“—Well, foreseeing this, I did prepare swimsuits. Enough for all.”
With Yuzuriha-san’s save, the girls went to change.
Being a guy, I finished quickly and waited—it’d be rude to enter first.
When they finally emerged from behind the rocks—
“S-So, Big Brother…… How do I look……?”
With those words, the first swimsuit Suzuha tried on was… how to put it? Extremely risqué.
A blue bikini—fine. It matched Suzuha’s hair color. And given Suzuha’s physique, I’d heard one-pieces were hard to fit properly.
The design did accentuate Suzuha’s slender yet toned figure beautifully.
But still…
“Uh… it suits you, but isn’t there, like, way too little fabric…?”
“Y-Yes! Big Brother said it looks good on me!”
“That’s not the point here…?”
“Well, if you’re going to say that…”
Yuzuriha-san stepped out next, wearing a white bikini—
also with a questionable amount of coverage.
Then Kanade appeared in a black bikini. Same deal.
…The only one in a modest one-piece was Unyu-ko. Was that a good thing or bad?
“While you all were off hunting magical beasts, I had the ducal family’s designer tailor these swimsuits. But then the designer got… overly enthusiastic.”
“Haaah?”
“She’s brilliant, but her impulsiveness is her flaw. She started screaming in front of me, the ducal heir: ‘To hide these god-and-succubus-blessed bodies—these unprecedented, divinely sculpted, ultra-sexy figures—would be a crime against all humanity!’ And… well, this happened.”
“Eh…?”
“I-I mean, if it’s just for you, I don’t mind… N-Not that I meant it like that!”
I didn’t quite grasp what Yuzuriha-san meant by that, but…
They all seemed so happy when I complimented them.
So I thought, maybe this is okay too.
10
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“Aaah… The hot springs are so soothing…”
Suzuha sighed blissfully, sinking into the milky waters—
For some reason, she was sitting on my lap.
“H-Hey, Suzuha? Mind switching places soon…?”
“No. Sitting on Big Brother’s lap is a little sister’s privilege.”
“…Wait, why did you climb onto my lap the second we got in?”
“We’ve always done this, haven’t we?”
That was way back when Suzuha was smaller than Kanade is now.
The bath was tiny, so I had to hold Suzuha in my arms to fit.
“Wh—?! You and your sister did lewd things together?!”
“That’s not what happened!!”
“If it wasn’t lewd, then prove it by letting me sit on your lap!”
“That would make it lewd!”
As we bickered, Kanade backstroked past us.
Kids always want to swim in big baths—deeply relatable.
Though Kanade’s very buoyant backstroke didn’t look childish at all.
Meanwhile, Unyu-ko floated belly-up, basking in bliss.
“The only thing missing is an inn nearby…”
“The nearest village is fifty kilometers away. Besides—”
“I’d much rather have Big Brother’s cooking!”
“H-Hey, I was just about to say that!”
…You didn’t pick this remote hot spring just to make me cook, right?
As we soaked, Yuzuriha-san shared the spring’s history.
“This place has ancient ties to my family. That’s why I had to come here with you.”
“So it wasn’t just a ploy to eat Big Brother’s cooking?”
“W-Well, that too—I mean, never mind that!”
So it was true after all.
” Ahem. Over a thousand years ago, the first head of the Sakuragi Ducal House was tasked with slaying an evil serpent plaguing these lands.”
“Ooh.”
“The serpent was immensely powerful. Our ancestor sought aid from the last surviving elves and, after months of battle, finally bound and sealed it beneath this sacred mountain.”
“Huh.”
“Legend says the hot spring bubbled forth from its prison. So beneath this hot spring, the evil serpent still slumbers to this day—”
According to the legend, this white, milky liquid is the essence of the evil serpent, I suppose.
…That’s disgusting. But I kept that to myself.
“What a wonderful story. The Sakuragi family’s legacy is truly remarkable.”
“Indeed, indeed!”
“…………”
Suzuha, this is called diplomacy. Probably.
So stop glaring at me.
“In that case, let me help reinforce the seal. Kanade, pass me the orichalcum.”
“Here.”
Kanade, who’d been backstroking nearby, suddenly surfaced beside me and pulled the metal from her chest. (Don’t question it.)
“Though it’s a small thing, I thought I’d help with the sealing. Here you go.”
I tossed the orichalcum into the spring’s center.
“Ah, a ward against evil spirits? Clever. Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
Then—
The ground shook violently.
Bubbles erupted as the earth cracked open—
“Big Brother!”
We scrambled out just as a towering geyser exploded upward…
…and a colossal serpent, dozens of meters long, emerged.
“So the legend was real…”
Yuzuriha-san murmured, stunned. While Suzuha grimaced.
“Meaning we’ve been soaking in white viscous liquid that oozed from that snake—”
“Suzuha. Don’t finish that thought.”
More pressingly—
According to legend, the first duke took months to seal this thing.
As a mere beast hunter, I stood no chance. But if we fled, the serpent would ravage the duchy again—unacceptable!
“Yuzuriha-san!”
“Let’s do this!”
We charged—
…Only for the serpent’s head to explode from a single punch.
Turns out centuries of imprisonment left it pathetically weak.
Enough with the superficial appearances.
＊
After slaying the wicked serpent, the next order of business was, of course, mealtime.
Snake meat is similar to chicken—
meaning the flesh of this magical beast, the wicked serpent, tasted like unbelievably delicious poultry.
“Oh, this is amazing, Big Brother!”
“I’d heard rumors, but I never imagined demon beast meat could be this good… Wait, does that mean you’ve been eating like this while I was buried in paperwork…?”
“Tasting the master’s food for poison is a maid’s duty. Which means Kanade gets to devour this meat—all for your sake, Master~!”
“Unyuu~!”
—And so, just like that,
the massive quantity of serpent meat was polished off cleanly within an hour.
Though by the end, everyone was practically comatose from overeating.
And then—
“Uh, guys… I made some stewed offal. Can you still eat?”
“W-Wait, you. Are serpent innards even edible?”
“Normally not. But since this is from a magical serpent, I thought it might be good. So… what do you say?”
I figured they’d probably pass, but when I asked—
“T-To refuse Big Brother’s cooking… is unthinkable…!”
“Listen well. For a knight, there are battles you must fight even knowing you’ll lose. This… is one of them!”
“…A maid never shirks her duties. No matter how painful or difficult the path may be…!”
Everyone (except Unyuu-ko, who was already napping belly-up) turned fierce, determined eyes my way.
Honestly, they looked kinda like zombies—it was scary.
“Uh, um… Don’t push yourselves, okay…?”
As I served the offal stew, they ate slowly this time, thankfully avoiding another eating frenzy.
“Still, this stew is excellent too… Between this and the meat earlier, it’s a wonder you resisted gorging yourself.”
“Well, truthfully, I would love to eat my fill. But if I did, we’d be in trouble if another demon beast attacked.”
“Hmm, I see… You consider even the smallest details. Impressive.”
Yuzuriha-san sounded genuinely impressed, though crisis management like that should really be a knight’s job. Not that I minded.
Just as I was mentally quipping about that—
“Ah… What’s this?”
From Suzuha’s bowl of offal stew emerged a fist-sized crystal orb.
It seemed to have remained undigested inside the serpent’s innards.
“A crystal? But it’s broken.”
“The other half might still be in there. Eat carefully.”
As Suzuha predicted, the matching fragment turned up in Yuzuriha-san’s bowl.
“Big Brother, what do you think this is? It doesn’t seem like an ordinary crystal…”
“I agree. A normal crystal would’ve dissolved in the serpent’s powerful digestive fluids.”
“Right.”
Upon closer inspection, the broken crystal fragments bore traces of potent residual magic.
“Yuzuriha-san, any ideas?”
“This is just speculation, but… given it was inside the wicked serpent, perhaps it’s a jewel used by our ancestors to seal the beast long ago. We should take it back regardless.”
“Understood.”
And so—
With the broken crystal in hand, we returned to the main estate of House Sakuragi.
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