Chapter 198: A Sincere, Sweet Smile
Asakusa Mansion, third-floor bedroom.
Marcus opened his eyes in resignation and let out a long sigh.
"Aaah... I end up covering it after all..."
Tamayo lay beside him, reclining on her side with her chin propped on her hand, watching him with a wide smile.
"Using your Blood Demon Art to spy again, Marcus-kun~?"
That last line she delivered imitating Shinobu’s tone.
"What are you calling spying?" Marcus tilted his head with an expression of total innocence. "It’s my own hand. If I try to sense where it is, what’s the problem with that?"
"Mmm... No problem at all." Tamayo nodded, deepening her smile. "So then, did you sense where it is?"
"At the Butterfly Mansion."
"And in what part?"
"...In Shinobu’s room."
"Ara~... and so, what were you looking at in there?"
Noticing that Marcus felt cornered, Tamayo let out a light laugh and gave him a soft little tap on the cheek.
"You know Shinobu’s a very clever girl, right? Do you really think she didn’t notice how strange it is that that perverted hand, with no eyes or ears, can still see and hear?"
Marcus pulled her into his arms.
"I couldn’t say whether she caught on or not. If she didn’t look, it was simply because she didn’t want to see me."
Tamayo rested against Marcus’s chest and shook her head slightly.
"You have a unique talent for making women angry."
Marcus laughed and, rolling over, ended up on top of Tamayo, looking into her eyes.
"But I also have a unique talent for making them happy."
Tamayo blushed at the feel of his gaze and turned her head to avoid his eyes.
"How shame—Mmmmh~♥️!"
..
The next day, when the sky was just beginning to lighten, Kanao got up very early and knocked on Shinobu’s door.
"Knock. Knock."
The door opened almost at the same moment, revealing a Shinobu completely ready to set out.
Kanao looked at her in surprise for an instant, then smiled with pressed lips.
"Shinobu-nee, you’re up so early... I thought I was the only impatient one."
Shinobu was stunned by those words and turned around in a hurry, giving Kanao her back, her cheeks slightly flushed.
"You respect me less and less."
Kanao said nothing more, simply standing at the entrance with a smile.
Unlike the Kanao of before, who had a hard time expressing herself, Shinobu of course preferred that she speak with such ease and cheer. And yet, quite often she felt the urge to smack her in the mouth, purely because the way she talked resembled Marcus’s quite a bit.
With so many people to imitate, how had she ended up picking up his exact tone?
Untying the ropes from the bell jar, Shinobu stuffed that hand into a small bag to take along with her.
She’d never dare carry that perverted limb pressed against her body; over the whole trip back the day before, she’d already experienced just how shameless it could be.
"Let’s go."
"Understood."
From the Butterfly Mansion to Asakusa was no short distance. Pushing the pace all day, they’d arrive just before nightfall.
Still, the two of them weren’t in the mood for chitchat.
One of them had her head full of matters related to Marcus. The other... simply had her head full of Marcus.
All sorts of thoughts grew more and more disordered as they drew closer to their destination.
Until...
"Help..."
On a mountain path barely five kilometers from Asakusa, a faint cry for help could be heard.
Shinobu halted her steps and sharpened her hearing.
"Heelp... p-please... sa... save us..."
"It’s down below." Kanao turned toward the source of the voice, her face serious.
The two exchanged a look and leapt off the path.
Like a purple butterfly and a pink petal, they descended swiftly down the slope.
A strong smell of blood hit them full-on.
An overturned cart lay on its side at the foot of the incline, with farming tools and seeds scattered everywhere. Trapped underneath were two people: an old woman and a little girl; grandmother and granddaughter, most likely.
They quickly pulled the cart away to assess the severity of the injuries.
The elder had a deep wound in her abdomen caused by a shovel that had fallen from the cart, and blood was soaking through her clothes. The little one, barely eight or nine years old, had been crushed; there were threads of blood at the corners of her mouth, her eyes were shut, and her breathing was faint.
Kanao knelt beside the older woman while Shinobu examined the girl, taking her pulse.
It was very weak... but still beating.
As she felt along her limbs and ribs, her face darkened.
"She has multiple fractures and possible internal organ contusions."
Kanao raised her head.
"The grandmother’s the same—the cut is far too large."
A mutual glance confirmed the diagnosis: they couldn’t move either of them.
Any transport would worsen their injuries or cause their death. Yet they had to clean, suture, and treat the wounds immediately if they wanted them to survive long enough to reach a hospital.
Shinobu reached into her bag and felt a sudden gratitude for Marcus’s hand.
Under normal circumstances she only carried some bandages, which would have made it impossible to handle emergencies this severe. But thanks to the fact that this time she was carrying a kit with thread, needles, and disinfectant to store the hand, she had what she needed.
Wasting no time, they undid both victims’ clothing to begin the rescue.
The work took them two long hours, during which the sun set in absolute silence.
When the victims’ breathing stabilized and they were out of danger, master and disciple shared a smile in the middle of the night.
They just had to transport them carefully to the nearest hospital, and they’d survive.
"They won’t hold up against the turns and jolts," Shinobu said. "Let’s clean out the cart and use it to carry them."
Kanao nodded and set about moving the vehicle, when...
"Creeeeak..."
The sound of a door opening rang out eerily close.
"Wazzup, wazzup... I really am so grateful to the two of you~ For helping me save two members of my church who were so careless."
Accompanied by a playful, cheerful voice, a man in lavish ecclesiastical robes, a leader’s headdress, white hair, and multicolored pupils slowly emerged from a wooden door set flush against the ground, from which an orange glow spilled out.
At the corners of his lips a sincere, sweet smile was drawn.
"Truly... thank you so much for your efforts, all four of you."
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