Ch.243Side Story: School Trip – 3

“Your hands are idle, Eustera.”

“I’m sorry……”

Nika, looking quite dejected, began setting up the magical cooking equipment. Beatrice stood beside her, monitoring with an exceptionally critical gaze.

Thankfully, I didn’t end up having to kneel on the sand with my hands raised after traveling all the way to the beach at the southern end. That was avoided because she had obediently submitted before it came to that.

While it was certainly good that Nika had regained her energy, it was even more important to clearly distinguish between her role as Eustera and her role as Nika.

At the very least, Beatrice always needed to be Nika’s superior.

“It’s all done, Young Master.”

In any case, the two maids—or more precisely, one human and one Succubus Queen—had neatly completed setting up the cooking equipment.

They had even installed separate magical tools to prevent sand from blowing in, so all that remained was to wait for dinner time.

“Good job.”

I praised Beatrice while approaching the slightly crestfallen Nika.

“Nika.”

“…Yes, Master.”

“If you want to play pranks, do them to me. I’ll tolerate them as long as they’re not too severe. But in exchange, don’t cling too much to Beatrice.”

“Really?”

Her downcast eyes instantly began to sparkle. I gently stroked her head.

“Would I lie about something like this?”

“Ah, no. That’s not what I meant. Then, could you perhaps tell me what level counts as ‘not too severe’?”

“No. That’s something you need to figure out through experience.”

“Heeeng.”

Nika made a tearful face. I patted her cheeks a couple of times and turned my gaze elsewhere.

“What would you like to do now, Young Master?”

“Well… Since everyone is sleeping… Should we go to the ocean for a bit?”

All four of them had just fallen asleep, so it would take at least 30 minutes to an hour before they woke up. Even more so considering the time it would take for Leona and Latina, who were nowhere to be seen, to return.

“You two will come with me, right?”

“Yes, Young Master.”

I deliberately looked at Beatrice as I spoke. If I didn’t do this much, she would probably wait outside and tell me to go have fun.

“Will that be effective?”

I casually asked while retrieving a magical tool from the ice box. Everyone was still sleeping peacefully.

Considering their usual physical specs, they should have woken up from our conversation, but seeing them sleep so soundly, it seemed that Rosaria wasn’t the only one who had spent the night wide awake with a pounding heart.

Rosaria and Priscilla were even mumbling my name in their sleep. The difference was that Priscilla’s sleep-talking was strangely specific, while Rosaria’s was more vague.

“Effective for what?”

“For the skin. I’m wondering if it can make you tan.”

“Hmm… I’m not sure. I’ve never seen anyone with tanned skin among the Royal Guard applicants. They all maintained their original skin color.”

“Then I guess this just ends with applying sunscreen and taking a nap in the sun?”

“I suppose so…?”

Actually, I preferred it that way. I liked fair skin more than tanned skin anyway.

“I think it’s the first time I’ve seen Her Majesty looking so relaxed.”

Karna, who had been following my gaze toward the four sleeping soundly, smiled awkwardly. Having only ever seen Laura’s solemn demeanor as a Royal Guard, it was understandable.

Since the one inside Laura was a possessor named Lee Seoa, this relaxed state was probably more normal for her.

Priscilla, Rosaria, Laura, and Elysier—they all had much less formal personalities befitting their pre-possession ages, more like young… well, not exactly girls, but certainly much less rigid.

‘…It’s a bit much to call them girls, isn’t it?’

Even excluding the time lived through regression, if you added their pre-possession age and the seven years lived on Earth after returning, they were too old to be called girls.

Of course, I wouldn’t say that out loud. It was just my personal opinion.

“By the way, it was you who applied sunscreen to your friends, wasn’t it, Master?”

Nika suddenly interjected. Right beside her, Beatrice’s eye twitched. She seemed to be debating whether to point this out or not.

“That’s right. Why?”

I nodded with the most nonchalant expression possible. Hesitating would only give them something to latch onto.

“Could you apply some on me later too?”

“Eustera, as a maid, your duty—”

“Alright. It’s not difficult.”

Beatrice, who was about to launch into a lecture, awkwardly closed her mouth. Nika, growing even more triumphant, whispered in a subtle voice.

“How about applying some on the Head Maid, Karna, and Erestica too?”

“If they ask for it first, I will.”

An obvious gaze turned toward the two. Beatrice was the first to avert her eyes.

“…I’m fine, Young Master.”

“I-I’ll… apply it myself if needed.”

“That’s a shame. I’m sure it would feel sooooo good to be touched directly by the Master.”

At Nika’s murmured comment, both Karna and Beatrice flinched simultaneously. Perhaps it was because they were wearing bikinis and felt embarrassed, but they seemed to be expressing emotions several times more vividly than usual.

After that, I continued responding appropriately to Nika and Karna’s comments until we reached the beach.

Beatrice looked down curiously at the waves washing up to her ankles. Her toes wiggled adorably between her summer sandals, worn instead of her usual servant shoes.

Just like during the gate subjugation, I briefly explained the precautions, equipped them with magical tools that indicated the duration of underwater breathing magic, and then walked into the sea.

“Kyaah!”

“…Head Maid, what was that sound just now?”

“A-ahem… It was nothing. Please forget about it.”

Surprisingly, Beatrice was quite tense. She clung tightly to me, linking arms as we entered the water.

“……”

Of course, that didn’t last long. Once we were completely submerged, she seemed to feel embarrassed and quietly let go of my arm.

Underwater, a vast coral reef welcomed us once again.

Though it was the second time seeing this sight, Karna marveled as if seeing it for the first time, and even Beatrice wore a rare dazed expression. I moved slightly closer to her.

—Is it amazing?

I spoke to her using magic. Her lips reflexively moved in response. But only bubbles rose up without any sound coming out. That was natural underwater.

After confirming that no voice would come out, Beatrice obediently nodded. We went a bit deeper. It felt like walking through a forest made of coral.

Midway, Nika found an octopus and picked it up with a meaningful expression. Unlike the monstrously large one from before, this was just a normal-sized octopus.

I pretended not to notice and asked if she wanted to eat it, offering to tear off one leg, but she panicked and avoided me.

‘Huh?’

After walking through the coral forest for a while, I spotted something large and whitish brushing past a rock in the distance. I exchanged glances with Karna. She seemed to have seen it too.

It didn’t take long for the creature’s identity to be revealed. Something like a white tentacle flew out from behind a rock.

Eternity flashed. The transparent blade cut off the suction-cupped tentacle. The severed tentacle seemed to glow on its own, and then the nearby water turned black.

I used magic to push the black water far away so it wouldn’t approach us, then examined the severed tentacle.

‘…A squid?’

No matter how I looked at it, the severed tentacle resembled a squid’s leg. Karna, who had already seen an abnormally large octopus before, wore a slightly disgusted expression.

I considered hunting it down and killing it, but decided against it. We hadn’t come here to subjugate monsters, and I didn’t feel like going through the trouble.

—…!!!!!!

Beatrice, who had been flailing through the water a step behind, approached and examined my body frantically. Seeing her obvious urgency, I smiled and patted her head.

—……

Just as Beatrice seemed to be sighing in relief, she noticed the squid leg floating nearby and backed away in shock. I grabbed her wrist and pulled her into my arms to calm her down.

‘It’s better to discard that.’

While the octopus had been brought back and used somewhat effectively, this didn’t seem necessary. I cleanly abandoned the idea, sliced it into thin pieces, and scattered them as fish food.

Nearby fish and crustaceans swarmed in to nibble at the white flesh. Beatrice, too, seemed to feel less disgusted once she thought of it as fish food, and was observing the feeding on her hand.

“Phew……”

After our brief but intense exploration ended and we walked back out, Beatrice approached with her soaking wet body and brushed off the water from every corner of mine. Her occasional flinching and blushing cheeks were a bonus.

I didn’t just receive her attention passively. I used magic to dry Beatrice’s hair. Her reaction was noticeably flustered.

“Y-Young Master…?”

“Stay still.”

And Beatrice truly did as I said, keeping her eyes tightly shut until I tapped her shoulder and told her it was done.

“The others… are still sleeping.”

The four were still asleep. I checked the time. About an hour had passed. They truly embodied the expression “sleeping without a care in the world.”

“Should I wake them up…?”

As I approached to wake them, I noticed something strange.

Footprints scattered messily across what should have been clean white sand, and the ice box that I had definitely closed was left open.

My expression hardened involuntarily. Could there be an intruder?

‘No, if there were, the detection magic would have activated.’

This was a barrier directly installed by the great mage Valera. How many people could break through that? Besides, even if those four were asleep, they weren’t the type to remain so defenseless in front of an intruder.

Ready to draw Eternity at any moment, I approached to check the ice box.

“……”

“What’s wrong, Mira? Is something amiss?”

Karna noticed my subtle change in expression and asked.

“The alcohol is gone.”

“…Alcohol?”

Her expression matched mine as soon as she heard my answer.

A significant amount of alcohol that had been inside the box was missing. I had been uncertain when taking out the sunscreen, but now I was sure. The bottle of alcohol I had seen earlier when retrieving the sunscreen was gone.

“The footprints are faint because of the sand, but… it seems someone came here quite drunk.”

Karna shrugged after examining the footprints on the beach.

“You can tell that just from footprints?”

“The impressions are inconsistent. Here the right side is deeper, and here the area near the big toe is deeper. Even accounting for the sandy beach, it means they couldn’t maintain their center of gravity properly. Oh, and over there they even fell down. What else could it mean when someone approaches the ice box with staggering steps, takes out alcohol, and leaves?”

“They were already quite drunk, and came to get more alcohol because they ran out?”

“Correct.”

Karna grinned.

“……”

If what she said was true, considering everything else, there were only one—no, two people who could have taken the alcohol.

It seemed I needed to go find those two.