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Is she trying to defend herself or confess her actions?!

“Please let me go, Natalia! A servant’s shame is for the master’s to bear! There’s no other way for me to apologize!”
“She’s not worth bloodying your hands over, Ryuka! If anyone has to die it’s only Ruri!”
“Why are you so mean?”

I’m not mean, you’re rotten to the core.

“Calm down, Ryuka. I don’t know about most cases, but Ruri was with me and Olivia when Natalia’s underwear was stolen, so she can’t be the perpetrator. If we assume that it was one person who did it all, of course.”

Amy’s explanation seems to calm Ryuka’s anger, as she slowly relaxes her hand with the dagger, then puts it away and apologizes for acting so rashly.

They’re right though, Olivia and Amy were with Ruri the entire time, so she has a valid alibi. But as Amy also pointed out, that only applies to my case, and doesn’t necessarily exempt her from the others.

“Woof? Boss, Maid, what happened?” And then Clarissa returns from her days long outing.
“New game?”
“No, we aren’t playing any game.”

There’s a lot of people gathered, so Clarissa thought we were playing a game.

Clarissa still lacks some understanding of how society works. Speaking of which, seeing Olivia and Ruri tied up might end up giving her weird ideas, so I’ll let them free now.

“Welcome back, Claire. Where did you go?”
“Things, already done.”

Olivia stands up and asks her that, but she doesn’t seem like she wants to reply. Clarissa also deserves some privacy though, so as long as she isn’t bothering someone else, we won’t stop her.

“Ah, I see. Hm, maybe Claire could try tracking the culprit?”
“That’s a good idea, there might be a scent trail.”

We quickly tell Clarissa the situation, and ask her to track the culprit.

“So I follow Maid’s smell?”
“Yes, can you do it?”
“Woof.”

Clarissa nods with confidence. I guess this should solve the situation pretty quickly.

“Need sample.”
“Okay, let me find something for-”

Before I can finish saying that, Clarissa crouches down and sticks her head underneath my skirt.

“Kyahhhhhhhhhh!”
“Ah, that should’ve been me!”
“Young Lady?!”

I desperately try to hold my skirt down, while Olivia says something unbelievable. But Clarissa sniffs me without a single care.

“Woof, got it.”
“Ah, I’m so glad! Now we’ll be able to find whoever it was really quickly!”

Everyone was almost getting desperate, so once Clarissa begins sniffing around while walking on all fours, they all follow her. Eventually she seems to catch a lead and goes out of the dining hall.

After following her for a bit, she leads us to the corridors of the dorm rooms and stops in front of a door.

“Inside.” Clarissa points at a hole in the wall, around five centimeters wide, certainly not big enough for someone to get through.

“This is Lola and Melissa’s rooms, right?” Olivia says as she goes to check the name plate next to the door. This room is being used by students, though they aren’t here.

“We’ll have to check inside, we don’t really have much option considering the situation.” Amy knocks on the door and a girl appears from inside.

“Amy and…why are there so many people here?”
“Sorry for the sudden visit, Lola. But you’ll have to let us in.”
“Huh, wait- Amy?!”

Lola looks confused, but Amy pushes her aside and barges into her room. Doing that is extremely rude, but considering there’s a high likelihood that the culprit is in the room, if we take too long it’ll just give them more time to hide evidence.

Olivia doesn’t seem to realize that so she just stares in confusion, while Ryuka understands but still lowers her head in apology. Ruri also gets it, but shrugs it away. Meanwhile Clarissa doesn’t seem to have a single thought in her head as she barges into the room.

“Woah, why is everyone here?” The other owner of the room, Melissa, looks shocked at our arrival too, but we can’t afford to worry about her.

Seeing the layout of the room, the hole on the wall is behind a desk, so it’s harder to see.

“Claire, search around here.”
“Woof.”

Clarissa follows my orders and begins sniffing under the desk, then quickly pulls her head back as she follows the scent. Eventually she arrives at a small round basket weaved out of tree branches which is placed on top of the desk. Clarissa holds her face next to it and stops moving.

“Grrrrr…”
“Ah, stop that!”

Seeing Clarissa growling at the basket seems to make Melissa restless, and just as she says that something jumps out of the basket and leaps onto her chest.

“I’m really sorry, were you scared?”

Melissa carefully holds the white fluffy rotund thing, which looks a lot like a white mouse.

“Ah, that’s a Cotton Mouse!”
“Do you know what that is, Amy?”
“They’re a type of animal that can wield a small amount of magic but isn’t considered a monster. They look a lot like cotton balls, and they like to gather cotton-like materials to furnish their burrows, so they’re called Cotton Mice.”
“So that means…there they are.”

Ruri sticks her hand inside the basket and brings out a handful of girls’ panties.

“Huh? Wh-wh-what’s happening?”

The pet’s owner, Melissa, is so confused by everything that she keeps stuttering, and once Amy fills her in on what happened all color drains from her face.

It turns out that Melissa had started keeping that Cotton Mouse as pet during the last break, and it had not been content with all the clothes and other materials she provided, so the little animal went out through the hold of the room and began collecting underwear from the changing room and stashing it in the basket, leading to the current situation.

“I’m really sorry!”

Melissa bows deeply as she apologizes. While it’s true that she neglected her pet, I don’t think we should really blame her too much. Or rather, I’m just glad that there was no real ill intent behind the whole mess.

The other girls also feel the same way and try to comfort and encourage her.

She’ll have to take better care of the Cotton Mouse from now on, but the other students also offered to bring in their old clothes so it’ll be satisfied. Also, if we tell the Academy about the hole in the wall they should patch it up in no time.

“Alright, everyone who lost underwear come pick it up, make sure it’s yours though.”

Ruri takes out the underwear from the basket and starts returning it to their rightful owners. I guess this concludes this incident.

“I got yours, Natalia.” Olivia holds a pair of panties high in her hand. And yes, they’re the pair I lost in the changing room. How did she know those are mine… I’m feeling a bit scared, but I guess I should take them back…

“Ah yes, Natalia’s see-through tights.”

I immediately feel everyone turning to look here.

“Woah, that’s a bit extreme.”
“Is there even a reason to wear something so transparent? It’ll look the same as wearing nothing…”
“I guess she really is a grown up woman.”
“So Natalia wears stuff like that…”

Hearing all of that makes my face feel like it’s on fire.

“Why would you even say something like that out loud!”
“Ah, Natalia?!”

Unable to bear the shame anymore, I snatch my underwear and run back to lock myself in the room. I can’t get married anymore…