"Eh?"
Komachi Yua froze for a beat.
Strip?!
Her cheeks went red in a rush — wh-wh-what was this for!
"What? There's nothing in this cabin but girls. What is there to be shy about in changing clothes?"
Connie could not help stealing another glance at Komachi Yua's proud, hulking things, and pulled a face. "Or does this witch still want to play at being innocent and pure? Hmph, when every part of her is out there luring people in..."
She had always thought Philia's size was a special case. She had never expected this prisoner witch to be so outrageous as well!
Sitting on the cabin sofa, Komachi Yua's ripe fruits were already level with Connie's head — a size larger than her head, in fact!
As she spoke, Connie passed the leather trunk to Philia.
"Since I have no idea what identity you mean to settle on this creature, I brought several outfits."
Philia reached out, pushed her own swell — which had been pressing against Komachi Yua's in a stalemate — off to one side to keep them from crowding together again, opened a gap, and took the trunk.
Connie always looked lazy and slovenly and stood on no ceremony, but the clothes in the trunk were folded very neatly.
That they had captured Komachi Yua was a secret and could not be told to anyone, so every garment in that trunk had been packed by Connie herself.
As she rummaged, a thought could not help crossing Philia's mind:
Unlike her outward appearance, Teacher Connie would actually make quite a good wife and wise mother...
Definitely the type who takes care of you while talking tough the whole time... some sort of child-bride thing...
"Mm, mm."
Philia made a few noncommittal noises and went on searching, and finally drew out of the trunk a pale-pink maid dress.
The instant it came out, Philia's face flooded crimson, until nearly the whole of her neck had gone red as well!
"Teacher Connie...! Th-this isn't...!"
Connie dug at her ear with her little finger. "It couldn't be helped. This prisoner witch is far too generously built, and in the whole Soren palace only your figure comes close to hers, so I simply brought yours over."
"Waaaaaaah—!"
Philia broke into a whimper.
The maid dresses of the Soren palace were nearly all plain, in a black-and-white arrangement — but this one had been carefully designed, ornamented all over, and comparatively revealing at the same time.
Because this was one Philia had commissioned privately for herself, thinking of wearing it one day for Casper!
And now it was going to be handed to this big-you-know-what (genuinely big), no-brain (probably) witch!
Seeing Philia so mortified, Connie waved a hand without much interest. "All right, all right, pick another one, then."
"Hff... never mind, never mind. This one will do."
After a small breath, Philia passed the maid dress, along with all its assorted trimmings and a pair of suspendered white stockings, to Komachi Yua in front of her.
"From here on, your temporary identity is Casper's personal maid... it's the arrangement least likely to make anyone pay attention to you."
To create the conditions for being alone with Casper, Philia had used the excuses of wanting to demonstrate her own magic and of having Connie's protection to refuse her father's offer of a large retinue of maids and guards.
She had never expected a witch to turn up halfway down the road with the strength of a zako and a figure that was no worse than her own!
Philia had already refused Grand Duke Soren's offer; producing a maid out of nowhere now would raise questions.
And Connie's solitary temperament was known throughout the whole magical world.
Only Casper, whose name had not been circulating long and whose personal details were relatively obscure, could plausibly have a personal maid!
"I've no objection~"
Komachi Yua spoke slowly, in a voice gentle to the point of melody.
In truth, having an objection would not have got her anywhere.
Though the lack of objection was genuine too — a personal maid's identity would make it far easier for her to stick close to the protagonist~
Only, the eyes Philia and Connie were giving her were absolutely full of resentment... ha ha...
After swallowing lightly, Komachi Yua pinched the hem of her robe and prepared to change.
Right!
She might have been a boy not long ago... but she was a girl now.
Changing clothes in front of two girls was nothing at all!
Endure it!
***
The front of the carriage.
Casper had been listening to a series of thumps from inside the cabin, along with assorted little cries and strange yelps, and could not help scratching his cheek with one finger.
"What are they doing in there... changing clothes?
Sounds like they've started horsing around, too."
Three top-grade, sweet-smelling, lovely girls horsing around, then. That was a fine thing indeed.
Though Casper never quite felt he was on those terms with any of them.
The black-haired boy sat quietly at the front of the carriage, one knee drawn up and his left elbow resting on it, his posture unhurried and his heart quiet with it.
Born in a small border town on the frontier between the Nightingale Kingdom and the Platinum Kingdom, Casper had had a peaceful, warm childhood.
Casper had more talent for reading than the other children in the town and could make sense of all sorts of texts from a very young age, but what he loved most were novels; he often went to the only bookshop at the far end of town to borrow them, paying the lending fee out of his breakfast money.
And in this world, having magical talent and having none made you two entirely different creatures.
Casper admired the heroes and the mighty of his novels enormously, but his own talent for magic was thin to the point of nothing, so all he could do was train himself and become a knight with no class title at all.
Still, in a world where mages actively steered the weather and guaranteed kind seasons, even commoners could eat and dress without worry and live out a simple life.
Casper had once assumed he would live simply like that for the rest of his days.
Until three years ago, when the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse came down out of the sky, bringing with them the prophecy of the end of days.
Countless creatures, cursed or fallen, joined the Church of the Apocalypse, becoming followers of one Horseman or another — Death, War, Plague, Famine — and launched a bloody invasion of this world.
The small town Casper lived in was destroyed along with the rest of it, a year ago!
The boy watched every person he knew die in front of him, and as the last living soul in the town, on the very edge of death, he finally awakened his second class — Retribution Knight!
A wooden stick sheathed in red light could be as keen as a treasured sword!
By the time the Nightingale Kingdom's army arrived, the boy had already killed a good portion of the monsters that had swept through the town.
Casper made his name in a single battle!
After that, he saved Crown Princess Philia Soren with his own hands!
Ennobled by the Nightingale royal house, granted a great quantity of treasure, personally invited by Philia, personally taken notice of by Connie...
"The future... the future..."
Casper was still turning it over.
His strength was enough to protect himself, but was it truly enough to save a great many people?
Should he withdraw from all of it and drift wherever the money on him took him, or should he step up to meet the difficulty and go save this entire world?
And there was the other thing: Casper's heart really did like Philia and Connie a great deal.
Philia was noble and elegant and cute and charming both, which gave Casper a powerful urge to conquer — but he was not by nature the sort of person who liked forcing anyone, which made Casper feel thoroughly contradictory.
And Connie — Casper badly wanted to hold her in his arms and handle her the way one handles a cat, all that whiteness and smoothness... though he would absolutely be blasted off her by the arcane arts!
Casper was still musing, unhurried, when he picked up the water flask beside him and tipped his head back for a long swallow.
From the cabin behind him came Komachi Yua's mild, graceful voice.
"All changed. From this moment on, I'm Master Casper's personal maid~"
"Pffft—"