“See, Mister! It’s just fatigue, right? Here! I want to get rid of it quickly, so use this!”
“Huh? What’s this, Charlotte? A… massage coupon? What does it say? ‘By using this coupon, Aslan Vermont must give me a massage…'”
“W-What!?”
The moment Charlotte pulled out the coupon.
Julia’s eyes widened in shock.
Yuri, who was just about to leave the mansion, froze in place, startled.
Massage coupons were already common enough that they weren’t particularly surprising.
But this time, it was different.
Instead of Charlotte giving Aslan a massage, it was Aslan giving Charlotte one!?
They had never even imagined such a thing existed, so Julia and Yuri were doubly shocked.
“W-What? Where did you even get that coupon?”
“Hmm? Julia, is this your first time seeing one? Ah! Was this a secret coupon that Mister gave only to me? And I just pulled it out in front of everyone without realizing! Ehehe.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
Charlotte scratched the back of her head awkwardly.
Julia and Yuri’s gazes slowly turned toward Aslan.
As if demanding an explanation, they stared daggers at him. Unable to meet their piercing stares, Aslan silently turned his head away.
‘Charlotte… This terrifying little thing actually did it…’
Ah. He really should have expected this.
Now that he thought about it, the only thing he had promised to keep secret was that he was sponsoring Yuri.
Nowhere had they agreed to keep secret the fact that, in exchange, he had issued reverse massage coupons.
From Charlotte’s perspective, she hadn’t broken any promises or done anything wrong.
She probably just wanted to see him flustered and to witness Julia and Yuri’s shocked reactions.
Even though Aslan let out a defeated chuckle, cold sweat dripped down his back.
“Y-You…! Shameless! How could you give something like that to a child?! Charlotte, were we next? That’s what it was, right?! R-Right…?”
“Huh? Ah? W-We? Me too? Me as well…? No way…”
“If you’re about to misunderstand, let me clarify—this wasn’t my idea. Charlotte wanted it, so I only made three of them.”
Julia turned red and shrank back.
Hearing the word ‘we’, Yuri also blushed.
Panicked, Aslan hurriedly tried to explain.
Of course, he left out the part where he had originally planned to issue 100 coupons but reduced the number to just three.
“Even so…”
“Hmph! Mister! I want my massage right away! Without my Super Super Strong Sword with me all the time, I feel strangely empty, stiff, and my muscles are all tight! But if I get a massage from you, it’ll be all better!”
“…”
Beyond just embarrassing me and shocking Julia and Yuri.
now she’s determined to actually use the coupon in this situation?
Watching Charlotte plop herself down on the sofa and tap her legs against it impatiently, Aslan let out a hollow laugh.
At this point, since everything was already out in the open, was there really any reason to hesitate?
He was innocent.
He simply issued the coupons because Charlotte wanted them, and since they were valid, he had no choice but to honor them.
There was not even a speck of selfish desire in any of this.
…Probably.
‘But wait, how exactly do I give a massage?’
With Charlotte lying face down in front of him.
Aslan suddenly realized he had no idea what to do from here, leaving him frozen in place.
Up until now, he had always been the one receiving massages from the kids.
He had never been the one to give one.
So… how was he supposed to do this?
Just as Aslan stood there, hesitating—
“Mister, what are you doing? Just step on me like usual.”
“What!? Charlotte? What did you just say!?”
“Huh!? W-What do you mean, like usual!?”
“Of course, Charlotte, you’re saying that you usually do this… right?”
“Ehehe.”
As Charlotte giggled, both Julia and Yuri had another explosive reaction.
‘You left out the subject in that sentence…’
The way she said it made it sound as if I had been regularly stepping on her for massages.
Like I was some kind of habitual offender.
The dizzying sense of riding a rollercoaster between heaven and hell at lightning speed made Aslan shut his eyes tightly.
“But wouldn’t it be too heavy if I stepped on you? There’s a big difference in our size and weight.”
“I’ll be fine! You’re really light anyway, Mister! And I’m super strong! Even if you got on my back, it wouldn’t feel heavy at all!”
“…”
That… was probably true.
Even if a dozen Aslans climbed onto her, Charlotte’s iron-hard body wouldn’t even budge.
Physically, it would be fine, but…
“…No. I can’t step on your back.”
“Huh? Why not? I wanted to try it too!”
“Because it feels like I’d be abandoning both my dignity as a human and my duty as an adult.”
“Huh? I don’t get it.”
Yeah, this wasn’t going to work.
Aslan decided to firmly put a stop to this.
No matter what, stepping on a child’s back with his feet…?
Just picturing it in his mind felt immoral and uncomfortably violent.
This is something my conscience just cannot allow.
I am not some beast swayed by desire.
The absolute limit of what my conscience and good nature would permit in handling children was… a dog food bowl at best.
“It’s a shame, but oh well. I’ll just settle for a regular massage.”
“Yeah… Thanks for being satisfied with that…”
With that, Charlotte finally gave up, hugging a pillow as she lay down peacefully.
Starting from her arms, Aslan slowly began massaging her.
“Your muscles really are stiff… So you weren’t just faking it.”
“Eh!? You thought I was faking!?”
Now that he was actually massaging her, Aslan could understand why Charlotte had seemed so drained.
Her body, which was usually soft and pliant, was now unusually tense.
Her entire body had stiffened, almost like she had body aches from accumulated fatigue.
Had her muscles never had a chance to tense up before because she was constantly swinging her sword?
It seemed that after setting aside her Super Super Strong Sword and taking a break from training, all of her built-up fatigue had come crashing down on her at once.
Of course, it wasn’t too serious.
A few days of proper rest and she’d recover just fine.
Considering the insane amount of training she’d endured so far, the real mystery was how she had only now started showing signs of exhaustion.
“Relieve the strength in your body.”
“Relax your body.”
“Ughh… This is me relaxing….”
“Relax more. If you don’t, you’ll get hurt.”
“Yes…”
“You’re still young, so I won’t go too hard. Besides, your recovery speed is far superior to any massage I could give.”
“Heheh. But, Mister, your massages do more than just loosen up muscles, you know?”
Aslan, surprisingly serious and meticulous, continued massaging Charlotte’s body.
Meanwhile, Charlotte, looking completely melted and relaxed, seemed to have all of her fatigue drained away.
“S-So shameless… Seriously…”
“Uwaahh….”
Both Julia and Yuri struggled to cool down their blushing faces.
At first, Aslan had looked flustered by Charlotte’s antics, but—
Somewhere along the way, he had stopped paying any attention to them and was just fully focused on massaging.
Julia had planned to keep calling him shameless, accusing him of being a p*rvert, and berating him until he stopped—
But seeing the serious concentration on Aslan’s face, she found that she just couldn’t.
Still, even if she couldn’t badmouth him outright, she desperately wanted him to stop the massage for some reason…
‘Ah… I kind of… want one too…? Huh!?’
Jealousy.
Yes. This was definitely jealousy.
In the past, she would have felt ashamed of such a petty emotion and scolded herself for it.
But now?
‘Ugh! That damn Charlotte! She’s smirking at me again!’
Julia had no room for guilt anymore.
Not when Charlotte was deliberately provoking her, practically telling her to be jealous.
And really, what was wrong with feeling jealousy?
They were rivals, after all.
Charlotte had even managed to get Aslan to agree to marry her (…even if it was just a verbal promise),
which meant Charlotte was officially a competitor now!
Aslan probably just saw it as childish teasing, but they were dead serious.
In the end, only one of them would actually get to marry Aslan.
Thinking about that made Julia’s frustration, jealousy, and competitive spirit all mix together, bubbling up furiously.
‘But why does it have to be Aslan!? I’m great at massages too!’
While Julia was fuming, Yuri was practically dying of jealousy.
She watched Aslan massage Charlotte, feeling like she might just explode from envy.
She had wanted to massage Charlotte herself.
She had wanted to touch Charlotte’s soft, fair skin.
To soothe her stiff muscles.
To hear those occasional small sighs up close.
And yet—
Why was Aslan the one doing it instead of her!?
Charlotte had spent half her life with Yuri, but she was letting a man she had only known for a year touch her first!?
The sheer betrayal made Yuri so anxious that she started biting her nails nervously.
