Proof (3)
Proof (3)
Claire was more forceful than I had expected, and Leo was far more gentlemanly than I had anticipated.
Well, I had seen plenty of Leo's personality in the original story. That frustrating harem-protagonist personality, when I thought about it, was actually perfectly suited to a gentleman of this era. Never lay a hand on a lady's body without care, and even when necessary, treat her as gently as possible.
Not that I had ever seen Leo walking around wearing a silk hat or anything.
I could only see Alice's back as she walked ahead of me, but judging by how even the tips of her ears, glimpsed now and then past her hair, were bright red, her expression must have looked like she was about to have a heart attack from embarrassment. And every time Leo and Alice passed by, envious stares from the men poured in without restraint.
Still, even if a man threw himself at a bunny girl because he liked her, the odds that his feelings were genuine were low. Usually it wasn't because he was in love, but because the man in question clearly looked like he had a great deal of money. Naturally, the man would know that fact too, but there were few men who would go out of their way to refuse such "services" when a bunny girl personally approached to offer them.
On the other hand, despite still having her face covered by a mask, every bit of Alice's visible demeanor literally radiated embarrassment. It was not the sort of expression worn by a servant who had been through the grind here. And since Leo, true to his game protagonist nature, was young and handsome, it lent even more credibility to that bunny-girl Alice's reaction.
On the surface, the scene literally looked like something out of a fantasy: a female attendant smitten with a gentleman who was kind to every woman. Yes, from a man's perspective, it was probably worth envying.
Both of them were technically minors if you looked into it, but anyway.
On the other hand, I was actually drawing more gazes from the women.
The reason was probably pity.
Most of the men wandering around here had bare faces without masks, but nearly all the women had their faces concealed behind fans or wore half-masks like the bunny girls. It wasn't that women were forbidden from gambling, but the atmosphere wasn't exactly one where they could feel at ease about it.
Yet even beyond those masks, I could clearly feel that the women's gazes toward me were tinged with something like sympathy.
Because unlike Leo, who was escorting Alice without laying a single finger on her, Claire was walking while gripping my wrist tightly and practically dragging me along.
And while nothing was tucked between Alice's breasts, leaving them perfectly unadorned, between my breasts was... something anyone would identify as a tip.
It varied by individual, but homosexuals existed in this world too. There were men who pursued men, and women who pursued women. And there were also women in establishments like this who would pay a great deal of money to embrace a female attendant.
The women sending me sympathetic looks were probably almost all thinking something along those lines.
... Should I go back?
Should I just rewind everything to the beginning and try persuading Alice again?
I seriously agonized over it as I walked, pulled along by Claire, but in the end I abandoned the thought.
Yeah. Well.
I had come along because Alice wanted this badly enough.
I had come here knowing from the start that it would be embarrassing, so who else could I blame?
Resigning myself to whatever might happen, I simply followed Claire without any particular thought.
Fortunately, that state of blank detachment was exceedingly helpful for keeping a straight face.
*
"So you came all the way into a place like this to gather information? Dressed like that?"
When Claire asked in disbelief, Alice's face grew even redder.
A secluded corner of the building.
Having found a rear corridor that other patrons rarely passed through, the two of them had pulled us in here and now stood before us with their arms crossed.
Claire, utterly unfazed, wasn't even wearing a mask.
But I couldn't bring myself to point that out. Less because Claire frightened me, and more because the current situation was deeply, catastrophically humiliating. If I opened my mouth, my voice would crack one hundred percent.
Alice and I had removed our masks and were holding them. I was making an immense effort not to fidget nervously with my black half-mask, but Alice was already darting her eyes around and anxiously toying with the white half-mask she had worn.
"... Because a person who has information we need infiltrated this place as an attendant."
Hearing Alice's halting answer, Claire rubbed her face.
"Did it absolutely have to be in that outfit? You could have come as a guest like us, couldn't you?"
"......."
This was a little fascinating.
In the original story, the biggest reason Alice ended up in a bunny-girl outfit had actually been Claire.
Alice had lost her temper after hearing a line to the effect of, "I'm out here working in the field myself while you just sit around comfortably," and then, in a fit of pique, had infiltrated the place the exact same way Claire did... That was the original story's version.
And by an exquisite twist, this time she had been provoked not by Claire but by Bella.
In a sense, it was also a clue that Alice genuinely accepted Bella as a real sister. The imperial princess Bella was personally working in the field, so she felt it would be strange for her, an imperial princess just the same, to hang back behind the scenes. Exactly the same feeling Alice had harbored toward Claire in the original.
In a sense, she really was remarkably consistent.
"You say something too."
"Huh? Me?"
Leo, who in his sheer denseness had still been unable to turn his eyes toward us and had been counting the ceiling lights instead, flinched in surprise and looked at Claire, then shifted his gaze toward us, then immediately returned his eyes to their original position.
"......."
Watching Leo's thoroughly unhelpful reaction, Claire rubbed her face again.
In the original story, Leo hadn't recognized Alice right away during their first encounter. He only started to grow suspicious and went looking for her on the second day, after learning that Alice couldn't participate in the nighttime quests.
So his current reaction wasn't strange.
"And, Sis."
"...... Yes."
I deliberately turned back the gaze that I had been keeping away from Claire. She was looking at me with eyes that were practically blazing.
"Why are you dressed like that?"
Hm.
The mood seemed to suggest that asking, "Is that not allowed?" would be a bad idea.
I had been able to figure out why Claire was so angry while she was dragging me along by one wrist earlier.
It was because the orphanage where Claire and I had lived was that kind of place. Even if she hadn't known at the time, she must have learned about it later while investigating during the process of searching for me.
So, to put it bluntly... she probably didn't like seeing me wear the uniform of a job where one might have to sell one's body.
"It was because of me."
Before I could stammer out any excuse, Alice spoke first.
"I... insisted on infiltrating this place, so she only wore the same outfit to protect me."
"... Setting that aside."
Fortunately, Claire seemed to accept that part. Alice was one of the very few people who could read my expressions at a close enough range. Claire, who had watched that from right beside us, could probably understand too.
"And where did that outfit come from?"
"That's......"
This time, even Alice couldn't bring herself to answer.
Because the person who had so meticulously prepared even a bunny-girl costume for me to wear was none other than Bella. Although Bella, who had pushed us into these outfits and presumably intended to enjoy the sight of it, was nowhere to be seen.
Come to think of it, she hadn't been visible even before I turned back time. Judging by the reaction Chiara Berati had shown, Bella seemed to have approached quite close to her.
... She wasn't leisurely watching us from some distant spot, was she?
"Then why did you two come here so suddenly? Claire, you're not even wearing a mask."
"Huh?"
Cornered by the question, Alice immediately threw it right back at Claire.
Claire, who had been extremely self-assured only moments earlier, suddenly looked a little flustered when the question was turned on her.
"Before that, answer my ques—"
"An outfit like this is something you can get as many times as you want if you just try. Honestly, how many of the people working here in these clothes do you think can openly talk about their past without shame?"
"......."
"This is the kind of outfit you can get right away if you just say you'll work here. The person handing you the clothes doesn't care at all who you are. They'd never dream that I could be an imperial princess."
It was a little forced, but not an implausible story.
Who in the world would think that someone volunteering to work here as an attendant was actually an imperial princess? It was far more believable to assume it was just someone who looked like her.
"There, satisfied? So now you two tell us the reason. Leo I can understand, but—"
Leo's expression looked a little wounded when he heard that, but Alice ignored the reaction and continued pressing Claire.
"—what's the reason a woman is wandering around here without even covering her face? And what was that about boldly stuffing money between Sylvia's breasts a moment ago?"
"......."
Only then did I lower my eyes.
Several pound notes were still tucked between my breasts.
I hurriedly reached to pull the bills out and hand them back to Claire, then stopped.
... No matter how you looked at it, was it really okay to hand back money that had gotten this warm and damp?
Claire's expression looked complicated too.