After eating lunch, we spent a while doing nothing in particular like always. Though we had built a house, we were often outside during the day. Right now, Reina was reading a book, while I was idly laying in a hammock hung up in the trees.
“Gwaahh...”
Tailtiu was pleasantly relaxing in the sunlight spilling through the trees, the forest all around her. I had assumed she would return to normal before long, but she still showed no signs of recovering. Still, Mina had said that she would get better on her own eventually.
Meanwhile, Mina was watching all of us with boredom.
“Say, can’t you do anything interesting?” she said.
“Uh, I don’t know what to tell you...” I said.
“You’re a young man and a woman living alone together, aren’t you? There must be more, well, stuff you could be doing, right? Like letting out some energy during the day, or any number of things adults do to have fun.”
“I’m telling you, there’s nothing.”
I already possessed enormous strength. If my mind went in that direction, even if only a little, and I lost control... No, I won’t even imagine it.
Regardless, I was being as careful as I could to not have any impure thoughts about Reina. So I really wished she would stop trying to purposefully break my resolve.
“Well, you won’t be saying that for long,” Mina said.
“What in the world did—” You do?
But just as I was about to question Mina, something abruptly climbed onto my back. This lightness...
“Tailtiu? What is it?” I asked.
“Graaahhh, Graahh...”
“Hm?”
This was different from her cheerful mood earlier. She was letting out a somewhat high growl, and rubbing up against my back with her entire body.
“Is something wrong, Tailtiu? If you’re tired, then you can sleep.”
“Graaahhh.”
She was letting out a needy whine with all her might, almost like a baby. Hearing it, I suddenly started to feel like I was willing to listen to whatever she had to say. But before that, I have to see how she’s doing, I thought, and I moved Tailtiu in front of me. She seemed different from usual.
“Mina? Did you do something?”
“Nothing at all. I just gave her some of my cooking.”
“And was there anything—”
Then, just as I was once again about to question the one behind all this, I suddenly felt something warm and soft on my back. Tailtiu’s already in front of me, so what’s this? I wondered, and as I did—
“Mm-hmm heh heh heh, Arataaa.”
“Wha, huh?! R-Reina?!”
“You’re so waaarm.”
“J-Just hold on! If you press your whole body up against me like that, I’ll—”
Unlike Luna or Tailtiu, Reina’s body was quite soft, and various parts of it were more developed. When she hugged me as hard as she could, needless to say, I could feel her chest touching my body.
“D-Don’t do that...”
“Aaraataa. Ehe heh heh,” Reina giggled, drawing out each syllable of my name.
“Seriously, what did you do, Minaaa?!”
“Mwa ha ha ha ha! You don’t need to be so loud! I can hear you!”
“If you can hear me, then please answer me!”
“Again, as I’ve already said countless times, I just made food and fed it to them. I didn’t put any poison in, and no suspicious ingredients either.” As she spoke, she took out a container shaped like a wine bottle from out of nowhere. I’d learned how to read and write the language in this world when I reincarnated here, so I could read the word that Mina was pointing to: alcohol.
“See? No poison or anything suspicious. I just used regular alcohol, the kind anyone might use when cooking.”
I was silent.
“Aaraataa.”
“Graahh.”
Reina and Tailtiu both affectionately pressed their bodies against me. So cute... It was indeed cute, but at this rate I might end up giving in to that cuteness.
“Hmmm... So even this doesn’t work on you?” Mina said. “And I thought after everything, I’d be able to see something more entertaining. Too bad.”
“That’s the one silver lining! But still...”
Reina looked up at me with teary eyes, her face bright red from the alcohol; it would have been impossible to imagine from her usual self-assured demeanor that she could look this adorable.
“Graahh...” Tailtiu let out a sweet voice, as if to say, Don’t just stare at Reina! Look at me too! She seemed even more desperate than normal.
“Ngh,” I grunted.
“But then again, a boy being cornered by two drunk girls isn’t a bad scenario either,” Mina said.
“You sure are enjoying this, aren’t you, Mina?!”
“Indeed I am! Your embarrassment while being the only one sober is extremely entertaining, especially compared to your usual overconfidence!”
Well, it seemed she really hadn’t lied. There was no poison. She had simply used alcohol to cook the food.
✦ ✦ ✦
However, judging from how Reina and Tailtiu were acting, I was certain that she had used a rather shady variety of alcohol.
“I’m asking just in case, but you used normal alcohol, right?”
“Of course. But it is blood wine, which has plenty of my own mana inside.”
I paused. “And what happens when someone drinks it?”
“If they really guzzle it down, they’ll lose control, enough to turn into one of my underlings. But if it’s just the small amount you’d use for cooking, most people will just get pleasantly drunk.” Mina cackled, showing her canines. She looked childishly lively, but what she was saying wasn’t very innocent.
We’d had some drinks before at the Divine Beastfolk village, and while Reina’s face had gotten redder, she hadn’t seemed intoxicated. The same was true of when we had drunk wine together recently; she could hold her drink quite well. But now...
“Mm-hmm heh heh heh. Arataaa, Arataaa.”
“Oh, enough already! I’m right here, so you don’t have to keep saying my name!”
This was how she was acting with only a small amount? Just how much alcohol did this vampire put in there...
“Your body’s sooo waaarm, Arata. Pet my heeaaad.”
“Uhhh...”
“Graahh...”
“You toooo, Tailtiu?”
I did as they asked and petted their heads. They both closed their eyes, satisfied.
“Ehe heh heh.”
“Grahh.”
“I mean, this is a bit much.”
This was the usual for Tailtiu, more or less, and it was adorable by anyone’s standards. But with Reina, things were different. She was always dignified and pretty, yet somewhat cool, but as she needily asked me to pet her head, she was incredibly lovely.
“Aaraataa.”
That’s it, I can’t handle any more of this.
“Mina?”
“Mm-hmm? What is it?”
“For now, please protect them and make sure they don’t get in any danger! I’ll get angry if you let them get hurt!”
Then, I detached the two of them from me and leaped into a tree.
“Oh, Arata!”
“Graahh!”
“Guh!” I grunted. They looked so forlorn, staring up at me as they watched me go. But I knew I couldn’t give in. I left the area without stopping, jumping from tree to tree in an effort to get as far away from their voices as I could.