Chapter 55: Three Women and a Wardrobe
Eikou felt that his imagination was indeed a little too much.
However, at this point, cutting off all dangerous sprouts was the most correct choice.
Last night, it was precisely because he let his guard down at the very last moment that things turned out the way they did.
Scathach also seemed to realize this was not good, she hurriedly stood up and said:
"No, don't go rummaging through my wardrobe as you please, let me get it for you."
"Wait, I don't think that's necessary..."
Eikou also hurriedly stood up,
"I can just go back to school to change my clothes, alright, I'm leaving first!"
But Scathach gently frowned, grabbed his hand as he was about to run to the door, and pressed him, "Eikou, could it be that you're afraid I'll do something bad to you?"
"That..."
Seeing him hesitate a little, Scathach's beautiful eyes suddenly turned sharp,
"—— I understand now. Fine then, I didn't intend to do anything, but now I absolutely must take you into my room. Not because of any wicked thought, but to prove that I don't have such thoughts. Don't worry."
The Queen of Shadow Land, who had experienced countless things, would not panic like Eikou just because of last night.
However, with her strong and proud self-esteem, she would definitely find a way to use concrete actions to prove her virtue.
Eikou roughly understood her logic of action.
But why insist on this of all things? I know she just wants to clear up the misunderstanding, but doesn't she realize that this makes her look even more like a pervert trying to kidnap me! The more she justifies it, the worse it sounds!
He ranted inwardly.
"Come with me quickly, it's fine!"
Scathach spoke in a strong and proud female voice, and that seemingly delicate and graceful hand suddenly exploded with terrifying strength, pulling Eikou toward her.
"Eeeekk, I don't want to!"
[You want to break free from Scathach's hand.]
[Please make a Strength check. Because you are a student, Scathach has a certain level of suppression over you.]
[Strength check increased to Hard difficulty.]
A die fell.
[Opposed check failed. Your strength is no match for Scathach's, you are forcibly pulled into her private room.]
[You once again step into her bedroom.]
"See, I didn't do anything to you."
Scathach let go of his collar, her beautiful face showing obvious helplessness,
"I still have some minimum decency, I'm not like Medb — who has to use force to take men. I'm just helping you find a set of clothes, there's no need to be so tense."
"Sorry, I probably overreacted a bit..."
Eikou explained a little awkwardly.
But in his heart, he still had a very bad premonition — if nothing had really happened between him and Scathach, then where was this unease coming from?
That being said, when Scathach was sober, she actually wasn't scary at all.
"I just… my head was a bit of a mess just now, I wasn't doubting your character." He added.
"It's understandable how you feel. If it were me in that situation, I'd probably panic too, wanting to explain but not knowing what to say."
Scathach stood upright in front of the wardrobe, her alluring and toned figure so striking that even the sweater couldn't hide it. She lightly tiptoed on her slender, shapely legs with perfect curves, opened the wardrobe, and started searching for clothes.
As she searched, she spoke in a casual tone:
"Anyway, don't worry, eight or nine out of ten, nothing happened last night. Even if something really did happen, I'm not the type who'd force a man much younger than me to take responsibility..."
Was Scathach thinking about his situation?
Even though her words were perfectly reasonable, it was precisely this act of consideration that made the guilt in his heart grow stronger.
"No,"
Eikou suddenly said.
"Scathach, I have something very important I want to tell you."
"What is it?"
Hearing the seriousness in his tone, Scathach's red eyes immediately looked straight at him.
Eikou took a deep breath, his face showing a seriousness he had never had before.
"I think I should take responsibility for you."
"Huh?"
"Even though I don't clearly remember what happened, after something like this I can't pretend nothing happened. I, Mochizuki Eikou, will take responsibility for what I've done. If you don't mind, please accept me!"
"But,"
Scathach's red eyes looked at him, her voice carrying a tone of reminder,
"There must be a lot of girls around you, and some are even closer to you than I am. Perhaps you've even reached the point of establishing a relationship with one of them. Are you really sure you want to be tied to a woman who has no emotional foundation with you, and is much older than you?"
"To be honest, I also have a feeling that a storm of blood and chaos will happen in the future..."
Eikou nodded.
"But I will take responsibility for what I've done. No matter what kind of punishment I have to face later, it's something I should bear. The feelings that need to be cut off, I will cut off. And those I can't, I will accept the punishment with dignity. In short, I won't run away, and I won't act like nothing happened!"
But after a while, he couldn't help but shrug, his eyes revealing a thoughtful look,
"It's just that… right now I don't have any savings, and I don't have a stable income yet… If I start saving and working part-time from now on, um, hopefully I can at least save enough for a house deposit first."
"What, don't tell me you're already planning to buy a house and a car with me? You're thinking way too far ahead."
Scathach showed a helpless yet amused expression, but her eyes had become much gentler,
"With how popular you are with women, your personality should be more flirtatious, but I didn't expect you to be this serious. Now I don't even know whether I'll end up binding you, or you'll end up binding me. You've already made up your mind, but I still need some time to think it over."
"Hmph, it's up to you," Eikou said seriously, "but I'll warn you first, I'm a pretty sought-after guy. If, while you're still hesitating, I get snatched away by another woman, what then? You should hurry up and think carefully!"
"Ha ha, you sure dare to say it." Scathach smiled.
This was the first time he had seen Scathach smile so brightly.
[From last night's ping pong match to what you just said, Scathach has felt the manly aura and warrior spirit within you.]
[You can feel a special kind of feeling sprouting in Scathach's heart toward you.]
[Your skill "God Slayer B" has been upgraded to "God Slayer A."]
"I couldn't find that tracksuit, you help me look too,"
Scathach gently closed the wardrobe door,
"Open the other wardrobes and check, I'll look somewhere else."
"Huh, you want me to search through your wardrobe... is that really okay?"
"At this point, it's no big deal to let you see my wardrobe. Besides, there's nothing in my wardrobe that I can't let others see."
Scathach said in a calm tone.
"O-okay..." Eikou nodded.
For some reason, the atmosphere had become vague in another way — a little awkward, but not stiff or uncomfortable.
Eikou carefully opened the wardrobe next to it.
What greeted him was a row of neatly arranged autumn and winter clothes, most of which were very modest — if it was just the clothes alone, indeed, there was nothing anyone couldn't see.
Umu, if it's just the clothes, then there's no problem...
However, inside that wardrobe packed full of clothes, there were several Servants lying drunk and passed out.
Those faces were all familiar — they were the women he had met at the previous party.
Murasaki Shikibu, Medb, and Leonardo da Vinci!
"..."
The smile on Eikou's lips slowly disappeared.
Goddammit, why the hell are you all here!
"So it wasn't just Scathach who brought me back last night, but also you guys too, huh?! How the hell am I supposed to take responsibility for this now! Even if I want to take responsibility, my kidneys won't survive that many people!"
The worst part was, just earlier, he had said all those bold, grand words to Scathach. Now it was like he'd tied himself to the execution chair, how the hell was he supposed to end this peacefully!
I worked so damn hard playing that intense ping pong match just to avoid being dragged home by a woman, and now when I open the wardrobe I find a whole team of women already here "team building" with each other.
Goddammit, doesn't that mean I couldn't protect anything at all!
Eikou just wanted to find a hole to crawl into and die of embarrassment.
Wait, calm down a bit…
He took a deep breath and looked more closely at the situation inside the wardrobe.
Although those adult women were dressed a little scantily, at least they were still adequately covered,
Moreover there were a few note papers stuck on their faces for penalty games and scribbles drawn all over — it didn't look like a "after committing wrongdoing" scene at all.
Eikou bent down to look carefully at the bottom of the wardrobe and saw poker chips, mahjong tiles and a few UNO cards scattered about.
A few empty bottles of Water of Life lay rolling on the floor.
"..."
Alright, basically now he could guess what had happened.
Last night, he was probably drunk and either dragged by a bunch of older sisters to Scathach's room (or maybe he drunkenly volunteered to go along), then they all played board games, stuck penalty notes, and doodled on each other's faces.
As for waking up this morning wearing only underwear, it was likely due to a penalty rock-paper-scissors strip game when drunk.
If that was the case, then it made much more sense why Scathach and he had been in that state when they woke up.
Seriously, when I'm drunk I really do "let loose," I've got guts too! Who in their right mind would play strip rock-paper-scissors with a bunch of drunk women in their room, aren't you afraid things will go wrong?!
"..."
Now, is this situation better or worse — on the surface it looks like the misunderstanding between Scathach and him has been "cleansed," but in another sense things have become even more chaotic!
"What's wrong, Eikou? Did you find the outfit you needed? Show me."
Seeing him stand frozen in front of the wardrobe, Scathach stepped over to look.
She had absolutely no idea what was inside her wardrobe!
"No, I found it."
Eikou shivered, quickly pulled out the tracksuit, then slammed the wardrobe shut with a bang, hiding the women lying inside.
Don't look, there's nothing in there!
Strange as it was, this was clearly Scathach's wardrobe, yet why did he have to act like he was hiding a lover! She brought the "demons" home first, and in the end I'm the one cleaning up their aftermath?!
But if Scathach saw this scene it would be truly unimaginable — at least I need to get out of here first!
In just a few seconds Eikou was sweating cold down his back, but he still managed to change into the tracksuit.
"About what you said earlier… that you'd seriously take responsibility…"
Scathach spoke softly, a hint of gentleness shining in her red eyes.
"I'm not the kind of woman you can easily conquer, nor am I so weak that I need you to take responsibility. If you want to 'conquer' me you're still too inexperienced — at least ten thousand years too early. But I'm glad to hear you say that. Daring to stand up and take responsibility — that is the first step to becoming a true warrior."
"You've bravely said it, and if I were to refuse flat out it might be a bit cruel. So… let me think it over a little."
Don't—just reject me firmly! All my courage evaporated the moment I saw the women in the wardrobe! If I really have to take responsibility for her, those women in there will surely demand I pay the price too!
A single punishment game and I've already dug my own grave, and you talk about "taking responsibility"! One normal strike from those women already tricked me into using up my ultimate move!
"You go on ahead, I need to change a bit. To avoid rumors spreading around school, it'd be better if we split up and go separately."
Scathach said in a gentle, calm voice.
…Really sorry, but her wardrobe is full of people from the school, even the principal is in there! If she wants to stop rumors from spreading, I'm afraid the only way now is to "silence" them all!
"..."
Even though there were hundreds of things he wanted to scream out loud, Eikou still forced a calm smile on his face.
He waved goodbye to Scathach, pretending nothing had happened, stepped out of her house — and immediately bolted!
After running ten blocks away, Eikou finally turned toward the bustling crowd and shouted in utter despair:
"I will never join a party again!"
"FUKODAAAAA!!!"
...
Note: long chapter...