Living Together
"Mr. Ain, our honeymoon home is quite cozy and lovely!"
"Just get inside. And give me your bags."
Creak.
The familiar creak of the door opening sounded a bit more cheerful than usual.
Fortunately, Giselle wasn't home.
Only the heavy scent of the perfume she had left behind—likely tuberose from yesterday—lingered in the air.
She used to spray a different perfume every single day.
That was the only reason I could recognize the scents of cheap perfumes I never even used myself.
Giselle would douse herself in them, cheap or expensive, and ask me over and over without ever getting tired of it: "How about this one, Ain? What about that one, Ain?"
When the puppy-like former nun began sniffing around the room, I pinched her nose with my hand—which reeked of stale cigarette smoke—effectively paralyzing her sense of smell.
Come to think of it, she wasn't even a nun anymore.
She was just Mace now, just like I was just Ain. Words really did have a way of becoming reality.
I had felt a sense of kinship with her, and now she had ended up in the exact same pathetic state as me.
In the end, it's all my fault anyway.
Mace, the actual victim in all of this, didn't seem to care at all. She was just thrilled to have a roof over her head, sitting here, standing there... Fuck, I hid my booze in that cabinet. She's going to break the bottles at this rate.
Why was she checking out the bathroom? And why on earth was she crawling under the bed?
After exploring every nook and cranny of the house, Mace walked back to me. She wore a bizarre expression—her mouth was smiling, but her eyes were completely dead.
"I smell a woman's scent in this house!"
I guess she smelled it after all.
It made sense. A guy who refused to wear cologne no matter how much he was nagged suddenly had a house drenched in perfume.
Last time, that bitch Giselle had even taken a bath here while I was out.
The only soap in my house was a cheap bar that had been white when I first bought it.
Yet, when I had returned home that day, the bathroom walls and sink were completely covered in floral-scented lather.
Fortunately, I had already cleaned up and thrown away the silver strands of hair that had been scattered all over the bathroom floor.
"Maybe the house is haunted. You can perform an exorcism for me later. We'll call that your rent."
Mace snatched the bags from my hands with her usual nimble fingers.
Still wearing that goofy grin, she set the bags on the table, her eyes slightly dull and devoid of their usual light.
"If someone else lives here, it would be terribly rude of me to barge in! If there is, please tell me right now!"
"...You seem angry. Am I wrong?"
Mace's tone was as prickly as a pufferfish in season.
So this woman actually knew how to get angry.
It was painfully obvious that her cheerful demeanor was entirely forced.
"Oh, why would I be angry! I'm just asking out of pure curiosity!"
As she spoke, she drummed her fingers loudly against the table like a drum roll.
...She wanted an answer, and she wanted it now.
I liked how transparent Mace was.
"Do you remember what I told you during confession?"
I had broken yet another unwritten rule between us.
Mace's stiff expression slowly began to soften.
The warm, gentle smile I knew so well returned to her face.
Whenever I spoke in a serious tone, Mace never failed to hang on to every word.
"It's a remnant of the pain I used to suffer. Now, she's literally like a ghost."
A ghost that barged in and vanished without ever explaining why.
To me, that was all Giselle was now.
I pulled out a cigarette, put it between my lips, and then put it back in the pack.
Mace had slipped closer, and her hand was now resting gently on my knee.
"Since your Sister is here, you don't have to worry about ghosts anymore."
"...You're not a nun or a teacher anymore."
After that, we looked at each other and laughed for a long time.
There was a strange comfort in the bond shared by two people who had been abandoned together.
I couldn't even remember the last time I had laughed without a care in the world.
It would have been nice if we lived happily ever after like that.
But just two days after letting Mace move in, I ran into a major problem.
I desperately need cash. Right now.
The current inflation rate in the Empire was absolutely insane.
The cost of living played a large part in my decision to kill myself once I ran out of money.
With a body as wrecked as mine, no one would hire me even for manual labor.
"You don't even have civilian clothes...?"
"I washed this habit every evening and dried it by morning to wear it again!"
"And if it didn't dry by morning?"
"I asked someone who knew magic to blow some wind on it!"
Mace spoke proudly, waving her habit while wearing a skimpy pair of pajamas that left me unsure of where to look.
Honestly, I was starting to think that puppy-like smell of hers came from that single, overworked set of clothes.
When I left Mace at home and went to a women's clothing store alone, I couldn't believe my eyes... well, my one good eye.
This piece of rag costs a whole gold coin...? Is this place run by highway robbers?
My alcohol expenses had gone down, but my food expenses had skyrocketed.
My palate wasn't particularly sophisticated either, much like Mace's.
But the ration bread Mace handed me, claiming it was perfectly edible, was not fit for human consumption.
Like paper? Bullshit.
I tried slamming it against the table as a test. The bread remained completely unscathed, while the table cracked.
When I finally managed to soften it enough to eat, it reeked of wet newspaper.
By my calculations, we wouldn't last a week at this rate.
Mace was basically an illegal immigrant who had her work visa confiscated.
Had I taken this too lightly, thinking it would be as simple as raising a dog just because she looked like one?
The root cause of my impending bankruptcy was completely oblivious to my worries, fast asleep on the sofa and drooling.
No matter how many times I insisted she take the bed, Mace had stubbornly shaken her head, wanting to sleep on the floor.
"Stop arguing and just lie down."
"Help! Neighbors, look here! A virgin former nun is being assaulted!"
As a compromise, I let her sleep on the sofa.
The dusty, single-ply sheet she had been carrying around was so filthy that I snatched it away and burned it with a match.
Instead, I gave her my own linen blanket. She made a massive fuss about how soft and warm it was, acting like a caveman discovering fire for the first time.
...A way to get both money and clothes did cross my mind.
Just as Mace had suggested, if I actually had a "conversation," the problem would solve itself.
Putting aside my reluctance, it would require enduring a load of fucking hassle and guilt.
But now that I had someone to take care of, I couldn't afford to be picky.
Leaving the sleeping Mace behind, I quietly slipped out of the house.
I'll go make some money, so guard the house well.
Giselle was nowhere to be seen, neither outside nor inside the house.
Maybe she really was a ghost.
Her constant intrusions, as if my home were her own, had abruptly stopped.
For me, it just meant one less nightmare to worry about.
I no longer had to worry about running into her on the streets at night, or facing that expressionless face when I opened my front door.
I headed toward the Academy—the place Mace was no longer at.
To that space that was no longer a sanctuary for me.
To the place I was so sure I would never set foot in again.
Since curfew had long passed, I scaled the wall.
Bypassing the other buildings connected to the main hall, I reached the dormitory wing, a place I rarely visited.
Second floor. The second window from the left. There it was.
I picked up a small pebble and tossed it lightly at the dark window.
Slide.
After repeating it a couple of times, the window slid open, revealing the feathers of my bluebird of happiness.
Iris's blue hair peeked out of the window frame a few times, and then the light in her room flickered.
It was the signal that I could come up.
Holding my breath, I crept through the deathly quiet dormitory and up the stairs, then gave a soft knock on Iris's door.
Iris poked her head out through the cracked door.
Since this wasn't a conversation to be had in the hallway, I pushed the door open and slipped inside.
For some reason, Iris's face was flushed red, and she looked visibly flustered.
"Ah, sorry. I'll look away."
I hadn't realized because of the former nun's pajamas back home.
She was wearing a camisole. Not that I cared, since I'd grown desensitized to seeing her like that when we were kids.
Leaving the flustered Iris behind me, I stared at the wallpaper patterns to pass the time.
"Y-You can look back now..."
Iris, who had thrown a buttoned cardigan over her camisole, was fanning her face with her hands.
Her blush still hadn't faded. Was she really that embarrassed?
"A-At this late hour... W-What brings you here...?"
"Does a brother need a reason to visit his sister?"
"U-Uh? R-Really...?"
"Unless, of course, he's here to borrow money."
"Sigh..."
Iris let out a long, quiet sigh and narrowed her eyes at me.
There was no anger or authority in her gaze.
She just looked exasperated, as if to say, "Of course you are."
"Y-You... must have something else to say to your sister..."
She kept pouting, but her eyes remained fixed on me rather than the floor.
It was the same face she made when we were kids, the day after I had placed a frog from the pond on her head and run away.
She had refused to speak to me for days with that exact expression.
Of course, I had an ulterior motive tonight.
Now that I was actually sitting down to talk with Iris, I couldn't help but recall the "presumptuous words" Mace had spoken at the tavern.
"...In front of the prayer room, I was a bit too harsh. I'm sorry."
"And, and... there must be one more thing..."
"I heard about the disciplinary action. I heard you saved me from being expelled."
Even if I had no intention of ever returning to the Academy, I had given her kindness some thought, however brief.
"Thanks, Sis."
Hearing my apology and gratitude, Iris's mood visibly brightened.
Or maybe she was just happy to hear me call her "Sis" again.
Iris pulled her wallet out of her uniform pocket.
"H-How much do you need...?"
"A lot. And lend me some of your clothes, too. Ah, underwear would be great, if you have spare."
"C-C-C-Clothes?! Why do you need clothes...?"
Iris's face flushed crimson once more.
Her stuttering was twice as bad as usual.
"I'm raising Mace... wait, is that the right word? I'm taking care of her."
"Ah, ah... I-I see..."
Iris was only slightly shorter than me, so the size might not fit Mace perfectly, but it was better than nothing.
Right now, the priority was giving her something decent to wear so I wouldn't have to avert my eyes at home.
Upon hearing my answer, Iris closed her wallet and gestured toward the bed.
I sat down on the bed and habitually reached for a cigarette, but Iris's hand quickly stopped me.
"I-If it smells, I'll get caught..."
"Sorry. I do it without thinking when I get comfortable."
Iris sat down next to me and spoke.
Her flustered expression had calmed down, returning to how she looked when I first stepped inside.
"Does... that person still not have a place to stay?"
"Yeah. She's completely screwed, Sis. Apparently, she can't even go back to her hometown."
Iris pressed her index finger to her temple, lost in thought for a long moment before speaking.
"Since there are spare dormitory rooms anyway... I can arrange one for her... and even if they aren't my own clothes... I can buy her a few outfits..."
She was being so helpful that it almost made me forget the humiliation I had suffered in my past life.
I almost hugged her on impulse.
"But, in return..."
If only she hadn't brought up a "price," and if she hadn't looked at me so tentatively, waiting for my reaction.
I might have actually felt a warm spark of familial love, like a touching reunion of long-lost siblings.
"...Do I have to?"
"Y-Your sister... just wants you to come back to the family, Ain..."
She was talking about her previous proposal. I had to admire her persistence.
I had expected this, but I still fucking hated the idea.
"...Fine."
"R-R-R-Really?! A-Ain... Oh, your sister is so..."
"I'll talk to him. But don't get your hopes up."
"Y-Yes... then once the date is set... let's prepare together... I'll come find you..."
"Fuck... do we really have to do all that preparation?"
All those fucking formalities—dressing up, wearing tight, suffocating clothes.
The luxury goods, the gifts, the greasy food, and the conversations that felt like thorns piercing my ears.
Just thinking about it made me want to die.
Is this the weight of being a breadwinner? I couldn't even die when I wanted to anymore.
"Because... you have to make a good impression on Father... for him to take you back..."
Iris managed to handle all that noble nonsense well enough, perhaps because it suited her.
But ever since I first set foot in this world, I had utterly despised the family's absurd, self-important authority.
Iris knew how I felt, and she used to sneakily excuse me from gatherings I didn't absolutely have to attend.
"...Right."
I felt like I was going out to sell my body.
Taking care of my dear Mace was proving to be a massive pain in the ass.