Chapter 187: It's the Same If I Do It (Patreon)

This porridge is off, isn't it?

Isac scooped up a chunk of venison stewed to mush with his spoon and shot Hayasaka Ai a questioning look.

What he saw was those sapphire-blue eyes veiled in a thin mist, the affection in them so thick you could practically pull strands from it. Paired with her already stunning face, it finally showed Isac what "bedroom eyes" looked like in the flesh.

All that was missing were two pink hearts floating in her pupils.

Isac: Eating this porridge is probably going to cost me.

Hayasaka Ai: I'm the one who pays for it. What are you scared of?

Isac: It's not that I'm scared, I'm just worried...

Hayasaka Ai: Can or can't, which is it? What's there to worry about?

Isac: ...

Neither of them said a word aloud, and Hayasaka Ai offered no explanation, but each read exactly what the other meant to say in their eyes.

Still, Isac took his sweet time putting the spoon in his mouth, and Hayasaka Ai seemed to lose her patience. "Chow down! Why aren't you eating? Is the porridge I made not to your taste?"

With Hayasaka Ai laying it out like that, Isac had no choice but to shove the spoonful of venison into his mouth.

The venison had been simmered until it was tender and sweet, so soft it barely needed chewing and slid straight down his throat. The flavor was beyond criticism, too. It kept the natural richness of the meat and carried the fragrance of oats, landing right in the sweet spot of Isac's tastes.

Once she saw Isac digging in, Hayasaka Ai withdrew her gaze, satisfied, and turned her full attention to the porridge in her own bowl.

Unlike Isac's bowl, which had meat hidden at the bottom, the venison in Hayasaka Ai's bowl was far less. Taking the standard steak the four of them had split last night when they got back as the base unit, the meat in Isac's bowl came to 0.5 standard steaks, roughly 100 grams. Hayasaka Ai's was 0.2 standard steaks, or 40 grams, about one mouthful.

Don't let the mere 40 grams fool you. For Hayasaka Ai, who hadn't gone through physical enhancement, the energy in it already covered a whole day's expenditure, even slightly exceeded it, and the excess would get burned off in the form of certain "side effects."

In other words, she knew a hard battle was coming. Otherwise she'd never have given herself this much meat. She'd have cut it by at least half to make sure there were no extra side effects.

As for Isac, being a guy, his appetite was naturally bigger than any of the girls', and with his body already enhanced, his tolerance for venison was much higher. Half a standard portion was just right.

Enough to set the mood, but not enough to leave Isac so wound up he couldn't stand it.

After all, if she really fed Isac into side effects, Hayasaka Ai wasn't sure she could put out his fire all by herself. It would be a fine joke if she ended up playing with fire and getting burned.

Isac had a great appetite, and in no time a bowl of venison oat porridge had gone down.

Before long, a warm glow spread through his belly, as if a little stove were tucked inside. It was very comfortable.

"Do you want to wash first, or should I?" Hayasaka Ai asked.

"You go first," Isac offered politely.

"I thought you'd suggest we wash together."

"...Can we?"

"Of course... not. Wait out here like a good boy. Oh, and while you're at it, wash the bowls and the pot."

On any other day Hayasaka Ai might well have said yes, but today clearly wasn't the day.

Showing everything too early would throw off the plan. The destination was the same either way, but the scenery along the road deserved proper attention.

Hayasaka Ai carried her change of clothes into the bathroom, while Isac took the leftover bowls and utensils back to the kitchen. Since the venison oat porridge didn't contain much fat, he only went through the motions, pinching a little baking soda into the wash water and scrubbing the bowls a couple of times with a cloth to wipe off the dried-on residue. Good enough to count as clean.

At temperatures this low, bacteria had a hard time multiplying. If it weren't for peace of mind, a rinse with plain water would actually have been plenty.

Back in the forest cabin days, when supplies weren't as plentiful as now, they'd just scrub the dishes and pots with a quick rub in clean snow outside. Who had baking soda to spare back then?

After a brief bout of remembering the hard times to appreciate the good ones, Isac returned the washed pot and bowls to their proper places. He then scooped two buckets of clean water from the kitchen's storage barrel and put them on the stove rack to boil for the coming bath.

While the water heated, Isac didn't sit idle. He took the kerosene lamp to the door and hauled in several more buckets of snow, dumping them into the storage barrel to melt slowly into water.

By the time he'd replenished what they'd used that day, Hayasaka Ai had just about finished washing.

The girl fresh from the bath had a rosy little face and faint wisps of steam still rising from her. A roomy bathrobe hid her curvy figure completely, showing only half a stretch of pale calf and a glimpse of delicate ankles. Below that there was nothing to see, since her dainty feet were tucked into fuzzy slippers.

Honestly, when Isac saw Hayasaka Ai like this, he was a little stunned.

Not that she looked so extraordinary fresh from the bath. She did look good, sure, but after so many days together, and who knew how many intimate moments, he'd built up some tolerance. What stunned him was that he hadn't expected her to wrap herself up so tightly.

By Isac's reckoning, she'd fed him that much venison because she was obviously planning to devour him. So why was she bundled up like this, with a single stretch of calf as the only bare skin?

What was that supposed to mean?

Had he gotten the wrong idea? Did Hayasaka Ai not mean anything like that at all?

No dice, just teasing him, that kind of thing.

But even if you're teasing someone, you have to put out some bait, right?

Wait. The bait wasn't the venison, was it?

For a moment, Isac couldn't tell what Hayasaka Ai was scheming.

Hayasaka Ai, of course, had no idea what Isac was thinking. She stepped out of the bathroom and turned to one side. "Your turn to bathe."

Isac poured the boiling water into the bath and mixed in some cold. Once everything was ready, he couldn't help looking back at Hayasaka Ai. At some point she'd dragged a chair in front of the fireplace and was drying her damp blonde hair with a towel.

Noticing his gaze, the blonde girl blinked and asked, seemingly puzzled, "What is it?"

"N-nothing..." Isac looked away, his doubts not lessened in the slightest.

Surely he hadn't just imagined it?

No, wrong. Isac was certain that look from earlier, the one so thick you could pull strands from it, absolutely meant something.

He thought about it for a while, couldn't figure out what Hayasaka Ai was planning, shook his head, and went back into the bathroom.

Once he'd sunk his whole body into the bath, a thought suddenly flashed through Isac's mind. What if Hayasaka Ai was playing weak, waiting for him to lower his guard so she could burst into the bathroom and ambush him?

With that in mind, Isac slowed his washing and kept glancing toward the door.

But he waited until he'd finished washing and climbed out of the bath, the water gone cold, and the ambush he'd expected never came.

What was that supposed to mean?

I thought you'd ambush me, and then you don't? Isn't that just messing with me?

Isac dried off, got dressed, and stormed out of the bathroom, ready to call Hayasaka Ai to account and then punish this naughty maid hard.

But the moment he stepped out, he froze on the spot.

The reason was simple. Hayasaka Ai was still sitting in front of the fireplace, still drying her hair, but the bathrobe that had wrapped her up was nowhere to be seen. In its place was a rather cool and airy set of bright purple lace lingerie.

The nightgown was light and made of sheer mesh. In the glow of the fire, he could faintly make out her slender waist beneath the thin gauze, along with a pair of lace panties made of just a single strap and a small triangle of fabric.

Beyond that, Hayasaka Ai wore nothing at all.

"Gulp."

Isac's throat bobbed.

As if she'd heard it, Hayasaka Ai glanced over, then broke into a smile and fanned her neck lightly with one small hand. "It's a little hot, so I took the robe off."

Isac didn't argue, mostly because she really did look flushed.

"If you're hot, why not move away from the fireplace?"

"What would I do about my hair if I moved away?" she answered as if it were obvious. She twirled a strand around her finger, as though showing him her reason for staying, but combined with her expression it looked more like seduction...

"I see..." After saying that, Isac found himself at a loss for words.

"Brushing my own hair is such a hassle. It'd be nice if someone could help me out right about now." Hayasaka Ai seemed to be talking to herself, and seemed to be hinting at something.

Isac didn't hesitate and volunteered. "I'll do it."

Hayasaka Ai nodded, satisfied. "That would be perfect."

As she spoke she handed the comb in her hand to Isac, then turned around and left her back completely open to him.

Hayasaka Ai's blonde hair felt wonderful. Even after nearly four months in the polar cold, it was still as smooth and silky as satin.

In the time Isac had spent bathing, her hair had actually already dried for the most part. Only the section near the inner side of her neck still felt a little damp.

Isac combed her hair, but his eyes weren't idle.

Since Hayasaka Ai was sitting in a chair and Isac was standing behind her, one seated and one standing, a difference in height naturally formed.

And with that height difference, plus the fact that her nightgown was loose to begin with, Isac could easily survey the whole plain, along with the gently rising little hills upon it.

Hayasaka Ai seemed to sense the gaze behind her, but rather than stopping him, she cooperated by sticking out her chest a little to give him a better view.

Before long, Hayasaka Ai felt a change in the person behind her.

———— (Bonus Content) ————

By the time they came out of the guest room, the night was already deep.

In the fireplace at the center of the living room, the charcoal was nearly spent. Only a faint dark red still glowed at the bottom center, with burnt-out ash all around.

Fortunately, the bricks inside the fireplace had absorbed plenty of heat earlier, so even after the charcoal burned out they could keep the living room warm for a little while, letting the temperature drop slowly.

Isac held the already sound-asleep Hayasaka Ai in his arms. Though a thin blanket covered her, it still couldn't hide all the view.

Her once flawless, pale neck was now covered in red marks, lending her a different kind of allure.

A glimpse through the keyhole was enough to tell how fierce the earlier battle had been, unlike anything before.

Even with Hayasaka Ai's physical fitness, she couldn't last the whole distance.

Of course, that also had to do with it being her first time on the battlefield and her lack of experience.

Hayasaka Ai wasn't heavy. For Isac, with his enhancement, she was even a little too light, like a feather. He probably wouldn't tire even carrying her all day.

So going upstairs was no trouble at all.

On the second floor, he carefully laid Hayasaka Ai down on the bed in the second bedroom.

Isac let out a breath. He meant to check on Yukinoshita Yukino and Kaguya in the master bedroom next door, add some charcoal to the stove, and then come back to sleep.

If nothing went wrong, they should have been asleep long ago.

Thinking this, Isac turned his lamp down to the lowest setting, leaving only a faint flame at the wick, just enough to light a one-meter radius around him, and gently pushed open the master bedroom door.

The master bedroom was pitch dark. Even the gap beneath the fireplace door showed hardly any light.

That was one of the perks of burning charcoal. Back when they burned firewood, besides the crackling and popping, the firelight would always slip through the viewing window of the stove door and dye the ceiling orange-red.

During the day it was fine, but at night it interfered with sleep.

Now that they'd switched to charcoal, there was almost no open flame while it burned, and once the stove door was shut, the glow all but vanished.

Isac tiptoed over to the fireplace, pulled on his heat-resistant gloves, opened the stove door, and checked inside. The charcoal in here was nearly spent too, same as downstairs, with only a little dark red ember visible in the middle.

He thought for a moment, then instead of tossing charcoal straight in, he sprayed some Accelerant on it and set it in the center of the fire. Only after making sure the new charcoal had caught did he continue adding more, until the firebox was filled again.

He shut the stove door and was just about to get up and go back to his room to sleep.

That was when he heard a voice behind him, thin as a mosquito's whine.

"Isac..."

Being called by name out of nowhere in the middle of the night scared him half to death.

Then he realized who it was. "Kaguya, you're still awake?"

"I slept for a bit, but..." Kaguya seemed to find it hard to say.

"But?"

"I w-woke up from being all... pent up..."

Understanding dawned on Isac's face, and he immediately offered, in the most considerate tone, "Then want me to help?"

"Could you wake Hayasaka for me?"

"She's asleep. She probably won't wake up for a good while."

"Huh?"

"It's fine. Me doing it works just the same."

"Huh?!"