That night.
After leaving the Heavenly Pavilion, Sang returned to the Earthly Pavilion. Aisha Hodhua had already prepared hot bathwater for him in the Earthly Pavilion’s shower room—or rather, it was more like a shower hall. It was enormous, evoking the grandeur of an ancient Roman imperial bathhouse, spanning the size of two or three basketball courts.
This place was reserved exclusively for guests. For instance, Snow Hill had stayed here for several days last time, but ordinary maids didn’t have permission to use it. It was a rule set by Duke Cape. Although the True Ancestor didn’t care much about such things, no maid would dare run up to her and ask for special access.
“Hey, True Ancestor, can I use the bathhouse to wash up?”
The very thought was terrifying.
As a result, the place hardly saw any use.
Sang had become its sole patron. The True Ancestor was a truly extraordinary being—ageless and deathless, with no need for food, drink, or excretion, and she even came with her own self-cleaning feature.
Aisha Hodhua and Lusana were now Sang’s dedicated servants. They should have attended to his bath, but the boy had refused. After all, they were the True Ancestor’s exclusive blood servants. His life wasn’t the decadent indulgence one might imagine; everything he did was for purity. His clothing, food, shelter, and daily routines all reflected that. Compared to the impoverished backwater of Kaen Town, he was living in luxury, but relative to other nobles, it was merely average.
Purity—as a blood servant of the True Ancestor.
Bodily purity was the first step.
Thus, Aisha and Lusana weren’t providing the kind of intimate service one might picture. They were simply helping him bathe, with no ulterior motives. To put it in perspective: would a mere maid dare to wear the True Ancestor’s clothes?
Sang didn’t need anyone to wash him anyway; it would be too awkward. A fourteen-year-old boy being groped by two blood clan women who had lived for decades?
As Sang soaked in the steamy bath, steam rising around him, he reflected on the day’s events. His emotions were still a tangled mess. First, he’d napped on that person’s lap. Then he’d tried to sneak attack and kill her, only to accidentally grope her chest and get misunderstood.
But honestly, though his hands had indeed reached for the True Ancestor at that moment, his killing intent hadn’t been all that strong deep down.
He didn’t want to kill her.
If only he could be like in those light novels—marry the demon lord across the multiverse and save the world that way. But he couldn’t do it, nor did he want to. There was a black hole in that person’s eyes, a domain no living being could touch.
“Lately, I feel like something’s off with me… I kind of want to get to know her more…” Lost in thought, Sang submerged everything below his eyes in the water, turning into a frogman as he blew bubbles, trying to calm himself and sort out his feelings.
But just then, a voice came from the side—the Pink-Haired Little Lolita’s. “Watermelon, are you mumbling about the True Ancestor?”
“Glub glub glub~ cough cough cough.”
Sang jolted in fright, nearly choking on his own bathwater. He surfaced quickly, his small face flushed red, and stared helplessly at Aisha Hodhua. “Don’t pop up out of nowhere and scare me like that.”
“Who’s scaring you? I saw you’d been soaking for so long and got worried something might happen. I also brought you a change of clothes.”
Sang glanced back and sure enough, she was holding a neat stack of clean garments in her hands. He didn’t deny it, nodding. “Uh… yeah, okay.”
“Watermelon, don’t think I’m some naive kid… I’ve seen you on your knees bootlicking the True Ancestor and the other maids every day. I haven’t witnessed much, but fakes from real are obvious at a glance. You don’t seriously think you’re clever enough to fool everyone, do you?”
Busted.
He hadn’t expected even this prickly Pink-Haired Little Lolita to see through his act… Though she probably hadn’t figured out he was with the organization.
As Sang’s mind wandered, she spoke again, her words striking a chord in his heart.
“Relax, I’m not planning to tattle to the True Ancestor… Honestly, the fact that you’re still alive—or that you’ve managed to pull this off at all—has me pretty surprised. It might all be for nothing in the end, but you’ve definitely shaken things up in the Heavenly Key quite a bit… I don’t know what exactly is bothering you right now, but I still want to say this: I’ve acknowledged you. Hmph, go ahead and gloat!”
The usually tsundere Aisha seemed a touch more honest in that moment. Even through the swirling steam, her cheeks were visibly flushed, like a cherry blossom tree in full bloom.
Sang couldn’t help but chuckle. A tsundere little lolita being straightforward for once was genuinely adorable.
Aisha knew he was laughing at her. She turned her face away, avoiding his gaze, and grew a bit more serious. “Also… even though you promised to take me to see the ocean, I know that’s impossible. I’d rather you just stay here in the Heavenly Key with peace of mind. Things like this—right now—aren’t so bad.”
Deep down, Aisha Hodhua hoped the boy would treat this place like home and stay here forever.
With him around, everything felt a little less awful.
But she was too tsundere to say something like “home” out loud.
Sang got the gist of what Aisha Hodhua meant. Sitting in the bath with his upper body exposed, he cradled his cheeks and put on an exaggeratedly coy expression. “Aww~ You’re just coveting my good looks now. Give it a few years, and when I turn into some haggard old geezer, all saggy and greasy, that ‘I love you’ from little sis won’t mean a thing anymore~”
Sang had a real talent for being gross.
One second, Aisha had been looking somewhat touched; the next, her defenses shattered. A vein throbbed on her forehead as goosebumps erupted all over her. She recoiled in disgust. “You… you’re so gross! What good looks?!”
Hearing the Pink-Haired Little Lolita’s retort sparked Sang’s mischievous side. He stood up right there in the bath—which promptly elicited a shriek from Aisha.
“Uh, the good looks you wanted. Take a good look.”
“Ah…” Aisha slapped her hands over her eyes. She’d lived many years, but always cooped up here; she’d never seen a man like this. She was mortified.
“Dummy, I was just messing with you. I’ve got a towel wrapped around down there.” Sang was the classic bully who picks on the kind. He’d been utterly toyed with by the True Ancestor’s naked form up in the Heavenly Pavilion, so now he was making up for it with the Pink-Haired Little Lolita down here.
“Watermelon, you’re such a jerk!”
“Hahaha…”
“Still laughing… idiot…” Her words were sharp, but seeing the boy grinning like a fool made Aisha Hodhua want to smile too.
There was something inexplicably piercing and infectious about this ordinary boy’s smile.
As he laughed, the curve of his lips softened a bit. Humming a little tune, he padded lightly toward the door, snagging the clothes from Aisha’s hands along the way.
At the doorway, he turned back suddenly, lazy and easygoing, with a grin. “Mm… thanks.”
“No need to stand on ceremony. As your personal maid, bringing you clothes is just part of the job.”
“Not for the clothes…”
“Then what for?”
Sang beamed. “Hm… you’re right. Since I’m in the Heavenly Key now, I should just live peacefully, make the most of every day… Lately, I’ve been overthinking because of some stuff, but what you said—about how things are now being pretty good—helped me rediscover that old feeling.”
Be an optimist. Live hard and happily, believing that one day, he’d escape this place and reunite with everyone at the orphanage.
“Oh, right—I’ve got this month’s candy in my room. If you want some, it’s yours.”
Sang’s meals in the Heavenly Key weren’t the lavish delicacies one might expect—just perfectly balanced nutrition packs. Candy was part of the sugar allotment, shipped in monthly.
The blood clan maids didn’t get any of that; they only received the necessary blood.
Aisha Hodhua had zero resistance to sweets. Her eyes lit up like stars at the mention, a little tail practically wagging behind her like an eager puppy. It was adorable.
Still putting on her tsundere act, she said, “Uh… if you can’t finish it, I suppose I could take it off your hands…”
