By the time Tigaro left the eatery with everyone, the curtain of night had fallen completely over the city. The district had no shortage of drinking establishments, and the street was packed with drunks. The din of conversation and merry voices filled the air the entire walk home and could still be heard after they turned off the main road to enter the house. Even on the quiet side road, the voices—present company included—were still loud.
“Tiga, welcome to our home! Your home!” Frieze said.
“I’m so grateful you’ve come to join us!” said Oltea.
“I feel like opening one of those bottles of wine! We ought to have a toast!”
“Ahh, that’s such a good idea! Let’s open it!”
“Let’s keep drinking all night!”
“Woo!”
Oltea and Frieze went back and forth like that, spirits soaring. They were drunk out of their minds, their gaits unstable and chaotic. If Kaito withdrew the shoulders he’d leant them to lean on for even a moment, they would both have toppled to the ground.
“So...do these two always get like this when they drink?” Tigaro asked Kaito.
“Not every time,” Kaito started. “They’re usually able to get home on their own two feet. I think they just went a little overboard this time because they’re happy to have you around to live with us.”
“I-I see...” she said, pleased to hear it. If their current level of drunkenness was normal, she’d have been concerned and maybe even compelled to scold them. It being out of the ordinary, though, meant that she didn’t need to worry. Still...
“These two don’t bother you, Kaito?” she asked. Even if they didn’t get completely plastered every time, they were still drunk. The humans Tigaro had served up until now would probably have tried to beat them sober.
“Not at all. On the contrary, I really enjoy their company,” Kaito said, smiling widely despite the situation. His face betrayed no hint of annoyance or anger. As she observed his carefree expression, Tigaro began to feel that even though she had only known Kaito for half of a day, she might be able to come around to trusting him. The fact that Oltea and Frieze had let him rub their ears was proof that they felt safe relaxing their guard in his presence. That alone was evidence that they were treated with care. If one is shown respect and made to feel one’s value every day, it is bound to build trust.
Still...there has to be some kind of catch, she thought to herself. To doubt a man whom Frieze so clearly held in high esteem made her feel uncomfortable, but there had to be some kind of end goal that would explain his facade of kindness. To ascertain Kaito’s intentions, she’d just have to continue observing him.
“It feels so good to have a clean home!”
“Hey, Kaito, I wanna drink wine!”
“Sure. I’ll grab the wine. You two wait in bed, yeah? Tigaro, can you help them up there?” Kaito asked.
“Leave it to me,” Tigaro said, and he passed Oltea and Frieze off to lean on her shoulders. She supported them up the stairs and brought them to the bedroom.
“I can’t wait to drink that wine!”
“I want it now!”
While the two of them merrily chatted back and forth, Tigaro did as Kaito had instructed and brought them to their beds. They each lay down and crawled under the covers. At first, they lay there looking excited and energetic, but little by little, their eyelids grew heavier until they shut completely. Finally, they went still and drifted off to sleep, breathing softly.
They fell asleep...
Tigaro was watching their happy, resting faces when Kaito entered the room.
“They both passed out?”
“Yeah, just a moment ago... Where’s the wine?”
“That was just a way of getting them to bed. Drinking too much is bad for you, after all.”
“You seem pretty experienced at taking care of them...”
“Sure, they’re my friends,” he said. It had been the same during the day: when Kaito talked about his friends, his face assumed an incredibly happy expression. A man of his status could have anyone he liked for a friend, so why had he chosen to befriend hybrids?
Does it have something to do with animal ears?
At the eatery, he had rubbed both of their ears. When he did, his face had reflected a genuine happiness that would have been almost impossible to fake. To love animal ears that much was to love hybrids. If that were the case, then his kindness toward her kind was, perhaps, for the purpose of satisfying a kind of craving.
A sexual craving.
No, it couldn’t be... Is Kaito...d-doing dirty things to them at night?!
Oltea and Frieze hadn’t said a single thing about having physical relations with the man. There were two potential reasons for that. One could be that it was an embarrassing topic and thus neither had wanted to bring it up. Another could be that they were not even aware of what was happening. If it was the former, then that was their prerogative, but if it was the latter, then it was a major problem. It would mean that Kaito was getting Oltea and Frieze drunk so that they would have no memory of his repeated assaults.
It would explain not only his warm behavior toward hybrids but also why he hadn’t fired Tigaro despite her lack of cleaning ability. For him, Hybrid Town must have been like a buffet. Having grown tired of Oltea and Frieze, he had gone there on the pretext of hiring a cleaner just to find a new animal-eared girl. Then, it seemed, he had laid eyes on Tigaro.
In other words—
Does that mean he’s going to target me tonight instead?!
That must have been why he had treated Tigaro, who had hardly been helpful with the cleaning, to so much alcohol. He hadn’t accounted for the possibility that she would not get drunk. If he tried to assault someone who was fully lucid, he would be prosecuted, dishonor the title of Sword Saint, and see his reputation plummet. In the interest of protecting his standing as Sword Saint, he probably wouldn’t do anything to her tonight...but that just meant that Frieze and Oltea might once again fall victim.
I need to protect them, but I also need evidence...
It was all still nothing more than Tigaro’s speculation. Unless she caught him red-handed and obtained definite evidence, she would be powerless to unmask Kaito. For that reason...
“Ugh... Ahh,” Tigaro groaned, leaning on Kaito’s shoulder.
“What’s wrong, Tigaro?”
“I... I suddenly feel quite drunk...” she said, tactically pretending. If she faked being drunk, Kaito was likely to forget his caution and make a move on her.
“U-Ugh... I’m feeling really dizzy...and sleepy...”
“Wait just a moment,” Kaito said. Suddenly, he picked her up and carried her over his shoulder, nearly causing her to raise her voice without thinking. It was embarrassing to be scooped up by a man like that, but if she showed her emotions, it would reveal her sobriety and give the game away. Tigaro began to pray—the only thing she could think of—to keep her face from flushing red and revealing her ruse as Kaito carried her to his room.
He laid her gently down on a bed and covered her with a warm, soft blanket.
Come on, then. Bring it on! Anytime now!
Tigaro held her eyes tightly shut and waited to feel Kaito’s hands on her body, but not a single touch came. She heard some kind of noise—though she wasn’t sure what—mixed with the beating of her heart.
Slowly, Tigaro opened her eyes. Kaito was nowhere to be seen. She looked up and saw a ladder extending downward from the ceiling. After it, a mattress fell to the floor with a thud. Seeing Kaito come down next, she hastily shut her eyes once more. She heard the rustling sound of the mattress being spread out on the floor, and then, suddenly, the light shining through her eyelids was extinguished and the room became dark. Before much time had passed at all, she began to hear the sound of snoring.
She waited in silence. She got up carefully so as not to make a sound and looked around at the room, illuminated by moonlight flowing in through the windows. There, on the floor, Kaito was sleeping atop the mattress. Wary of the possibility that he could just be pretending, Tigaro lay back down and pretended to sleep herself, but even after she’d spent a long time waiting, Kaito still hadn’t opened his eyes even once.
He really had fallen asleep.
What’s going on? Did he see through my fake-drunk act? Or maybe...was I misunderstanding when I thought he had sexual intentions?
If so, she would need to reconsider Kaito’s reasons for being so kind to hybrids. The question of his motive weighed on her mind, but...she would have to think about it tomorrow.
Bit by bit, her fake tiredness was becoming genuine. She decided that for now, she would get some sleep.