Chapter 652: Sandwich
According to the friendly agreement Lyra and Amalia had signed earlier, Astrid would spend Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday nights staying in turn in the bedrooms of the Holy Light Knight and the Empress of the Empire, while Sunday, being the end of the week, was the night the two of them could share their beloved together.
Originally, Amalia planned to do something fun with her sister first, hoping the bashful Lyra would hear and back down, that was her subtle scheme.
After all, they’d already agreed that on Sundays they could both have the sister, but if Lyra felt too embarrassed for some psychological reason to come over, it wouldn’t be Amalia’s fault.
They were ordinary people drunk on a beautiful romance; occasional lapses of restraint were normal. It just so happened the timing landed right now.
That was Amalia’s plan. Unfortunately, the evening had been full of things to do, and before she knew it they’d talked until now. Lyra, however, had a very good memory, or simply cared too much, and had come over before nine.
Can’t you leave yourself a little more time?
Amalia grumbled silently. Hearing footsteps, Astrid turned her head and said, "Come in."
The door opened. A pink-haired girl in a pure white nightgown entered the bedroom.
Lyra hugged a pillow, her pale arms circling it to brace it in place. Having just bathed, there was still a hint of dampness about her; the white, smooth legs that swayed slightly with each step shone dazzlingly in the light, and even beneath the simple white lotus-skirt there was no obvious color difference.
Seeing Astrid’s hands wrapped around her younger aunt, Lyra blinked and walked slowly to the bedside, speaking softly.
"Um... am I disturbing your discussion of state affairs?"
If someone else had said that at night it might have sounded coy, but Lyra clearly meant it.
From the tone, Astrid could tell. She shook her head and relaxed the arm that had been circling Amalia’s neck.
"We were just talking. It’s finished now."
As she spoke, Astrid looked at Lyra sticking her legs out from under the skirt. Today she hadn’t put on her usual thigh-high white stockings; her bare, smooth legs were exposed to the air.
"You bathed so early?"
Lyra nodded and softly answered, "Yes. Because I wanted to see Astrid sooner, I read in my room after dinner for a bit, then hurried to bathe."
In fact, Lyra had arrived at just the right moment. If she’d been a few minutes later, Amalia would have started the first step of her plan, asking her sister for a kiss that would make them both feel awkward.
Amalia blinked, thinking Lyra’s words were a bit cloying. The two little white-silked feet that had just stepped on the rug lifted again, the smooth soles sliding through the fuzz.
If anyone was more inclined to say sweet things, it was Amalia, compared to the more restrained Lyra, Amalia’s offensiveness toward Astrid was warmer and more likely to show her feelings. At that moment she only thought the speaker wasn’t herself.
After a few simple exchanges, Astrid glanced at the wall clock. Time was indeed about right, so she told Lyra she was going to bathe.
"Lyra, lie down and rest first. I’ll come over when I’m done."
"All right, I’ll wait~"
Lyra answered sweetly and sat at the bedside. Amalia fluttered her lashes and picked up on Astrid’s words.
"Sis... let’s go together..."
"Two people together will be faster."
"..."
Would it really be faster than bathing alone?
Both Astrid and Lyra had that doubt flash through their minds in the same moment, but Astrid always had a sense of propriety. Except for that one time when her younger aunt had stayed over at the palace and forgotten to turn on the soundproofing barrier, causing a bit of a commotion, she always paid attention to timing and place afterward.
Before Lyra came, Amalia’s plan might have had a small chance of working, but once the girl was in the room, Astrid wouldn’t do anything too outrageous.
They would just bathe like normal sisters.
A pause, then Astrid touched Amalia’s shoulder where it peeped from the skirt and remembered something else; her voice carried a little puzzlement.
"But didn’t you usually bathe right after dinner when you returned to your room?"
For the plan’s sake Amalia had prepared in advance, she’d made herself smell nice and changed into a camisole dress and silver-trimmed thigh-high white stockings suited to flirting.
"I got some ink on my hand while writing earlier," Amalia said, "and the room’s heating stones were a bit warm, I think I sweat a little."
She spread her hand for Astrid to see. The girl’s snow-white fingertips were indeed spotted with a few flecks of ink that stood out under the lamp.
"So I wanted to wash again," Amalia replied.
It was a believable excuse. Astrid agreed but gently warned Amalia that even being clean too often could be bad for skin and hair.
She also understood Amalia was simply trying to do something together with her.
After all, for the long stretch ahead, Astrid and Lyra would each take one side.
Watching the two go into the washroom, Lyra considered and turned down the metal control that regulated the magenergy geotherm by a notch. She took off her sandals and lay down on the bed. Compared to her own room, this place felt a little warm.
Thirty minutes later, Astrid and Amalia came out of the bath and returned to the bedroom.
Because both lovers liked to sleep in white gowns, tonight Astrid had changed into a black ice-silk nightgown, the hem just past her knees, bringing a faint fragrance with each step.
Amalia was still in her outfit, but her stockings had been swapped from the special pair embroidered with gold-and-silver floral patterns to an ordinary pure white pair.
"..."
Is she... always ready?
Lyra was stunned for a moment, flashes of intimate scenes between herself and Astrid passing through her head, especially the frame where her hands were bound by something similar, and her cheeks warmed.
So... strange...
As she thought this, Astrid gently tossed her hair, used magic to blow the remaining droplets dry, and slipped into the covers, sandwiched between Amalia and Lyra.
Compared to other nights of the week, Astrid actually slept less comfortably on Sundays.
It wasn’t the bed, the palace beds were spacious, easily big enough for three adult women, and Amalia was relatively small, almost half a person; there was no real crowd.
The real reason lay with the people.
Almost instantly Astrid’s legs were lightly entwined by the other two smooth, warm limbs.
Lyra, whose bare legs were a little warmer, felt like the sun and gave Astrid the delicate touch of warm skin. Amalia’s presence was cool and crisp by contrast.
Amalia, sensing Lyra, turned her head. Through the slope of Astrid’s body she glanced at the pink-haired girl across from her.
If it weren’t for our love for my sister... I’d never lie in the same bed as Lyra in this life...
Though they’d reached a friendly agreement, Amalia and Lyra often felt an involuntary twinge of jealousy because of one another’s presence.
Still, both of them loved Astrid so much they didn’t want her romantic relationship to sour or drain her spirit. Plus, their personalities were polar opposites; as friends they could maintain a tentative balance as long as they didn’t step too far into each other’s comfort zones, there was rarely direct conflict or an outburst.
At bottom, Amalia and Lyra’s outlooks on life, values, and worldviews diverged widely, often clashing. Amalia tended toward indifference to everything except what she cared about; her bleak childhood left her with a streak of pessimism and nihilism.
Lyra was Amalia’s opposite, optimistic, kind, and innocent. She extended sincere goodwill to almost everyone, believed in the good, gave willingly, and worked toward the future she wanted.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say: if Astrid were assassinated by agents sent from the Kingdom of Velys without a word left behind, Lyra and Amalia’s relationship would likely revert to the novels’ kind of confrontation.
The Empress would wage war out of hatred, dragging the common people of Velys along to their doom; the Holy Light Knight would be unable to tolerate the suffering and would raise arms against the capital.
Astrid was the lubricant between the two, the lighthouse that guided Amalia toward the light, allowing her to suppress her own darkness and emulate her sister’s will, to walk the same path as Lyra.
To bring safety and prosperity to the Empire and its people.
Sensing Amalia’s gaze, Lyra lifted her eyes and vaguely read the jealousy that had arisen from Amalia at her joining them.
We just bathed together... and now you’re jealous lying in bed...
Isn’t she the one who should be jealous?
Though Lyra usually seemed soft and fragile, she had a subtly sharp side.
Looking Amalia in the eyes, Lyra let go of her magnanimous posture for a moment. Her pale arms snaked around Astrid’s, squeezing and leaning against the nightgown.
Having bathed, there was no need for many restraints; without supporting fabric the gown shifted noticeably as Lyra’s arm pressed.
Amalia’s eyelids twitched. Through blue eyes she glanced down at her own nightdress, flat and unresponsive.
"..."
Could she, please, call Lyra’s current behavior a personal attack?
Feeling a knot in her throat she couldn’t spit out, Amalia clenched her thighs and entangled her two silk-clad white feet around Astrid’s ankles, gently caressing.
Undeniably, in some ways Amalia couldn’t match mature women like Monica or Charlotte, and even compared to Lyra, who was a slightly smaller girl than Astrid, the differences were obvious.
Flat, maybe the best word to describe this little Empress.
Astrid, who had been watching the whole scene, didn’t pull her arm free from Lyra’s embrace. She reached up with her other hand and ruffled Amalia’s hair.
"You’re cute too, Amalia~"
With that she gave each lover a goodnight kiss.
A few minutes later the bedroom light went out. The windows no longer leaked orange light; only silvery moonbeams scattered through the palace.
..................
10:20 p.m. Charlotte, who’d changed into a snug pale purple nightgown, finished stowing away the elemental crystal stones she’d tested into a space ring and noted the final experimental results on paper.
Optimizing energy transmission efficiency was a major project that required daily time and effort, calculating data to determine the strengths and weaknesses of each configuration.
After rehearsing today’s research in her mind and committing the key points, Charlotte made a trip to the washroom and returned to lie on the soft bed in her room.
The long night stretched on, moonlight falling across the bedding and revealing its rises and falls.
Charlotte smoothed the duvet lightly and let her long black hair fall naturally on the pillow, her thoughts gradually settling.
The magenergy device exhibition had concluded successfully, and she’d recently returned to her private estate, ending a brief visit to the palace.
Now that she was far from the capital and Astrid, she felt somewhat unsettled.
Even sleeping was not as sound as in previous years after learning of Astrid’s change.
If pressed, she couldn’t say what was wrong; she only felt like the bed in the regent’s palace felt softer, the light better, the air fresher.
"..."
Perhaps all of it boiled down to one point, is she not far from Astrid?
Thinking that, Charlotte’s long lashes trembled and her light brown eyes opened.
The only thing that shone in her sight was the silver ring on her slender ring finger, lying on the duvet.
Her clear irises reflected the faint sparkles; Charlotte stared at the ring in silence. The room was so still there was not even the chirp of insects; it felt as if even the wind had stopped.
She usually took it off to sleep.
But tonight she simply looked at it for a while and then closed her eyes.
Just keep it on.