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We reached Bamel and I put the carriage in my magic storage outside of the town. Then we walk through the forest path I know so well and we reach our home in the middle of the afternoon.

We cross the barrier keeping intruders out, pass through the outer gates, and then Erika, who we left to take care of the mansion, comes out to meet us.

“We’re back, good job keeping the house safe.”
“Shaa.”

Olivia thanks Erika, who then lowers her head a bit. She’s mostly attached to me, but I’m glad to see she also understands the hierarchy of power here at the house.

Anyway, I decide to take out our luggage before I go to tend to the garden, but then I see something surprising. While we weren’t away for the longest time like back at the academy, the garden looks pristine, with medicinal herbs growing healthily everywhere.

“Erika, did you tend to the garden?”
“Shaa.”

I ask and Erika puffs her chest (?) with pride as she replies.

Before leaving I tried teaching Erika which plants were medicinal herbs and which were weeds so she wouldn’t ruin the garden again, and I guess she understood even better than I anticipated. Which makes sense considering she’s a plant monster.

“Maybe we can leave you to tend to the garden when we leave from now on…”
“Sha?! Shashashaa!”

As soon as I mutter that Erika begins to complain while scooting over and gluing herself to me.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding! I’ll take you if the Young Lady gives you permission!”
“Sha?”
“Mhm, of course you can come with us sometime.”
“Shaa!”

Erika quickly turns to look at Olivia, who then agrees, making Erika let out happy sounds.

“You can really be mean sometimes, Natalia.”

Olivia says that while pursing her lips into a slight pout. I’m aware I was a bit inconsiderate of Erika, but I also said that because I trust Erika enough to leave her in charge of the entire house.

But I also know how attached to me Erika is, so leaving her alone for too long wouldn’t be good. Olivia gave us her blessing too, and we don’t have to travel with caravans now that we have a carriage, so taking Erika with us shouldn’t be much of an issue. Maybe we’ll have to attach an extra cart behind the carriage for her though.

“Shaaaa, shasha?”

Then Erika turns to look down at Akane, making proud sounds, though I don’t have a clue what they mean. So I turn to look at Clarissa the translator.

“…Woof?”

I guess I expected too much thinking she’ll understand with just a glance.

“Please translate.”
“Flower says, I stay home, I useful. Spider, you useful?”
“!! !! …”
“Spider says, at mansion played with Claire, ate good. Then…”

Ahhh, right. We couldn’t bring Akane to the party hall, so she spent basically the entire time playing around.

“Sha!”

Then Erika makes a cocky sound and her blooming flower smiles. (not a typo)

“!!!!”
“Shaaa!”

Akane raises and waves her front pair of legs in protest, and Erika just provokes her more.

“Okay chill out you two. Akane also helped with cooking when I wasn’t feeling well, and she restrained the monster that tried attacking the Young Lady. She was useful too.”

After standing between the two to calm things down, I also squat in front of Akane to pat her head, since she looked like she was about to lunge at Erika. That seems to do the trick and her temper quickly soothes out.

“Alright, we’ll go unpack things then. Natalia, you should take it easy for the rest of the day.”
“Huh? But I’ve rested long enough during the trip back, and I’ve fully recovered from the hits I took during that fight.”
“I’m not saying it for you Natalia, but for Erika. Go play with her to make up for all the time we were away.”
“Oh, I unders- “Shaaa!” -tand.”

Erika grabs my hand and drags me away before I can finish my reply. I wonder what she wants to do?

I’m still confused as she pulls me to a corner of the garden that was still filled with sunlight. There she makes me sit on her bulb and then uses her thick stem to give me shade.

“?”

I struggle to understand what’s happening, but then she brings one of her tentacle vines and waves it in front of me. Unsure I reach out to touch it, and then she starts wrapping the vine around my hand, which feels slightly ticklish.

I guess she wants to play?

Thinking that I start to rub the tentacle a bit and it quickly retracts from me, but then comes back.

Now that I think about it, back when she was a Man Eater I’d feed her all the time, but I never tried touching her. I think I was still a bit intimidated by her size when she became a Servant too, so I never really was as direct with her as with Akane.

I guess Olivia was right in more ways than one with what she said earlier. I haven’t been the kindest to Erika with my behavior.

Alright, today’s the day I spoil Erika rotten then. She shows me her tentacle, I poke it, she wraps it around my fingers for a bit and then pulls back, but this time I reach out for it too.

“Shasha.”

A happy sound comes from Erika’s large flower.

I don’t think she’s what most people would call cute, but hearing her make those sounds makes her look very endearing for me. So I start reaching out for her tentacle a bit more often, and we continue doing that like a game of sorts.

Eventually I lose track of the time, and before I realize I see that she’s showing me one of her Venus flytrap shaped tentacles, which I try touching too, and it bites my hand. But with very little force so it’s more like a love bite, as I can easily pull my hand back. I guess she’s seeing this as a game too then.

Lick

I feel something wet on my cheek so I turn around quickly and find myself face to face with Erika’s large flower.

“You…”
“Shaa.”

She’s even using feints now.
But before I can process that I feel something tickling my side so I turn around to the other side.

“The next one is…woah!”

Just when I think she’s coming for my side I feel her on my neck, when I try to protect my neck it’s my armpit, and somehow she even takes off my shoes and starts tickling my feet.

“Hey…ah…ahahah…”

Since I’m a magic automaton now I don’t need to breathe, so I don’t have to worry about running out of air from laughing too much, but that also makes it hard to stop feeling ticklish which can feel pretty painful too.

“Ahh, mm…not…there…”
“Shaa.”

I can hardly formulate the words to tell her to stop, but she just keeps going. Now her tentacles are starting to slide inside my clothes and up my skirt, rubbing more intensely against me.

Even when I try to twist and turn my body to avoid her, her tentacles start to restrain my limbs mercilessly.

“W-wait…hahah…no…more…eek-”

It’s quite uncomfortable but I can’t really do anything other than laugh, and my body is starting to feel warm, and even my breath is getting hotter.

“Ahahahahah…no…shtop…noo!”
“Erika.”

Just as my whimpers get louder, a chilly and stern voice calls out Erika, who stops moving.

I’m finally released from my ticklish prison, but it’s so sudden that my mind struggles to catch up so I just lie on the ground. My thoughts are a tangled mess, difficult to untangle, and even my eyelids feel unbearably heavy. Wait whose voice was that earlier?

“I didn’t say you could do anything you wanted, did I? I didn’t hand all of her to you, okay?”
“Sha, shaa!”
“I know what you mean. Natalia usually keeps her guard up, but sometimes she’s unusually naive. Actually, I can’t hold back seeing her like this earlier, mm…”

Huh? I think something touched my lips. I wonder what it was?