Vol 3 Chapter 45 – Let Me Clean That Up♡【Vol 3: Torte the Dog-Eared Girl Ar】

At this point, my only option was to wait for Eclair to leave and then pry Torte off by force.

—And yet, for some reason, Eclair made no move to go. She fidgeted in place and settled into a chair.

“Um, so… I know your stomach hurts, and I’m sorry, but I need to talk to you about something.”

Why now?!

My stomach—in more ways than one—was tying itself in knots.

“It’s just… my curse-breaking is almost done, right? I was thinking about what comes after.”

She’d launched into something that sounded genuinely serious—but I’m sorry, not a single word was getting through.

Ninety percent of my attention was nailed to what was happening under the table.

“The two of us have been… touching, and all of that, for the sake of the curse-breaking… but it feels like a waste just to say goodbye the moment it’s done… since we’ve gotten to know each other and everything…”

Eclair’s tail swayed as she fumbled through her words with obvious effort.

Meanwhile, Torte’s affectionate assault was steadily picking up speed.

“Mmh…♡ nuzzle nuzzle… sniff sniff…♡”

“So, um. If you wouldn’t mind… after the curse is broken… I was wondering if you and I could maybe… still… together…”

(I can’t deal with this right now—just go already—!)

And then Torte escalated.

Under the table, she pressed herself against my lower stomach—and pushed the full, generous softness of her chest directly into me.

“Mmh, squeeze…♡ I love you so much…♡”

“Guugh—!!”

This time, the cry that tore out of me was completely, unmistakably audible.

The impossible combination of warmth, softness, and pressure against my midsection blew straight past every limit I had.

“Huh?! What’s wrong, Theo?!”

“It’s—the—my stomach again—! Another wave—!”

I slumped forward against the table with a groan, doing my best impression of someone in genuine digestive distress.

Which, technically, wasn’t entirely a lie. Something in the vicinity of my stomach was in a very dire state.

“I’m—fine, though—urgh—!”

“You don’t look fine at all!”

Eclair’s expression shifted to alarm, and she started moving toward me.

Don’t come over here—!

“No—don’t—don’t come this way!”

“What do you mean?! You can’t be serious right now!”

“I-I’m not in a condition anyone should see right now!”

“Wait—does that mean—”

My frantic resistance seemed to give her pause.

Oh no. She was absolutely jumping to the conclusion that I was in the middle of some kind of catastrophic digestive emergency.

But at this point, if it kept her away, I’d take any misunderstanding I could get.

“S-So if you could just—give me a minute alone—hguh—!”

Under the table, Torte’s embrace had reached its final, overwhelming crescendo.

Overcome with feeling, she buried her face against my stomach and breathed in deeply.

“Hafuu~♡ Mmh—sniiiiff—hahhh~♡”

“Uaaaah—! N-Not that hard—!”

“The pain’s getting worse?!”

“N-No—I mean—yes! Yes, it is! So please just go—!”

“Absolutely not! You need to see a doctor right now!”

“It’s fine! Please, I just need to be alone—!”

I’m at my limit—I can’t take any more—!

“…F-Fine…! But you are going to the clinic later, understood?!”

Eclair lingered with one last worried look before reluctantly turning toward the door.

I slumped forward over the table and watched her go.

“Y-Yeah…! I’ll—I’ll go—!”

Click.

The door swung shut.

My body went completely limp against the table at the same moment.

“Hah… hah… T-Torte…!”

The dog-eared girl popped up from under the table.

“Mmh…♡ Ehehe, Torte got to absorb so much of Master’s essence~♡”

She looked up at me with a thoroughly satisfied, dreamy expression.

That’s—I mean, technically you were just sniffing me, but—the way you said that—!

“That scared me half to death—! What would you have done if she’d found you?!”

My protest, however, did not reach Torte.

She blinked, noticed something, and fixed her gaze sharply on a specific spot on my trousers.

“Oh—I’m so sorry. I got a little carried away and left a drool spot.”

“…Huh?”

“I’ll clean it up and make it all better!♡”

With that, she knelt back down in front of me.

Her face pressed against my stomach had left a small, damp stain on the fabric.

“H-Hey, that’s really not necessary—enough already—!”

I reached down to straighten my clothes.

And that was precisely when it happened.

Click.

The dining room door—the one that had just closed—swung open again.

“Hey, Theo. I know it’s probably none of my business, but I brought a towel and some stomach medicine, in case you—”

Eclair stepped back in, pinching her nose with one hand and a look of genuine concern on her face.

Her eyes swept the room in an instant and landed on the scene before her.

“…Oh.”

I slumped uselessly in my chair.

Torte, kneeling between my legs, mouth open, apparently just about to begin “cleaning up” (with her tongue).

“Wh… wha… wha—?!”

The medicine bottle slipped from Eclair’s hand and hit the floor with a hollow thud.

The color that flooded the cat-eared girl’s face was instant and total—blazing from her cheeks all the way to the tips of her ears.

—Ah. It’s over.

The circumstantial evidence was airtight and completely damning.

The next moment, Eclair’s voice shook the entire house.

“I was genuinely worried about you, and this is what you’re doing—?!?!?!”