After meeting with Melissa, the trip back to Aranea's home went smoothly, save for the undertone of horror that Drew had to keep quiet about. It was obvious to Lucifia that someone was watching them and made sure that Drew played along with her to have an ace against their little stalker in the woods.
However, they weren't out of trouble yet. Upon returning home the party of three was confronted by Basil who was about to yell at Melissa for storming off without permission, but all that courage he had was drained out as he comes face-to-face with a demon.
Basil felt smaller than usual.
"Who's this wilting runt?" Lucifia's insult didn't help.
"Hagurd's uptight boy toy," Melissa answered.
The two girls shared the same expression of contempt for Basil and all Drew could do was watch as the squire gets looked down upon and belittled by a demon and a witch. Though, the two stopped picking on Basil when another man came by the front door and stood behind Basil. It was Hagurd and he didn't look all too happy with Drew and Melissa.
"I trusted you two enough to let you stay here, and you bring a demon on your first night? Care to explain?" Hagurd lets out a heavy sigh.
"S, -Sir why do you just sound disappointed!? This demon they brought-!" Basil was cut off with Hagurd punching him lightly on the top of the head.
"I can tell that much lad!" Hagurd pinches the bridge of his nose and momentarily glanced at Lucifia before looking back at Drew. "There's not much else we can do squire, except accept whatever he's got to say."
"I just want to eat, and I'm pretty sure these two feel the same," Drew answered with a nonchalant smile on his face as he holds his grumbling stomach.
Hagurd shrugs and accepts that what Drew said was the truth.
"Alright. I hope you don't mind but I already had a bite of your wife's parmentier. Not bad actually!" Hagurd walks off dragging Basil as he laughs like a drunkard.
"Wife?" Melissa squinted.
"Wife?" Lucifia frowned.
With the same look of contempt that they showed for Basil, the two girls glared at Drew with Lucifia looking particularly more upset. Drew now knows why the squire felt so insignificant and intimidated. Nonetheless he tries to not let it bother him especially since he's starving and ready to just relax and have dinner, but unfortunately for him and Lucifia Melissa stopped them by holding her arm out and telling them to take a bath and get changed before they even think about going to eat.
There was much back and forth with the three, with Lucifia and Drew agreeing that they ought to at least eat first then clean themselves up while Melissa is adamant that they ought to fix themselves up. In the end, Melissa got her way, and so Lucifia and Drew had a small game of rock-paper-scissors to decide who gets to go first, Lucifia wins and was about to take a bath when Melissa stops her again.
"Oh for the love of -What now!?" Lucifia hissed angrily.
"Nothing, relax! I just realized I'm also covered in sweat so I'm going to take a bath with you," said Melissa as she goes into the bathroom with Lucifia.
Lucifia shuts the bathroom door on Drew, leaving him standing in the second-floor hallway to wait for the two girls to finish. Drew leans against a wall and as he holds his stomach he gradually slumps down, sighing all the while.
"Ah, wait … what am I going to do about clothes?" Drew only now notices that his clothes were quite literally shredded in the fight with Lucifia.
Miraculously his tie remained, but he couldn't say much for the rest of his shirt which was left torn open from the center. Drew stretches one of his legs out and started patting his toned body to feel the wounds that were no longer there, and as he looks to the side to check his arm, he sees someone peeking from the stairs. While crouching on the stairs Aranea ogles at Drew as she holds something in her hands.
Drew waves at Aranea with a confused look on his face that's slowly turning into worry. He's concerned that even in her own home Aranea is still timid with people, but that's not really the case. Right now, it's Aranea's first time seeing a man naked and it's provoking a response in her that she never got when looking at her own naked body.
Aranea was going to approach Drew and hand him a serving of the Shepard's pie that she helped make with Melissa, but when she saw him stroking his body she instinctively ducked down to hide and stare. At first, she didn't want to catch Drew in an embarrassing situation and planned to head back to the living room, yet she stayed and continued to gawk. At first, she only stayed since she was curious as to what Drew was doing, but her pure interest soon melted into a horny desire that she couldn't describe with just one word, she only knows that she wanted her hands to feel and grope Drew's naked body.
The idea lit a ravenous flame inside of Aranea that quickly burned her up. Her fingertips were especially warm and sensitive, along with different areas of her body like her knees that made it difficult to get up from her position, her chest which made her breathing warm, and her abdomen that felt strained and twisted that Aranea found it uncomfortable.
A recluse like herself didn't know what these feelings were, how to describe them, and much less how to get rid of them. What she does know is that she wanted to stop before something in her buckles, but Drew saw her and she saw him wave at her. That to Aranea was a sign to come closer, and she does, she gets up from the stairs and walks over to Drew to hand him the plate of Shepard's pie that she was meaning to give him, not that it was her intention anymore for approaching him.
In her haze Aranea doesn't see the delighted look Drew has for finally getting to eat, but what she does notice is him talking about her as he eats.
"I could tell that you were really timid by the way you handle people, even now in your own home you don't feel safe when there are people around. Is it because we're strangers?" Drew asked and followed up with, "I hope Melissa didn't give you any problems then. From what I know about her she's a bit more on the forward-side, nothing like you."
"No, she didn't," Aranea answered as she sat next to Drew but with a few inches between them. "In fact, she and I became close while you were away. We made the parmentier together. Melissa's a nice person. She's actually the first person who asked me what I wanted."
"Ehn, that sounds a bit sad if she's the first. But I'm glad you two became close at least. Also, this is really good!" Drew smiled as he thoroughly enjoys the Shepard's pie that he's almost finished with the plate.
"Parmentiers are my favorite too … hey, is Melissa your-" Aranea's cut off by Drew speaking over her.
"First Hagurd, now you. The answer's no! Melissa and I are just friends. Recently became friends too -the situation's a little difficult to explain but that's the gist of it." What Drew didn't understand when he answered Aranea's question is that he's given her a pass or at least that's what Aranea thinks.
"I see. Also, you probably need new clothes, don't you? I can make one that fits you," Aranea says as she started inching closer to Drew. It's almost second nature to her to fool Drew into getting what she wants from him.
"You'd do that for me? I'm pretty blessed then, thank you."
"No problem, I love making clothes. It's what I do as a pastime." Her voice was soft and restrained throughout their conversation, making it easy for her to hide how she feels. "Andrew, you seem like a person who knows a lot."
"Are you calling me a know-it-all? Ehn, that sounds pretty cheeky," Drew teases which made Aranea blush and retreat as she holds her hands up.
"N, -No, no! That's not what I meant!" Even though she's good at hiding her emotions, she's still poor with her choice of words and is scared of getting misunderstood. "W, -What I meant was-"
"Sorry. I was just teasing you." Drew smiled at Aranea. "Do I though? I don't think so. Why, is there something you want to ask me?"
Aranea moved closer again, much closer.
"There is something I want to ask from you." She leans towards Drew and it looked as though she was planning to grab him.
…
Inside the bathroom, Melissa and Lucifia started bonding with each other as they wash off the grime on their bodies. While Lucifia enjoys the bathtub for herself, Melissa is fine with just using the showerhead to wash herself down. Melissa prefers showers than baths since she doesn't enjoy submerging her body in water.
"I'm guessing it's because of that burn on your back? Haven't they healed already -can I touch it?" Lucifia asked while looking intensely at Melissa's back. "And what's with that magic circle drawn on your back?"
The demon took notice of a strange magic circle that's on Melissa's back that became hard to decipher as the burns that she also has left half of the circle faded under the old burn scars. Melissa's hand reached down to try and put her hand on the circle, and she's very careful when touching her back as if the burns on them still hurt, and that's because they still do for her.
"The magic circle was from a traveling doctor that was just passing by in my town. It was strangely good timing too since we had a lot of sick people then, myself included. He treated us and he placed this magic circle on each of the patients." Melissa flinched as her finger ran across a burn. It caused her to pull her hand back and focused on rinsing her hair. "I can't remember what he said entirely –I didn't fully understand what he meant either. He just said that the magic circle was to check on the patient's condition. Also, no I'm not going to let you touch my back."
The demon was suspicious of the doctor and the circle's true purpose, so she continued to stare at Melissa's back hoping that by looking at it long enough it would jog her memory. Unfortunately, nothing comes up in Lucifia's memory and it annoys her.
As Lucifia closes her eyes to relax in her bath she feels Melissa doing something with her horns, she's brushing them with a wooden bath brush.
"Not bad. Not bad at all~. What do you want in return?" Lucifia asked as she opened one of her eyes while resting her arms on the edges of the bathtub.
"I'm just doing this out of the moment. I don't expect anything in return. Also, weren't you covered in wounds a while ago?"
"Oh –they've already healed I guess." Lucifia looks down on her chest and saw that there's nothing but faint scars on her body after using the transfer spell. "But I'm really hungry."
A loud rumbling was heard and it made the two go silent.
"… Scratch that, we're both hungry," Lucifia said, grinning after hearing Melissa's loud stomach.
"L, -Let's hurry up and finish! I really want to eat as well!" Melissa responded and brushed Lucifia's horns more frantically.
"Oi! Brush them with finesse like you did before- Agh!" Lucifia groaned.
The two girls quickly finished up their bath since they wanted to eat dinner, and while they were patting themselves dry with towels Lucifia went in and helped Melissa in gently patting her back dry. Neither one said a word as they got dressed.
The door to the bathroom suddenly swings open because Lucifia wanted to get down to the living room as quickly as possible. The door slams straight to Drew who was backing away from Aranea. His head and back got hit by the door that then flings him forward onto Aranea's lap. The plate of Shepard's pie he was holding was thrown off his hands and onto the floor.
Andrew bawled in agony, not from the pain but from the loss of his Shepard's pie. Lucifia also shouted, not from seeing Drew with another woman, but because he was already eating dinner before he took a bath.
"What're you screaming for!?" Drew roared out as he turns around to show his face that's red with anger.
"Why are YOU enjoying dinner before us? You haven't even taken a bath yet!" Lucifia argued as her horns catch fire.
"I WAS enjoying dinner until you knocked it out of my hands!" Drew replied as he gets up.
"Serves you right!" Lucifia hissed.
In the end, the only one who got somewhat of a satisfying night was Aranea who got to feel Andrew's body on her thighs.