She was lying face down in her white religious habit. Her dog ears didn’t fit inside the hood, so they were poking out.
“That’s not true. They’re super interesting. After all, to me, you’re the person I’m closest to in this other world, and the most important.”
“Oh? The most important?” Shiro stared at me. “What about Miss Tsukasa?”
“Well of course she’s important to me, and I respect her so much. She’s my sister.”
“Then isn’t Miss Tsukasa number one?”
“Huh? You’re number one, too, Shiro.”
We were silent for a moment.
“…My number one is Princess Ecstasia,” Shiro told me.
“I know.”
“There is something unusual about you, Master. Please stay away from me for a while.”
“What?! That’s so mean!”
I must have said something wrong. Shiro was scratching her forehead with a blank expression on her face.
“In that case, why don’t we change the subject? Will you tell me more about your life after you started working for the princess?”
Maybe she would talk about her favorite topic.
“…After I left my village, I was told that I would belong completely to the royal family. I had heard rumors that, in the past, some became sex slaves or were experimented on with the power of the sacred artifacts.”
“…” I listened in silence.
I didn’t know if it was true, but I guessed it was only natural that such a cruel history existed.
“But Princess Ecstasia was always Princess Ecstasia, from the moment I met her.”
“What do you mean?”
“She loves things that are fun. And she loves to share fun things with others.”
Shiro still faced down as she spoke. Her tail began to stand up straight.
“When I first met her, Princess Ecstasia was holding a viewing party for a Japanese anime. I decided to watch her from afar. But Princess Ecstasia noticed me and took me by the hand. She said, ‘Let’s have fun together.’”
Yeah, that sounded like something the princess would do.
I had heard that Shiro was assigned to the princess from age six. That meant that the princess had been five.
Imagining the princess at that age, I was sure that she had that same sideways D of a smile.
“Having undertaken training as a royal retainer, it was unthinkable to go alongside my master in such a way. But I couldn’t just let go of her hand, either. I sat down next to her, and we watched the anime together.”
“What anime was it?”
“Cra*on Shin-chan the Movie.”
Sounded perfect for a five-year-old.
“After the movie was over, Princess Ecstasia was looking over at me. I had been completely overwhelmed at the experience of watching my first animation. Since I was taught that ‘the more emotion, the weaker the maid,’ I acted like I had felt nothing. But…”
As Shiro looked back on these memories, her tail had begun to wag.
“Princess Ecstasia smiled at me and said, ‘I’m so happy. I can tell that you had fun.’ Seeing that smile, I thought how glad I was that this person had become my master.”
The princess had been able to read Shiro’s mood faster than anyone else.
Maybe she had some kind of special intuition, or maybe she had just noticed Shiro’s tail.
“After that, I began to feel that Princess Ecstasia’s happiness was my happiness. Being together with her all the time…and being able to take on a popular Japanese-style last name so similar to hers, was a great honor.”
“Your names are pretty similar.”
We’ve got Itou, Katou, and Saitou.
“Princess Ecstasia gives to everyone equally, without discrimination. And it’s not only limited to the otherworldly Japanese things she brings here with magic. All are drawn to her personality—adults, children, horses, slimes. They love her. She brings fun to all of us.”
Shiro was really revealing the extent of her feelings for her master.
“I love Princess Ecstasia. She is very precious to me. I was truly happy to be able to serve at her side… Ugh…”
Her dog ears drooped dejectedly, and she covered her face.
“Wh-what’s up? Shiro?”
“Ugh… How did this happen…?”
She began to whine and sob pitifully.
S-so much for suppressing her emotions…
So she could become overwhelmed by emotion when talking about her first master. I heard her continue weeping. Her wet, silver eyelashes sparkled in the dim candlelight. Her tail banging on the floor reminded me of a sad drunk banging on a table.
Whiiine… whiiine…
Though she was supposed to be emotionless, right now it looked like her whole body was expressing her overflowing emotions.
“Shiro, why don’t you drink some water?”
“…Okay.”
I passed her an extra cup I had brought back to the room with me. I poured her some water from a pitcher I had filled up at the drinking fountain.
Gulp, gulp… “I’m hungry.”
After drinking the water expressionlessly, she took out some kind of black sphere the shape of a ping-pong ball. When it came to eating here, while I was subsisting on the food provided by the church, Shiro was eating emergency rations that she had brought with her.
Chomp, chomp…gulp, gulp…crunch, crunch…gulp, gulp…
She took one bite and then a drink, mechanically repeating these two actions over and over. According to her, the black ball was a nutritional supplement mixed with the fat of magical beasts. It smelled funny and looked like there was no way it tasted any good.
“So, um, I did swipe some extra food from the cafeteria. Do you want some?” I asked her.
From my robes, I took out a piece of paper that I had folded up and hidden some raisins in.
“I am fine. Aren’t you hungry, Master?”
“Not really. But let’s eat this together.”
I unwrapped the paper in front of her. We drank water and munched on the raisins. They were sweet and sour.
…Munch, munch. “They’re delicious.” Munch, munch…
She started eating them pretty quickly. Her cute tail stood up and started to wag.
…Gulp, gulp…ahh. “Princess Ecstasia has always done her best to protect the people’s smiles. She would never use the Copy-Paste Spell if it had a flaw.”
“Yeah. I agree.”
She was starting to cheer up little by little. That was a relief.
“Let’s try to meet Lyra tomorrow.”
“Okay!”
Together in the basement of the church headquarters, Shiro still in her nun outfit, the evening deepened into night.
She had started snoring softly, curled up like a dog and fast asleep.
I could stay up and stare at that cute sleeping face all night, but instead, I forced my eyes closed and slept.