So tired... but why can't I fall asleep?
Megumin stared at the ceiling with hollow, expressionless eyes. Her eyelids could barely stay open, yet the moment she closed them and tried to drift off, her brain would suddenly spring into hyperactivity—one moment thinking about Explosion magic, the next about Jhin's infuriatingly smug, mischievous grin that made her itch with annoyance.
I can't sleep, and it's definitely Jhin's fault!!
She sat up and pounded the blanket a few times in a huff, then grabbed her pillow and, treating it as Jhin's face, yanked, pulled, and squeezed it with all her might.
"I'm going to go demand an explanation from him!"
Having found herself a good excuse, Megumin slipped on her slippers with a clear conscience and walked into Jhin's bedroom.
The instant she entered the room, that reassuring scent nearly made her topple straight to the floor and pass out asleep right there.
Does this guy really have such a good sleep-inducing effect?
Megumin pressed her index fingers against her upper eyelids to keep herself from closing her eyes and dozing off. She walked over to Jhin's bedside, slipped her little feet out of her shoes, and gave his butt two light kicks: "Hey, scoot over and leave some room for me."
"Mmf—" Jhin mumbled a few indistinct grunts and shifted to the side while lying on his flank.
"Tch, you didn't really make much space at all. Whatever, as long as I can sleep."
Lifting the blanket, burrowing into the covers, closing her eyes—she performed this whole sequence with practiced, flowing ease. But before long, those red eyes snapped open again.
Something just feels like it's missing...
Megumin furrowed her brow in dissatisfaction. The soft bed, the warm covers, the reassuring atmosphere—all the elements suited for sleep were now assembled, so why still couldn't she fall asleep?
She turned over and stared at Jhin's back for a while, her pink lips pursing slightly.
Why is he still sleeping on his side?
Without a word, Megumin grabbed his shoulder and turned him over into a face-up position. She gazed at him for a moment, then, finally satisfied, draped her right leg over his "detox" spot and rubbed against it a couple of times.
Now this is the right flavor.
Perhaps because she was overly exhausted, or perhaps because her attention was wholly fixed on Jhin, Megumin failed to notice the white strands of hair and the pointed ears characteristic of elves poking out from the bulge in the blanket to his left.
Kokkoro was dreaming that she had brought Jhin back to the Fairy Forest, leading him on a tour of this beautiful forest that had not been opened to other races for so very long.
"Master, this is the Cheese Snow Leopard. The cheese slices it produces are very popular in the human realm." She pointed at a creamy-yellow leopard kept in an enclosure in the distance and said to Jhin.
"Does it have a friend who smiles really innocently?"
"Probably not, at least I've never heard of one. Even though we elves are friends of animals, not many people would go out of their way to befriend merchandise—just like in the human realm, no one would make friends with a Baa-Baa Cow."
"Alright, forget I said anything. Where to next?"
"Next, let's take a little leaf-boat straight to my old village."
"Old? What about your current village?"
"My current village is right here by Master's side." Kokkoro smiled serenely, then took Jhin's hand and boarded the little boat woven from leaves.
She bent down to pick up the oar and start rowing, but he beat her to it.
"There's no reason to make you do the rowing. Let me do it."
"Mm."
Kokkoro sat down in Jhin's lap and felt some object poking against her back. Puzzled, she turned her head: "Master, what's poking me?"
"Oh, don't mind it. It's probably the oar." Jhin gave a hearty laugh, revealing his neat, white teeth.
As his words fell, he gripped the oar and rowed the leaf-boat along the stream toward their destination—and Kokkoro woke from the dream. She blinked groggily, then immediately flushed red in her little face.
M-Master is a boy too, so it's... it's only natural for this kind of thing to happen!
After silently repeating this line to herself a few times in her heart, she used her little hands to gently move it aside, then rose and left the covers, preparing to return to her room to change clothes, freshen up, and make food.
Before heading out, Kokkoro glanced back once more at Megumin, who was hugging Jhin and grinning foolishly in her sleep.
Strange, when did she and Master get on such good terms?
Having lost the suitable hugging pillow in his arms, Jhin instinctively turned over and pulled the thing behind him—soft and fluffy like cotton candy and giving off a sweet fragrance—into his embrace.
"Mmf... ugh." Megumin, who had still been smiling moments ago, instantly looked like prey squeezed tight in the coils of a python, her face contorting with a suffocating, pained expression: "Venomous snake... no..."
Before long, she woke up panting, only to find herself clamped tightly in Jhin's arms, with a familiar scent and a wicked thing leaving her whole body limp and weak.
She tried to pull her hand out, but couldn't break free at all, and she didn't want to wake him either. So Megumin could only stretch out her neck, open her little mouth, and vent her frustration by lightly biting his collarbone with her pearly teeth.
Jerk, you won't even let a person sleep in peace!
After some time, Kokkoro pushed open the door and walked in, waking the two who had somehow ended up sleeping in a grappling-match posture on the bed: "Megumin, Master, time to get up and eat. It's already noon of the second day!"
Jhin lifted his head with bleary, sleep-laden eyes and saw Kokkoro standing in the doorway wearing a kitchen apron. His brain couldn't quite catch up: "Weren't you the one sleeping in my arms? How'd you get up already?"
"The one you're holding right now isn't me—it's Megumin."
"Megumin?" Jhin looked down. The person clamping his "little brother" really was the newly minted "good buddy": "Uh... when did you sneak into my bed?"
Caught sleeping in a boy's covers, and being held tight no less, Megumin flushed red in her little face and glared at him with a fierce look that carried not the slightest lethal power: "Hurry up and let me go already!"
"Oh, oh, oh."
"Once you two are up, hurry and go brush your teeth and wash your faces. The meal's about to be served." After saying this, Kokkoro left the room. Their relationship did indeed surprise her a little, but only that much.
If anything, she was very happy to see Jhin able to find a lover. Ensuring her master had a complete life experience was one of the duties exclusive to a guide—if he didn't even have a lover, how could it count as a complete life?
Megumin felt embarrassed about being caught by Kokkoro sharing a bed with Jhin, but deep in her heart a sliver of secret delight also bubbled up, as if she'd declared sovereignty over someone else in a roundabout way.
This prank-loving bastard is going to be mine from now on!
Without giving Jhin any explanation, she got up and left in a cheerful mood, humming a lively tune.
Jhin gave a helpless shrug of his shoulders and pulled back the blanket to change out of his pajamas, only to catch sight of the dark water stain on his pants. His right brow shot up high at once, and he began plotting to go give Megumin a little "detox" tonight.
Because he'd slept all the way through to noon of the second day, his plan to collect morning dew fell through. Jhin decided to rest until tomorrow before continuing onward. After finishing lunch, he returned to the bedroom to catch up on sleep, and then, in the evening, sneaked quietly into Megumin's room.
Kokkoro, hugging a pillow, pushed open the door to Jhin's bedroom, only to find her master wasn't inside at all. A question mark popped up over her little head.
Where did Master go?
____
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