Roroa started kicking her legs and swinging her arms around in frustration. “Aww… That’s not the reaction I was expectin’. You were sayin’ it made you happy the way I treat Big Sister Cia like a sister. So, I figured, you like li’l sisters, don’t ya?”
“Little sisters?” I asked, baffled. “What are you even talking about?”
And what did she mean, I’d said that? I had no recollection of saying that… Huh, no, wait, maybe I did. What was this weird feeling?
“Hmph! I don’t care anymore!” Roroa pouted and looked the other way.
I didn’t really get how, but I seemed to have upset her.
Hm, what should I do… I wondered, then plopped a hand down on Roroa’s head.
“You’re my precious fiancée, so I don’t want you turning into a little sister on me.”
“…Y’sure?” Roroa still had her head turned away from me, but she peeked back my way as she asked that.
I gave her a big nod to reassure her, then patted her on the head. “Of course. The way you were playing ‘little sister’ was cute, but I’d rather have you as my wife instead. Just having you by my side always cheers me up, after all.”
When I told her straight-up how I felt about her, Roroa’s face turned bright red. I must have embarrassed her. When I saw her reaction, I felt embarrassed, too.
“So, please, stop calling me Big Brother,” I said. “If you don’t…”
“Wh-What if I don’t?”
“It’d be like I was deliberately having my own fiancée call me ‘Big Brother,’” I said teasingly. “That’d feel kind of depraved.”
Roroa burst out laughing. “Ha ha! Maybe you’re right. Yeah, no more callin’ you Big Brother. I didn’t get the reaction I was hopin’ for, but I don’t feel bad ’bout how this went, either.”
When she said that, Roroa hugged my arm. It looked like she was in a better mood now.
Well, I did mean it when I said she was cute as a little sister, though…
When the adorable Roroa had called me Big Brother with upturned eyes, my heart had skipped a beat, after all. But I don’t want to go developing any weird fetishes, so I was really glad she’d stopped.
The next weird thing that happened was in the afternoon. It was around two o’clock, after I’d had a slightly late lunch.
I had been working since morning, so I was taking a short break at the kotatsu table in my room. Aisha, who would normally have stood by the door to guard me, came in to sit across from me at the kotatsu.
When I looked at Aisha’s face… I had no words. Aisha, for some reason, was wearing a pair of cat ears.
…What the meow was going on here?
Aisha had turned into a cat-eared dark elf, something that made absolutely no sense to me.
While I was still unable to find the words for this bizarre turn of events, Aisha made fists with her two hands and held them up like a beckoning cat. “M-Meow…”
She’s meowing?!
She had totally just let out a meow. No, seriously, what on Earth was going on here?
Apparently unable to bear the silence, Aisha covered her face with her hands. “Oh… This really is embarrassing.”
“You say that after doing it on your own?! What were you trying to accomplish?!” I shouted.
“What, you ask? I wanted you to adore me, Your Majesty,” Aisha said. “Like you would a pet.”
“Like a pet?! Not a person?!”
“I wanted to borrow the princess’s choker to wear in place of a collar, but she refused because it was an important gift from you, sire. Removing a slave collar would have been hard, so…”
“You’re trying to turn me into some kind of sexual deviant?!”
I’m not into making women wear collars! I exclaimed silently. …Yeah, I don’t think I am, at least.
While I was worrying about myself, Aisha tearfully said, “Ohh… I had heard you thought of me like a pet, so I was hoping to at least have you fawn over me like one.”
“I… do think that, yes, but could you at least let me fawn over you as a human?!” I cried.
“…How might I get you to fawn over me?”
When Aisha looked at me with those pleading eyes, my brain started firing on all cylinders as I tried to find an answer for her. If I didn’t give her a plan here, Aisha was going to get dispirited again. I looked around and spotted the accessory case where I kept nail clippers and other daily necessities.
I know!
“How about I clean your ears?” I asked.
“Please do,” she responded instantly.
I got an ear cleaner out, and had Aisha sit next to me.
“Y’know, looking at those long ears of yours, I’ve always wanted to try cleaning them at least once,” I said.
“U-Um, sire? That’s nice, but… when you clean someone’s ears, is it not normal to have them rest their head in your lap?” she asked hesitantly.
“The earwax can fall in towards your eardrum if you do it that way, so my grandma always said not to. The right way to do it is from right beside the person, like this.”
“I–Is that right?” Aisha asked, then whispered, “Oh, I had my hopes up, too.”
I brushed Aisha’s hair back behind her pointed ears and pushed the ear cleaner inside.
“Eek!” Aisha’s body shuddered.
“It’s dangerous to move, you know,” I told her. “Stay put.”
“Y-Yesh… Ahhh!” While I was digging around inside, Aisha suddenly started squirming. “Ah…! Oh… Hahh…”
For some reason, she was moaning in an incredibly sweet voice. I started to feel like I was doing something naughty to her.
“D-Don’t let out weird moans,” I said.
“B-But… I’m sensitive there… Ahhhhh!”
I cleaned out her opposite ear while listening to her sweet sighs, and then the ear cleaning was finished. By the end, Aisha’s face had completely melted, but she seemed satisfied, so that was good.
…Maybe I’ll do this for her again sometime, I thought.
By the way, Aisha’s voice had been heard outside while we were doing that, so one of the maids who passed by at the time started a rumor that, “His Majesty and Madam Aisha were [censored] in his room.” When he heard, Chamberlain Marx declared, “At last, we’ll have an heir,” and danced for joy.
On the other hand, when Liscia, Juna, and Roroa heard the rumor, they told me off, saying, “Hey, that’s not the right order!” (If I was going to start laying my hands on them, Liscia, as candidate to be my first primary queen, should have been first.)
Thankfully, Aisha had explained the situation, so I was spared their wrath, but it was an incident that showed me if I neglected any of my future queens, the others would get angry, too.
Naturally, I had no intention of mistreating any of them, but… it was something to keep firmly in mind.
Evening.
Having done paperwork in the morning and afternoon, I invited Liscia who had been helping me to finally come take a break with me, and we were enjoying afternoon tea.
Every day was a battle with my heavy responsibilities as king, so just being able to relax with Liscia and have aimless conversations like this was fun.
During our conversation, something weird came up, just like with my earlier encounters with Roroa and Aisha today. After we finished talking about everything that came to mind, Liscia nodded as if she was satisfied about something.
“I see… Those two are putting it to use right away, huh.”
“Putting what to use?” I asked.
“Oh, nothing. Just talking to myself.” Liscia played it off with a vague smile.