As I somehow find myself going with the flow and eating strawberry candies alternately with Illness-san, we went out to the main street while I'm feeling slightly flushed... I found that there were quite a few people as we expected.
The fireworks will be displayed near the royal castle, which is quite a distance from our location, but there are still quite a few people there.
[Speaking of which, they're setting off fireworks in the middle of a city... but did they set up some kind of countermeasure?]
[They had set up Barrier Magiiiiiic, so there's no danger in the surroundiiiiiiiings. They have many excellent people among the Court Mages after aaaaaaaall.]
[I see... Come to think of it, Illness-san was a maid at the royal castle before you moved to Lilia-san's mansion, right?]
[Yeeeees. I didn't have a special position, just a normal maaaaaaid.]
...From what I've heard, for Luna-san, who was an adventurer and became a member of the Knight Order, and clueless about matters related to maids, Illness-san was so excellent that she was the first person that came to her mind when asking for someone to teach her the basics.
In that case, I think she was probably overlooked in the royal castle, but since it's Illness-san we're talking about here, she probably continued to peacefully work as a maid just like how she's doing in Lilia-san's mansion.
[...Even so, they're amazing. Making sure those fireworks don't affect the royal castle must be difficult. Illness-san, are you alright?]
[I'm alriiiiiiight.]
I thought it would be difficult for Illness-san, someone with a small build in a place that has many people around, so I stopped in a way that I could create a space for Illness-san as much as possible.
No, of course, I know that Illness-san, a Count-rank Demon, is far superior to me in terms of physical ability, so there really shouldn't be any problems... but well, it's more about me and my pride as a man... It's just, I want to look good around her.
The number of people around makes it difficult for us to go any further, so I guess we'll have to watch the fireworks from here.
[I wonder if we can watch it from here?]
[The angle may be a littleeeeee bad. Weeeeeeell, it looks like we would still be able to watch them somehooooow...]
Just as Illness-san said, when we look toward the royal castle from our position, the clock tower certainly is just in front of our eyes.
The clock tower isn't really that big, but it seems to be exquisitely standing in the way. Well, it can't be helped. It might be difficult to see the small fireworks or those that were made to explode low, but I would still be able to see the big ones.
As I had such thoughts in mind, my hand was pulled back with a jerk, and when I turned to look, I saw Illness-san lightly beckoning me with her mouth... as if she wanted me to lend her my ears.
[is something the matter?]
Being mindful of our surroundings, I bent down a bit, and when I brought my ear close to her mouth, she whispered.
[...Why don't we cheat a liiiiiiiiittle bit?]
[Eh? Cheat?]
Rather than her words, her gentle voice whispering in my ear somewhat makes me shudder, giving me a strange sense of comfort. If I let down my guard, I feel like this might turn into a habit.
W- Well, putting that aside... I wonder what she meant with cheat?
[Please excuse meeeee.]
[Eh? Whoa!?]
As I was leaning down my body, Illness-san suddenly put her hands around my back, seemingly hugging me close, and the view was instantly swept down.
Leaping to a height where we were overlooking the place where we had just been, Illness-san kicked a few times in the air and landed on the roof of the clock tower we had just been looking at earlier.
[If we're heeeeeere, we can watch the fireworks very weeeeeell.]
[E- Errr, aren't we gonna be quite conspicuous?]
[It's alriiiiiiight. Even though it may not seem like iiiiiit, I'm actually good at Recognition Inhibition Magiiiiiiiic.]
When I looked around me after she said that, I found that even though we were in such a conspicuous place, we didn't seem to be attracting any attention.
[I've also casted a fall prevention magiiiiic, so you don't have to worry about your footiiiiiing. It may be a little unfair to otheeeeeers, but I also wanted to watch the beautiful fireworks with Kaito-samaaaaaaa.]
Illness-san, who said such a thing with a rather mischievous smile, how should I say this... It felt like there was this gap between the current Illness-san and her usual adult-like self, and she looked really cute.