SAINTESS [Chapter 136: No need to convince me] (Patreon)

“Wha-?!”

Having just finished soaking in the hot spring, Milian wandered toward the second-floor lounge, wrapped in a bathrobe and carrying a bottle of milk. As she rounded the corner, she caught sight of the scene and immediately flattened herself against the wall, peeking around the corner while letting out an involuntary, oddly startled yelp.

Those two had just been Winnie… and Aesphyra.

They had gone into the same lounge? And they had even been curled up together?

What on earth had those two been doing?

Milian’s thoughts instantly descended into chaos.

‘Virtue + 100.’

‘Current Virtue: 14939.’

The warm, contented feeling she’d had after her soak had completely vanished. Her mind was now a tangled mess, thoughts darting in every direction as they collided and spiraled out of control.

No. No, this wouldn’t do.

Milian remained crouched by the corner, staring at the lounge door for a long while. Eventually, she realized she couldn’t just stand there watching. She had to do something.

But… What could she even do?`

If those two were doing something in there, if something had happened, then that was between them, something they had both agreed to. What standing did she have? What right did she have to do anything, or to say anything?

And if Winnie thought she was being weird, and felt interrupted… wouldn’t she just end up being hated?

Milian’s cheeks puffed up with anger, filled with a childish indignation and timidity that was rare for her. After all, anyone even a little familiar with this golden-elf princess knew that her personality was nasty. She was a genuine, full-on bratty little demon girl.

But if she did nothing and simply pretended she hadn’t seen anything, she couldn’t bring herself to do that either.

All one could say was that an idiot’s instincts were always accurate. Milian simply had a feeling that these two weren’t ordinary, and if they had gone into a lounge room together, something was definitely going to happen!

“There couldn’t be anyone else in that room besides the two of them, right?”

“What do I do, what do I do, waaah?!”

Milian rubbed her hair. Having just soaked in the hot spring, she hadn’t tied it up; it spilled loose behind her.

‘What am I supposed to do??’

Milian had no choice. She realized she’d have to deploy her super intelligence.

So Milian deployed her super intelligence.

Milian’s specifications were insufficient. Milian could not deploy her super intelligence.

Milian gave up thinking.

She had absolutely no idea what to do. At this moment, she could only hate herself for being unable to come up with anything at all.

“Milian? You came to soak in the hot spring too?”

“Huh??” Just when Milian was at her wits’ end and couldn’t think of a way, a familiar voice called from behind. Milian froze, then turned to look at Shikondell like she was staring at a savior.

“Little Shikondell, you came at the perfect time!” Milian grabbed both of Shikondell’s hands.

“What is it?” Shikondell was thrown by Milian’s sudden move, her face full of confusion.

“Just now, I saw Winnie go into that lounge room with that annoying silver-haired human woman!” Milian lowered her voice and pointed at the lounge room.

“Winnie… annoying silver-haired human woman… you mean, Aesphyra?” Shikondell hesitated.

“Yeah, her! That silver-haired human. One look was enough for me to know she was a really sly one. She must be plotting something nasty!”

Milian folded her arms, completely certain of herself.

“Milian, Aesphyra isn’t a bad person. She definitely wouldn’t hurt Winnie,” Shikondell said helplessly.

“I’m not saying she’d hurt him! I’m saying, Little Shikondell, are you really just going to watch?” Milian looked at Shikondell’s reaction, not sensing anything off, and couldn’t help getting anxious.

“Mm.”

“Little Shikondell, haven’t you noticed that her relationship with Winnie isn’t normal?” Milian didn’t really know what had happened between Aesphyra and Winnie, but her intuition was absurdly sharp. She could tell at a glance that the woman’s feelings toward Winnie were obviously not ordinary.

That shocked her a little. Shikondell had been around Winnie for so long, hadn’t she noticed anything at all??

“Mm, but Aesphyra really isn’t a bad person.”

“Little Shikondell, I’m not talking about whether she’s good or bad. Do you honestly think she has zero thoughts about Winnie??” Milian said wearily.

“This…” Shikondell fell silent too.

How could she not have sensed it at all?

But…

Aesphyra was also her friend. And Aesphyra had even saved her life, helped her many times.

Shikondell was bound by her own morality; in her heart, she didn’t want to think of Aesphyra that way. So she’d kept clinging to wishful thinking.

“But… isn’t it kind of wrong?”

“Different issues, Little Shikondell. Besides, if you’re still asking whether it’s wrong now, isn’t it already too late?”

“Then… what should we do?” Shikondell was finally persuaded.

“Um, well…” The moment it came to that, Milian instantly ran out of ideas again.

Her intuition was strong, sure, but asking her to come up with a plan? She had nothing.

“So… you haven’t thought of anything either?” Shikondell blinked her big eyes at Milian.

“Ahem! Of course this princess has a way!” Milian forced herself to act tough, wearing an all-knowing expression. “It’s just, before I tell you my plan, Little Shikondell, you tell me yours first, so I can gather the best of all ideas!”

“Huh? Like that?” Shikondell looked ashamed. “But… I can’t think of anything.”

“Ah. So you don’t have a plan either.”

And just like that, one who was accustomed to letting others make the decisions, and another who had already run out of ideas, neither of them knew what to do. The scene fell into an awkward silence.

“So… what do we do?”

Just as the two wracked their brains and still couldn’t come up with anything, footsteps stopped beside them.

“Dell, what’s wrong?”

“Huh?!” That familiar voice made Shikondell lift her gaze. Before her stood a tall, graceful blonde beauty.

“Did you run into some trouble? If you did, you can tell me.” Mirexia wore a well-fitted white bathrobe. Her dazzling golden hair, still slightly damp, fell down her back to the tops of her thighs, giving her the appearance of a beauty who had just stepped out of the bath.

Even the loose robe could not hide the blonde girl’s perfectly proportioned long legs, nor the ample bosom it failed to cover, while below that, her slender, willow-like waist was revealed without restraint.

She was like a delicate branch bearing ripe fruit. There was hardly a better way to describe Mirexia’s figure.

Even as a girl herself, Shikondell couldn’t help admiring that flawless body.

Compared to her own…

Shikondell pressed her lips together. In that regard, she was at a disadvantage among disadvantages, maybe she couldn’t even compare to Miss Aesphyra.

Shikondell’s mind drifted far, but Milian the big idiot didn’t think that much, partly because she couldn’t, and mostly because she didn’t need to.

In that area, she was about the same as Mirexia anyway.

“Dell?” Shikondell seemed distracted, and in Mirexia’s eyes it looked like she truly had something weighing on her.

Since she was Winnie’s roommate, Mirexia thought she should help if she could.

No, regardless of being Winnie’s roommate or not, if someone was in trouble, Mirexia would help.

In short, seeing Shikondell seemingly troubled, she couldn’t just stand by.

“It’s… nothing.” Shikondell absolutely couldn’t bring herself to say something like that. Getting into an argument outside someone else’s room over this sort of thing would be far too embarrassing, wouldn’t it?

“You’re… the student council president?” Milian said in surprise. When she’d been bathing earlier in the hot-spring suite, she’d seen Mirexia too, only Mirexia hadn’t noticed her.

“You’re… Milian of the Elven Forest?” Mirexia looked at Milian.

“Mm. If I remember right, you’re the princess of the Camella Kingdom, aren’t you? And Winnie’s childhood friend?” Milian looked at Mirexia with a strange expression.

“Yes.” Mirexia nodded.

“So, did you run into some trouble?” Mirexia asked again.

“Not really. It’s just that I saw your childhood friend go into a lounge room with that silver-haired human woman, and there was no one else inside. Oh, and the two of them looked like they’d just come from the hot springs. I’m not sure whether they soaked together, but when I saw them, they were all snuggled up. Tsk, tsk, they looked like they couldn’t wait to stay glued to each other until they-”

“Milian! Don’t say that kind of thing!” Seeing Milian with her hands clasped behind her head, casually blurting the truth to Mirexia, Shikondell hurried forward to cover Milian’s mouth.

“Sorry, President Mirexia. We’re not trying to pry into Winnie and Aesphyra’s privacy or anything, it’s just…” Shikondell rushed to explain.

“Dell, could you let go of Milian?” Mirexia fell silent for a moment, then spoke abruptly. “It sounds like she wasn’t finished.”

“Huh?!” Mirexia’s reaction startled Shikondell.

“Hey! Shi- cough, Dell, why’d you stop me? See? The president wants to hear it.” Since Mirexia wanted to hear, Milian took the chance to wriggle free of Shikondell’s hand and complained resentfully.

“Milian, you said just now… Winnie and Aesphyra possibly soaked in the hot spring together?”

“Yeah.”

“Impossible. They should both be using private rooms. And Aesphyra is top five in the grade, Winnie’s private room area shouldn’t even be the same as hers.” Mirexia corrected Milian with a stubbornly strict, meticulous attitude.

“I never said my guess was definitely right. It’s just my judgment.” Milian pouted.

“Besides, by common sense, a private-room hot spring is for one person. Inviting someone else in would obviously be unreasonable.” Mirexia didn’t even wait for Milian to continue before adding another explanation.

“U-ugh.” For some reason, Shikondell’s face reddened a little; she looked embarrassed.

“Huh?” Milian frowned. “But this princess read the hot-spring rules before. I didn’t see anything like ‘you may not enter someone else’s private hot-spring room to bathe together’ on it.”

“Just because it’s not written doesn’t mean it’s allowed. It’s the kind of thing you know is impossible if you think about it.” Mirexia took a deep breath.

“U-uh…” Shikondell didn’t know why, but she felt like Mirexia’s tone had picked up a trace of anger since she started explaining this, like she was about to snap at someone.

Though from Shikondell’s understanding of Mirexia, she definitely wasn’t targeting them.

“President, you don’t need to explain this to us, do you?” Milian folded her arms and raised a brow. “With all due respect, what you’re saying sounds like you’re trying to forcefully convince someone. But we don’t need convincing. So you’re forcing yourself to believe it, aren’t you?”

“……” Milian’s blunt words instantly choked Mirexia into silence.

“Milian!” Shikondell tugged on Milian’s bathrobe.

“What? I’m just telling the truth.” Milian didn’t get it.

“Anyway, whether they soaked together or not, I don’t know, can’t say. I didn’t see it. But I saw with my own eyes: they went into the lounge room cuddled up.” Milian added.

Mirexia fell silent once again.

Though she said nothing and her expression remained unchanged, Shikondell could clearly see the blonde beauty’s fingers gripping her robe so tightly that the fabric was nearly wrinkled in her grasp.

“Ah, whatever, whatever. Everyone’s curious, right? Fine. Then we’ll just eavesdrop at the door!” After thinking and thinking without coming up with anything, Milian finally grew impatient and announced it loudly and boldly.

“Milian!” Shikondell was about to lose all patience. How could they do something like that??

Even if they were going to do it, why shout it so loudly? Like what they were about to do was something perfectly righteous.

And the most important part, she was saying it in front of the student council president??

“Sorry, President Mirexia, Milian is just joking. Please don’t take it seriously.” Shikondell hurried to explain.

Yet Mirexia still didn’t speak.

“Alright, alright, Dell, stop trying to stop me. Don’t you see the president didn’t stop me either?” Milian puffed her cheeks. “Bet the president wants to know what’s happening inside too, but can’t bring herself to do something as low as peeping.”

“Milian, stop saying such weird things!” Shikondell was getting battered senseless by Milian’s straight shots.

“You’re all so awkward. Even more awkward than me!” Milian snorted. “Fine. You all want to know, but none of you dare to find out. Then I’ll do it. If someone has to do the dirty work, I’ll be the one, alright?”

As she spoke, Milian made her way toward the lounge room door.

“Wait.” Seeing that she was actually going, Mirexia instinctively reached out, trying to stop her.