"[Well, that was a case until a month ago. The royal family was doing some community service or whatever, visiting the poverty-stricken areas of the kingdom and when they got back, Horeo demanded to bring one of the orphans to the castle with him.]"

"|Hold on...?! Seriously? Wait... orphan... Miri, by any chance...?|"

"...?!"

Hearing Miriette's complaint Zoemi flinched – causing Roiso sitting next to him to jump in surprise – and thought hurriedly.

"[Yeah, it's just like you suspect. His highness stumbled upon one of his wives from the previous timeline. Your lovely younger sister, Patishi.]"

"|!!!|"

Miriette revealed, giving Zoemi quite a shock.

The black-haired boy didn't forget about Patishi, it was just that he had no idea in what part of the kingdom the orphanage she would be put in was supposed to be.

Zoemi was thinking about a plan of action for finding her, but as it turned out it was unnecessary, which made him feel incredibly relieved because he remembered Patishi mentioning that she was being bullied even back then because she wasn't born a girl but dared to act like one.

"[Horeo is bringing her everywhere. She also doesn't remember a thing about the previous timeline, but she didn't change all that much. She was trying to act like a boy and all, but I never saw anyone become so happy when I offered to play dress up with her. Well, she did get even happier when Horeo saw her in a dress and called her cute though.]"

Miriette recalled with a giggle.

"|This doesn't sound bad... then is Horeo actually such a pain in the ass...? Or is it some nasty tutor who thinks he can abuse the kids who he teaches?"

Zoemi pointed out curiously before asking in a grim voice, feeling the anger boil deep within him.

"[Nothing like that. You see, because I was kind to Patishi, she now adores me and calls me big sister. She also wants to visit as much as possible and Horeo is complying with her wishes. But since he also shows up, his guards show up, and sometimes his mother shows up and the tension goes through the roof as she tries to pressure me into acting lovey-dovey with her precious boy and it makes me want to choke her out. I honestly preferred when she was the bitchy old hag that Horeo hated because as an overprotective tiger mom she is going to make me lose my mind.]"

Miriette complained and it really did sound like she was pouring out all the bitterness she could not withstand anymore.

"|You did say that Arisu didn't exist in this timeline and her majesty didn't seem to have a secret relationship with lord Lazaram... turns out that a good thing like that ended up being a bother huh...?|"

"[Uuuuurghhh...!]"

Zoemi thought and got answered by Miriette's annoyed groan.

"[Pamper me.]"

The girl sulked and asked in distress.

And so, while Zoemi and Miriette were all lovey-dovey on the inside, their outside appearance didn't show a thing.

Still, at least for Zoemi who wasn't alone in his room, being perfectly still in the tavern while the food was put in front of him was rather concerning for some of his companions.

Roiso got right in front of the black-haired boy – so close that she could feel his breath on her face and stayed there for a few seconds.

"...uncle, Zoemi is doing the thing again..."

After poking Zoemi's cheek, the hooded girl turned around and said with concern towards the light-blue-haired man.

"Wait, is he meditating even now? There should be some limits, right? It is a training for the martial artists."

Rokiana chimed in and glanced between the black-haired boy and the light-blue-haired man.

"Zoemi wants to become stronger as fast as possible – I tried to talk with him about slowing down a bit, but the effects of it are as you can see."

Mizoe breathed out and smiled awkwardly while waving his hand at his completely focused son.

"Nnn, nnn...!"

Roiso ended up picking up the puppy that was sitting between her and Zoemi and raising it to the boy's face where it started to lick his face while letting out concerned yelps as there was no reaction.

"Roiso, don't do that."

"But he ignores me..."

Rokiana scolded the neon-pink-haired girl who slumped down with the wolf puppy in her lap and pouted.

"He should be somewhat aware of his surroundings so he should be back in a few minutes, let's start eating anyways, the puppies don't look like they can hold back any longer."

Mizoe glanced at the three young wolves sitting all over him and made a decision.

The puppies were yelping while all fidgety, looking towards the food but even so, none of them tried to sneak a bite in without permission.

Only after the light-blue-haired man allowed them, they all rushed the food while their tails wagged so much it was hard for them to keep balance.

The rest began their meal too, although Roiso was distracted by Zoemi's stillness, after a few minutes while others were already almost finished and she had still more than three-quarters of her plate full, she ended up picking up a spoonful of her goulash and poking it against Zoemi's cheek leaving a big stain on his face.

"Oh, come on! Roiso!"

immediately upon noticing it, Rokiana rolled her eyes and shook her head at the pouting girl who was doing her best to get the black-haired boy's attention.

"Let me just..."

"No, Mizoe, she will do it."historical

The light-blue-haired man pulled out a handkerchief and reached over the table to clean his son's face, but he was stopped by the stern blue-haired teenager who grabbed his hand, took out the cloth from his hand, and handed it out to the hooded girl.

"..."

Roiso started pouting even more, so much that her cheeks began to look as if they were about to burst, but she took the handkerchief and turned to the black-haired boy.

*mlam*

"...!"

But instead of using the cloth on the food stain, the neon-pink girl leaned up and licked the boy's face clean instead.

"...ummm...?"

"?!?!?!"

The thing was, that exactly when she was doing that, Zoemi opened his eyes, so he was fully aware and confused as hell at the sudden sensation of the girl's tongue brushing against his face.

Even so, the most shocked and embarrassed person must have been Roiso herself.

Noticing the boy's reaction, she immediately pulled away and started pulling her hood over her face with so much force that she moved the entire cape.

"...pffft...! See? That's what you get for messing around."

Rokiana snickered and pointed out while the girl was getting sauteed in her own shame while Zoemi was rubbing his cheek, wondering what in the world must have happened while he was pampering Miriette to result in such a situation.

"Thanks for the food..."

The black-haired boy said awkwardly while bringing the only plate that still had untouched food on it and starting to eat.

He didn't know how to respond to being licked – if it was Miriette, things would be completely different, mainly because Miriette had her memories from the previous timeline.

As for Roiso who was very much in the dark, things were completely different.

Therefore Zoemi made the executive decision to ignore the matter entirely and stuffed his face with food.