episode_0012

Elisias is shy and unable to make eye contact with me in her pajamas.

Out of embarrassment, I quickly dipped myself into the bathtub to cover up my naked body and only stuck out my face.

“Now, stop there for a moment! If you come any closer, you really can’t!”

I tried to block his approach, but Elisias didn’t even listen to me and came towards me with his fists clenched as if he had made a promise.

It would be difficult to expose more than this, so I held out my hand to stop Elisias, but she quickly snatched my hand and I closed my eyes in shock.

“As expected…”

In a quiet voice, Elisias checked my wrist and swiped it with his finger.

Slowly opening my eyes at the unfamiliar feeling, I checked the wrist that Elisias was stroking.

There was a kind of red string-shaped pressure mark left on my wrist, which had been caused by being grabbed by a tentacle, and when I touched it, I felt a throbbing pain and a stinging sensation.

“Suddenly something like this…”

“Wait for a moment.”

After speaking firmly, Elisias quickly left the bathroom.

While I was sorting out this situation in my head, she hurriedly gathered something from outside and came back into the bathroom with a wooden basket in her arms.

“The skin is a little rough… If you apply ointment, it will get better to some extent.”

Is it because of this wound that I felt a stinging sensation?

Elisias bent down and opened the lid of a small iron cylinder that looked like ointment from the wooden basket he had brought with him. He took some cream with his fingers and carefully spread it on my wrist.

“Even small wounds will become disfiguring if they are not treated in time…”

Elisias was looking at my wounds in a low voice. As I looked into her eyes, I was able to understand how she came to me.

He obviously said it was okay, but it was probably because he wanted to erase that guilt somehow.

“If this is the case, it will get better if you apply acupuncture…”

“Don’t say such nonsense, my mother said, small illnesses eventually lead to big illnesses. Preventing minor illnesses is how to prevent major illnesses.”

In a calm voice, he takes out a compression bandage and wraps it around my wrist.

When she was a little surprised by Elisias’s actions, whether she had learned first aid properly or not, she let out a small sigh.

“In the future, when something like today happens, then boldly abandon me and choose your own life. Your life is worth a thousand gold.”

He said that, but maybe it didn’t make sense to me, so I bowed my head at those foolish words.

You yourself are of no help and are useless.

In that tone of throwing everything away, I stared at the bandage wrapped around her wrist for a moment and then placed my hand on her head.

“What I said earlier about using you as bait on the street was just a joke. How can I go on after abandoning you?”

“Me, I am not a puppy! Refrain from touching ladies’ hair!”

Elisias takes my hand away with a slightly pouty expression.

Wanting to tease her a little, I wrapped my bandaged wrist and let out a small scream. Elisias was startled, but then looked apologetic.

I found that sight a little cute and ended up laughing.

“W-what…why are you smiling?”

I took my bandaged wrist outside to keep it from getting wet and looked at the ceiling for a moment.

“Elysias, remember I said I was your fan?”

Elisias gave no answer to my question.

All I could hear in this narrow, humid bathroom was my own small echo.

“Because you are different from me.”

I felt a little unfamiliar as I tried to bring up something I had never told anyone before.

But you care about me and care for me so generously.

I gathered a little courage in the hope that Elisias, who still deep down thought it was his fault, could ease the burden on his mind even a little.

“I am… well, it’s hard to say it out loud, but even though I don’t have a perfect memory ability, I have been smarter and have a better memory than others since I was young, so I was always told that I was a gifted child and had high expectations from those around me. .”

“I see…”

Elisias answered, but did not make eye contact with me and focused his gaze into space.

“You know, it’s really hard to live up to someone’s expectations, yeah, really…”

Close your eyes for a moment and think about the past.

The moon rising alone, a dark narrow living room, the sound of a shower hitting the ground, white light shining through the door, bright red, thin blood.

“Mistakes and failures ultimately bring disappointment to me or others”

When I slowly opened my eyes and turned my head, Elisias looked at me with pitiful eyes.

“So in the end…I gave up, because it was difficult to live up to someone’s expectations anymore, because it was painful to the point of death, because I always failed, because I was a useless person.”

I got up to turn away the dark shadow and heavy atmosphere that was encroaching on my mind.

“Then I learned the story of a child named Elisias.”

“My story…?”

Looking at Elisias’ expression of not understanding with her head down, I snatched the ointment container she was holding.

“The story of a child who, unlike me, did not give up and worked hard to live up to expectations without being discouraged by mistakes and failures”

Open the lid of the ointment container and take out a certain amount of cream with your fingers.

“That’s why I wanted to help you because I wanted you to have a different outcome than me, and.”

“…”

Carefully lift her chin.

“The kind Elisias who takes care of others before themselves, I became a fan because of you.”

I carefully applied ointment to the small wounds on her pretty, shy face.

Elisias was startled with his ears turning red, and then he looked at Yana’s face.

“So don’t think of yourself as useless, at least I need you, you depressed girl.”

These were words of comfort that were sincere in their own way, but Elisias must have been angry and suddenly stood up from his seat and headed behind me.

“Ugh! Come on!! What did I do wrong?”

He grabs my neck and tries to force my face into the bathtub.

“Ugh! Hey, be quiet! Surely your back wasn’t hurt!”

As I desperately tried to resist, her words suddenly reminded me of being hit by a tentacle by Mimic in today’s battle, so I stopped resisting and showed my back.

“This…is a little serious…”

As Elisias’ voice lowered a little, I was a bit worried about what was happening, so I put my arms behind my back and fumbled.

“Why, why? Are you serious? It doesn’t really hurt that much, does it?”

“Ugh, yeah…I think the treatment will take a bit long, so don’t ever look back. Ho, you don’t want to get splashed anyway…”

“En? Does water splash when I look back?”

“Well, then know that it is so!”

I asked because I was genuinely worried about my body, but Elisias raised his voice loudly and grabbed me by the back of my neck, trying to prevent me from turning around.

I was a little taken aback by her forceful behavior, but since I was not an opponent I could defeat by force, I stopped resisting.

Elisias carefully covered his face so as not to show it to me and moved the basket to the back.

The sound of a cork being pulled out along with a rummaging noise echoed through the bathroom, and a few seconds later, a slippery liquid covered my back.

“Oh, the car! What is it?”

“Oh, you mean this? It’s liquid soap.”

“―Hi!”

When I let my guard down, I can feel her warm fingers on my back.

When I bent over in surprise, Elisias grabbed my shoulders and gently stroked my back with the palm of her hand.

“Um, hey…Mr. Elisias? This is the process of disinfecting the wound, right?”

“City, it’s noisy!”

Elisias spoke in an agitated voice and then quietly patted her back again.

When the bubbles were visible over her back and over her shoulder, she opened her mouth.

“Actually… I didn’t know what I could do for an adult man to make him like it… Then I remembered how my mother always went into the bathroom with my father when he was tired from work… Maybe men like women. I thought you might like being washed…”

“No, it’s not wrong, but…huh, they’re such a good couple…I’ll live together for a hundred years.”

I ended up laughing.

Obviously, the couple went into the bathroom to replenish their energy in a different sense.

The feeling of something being disappointing continued to bloom in my heart, but I forced it down.

“But why is this suddenly happening?”

I relaxed my body to feel Elisias’ body even a little more.

“My, my own reward.”

Elisias’ voice filled with shame is heard from behind.

It didn’t seem like she had done anything to deserve something in return, but since she was willing to wash her face despite her own embarrassment, I didn’t say anything more.

“It’s the first time I’ve heard someone say something like that.”

“Say that?”

As I asked, a small laugh came from over my shoulder.

That voice comes very close to my ear.

“It’s not about expectation, it’s about need.”

“―!!!!!”

Those words melted like cotton candy in an instant along with my warm breath.

The words whispered in my ear, words between pure and seductive, made my head become a mess like an unorganized drawer.

I quickly distanced myself from Elisias and covered my ears with my hands.

“Why, why is that so? What if your face suddenly turns red? I feel like I have a fever…”

Elisias asks in confusion.

Does that shameless answer come from pure intentions and actions, or is it a momentary attempt to possess me as a fox and bewitch me?

I quickly jumped into the bathtub to cool my head and then jumped up from my seat.

“Do you, Harry?”

“Puha! Go away, you monster! Back off! Amitabha Tree Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva!”

“Hey, it’s a monster! Well, more than that…the part hidden by the towel was a little swollen! Could it be that you were attacked by a monster?”

Elisias points to the crotch that I have covered with a towel.

Maybe it was because I was so appreciative of Seshin’s touch as I closed my eyes, but I was more embarrassed than ever, so I covered my lower body with my hand and narrowed the gap between my groin area.

“If you are injured, get treatment quickly!”

Elisias is trying to grab the towel and throw it away with an expression of serious concern, her face color unchanged.

I thought I couldn’t lose at this moment, so I gathered all the strength I had and struggled to keep the towel from being taken away.

“Because you can self-treat this on your own!”

“If the injury is caused by me, I will take responsibility until the end!”

I am driven crazy by Elisias’s ridiculous and obsessive behavior.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been in the bathtub for a long time, but I start to feel dizzy and my fingers gradually start to lose strength.

The winners and losers of this long-awaited tug-of-war battle begin to become vaguely divided, and their grip begins to loosen.

“―Ah.”

The white towel was waving like a white flag, signaling my intention to surrender, but in contrast, the remnants of the defeated soldiers stood very firmly, as if they would not surrender to Elisias.

“That, this, this…what is it?”

“…please leave…”

I couldn’t find the courage to meet his eyes, so I covered my eyes with my palms and answered quietly.

“Yeah, but!”

“Please…please leave…”

“Uh, yes!…I don’t know what it is, but…let me know if you need help.”

With those words, Elisias carefully carried the basket and walked backwards out of the bathroom.

For the second time today, I sat down with my world collapsing and the emptiness and shame surrounding this bathroom.