| Author: SS Samurai | Original Source: Syosetu |
| Translator: rm31439 | English Source: Re:Library |
The two kids were shocked by the message suddenly appearing in their minds.
“What? Just now…”
“I don’t know… but let’s go to the dining hall for now.”
Sakura held on to Kanata’s Arm again. Then, they left their room and went to the dining hall. Only the maid from before was there, and portions of extravagant food had been lined up on a table for them.
“Oh, there you are. The clothes fit you well, you know!”
“Thank you very much. By the way, I was wondering about the letters that appeared in our minds earlier. Was that some skill of yours?” Kanata asked the maid.
“Huh…? Everyone can do that…?” she replied with an incredulous expression.
“Eh… how does that work?”
“Oh, it’s like this…”
The maid gave Kanata and Sakura a rough explanation about the use of messages and their applications.
“That’s awfully convenient.”
“Is this not possible of the world of the sages?”
“Erm… well, we can do something that comes close. Though it relies on tools.”
Kanata was talking about telephones.
After the maid muttered a “I see”, she noticed the food was about to grow cold, so she urged the two kids to take a seat.
“The meal will get cold! Please sit down and enjoy your dinner.”
Kanata and Sakura did as the maid had told them.
“Sakura, will you be able to eat on your own?”
“Of course I will. I was able to change my clothes, wasn’t I?
“Oh, you’re right. Then, let’s eat.”
After Kanata had told Sakura where what food was, and what kind of cutlery there was, the two kids brought the food to their mouths. They first tried a piece of the thing that looked like a steak.
The maid ended up chuckling quietly, due to them doing the exact same sequence of actions. In her mind, she had come to the definite conclusion that the two of them were in love with each other.
“T-That’sh sho tashty, Kanata!”
“I-It sure is… We’re in a castle, after all… I’ve never had food like this.”
Either due to the exhaustion of seeing all those new things, because they hadn’t eaten lunch, or since the food was way too delicious, the two kids wolfed down the dinner, of which there was quite a bit, in short order.
“Thank you for the meal.”
“That was delicious… Is there anything we need to do afterwards?” Kanata asked the maid, while wiping his mouth with a napkin.
“No, there isn’t. You need only rest today. Though from tomorrow on, your training will begin.”
“Understood. Sakura, let’s go back to our room.”
“Yeah.”
“I wish you a good night,” the maid bowed her head and saw them off.
Once the kids had returned to their room, they started discussing in what order they should take a bath.
“Who should go in first? To be honest, Sakura, going into a bath you’ve never used before by yourself might be too dangerous, so I’d like to help you, but…”
“No way! I’ll manage on my own,” Sakura made a display of her refusal by shaking her head strongly.
“Should I go in first, then, and move the things you’ll use to a place where it’s easier for you to reach?”
“Oh, would you do that for me?”
“Gotcha. Then, I’ll go in first.”
Kanata disappeared into the changing room. Since Sakura didn’t have anything specific to do, she thought back on the events of this day. A large part of that was about Kanata.
“(Yeah… Just today, Kanata fussed over me quite a lot… He even ended up accepting the terms of that man called Loukis for the sake of my eyes…)”
She took a big sigh.
“(Hah… But I can’t do anything for him. On the contrary, I was too hard on him against my better judgement… To be honest, I feel insecure about going into the bath by myself. He’d see me naked, but him helping me would be a good thing, wouldn’t it? No, that would be too embarrassing, after all… Though I can’t imagine that a handsome guy like him… would desire… someone like me1.”
As she strung together that worried monologue, Kanata finished his bath before she knew it. He was already wearing his pajamas.
“Sakura, you can go next. Erm… This here’s your pajamas and underwear,” he said while handing her some clothes.
“You touched my underwear…?”
“Huh!? Sorry… no, that’s… I’m sorry.”
“Hah… I get that there probably was no other way. You don’t need to apologize. But no peeking in the bath, understood?”
“Y-Yes.”
This time, Sakura went into the changing room with unsteady steps. Kanata watched her with worry, but when he heard the sound of running water from the bathroom, it gave him some peace of mind. He sat down on the sofa and examined his status screen in detail once more. After some time, Sakura returned from the bathroom without incident.
“Good, you managed by yourself, didn’t you?” he called out to her, right as she came to the room.
“Yeah, thanks to you… though you could’ve gone to bed already.”
“Phew… You see, I reexamined the foundations of this world, while you were busy with your ablutions.”
“Ugh… Fine, whatever. Can we go to sleep?”
She searched for the bed, and laid down there, but then felt something was off, when she didn’t hear Kanata’s footsteps.
“Huh? You’re not going to sleep?”
“Well… there’s only one bed. So, I’ll sleep on the couch.”
“Now that you mention it, you had that disagreement with the maid about the bed, didn’t you…?”
What Sakura did next, shocked even herself.
“You can come here, you know, Kanata,” she proposed while patting the edge of the bed she was lying on. “Just don’t do anything weird.”
“Wha-!?”
In his surprise, Kanata’s voice was rough and loud, though Sakura herself was even more surprised. Still, she continued, thinking that it had to be said.
“No… uhm… It’s not that I want to sleep next to you, Kanata, alright? That’s not it, alright? It’s… uhm… it’s so you can keep me from falling off the bed when I wake up…”
“Ah, sure… Hm~… are you really fine with that?”
“…Do what you want.”
After a lot of hesitation and wavering, Kanata decided to sleep next to her. He managed to get into the bed in a position2, so he barely wouldn’t touch her.
“…We haven’t done this since preschool, right?”
“Yeah.”
They didn’t exchange any other words and stayed silent for a while in their embarrassment. Then, maybe because she hit her limit due to exhaustion, Sakura fell asleep before Kanata.
As she slept, Kanata didn’t manage to fall asleep at all. Embarrassment, shame, and many other emotions were swirling around in his mind. As for the cause of these emotions… Sakura, like her older sister Mika, had the tendency to strongly cling to anything close by while sleeping.
TL notes:
And so ends the kids’ first day in Anazumu. Personally, I think Kanata’s and Sakura’s interactions resemble Alim’s and Mika’s a bit too much, though at least Kanata’s edgelord phrases every now and then, and Sakura’s reactions to it are somewhat funny.
