Nothing has changed. Probably.

Ariel looked down at her disciple, Asha, who was sitting on her bed with a complicated expression.

Her brow was furrowed in distress but adorably scrunched, her pure white legs swung unconsciously, and her soft fingers seemed deep in thought.

Ariel shook her head, approached Asha, and sat down beside her.

As she did, the bedsheet sank in, and the peach-scented body scent wafted up.

Ariel gently stroked Asha’s hair with a hand that felt strangely tense, and quietly continued speaking.

“Will the problem be solved by doing this?”

Asha’s red lips, from which faint breaths had been escaping, parted, and a large amount of hot breath exhaled.

“I know that much. B-but… this is too sudden, isn’t it…?”

“…That’s… true.”

Ariel felt a strange emotion as she watched Asha grumble, her face flushed crimson.

‘…She’s changed quite a lot.’

Ariel recalled the first time she met Asha.

At first, when some child came looking for her, she had planned to just send them away.

But then she remembered being intrigued that the child was from the ‘Astarote’ family, famous for magic, and taking them in.

When she actually met them… they were an even stranger child than that.

A child who was overly mature for their age, and stiff as if wounded.

While they had softened considerably living together, compared to now, it seemed fair to think of them as a different person.

Well, that wasn’t a bad thing. For Ariel, appearance or personality wasn’t that important.

Ariel secretly sniffed, taking in the peach scent from Asha.

In fact, the decisive reason Ariel, who never took disciples, decided to accept Asha as one was….

Because of Asha’s way of thinking, which was ‘a little’ different from her own and others.

For Ariel, outward appearance wasn’t a very important matter.

…Still, wasn’t it a happy thing that the period they could spend together increased by her appearance changing to that of a child?

“Master-nim?”

“Ah, hmm. What is it?”

Ariel, who had unconsciously been captivated by the peach scent, snapped back to attention at Asha’s voice.

Her emerald eyes, resembling Ariel’s own, shone brilliantly, sending a gaze filled with trust towards her.

It might have been a coincidence… but Ariel felt it was somehow strange.

‘Why did her eye color become the same as mine?’

Meanwhile, Asha’s lips carefully parted.

“Still, it would be better to talk face-to-face, wouldn’t it?”

Ariel nodded and patted Asha’s shoulder. Warm body heat could be felt through the thin pajamas.

“That would be good. After all, the Empire isn’t prohibiting such things, is it?”

“N-no, that’s true, but th-that…”

“Hehe, that’s enough.”

Seeing her disciple’s face flush red like an apple once more, Ariel chuckled inwardly.

She took her fidgeting disciple’s hand and slowly helped her stand up.

The two, standing like affectionate lovers, left the bed.

Thump, thump.

Then, an ominous sound of something shaking the window was heard.

“It seems we won’t be able to go outside for a while.”

“…Indeed.”

Ariel and Asha opened the door and proceeded to where their companions were.

*

*

*

*

For some reason, being with Master-nim meant the companions couldn’t find them.

In the meantime, after calming her pounding heart and organizing her thoughts, she sought out her companions.

It was a bit… peculiar that they were all gathered around a large dining table, as it was mealtime.

Everyone seemed hungry from moving around, so it was something they all agreed upon.

They silently finished their meal in a somewhat tense atmosphere, and then tea and snacks for dessert were brought out.

After sending the servants out.

…First, she wiped the sauce from Cecil’s mouth with a handkerchief.

“Thank you!”

When she nodded at the brightly smiling Cecil, three pairs of eyes were looking at her.

She swallowed hard in nervousness and tried to say something, but.

She still had no idea what to say.

…Should she ask them to wait until she returned to her original self?

“First, I want to─”

Scraaaape!

At that moment, with the sound of a chair scraping against the floor, Claudia stood up from her seat.

In the blink of an eye, Claudia, who had pulled a chair next to her and sat down, looked at her and quietly opened her mouth.

“Do you… absolutely have to return to your original body?”

“…What?”

Seeing her face tinged with bewilderment, Claudia, who was uncharacteristically serious and mumbling, continued in a gentle voice.

“You know what’s… attached to me, right?”

“Th-that’s right…?”

Saying so, Claudia pressed her large breast against her. As the soft mass of fat touched her body, Claudia’s unique sticky yet healthy body scent strongly wafted up.

 “Because of this… I gave up on my feelings, right? After all… it would be hard to accept from a male perspective. So, I… it might be my greed… but I wish you would stay like this.”

For words coming from Claudia, who always led conversations with a light nuance, they carried quite a bit, no, a very significant amount of seriousness.

…And it wasn’t a question that could be answered lightly, given its content.

While Claudia sent a deep gaze towards her, who was hesitating.

This time too, a scraping sound, ‘drrrk’, of a chair being dragged was heard.

With her red hair fluttering, Veronica pushed a chair next to her and sat down.

“…Is there really a need for that? I’d rather you not place such a heavy burden on a matter Asha should choose.”

“Hmm?”

At Veronica’s words, Claudia let out a meaningful sound. As if surprised, with wide eyes.

Veronica, holding her hand, spoke to her in a quiet voice.

“I don’t care what form you take. So… I want you to do whatever you want. I’m also ready to help, no matter what choice you make.”

“Veronica…”

A warming heart.

Feeling somewhat awkward, she turned her head and saw Claudia, whose eyes were narrowed.

“…That’s too much. You mean it doesn’t matter to you because you’re a complete woman, right?”

“Th-that’s not it, okay?”

As the two growled at each other, a rustling sound was heard.

‘What’s that sound?’

Following the source of the sound, it was coming from under the table.

A moment later, the tablecloth was pulled back, and Cecil appeared from underneath.

The cleaning had been thorough, so not a speck of dust clung to her, making her look neat, but her hair, having been brushed by the tablecloth, was a mess.

Cecil chuckled, then rested her face on her thigh and smiled brightly.

“Cecil likes any Asha-nim.”

…She wouldn’t know what I looked like before I changed. Nor would she know that I changed.

Nevertheless, Cecil seemed to infer that fact from the conversation she overheard and told her so.

‘…She’s smart.’

As she stroked Cecil’s head, she looked across and saw Master-nim chuckling and looking at her.

…Well, she hadn’t asked for help, but wasn’t it a bit much for Master-nim to be enjoying this so much?

If she carefully re-examined the boisterous conversation of the three, ultimately, nothing in the story had changed.

It could simply be said that a little more detail was added to the two people’s stories.

…The fact that the two of them had feelings for her from before was a bit… shocking, though.

Thinking that way… how busy she must have lived.

She couldn’t help but think that.

Even though there were people showing her goodwill, she hadn’t noticed it and had only worked to earn money, hadn’t she?

‘…I’m not even a novel protagonist.’

It seemed that such protagonists often appeared in novels she had read in her previous life.

Protagonists who were catastrophically oblivious, scattering pheromones everywhere, then shrugging their shoulders as if to say, ‘Is there such a person?’

When she read about them, she thought, ‘Could such idiots really exist?’, but now that she had become one, the feeling was truly… strange.

As she self-deprecated, thinking herself pathetic, Claudia, who had been pressing her breast against her, said something, though she didn’t know how her silence was misunderstood.

“If you’re really troubled, why don’t we try living together first?”

…So, is she suggesting they try cohabiting before getting married?

But… now that she thought about it.

“…Aren’t we already doing that?”

At her grumbling, Claudia shook her head, asking what she meant.

“Right now, we’re following Asha for her work… but if you think of it as dating… wouldn’t the feeling be different?”

“….”

Hearing it, it did seem to make sense.

Isn’t that why she was currently trapped as if surrounded at the dining table?

Claudia’s words didn’t end there.

She poured sweet words into her ear, sounding like a devil’s whisper.

“At least within the Empire… it’s not exactly illegal, is it? So… let’s try various experiences together.”

Her face flushed at the proposal, which felt somehow too promiscuous.

When she pushed Claudia’s face away, she chuckled and obediently retreated.

Looking beside her, Veronica was also holding her hand tightly, her face flushed.

‘….’

Finally, she let out a sigh and carefully opened her mouth.

“…First, I also need some time to accept this… so I think it would be good to live together for now and think about it, just as Claudia said.”

She paused to catch her breath.

“If we live together thinking like that… there might be parts we don’t like… and also─”

Master-nim waved her hand, cutting off her words as she tried to say more.

She blinked, and Master-nim smiled.

“Why are you adding more words? You just have to say yes.”

“N-no, that… I get it. Anyway… let’s do that.”

Then Veronica and Claudia nodded, taking a step back. As she forced her head down, feeling their eyes burning as they looked at her, she saw Cecil smiling brightly and looking at her.

‘…C-Cecil is included too, right?’

Along with a strange sense of immorality.

It felt like a different daily life was beginning than before.

The funny thing was that Master-nim was the first one to snatch her away.

“I’ll act as a buffer. Our disciple probably has no dating experience, so I’ll have a lot to teach her after a long time.”

That’s what she said.

She knew Master-nim was a virgin, so what was she talking about?

…Still, she felt a little relieved.

Because she could trust Master-nim.