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“Mm…?”

I woke from sleep because my sense of smell had been stimulated.
A sweet scent. Not the sharp sweetness of sugar, but the gentle sweetness of milk.
Drawn by the smell, I opened my eyes, and the scenery spread before me.
No matter how many times I wake from sleep, I always feel happiness in this moment.

…I thought I would never see again.

My vision, lost long ago in battle, had returned. Even now, I can’t quite believe it.
I even find myself thinking, “What if I wake up tomorrow and can’t see?” every night before sleeping.
That’s how overwhelmingly colorful and beautiful the world I see now is.
And now, in this beautiful world, I saw white. Poured into a dish, the white liquid had a certain viscosity when it was scooped with a spoon.

“What is this…?”
“Oh, you’re awake.”
“…Arje?”

From the kitchen, a silver-haired girl peeks out.
Argento Vampyr. She’s the girl who, by some twist of fate, has started living together with me for the time being.
Her silver hair gleams, and her eyes red like fresh blood. Simply looking at her wakes you up—the beautiful girl who restored my light.
She smiled, forming her red eyes into a bow shape, and spoke to me.

“Good morning, Felnoute-san.”

And her voice is cute too. The kind of creature that makes you question your own worth as a fellow woman.

“Y-, yes, good morning… Umm, Arje, what is this…?”

“This,” of course, refers to the white thing in front of me.
It looked like a rather thick soup. The aroma was very pleasant, but…

“It’s stew.”
“Stew…?”
“Ah, you don’t have this over here, huh… Um, it’s a soup made with milk and butter.”
“…It looks kind of thick to be a soup, though.”
“That’s because it’s thickened with flour and potatoes.”

Arje’s response is confident, without hesitation. So this must really be a proper dish, then again…

…She made this?

Honestly, I’m a little scared.
I’ve never seen her touch the hearth once ever since I met her. And she openly proclaimed that she wants a life of “three meals a day, naps, and snacks provided by someone else”—she’s lazy to the extreme.
Could someone like her really cook? Maybe she just knows the theory and threw it together randomly…
Ignoring my worries, Arje walked over casually. She reached out, took the spoon I had set down, and scooped some of the stuff.

“Fuu, fuu… here, go ahead.”
“M-me?”
“It’s a taste test. You’ll understand what it is once you try it.”

Seeing her offering the spoon with a smile, there’s nothing I can do.

…Well, even if I get an upset stomach, she can heal me.

I doubt her cooking skills, but I know her healing magic is top-notch. She is probably the only person in the whole world whose healing magic is at level 10.
I’ve watched her at work once before. She restored even missing parts of the body. That wasn’t just healing, that was reaching the realm of regeneration.
Someone with that level of skill should be incredibly famous. Every kingdom in the world should’ve taken notice of her. And yet, I hadn’t even heard her name before meeting her, let alone a single rumor about her. How could that be?
She remains full of mysteries. What I do know is that she loves napping, is extremely lazy, and is a vampire who can withstand sunlight.
And one mystery of this strange housemate is mine is about to reveal itself now…

“Mm…”

I gave in and opened my mouth. Warm liquid flowed in.
A thick soup coated my entire tongue. The taste was clearly milk—sweet. The aroma, stimulating my sense of smell, carried a faint scent of butter.
Rich, yet it seeped into the body in a gentle way, never cloying. The aftertaste was a soft, creamy sweetness that was soothing.
The potato pieces on my tongue felt slightly grainy, but the lingering sweetness and saliva washed them down smoothly.

“…It’s delicious.”

So delicious I almost couldn’t believe it. As unthinkable as it is, Arje can cook.
She was no wiser to the worries that I had created for myself, neither the relief upon knowing it was unfounded. She smiled, seemingly satisfied with my evaluation.

“Ehehe, thank goodness.”

…Cute.

I do wonder why I thought that, but Arje really is adorable.
Especially her small fangs. They peek out when she smiles, and I find it incredibly charming. I even caught myself thinking it wouldn’t be so bad to get bitten by her.
And although she usually looked expressionless, or drowsy more like, she’d suddenly smile at me. That’s unfair. A total surprise attack.

…And here I thought I was straight.

There were a lot of women in my previous workplace, so you’d find some girls dating each other there. I even had been asked out or confessed to before by a coworker.
My heart didn’t move at the time, but when I see Arje now, I think I understand how those girls felt. Arje is so cute that it overturns all my previous notions.

“Eating this with bread makes it even better. It should be finished baking soon, so please wait a little longer.”
“…You can even bake bread?”
“Yes. Today’s is just an easy, pan-cooked bread… but I made the dough from scratch. Oh, and I also lightly cleaned the kitchen.”
“Huh!?”

This time, I genuinely shouted in surprise.
I rushed to the kitchen to check—and found myself stunned.

…What is this? It’s cleaner than if I had done it myself!?

Clearly, it wasn’t just a light cleaning. The house shone like it did when I first bought it.
Floors, walls, ceilings, every nook and cranny was spotless. Even the cooking utensils were polished.
I couldn’t help but keep my mouth half-open. Anyone watching me now would think I look ridiculous.

“W-What… is this…?”
“You don’t like it? I didn’t change the arrangement of the utensils or the seasonings, you know…”
“W-wait a minute, Arje!? You can do all this household work!?”
“Eh, ah, yes. So what?”
“But you’re always sleeping…!”
“Yes, I am usually sleeping. I’m practically a house decoration that doesn’t have a single use.”
“I didn’t say it was that bad!?”

Damn it, she’s running the conversation again.
Arje has her own unique pace, and sometimes she overrides the topic. That’s what’s happening now.
Usually, I’d let it slide, but I wanted to clarify this. I thought I’d solved one of her mysteries, but it only deepened instead.
It’s not particularly important, but if I don’t know how this lazy girl can do all this, I won’t be able to sleep at night.

“How can you be capable of so much household work…? You want a life of three meals, naps, and snacks, right? Then you shouldn’t need any housework skills.”
“That’s not entirely true, you know?”
“…I can’t see it any other way.”

I mean, it makes sense, right? Someone who’s being supported by others shouldn’t need those skills.
Arje opened the lid on the frying pan and plated the freshly baked bread while answering me.

“For now, I have no one supporting me, so I want to live properly until that happens. Also, the person who supports me might want to rest or might have some bad days, right? So I’ve learned all the household tasks for times like that.”

Ah. Now I understand what she meant by “not entirely true.”
She wants to live properly until someone who will support her appears. And afterward, she wants to be with that person, helping and supporting them too.
The “person supporting her” won’t become her servant, they’d become someone important to her.
Though she says she wants to be carried along in life, she also has the will to support someone else and has learned what’s necessary for that.
Arje’s idea of “being supported” is different from what I imagined.

“…Why can’t you direct that effort more straightforwardly?”

If she can do all this, she could surely live a serious, proper life…
The mystery is solved, but she is still as incomprehensible as before. I get a strange headache from it.
The meal that day was extremely delicious, even better than what I could make. Arje even baked cookies afterward. And yet, I feel oddly unsettled.