4.22. Intumesce

"Where..?"

Sequencee got up and held his head.

"My room.."

'What happened.. crap.'

He quickly pushed his blanket away and went out into the hall. He could smell the food in the kitchen.

Schwii's room was shut, Iona was cooking in the kitchen. Obviously, Sequencee headed to the maid first.

"Morning Your Highness."

"Morning Iona.. yesterday night.."

"Her Highness needed to satisfy herself. She pushed you down out of instinct. It was nothing too severe."

'.. Oh. Okay, nevermind.. wait, what?'

Sequencee tried to process her words, but his mind felt heavy and hazy. He usually woke up feeling like this whenever he had a deep sleep. The time was 6 am. Dawn was just about to break the sky.

'Satisfy herself.. oh, right.'

"Thanks Iona."

"No problems. Her Highness may be late, allow her to sleep a little longer."

"Alright."

"Additionally, there is a letter on the table issued by the academy."

"Letter?"

Prodded by Iona, Sequencee walked over to the table and picked it up. He examined the lotus wax stamp.

Slicing open the top, he took out the paper. It read that a special holiday had been authorized for today in celebration of yesterday's victory.

"Oh, nice."

"What are the contents?" Iona asked, still busy preparing the ingredients.

"No class today because our academy won yesterday."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. Then we'll just let Schwii sleep in a little more then… actually, I'll tell her about it in case she wakes up in a panic."

"Your Highness, be careful."

"Thanks for the heads up."

Sequencee knocked lightly on Schwii's door before pushing it open. The sweet scent of what Sequence guessed to be aphrodisiac filled the room. Even though the window was open to let the scent out, some lingered. He sent a purifying wind breeze into the room.

'Ouch..'

He felt the pain of straining mana.

'I overdid it yesterday.'

The strain of over-exerting his mana hall for that last spell took a toll on him.

[Activated Trait: Focus]

Schwii was covered under the blanket. Sequence thought she was probably naked underneath.

'I really do need to be careful..'

He tapped on her shoulder's carefully, observing her hair sticky to her cheeks.

"Nm..? Morning.." her eyelashes fluttered open.

"Morning Schwii. There's no class today."

"No class?"

"Yeah. So you can rest in bed."

Rubbing her eyes, Schwii held her blanket close to herself and sat up.

"Why is there no class?"

"Because the academy won yesterday's competition."

"No class because of that?"

With the blanket being the only thing between him and Schwii's naked figure, Sequencee couldn't help but find her every gesture simply inviting.

"Yeah, because of that. So you can sleep a little longer if you want, um, I'll leave first so I don't disturb you," Sequencee said.

"Give me a morning kiss," Schwii's sweet voice gripped his heart.

"..."

There was no way he could deny a request like this.

Sequencee leaned in and gave her a light peck. She didn't pursue, she was aware she shouldn't.

"Sorry about yesterday night," she muttered.

"It's alright."

"I should've been more prudent.."

"Then you should probably be careful now. You're not wearing anything right?"

Schwii's looked away, her cheeks burned.

"A-Anyways. I'll quickly put on my clothes after this."

"There's no class, Iona said you can sleep in."

"No, no I won't sleep in."

"Up to you, whichever is fine."

"Love you."

Badump!

Schwii quickly covered herself with the blanket and flopped onto bed. Sequencee smiled akwardly.

'She can be so cute sometimes.'

"I.. love you too."

Sequencee left the room and shut the door.

He loosened a sigh, observing the every beat of his racing heart.

===

Pop, open.

Pour.

Close, twist.

After which a ball of steaming water was generated and dropped into the cup.

Schwii dissolved the instant coffee powder into the water.

Open.

Pour.

Milk was added. And then..

Tear.

Pour.

Tear. Pour. Tear. Pour. Tear–

"Again with so much sugar.." Sequencee remarked, twitching a little.

"I wouldn't be able to offset the bitterness if not then?"

Schwii's home brewed instant coffee.

"Well, then try milk tea? I heard that it also has the same effect of helping you stay awake," Sequencee asked.

"Didn't you know I often drank tea in the past? If there was such an effect, I would've noticed it by now."

"Makes sense. Which makes me wonder– where exactly does coffee get these properties of waking someone up?"

"Perhaps it's in the bitterness."

"You've added so much sugar though.."

"Then I don't know."

As Iona finished arranging the dishes on the table, they starting eating.

"It's a quiet morning," Schwii muttered softly, gazing towards the morning sky through the wide windows.

"Sure is."

It didn't feel unpleasant, rather, it felt refreshing. For one, Sequencee had been put to sleep by Schwii's kiss. While he did feel disoriented earlier, the shower helped clear the fuzz out of his mind.

It was just the three of them on this peaceful morning. No one to disturb, everything was sound. There was still that lingering afterglow from yesterday, and for the most part, things just felt right.

"Iona, how about you join us for breakfast?"

"If that is your wish, Your Highness," Iona took a seat.

"Haven't we made it clear that you should join us for meals?" Schwii pouted.

"Though it would be acceptable during times like this, I am merely afraid that once we return, this assimilating this habit would create issues."

'When we return huh..'

Sequencee pondered deeply about Iona's words as he dug into the soft, jiggling mapo tofu with rice. It was a dish which Risa had taught Iona during their time together in the kitchen. Some parts of the recipe had been modified to meet Iona's standards.

"Iona, how have the evenings been? Are there still demons hiding around.. actually, how do you go about finding these demons? It's not like you have a marker on them, or do you?" Sequence asked, bringing up another topic.

"You need not to know about Your Highness."

"But Schwii knows, doesn't it?"

"That's a separate matter altogether. Schwii is my master."

"But.."

"Sequencee. Everything is alright," she lightly placed her spoon down. "I'll explain. So far Iona has terminated 2 demons that have come to scout. While it's likely there are more in the shadows, knowing that Iona's presence is presently protecting us, it would have them second guess their idea of trying anything against us."

"Who was it that sent the demons?"

Schwii sighed.

"Did I not tell you last time?"

"I forgot?"

'Her previous fiances, right?'

"Then all you need to know is that it's someone that I wish to have no contacts with."

"I see.. then what kind person are they–"

"There's no need for you to know that now. You'll come to meet him– them eventually. I just hope it won't be so soon."

Sequencee didn't know much about the demon empire. So it felt like a waste of resources to even send demons to the human empire just to mess with them. Withal, what orders had the infiltrating demons been given?

Kill Sequencee? Kidnap Schwii? Scout the parameter of the city?

As Schwii had said, with Iona around, it was unlikely that they would be able to achieve much of anything. So why did they dispatch their resources assuming Schwii would be unprotected?

"Could they have some other objective?" Sequencee muttered.

"You're overthinking things," Schwii said.

"You're implying that they do, don't they?"

"They have their methods of trying to break things apart. Iona and I are simply trying to prevent that."

"You mean.. attacking town?"

"There had been attempts. Iona successfully ended the head of the movement before anything happened."

"Alright.. maybe I am overthinking things.."

'Totally not..'

Demons were trying to threaten the social security of Rika Nation– that was what Sequencee was getting at.

"I can understand why you would. If things weren't as complicated, perhaps I could share with you these information," Iona interjected.

"We're planning to return to the demon empire by the end of this year, right?" Sequence asked.

".. Iona. Did The Sovereign say anything?"

"I've not found any letters."

"What are the chances that it has been intercepted by our enemies?" Schwii mulled.

"I wouldn't say the probability is not there."

Schwii bit her lips.

"But don't worry, Your Highness. I don't believe His Eminence would've not noticed," Iona reassured.

She nodded.

"Well, what should we do today I wonder?" Sequencee drawled– moving the topic elsewhere.

"I was thinking of going to the training theater to practice magic."

"But, I think it's going to be full though? You know, because the tournament is coming up."

"Then.. what can we do today..?" Schwii's eyes swam.

"Another date?" Sequencee caught on the hint.

"Uwu.."

"Iona would be coming so it's not exactly a perfect date.."

"It's still a date. Then let's go around the city to find gems."

'Let's hope nothing weird happens today..'

Sequencee though back to how they bumped into Linton.

'I wonder how things are going on his side of things?'

The issue of Linton being pursued by some maid beastkin remains an unsolved situation. That, the heroes' will have to handle themselves.

===

"We're back.

"Yeah. We're back."

"It was a fun day."

"Was it?" Sequencee showed a wry smile.

They walked out of the city to have a view of the plains that extended to Norcto's forest, visited the dungeon entrance into the Black Ravine (which was just a stairwell structure built going deep down)– basically doubled up as a port which connected to the second half of the city on the other side of ravine and went across the bridge to explore the other side of Rika Nation.

For lunch, they tried a high end sushi restaurant. It's a mystery where they get all the fish from even though they were located so far from the ocean. The most probable guess Sequencee had was that they had warp gates set up to some fishing villages at the ocean.

They returned late in the afternoon.

Opening the door to their apartment, they found a pink envelope on the ground. Someone had slid it under the door.

"What's this?"

"It's not from the academy.."

"It smells like flowers..?" Schwii grew wary. What if it was a love letter?

"Lend it to me."

Schwii opened it.

".. What?"

"What does it say?"

".. committed murder and.. suicide."

"Huh?"

"This Azaleas and Rose.. aren't they related to Leticia," Schwii looked at Sequencee with a stern expression.