Before I could say It wouldn’t be a problem if you had dressed properly to begin with, the two hurried under the covers. It was a single bed, making it was a tight fit for three people. Inevitably, the two of them ended up pressed up against me. Close enough I could feel their hearts beating.
“Whew,” Liscia said. “This is nice and warm, huh.”
“Indeed,” Aisha said. “I could fall asleep just like this.”
“This is my room and office, though, you know…” I could only put on a wry smile in response to their comments. But, well… it really was warm.
My worries from before seemed to be melting away. That was how great the warmth of others was. Just by having someone there next to me, my heart felt lighter.
I could remind myself that I was protecting them. That I wanted to protect them.
“You two,” I said.
“Hm?” Liscia said.
“What is it?” Aisha asked.
“Thanks.”
When I said that, the two of them smiled, one on each side of me.
Then, perhaps because we were tired, the three of us soon drifted off to sleep.
Epilogue: Peace is Yet Distant
This place was the child care center that had been in the castle for a long time now. It was mostly a place where people who worked in the castle, such as the maids, left their children.
“King, play with uuuus!” one child yelled.
“King, let us ride on your shouldeeeers!”
I said nothing.
Sitting on the carpet, an adorable little wolf-eared boy of around three was playing with a human girl. Meanwhile, a cat-eared girl who was around the same age had occupied my lap and was rolling around on it. The cat tail that grew out of her rear end was swishing back and forth.
“Hmm, I can’t get up now, so just climb up on your own,” I said.
““Aye!”” the kids cried.
The two who had been fooling around together started climbing up my back. Yeah, they were pretty darn adorable. I had gotten used to them hanging over my shoulders and touching my face all over now.
“Hee hee. You really are popular with the children, Your Majesty.” The birth mother of my beloved little sister Tomoe, Tomoko, watched us with a smile as she folded the children’s laundry.
When we’d practically forced Tomoe to become my adopted little sister-in-law, we had also had Tomoko take up residence here to work at the nursery school. By the way, the little boy who was using his slobber-covered hand to touch my face right now was her eldest son (Tomoe’s real little brother), Rou.
“Big brother,” Tomoe said, “I’m happy that you’re playing with Rou and his friends, but are you sure its okay? Won’t Big Sister get mad at you again…?”
Tomoe, who stayed here to help her mother when she didn’t have to do work negotiating with rhinosauruses, was busy soothing a baby. When I thought about it, Tomoe was still only ten years old. What a good, reliable kid she was.
“It’s fine,” I said. “I don’t have a massive backlog of work to get through anymore. Besides, I’ve left my Living Poltergeists in the governmental affairs office to keep up with the work.”
“Oh, I see,” said Tomoe. “You can play the day away, then. Isn’t that nice, Rou?”
“Aye!” Rou raised his hand up straight.
He’s so cuuuute.
I really liked kids. I could watch them toddling along with their little steps all day. It stimulated a protective urge inside me. When my grandma and grandpa had been alive, I’d helped out with book readings at the local preschool, after all.
After I had played with the children for some time…
“That’s an incredible look for you, Master.”
When I turned to see who had called out to me, Carla was standing there. In a maid outfit.
“No, I don’t want to hear that from you, Carla,” I said.
“…I suppose that’s fair.” Carla said, slumping her shoulders. Really, when I looked at her…
“It’s terrifying how badly that maid uniform suits you.”
“Please, don’t tell me… I feel the same way.”
Carla was a dragonewt to begin with, so she already came with more accessories than your average person. She had a tail, dragon wings, and little horns. If you made her wear a maid uniform on top of that, it was too many character traits piled onto one person, and she beamed with too much personality.
“To top it off, isn’t the skirt on that maid outfit awfully short?” I asked.
“D-Don’t look,” Carla said, holding down the front of her skirt.
The maids in the castle wore classical maid outfits with long skirts, but with the one Carla was wearing right now, it looked more fit for working the floor of a maid cafe. The skirt only went down to just above her knees, and it was an airy dress type maid outfit. It made her figure stand out all the more.
“Urgh… the head maid… said to wear this one…” Carla muttered, flustered.
“Ahh. I thought it might be Serina’s handiwork.”
The head maid, Serina, was a talented maid, but she did have a sadistic side reserved for cute girls like this. Apparently she enjoyed making them wear embarrassing outfits, then watching the girls go through the shame and agony of it.
What was more, the stronger-willed a girl was, the more she enjoyed “buwwying” them, which meant Liscia and Carla were right in the middle of her strike zone. Liscia had told me stories with a distant look in her eyes.
Buddha save both of them.
“But, still… Has it been a week since then?” I asked. “Is your training period as a maid done now?”
“T-Training… Urkh… Ah…” Carla clutched her head.
No, seriously, what happened to you? I wondered. Weren’t you just trained in the basic skills you’ll need as part of the maid force?
“The… The whip…”
“Whip?!”
“She used the whip… to hit me…”
“It was that hard?!”
“What’s more, it was a special one, with a magic spell on it,” said Carla. “It wouldn’t leave a mark where she hit me… But. It struck half with pain and half with pleasure.”
What’s with that whip?! That’s not for disciplining, it’s for breaking them in, isn’t it?
“According to the head maid, ‘The pain keeps you from giving in to the pleasure, while the pleasure keeps you from bearing the pain by tickling your ribs.’ While I may have fallen to become a slave and a maid, I won’t let myself be reduced to being useless, so I was determined to learn my job properly, but… that whip scares me. Maybe it would be easier if I could have given into the pleasure…”
“That is because the maid force are the master’s dogs,” a voice said pleasantly. “We have no use for a perverted sow.”
“Eek?!” Carla shrieked.
When she turned around, Serina was standing there with a glossy smile. Given that she’d just made Carla, who had fearlessly plunged into the battlefield, shriek like that… just how scary was she?
“Is something the matter, sire?” Serina asked.
“…No, it’s nothing.”
Sorry, but as long as she doesn’t have her sights on me, I’m going to play ignorant, I thought. It’ll be fine, Carla. I’m sure you won’t die…Physically, at least. Emotionally, I’m not so sure.
“Now then, Carla,” Serina beamed. “I believe I asked you to make His Majesty’s bed in the governmental affairs office, did I not?”