“Elysia?!” Zen squeaked.
“I’m sorry, father. I just wanted to get a bit closer so I could see them.”
“I understand that, but couldn’t we just switch places instead of you clinging to me like this?! And why are you holding me like that?!”
“Hee hee, I wonder?” Elysia smiled mischievously. Didn’t she just say she wanted to see the flock of swans? What happened to that? She was staring point-blank at Zen’s face, not even looking out the window anymore.
What a dangerous smile. This is what they call a temptress! Mina could never imitate that.
“I think the excitement of this trip is making me act up a little,” Elysia said.
“‘A little?’ You’re way too excited!” Zen shrieked, overwhelmed. Even Mina was taken aback.
I don’t think this level of closeness is appropriate for a father and daughter! She didn’t know where to look. She somehow felt she was being shown something she shouldn’t see.
Hmm... This is unexpected. She’d intended to get closer with Zen during this trip. If possible, she’d wanted him to look at her as a potential love interest. However, after witnessing Elysia playing around with him like a lover, Mina felt like she’d totally lost confidence in her goal.
Even with Elysia being all over him, Zen didn’t seem to mind it, naturally only thinking of her as his daughter. He was simply concerned about other people watching them. In that case, even if Mina clung to him like that, he might still not think anything of it, since to him, she was just a business partner.
Then does that mean I have to take on an even stronger approach? Mina was someone with nonexistent sexual experience with men, always teased by her friends for how innocent she was at twenty-five. Just imagining Zen and herself feeding each other or linking arms to fool around made her feel plenty excited as it was. It was really difficult for her.
In order to get his attention, would she have to badger him for a kiss? Or take her clothes off to make Zen realize how she felt? Would it have to be something so extreme?
As if I could! No matter how much she was teased for being a late bloomer, her sense of virtue wouldn’t permit that approach. I didn’t realize the imperial capital’s public morals had eroded so much... The city is really scary.
Mina’d had the pride of a popular woman. She’d been overconfident, thinking it shouldn’t be impossible to attract Zen’s gaze. Now, she found it such a hard mission. She of course didn’t know that this perception was a misunderstanding, and now that they were on the trip, she was hesitating.
Meanwhile, Elysia naturally couldn’t read Mina’s mind either. While sitting across from her with a smile, she peered at the knight and thought defiantly, Take that, Miss Mina! Can you do something as daring as this?! Of course, Elysia didn’t ease up her attack. She entwined her arms around Zen’s right arm and continued to cling to him.
“H-Hey, Elysia. Maybe it’s about time you gave it up...?”
Zen looked uncomfortable, but she ignored him anyway! She squeezed his arm even tighter. “What’s the harm in humoring me every once in a while? You’re always at work, father. I was lonely.”
“I’m only gone for work in the mornings!” Zen cried his objection, but Elysia was obviously just teasing.
Hee hee. This is fun. Elysia laughed without a care in the world, not forgetting even for an instant that she was showing off to Mina.
Elysia absorbed herself in the feeling of Zen’s right arm. It looked thin, but it was the sturdy arm of a man. The muscles weren’t just for show. It was a real soldier’s arm. Even after the two of them (and one animal) had started living together, she’d never clung to him like this before.
No matter how much she wanted to fool around with him, in her usual mindset, Elysia had shame and knew she had to behave like his daughter. She couldn’t act in a way that’d make others question her sense of virtue like this.
Right now, though, she wholeheartedly didn’t want Mina to take Zen away from her, and the special atmosphere that came from being on a trip was making her bold.
What should I do next to trouble—or please—Sir Zen? Should she cling to his chest instead of his arm? Should she throw her arms around his neck like an adult woman? Or should she sit on his lap and lean against him like his daughter, seeking his affection?
Hee hee. I may as well do everything. Eehee hee. She had plenty of time until they reached the inn town they were going to stop at tonight.
As Elysia continued to contemplate many things, she remained unaware of how much the trip was affecting her. Going out somewhere so far away with everyone was fun, and she was just so happy and unbelievably excited.
But that was the excitement of a trip talking—the kind of thing that’d make her writhe with shame upon looking back.
She wasn’t just not in her usual state of mind. She was fully carried away.