We followed Monstro’s lead as he brought us to the rooms we’d be spending the night in. The elegant three-floor home was sufficiently well-appointed for all of us to be assigned our own individual chambers. The spacious rooms, around twelve tatami in size with hardwood floors, were sparsely furnished, with no more than a bed and full-length mirror in each. With nothing in particular on the agenda, I was looking forward to heading into town and shopping a bit. After thinking it over, though, I realized that overburdening myself with extra luggage would make the trip home difficult. There was always the option of returning home via boat, but at this distance, doing so would take up three entire days. Being jostled around on the water for that long would end up wearing everyone out. I would have to endure suppressing my urge to collect for a little while longer.
In the meantime, I decided to sit down on the bed and look out the window. From my room on the third floor, I had an unbroken view of the entirety of Port City. It looked like the kind of town that would be full of life even in the dead of night. This far up on the lofty hill that hosted Monstro’s mansion, no lively voices or urban bustle could be heard, but surely a trip down to the city below would reveal streets packed to the brim with activity.
“It’s quite the peaceful scene...”
That a horde of more than ten thousand monsters lurked less than a hundred kilometers from this very spot was almost unthinkable. The scene of tranquility that spread in all directions beneath my window was thanks to Monstro’s deeds too. Were it not for him, this whole area would have been reduced to nothing but a wasteland thirty years ago.
“So, how did you stop the stampede, anyways?” I wondered aloud. To halt the advance of more than ten thousand devil flies was no small feat. To conventional thought, it wasn’t even possible. To drive the entire swarm away all at once... The monsters must have had some kind of weak point. The way that some insects, for example, hated smoke. He must have discovered a weakness in the devil flies, targeted it directly, and cast them all out in one go.
The way the King had told it, Monstro had so thoroughly lost himself in the moment that afterward, he didn’t even remember how he’d managed to drive the devil flies out. Maybe, though, if I asked him enough other questions about that time, I would be able to figure out some sort of countermeasure based on the information he could provide.
As I was thinking all of that over, the sound of a reserved knocking on my door snapped me out of it. I turned to see Tigaro enter the room.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing, I was just bored and thought I’d come see what you were up to. Am I interrupting...?”
“No. As you can see, I’m not up to much of anything myself.”
“Right...” she said. Tigaro’s face was tinged with nervousness as she glanced at my bed. “Can I...sit with you?”
“Of course,” I said, smiling to reassure her. She came over and shyly sat down next to me on the mattress. A moment passed as she made fleeting, sidelong glances in my direction and restlessly rubbed her thighs together.
“Uh, um... Do you...remember what we talked about earlier?”
“Earlier?”
“About, uh...about me letting you touch my ears.”
“I remember. Do you maybe want me to touch them now?” I asked.
Tigaro’s reply was a very small nod. “I wanted to pay you back as soon as I could, and...well, there aren’t so many chances for just the two of us to be alone, you know?”
“Having your ears touched in front of other people is a little embarrassing, then?”
“Exactly. It’s a man touching a precious part, you know? It’s... It’s kind of like being kissed, I guess...”
Like being kissed? It didn’t seem anything like being kissed. For one thing, the sensation was entirely dissimilar. For another, Tigaro had never reacted to my touching Oltea’s and Frieze’s ears as if she were watching me kiss them.
Ultimately, it must have just come down to Tigaro being an exceedingly shy person. I was glad she was willing to endure the embarrassment for the sake of returning the favor, but...
“Don’t feel like you have to push yourself if you’re uncomfortable with any of this, okay?”
“I’m not pushing my... Okay, I am pushing myself a little bit, but it’s okay if it’s you touching me. You’re not just any guy, Kaito. You’re special.”
“Thank you, I’m happy to hear it,” I said. Tigaro calling me “special” was proof that I had earned her genuine trust.
Shameful is the man who spurns a woman’s invitation, I thought to myself, recalling the saying. Tigaro had mustered up the courage to come all the way to my room, so I had no choice but to pet her ears.
“I’m going to start rubbing them, okay?”
“Y-Yeah. As much as you like...” Tigaro said, her face looking bashful. She knelt down on the bed directly opposite me and adjusted her posture for ease of access. I reached out to lay a hand on her tigerlike ears.
As soon as my hand met her fur, it happened:
“Kaitooooo, are you there?”
“We came to hang out!”
Oltea and Frieze entered the room. That same instant, Tigaro stiffened, sitting upright so fast it was like the crack of a whip.
“Ah, Tigaro came too!” said Oltea.
“Maybe she wanted Kaito to pet her ears, eh?” Frieze ventured.
“N-No! This is, I just... Right! There was some trash stuck to my ear and I needed his help to get it off!”
“If that’s the case, then why is Kaito grinning like that?” Oltea asked. The two of them knew exactly how my face looked whenever I rubbed their ears. It was impossible to deceive them about this.
“Poor Tiga is a little bashful, isn’t she?” Frieze said with a smug, know-it-all look on her face. “Why, she’d go stark red in the face just seeing a man and woman hold hands!”
“Oh? She’s so innocent,” said Oltea, smiling at Tigaro with narrow eyes as she teased.
Tigaro’s face was getting redder and redder. “Not true, I’ve known about stuff for years already! I’m already eighteen!”
“Oh? So you’re not embarrassed?”
“I’m not even a little bit embarrassed! Kaito, you can rub them more! Show these two that I’m okay with that!”
“Okay, thanks!” I said. It was clear to see that Tigaro was pushing herself but also wanted to preserve her dignity as their elder. She had to make a show of it. To be touching an ear like hers without also rubbing it a bit was torture, so I took advantage of her permission immediately.