The Morning After
When I lifted the blanket, what met my eyes was…….
The next day, a problem arose.
The market had already been open for quite some time, yet Ilena still hadn’t come out of her room. Thanks to that, I’d managed to sleep in deeply, but the issue was that even when lunchtime rolled around, there was still no sign of her emerging.
‘I can guess why she’s not coming out, though…….’
The price of overindulgence. A brutal hangover. If she had sipped her drinks slowly while enjoying them with food, it might have been different, but Ilena had been gulping it down on an empty stomach even before the dishes arrived. By the time the food came out, she was already drunk. On top of that, she hadn’t eaten much, so her stomach was practically filled with nothing but alcohol.
“This won’t do. I’ll go wake Ilena up.”
“Take care~”
Having gone to bed early and slept soundly, Dipe’s appetite had returned. I left her at the table, cheeks puffed out with food as she happily devoured her lunch, and stood up.
“Innkeeper, could I possibly borrow the master key?”
“I can certainly lend it to you. However, the condition is that I must accompany you.”
“Of course, I understand. My companion doesn’t seem to have any intention of coming out of her room.”
“Hehe, I figured this might happen.”
The innkeeper chuckled heartily as he produced the master key. Come to think of it, wasn’t this the very person who had encouraged Ilena to drink in the first place? What did he mean, he figured this might happen…….
Together with the innkeeper, I arrived in front of Ilena’s door.
“Then I’ll open it. I won’t look inside, so please don’t worry.”
When I nodded, the innkeeper used the master key to unlock Ilena’s room. As expected, the moment the door opened, a thick wave of alcohol scent poured out.
“Oh dear, it really does smell strongly of liquor. Well then, I’ll take my leave.”
The innkeeper turned his body outward so as not to peek inside and headed back downstairs.
I carefully stepped into the room and immediately spotted Ilena lying in bed. Even though it was already this late, she was lost in a deep, oblivious slumber. One leg had slipped out from under the blanket, and her mouth was slightly parted. Seeing her like this, it seemed that passing out drunk looked pretty much the same whether you were human or demonfolk.
But…….
The folded wings. The limp tail. Humans didn’t have those attached to their bodies.
It was a relief that the innkeeper wasn’t the overly nosy type.
‘By the way, they’re really white.’
Maybe because only her leg was poking out from the blanket, my eyes kept being drawn to it. Slender and long, without a single ounce of excess fat. Before I knew it, my fingers had reached out, but I stopped myself.
“Ilena, wake up.”
“Mmm……”
“Your Majesty? If we want to return home before nightfall, we need to start moving diligently right now. Please get up.”
“My head hurts. Just a little longer… just a little……”
This was getting worse and worse. Her head hurt, her body felt heavy. But we couldn’t stay at the inn forever. Besides, we had only booked the room for one night, so we were supposed to vacate it after lunch.
I had to get her up somehow. At this point, there was no choice but to resort to extreme measures.
I grabbed the edge of the blanket Ilena was covered with.
“Ilena.”
Now she wasn’t even answering, eyes squeezed shut. I warned you!
I didn’t hesitate any longer. In one swift motion, I yanked the blanket off.
“Time to wake up… huh?”
And just as quickly, I threw it back over her.
“T-this… how am I supposed to… oh no!”
My legs gave out and I sank onto the edge of the bed. I tried desperately to calm my suddenly racing heart.
That’s right. I had to wake Ilena up. And pulling off the blanket was the most reliable way to do it, so I had no choice.
“I didn’t do anything wrong, I didn’t do anything wrong……”
I found myself muttering under my breath. I needed to think of another way to wake her, but my mind had gone completely blank. Even though it had only been for the briefest moment, that image was now burned into my brain and kept flashing before my eyes.
“Don’t think about it, don’t think about it! Thinking about it again would be wrong……”
How much time had passed while I sat there in a daze? Someone knocked on the door from outside.
“Roen, are you in there?”
It was Dipe’s voice. Thanks to her, I snapped back to my senses. First, I should open the door. Dipe stood there with a puzzled expression. There were food crumbs dotting the corners of her mouth like little specks, suggesting she had finished her lunch and come upstairs.
“Is the Demon King not awake yet?”
“Y-yeah, that’s right. I tried to wake her, but she won’t get up. Want to give it a try?”
“Yeah! I’ll wake her up! Demon King, wake up!”
Dipe let out a cheerful giggle and threw herself onto the bed.
“Ouch……!”
The impact wasn’t heavy, but it was enough to make Ilena bolt upright. Oh no. I had to look away again.
“What the—! What’s going on!!”
“Hehe, she’s awake now.”
“Dipe? You’re here too……?”
Ilena sounded utterly bewildered.
“Ugh, my head hurts. So you came to wake me? But why are you sitting there like that?”
“Well, you see……”
How was I supposed to explain why I was hunched over like this? That I had pulled off the blanket to wake her and ended up seeing something white and beautiful, and at the same time my mind had gone completely white too? No, I couldn’t say that. It was better to just keep my mouth shut.
Having decided that, I resolved to stare straight ahead no matter what.
“Eww. Dipe, you’ve got something on your mouth. Come here. I’ll wipe it for you.”
“It happened while I was eating lunch! You should eat lunch too, Demon King!”
“What? Lunch? Oh my goodness, that means……!”
Finally realizing what time it was, Ilena got out of bed. Then she walked over and patted my shoulder.
“Why didn’t you wake me up sooner? You know we have to move diligently from the morning if we want to get back.”
She was the one who wouldn’t wake up, so what was she saying? A wave of injustice surged up inside me. Before I could stop myself, I turned to look at her and said,
“What? You’re the one who wouldn’t get up, so why are you blaming me……”
“Then you should have woken me more forcefully from the start! Huh?”
Ilena seemed to sense that something was off and asked again.
“Why do you have that expression on your face?”
I didn’t answer. I simply closed my eyes quietly. That was the greatest consideration I could offer her right now.
“Why are you closing your eyes with such a happy look on your face? What did you see……”
Silence fell. It was only about five seconds, but it felt endlessly long. And what broke that silence was—
“Kyaaaaaah!!”
Ilena’s scream as she finally realized what had happened.
“Bearded human, goodbye!”
“Yes, yes, take care. Come visit again sometime.”
The innkeeper exchanged cheerful goodbyes with Dipe. Then he turned to Ilena and teased her mischievously.
“Next time I’ll prepare even better-tasting beer, so please do stop by again.”
“Ugh……”
“We’ll definitely stop by. Though I’ll have to control the amount next time.”
“Y-you!”
“Got something to say?”
“……No. Sorry.”
The moment we left the inn, I asked Ilena,
“So……”
“Kyaa!”
Even though I hadn’t said anything yet, Ilena flinched and shrank back in alarm. Her sharp shriek made the people on the street turn to look at us in surprise.
“Why are you so startled?”
“I-I don’t know! I can’t help it!”
“Good grief……”
“So what were you going to say?”
“I was going to ask what we should buy. The list Mother gave us only had strange things written on it.”
“That’s true. But it’s fine. We can just buy what we always buy. Let’s go to the market and decide while looking at the goods.”
As we stepped outside and began walking, Dipe naturally positioned herself between us. She took Ilena’s hand in her left and mine in her right. For a while, the three of us walked in silence.
But once again, it was Ilena who broke the quiet.
“Hng……”
“What, what is it now?”
“I didn’t want to show you an ugly side of me.”
“Ugly side?”
“Lately I’ve been practicing cooking, so I’ve put on a bit of weight. But to show you a body like that……”
So that was the direction her embarrassment was coming from? She was more worried about me seeing her with a little extra weight than about showing me her true form at birth……?
“I didn’t see any at all.”
“What do you mean you didn’t see any?”
“When I went into the room to wake you, only your leg was sticking out from under the blanket. I thought to myself how white and slender it was.”
“Aack……”
This time the scream was relatively weak, which was a relief. Now that I knew the real reason she was embarrassed was because of the weight gain, I grew curious.
“Can I ask you just one thing?”
“What?”
“Do you also prefer sleeping completely naked?”
“……”
I felt a chill and turned around to see Ilena staring at me with ice-cold eyes. It was a thrill I hadn’t felt in a long time.
“Say that again.”
“I-I’m really just asking out of curiosity. One of my old comrades preferred sleeping naked and it caused all sorts of trouble, that’s all.”
“Ugh……”
Ilena’s cold expression slowly crumbled, eventually turning into something close to tears. Her eyes began to glisten.
“I really was just asking because I was curious! I wasn’t trying to tease you!”
“Y-you… you……!”
Ilena squeezed her eyes shut and shouted with all her might.
“You pervert!!!”