Chapter 54 54: Emilia! Today I won't be gentle

The next morning, at dawn.

The sun rose, and its light spilled across the land.

Birds in the garden had already stirred awake, filling the air with bright, cheerful song.

Their calls mingled with the sweet fragrance of the neatly trimmed flowers and hedges lining the path, and together they slipped quietly through the half-open window into a certain second-floor bedroom.

The room had long since been filled with morning light, every corner illuminated.

The camera pulls in close — drifting down to settle on two figures tangled together atop the bed.

At that moment, Emilia had wrapped herself around Natsuki Subaru's head like an octopus — both arms locked firmly around his neck, her long hair splayed out across his shoulders.

One of her slender, pale legs had even thrown itself entirely over his body.

She looked for all the world like she had him completely pinned, with absolutely no intention of letting him escape.

As for the pillow Emilia had so deliberately placed between them before falling asleep —

It had long since been shoved off the bed, vanished without a trace.

The truth was, there was something Emilia hadn't said aloud the night before.

The reason she'd put a pillow between them before sleep wasn't because she didn't want to be close to Subaru.

It was simply because she was a restless sleeper — she moved around without realizing it, all the time.

It was embarrassing to admit, so she'd instinctively kept quiet about it.

And sure enough, somewhere in the dead of night, without noticing at all —

Her body had followed its instincts, gravitating toward the source of warmth her subconscious had identified: the direction of Natsuki Subaru.

And so, without either of them knowing it, they had ended up wrapped around each other.

Back to the present — as time ticked on.

Natsuki Subaru began to feel faintly smothered in his sleep, and slowly, he cracked his eyes open.

The moment he was awake, the first thing he registered was the faint, delicate scent drifting from Emilia's hair.

Then he lifted his head — and was greeted by the sight of the girl sleeping soundly beside him, eyes closed, her profile soft and still.

Emilia's warm breath drifted gently across his cheek.

Her two snow-white arms were still wrapped around his neck exactly as they had been all night — firm and sure, as if even in sleep she refused to let go.

"Mm…"

And then, as though they shared some unspoken connection —

Not long after Subaru stirred awake, Emilia's eyelids fluttered with a small, drowsy sound.

Her eyes drifted open, slow and languid.

In that moment, as Natsuki Subaru watched —

Emilia's violet irises caught the morning sunlight, and it was as if light itself were flowing through her eyes. With each slow, sleepy blink, she seemed bathed in something sacred and untouchable.

Emilia herself, however, was still a little foggy from just waking up.

But the moment she opened her eyes, the very first thing she saw — right there, inches from her face, close enough to share the same breath — was Natsuki Subaru.

The sight of him made a wave of joy rise up inside her, sweet and full.

It felt — like she and Subaru had already become husband and wife.

The last thing she'd seen before closing her eyes at night was Subaru. And the first thing she saw upon waking was Subaru, too!

"Good morning, Subaru. Looks like today is going to be a wonderful day."

Emilia smiled as she offered her greeting — with absolutely no intention of changing her position, her leg still draped across him without a care.

"Haaah~ good morning — Emilia-tan."

Subaru answered in a voice thick with sleep, yawning freely — worn out from staying up late and being roused far too early.

Knock knock knock!

At that exact moment, Subaru suddenly heard someone rapping on his bedroom door.

It jolted him wide awake in an instant.

Someone coming to his room this early — it had to be Rem, right?!

Oh no.

A spike of panic shot through Natsuki Subaru. He immediately reached out and grabbed Emilia's leg where it lay draped across him, trying to move it.

"Ah!"

Emilia clearly hadn't expected him to just grab her like that.

The moment his rough palm made contact, she let out a startled little cry, and her body gave an instinctive shiver.

But immediately after, Emilia caught on to exactly what that pushing, nudging motion of Subaru's hand was trying to do —

He wanted to move her leg away?

A flash of something dark passed through Emilia's violet eyes.

She instantly connected it to that urgent knocking at the door just moments ago.

The way Subaru was panicking — it was obvious he was afraid of whoever was outside walking in and seeing them tangled together like this.

He thought it would be embarrassing, or… cause some kind of misunderstanding?

He didn't want anyone to see them like this?

Well then — she was going to make sure they did.

A fierce surge of emotion rushed to her head.

The leg Emilia had draped over Subaru did not obediently lift and move aside.

Instead, it pressed down even harder — like it had grown roots.

Emilia's ankle even curled inward just slightly, hooking in an effort to trap him and resist the pull of his hand trying to push her away.

Her calf flexed and tightened, engaging in a silent, stubborn war of resistance against Subaru's palm.

"Emilia-tan, let go, someone's coming—"

Subaru hissed under his breath, his voice low and frantic.

But his desperate urging only seemed to fan Emilia's excitement higher.

Watching the panic spreading across Subaru's face, the possessive feeling welling up inside her swept away everything else.

Let people see. That's exactly what she wanted.

She wanted to tell everyone — especially Rem —

That Subaru was hers.

Look — they had already done something this intimate — lying in the same bed together, waking up and finding each other as the very first thing they saw!

Out in the corridor, after that first knock —

When the person outside heard no response, they simply pushed the door open and walked in.

Ram stepped through the doorway carrying a tray with a steaming pot of black tea, her pink hair catching the morning light in soft, gentle shimmers.

She assumed the room's occupants were still asleep.

So she kept her head down and walked quietly to the bedside, intending to set the tea on the nightstand.

But when she calmly lifted her gaze and looked toward the bed —

Those faintly cool pink irises of hers — which so rarely showed much of anything — constricted sharply, as if she'd witnessed something horrifying.

The tray gave an almost imperceptible tremor in her hands. The cups and saucers chimed against each other in a delicate clatter.

What had she seen?

The morning light traced the intimate outlines of the two figures on the bed —

Lady Emilia, in a posture of unmistakable closeness, twined around Barusu.

One leg thrown over his waist. Both arms wrapped around his neck.

While Barusu, for his part, appeared to be thoroughly enjoying himself — his hand moving back and forth, stroking (?) Lady Emilia's exposed thigh.

The scene was well beyond anything Ram had been prepared for.

She stood there with her tray, frozen at the edge of the bed, as if someone had cast a petrification spell on her.

A crack appeared, rarely, in that usually unruffled face of hers.

What was written there was a complicated mixture: shock, disbelief, and just a thin thread of — ah, so that's how it is.

Even the fragrance of the tea rising from the tray seemed blocked out by the solidified air hanging in that room.

Emilia's eyes held a glint of triumph and stubbornness.

And the expression on Natsuki Subaru's face — sheer, absolute despair, the look of a man who knew it was completely and utterly over — was reflected, crisp and clear, in Ram's suddenly contracted pupils.

Time seemed to freeze in that instant.

At last, Ram was the one to break the uncanny stillness hanging over the scene.

She set the tray down quietly, and gave a polite bow toward the two on the bed.

Then — with remarkable speed and a perfectly composed face — she backed swiftly away, step by step, not stopping until she reached the doorway.

"Pardon the interruption. Ram saw nothing. Please, carry on."

As she spoke, her eyes slid downward and off to the side — the unmistakable look of someone trying very hard not to give away the lie.

SLAM.

Without waiting for either of them to respond, she pulled the door shut with a single decisive, forceful motion.

She did it considerably more smoothly and with considerably more practice than she had last night.

In the room, Natsuki Subaru and Emilia both stopped their little struggle at the same time.

After all — the audience was already gone.

"E — MI — LI — A!!"

Subaru let out a roar, flipped Emilia over, and pinned her down firmly.

The worldly desires had long since left his eyes. He simply, purely, wanted to teach this girl who had suddenly turned rotten a lesson.

"Subaru… I was wrong. Please be gentle."

Emilia, eyes brimming with tears, lay meekly on the bed and pleaded in a small, pitiful voice.

"I'm sorry — the gentle version of me is off duty today."

Subaru grinned, cracked his knuckles, and advanced on Emilia one deliberate step at a time.

Smack! Smack, smack…

The sound of a palm meeting soft flesh rang out.

____

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