<Chapter 63>
#7. Journey (2)
Calix softly laughed as he looked at Melty, who had frozen with his eyes wide open. He hadn’t said anything particularly surprising, yet Melty’s brown eyes moved restlessly.
“What’s strange about lovers going on a date?”
Calix was the first to broach the subject. At his question, Melty’s index finger hesitantly moved. His finger poked Calix’s chest before quickly changing direction to poke his own chest.
Calix laughed out loud at the wandering of the tiny finger that so resembled its owner. His dissatisfaction with Melty’s bewilderment at not grasping the situation instantly melted away.
“What’s with this finger acting so adorably?”
Calix firmly wrapped his left arm around Melty’s back to prevent him from falling backward. Then, with his free hand, he grasped Melty’s finger. Gently shaking the fingertip up and down as if greeting a child, Melty’s expression immediately crumpled.
“Aren’t we going because of some urgent matter?”
“Who said that?”
“Angel-ssi did! He said, ‘This is a very important matter, so please take good care of Master Calix.'”
Melty’s voice gained strength as if recalling Angel’s request to him. Releasing Melty’s finger, Calix leaned back casually while keeping his arm around Melty’s waist. Preventing the excited hamster from falling backward as he squirmed, Calix opened his mouth with a deep smile.
“How can you fall for Angel’s tricks again after being fooled by him before?”
Melty’s mouth gaped open at Calix’s words. Just before entering the Padrian household, Melty had been tricked into signing an unfair contract. Back then too, it was Angel who had presented the contract while showering him with sweet words.
Of course, the real culprit in both past and present incidents was Calix. Having thrown Angel under the bus and swiftly distanced himself, Calix stared intently at Melty’s round, open mouth and spoke.
“It’s true we’re going because there’s business to attend to, but it’s not so urgent that we won’t have time to date.”
“…Why are we going then?”
“It seems there’s been a drought recently. Some regions are even experiencing famine because of it.”
As Calix explained, Melty recalled the people he had seen at the temple. They looked disheveled, as if they had come from far away, and seemed starving. Watching Melty’s small head nodding slowly as he listened attentively, Calix continued with a smile.
“And they want me to look into that annoying matter.”
“Why would Calix-ssi need to look into that?”
“It seems other regions are also suffering damage. It would be troublesome if more people flooded into my area too.”
Of course, Calix was confident he could dismiss their opinions if he wanted to. However, he was more interested in filtering out the annoying individuals who had been lurking around the Padrian mansion lately. He didn’t know why this was happening, but it was obvious they were targeting him. So, this time specially, he decided to go along with their intentions.
‘Besides, I needed to go to the medicinal herb fields to receive the position of heir apparent anyway.’
He was also planning to visit the Spangky family on the way. He wanted to find out why they had requested poison herbs from the Padrian family instead of asking the Botenta family, who were abundant in grains. Nodding his head as he listened to Calix’s explanation, Melty turned to look at the spacious seat that remained for him.
“By the way, how long do we have to stay in this position?”
“Hmm? Why?”
“It’s weird to be like this when there’s plenty of space over there.”
Calix lifted his head at Melty’s pointing finger. Discovering the wide, empty seat, Calix curled up the corners of his mouth. He grabbed the pile of documents crumpled beside him and casually tossed them. Fortunately, the pile of documents landed on the opposite seat without toppling over.
After throwing the documents, he tapped Naru’s head, who was positioned on Melty’s wrist. The clever Naru stared at Calix briefly before slithering over to his arm. In an instant, the diligent Naru had moved to the chair opposite where the documents were placed.
“There, done.”
“……”
Naru flicked his tail and neatly arranged the scattered pile of documents. Perhaps thinking he had completed his task, Naru yawned widely and coiled up. Having witnessed the previously empty seat suddenly become fully occupied, Melty stared at it with a blank expression.
“That’s not done at all!”
“It is done. Now there’s nowhere to sit except here, right?”
Calix, with a shameless face, patted Melty’s plump bottom with his hand. Startled by his touch, Melty quickly moved his hands behind to cover his bottom. Not that it helped much—his small, fluffy tail that protruded from between his hands remained completely exposed.
“Y-you lewd snake!”
“…Where on earth do you learn such words.”
Calix let out a hollow laugh at Melty’s increasing use of strange words day by day. He never expected to be called “lewd” just for patting his bottom lightly.
“I learned it from Lila-ssi.”
Though it wasn’t meant as a compliment, Melty’s cute demeanor—raising his nose high and looking smug—made it impossible for Calix to be angry. With a smile on his lips, Calix quietly recalled 101 ways to block Lila McNeil’s approach.
“My seat disappeared.”
“It’s right here. Your seat.”
“…You’re not going to say your lap is my seat, are you?”
“That’s exactly right.”
Melty frowned at Calix’s response, delivered with a pleasant smile. After leisurely observing Melty’s dissatisfied face, Calix shrugged lightly.
“What’s so displeasing? Is it very uncomfortable?”
“Of course it’s uncomfortable. Your legs are hard.”
Melty pressed Calix’s leg with his hand, wearing a sullen expression. Finding the reason more trivial than expected, Calix let out a deflating sound. Judging by Melty’s small mutterings of “Give me back my seat,” he seemed to be just acting pouty.
Calix’s expression, which had been ready to happily indulge in Melty’s small tantrum, slowly hardened. Restraining Melty’s hand, which wouldn’t stop touching his leg, Calix said with an awkward smile:
“If you keep stimulating like that, something harder might appear. How about we stop here?”
“Something harder…?”
Melty tilted his head, noticing that Calix’s expression, which had been smiling until just moments ago, had subtly hardened. Despite having had several tiffs with Calix before, this was the first time he had seen such a strange expression—neither smiling nor angry.
With a puzzled face, Melty lowered his gaze. Then he realized what Calix meant. Lifting his face, now bright red, Melty looked directly at Calix. Discovering that Calix had slightly turned his head to the side, Melty moved even more actively than before.
“Ah, don’t move, stay still. Still!”
“I-i-is this the time to talk about such things?!”
Calix cleared his throat loudly as he watched Melty squirming with a flushed face. With the center of his pants now quite bulging, he knew his words wouldn’t be convincing, but if he showed no reaction when such a lovable small creature was rubbing its bottom and hands on his leg, that would be a problem in itself.
“I told you I wouldn’t do anything you dislike until you remove the word ‘temporary’, didn’t I?”
“W-what? Then if I remove that word, you’ll do things I dislike?”
To Melty’s question, asked with wide, intense eyes, Calix quickly continued:
“No, I won’t. Even if you remove that word, I won’t do things you dislike. So, will you remove ‘temporary’?”
With narrowed eyes, Melty looked up at Calix with a suspicious gaze. It was a statement that didn’t inspire any trust, but he didn’t bother pointing that out. After staring at Calix with a thoughtful expression for a moment, Melty’s gaze dropped down again. Realizing what he was looking at, Calix hastily covered Melty’s eyes with an embarrassed face.
“No, why does this fearless hamster keep looking at that?”
“…I’m not confident yet.”
“Huh? What confidence?”
Calix wanted to ask why he was looking for confidence there. To Calix’s question, Melty grabbed his hand covering his eyes, pulled it down, and mumbled his answer.
“Confidence to be reckless.”
“Reckless? What kind of confidence is that? Why would you need that?”
At Calix’s question, Melty silently glanced downward. His innocent center, whose only crime was bad timing, kept receiving dirty looks. At a loss for words, Calix pulled Melty into his arms instead of snapping at him. He simply couldn’t leave him be as Melty’s head kept dropping downward embarrassingly. As a result, Melty’s face bumped into Calix’s chest, and he rubbed his forehead with his hand.
“Really, now. You’re supposed to be in a temporary relationship, yet you’re already thinking about going all the way?”
So fearful, yet so cunning.
Melty, who had been fidgeting, murmured resentfully at Calix’s question, which came with a hollow laugh.
“How can I not consider that? I heard it’s the most important part of dating.”
“……”
At Melty’s exclamation, Calix felt the back of his neck stiffen. Forcing a smile, he recalled the face of the culprit he somehow knew without asking. Suppressing his bubbling feelings, Calix asked Melty a question to clarify the possible situation.
“I wonder who told you such things~?”
Melty, completely unaware of the tremor in Calix’s tone, softly revealed the name of the person responsible for the entire situation.
“Lila-ssi.”
…No surprises there.
Pressing his temple against the oncoming fatigue, Calix said seriously:
“…You really… Don’t play with her anymore. No, don’t even mix words with her.”
“Why?”
“‘Why~?’ Are you really asking because you don’t know? That damned fox has been teaching you strange things.”
Melty, who had been fingering his innocent lips at Calix’s question, looked up at him. Seeing his exasperated reaction, it seemed there was something wrong with what she had taught. Recalling Lila’s figure emphasizing “the most important thing” over and over again, Melty asked:
“Then is it not important?”
“……”
Calix, who had been grinding his teeth and vowing to pluck out all of Lila McNeil’s prized red fur the next time they met, was at a loss for words at Melty’s question. Of course, it was true that the purpose of dating didn’t lie there, but it was also ambiguous to assert that it wasn’t important based on hasty judgment.
“Calix-ssi?”
As Melty fidgeted while waiting for an answer, Calix, who had let out a slightly pained, low moan, was forced to make the second-best choice.
Thud.
Calix’s head, which had been facing Melty until just moments ago, collapsed to the side. Melty’s eyes widened in surprise at the sudden situation.
“Huh?”
Melty’s eyes cooled as he stared at Calix, who had suddenly closed his eyes, leaned his head against the wall, and was breathing evenly. With a sour expression, Melty raised his hand to the suddenly sleeping Calix. His hand moved left and right over Calix’s closed eyes. Calix’s closed eyelids twitched and trembled. It was a subtle reaction, but Melty had no trouble recognizing it.
“Why are you suddenly pretending to sleep?”
Calix’s body twitched and trembled at Melty’s question. He was caught, and he was going to be caught from the beginning, but he absolutely could not open his eyes now. His resentment toward Lila was instantly directed toward the Crosel family members who hadn’t taught proper views on relationships to an adult.
“Are you really going to pretend to sleep?”
To Melty’s question, full of dissatisfaction, Calix opened his mouth to answer, just as Melty had done before:
“Zzzz.”
