房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"I\'m underestimating the security of the Espine estate... yeah, right."

Aku\'s copy scoffed to himself while climbing up the wall of the Espine\'s castle after breaching the walls and sneaking past the patrolling guards with laughably little trouble.

"Let\'s just hope that young lady Espine didn\'t switch rooms..."

The masked attendant sighed under his breath holding onto the windowsill of the – hopefully – correct bedroom with one hand while taking a neatly wrapped package with a little card attached to the pretty green ribbon.

Aku\'s copy placed the present on the windowsill in a way that it would get noticed after someone would open the window and leaned out to look around.

The only thing to do now was to make someone do just that – so the masked boy began reaching out towards the glass to knock on it and alarm the tenant, when...

*creak*

"!!!"

"..."

The window opened fully and a furious-looking girl wearing a cute green frilly pajama stepped forward with her long dark hair bristled like a forest of swords startling the masked boy stunned.

This particular copy could use the law of Pisces to see past his mas and was using it at the moment hence the enhanced reaction.

"..."

"I-I\'m just a copy! No matter how many masks you remove, there will be another one underneath...!"

The dark-haired girl reached out towards Aku and the masked boy immediately protected his head with one arm and explained hurriedly.

"...ah... so that how it works... I was really pissed off that you pulled such a stupid trick on me..."

Miriette\'s hands stopped and the dark-haired girl breathed out and scoffed. It almost sounded like she wasn\'t as annoyed as a moment earlier.

"Well? What brings you here, mister Aku?"

She added and it sounded as if she crossed her arms in an angry pose, which made Aku\'s copy lower his arm and glance at her timidly.

"Umm.. you see..."

The situation was so off the rails for the young attendant that he didn\'t know how he should act.

First of all, why was young lady Espine wasn\'t acting even a little bit confused or shocked at his presence? It was as if she expected him, but that could not be the case... even Kierul wasn\'t certain about Aku\'s actions before he confirmed the timing with her!

Secondly, why isn\'t she calling for help about an intruder, or dealing with him herself – Aku wasn\'t dangerous, for her, but if this kind of behavior was actually a pattern, then Young lady Espine was putting herself in danger all the time!

"Hey. I asked you a question. What is a boy who didn\'t show up to my birthday even after receiving a NAME INVITATION doing at my window weeks later?"

Miriette asked coldly, glaring at the masked attendant who squirmed under her gaze...

"I... hmm...?"

Aku\'s copy took a deep breath about to direct Miriette\'s attention to the present he left for her and which she did not pay attention to, too busy sulking when suddenly he noticed something.

Despite the girl\'s hair being all prickly and intimidating, it was not the case for the entirety of her hairstyle.

As odd as the description may sound... some of the hair swords turned into lowly curls while the young lady was talking.

|If I remember correctly, curls mean that...|

"My lady... are you perhaps happy to see me...?"

Aku thought and said before he could stop himself.

"Hmph! That\'s what I tho..."

Miriette seemed to be anticipating some form of apology and was already acting high and mighty but only a second or two later she froze in place mid-blinking.

"..."

"..."

Then, she gulped down her saliva and slowly faced the silent masked attendant.

"...Am... am I happy to...?"

The young lady Espine\'s face turned red and she stuttered, trying and failing to hide her embarrassment.

"Wh-wh-wh-where did y-yo-you got th-th-that f-f-f-from...?"

She started trembling and her face started getting so hot that it wouldn\'t be that odd to see steam coming out of her head in the cool night breeze.

"I mean..."

Aku leaned from side to side before pointing his finger toward the curly strands of dark hair that betrayed the girl\'s feelings.

"?!?!?!?!"

Miriette noticed her unruly hair too and panicked silently. She ended up grabbing the curls and pulling them down, forcefully straightening them while lowering her head.

"Shut up! Don\'t notice those small things! I am doing my best to be angry at you! Eh...?"

The dark-haired girl growled in the most adorable hushed way, which was the best evidence of her not wanting the masked attendant to be spotted and end up in a serious predicament.

Then, when she finally opened her eyes she ended up spotting the present that the boy left for her and ended up closing her mouth knocked off balance once again.

"...what is this...?"

The dark-haired girl asked bashfully, making a face as if she was holding herself back from being more affectionate and trying to be more grumpy.

"...a present..."

The masked boy answered.

"...your master is trying to appease me with additional gifts?"

Miriette asked, this time actually grumpy...

"Not really... this one is from me... personally..."

"...!"

Aku shook his head and revealed all embarrassed, making the dark-haired girl twitch and barely stop herself from releasing a happy squeal.

Still, her hair betrayed her once again, turning from the forest of swords into a curtain of lovely curls as she picked up the present.

It was too dark for her to actually read the words n the small card attached, so instead of even trying or turning on the magic lamp and endangering the masked attendant to being spotted, she simply put it safely into a chest pocket of her pajama as she unwrapped the main thing.

"Ah~?!"

Her eyes widened as she gasped at the sight of the jade comb.

She picked it up carefully and raised it up for the moon and starlight to see it in more detail.

"My oh my... Would you look at that~"

"...?!"

All of a sudden Miriette\'s demeanor changed completely as her heart - and something else - took over her reason and she jumped through the window, sitting on the windowsill right in front of the bewildered masked boy.

"Ohohohoho~!"

The young lady Espine let out a hushed ojou-sama laughter while putting her hand pinky-finger-first to her face and crossing her legs.

She leaned forward, jade comb in hand, put her elbow against her knee, and then rested her chin on her other hand.

"All that pretense to keep me in the dark and one thing that outs you out as MY ZOEMI is your adoration of my hair~"

She declared triumphantly smiling, kicking up her leg slightly to tap at Aku\'s chest with her toe.

"?!?!?!"

...all while the masked boy was too embarrassed to even move, not to mention speak up...

"Now, now. Don\'t get cold feet now, Zoemi. You told me before that while using the law of Gemini, you actually split yourself and you improved on that even further with other laws... that means that whatever I do the you in front of me, the original you will feel it too... Now then... This little noble lady wishes for her lover to keep her company and make this lonely night a..."

Miriette was heaving the time of her life teasing the masked attendant to her heart\'s content, she even went as far as to move her leg up and raise his chin up with her foot...!

*crack*

"...eh...?"

But the moment she did that, a cobweb of cracks appeared on the porcelain mask, which made her jaw drop.

*crumble*

"!!!"

"..."

As the lower half of the mask fell apart showing the bone-deep burns on the boy\'s face and causing the dark-haired girl to pull back with all her might, the black-haired boy let go of the windowsill and fell to the ground.

*whooosh*

But just before splattered below, his body dissipated into a thin silver mist that flowed away in a seemingly random direction.

*thump*

"OOOOWWWWW...!"

Meanwhile, Miriette actually ended up knocking herself off balance and tumbled back into her room, hitting the innocent floor with the back of her head.

"Ah, the comb?! No! Zoemi?!"

The dark-haired girl gasped checking whether the present she received was intact, but immediately after confirming its safety, she bit her lips flustered and rushed back towards the window.

"Uuuuh... I knew it, he\'s gone..."

One look was enough for her to confirm the troublesome situation.

"Not only did I show him my indecent side but somehow managed to do one thing that he hated so much the last time?! How the hell did I manage to break his mask?! I can\'t even use mana right now to enchant myself!"

Miriette cried out while slumping down like a pitiful pool of goop dropping back down and laying on the floor.

"...or maybe he do that to the mask himself because he was disgusted by my perverse act and just wanted an excuse to get away...? NOOOO! THAT\'S SO MUCH WORSE!"

She trembled imagining the worst-case scenario and covered her face with both hands before starting to roll around in embarrassment.