AN: Ayyy, I came back way later than I'd planned to lol! But I'm here now, so here's one of the chapters I owe you guys for this week, with the second one coming either later today or early tomorrow. And don't worry, I'll make sure to get you guys next week's chapters like normal too~
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Nearing a breaking point and desperately trying to preserve her short-circuiting mind, Siffia frantically shook her head.
“No! No, I haven’t put on any perfume or anything like that! I don’t know what it is at all that you could be smelling!”
Too focused on shaking her head and denying, Siffia hadn’t noticed that she’d stopped dancing... or that her hair was wildly smacking Eris in the face at this range.
Of course, buffeted by the hair-filled assault, Eris had had no choice but to pull back, leaning so far away that it all but separated them out of their slow dancing stance. More than angry, however, Eris’s face just seemed confused, as if she was silently trying to figure something out.
“Ah… Um…”
Siffia’s hands slid away from where they had been resting upon Eris, suddenly feeling horribly sweaty. She had no clue what to think, no clue what to say, burning with awkwardness, bewilderment, and embarrassment. Unable to come up with anything else, her feet began to move, and she turned for the door, madly dashing towards it.
But in her haste she easily tripped on the long hem of her dress and fell, slamming down with a heavy thump and skidding shortly across the wooden floor.
“Lady Siffia!”
Eris ran over to her, lifting her up carefully and cradling her in her arms as she checked her over.
“Lady Siffia, are you alright?!”
Her fingers delicately traced over Siffia’s face and limbs, turning them this way and that, ascertaining how hurt she was. Siffia, for her part, could only pray that the massive amount of embarrassment that was currently filling her would be enough to kill her.
And when she heard a loud tisking sound come from Eris’s mouth, she couldn’t help but flinch and bite her lip.
“Really, what were you even running around for all of a sudden? To think to run in that dress and those shoes with this weak mage-body of yours… And why didn’t you even try to stop your fall with your magic? With skills like yours you could have easily prevented these injuries! Why is someone as practiced as you so prone to getting hurt every time that I decide to visit you?!”
Though her mouth never seemed to stop moving, and the nagging seemed like perhaps it would have no end, Eris still dutifully lifted Siffia up, carrying her like a princess back to her room, and sitting her delicately on the side of her bed. She quickly spotted the tin of ointment that she’d left there before, picking it up and dabbing it onto a particularly bad looking skid wound on Siffia’s elbow with familiar ease.
“Truly, I don’t think I’ll ever understand you, Lady Siffia. Even for a mage, how could one be so weak and delicate? As an elder sister, many times in my life I’ve had to look after and take care of two rowdy young boys, and even they weren’t as fragile as you! Is it because you’re so thin? Are you possibly malnourished?”
Even as she spoke with her face stern and serious as befitting the lecture that she was imparting, for some reason Eris’s hands seemed to subtly stroke up Siffia’s forearms, as if feeling them up. It caused a soft and ticklish sensation, which made Siffia’s skin want to prickle.
“N-no, I…”
“Don’t try to tell me you eat enough when your body is as slight as it is. You should really take better care of yourself. You may be a mage, and your injuries may heal quickly, but being skin and bones like this can hardly be good for you! Perhaps I’ll need to monitor your food intake for a while to get more meat on these impoverished bones.”
Though Siffia wanted to believe that Eris was just saying all of this out of concern, and that such a musing was only a rhetorical part of the lecture, the absolutely serious glint to Eris’s eyes made her worry that she might actually follow through with it.
“Um… Thank you for caring about me, Lady Eris, but- Hyeek!!!”
As she was attempting to stop whatever Eris might have been planning in its tracks, Eris’s hands continued their gradual ascent further up her arms. And as Siffia felt the unexpected accidental brush of the side of Eris’s hand against the underside of her breast, she couldn’t help but squeak and jump, a rosy red blush of embarrassment quickly coloring her face only a moment later.
“Ah…”
It was an obvious overreaction, one that Siffia knew all too well wouldn’t usually occur between people who were just friends, especially not over a touch so slight and unintended.
Her eyes shook wildly, trying to come up with some kind of excuse for what she’d just done. Eris, however, simply glanced down at the breasts that had briefly bounced from Siffia’s jump, looking at them with a slight squint as if pondering something.
“Well, perhaps not all of you is so malnourished. It’s quite impressive that you can have something this large on you when the rest is so skinny… I almost shudder to think what would happen here if I were to feed you correctly.”
With her mouth gaping and her eyes wide at Eris’s assessment, Siffia immediately covered her sizeable chest with her arms. She flapped her lips like a fish for a while, searching for what to say, until she finally shut her eyes and yelled out her mortified thoughts.
“D-don’t look at me like that!!! And don’t talk about my breasts like that either!!! I-If you don’t like them, then don’t even think about feeding me! Actually, don’t even try and feed me like I’m some kind of pet that you’re raising in the first place! I don’t want it!!! And I don’t need it!!!”
Eris’s eyes dragged themselves back up to look at Siffia’s face as she began to yell, only to slowly trail themselves back down a few seconds later, returning to their starting point.
“...I never said that I disliked them. If anything, they're quite enviable.”
Siffia’s expression cracked for a moment. She couldn’t believe that with all that she’d yelled, this was the only point that Eris seemed to have listened to. It was like she was hearing a mirror shattering in her mind. After all that she’d experienced today, she could no longer take anymore.
With a sudden movement, she stood up from the bed, picking up Eris with a previously unknown strength and pulling her to the door. The bewildered Eris, always gentle with her, let herself be pulled along, but still voiced her confusion at the situation.
“...Lady Siffia?”
“Thank you for visiting me Lady Eris, but I think it’s starting to get quite late, so you should just go home now!”
“Hmm? But why...? This is quite sudden; I haven’t even finished applying the ointment to your wounds.”
“I can do it just fine myself! Besides, it’s not like any of the wounds were particularly deep or worrying, so they’ll all be gone by the end of the day! I promise!”
“...Lady Siffia.”
Eris, who’d been obediently letting herself be dragged, dug down her heels, stopping the both of them.
“Don’t say such reckless things. As your friend, I will not leave if you are going to be irresponsible and not properly take care of yourself.”
Siffia strained against her for a moment, trying and failing to continue pulling her, and eventually giving up while panting slightly with exertion. Her eyes gave Eris a quick sidelong glance, not willing to take too close of a look at her disapproving face.
“...I told you, I’ll take care of it. I promise I will. Please believe me.”
“...Hmm…”
Though Eris didn’t reply in any way, her face still showed that she wasn’t fully convinced. She only continued to stare at her and frown, not showing any sign that she would move from the spot she was in.
Siffia could only sigh, her tired mind dredging up an excuse that she hoped would work in this situation.
“...Lady Eris, with everything that’s happened today... with my parents, the dancing, the fall… I think I’m just a little bit exhausted. I would like time to lay down quietly and rest away my fatigue and wounds on my own, if you wouldn't mind.”
“...”
Eris’s eyes seemed to study her over, watching her face for a while before finally letting out a firm nod.
“Yes, perhaps you are correct. Weak as you are, I should let you rest and recover.”
“...Haha…”
With another nod, Eris began to slowly stroll herself down the hallway and towards the door. Siffia, feeling grateful and yet somehow awkward, followed along after her. Though her mind was frazzled and she was terribly overwhelmed, it wasn’t as if Eris had done anything bad or wrong to her. If anything, she’d been an impeccable friend, actively helping her and caring for her at every turn. Siffia should rather feel quite moved and indebted to her. She really shouldn’t have been acting so rudely towards her like this.
There might have been that one incident of Eris improperly commenting on her body, but Siffia could easily write that away as the kind of conversations that friends might have had.
Of anyone here, it was her, Siffia, who had been the one who'd acted improperly as a friend. It was a fact that grated on her conscience greatly. How could she, who knew how remarkable it was to have such an amazing person care about her, spit in the face of all of Eris’s kindness with her impure thoughts?
As Siffia stewed in her melancholy, the two finally reached the door to the manor, and Eris turned to deliver her parting words.
“Make sure that you take proper care of yourself. I will not be lenient with you if I find out that you have not.”
“...Mmm.”
Siffia, feeling the pressure oozing from Eris’s eyes and words, nodded along, unwilling to test what Eris might do.
“...Good. I will send you a care package later. Make sure to keep my sincerity in mind and accept it. I’ll be checking later to make sure that you’ve used it well.”
Hearing this, Siffia’s eyes immediately widened, remembering the conversation that they’d just had in her bedroom.
“Wait a minute-”
“I sadly won’t be able to show up tomorrow to make sure that you’ve recovered, as I have familial duties that I’ve been putting off that will require my attention. However, I will be arriving an hour early the day after tomorrow to make sure that you’re properly adorned and ready for the banquet. And after that, I will escort you there in my family’s carriage.”
“Huh? But wait, that’s too much! You don’t have to go out of your way so much for-”
“It’s hardly inconvenient to do this much for a friend. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
With one last nod of her head, Eris made her way out through the door. It felt as if a whirlwind had just passed by, or perhaps a storm, pelting her with unexpected thing after unexpected thing before finally leaving uncontrollably.
Once again, Siffia could only sigh. She’d never thought that having someone take care of her could be so exhausting.