I Own A Brothel In Another World (Ch. 1-196)

Chapter 20 - The Soul Relic

Waves of warm and sweet air brush against my face as I slowly start regaining my consciousness. My brain enters its booting sequence, sending probing commands towards every organ and limb. A small yawn escapes my mouth. After around thirty seconds, the body responds to the brain's pings and I begin realizing that the warm, soft and delicate puffs of air hitting my skin aren't exactly part of my waking up routine.

My mind switches to a higher gear and starts frantically going through all its data banks, recalling all the events of the previous day. The records end during the night, when I'm wiping away Sirgia's forehead from sweat, and then jump to the current moment. Another pleasant wave disperses when breaking off against my lips, nose and eyelids. A sudden realization arrives in the calculating centre of my head. I must have fallen asleep while nursing Sirgia.

I open my eyes a tiny bit, and as I suspected, there's a mountain range made of sheets, in the shape of a small person lying on their side. There's no doubt that it's covering a certain dwarf's lower body. And only just now I notice that my right arm is reaching over that hill and supporting its back. There is no more confusion about the mysterious hot air assaulting me above.

「Uaaaaaaah... I fucked up and drifted off literally centimetres from her. Even throwing my arm over... I better quickly get up before she wakes up.」

Fully opening my eyes, I prepare to lift myself up with as gentle movements as possible to not disturb the cute dwarf's rest, but before I do so, all the brain cells in the commanding centre abruptly stop responding and both my mind and body freeze in place. It takes me three full seconds to realize that I'm not staring at Sirgia's dangerously close sleeping face, but at Sirgia's dangerously close awake face. As I look into her cinnamon-brown eyes, she glances into my grey ones, with her usual neutral expression, like nothing is even a little bit wrong here.

Another wave of hot air travels towards my face when Sirgia exhales softly, sending shivers down my spine. I quickly close my eyes and focus on calming my panicked body and mind before I even try opening my mouth. Two deep breaths later, I feel ready to face her again and I lift my eyelids. Nothing has changed in the previous view.

"Morning," I start awkwardly while we gaze into each other's eyes.

"Uhn." She faintly nods without breaking the link.

"Ummmmm... How are you feeling now?"

"Good," Sirgia answers in a quiet tone.

"I see..."

Silence falls onto us and we just stare into each other's eyes awkwardly.

"Ermmm... Do you feel any weird? You lost consciousness pretty abruptly yesterday..." I ask, still worried that something might have happened to her.

She finally stops gazing into me and looks up. I follow her eyes and judge that she is looking at my arm which is bent under my head acting as a pillow, or more likely at my hand which is holding a piece of cloth.

"Did Master stay by my side the whole night, wiping my body?"

"Well... Yeah..."

Sirgia looks forward again but quickly lowers her gaze with a very faint blush on her cheeks. I'm starting to grow a little worried as I imagine her getting all embarrassed right now due to thinking about what I could have done or where I could have touched when she was asleep.

"I'm... sorry... for you having to do something like that for someone like me..." she whispers barely audible words, but we are so close they are sound and clear to me.

Her self-depreciative tone finally brings my cool back and I sigh deeply, making her look at my face again. I can't be such a sissy when she's more worried about me having to take care of her than of her own body. I move my hand, which was behind her back, up to her head and gently ruffle through her brown hair. Closing the remaining distance between us, I rest my forehead against hers and look into her charming eyes.