But even so, Kanne still seemed a little unhappy, making him chuckle.
"Don't worry about it so much. You've still got plenty of chances anyway. You can just take the exam again in three years."
"But without you and Lawine around, I definitely won't make it," Kanne dejectedly placed her hands on her legs and lowered her head deeply.
"If it really doesn't work out, you could try buttering me up. I might be able to pull some strings for you when the time comes."
"That's allowed?"
"It should be… and if that doesn't work, I can just take the exam with you again?"
"Really? Then… then it's a promise!"
What was meant as a casual joke said with a smile made Kanne overjoyed. She grabbed his hand and held it to her chest, her eyes shining as she said, "In three years! We'll go together again!"
"Ah! Uh! I mean, I said that, but…"
"Wait, no matter how you think about it, there's no way I'd actually go take the exam with her, right?', Realizing his joke had been misunderstood, Ash felt dumbfounded and tried to vaguely clarify, but Kanne's gaze had already started drifting.
From time to time, she secretly glanced at Linie beside them, then swept her gaze across his face, looking both shy and nervous. But he had no idea what the girl was thinking.
Finally, noticing that Linie seemed to be spacing out over there, Kanne gathered her courage. In one swift motion, she grabbed his hand and placed it directly on her exposed stomach.
At that moment, feeling the warmth and touch of his palm clearly, her body stiffened, and the blush on her cheeks deepened without her noticing.
Her lips were tightly pressed together, unable to make a sound, but her heartbeat and breathing both became noticeably faster. Even Ash could clearly feel the softness, warmth, and rapid heartbeat beneath his palm.
Linie's gaze also fell onto his hand, showing a thoughtful expression. It made him feel like he should do something, or say something.
Reason told him he should stop all of this, but before the words could leave his mouth, a cold gaze pierced through the air like a blade.
Looking up, he saw Lawine staring at him with undisguised disgust.
That gaze was as cold as the harshest blizzard of the northern lands, as if it could freeze someone from a distance.
"Wait a second. You can tell just from my hand position that it was pushed down, right?", he hurriedly explained, trying to prevent the misunderstanding from escalating and ease the awkward atmosphere.
"??"
Lawine froze for a moment, then carefully examined Kanne's hand movements. Instantly, she felt deeply betrayed. She rushed forward, grabbed Kanne's wrist, and tried to pin her to the ground while angrily accusing, "Kanne! You had the nerve to criticize me yesterday? And now you… you're actually doing something like this?"
"I didn't! This is just… just what mister asked for!", In her panic, struggling with Lawine's grip midair and trying with all her strength to push her back, Kanne's face turned red as she instinctively shifted the blame onto Ash.
Ash pointed at himself in confusion, while Lawine's scolding came like a barrage, "That pervert said it, and you just obediently agreed? Are you an idiot?"
"I'm not—Wait, no! Didn't you also show mister your underwear yesterday? So who's the bigger idiot?", Kanne shot back unwilling to back down, instantly escalating their argument.
Meanwhile, Ash, who got caught in the crossfire for no good reason, ended up being stared at expressionlessly by Linie because of what they were saying.
'Why is it that just picking up a random troublesome girl ends up leading to so many weird situations?', Listening to the two girls arguing beside him while constantly dragging him into it, Ash felt like he was taking way too many stray hits.
Sure, he did enjoy some benefits, but it's not like he actively asked for them, right? After all, he still considered himself a proper gentleman and wouldn't take the initiative to make such weird requests.
But just as he was questioning his life choices, the two girls suddenly interlocked their fingers, faces flushed red, and began pushing against each other like sumo wrestlers, as if whoever couldn't argue anymore would simply use strength to pin the other down, even though they were both mages.
Normally, once things got physical, someone should step in to stop them. But since they had been fighting like this since childhood, Ash found himself strangely lacking the motivation to intervene.
Still… after quietly worrying for a moment, he couldn't help but step forward and press down on both their heads, forcibly separating them.
"Calm down, both of you. You're good sisters, so why argue over something like this?"
"What 'good sisters'? You're the one who's the uncle, right?", Lawine looked at him speechlessly, while Kanne sized him up and down with a worried expression, "Could it be… you're actually an aunt?"
"You both know I was only talking about you two, right? That doesn't include me at all," Both annoyed and amused, he patted their heads, then sighed and sat back down, resting his elbow on Linie's shoulder and propping his chin up with one hand.
"Seriously, why do you two keep ruining my reputation? Think about me, for once, will you?"
"How are we ruining it?", Lawine shot him a displeased, cold look, "I've never heard you had any good reputation to begin with."
"Even I haven't heard of one, but I haven't actually done anything perverted, have I?"
"You saw my… that!"
"That wasn't my fault," Even though the girl's face had turned bright red, he denied it without hesitation.
Kanne also clutched her stomach and stammered, "Y-you also touched my stomach!"
"But that wasn't my fault either," Ash reflexively denied it again.
Even though he felt he wasn't lying and that he really wasn't at fault, there was definitely some responsibility on his part. After all, he had been the one who initially said he wanted to touch it.
Because of that, both girls still looked unhappy, but… before they could flare up again, he first patted Linie's head, then turned the tables and seriously reproached them, "Even if I might have done something wrong, before you say weird things, you should at least consider the time and place, right? There's a child here. What if you corrupt her?"
"Uh…"
"That's true…"
Despite their very different personalities, both girls were fundamentally good kids. At his words, they were left speechless, even showing guilt on their faces.
'So having a conscience just makes things inconvenient, huh? The higher your morals, the more restrictions you have… and… cute really is justice,' Putting on a helpless expression, Ash couldn't help but sigh internally as he observed them.
That last thought came because their sense of morality seemed heightened compared to usual, probably because Linie looked very cute. They both seemed to like her, their gazes unconsciously drifting toward her, clearly paying attention.
After the argument stopped, Lawine even adjusted her skirt and quietly asked him about Linie. He replied seriously, "I can tell you, of course, but… how are you planning to thank me?"
"I'll treat you to a meal?"
"No."
"Y-you don't mean you want to see my… un-un… that again, do you?"
"Don't say weird things in front of a child," He flicked her forehead, then casually added under her dissatisfied gaze, "My request isn't strange. I just hope you'll be a bit more polite to me in the future. Treat me better."
"As long as you don't do weird things, I'd like to treat you better too!", His casual request only made Lawine more dissatisfied.
The implication being that he was always doing weird things.
That made him look at Kanne. The blush on her face hadn't faded yet, and she couldn't help pouting, "It's all mister's fault."
"Alright, alright, it's all my fault. But I'm begging you, can you stop calling me 'mister'? It gives me a weird feeling."
"But you are a mister."
"If not a mister, what do you want to be?"
His troubled expression made the two girls, now united against a common enemy, refute him in unison.
After rubbing his aching temples for a while, he simply patted their heads, stood up, and suggested calmly, "Let's change locations before we keep talking. If we stay here, it won't just be me, you two will end up becoming weirdos too."
"That's true."
"It's all because mister is too weird."
The two girls brushed his hands away at the same time, muttering as they walked ahead, still discussing all the bad things he had done.
That forced Ash, walking behind them, to cover Linie's ears as he quietly took the chance to slip away. Not that he wanted to run, but he was worried that if Linie heard too much of their conversation, she might go back and corrupt someone else.
He definitely didn't want this stuff to become material for Aura and Solitar to tease him with. Though before he could get far, the two girls noticed him at once, dropped their quarrel, and rushed toward him.
He immediately used a high-speed movement spell, vanishing from their sight in an instant, disappearing without a trace.
Lawine stomped her foot in anger, while Kanne even shouted from where she stood, guarding the two crates of apples he had left behind, waiting to see if he'd dare come back for them.
———
Relying on high-speed movement to escape, Ash soon arrived somewhere else, a bench in front of a park.
After setting down a bag of apples beside him, he sat there gloomily to rest for a bit. Linie reached out and touched the seat next to him, apparently getting a fingerful of dust, so she simply sat directly on his lap.
Without a word, she casually wiped the dust from her fingertips on his sleeve, then leisurely swung her legs.
She didn't say anything, but she seemed to be in a good mood.
Ash looked at his now dirt-stained sleeve, let out a long sigh, and didn't even have the energy left to lecture her anymore. He just gave up and slouched there together with Linie on the bench.
But he didn't get to relax for long. Linie quietly grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach, letting him clearly feel through her clothes a softness different from Kanne's.
That left him puzzled for a moment before he asked, "What are you doing? Want me to feel it? Did you eat too much?"
"This is temptation."
"Ah, is that so? Very tempting indeed~"
Linie's voice lacked any emotional fluctuation. He casually rubbed her little belly without thinking much of it… it just felt nice, soft and springy, oddly satisfying to touch.
He didn't have any other thoughts. After all, she was still a child. He wasn't some kind of beast, right?
Kanne and Lawine were both girls, so touching them felt a bit inappropriate. Playfully patting them was fine, but actually touching was a bit…
But his attitude made Linie seem a bit unhappy instead.
Unfortunately, he didn't care. While rubbing her stomach like an elder comforting a child with a stomachache, he stared into the distance, lost in thought. Wondering whether those two girls might go wait outside his house.
If that happened, when would he even be able to go back?
Before he could come to a conclusion, Linie, venting her dissatisfaction by biting into an apple until juice covered her hands, quickly tossed the core aside, then suddenly leaned into his chest, wiping her hands and mouth on his collar.
Others might not understand, but Ash knew this was how she acted when she was unhappy. But after talking to her all day, he was already tired, so for now he didn't want to say anything. He continued his ultimate strategy: doing nothing.
One hand rubbed Linie's head, the other kneaded her stomach, while he idly worried about life and enjoyed the presence of a girl.
But… after who knows how long, another girl appeared beside him.
Sense, who seemed to have been busy with something and had a large stack of documents floating beside her, stopped there with a strange expression, looking at him like she wanted to say something but couldn't.
Before she could speak, Ash naturally asked first, "What's wrong?"
"What's… wrong?", The girl unconsciously echoed him, tilting her head. His calmness even made her start to doubt whether thinking this situation was abnormal was what was actually abnormal.
To prevent Linie from saying anything strange again, and seeing Sense looking a bit confused, Ash added, "This child is a relative's kid. I basically raised her. Her stomach hurts right now, and I happen to know a family technique for rubbing the stomach. Just touching it a bit will make it better… so you understand what I'm doing, right?"
"Is that so? Um… actually… my stomach hurts a bit too?"
Sense nodded along without thinking too deeply, but somehow ended up saying something that even surprised herself.
As soon as she said it, she opened her mouth slightly, wanting to correct herself, but for some reason didn't know how to explain, or maybe didn't want to. So she simply stiffened her expression and stared at him.
Even if she didn't realize it, Ash felt that the fluffy little girl beside him was giving off an expectant atmosphere.
After thinking for a moment, he picked Linie up and set her aside, then tentatively patted his thigh, "Want to try too?"
"Eh… sit on your lap?"
"Yeah, want to try?"
"Well… then… excuse me…"
Also an emotionless-type girl, Sense was much more polite. She muttered softly as she carefully sat sideways on his lap, then looked up at him with a strange sense of nervousness.
He hadn't expected her to actually sit down, leaving Ash in a bit of a bind. Under Linie's sharp gaze, he hesitated before reaching out to touch the flat stomach of the girl in his arms.
"Uu!"
Just a light touch made Sense let out a small whimper.
She should have been within the "safe zone," but that strange sound made Ash feel a bit awkward. Still, pulling his hand back now would make him seem guilty, so he could only continue.
Sense lowered her head deeply, letting her messy hair hide her expression, pressing her lips together to avoid making any more strange noises and causing unnecessary misunderstandings.
After a while, she finally let out a long breath, calming down a bit. Then, staring at the ground, she softly changed the subject, "Lord Ash, it's about time for you to set off, isn't it?"
"Hmm… more or less?"
"But for now, it's better not to leave the kingdom," Sense hesitated, then lowered her voice as if to avoid Linie hearing and quietly advised, "According to the latest intelligence sent back by a first-class mage, Lineal, who is carrying out espionage within the Empire, after the kingdom deployed troops nearby, the Empire also moved two legions for defense. It's said the Holy Wand Court has sent several experts, and the Magic Special Operations Unit also seems to be making significant moves."
"You're worried a war might break out?"
"Haven't there already been signs of that? If anything, it's stranger that it hasn't happened yet."
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
[email protected]/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through P@treon.