After a long stay in the royal capital, we drove along the streets in our carriage at night.
My father and I were taking turns as coachman, and right now, it was my turn to hold the reins.
Dia and Tarte were sitting on either side of me, but Dia had been in a bad mood since a while ago.
[I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to forget about our promise to go on a date. I was sure I could make time for a day or so, but…] (Lugh)
[Hmph! I know that much in my head, too, so I won’t complain. But on an emotional level, it’s a different thing. So let me at least sulk about it.] (Dia)
I had promised her a date in the royal capital to thank her for her hard work in developing the demon-slaying magic.
However, because I received numerous invitations I couldn’t turn down given my status as Tuatha Dé, I couldn’t take even a single day off.
…And what little free time I had left, I had to spend it with Naoise. He remained silent in the presence of his father, but after that, he asked to meet me in secret.
I never thought he had such an overambitious project in mind.
[I’ll make up for it. Once we’re home, we’ll go to Milteu, and this time, it’ll be a real date.] (Lugh)
[Milteu! There are still places I didn’t get to explore the last time we went there!] (Dia)
Dia’s face brightened up, as if her bad mood earlier had been just a lie.
I already intended to head to Milteu because of the report I got from Maha at the dance party.
I would take Dia along with me.
And there were also a few things I wanted to obtain for her sake.
[But would that be alright? Lugh-sama, as a Holy Knight, if the royal castle ordered you to head somewhere else, you would have to oblige immediately, wouldn’t you?] (Tarte)
[It’ll be fine. I only plan to stay there for two days and one night. It won’t be long.] (Lugh)
The position of Holy Knight entailed being dispatched to any area under attack from outside invaders.
To an extent, my actions were limited as a result.
[Fufu, I can’t wait. What are we going to visit?] (Dia)
[If you don’t have any place in mind, I’ll escort you. That city is like my own yard.] (Lugh)
I spent two years there as Illig Balor.
You could say that it was my second home.
[I’ll leave it to you, then. I still want you to escort me. …If it doesn’t work out this time, I’ll really be depressed.] (Dia)
[I’ll do my best to make sure it goes well. And even if a demon shows up before we reach Milteu, we can have our date right where he appears.] (Lugh)
[That’d be fun in its own right too. We don’t get to go to the countryside very often.] (Dia)
[We’ve never had to, after all.] (Lugh)
Most aristocrats wouldn’t set foot in other territories unless they were greatly fond of them.
Dia rubbed her eyes. She looked drowsy.
[You seem tired. Take it easy and get some sleep.] (Lugh)
At the party venue, she got tangled up with a large number of young nobles, probably because of her beauty.
As the daughter of the great Viekone family, she was used to dealing with such people, but it wasn’t any less tiring.
Besides, it was getting late.
[Then, I’ll indulge myself. Good night.] (Dia)
At that moment, she began to sleep using my thighs as a pillow.
I know she said she would indulge herself, but I’d rather say she was spoiling herself rotten here.
But I didn’t mind.
Because I could get a close-up of Dia’s cute sleeping face.
Tarte was looking at her enviously.
Then Dia slightly opened her eyes.
[You always have a longing look in your eyes. If there’s something you want, just say so without restraint. This is a bad habit of yours, Tarte. If you’re trying to refrain yourself, make sure it doesn’t show on your face. Waiting for good things to happen to you with your arms open, hoping that Lugh will take notice by acting like that, that’s just too brazen and optimistic, and not in a good way.] (Dia)
[I-I did not mean to-!] (Tarte)
[I wish you’d have a little more faith in Lugh and me. Lugh won’t be bothered by your selfishness, and I won’t get mad at you for it. Come on, if you want Lugh to give you a lap pillow, just say so.] (Dia)
[…Um, can I really?] (Tarte)
[I won’t mind at all. I don’t know about Lugh, though.] (Dia)
[No way…] (Tarte)
[You’ll know if you ask him.] (Dia)
She sounded pretty harsh, but it was the right thing to say, nonetheless.
This was one of Dia’s lovely qualities, though.
[U… Um, Lugh-sama… Could you give me a lap pillow, too?] (Tarte)
Tarte asked with a hint of uneasiness.
[Sure, I don’t mind. In exchange, when it’s time to switch drivers, let me use your lap as a pillow.] (Lugh)
[Yes…! I can hardly wait!] (Tarte)
As she said that, Tarte put her head on me as well. Dia changed her position to make it easier for Tarte to put her head down.
Unsurprisingly, having two people rest on my lap felt kind of heavy, but more than that, I felt a strange sort of happiness from doing this.
Now that I had cheered up, it was time to hurry to our home sweet home.
***
We had returned to the Tuatha Dé domain, and after we spent a day resting and replenishing, we went to Milteu.
[…Say, Lugh. You’ve always been far detached from humanity, but now it’s official, you’ve completely stopped being human. How did we get here from Tuatha Dé in just two hours?] (Dia)
[I carried you princess style and ran.] (Lugh)
If we had brought a lot of luggage, we would’ve used a carriage, but if not, then it was faster to run.
I still had plenty of room in my【Crane Leather Bag】, so we didn’t have to worry about our luggage.
That’s why I ran.
Besides, I also wanted to test my physical abilities now that I had gained Epona’s power.
[Lugh-sama… I can’t go on anymore…] (Tarte)
Tarte sat down.
[It’s okay, the fact that you were able to keep up with me is good enough.] (Lugh)
I was running in the lead as a windbreaker, which lightened her burden considerably, but even so, it was insane that she was able to keep up with me.
There were probably less than a hundred people in this country who were capable of that.
[I’m surprised too. When I thought that I didn’t want you to leave me behind no matter what, I was able to do my best. With your permission, I shall immediately go make arrangements for lodging and do my errand. I wish you the best of luck for your date!] (Tarte)
[Yeah, thanks.] (Lugh)
The errand I asked Tarte to run was to go to Maha’s place first and request for certain preparations.
As expected, even Maha wouldn’t expect me to come here anymore.
***
And so began our date in Milteu.
We were enjoying cake in my favorite pastry shop.
[Hmm…! The texture of this whipped cream is fantastic!] (Dia)
[We can come here anytime.] (Lugh)
This shop was on the expensive side, but it wasn’t high-class. However, the quality of the ingredients used was on par with those of first-class restaurants.
Above all, the pastry chef was an expert.
Fresh cream and sponge cake. Anything that served as the basis for everything was bound to stand out.
A shop that didn’t merely seem like a high-class establishment, but instead had the quality of an actual one was most valuable.
I drank the herbal tea I ordered with my cake.
[Isn’t this your favorite blend?] (Dia)
[It seems that this shop has become one of Orna’s regular customers as well.] (Lugh)
The cosmetics brand, Orna, sold not only cosmetics, but also herbal teas and sweets, which were aimed at wealthy women.
This tea was made from tea leaves that had been purchased from overseas tea plantations and selectively bred over there, so it could only be obtained from Orna.
On that note, Maha was also a fan of this shop.
Those tea leaves were not the kind of tea that could be served at the prices offered in this shop.
I guess they were selling it at a discounted price as a publicity stunt.
This shop was a hidden gem with a good customer base.
Drinking this herbal tea with the best cake made the former shine even brighter.
There were many customers who wanted to drink this tea even at home, which made for good advertisement. Maha was doing a really great job.
[I’d better buy some souvenirs. In the end, I feel guilty… Be sure to take Tarte on a date with just the two of you sometime, okay?] (Dia)
[Don’t worry, I’ll have your souvenirs ready for us to pick up on our way home. But I gotta say, I would’ve never expected a girl to tell her boyfriend to take another girl on a date.] (Lugh)
[Normally, I would’ve never asked that. But Tarte is such a good girl I cannot not care.] (Dia)
When all was said and done, Dia considered Tarte to be an important friend.
What she said the other day in the carriage was also for her sake.
[…Also, it may sound conceited, but I think I can afford to let it happen. I think I can approve of Tarte because I consider myself to be your number one, Lugh. Otherwise, I would probably be jealous of her.] (Dia)
[I see. I’m glad that you properly shared your feelings with me. Well then, we should get going. Let’s go to the next shop. Our date has just begun.] (Lugh)
[Yeah, let’s go!] (Dia)
We held hands and left the shop.
Dia wasn’t the only one looking forward to our date, I did too.
* **
Dia excitedly looked up at me.
[It was amazing. Even though they didn’t use magic, they did so many things that were even more mysterious than magic, like people being cut in half yet still being alive, and people teleporting too. I suspected that they were using magic in the middle of it, so I kept an eye on their mana, but they really didn’t use any magic at all!] (Dia)
What we were watching was a so-called magic show.
I thought a great aristocrat like Dia was tired of watching theater plays, so we watched a magic show that had recently come from abroad and gained in popularity.
Dia seemed to like it more than I thought she would.
[It was fun, right?] (Lugh)
[Did you figure out how they were doing all that?] (Dia)
[I figured out all of their tricks today.] (Lugh)
[No way. Tell me, then.] (Dia)
[First, there was a trick with the bed they were using for amputation. They covered the bed legs with a white cloth, providing a blind spot. That was the key point. There were actually two people, bending their waists like this, with the one playing the upper half of the body hiding their lower half, and the one playing the lower half of the body hiding their upper half under the bed. The blade passed between them, so they weren’t cut off.] (Lugh)
[Oh, I see what you mean.] (Lugh)
It was very simple, but that was what made it hard to notice.
[Then what about the teleportation trick?] (Dia)
[That was a twin. There were hidden doors on the stage, each with enough room for one person to hide. That twin threw the cards in the air as hard as he could and made the cloth flutter, right? This must’ve made the audience focus all their attention on the cards and the cloth. In the meantime, he hid behind one of the hidden doors, and the other twin appeared from another hidden door located farther away. It’s common for hidden doors to lead to a secret passage that you use to move from one end to another and appear, but by exploiting the advantage twins have, the reappearance happened in an instant, increasing the impact.] (Lugh)
[How did you realize he was a twin?] (Dia)
[If you look really closely, you can spot differences even between twins. Not only in their faces, but also in what they wear. You can tell right away if you look at their clothes. The sheen of the leather, the dirt, the seams, everything is different.] (Lugh)
[…I guess even if you discarded your mana, your magic, your physical abilities and all that stuff, this wouldn’t make you any more human, huh.] (Dia)
I got the feeling that she just said something rather rude about me.
[Do you feel relieved know that you know the hints?] (Lugh)
[Yeah, totally. But I’m surprised you could see through them all.] (Dia)
[I’m just used to it. Magic tricks can ultimately be summed up in two kinds of techniques. One consists in creating blind spots and exploiting them. The other consists in showing what you want to show and not letting people see what you don’t want them to see. It also happens in my principal occupation. That’s why I can’t help but sense how the other person is trying to manipulate my perception, and reflexively look opposite of where he wants me to look. If I didn’t do that, I would die on the job. So look at what they don’t want you to see, and notice the hints.] (Lugh)
There was also a considerable number of sleights of hand in assassinations techniques, not just in magic tricks.
Because of that relation, I also learned a few magic tricks in my previous life. I trained my imagination, cognitive manipulation skills and manual dexterity.
Assassination and magic tricks did go very well together.
[You can really do anything. …Could you even perform magic tricks more impressive than the ones we just saw?] (Dia)
[Yes, of course.] (Lugh)
[Then show me sometime! Let’s have a party at home. Not the aristocratic kind where you have to approach a bunch of households, but the kind that you hold with your family. And then you’ll perform some crazy magic tricks.] (Dia)
[Sounds interesting. Will you help me out when that time comes? I’ll need an assistant for that.] (Lugh)
[Um, as long as it’s nothing painful like being cut in half.] (Dia)
[Well, I’ll do the preparations for that trick. Having you as my assistant is reassuring, because the mire beautiful the assistant is, the better the trick will work.] (Lugh)
[It’s a little embarrassing when you tell me that.] (Dia)
Dia entwined her arms tightly around mine.
The two of us walked through the city at night.
Our schedule for today was over, all that was left was to return to our inn.
Dia stopped after a while.
[What’s the matter?] (Lugh)
[Say, Lugh… How about we take a detour?] (Dia)
We stopped in front of an inn.
However, it wasn’t an ordinary inn, but a place where you could take a short break.
In rural areas like Tuatha Dé, there were no such places, but they were available in small cities.
[Um… The thing is… I couldn’t ask that of you back at the mansion, because it would’ve been too embarrassing in front of Tarte or onee-… I mean, your mother… But, if it’s here, then…] (Dia)
She was blushing so hard I felt sorry for her, and she was muttering her words.
Maybe it was my imagination, but she smelled sweeter than usual.
[I don’t mind, but even I’m not confident I’ll manage to hold myself back if we step into a place like this. Are you sure you want to do this?] (Lugh)
[…Stop asking me that. I’m already so embarrassed I could die.] (Dia)
Like she said, she couldn’t look at me anymore and turned away.
For a long time, I had wanted to make love to Dia.
However, I had to resist the urge to do it because I knew that if I put my hands on her, I would lose my reason and go as far as I could.
But if I didn’t make a move on her in spite of everything she just said because of me, then I would be a disgrace to manhood.
…Besides, there was a chance that something would happen in the future.
[Dia… I’ll be as gentle as possible.] (Lugh)
I pulled her hand without hearing her reply.
Dia kept her face down, but she squeezed my hand back tightly.
It was finally time.
I gulped down my saliva.
Intercourse was something I had experienced many times, both in my previous life and here.
But this was my first time becoming one with the girl I loved.
I felt so nervous.
…I had never been this nervous before. Even when I assassinated the president of a large country, I did it without a hitch.
However, I used my skills as an assassin to avoid showing my anxiety.
Because if I panicked, Dia would be even more afraid.
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