In the wooden corridor of 「Tsukimisato」 leading to the bathhouse, a trail of scattered items marked their passage — a pair of stiletto heels, an ink-blue velvet strapless bodice, a cream-white skirt, and a set of lacy, rather provocative lingerie.
Sakura Mai picked them up one by one as she walked.
The Knight Princess's usually thin, composed lips — lips that had always curved in an unhurried smile no matter what happened — were now clamped shut so tightly they'd gone white. The girl's shoulders were shaking. She looked furious.
About fifteen minutes earlier—
The woman had accepted wooden name-plaques from one beautiful greeter after another with practiced ease. She'd barely exchanged a word with the young woman at the front desk — who'd been shamelessly batting her eyes at her the entire time — before smoothly collecting both the room key and keycard. All that was missing was the line, "Your suite has been kept ready for you, as always."
Though honestly, that was more or less what it amounted to.
An attendant girl led them through the gate into the inner courtyard. The vermilion torii at the entrance bore faded, age-worn marks — the carved crest of the Sakura family, a cherry blossom and a sword. The wooden walkway beneath their feet was old enough that bare feet would have made it creak with every step. And in the courtyard, a few early cherry trees stood slightly askew, their blossoms just beginning to open.
Everything about the layout, right down to the smallest details, carried a warmth that felt strangely familiar to Sakura Mai. It was as though the entire inn had been modeled after the old Sakura family estate.
If she'd stumbled across a place like this while traveling abroad, Sakura Mai would have been genuinely, wholeheartedly delighted.
But—
Now that she knew this inn was actually a high-end bathhouse establishment... the only thing Sakura Mai wanted to do was grab that woman by the ear and ask her what in the world she thought she was doing.
This is what you meant by "always wanted to come experience this place for myself"?
You're practically a VVVVIP member here, aren't you.
Arms full of the woman's scattered clothing — clutched tightly and furiously — Sakura Mai stormed over to the hot spring pool situated within the inner courtyard.
The water here was drawn from a private source. The woman had already changed into a semi-translucent silk bathrobe and was seated at the edge of the pool. In the steaming, mist-wreathed waters, a pretty girl with downcast eyes had curled herself into the corner of the pool, her snow-white shoulders just above the waterline, diligently massaging the woman's feet.
"SAKURA RENXIN!!!" Sakura Mai looked at the twins standing beside her, both of them wearing deeply complicated expressions, and felt her own cheeks burning hotter than they ever had in her life.
The fist she'd balled at her side practically glowed with golden light. That was the near-incandescent manifestation of a Sword of Will user on the verge of losing her temper entirely.
The girl soaking in the hot spring flinched, shoulders hunching inward.
Sakura Renxin languidly stretched her elegant curves in front of the attendant, tilting her chin to signal the girl to continue.
"This is what you called 'always wanted to experience for myself'?" Sakura Mai's voice was practically trembling.
She was shaking even harder than Su Yuzu had when she'd tapped "confirm" on the latest Intermediate Combat Records purchase for the Knight Princess.
"Indeed... I've always wanted to experience it," Sakura Renxin said with a nod. "And now I have~"
"But you said... Father always forbade it—"
"What does she forbidding it have to do with anything? Do I need her permission for what I do?"
"..." Biting her lip, Sakura Mai had never felt so mortified in her life. She could practically feel the way her best friend's gaze toward her was slowly... shifting into something else.
The worst part...
The absolute worst part...
...Sister Yuzu...
How had she never noticed, all this time, that her own mother was this kind of utterly shameless, world-class libertine?
Then again... if she weren't a world-class libertine, how could she have ever pried open the heart of someone as unhinged as Tennoji Jurei?
Wait, no—
Her mother probably hadn't pried open her father's heart at all. She'd most likely just... pried open her father's bedroom door directly.
"Out! Get out!!!" Sakura Mai turned to the poor attendant still soaking in the pool.
The girl looked up nervously at Sakura Renxin. Only after receiving a flying kiss from Sakura Renxin did she slowly rise from the water, bow her head, and quietly withdraw.
It was only then that Su Yuzu noticed the girl wasn't actually bare — she'd been wearing a gauze-thin silk slip the entire time.
"Since you went to all that trouble to help us sneak into 「Tsukimisato」..." Once the attendant had gone, the Knight Princess flung the woman's clothes and heels aside with a loud clatter, cracked her knuckles, and began advancing toward Sakura Renxin one deliberate step at a time. "...allow me to help you thoroughly work out those stiff muscles."
"Wait wait wait!!!"
"Little Mai, what do you think you're doing?"
"Mother is going to be so angry! Mother is genuinely going to be so angry!!!"
"Iyaaah!!!"
"Mama knows she was wrong, she knows..."
Water splashed out of the hot spring and scattered across the courtyard.
Su Yuzu and Soga Yura watched the mother-daughter exchange in front of them with something that was, honestly, a little bit like envy.
Envy... yes.
Sakura Renxin might seem completely scatterbrained and prone to saying outrageous things, but... whenever Tennoji Jurei came up, her eyes went genuinely soft.
She was a Fifth Sequence ability user. And yet she sat there and let Sakura Mai wring her joints out with all the ferocity of a woman with a personal vendetta.
Soga Yura and Su Yuzu... had never really had a chance like that. Not from the very beginning.
The two of them sat down at the edge of the hot spring, facing each other. Their clear blue eyes reflected the soft lines of each other's faces.
They both wanted to reach out and touch.
But because of the constraints of the protection — they... didn't quite dare.
Su Yuzu could only push the sake cup the attendant had left toward Soga Yura. The clear liquid swirled inside it, bubbling gently — carbonated drinks disguised as sake.
A long while passed.
A breathless beauty lay draped over the edge of the hot spring pool, the wisps of hair at her temples plastered to her skin by the warm mist. She looked with tired exasperation at Sakura Mai — who was even more out of breath than she was, cheeks and neck flushed a vivid red from both exertion and embarrassment.
"This place is one of Epiphany Manufacture's trading posts."
"As the head of the Sakura family... isn't it entirely normal for me to be a VIP here?"
"Then that girl just now..."
"Just a foot massage," Sakura Mai said, stretching her sore back.
"Your father is a petty, thick-headed fool... every time I want to enjoy myself, she insists on doing it herself."
"She looks so delicate, and yet she's got the grip strength of a bear. It hurts like death every time."
"I went to all the trouble of slipping away on my own using your name. Couldn't you at least let me relax a little?"
An unexpectedly flustered Sakura Mai looked at the woman rolling her arms across from her. "No — absolutely not!"
"I'm here to keep an eye on you on Father's behalf."
"And... and besides..."
"We came here for a real reason this time."
"You mean that Fourth Sequence Aberrant?" Sakura Renxin drew one long arm out of the water, her damp fingertip tracing idle circles on the dark stone. Her lips curved upward. "I know where she is, you know."
The circling motion stopped.
The languid, warm, and utterly beguiling woman tilted her head to one side.
"She's right here, in fact."
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