The Struggle of a Weak Aristocrat in a Different World Our Domain is Surrounded by Large Aristocrats, and It’s a Big Problem! - CH 112

Sorry for the long hiatus but this story is back to the regular schedule. There will be only 3 chapters posted today.

*This chapter is from Mist point of view.*

“Welcome back Count.”

“Yes. I’m back. I’m a little dirty from the mock battle, so I’m going to the bathroom.”

I received the old butler’s “Yes, sir” behind my back and headed for the bathroom. When I reached the bathroom, I stripped off my armor, which should have been light armor but was still heavy and slipped off my underwear then a cool breeze clung to my skin.

I stepped onto the marble floor. The sole of my foot feels rough but the exquisite warmth is pleasant. The sculpted white walls are vaguely outlined in the moonlight, giving a sense of serenity. Looking up at the sky, the moon is at the center and the sky is full of stars.

I must have come home pretty late.

I turned my head and my feet moved forward. The warm humidity of the steam now sucked on my skin, making my white skin glisten. However, there was sand on my skin in places, which I didn’t like, so I quietly drew hot water from a small barrel nearby and poured it over my body.

The heat slid over my skin and cooled me down gradually. This felt good, but it was nothing compared to how good the water felt in the bathtub. I dipped my toes into the hot water in the tub, checked the temperature, and then sank into the water.

The warm water enveloped me. Blood pumped through my body, and I felt the heat being taken away from the parts of my body that were in contact with the outside air. The fog in my brain cleared up, and my eyelids became light and I felt myself becoming more energetic. It feels good.

Every time I enter the bathroom, I am convinced that I am lucky to have a vaulted-ceiling bathroom in my school mansion in the capital.

As I sat in the hot water, I became more and more tired and stretched out wide with my arms outstretched in front of me. Then the jewelry on my silver bracelet was agitated by the moonlight and glittered.

Using magic twice is tiring, isn’t it?

My magic strengthens the five senses, but when the effect wears off, the brain slows down and the senses drop for a little while. In addition, the more I surrender to my senses while using it, the less I am aware of the need for self-control.

Well, I guess that’s why my father gave it to me.

I laughed at my own self-praise. I have never thought about self-control, and there is nothing that I cannot accurately understand if I surrender to my senses. Magic or no magic, there has never been anything I couldn’t understand. It should have never happened.

A hazy feeling welled up in my heart, like sand boiling up when a stone is peeled from the bottom of a river. Then, not knowing what I was mulling over, my mouth twitched.

When I thought about what I didn’t understand, Chris’s face suddenly came to mind.

Why does Chris’s face come to mind?

It’s true that I like Chris, but it’s a different type of liking than that princess or Claire. I like him as a person who responds well to teasing. I would like to marry him, but I want to marry him in order to develop my Piazon estate and to absorb his knowledge of the Dreschord domain.

I look at the moon reflected in the water and reflect on the mock battle.

Today, because I turned off the effects of magic, I was unaware of the presence of the assassins in black. Even though it was due to the magic being turned off, they must be quite skilled for me not to have noticed them. In hindsight, I realize that they are the superior assassins of the Topo Empire.

Chris came to me at just the right time. I saw the light, hid until my brain recovered, and then I thought of a plan in cooperation with Chris and tried to escape but Chris had to go to save me.

I was laughing again. Not because of Chris’s stupidity, but because of my own stupidity. I could have just run away, but I cast a spell on Chris on the way.

I have only made choices that were fun and more beneficial. I probably should have followed that choice then, but I don’t know why I didn’t.

If Chris had lost that time, I would have been immediately sought out and killed. I never thought about the risk, but in hindsight, I think it was the most dangerous thing I had ever done in my life.

I would say that we were both in a crisis situation……and when I got to that point, I remembered Chris’s words in the palace.

“The Suspension Bridge Effect.”

No way. I’ve never heard this before, and it’s just Chris usual bullshit but for some reason, my own heart beats faster.

My heartbeat is bothering me, and I put my hand on my chest to suppress it. It is soft enough to sink in, but resilient enough to push my hand up. Come to think of it, Chris used to look at these breasts a lot, didn’t he?

I hadn’t paid attention to it before, but perhaps because I had been in the bath too long, my cheeks were upturned. Then, I was struck by a mysterious feeling of elation.

Hmmm. Chris is a boy, right? Next time I see him, I’ll make fun of him.

＊＊＊＊

The classroom door opens and the classroom becomes quiet but the classmates flocked to Chris. My heart jumps out of my chest but then I remember what I had decided to do, and a sense of elation takes over my body.

Now, let’s make fun of him.

While I was thinking about how I would tease him, Chris broke free from the encirclement of his classmates and came closer and closer to me.

Every time he took a step toward me, my heart jumped.

Finally, he pulls up a chair and sits down next to me. I opened my mouth as if I had been waiting for him but the words that came out were far from teasing.

“Thank you.”

I don’t know why I said that.