Masamichi had held back his laughter at Shino’s pompous tone. The specter hadn’t been joking. He seriously thought he was making a concession.
“You’re allowing me to tidy up. Okay. But how can I divide the things up?”
“Use your third eye.”
“Oh, I see.”
That made sense, and Masamichi had nodded.
The third eye Shino had told him about saw things that weren’t of this world. Indeed, he should be able to tell right away if a vessel was an artifact spirit or not.
“But I’m not sure if I can do that by myself…”
“I know that.”
Shino had reached out carelessly with one hand and tapped Masamichi’s brow with the tip of his index finger.
“Oh!” Masamichi had cried out. The moment Shino touched him, a tingling pain ran through Masamichi’s body, and he reflexively squeezed his eyes shut.
He’d known what Shino was doing. The specter was pouring a very small amount of his magic power into him to awaken his third eye…but it was a stimulus that was tough to get used to.
“You seem to be able to open it a little with a bit of help now. Hurry up and get the hang of it so you can do it yourself.”
“…I’ll try, but it isn’t that easy,” he’d replied with his eyes still closed.
In the pitch-black darkness, he could see small lights flickering and then disappearing like fluttering stars.
They were the light emitted by the souls of the artifact spirits in the box.
“Thanks for your help, Shino,” Masamichi had said, slowly opening his regular eyes. “I can see now. So you want me to divide everything in the box into two groups, right?”
Shino had answered in the affirmative and then returned his attention to the book on his desk.
Masamichi had wondered if he should take the box to his room so he wouldn’t disturb Shino’s reading, but the fact that his master had summoned him must have meant that he should get to work under his watchful gaze.
“I’ll go get another box for the vessels I pick out.”
Without expecting a response, Masamichi had quietly crept out of Shino’s room.
“Oh, I’d been taking the items out one by one, wiping them clean, and determining whether they were an artifact spirit, and I had finally finished… Huh? Then what?”
Masamichi quirked his head as he tried to recall, and Shino answered with a look of dismay on his face.
“You told me you were done, and then you collapsed on the tatami mat and fell asleep.”
“I did?! You must be right. I don’t remember a thing after that…or rather, I had a crazy headache when I finished sorting and was super tired. I must have been relieved to be done, but that seems awfully abrupt.”
“You’ve never used both your normal eyes and your third eye together for an extended period. It’s only natural for the brain to be fatigued when you do something you aren’t accustomed to doing.”
“Oh, I get it. Yeah, you’re right. That’s why my battery ran out.”
Masamichi nodded several times in agreement, then gasped and looked up at his master’s face.
“Hey, did you give me this task so I could practice using my third eye in your room? That way you’d be nearby if anything happened?”
“…Don’t be presumptuous, servant,” Shino spat and left the room with heavy footsteps.
His reaction proved more than anything that Masamichi had guessed his intentions correctly.
Why does Shino try to hide the fact that he’s really nice? He put away all the things I sorted out so he could lay a mattress on the floor for me and then let me sleep there…
Masamichi blushed, remembering again that Shino had viewed his dream and that he had called him Mom in a half-asleep state.
“Oh, geez. Why did I have to do that?”
He hit himself several times in embarrassment, then got on his feet, his cheeks still hot, and began folding up the mattress.
They were sitting across from each other having breakfast when Shino said abruptly, “I’m leaving as soon as I finish eating. You do the cleanup.”
Masamichi had been savoring the miso soup with the silken tofu—really soft tofu—and he put down his soup bowl, a little surprised.
“You’re heading out for work this early in the morning?”
Shino loosened the meat on his miso-marinated grilled mackerel—a morning staple in the Tatsumi household, along with grilled salmon—and tossed it in his mouth.
“Yeah.”
Shino had agreed to Masamichi’s request that he inform his servant of his schedule and whereabouts and had begun letting him know when he was going out.
However, he only mentioned the bare essentials, so Masamichi had to press him for more information. It was fun, though, like talking to a child to check what he was doing.
“Where are you headed today?”
“I’m going to Kanazawa.”
“Kanazawa! That’s far… But wow, lucky you. You’re taking the Hokuriku bullet train,” he said, smiling again as he enjoyed the taste of the silken-tofu miso soup, which was his favorite.
Shino frowned and retorted, “What’s lucky about that?”
“I’m fond of bullet trains. They’re special. But it’s too bad you aren’t traveling there for fun. Are you going to see a client to pick up goods at their house again?”
“No. This time, I’m delivering an item. A client who runs a hotel in Kanazawa requested a painting to hang in his renovated lounge.”
“A painting? So there are also paintings that are artifact spirits. I wonder if the artifact spirit will bring in many guests if it likes the hotel,” Masamichi said. He wasn’t sure if Shino would consider him an idiot for his simple way of thinking, but his master nodded with a straight face.
“I suppose so. I just happened to find a Western-style painting that had an artifact spirit in the store. A still life. I sent the client the data, and they loved it. It should be a good match. The artifact spirit will like it if the innkeeper takes good care of it and many people come to see it, and it will allow the business to thrive.”
“A good match, huh? It sounds like an arranged marriage between a human being and an artifact spirit.”
“It’s quite similar to that. So anyway, I won’t be back until evening. I’ll pick up bento boxes or something for dinner on my way home.”
“Are you sure? Do you want me to fix dinner?”
“There’s no need for that. I’ll buy what I like.”
Masamichi was aware that his cooking was pathetic compared with Shino’s culinary skills, but it hurt a little that Shino didn’t even trust his judgment in choosing takeout food.
Still, he smiled and nodded. “Okay. I’m sorry you’ll end up carrying heavy boxes of food on your way home, but I’ll look forward to it.”
“You do that.”
“As for me, I’m going to finish up the chores around the house in the morning and then go to my prep school to study. Should I be at the store instead?”
Shino snickered and said, “It wouldn’t help if you opened the store by yourself.”
Masamichi agreed and laughed shyly.
“I wondered if it was okay for a servant to focus on personal stuff while his master was away at work. But you’re right. I’ll make a serious effort to study. Have a safe trip, Shino.”
“Who do you think you’re talking to?”
Slightly indignant, Shino quietly but quickly finished his breakfast.
Masamichi stopped eating and got up to put the kettle on, thinking he would at least offer Shino coffee before he left for work…