Chapter 57 – Can You Do It For Me?

Ｒｅａ​ｄ​ ​ｏｎ ＫａｔＲｅａｄｉｎｇＣａ​ｆｅ

…I had a dirty dream.

I lay in bed for a long time, covering my red face with my hands. The embarrassment just wouldn’t subside.

After waking up and letting out a strange sound, then realizing what state I was in… I’ve been like this ever since.

Self-loathing washed over me. Thankfully our rooms are separate, otherwise… that wouldn’t be a pleasant thought…

After organizing my cluttered mind, I got out of bed. I needed to wash up. Just like how men have wet dreams, do women also… release something when they have erotic dreams? My body felt sticky.

Looking out the window, it seemed the sun would rise soon. The crimson sun spreading its light everywhere felt like it was scolding me.

…People can have erotic dreams sometimes.

I knew I was just lashing out, but… what could I do? I was in a bad mood.

Muttering “This is the worst,” I drew the curtains. Satisfied with blocking the yellowish light that was staining the window, I opened the door. Only a chilly silence lingered in the empty hallway.

Everyone must still be asleep.

The cold air made me realize I hadn’t brought any clothes. I turned back toward the wardrobe.

But… I had nothing to wear. To be precise, only my old clothes remained.

I could just wear them as usual and then put on a lab coat, but… thinking about the dream I had made me somewhat reluctant.

I wanted to wear something that fit properly… that was the mood I was in.

In the end, I rummaged through the room full of clothes my master had sent me and chose a relatively normal shirt and shorts. After all that commotion, my already sticky body became even stickier with sweat.

I felt unpleasant and uncomfortable.

Thinking I needed to wash quickly, I grabbed a potion from the workshop and arrived at the bathroom. I put my clothes, which had become sticky with what I assumed was sweat, in their usual place and looked around… the laundry was piled up like a mountain.

I stared at the laundry that had accumulated after putting it off repeatedly, then picked up the entire overflowing basket in my arms.

…It was a bit heavy.

“Nngh…”

In the past, I could have carried this much and more without breaking a sweat.

A sigh escaped my lips involuntarily. Grumbling, I dumped all the laundry into the large bathtub. Then I turned on the water and poured in the potion I had brought from the workshop.

…I guess it’s fortunate there’s nothing so dirty that I’d need to hand wash it?

I could feel my cold body heat up. I pushed my increasingly sticky body under the pouring water. As I absentmindedly stood under the stream of water, I sensed someone’s presence outside.

Someone must have woken up while I was finding clothes and doing laundry. There was no point in feeling embarrassed now, so I just… continued standing under the water.

Not long after, a red, disheveled silhouette began to appear. I didn’t need to ask who it was. A voice still drunk with sleep mumbled:

“What… you’re already up? So diligent…”

If it hadn’t been for that dream… I might have slept a little longer. But I didn’t want to mention that, as it would be awkward if she asked what kind of dream I had, so I just gave a vague answer.

Veronica nodded and positioned herself under the shower.

“Ah, put your clothes over there.”

At my words, Veronica, who had been staring at the bathtub, blinked blankly and then muttered with a shocked expression.

“…What is that?”

“Laundry?”

“No, no, I know that but… who put… nevermind.”

She quietly put her clothes in the bathtub and started standing under the water. I glanced at her and… thought of the dream again. Still… Veronica was somewhat okay. The current Veronica was… smooth.

She was… harmless to me now, you could say.

…At this rate, I’ll be thinking about that dream all day.

I shook my head vigorously to clear the remnants of the dream, and my wet hair made swishing sounds as it swung around.

“W-what are you doing?!”

“…Just psyching myself up a bit.”

“Are you in pain somewhere?”

“…”

Do I look like that…? For some reason, I felt suddenly depressed and just stood blankly under the water without saying anything. Veronica seemed flustered and hurried.

“D-did I say something too harsh?”

“…It’s not that.”

The way she sighed in relief was a bit cute. After that, we finished showering in silence and dried ourselves. With Veronica’s help, I was able to finish quickly.

I fumbled a bit with the direction of the buttons, but… it was a minor issue.

I thought about hanging up the things in the bathtub, but since they would need some time anyway… I decided to think about it later. After hastily getting dressed and preparing breakfast, Cecile came down rubbing her eyes.

She approached me, sniffing.

“Lady Asha. Good morning.”

“…Morning.”

After greeting me, the sociable Cecile also greeted Veronica and then came back to me, chattering.

“Lady Asha, Cecile saw you in her dream last night.”

Cold sweat ran down my back.

“I-is that so? I’m cooking right now, so let’s talk about it later, okay?”

“Understood! Cecile will prepare the tableware!”

When I turned around, Veronica was looking at me with narrowed eyes. I focused on cooking to avoid meeting her gaze.

Avoiding Veronica’s steady stare, I finished my meal and finally… moved to the workshop. Once I started making potions, Veronica returned to her normal serious expression.

After watching the two of them begin their daily tasks… I put on my equipment. The restrictive equipment that I had thrown off twice yesterday without any results.

As I took out a beaker with white semen sloshing inside from the preservation box… I remembered how I had unknowingly sucked it up with my mouth and swallowed it.

…Maybe the problem started when I became reluctant to experiment and stopped working on it.

Anyway, it’s not a problem now. Since I have the tools my master sent.

To use high-end tools that I’ve never used before… on experimenting with Cecile’s semen. No, this is important. More important than anything else. So… it’s not strange.

I began experimenting with the semen that filled the beaker, taking out appropriate amounts. Looking for materials that would react when mixed together, things like that.

It felt good to be doing an unplanned experiment after so long. It would have been better if the subject wasn’t… the semen of the homunculus I created, but still.

After concentrating for a while, someone tapped my shoulder. When I looked up to check, it was Veronica.

“Have you had any results?”

Checking the time, it was already close to lunch. I quickly tidied up around me, took off my protective gear, and replied.

“…Not really.”

There was nothing particularly unusual.

I couldn’t find the reason why it had that effect on me but would cause growth when consumed by others. There was some progress in finding materials that reacted well… but nothing particularly important.

I devoted myself to experiments like that for several days. Occasionally I would change pace by making potions that I had assigned to Veronica, but… I felt frustrated by the lack of any clues.

So… maybe I got a little impatient. It had been a while since I’d hit a wall like this.

I rolled a small, snow-white pill in my gloved palm.

…I think this is similar to—no, identical to—the pill my master made. It’s just Cecile’s semen hardened to make it easier to consume.

The reason I made this was… I wanted to know how the semen produced after consuming Cecile’s semen was different. That seemed like the only breakthrough in a situation where no clues were visible.

First of all… does what grows after consumption disappear? …What grew on my master disappeared.

…I’m not certain, but what grew on Veronica seems to have disappeared too.

So… I thought there might be some clues there.

At the end of the day, as the sun was setting, after finishing dinner, I asked Cecile to clean up. Smiling brightly, Cecile silently gathered the dishes.

Next, I called for Veronica. After tilting her head in confusion for a moment, Veronica obediently followed me. Since it seemed awkward to talk while standing, we moved to the room where Veronica was staying.

Although there wasn’t anything special about it since I had seen its arrangement with my own eyes… somehow it seemed to smell like Veronica. But… that wasn’t important right now. I handed a box to Veronica, who had a questioning expression.

“What’s this?”

“…You’ll know when you open it.”

With a face full of anticipation for some reason, Veronica opened the box, and it didn’t take long for her eyes to fill with questions.

“This is…”

“It’s what you think it is.”

“I see… So? You’re not showing it to me just to tease me.”

…Now that I think about it, Veronica originally came because she wanted to know how to make ‘this,’ didn’t she? Good for her… today she’ll find out.

Veronica’s face, full of confusion and dissatisfaction, transformed into shock and surprise in an instant. To her, who seemed momentarily dizzy, I made one request.

…Actually, if I had thought about it a little more… I might not have asked. But in my impatience, I ended up pleading with Veronica.

“You want me to… eat this?”

“Yes…”

“Why?”

“…I need a sample.”

“A sample?”

No matter how impatient and urgent I felt… It was an undeniably embarrassing request that made my face heat up. But… I thought it was necessary.

“I want to obtain the… semen produced after consuming that and growing.”

I needed Veronica’s… semen.

Since if I ate it, I would only go into heat and wouldn’t be able to extract anything.

After hearing my request, Veronica’s face turned as red as her hair.

KatTL