「Can I ask your name…?」
「Me? What～… Feeling like flirting already? Ahaha, no way～. I may look like this, but I’m actually pretty chaste, you know.」
「I already have a wife named Noie, so I’m fine.」
「Ahaha. Brushing off such a beauty so easily, you’re a terrible man～.」
She giggles softly and turns her gaze toward me.
「I’m Renila. If you look up 『Beheader Renila』, you should find out everything.」
「I know. You were a genius of dance, and with a sword you…」
「Yep. I went spapapapa on people’s necks.」
I understand. Everyone inside Noie is a notorious criminal.
I know she is one of them… yet talking to her doesn’t feel 「scary」 at all.
She really seems like an easygoing older sister from the neighborhood.
「Hey, Renila.」
「What?」
「Why did you…」
「Commit the crime?」
「Yeah.」
Without a word, she presses her face against my chest.
Her forehead grinds against me, ow, it actually hurts a little, but I endure it.
「……I don’t know.」
「Eh?」
「We were living normally. Really, just normally. But one day… I felt a terribly cold gaze. After that, my memory cuts out. When I came to, I was standing in the middle of a mountain of corpses.
When I asked the others, their answers were more or less the same. So please don’t ask anyone else… Some of them ended up killing people as precious to them as their own lives.」
「Got it. I promise.」
「Ahaha. Hubby really is a kind person, huh.」
She probably wasn’t crying, but the expression she turns toward me looks almost like a tearful face.
「And if possible… try not to release Noie’s seal too often.」
「Why?」
「Because I don’t know what might happen.」
「……」
For some reason her gaze wavers. She’s hiding something.
「I really don’t know. But… just hypothetically? I think this country alone could probably be destroyed.」
「Why would it turn out like that～?」
「Ahaha. Sorry～. It’s probably because everyone cherished Noie so much… that’s all.」
「Then there’s no helping it.」
The list of impossible tasks just keeps growing.
「Do you hate Noie like this?」
「If I could hate her, things might be easier. But I love her so much, so incredibly much, that hating her is pretty much impossible.」
「She really is dangerous, you know. In… all sorts of ways.」
「Yeah. But I decided to make Noie my wife, to make her happy, and to be happy with her.」
「I see.」
Renila’s face blooms with a smile as beautiful and radiant as a flower in full blossom.
Ah～ no way. What destructive power this has. This is something that must be monopolized.
「Hey, hubby. You’re squeezing too tight.」
「Sorry.」
「……Because Noie doesn’t smile?」
「Yeah.」
「……But she does feel happy, you know. She was carrying around lonely feelings today.」
「Lonely?」
I loosen the arms that had been holding her so tightly and peer into her face.
「It hurts Noie too, seeing hubby dancing with other women.」
「I see…」
「Exactly. So, reflect on that.」
「Yes.」
Now that she mentions it, Noie had been glaring at me with displeasure the whole time.
The right thing to do would have been to say 『Let’s dance together』.
「Now then… has it soaked into your body a little?」
「Hm?」
「The dance.」
「Ah… really just a little?」
No amount of all-nighters is going to make this stick.
「Well, whatever. When you wake up, have Noie teach you.」
「You sure that’s okay?」
「Ahaha. Noie is the number-one disciple of the genius Renila, after all.」
So she could actually dance properly this whole time. Oh no… there was still a side of Noie I didn’t know about.
「We spent so much time talking and dancing that time flew by… and who knows when I’ll be able to come out again.」
「If possible, I’d be happy if you could come out regularly.」
「Ahaha. Sorry～. That really is impossible. This part is non-negotiable.」
Her giggling Noie is so incredibly rare!
「Then, one last thing… hubby.」
「Yes? Ah」
She hooks her leg around mine and pushes me down onto the bed.
In one fluid motion, she takes mount position.
「Time to pay today’s lesson fee… with that body of yours～」
「Wait a second! What happened to being chaste!」
「Ahaha. That’s the original me, right? Right now, I’m 『Noie』.」
「That’s sophistry!」
「Ahaha. Don’t worry. I’ll do all the things Noie normally won’t do for you… so just lie there quietly and let big sis devour you.」
「Nooo～」
She literally devoured me with incredible vigor.
-0-
I wake up to the gentle pok-pok of something tapping my chest.
Huh? Wait… Renila-san was terrifying!
My eyes fly open in terror, and they meet Noie’s, she’s still in mount position.
「Good morning, Noie.」
「……」
Her face is flushed bright red, her body trembling slightly as she weakly pounds my chest with her small fist.
There’s hardly any force behind it, but the complaint, the reproach, comes through loud and clear.
「Noie?」
「I said… no while sleeping.」
「Yeah.」
「Why?」
To Noie, it must feel like someone took advantage of her while she was asleep.
To me, it felt more like I was forcibly revived after nearly dying and then milked dry.
I catch the hand that keeps tapping my chest. It’s not really Noie’s fault, but still.
「You were the one doing it, Noie.」
「……」
「Even though you said you wanted to sleep, you kept whining 『You didn’t dance with me』 and clinging.」
「!」
Her already red face turns scarlet. Noie really is adorable.
「Let go…」
「No.」
I pull the hand I’m holding, and she topples forward.
I wrap my arms around her face and whisper into her ear.
「After we clean up your body, teach me how to dance.」
「……Yes.」
Perhaps because of Renila’s laughter last night, this morning Noie’s expression has softened, just the tiniest bit.
A real smile still seems far away, though.
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