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I scooped the hot water from the bathtub using a pail and poured it over the head of the girl, her eyes tightly closed. Soap was a luxury here, so instead I used a bag of rice bran to scrub her body. I made this when I was living with Regina and suddenly remembered a piece of knowledge from my previous life. Fortunately, since the western pioneer village was growing upland rice, I could acquire the rice bran for free since they planned to throw it away anyway.¹

Boiling water for everyday use was a chore there, so instead, I popularized using a rice bran bag as a substitute for soap. Regina too, while she complained; “Hah. What a sorry substitute,” she used it quite a lot, so it must’ve been effective.

Suddenly, I remembered my life in Tenebrae Nemus, and a longing to return home came to my mind. Before I knew it, that place had become my hometown.

I changed the tub of hot water five times, scrubbed the body in every corner except where the girl’s collar was attached, made sure all the dirt was removed, and gave her one last overhead pour.

After wiping her head with a towel, I scrubbed myself before the both of us soaked in the hot water together. The bathtub wasn’t very large, but it was spacious enough for the two of us not to feel cramped.

While soaking in the hot water, I lightly massaged the girl’s body and asked her what was on my mind.

“Come to think of it, I failed to catch your name. My name is Jill.”
“…Lana.”
“Where did you come from before you’re in the capital, Lana?”
“The village in the north mountain.”
“I see. What is the name of the country it belongs to?”
“I don’t know… but they said that… my sister is sold to the kah-petal.”

Her casual tone made my heart ache. When she said kah-petal, I would assume that she meant to say a capital city, but for some reason, my intuition led me to believe it was a certain imperial capital.

Lana looked ticklish when she received my massages but she seemed to catch on that something was plaguing my mind, as she began to look at me up and down.

“Aah, forgive me. It just reminded me of something. Lana, when you said capital, did you mean the Cilento Imperial Capital?”

Lana squinted upon my question, but something must’ve struck her memory; She mumbled “ah,” then nodded her head delightfully.

“I see. So your sister is in Livitium’s capital city, huh?” I muttered, mixed feelings brewing within my chest, which I tried to hide by lightly hugging Lana. “I hope you’ll meet her soon.”

“Yeah. Sis told me to be patient and hang in there because she’ll surely come for me.”

I pat Lana’s head as she nodded sadly.

“Does your sister look like me, Lana? She has fox ears and a tail?”

When I asked her that, after staring intently at my face once again, Lana shook her head as hard as she could.

“No. Sis is a human. Also, her reddish hair and green eyes are like yours, but… a bit different… and your faces are very different since sis looks really normal… Why did I mistake you for her?”
“Hmm…?”

Sisters with one being a human and the other a beastfolk? Is their family actually complicated? I craned my neck, thinking. Because of that, I didn’t realize at the time that I had carelessly left my recognition inhibition pendant off before I took the bath.

By the way, Laika told me about this later, but apparently, in a marriage between humans and beastfolk, the race of their offspring wasn’t fixed to either one of them, so it was normal for sisters to be of different races.

♢♦♢♦♢

I wiped Lana’s body well after our bath and put her in my old one-piece dress, even though it was too baggy for her. Her face riddled with anxiety, I pulled her hand and headed straight to the drawing room.

When I entered the drawing room, I found Ms. Christy sitting on the sofa with a difficult look on her face. Luke was sitting opposite her with a troubled look on his face, while Royce and Monika were standing behind him.

All eyes were on us as we entered the room, and Lana lightly screamed and hid behind my skirt.

“…I see. So that’s the slave.”
“Yes, sister. I have taken her into my custody. Her name is Lana.”
“Monika and Sir Luke have filled me in. Good grief, it sounds to me that you can’t stay away from trouble every single day.”

Hearing her sigh, I hung my head low.

“I’m terribly sorry. I’ll take all the responsibility. I won’t cause you any trouble, and I’ll raise this child on my own, so please forgive me.”
“No, it’s my responsibility, too! The fault doesn’t fall on Jill alone. I’ll help them in any way I can. So please, don’t blame it on Jill!”

Luke changed his expression, stood up, came next to me, and bowed his head as well. Lana caught between us, looked at me and Luke with a puzzled face.

“I’m not blaming anyone for anything. Raise your heads, both of you. …Also, err, how do I say it, this almost feels like I’m scolding a naughty daughter for teen pregnancy and elopement, and just the thought of that feels yucky.”

Ms. Christy rubbed her temple and gestured for us to sit down.

““Huh”” Luke and I sat on the couch, exchanging looks at the comment neither of us could tell if she was joking or not.

Author’s Note:

Human X beastfolk = not half, but one or the other is born (if anything, human gene is more dominant). If a child is born human, no beastman will be born from it due to parthenogenetic inheritance. It is determined.

With elf, it’d be half-elves.

Translator’s Note:

I’ll just call this out. Lana’s sister is definitely the fake Syltianna.

1. Mab: For context: rice bran oil is an ingredient to make soap.