episode_0072

“Okay, wait Jess… Calm down – calm down a bit…”

“Squirm, squirm… Squirming…”

Jess climbed on top of me and vigorously rubbed his face against mine, making a sound like a puppy whimpering. Reflexively patting Jess’s back, I spoke.

“Jess, why are you here?”

The question that popped out first was not about anything else but the fact that someone who shouldn’t be here was right in front of me. Jess, who had been rubbing his face against mine, blinked and said, or rather, tried to say.

Abruptly!

“Huh?”

Jess’s body suddenly jerked upwards. As he rolled his eyes, Iris was holding up Jess’s tattered robe with a cold expression. Jess, caught off guard by Iris, was frozen with wide eyes, like a puppy being dragged away.

“Oppa… what’s this?”

“Oh, he’s my close younger brother.”

Iris seemed more stern than usual, stumbling over her words as she answered, causing her eyes to become even more piercing.

“Close… younger brother?”

It felt like there was an effect sound of ‘gugugugugu!’ behind Iris. Startled, Jess, held by Iris, furrowed his brow and mumbled.

“…smell of blood, grumble.”

Rushing out of the arena, there was no time to wash up. As a result, Iris was covered in blood. Jess, with a sensitive nose, grimaced at the smell of blood and grumbled.

Iris looked coldly at Jess. If left alone, it seemed like they would fight immediately, so I quickly got up from my seat and intervened between the two.

“Iris, let go of Jess first.”

“…Okay.”

With a delayed response compared to usual, Iris let go of Jess. Jess shivered and wrinkled his nose.

“Who is this person, Squirming?”

Perhaps because a lot of time had passed, Jess’s tone had become quite mature. However, he still referred to me as “Squirming,” giving off a strong sense of youthfulness.

“Yep, this is my younger sibling, Iris.”

“Younger…?”

“It’s a family term.”

Upon hearing this, Jess’s tail drooped. Before I knew it, his red ears, which had stood up above his head, were now drooping as well.

“Isn’t Jess part of the family?”

As Jess finished speaking, suddenly… the freezing cold arrived. I froze with a smile on my face. A gust of wind blew from Iris’s direction.

Whack!

Iris suddenly grabbed my arm and glared at Jess.

“You’re my brother. You’re not a younger sibling.”

“Aww…”

With Iris’s firm words, Jess looked at me with a hesitant expression. I was about to say, “No, Jess is also my family,” but my instincts held me back.

Just as there is a saying about women’s intuition, men also have an extraordinary sense. Saying this would make me an X! Sensation!

“Jess is… like… family!”

“Like…?”

The biting wind blowing from Iris’s side felt even stronger. In contrast, Jess perked up his drooping ears and began spinning his tail like a propeller.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Ow, it hurts. My arm hurts. After lightly tapping Iris’s hand, I bowed my head and whispered in her ear.

“But the real family is only Iris. It’s a secret from Jess. Understand?”

…!

My arm, which had been trying to escape the tight grip, returned to its original state. Breathing a sigh of relief internally, I thought,

“If they find out that I’m not really family, it’ll be a big problem, won’t it?”

Judging by Iris’s reaction, it seemed like a big mess would occur if they found out I wasn’t really family. I thought about a solution for when I was caught not being family. The answer came easily.

“…Leave it to my future self!”

They’ll take care of it! Please! Future me!

For some reason, it feels like I can hear my future self cursing at me across space and time, but let’s just ignore it lightly.

“Okay, let’s go back to the original story. Jess, how did you end up coming here?”

“To find Joo-in, yep yep! I ran all the way!”

With a twinkling eye, she raised her hand to pat his head out of habit. As she did, his ears perked up and stretched out, ready to be petted.

“So cute…”

She thought to herself as she patted Jess’s head. Jess’s tail wagged vigorously once again. It felt like animal therapy… doing something similar.

Swiftly, her wrist was grabbed and lifted up.

“Huh?”

Her hand was placed on Iris’s head. She could feel the stiffened hair under her fingertips.

“…me too.”

Iris murmured softly, bowing her head. Being nestled between the adorable kids made her feel purified. It was almost like her soul was escaping…

“Gosh…”

Biting her tongue to snap out of the sensation of her soul escaping, she regained her composure. Blood trickled from her lips, but she was okay.

“Oh, oppa!”

“Joo-in!”

But it seemed the kids were not okay. After swallowing hard, seeing them jump into her arms, she said:

“I, I couldn’t chew the ball properly. It’s okay. It’s okay. Let’s buy the groceries we were going to get. Oh, Jess will come with us, right?”

Quickly changing the subject, Jess nodded in confusion. Before the kids could cling any further, I headed straight to the grocery store.

Considering the amount Jess would need, I bought food generously. I practically cleaned out the grocery store.

“In the Aqua Space, food won’t spoil, so I should buy as much as I can while I can.”

Looking at the groceries disappearing into the bag with the shop owner gaping, I smiled and bowed repeatedly as I paid with gold coins.

Because Jess’s clothes were too ragged, they stopped by a mercenary supply store to buy robes and clothes suitable for Jess. After paying for the clothes and robes, they stuffed them into their bags and said to each other.

“Let’s stop by there for a moment. If we don’t wash before leaving, monsters might come.”

When they pointed to an inn with a glittering sign, both of them nodded.

Jess was in a state where the smell of blood vibrated enough to wrinkle her nose, so if she went out like this, she would become bait for monsters. It would be better to wash if possible.

“At first, I thought I would leave as soon as possible…”

Thinking that the time spent was getting longer, they entered the lodging. As they went inside, rough-looking men were gambling here and there, raising their voices or drinking heavily with women on their sides.

They also occasionally saw people taking drugs. In this lawless place, it seemed like an everyday scene. There was no difference from other stores.

I immediately approached the desk. An old man with glasses and a mustache who was reading something like a newspaper looked at me with his eyes rolling.

Sigh.

He folded the newspaper and said,

“The gambling is over there, the drug addicts are over there, if you need a woman, tell us your preference. Oh, like this. Did you bring them already? And you brought two of them? You’re good at it. Then you need a room, right?”

“Do you have a room with a bathroom? I plan to use it for half a day and then leave…”

“Then it’s 3 silver. Including washing, it’s 5 silver.”

1 silver is worth about ten thousand won, so it was an outrageous price.

“Can it be cheaper?”

“No. If you don’t like it, get out.”

“Well, okay.”

When I said I would leave readily, the man clicked his tongue and said,

“Ugh, I’ll give it to you for 3 silver.”

“I only have 1 silver and 20 copper, how about that?”

Renting a room with an attached bathroom usually costs about one silver. This was the content I saw in the original work. The man seemed to be contemplating, furrowing his brow, then sighed and accepted it.

The three of us went straight up to the reserved room. After going inside and locking the door tightly, I said to the two people,

“As quickly as possible, wash up and leave -…”

“Wow! It’s a bath!”

Flutter…

Before I could finish my sentence, Jess threw off his robe and clothes and dashed into the bathroom. As his clothes slowly fell from the air, they covered Jess’s naked body.

“…I want to bathe with oppa.”

“Wouldn’t that be… difficult?”

“….Really?”

“Yeah.”

“….Not allowed?”

“Not… allowed.”

Iris attacked me with her sparkling eyes, but what can’t be done can’t be done. If we weren’t siblings with a significant age difference, Iris and I were completely different. We could even get married, a perfect man!

That’s why we absolutely cannot bathe together. For the sake of my survival…

Isn’t there a common scene in comedy anime worlds? A man sneaks into the women’s bath and leaves the world with his last memory… Even if he comes back to life, I didn’t want to experience dying again.

“Well, hurry up and go wash. I’ll wait here.”

“..Tsk.”

“Huh?”

Just now, did Iris stick out her tongue -… No, our kind Iris wouldn’t do that, right, well, whatever.

Shhhhhh -.

Maybe because the soundproofing wasn’t done properly, the sound of water was clearly audible.

“Let’s take out the kids’ clothes.”

Thinking that, I took out the clothes from the bag and was holding them when…

Creak creak.

Unwanted noises from the neighboring and upper rooms could be heard.

“I’m… not sad.”

Feeling sweat dripping from my eyes, I put the kids’ clothes down in front of the door.