第三十回：回合結束滿笑而歸，即滿缸金亦不準窺！
The returning girls didn't even bother helping up the elder duck who had fallen over, instead stepping over it and showing off Oracion who had come back to us.
With the immediate threat squawking its hapless way through the crowd outside, opening night went off without much of a hitch. The rest of the night went by in a blur, as I was offered milk from all directions; I remember Ou Nygai laughing at Madi-san retelling the tale, the legend, the myth of 【Puyengman】, to Oracion's great embarrassment. From the corner of my eye, Daju showing off a box of dragonbone fragments to guests at her table with a wide smile worth ten thousand gold ingots. Then there was Annalie and Ying-onee doing an impromptu extra show to close off the night.
Opening night was a happening night, indeed.
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The Red Hare Loft's ceiling gradually comes into focus with hazy recollections and a throbbing headache. Too much milk is bad for you, apparently. Silently, I lament the fact that nothing in the world can be taken in excess, thumping the side of the purple couch I am lying on with my tiny fists.
"W-water..."
[SFX: Fwhup]
Almost instantaneously, the sound of hot liquid pouring into a clay cup is succeeded by one of my guys kneeling out of nowhere before me and offering me a cuppa.
T-thanks. That's some crazy fast service. Ninja-like even. Gulping down the cuppa graciously, I take in the club's post-opening surroundings. It must be late morning already; gone were the raucous guests here to watch polite pole dancing, leaving behind a battlefield of handmade streamers and confetti which closed the night off.
Diligently sweeping the leftovers is the back of a black-haired catgirl, who turns her head around at the rustling of fabric from my direction.
"Nyaa? You are awake so soon?"
Putting a hand over one eye, I right myself and dangle my stockinged feet off the couch.
Hmm?
"... considering how hard you partied last night, I'm amazed you are awake."
A cold chill comes over my bare shoulders and chest.
"Not again!"
I find myself wearing the green variant of the club's outfit, replete with a shirtless white collar that ends in a tiny tie and detached wrist cuffs. Only this time Madi-san had the uncommon sense to put the improvised equivalent of chest padding in for me; two bouncy sacks of clothbound gelatinous liquid adorn the interior front of...
Naturally, I had the good sense to rip them off my chest first moment I got. Setting them on the couch, I poke at them with a distant finger like one would poke at an ancient egg-like artifact that would doom a warband to eternal damnation while granting its very handsome and does-nothing-wrong leader immortality and godhood.
"Oh so that's how the [Exposer] did it. I thought there was something strange about you last night..."
"N-n-never mind that!!! Where are my normal clothes?!"
Neko-chan leans her hands and chin atop her broom, tilting her head quizzically, "You're asking me, Ayano? You came out in this yourself after [Faction Leader] got made to wear a pink one as well---"
Yeah, well, I definitely don't remember that part. [Reckless Ayaya] must have kicked in on-and-off at some point during the night. Never overestimate your milk tolerance levels! Never!
"Then, where's the crazy story-bending biichii?!"
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If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Thundering footsteps lead me up the stairs the the loft's second floor. Past the upper dining area is a corridor which leads to the back rooms, an open squared pavilion [4] that basks in the sunlight above. A small grove of bamboo decorates the hewn-out middle, shooting up to the second floor. Leaning over the carved railings to peek below for a certain purple-haired troublemaker and finding nobody, I storm to the nearest room and clatter open the sliding door.
Ah, there she is.
That troublemaking fiend.
Her arms spread out to her sides and feet apart to resemble the 『大』 kanji, she didn't even bother to take off her bunny-ears before sleeping. A smug, satisfied smile on her face, she mumbles in her sleep something to the vein of "ruudeypoo Ayaya... candysass Ayaya..." before I tilt her chin shut.
Knocking heads in sleepy breathing is Ying-onee, her ponytail undone and hair tangled with Madi-san's, she curls up on her side in serene slumber, one arm over the top of Madi-san's chest. Huh, Ying-onee can actually look normal when she's not talking and has her hair down.
Then there's the newly-named 【Puyengman】. Oh please, I don't get the chance to make fun of Oracion back in [New Coimbra]. There's always that air of unapproachable coldness when she's back home, even though she's a complete dork! Come to think of it, that's the first time I've seen her sleep so peacefully...
A hand grabs
the bottom of my wrist which hovered just above Oracion's face...
"What are you doing, Aya?"
Grwahggrrahgwahah...!!!
You COULD have just told me you weren't sleeping! Not even a 『ohaiyo』[1] after waking up?! I wasn't trying anything, honest! I was just wondering where my clothes are, seeing that there are three bunnygirls sleeping in the same room! How was I supposed to know that I was playing Jumpsxare Mxnsion in isekai?!
Oracion grunts in tiredness and flops her head back onto the thin mattress, pointing to a wardrobe at the side.
Okay, self-service it is!
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I didn't find my original clothes, but found some loose white robes and a green 『haori-like』overcloth that reached my ankles. Carefully hanging up the green bunnysuit, I tiptoe out of the room while carefully sliding the door behind the sleeping bunnygirls.
You never can tell if Oracion is asleep or not, it doesn't hurt to be considerate!
As my little feet explore the corridor of this squared pavilion, I can hear clinking giggling from behind the paper windows of the eastern doorway.
I have a pretty good idea who that is.
Sliding the door open, my eyes are greeted by the splendors of last night's takings. Each desk is neatly stacked with a mountain range's worth of last night's takings, even standing on tiptoes I am just barely able to reach the summit of these orange cat-made valleys.
However...
That wasn't what drew my attention in the first place, was it? It was the creepily scandalous voices coming from inside the side-room! Behind a smaller door, something strange is definitely happening!
"Oh yes, you're a cute little thing aren't you?"
"haaah..."
"Did that feel good? I can go..."
I can say with a hundred percent certainty that I know the owner of this voice. What I didn't know was that she either is into ASMR or has been hiding a secret lover somewhere! Neko-chan couldn't have been finished so fast, could she? I had to put both hands on the sides of my head while shaking it left and right with vigor to toss that steamy, yabai thought out.
Crabwalking while pressing my back to the wall, my poor ears take in even more yabai ASMR tingles that are too explicit to be released in visual novel format!
Considering the list of suspects that are left in this closed circle...
This detective can only gulp as she moves a shaky hand over the sliding door to the anteroom...!
Just a peek.
Nobody would know.
Through the now conveniently ajar sliding door, my ocean-blue eye darts around the interior of this spacious bathroom, clearly made in [Vespanola] fashion, replete with a porcelain sink and bright yellow tiling. At the side of the room, concrete steps lead upwards into a rounded bathtub, where a familiar orange-haired catgirl is frolicking in the steam.
Of course, that was not the most scandalous sight.
The mysterious companion she was purring to...
... was a bathtub filled to the brim with copper coins.
Soaked half in water and the other half in copper, Daju is submerged to the top of her shoulders in bronze resplendence. When she lifts her arms before her, copper falls from the sides of her arms like a waterfall as she giggles at the clinking spectacle. Lifting a single copper coin dripping with scented bathwater before her, she blows through the hollow center [2] like... like... she was expecting to blow bubbles out of it. No, what are >YOU thinking?! Blowing bubbles in soapwater is a real thing!
Looking through the middle of a copper coin held to her left eye...
... she catches a glimpse of blinking blue at the door.
"And a very good morning to you too, Sister Ayano."
Ah.
『Shimatta』. [3]
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"【Taisho】."
By the time we came down the stairs, Neko-chan was finished with cleanup, having set the last chair upside down on a table. As she dusts her hands, she cannot help but notice the trembling (me) coming down alongside Daju.
"Nyaa...? What's wrong with you, Ayano? Still got the shakes from last night?"
"Don't worry, Cousin, we were just having a very heart-to-heart talk about not trying to pick forbidden plums~"
Neko-chan scratches the side of her cat ears, not understanding at all.
"We grow plums in 【Pu'yeng】? In this season?"
Neko-chan, you idiot. Don't you hang out with Morganna all the time? She's never used this phrasing before?
"More importantly Cousin, have you eaten? You worked through the early morning, didn't you?"
Neko-chan twiddles her fingers, her mode of working seen through by her orange-haired cousin. Snapping her fingers, Daju makes the decision for the chronically overworking black cat.
"That won't do, cousin~
I'll make the preparations,
let's have a nice breakfast together, I insist!"
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NEXT: There's Totally No Antagonism At All This Is A Comedy, That's Not Going To Stop The Duck From Scheming And Conniving!
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TERMINOLOGY
[2] Copper Coins - Ancient copper coins had a center in the middle so you could thread string through them. That was how people used to carry them around!
[4] Squared Pavilion - Technically its a 【四合院】, but on the second floor. Old buildings in the north were designed like squares with a central courtyard, with the 'houses' on each side facing each other. Just imagine that its like the Serenity Teapot house design for Liyxe.
GO GO AND LEARN MOONRUNES WITH AYA-CHAN!
[1] 『ohaiyo』 - 『おはよう!』 It simply means good morning! Something you could say if you are just pretending to be asleep for no good reason in the morning at all!
[3] 『Shimatta』 - 『しまった』, uh oh! When you do something wrong and you get caught!