“I’m very sorry, master…”

“Don’t be.”

The sun from the horizon slowly started sinking with a hue of red and orange and the ghastly forest of the elves started becoming dim. The temperature slowly drops and the chill becomes a little rabid as it seeps into our skin.

Mimi looks down with eyes on the verge of tears while walking beside me. Her skirt reaches only up to her mid-thigh and the shirt that I lend her is an almost transparent white. Her only defense below is the black pantyhose.

“I can’t believe we fell for that kind of trap.”

“It was so painfully obvious. I didn’t think that food works well against you and Topaz.”

“You know, I’m actually good at detecting traps! It doesn’t matter if it is buried underground or lying above, I can sense it!”

“But the delicious food dulled all of your senses?”

“Ughh…”

“At the very least, they gave us the roasted pork.”

I place both of my hands on my face in utter disgrace.

If what Daisy said is true, shouldn’t that be our most priority at that point in time? No, if she said that earlier, we could have done something about those traps. We would have been caught by the Mad Maidens at all and we could have given them a good fight.

Daisy is currently wearing an oversized parka that I requested once from Mimosa. The black sterling color fits well with Daisy and the indecency of only seeing her bare thighs peeking from the hem of the clothes looks good.

I’m happy that they ended up giving Topaz the roasted pork as they saw her groveling over it. I’m going to be enraged at that point if they didn’t even yield that one to Topaz.

“Is it good?”

“Yes. They gave an ample of time to cook the pork. The marinate they used is fragrant. It smelled like they used bay leaf and some herbs local to this kingdom. Of how the skin glistens, they even set the pork on medium heat then they applied more herbs inside the belly of the pork which ingrained a better taste to its meat.

“That means…you like it, right?”

“Yes.”

I should have known…

My shirt is too tight for Topaz, especially on the chest part as two bulges are being slightly strangled by the tightness of my shirt. On the other hand, the sauce from the pork is slipping from every bite she does and the oil falls into it.

The white shirt becomes a little bit transparent and her undergarment, her bra, started becoming visible. I want to reprimand her for eating messily but…

Seeing how she happily chomps on her food, my heart just melts to bits because of her cheeks tinged with rosy blush.

I can’t get angry at her at any cost.

“Topaz, why are you so carefree? We uh…really lost our clothes back there.”

“Hmm? Well, on top of I hate to hurt someone, I really don’t sense any malice from them. Not even any intent to really harm us.”

“What do you mean by that?”

As Mimi tries to get an answer from Topaz, she only gets a smile from her.

“Actually, the girl with black hair…Ehehehe!~”

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“Ehehehe?~”

Ehehehe?~

Like Mimi, I tilted my head from Topaz that made a really odd reaction. I really feel like she is getting floaty these days but not this. Though I got to say, from someone who is a former devil, not that she is not anymore, she’s surprisingly humane.

No, I get the feeling that Topaz has gone beyond being humane and can now see all the colors from white to black and judges kind from evil separately.

Also, what was she about to say about the black haired girl, boss?

“I think there’s something weird about the black haired girl. No, there’s something definitely wrong with her.”

“No, it’s not that, Hibiscus. She, from the start, is really odd. To be able to move like Asagao and to even defeat her, albeit with tricks, is already amazing.”

“Yeah, considering that they seem to be equal in strength and speed. The only factor should be their thought patterns I guess.”

“Also, Asagao isn’t used fighting in the forest, I think. Because there were a lot of trees, it’s rather hard for her to move around, especially with her swordplay.”

It is as the twin said…

I admit that I don’t have any experience with the terrain itself and I rather lack any variations with my styles. Also, Boss and her companions moved the trees as they like so they must be really familiar with it even if one would say that they’ve just been in there for a week.

I had difficulty moving around with all the trees and slippery ground. On the other hand, Boss handled the place very well with her deft movements as proof.

If our next encounter with the Mad Maiden consists of terrains we are unfamiliar with, clothes from our closets would be flying out to nowhere.

I don’t know what Boss is capable outside of her swordplay but I need to be at least prepared for what to come from her companions. I feel like they are seasoned veterans from the air around them alone.

I can’t believe that Boss could lay all of those traps by herself. It must be them who helped her in making those vile traps! So it will be us, brats with unpolished skills and explosive powers, versus, the veterans in battle with a landslide of experience.

The first thing I need to learn together with everyone here is alertness…

For that, I need to take proper mea—

“Achiie!”

Eeeep!

It’s so cold!

“That’s some really cute sneeze, Asagao!”

“Yeah, but that also means you’re cold. Here, why don’t you take Emby for a while?”

“Pii?!”

Since Mimi and Topaz are unusually resilient to hot and cold, I gave them only sufficient clothes to cover most of the important part while Daisy is really lively and unable to contain herself, I thought that she’d be heating herself with by her own until we reach the Elven Capital.

For Casablanca and Hibiscus, I’ll be held responsible if they caught a cold so I gave them warmer clothes. They have my shorts and leftover parkas, I even give them kneesocks.

And because I thought I brought along plenty of clothes and really didn’t know that Boss and her group is this sly, I miscalculated. If we factor Daisy’s appearance, I already ran out of spares.

Currently, I’m wearing a silk negligee that I don’t know where the heck came! Under the said negligee is my single crop white bra, a perfect undergarment for a total flatty like me and a bow white panties.

I thought that, at the very least, this could give me a fair resistance to cold but…

Wow, I’m shivering!

Because of that, Hibiscus handed Emby over to me. The dumb bird stares at my face intently and since I don’t even know the slightest thing on its mind, I disregard anything it might do and hugs it close to my chest.

“Ah…warm!”

“Right? Emby is so warm that’s why I keep him with me at night.”

“That’s a phoenix for you. Um, wait!”

“Hmm?”

“Did you just say you keep him with you at night?”

“Yes! We put him between me and Casablanca! Emby is like the perfect heater under the bed sheet!”

As Hibiscus happily said that, I turn my sight towards the dumb bird once more and saw his face…

This dumb bird is nudging closer to my chest and pushes its body forward. He squirms like he is trying to take a good rub of my breasts and although it really feels so warm, I can feel something in my head boiling for another reason.

He turns his head to my face and then…it sprouted a smirk.

This asshole of a bird!!

I thought you’re not even interested in me or any one of us in general! It turns out that he even like getting hugged by little girls!

“Oh? You really like that, huh?! Why don’t I give you a better feel of my chest then, you dumb bird!?”

I made sure that he won’t slip out so I hold his fat body with my hands and pressed him further into an embrace.

Can you feel that?! A completely flat chest with no fats at all! Can you feel my hard sternum pressing into your body you sick bird!?

“Asagao and Emby are really close!~”

“Yes, we’re so close I could hug him so tight like this!”

“Emby, you like Asagao too, don’t you?”

“Pii—gluglugluglug…”

“Thank goodness you do too!”

Hahahaha!

Sweet revenge!

You’re immortal anyway so I might as well take it this far!

No, I’m just kidding.

“Anyway, they are prepared for us that for sure. I can’t put it into words but they knew exactly how everything will play like they knew each and everyone’s personality.”

Thinking back, they knew how to put a leash on each and everyone and perfectly played us with our own weakness. I don’t want to be a fool and think that all of it was coincidences but instead, they knew us so well they know what to lay down there.

But we can’t move forward conjectures alone, let baseless assumptions. Boss and her group are definitely fearsome when it comes to sly tactics.

I think if I even brood over to what will come next when we meet again, they are just going to do something unexpected.

That’s how I read Boss as their leader.

The way she fights, the way she talks, the way she taunts, it feels all familiar to the point of nostalgia and yet, I can’t find any definite evidence that can lead to her identity or to connect her to the sly fox girl that I knew.

First, Boss is a human and whatever I tried to do, I can only see normal human ears attached to her. Second, obviously would be the hair colors that utterly differentiate them. Lastly would be their fighting style.

Although I said Boss fights similarly like me, it feels like she is just copying me. The one I had in mind fights with magic and solely rely on magic and use an umbrella for an offense.

What irritates me the most about Boss is…her smug!

THAT’S RIGHT! HER SMUG! THAT SHIT EATING GRIN THAT SHE ALWAYS HAS ON HER FACE!

Nine out of ten people would say that her smile is annoying to the point that I wanted to punch her face instead of having a normal sword fight!

“Boss, when I see you again, I’ll smash that smile of yours to smithereens!”

I shouted at the dead of the dusk as we approach the gates of the Elven Capital.

Later, we got scolded by Lady Hinoki who is waiting at the gate. We were exempted from the walk of shame on the streets of the elven city and were taken to a nearby inn.