Vol 3 Chapter 50 – It’s Way More Fun When Everyone Does It Together ♪【Vol 3: Torte the Dog-Eared Girl Ar】

The next day, under a clear and sunny sky, the three of us headed out to the garden to hang the laundry.

On the clothesline, the bedsheets — the battlefield of last night’s fierce engagement — swayed in the breeze alongside two maid uniforms.

“Haah… I can’t believe this.”

Eclair muttered, exasperated, as she spread out a damp sheet.

“How much mess is enough for you? You’re the beast here, you know. You.”

“Sorry… honestly, even I was a little shocked.”

Last night’s three-way curse-breaking had been far too stimulating — and I’d ended up getting completely carried away.

In terms of… rounds, it might have been a new personal record…

“Hmm~? But El-sis was having lots of fun too. You were going, ‘I love you so much, Master,’ and squeezing him all tight~”

“HFKYAAAAAAH! Don’t say things like that! That was the curse, all of that was the curse’s fault!”

Eclair shrieked, her tail bristling to full fluff.

“A-Anyway, Torte — are you doing okay? Are you sore anywhere?”

Last night, swept up in the momentum of the three of us together, we’d ended up going through her first time as well.

“Yes! I love Master so much, so I’m totally fine!”

Torte answered instantly with a beaming smile, then announced, “I’ll go get the next load of laundry!” and dashed back inside.

I watched Torte’s retreating, and felt a small, quiet pang in my chest.

Eclair must have noticed the shift in my expression, because she frowned at me with a suspicious look.

“What’s wrong, Theo? You’ve got that gloomy face on.”

“Ah, yeah. I know it’s a bit late to bring this up, but… I feel kind of guilty.”

“Guilty?”

“Torte’s feelings for me — they’re a side effect of the sleep magic, right? ‘Fall in love with the first man you see when you wake up.’ Even if it was for the sake of curse-breaking… I took advantage of that and even took her for her first time. Was that really… okay?”

I genuinely care about Torte from the bottom of my heart.

But her feelings for me, her loyalty — they were nothing more than something imprinted on her by magic.

Was reciprocating those feelings truly what was best for Torte? I couldn’t help but wonder.

After hearing me out, Eclair looked away with a guilty, uncomfortable expression.

“…Ah, about that, actually. Sorry — I never told you.”

“Huh?”

“After Torte woke up, I went to report things to the mage who had cast the spell. While I was there, I asked them about the side effects in more detail.”

Eclair scratched her cheek and continued.

“It’s true that the effect of ‘falling for the first person of the opposite sex you see’ does exist. …But, apparently, that effect naturally wears off after about three days, at the longest.”

“…Huh?”

I let out a completely blank sound.

“Th-Three days? But it’s been way longer than that since Torte woke up…”

“Counting her hospital stay, it’s been well over a week.”

“Which means…”

“Exactly. The side effects of the magic wore off a long, long time ago.”

In that case, the way she is now…

“Then… why is Torte still calling me ‘Master’ and caring about me like that?”

“W-Well, that’s…”

Eclair trailed off, looking oddly reluctant to say it,

“A-Anyway — from now on, whenever you’re doing Torte’s curse-breaking, you call me too, understood?”

“That’s not an answer at all… and — wait, you actually want to keep doing it together? All three of us?”

“I-It’s not that I want to, it’s just — leaving Torte alone with you, it’s just — I mean, how do I put it—”

“Torte wants to do it with everyone!”

“Whoa!”

Torte, who had come back without either of us noticing, popped her head up out of nowhere.

“Doing it all together was so much fun! I want to do it every single day from now on♪”

“H-Hey, Torte. I should probably tell you now — that feeling you have? It’s not exactly… normal, okay?”

“But doing things together is always more fun — food, playing around, everything♪ When Mil-sis comes back, let’s all do it together — all four of us!”

Torte said something absolutely outrageous with the most carefree, innocent smile on her face.

This girl is careening straight off the rails…

“Hey, Theo, what are we going to do about this…”

“W-Well, I’m sure it’ll work itself out somehow?”

“Oh, honestly…”

All I could do was laugh sheepishly at Eclair’s look of pure exasperation.

Beneath the blue sky, watching the maid uniforms swaying in the breeze, I had the feeling that a loud, chaotic — but genuinely wonderful — life was waiting ahead of us.

But — that was when Milfy-san came home, something like that would be happening to her…

None of us could have known. Not then.