"Mmmgh… it's so good… so good…"
Tears streamed down Honjō Nia's face as she shoveled food into her mouth, one bite after another. Emotion overwhelmed her, and glistening droplets rolled down her cheeks.
Mélusine, on the other hand, could only respond with a blank stare.
"Really? It's just a pancake."
"But it's really delicious…"
Nia wiped her tear-streaked cheeks with her sleeve, voice trembling with gratitude.
"What do I do, Lan-chan… I feel like I'm getting addicted to you…"
"Am I some kind of controlled substance now? If that's the case, I'd better leave you before you get hooked."
"Huh? What kind of response is that?! This is where you're supposed to say, 'As your knight, I shall remain by your side forever, until death do us part — My Princess!' Where's your sense of romance?!"
She banged her spoon on the table in protest.
"I don't have the patience to act out a cliché stage drama with you."
"It might be cliché on stage, but in real life it's kinda romantic, you know…"
Mélusine shook her head and turned her gaze to Yoshino, who sat quietly at the table, her plate already empty.
"Did you get enough to eat, Yoshino?"
"Mhm… Thank you, Lancelot-onee-san."
Blushing, Yoshino offered a shy but heartfelt thanks.
"It was really delicious!"
The bunny puppet Yoshinon chimed in next, nodding emphatically.
"I can hardly believe it. A simple pancake can taste this good? We saw every step of the process, and none of it seemed special, but somehow the result still hits you right in the soul. If Lancelot ever opened a shop, I bet it'd be a huge success!"
Mélusine wasn't particularly surprised by the praise. After all, she'd once learned pâtisserie from Ai-nee — by now she was basically a state-level pastry chef. Pancakes were child's play.
"What kind of desserts would you call 'extraordinary'?"
Curious, Mélusine asked the question. And Yoshinon, without missing a beat, replied:
"Hmm… Maybe if the ingredients floated by themselves? Or if the pancakes glowed gold the moment they were finished?"
"That kind of thing only happens in manga. Come on."
Nia's mouth twitched as she deadpanned:
"We live in the real world. If your food's glowing, it probably contains flashbang powder or something."
After breakfast, naturally, the dishwashing fell to Mélusine.
Cooking and cleaning kept her busy — literally off the ground.
The kitchen counters were the perfect height for Shidō, but for Mélusine, who stood only 147 cm (just 3 cm taller than Yoshino), they were uncomfortably high.
So if you walked into the kitchen at the moment, you'd see Mélusine floating the whole time — washing dishes mid-air.
It was during this dishwashing that she noticed Yoshino walking in. Her golden eyes flicked toward her in mild surprise, and she shut off the tap to speak.
"What is it, Yoshino? Do you need something?"
Her tone was calm and natural — so natural that Yoshino could sense instinctively that this was someone used to extending a hand to others.
Her dreamy eyes sparkled with admiration.
"N-No… I just…"
"Our lovely little Yoshino came to help!"
Yoshinon piped up on her behalf.
"You see, we were just lying on the couch watching TV while Lancelot was busy in the kitchen — and that made Yoshino feel kinda guilty."
Mélusine blinked, then shifted her gaze from the puppet back to Yoshino.
"Is that true?"
"...Mhm."
Yoshino nodded, so softly that anyone else might've missed it.
What a good child, Mélusine thought warmly.
"The fact that you even thought of it is enough. Thank you."
"Mm…"
Yoshino let out a quiet whimper, like a startled rabbit. Her gaze darted away in embarrassment.
Lancelot-onee-san… is so cool…
That thought bloomed in her chest like a firework — bursting with color the moment Mélusine thanked her.
Then Nia barged into the kitchen.
"Lan-chan! I wanna help with the dishes too!"
"Get out."
"What?! Why?!"
"You really need to ask?"
Mélusine narrowed her golden eyes and glared coldly at her.
"Yoshino came out of genuine goodwill. You? You're just going to cause trouble. You can't even tell sugar from salt. What if you mistake toilet cleaner for dish soap?"
"I'm not that hopeless! I wouldn't intentionally grab toilet cleaner from the bathroom and bring it into the kitchen just to wash dishes with it!"
Nia stomped her foot in outrage.
"That's defamation! Pure, unfiltered slander! I could sue you for that!"
Ultimately, both Yoshino and "nonessential personnel" Nia were kicked out of the "sacred ground" that was Mélusine's kitchen.
So the two of them plopped down on the couch and began watching TV.
Inevitably, they argued over what to watch — Nia wanted anime, Yoshino wanted soap operas.
Unsurprisingly, Yoshino lost the battle. Even with Yoshinon's help, it wasn't enough. A bunny puppet couldn't exactly punch Nia in the face.
But Mélusine could.
She exited the kitchen mid-dishes, walked straight up to Nia (who was smugly holding the remote aloft in victory), and delivered a bop to the head. Then she handed the remote to Yoshino.
"Aren't you supposed to act your age? Stealing the remote from a kid — seriously?"
"Lan-chan, you're totally biased…"
She wasn't wrong.
Yoshino's cuteness was a factor, sure — but more than that…
"You've got a ton of manga to read. But Yoshino only has the TV. Of course I'm going to side with her."
"But… the anime I wanted to watch is about to start…"
Nia looked up at her pitifully.
"If I miss it, I'll be heartbroken…"
"Then use your Tome of Revelation to catch up. Doesn't that thing know everything?"
"That doesn't count!"
Nia shot up in protest.
"That's soulless! Just dumping the plot into your head isn't watching anime — it's a cheat! It's sacrilege!"
Having been smacked into submission, Nia reluctantly joined Yoshino in watching soap operas.
And quickly grew bored.
"Hey, Nia."
"Hm?"
Mélusine finished putting away the last dish, untied her apron, and stepped out of the kitchen.
"Don't you have your own place? Never thought about going back?"
Both Nia and Kotori, despite becoming Spirits, had managed to keep functioning in human society. The main reason was that they'd retained their memories from before their transformation.
Kurumi and Origami were the same. But unlike Kotori, they'd chosen to sever ties with their past selves — and walked down paths of no return, driven by obsession.
No one really knew why Kotori and future Origami kept their memories. All the other Spirits had theirs erased after awakening.
Kurumi and Nia were outliers. Thanks to their borderline cheat abilities, they'd both recovered their memories almost immediately.
"Of course I thought about going back…"
Nia slumped into the couch like a deflated balloon.
"All my drawing tools are still there… I spent a lot of money on that pro gear back in the day."
"Wait — you're a manga artist?"
Yoshinon sounded genuinely surprised, if a little cartoonish about it.
Yoshino, meanwhile, was pure admiration.
"That's amazing…"
"Ehehe, it's nothing, really…"
Seeing Nia grinning like an idiot, Mélusine sighed inwardly. She was getting way too pleased with herself.
"But you were imprisoned by DEM for five years, weren't you?"
Mélusine interjected smoothly.
"So your manga's been on hiatus that whole time. Your readers probably think you took the money and ran — or got hit by a truck."
"That's not my fault!"
Nia flailed her arms in protest.
"That was an act of God!"
"Try telling that to your fans. 'Sorry I ghosted for five years — I was kidnapped by an evil megacorp for research.' Yeah, they'll totally buy that."
"Guh…"
Nia made a miserable "cooing" noise. Just like a pigeon.
"Five years off the grid… that's rough."
Yoshinon stroked her chin thoughtfully.
"At this point, most of your fanbase is probably gone. Even if you start updating again, not many people will come back. Actually, your editor might reject your return outright."
"No way!"
Nia shot upright, fired up.
"Even if I've been gone for five years, I'm sure I still have loads of loyal fans waiting for the return of the great Honjō Aoji!"
At that moment, Mélusine seemed to recall something.
"Come to think of it… Shidō might be one of them."
"Eh? Really?!"
Nia turned toward her, eyes sparkling. Yoshino perked up too, curiosity piqued.
"I saw some of your manga in Shidō's room. The author credit said 'Honjō Aoji.'"
Mélusine rubbed her chin.
"I'd heard that boys tend to hide their dirty magazines under the bed, so I decided to check… and was slightly disappointed to find it was just normal manga."
"Well, he does have a little sister. If he did stash anything naughty under there, he'd have been caught ages ago."
Nia nodded, then her face lit up with devious delight.
"If it were me, I'd hide it somewhere trickier — like behind the AC unit, in a false drawer bottom, or tucked inside a pillowcase…"
The more she spoke, the more fired up she got. Eventually, she stood up.
"Let's go check his room right now!"
"M-Mister Shidō wouldn't do something like that!"
Flushed red, Yoshino finally stepped in to stop her.
"Tsk tsk. You poor innocent child…"
Nia wagged her finger like she knew everything.
"Let me teach you something, Yoshino: there's no such thing as a man who isn't a perv. Especially at Shidō's age — he's at peak hormonal overload. And he lives under one roof with a bunch of super cute girls who practically throw fanservice at him every day. You think any normal guy wouldn't have snapped by now? Tohka would've had twins by now if it were anyone else."
"So I guarantee he's been secretly finding ways to blow off steam. That's the only reason he can stay so saintly — he's living in a state of constant post-nut clarity!"
Okay, that analysis sounded way too well-reasoned.
Yoshino instinctively wanted to object, but the implications were so overwhelming that her mind just went blank. In the end, all she could squeak out was:
"B-But… it's not right to go into someone's room without permission…"
It wasn't that she disagreed with Nia's logic — she just thought the behavior was wrong. Which meant… a part of her actually believed Nia's theory.
Nia noticed.
And grinned like the little devil she was.
"Come on. As long as we don't get caught, it doesn't count. Just like cheating on a test — if nobody finds out, it never happened."
She leaned in, voice like a demon whispering temptation.
"And besides… don't you want to know what kind of girls Shidō likes?"
Yoshino's eyes widened.
Nia's grin deepened.
"Like, does he prefer tall girls or petite ones? Long hair or short? Lively and playful or shy and quiet? Big chest or flat? You can learn everything from a man's hidden stash."
Mélusine, standing off to the side, glanced over briefly before losing interest and turning away.
As expected, Nia's tempting words swayed Yoshino — the two of them crept into Shidō's room in search of "certain kinds" of books.
They didn't find any.
No hidden porn, no scandalous material.
But they did discover some entertaining manga.
And just like that, the two of them sat down together and started reading comics side by side.