d called her the prettiest, maybe because she simply liked the way this new Allen was… any of those could have been the reason.
Either way, it worked on him. He followed Letisia as she crawled into the bed.
“….”
He claimed he wouldn’t treat her carelessly anymore, yet one little “you can be a bit selfish” and he came walking over like he was under a spell. Typical man. Letisia accepted it as the price of her own careless words and closed her eyes a little.
“…Haa.”
She heard Allen’s soft sigh. He pulled back the covers and lay down beside her. Then came a faint rustling, and his hand—
“…?”
—didn’t touch her. Letisia, who had braced herself, turned her head in mild confusion. Right next to her, Allen was deliberately facing away, curling up to sleep.
She was genuinely, thoroughly surprised. Even in this situation, he was holding himself back.
The tension she hadn’t realized she was carrying melted away, and a small smile rose on her lips. Rustle, rustle—this time she was the one who moved.
She settled facing his back. Looking at the man who now treated her as a true comrade worth protecting, Letisia fell asleep with a tiny smile still on her face.
The next morning I woke up in one piece, probably thanks to Letisia being right there. True to a porter who had to get ready first, my body still ran on early-bird time. It was that gray hour between dawn and full morning, the sun not quite up yet.
“….”
“Hnnngh…”
Beside me, Letisia was dead to the world, snoring softly enough that she hadn’t even noticed me get up.
Hadn’t she said she’d protect me? Sleeping this hard, I wasn’t sure how much protecting had actually happened.
I took a short look at her face, then got out of bed carefully and headed for the bathroom attached to the room.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t even washed properly last night. There hadn’t been room to think about it. The words Letisia had whispered to me still echoed in my ears.
…Do as I please, huh.
That would have been a disaster on multiple levels. Getting caught by the other party members would have fucked me, obviously, but there was another problem too.
Think about it. Letisia looked normal most of the time, but she was a severe sadist. Suppose last night’s mood had gotten really good and things had gone “that” way.
Would severe-sadist Letisia’s actions have stayed in the realm of normal… or veered into something dangerous?
No need to spell it out. I did not have a matching taste for getting hit.
Being a royal guest room, it actually had its own bathroom. I grabbed a change of clothes and opened the door.
“Whoa.”
A genuine gasp of admiration slipped out. This was nothing like an inn bathroom—it was genuinely excellent. You could almost compare it to a real-world bathroom without feeling ridiculous.
There was a tub big enough for an adult man. I stripped, gave myself a quick rinse, and sank into the water with a splash.
Pleasantly warm water wrapped around my whole body.
“…This is paradise on earth.”
I stared up at the bathroom ceiling. Watching the beads of condensation gather and cling there, a bunch of useless thoughts floated up. Truly pointless ones.
Then more practical ones started creeping in.
What do I do about Kael being there last night…
A guy who never left evidence of his murders would almost certainly have erased every trace of his intrusion in seconds. That left only what Letisia and I had seen as “proof”…
If he just denied it, there was no way to prove anything. Two eyewitnesses would get an investigation started, sure, but no evidence would turn up. Official punishment was basically off the table…
Which left only private measures.
“…Guess I should tell Erinn.”
Talking to the party leader might produce some kind of answer. I finished washing thoroughly and was about to change when I spotted a soft bathrobe hanging on one side of the bathroom.
“Oh…”
It looked high-quality at a glance. The kind of thing you wanted to try on at least once. Instead of putting on regular clothes, I shrugged into the robe.
Yep, excellent material. That soft, all-over hug of fabric felt fantastic. I stepped out of the bathroom wearing it and found Letisia just waking up.
“You’re up?”
“Hwaaah… Allen, when did you get u— A-Allen…?”
“Hm?”
“W-why did you come out like that…?”
“Huh? There was a robe, so I wanted to try it on…”
Letisia’s cat ears twitched, then she whipped her face away.
“C-cover your chest a little…”
“…Ah, sorry.”
The robe must have been hanging open. I was fussing it closed when someone suddenly pounded on the door.
“Allen! Is Letisia in there?”
“…!”
The other party members must have woken up, noticed Letisia missing, and come looking all the way to my room. I shot Letisia a “what now?” look. She glanced around frantically and whispered,
“I-I’ll hide in the bathroom, so pretend you’re alone.”
“Uh, yeah…”
Hadn’t she said last night she didn’t care about misunderstandings? Letisia slipped out of bed and started tip-toeing carefully toward the bathroom.
“What, still asleep? Then I’m coming in!”
“…!?”
Why would you come in if someone’s sleeping, you crazy woman!?
I’d locked the door, but that meant nothing to this rampaging drunkard. The handle shattered and the door was forced open. I yanked Letisia behind me in a panic.
“Allen! Where’s Leti— ah?”
“…Are you out of your mind.”
Ser-Aria stared at me with wide, startled eyes.
“Y-you were washing up, so you couldn’t answer! Sorry!”
“No, why did you break the door? What are you going to do about it?”
“Ah… sorry! I’ll get it fixed!”
“Fixed, my ass…”
If we just said she broke it while drunk, people would probably understand. Ser-Aria gave an awkward “haha” laugh, then asked,
“But… have you seen Letisia? She left the banquet early with you last night and nobody’s seen her since.”
“I didn’t leave with Letisia.”
“Well, yeah, but I figured I’d ask just in case. She’s still not back in her room.”
“…I came straight back here last night and went to sleep. I was exhausted, so I don’t know.”
Lucky break, maybe—Ser-Aria had come alone. The others must have gone searching elsewhere. With just her, I might be able to bluff my way through.
“Hmm… that so?”
Ser-Aria studied me for a moment, then tilted her head.
“Allen, though.”
“Yeah.”
“You’ve got four legs.”
“…?”
I followed her gaze downward. Between my own legs, Letisia’s legs were clearly visible where the robe hadn’t covered them.
“Uh… not that it’s any of my business, but…”
“Wait. Aria, this is a real misunderstand—”
Ser-Aria looked at me, a cold sweat starting to form. I was probably wearing the same expression, and so was Letisia flinching behind me.
“What exactly did you two do…?”