令嬢はまったりをご所望 (HIATUS)

V2 Chapter 16

「......What's wrong?」

「This is not done by me! Look!」

Taking a closer look, in her hands was the amulet that was stuck to the door handle just now. It was a light brown crystal. Wrapping her hands around the crystal, it started to glow and burst open. The resulting backlash she suffered caused her hands to swell, turning bright red.

「It's not me.」

Her blue eyes stared straight into my own.

I finally understood that it was not ojou who stuck that amulet, but someone else. Someone else who wanted to harass the Beastmen squad. Ojou was not rejecting us. She didn't hate us.

Once that clicked in my head, it was like something had snapped. Tears started to fall from my eyes.

「I'm sorry......I-I thought......」

I thought that you hated me.
The pain felt like something had pierced through my chest. And my tears continued to rain down. I couldn't seem to stop them.

「Crap. I-I should go......」

I intended to leave immediately but my hand was caught. Just as I thought she was pulling on my hand, I was caught in her tight embrace.

「It's alright, Ryuse-san. I won't hate you for no reason. Everything is fine.」

She said as she stroked my head. What a gentle voice. Because of this, more tears burst forth beyond my control.
No one has ever said this to me. Nor has anyone done this to me.

「You can stay here, Ryuse-san.」

「......Un......」

I tapped Ojou's arm with my tail, for her to let go of me.
It was too embarrassing to face her. In the end, I still turned my face away from her.

「I want to head back first......」

「I understand. Please come back later with everyone else. It's a promise.」

「Un, promise......」

Ojou smiled kindly at me as she spoke. That smile caused my heart to become unsettled.

「Please take your time......Meanwhile, I'll go have a talk with the culprit. They've ticked me off.」
(lilies: I think we can all guess what's going to happen...)

「Eh?」

Her expression and atmosphere changed abruptly. It gave me a shock as the temperature around her dropped.

「The culprit is probably the coffeeshop owner from the neighbouring city. Didn't he bring me an anti-beast amulet before? However, the amulet was destroyed by Shize-san. This scent......it's probably the lingering scent of his cologne. I can't forgive him for attaching this amulet on his own accord and hurting my friends. I will make that clear to him.」

At that time, I had noticed the artificial smell as well. But in my anger, I didn't realise until now.

「O-Oh......I understand......」

So ojou could get angry too? What a surprise. What a surprising sight of her I didn't know before.
Then, I told her goodbye and decided to head back.
Ah ah, that was really bad.

「Tadaima--」

When I got home, I headed to the common room. Only Chise and Shize were around. Chise was in deep sleep, snoring loudly, Shize opened his eyes and cast a brief look at me.

「Hmm? Why are you back, Ryuse?」

Sena entered the common room with a book in hand. Recently, he seemed to be having excited discussions about that book with ojou. Boring.