Lilia's Tale

Chapter 86: Sayuri

The one thing I had been waiting for finally happened. My room-mate arrived. It put a lot of questions on me at first, mostly relating to things I had been told but didn't directly remember, but I wanted to put them aside for now. I wasn't enthusiastic about it, anxious if anything, but I couldn't really let that be shown.

"Oh? She's my room-mate?"

"Yes. Her name is Sayuri Scarlet. Sayuri, this is Kouji Lilia."

Her face was still full of tears, making for quite the pretty scene despite the sadness of the moment.

"H-Hello..." she managed to say through her broken voice.

Her shyness was apparent, likely due to the situation she had found herself in. It prompted me to check around, although I was pleased to see that the place had gone back to its more usual activity. It made me hope that there was still hope for her young life to not be destroyed by bullies, although I also felt like a huge amount of responsibility fell onto my shoulders.

"Let's go see your new room together."

She simply nodded and swept her tears before we went up together. I was happy I had kept the place clean and well organised, although another previous worry of mine resurfaced at that instant. I was going to be together with a very young girl. As room-mates.

We arrived and she took the time to look around. While she was, Mark said that he had things to do and left me alone to explain the layout of the room.

"Uhm... Sayuri?"

She didn't respond but look at me in embarrassment. It made me self-conscious about the way I called her.

"Ah, I'm sorry if it felt a little too familiar. We'll be in the same room so I figured we should be on good terms. Would Scarlet-san be better?"

She shook her head. I was confused but didn't want to ponder too much.

"W-well... Let's talk about how we call each other another time. For now, let's take a tour, shall we?"

I then proceeded to explain to her everything I knew about the room. I could tell she was listening attentively, as if to try and gather as much information as I could. Once I was done explaining, she went on to ask questions. The first one took me off-guard, as she asked how to operate the bath.

"Y-You've never taken a bath before...?"

"I have, but... Maids would always prepare it for me..."

"... Right. Your mother mentioned something about who she was, and considering the fancy clothes, you definitely have to be very rich."

Her body tensed up as she stood in embarrassment. I wasn't sure what to make of it, but figured it was because I mentioned her mother.

"Well, there is a first time for everything. Don't worry, I'll teach you."

Her face brightened up a bit as I started explaining the devices to her. I could tell she was a little more relaxed now than she was before but couldn't tell beyond that. Once she understood, we went back to answering her questions. There weren't all too many, which made me both happy that she was seemingly quite intelligent, and sad that I couldn't help her more.

Once everything was in order, I told her she should get her luggage open and organised, most notably having her clothes hanged into the closet. She looked at me in embarrassment again, staying quiet. It took me some time to realise.

"You don't know how to handle your luggage, do you?"

She became even more embarrassed, telling me I was right. I sighed.