Master’s Smile

Chapter 20

“Master, over here!”

Laladi felt as if she could skip. Why? Because she was finally outside with the Master, of course!

The other members of Yelquchira, each one of whom was consistently keen on clinging to the Master, weren’t here. Even Sorglos wasn’t around, that repulsive stalker.

How could this day get any better for her?

While the Master’s expression would imply that he was simply humoring her, he nevertheless walked behind Laladi as she slowly toddled onwards. Both of them finally reached the forests that were just outside the guild grounds.

Somewhere within these forests was an astoundingly beautiful bed of flowers. In a rather unexpected turn of events, Laladi wasn’t the one to lead the both of them there. Instead, the Master was.

He had told Laladi that there was a place he knew, one that might make her day. She had only needed to follow without a care, and there it was. It looked amazing.

Any place would be fun for Laladi if the Master were around, of course. But now that they’d come to a place this special, there was really nothing else left to do but to entrust her entire future to him.

“Ooomph!”

Laladi, much too dazed by her own chuckling, missed a step and fell to the ground. It was her own fault, really. Her species wasn’t made up of the most adept walkers as it was, and here she’d gone and tried to frolic about. It mattered little in the end, as the earth beneath her was covered with soft flowers and other such vegetation. She didn’t even hurt herself, much less get injured.

“Ehehe… Really shouldn’t do stuff Lala’s not used to, huh?”

When the Master came over and picked her up, Laladi’s shame had tinted her cheeks red. While she only appeared embarrassed on the surface, in her mind, being held by the Master was enough reason to panic.

It was hard to deny her constant scheming of how she might come to bear his children, but that changed little in that it was kept in constant tandem with a much more childlike, much more innocent personality.

“Yep!”

When the Master proposed that they begin her walking training, Laladi, having no reason to refuse, nodded her head. The Master took her by her little hand and guided her across the flowerbed.

The Master, well aware of her disadvantages with walking about and just how hard this kind of training was for her, had chosen this place so that she may, at the very least, get some enjoyment out of the scenery. The gesture was wasted, for the most part, seeing how Laladi chose instead to look up at his profile.

This was the first the Master had left the guild in quite some time, and his smile, though fairly usual, saw a slight increase in its radiance. As far as Laladi was concerned, seeing him like this was satisfactory enough.

“Phew… Phew…”

While the walking itself labored her breathing, the bare notion that Laladi was out and moving about with the Master was enough to let her expression glow. Once they had spent some time training her to walk, they decided on a short period of rest.

“Phew… Lala’s so beat…”

Laladi was sitting on the Master’s lap, wiping away her sweat. She had, perhaps due to the Master’s presence alongside her, struggled to her limits.

She looked up at him, wishing to be pampered. He correctly deduced what she wanted and, much to her delight, stroked her head. While the sweat almost made the experience shameful, the sensation of having her head petted trumped any embarrassment.

The Master spoke to her, praising that she had not once complained and that she had really done her best. That was a given, of course; why would she ever complain during a date?

“Mnnnh… this is making Lala sleepy…”

Laladi gave an adorable, wide yawn as she continued to sit on the Master’s lap. The flowers smelled wonderful, and the temperature was just right.

All of that, added to the fact that she had just finished exercising, made it only natural for a spell of drowsiness to overcome her. She closed her eyes and began nodding off.

“Oh, right. Lala made lunch today.”

While she was on the brink of falling asleep, she remembered that one, vital thing and snapped awake, clearing away any tiredness in the process.

Laladi used her powers, and a large flower sprung up from the earth. Its petals opened, displaying an arrangement of baskets that had been stored inside.

The Master, rarely ever finding himself in a situation where he could see Laladi’s abilities for himself, stared at the flower curiously. He could, of course, simply ask to see a display of her powers. Why, she was perfectly willing to show him anything. He didn’t even have to ask.

She shook her head, chasing away all those naughty thoughts.

“W-Why don’t you have some, Master?”

Laladi never faltered, not even when facing the many, many monsters of Yelquchira. And yet here she was, her heart almost leaping out of her chest.

The Master asked if she would mind.

“Of course not! Lala made this so you could eat too, you know… Lala’s not like Reese or Vampir; She doesn’t gorge herself; she only eats a little.”

The Master gave her a joyous smile when she responded. Laladi, having seen his smile, was even happier.

She was in such high spirits that she could say things about Reese and Vampir that would have made them rage, had they heard. Well, they weren’t here. Laladi could say anything she wanted.

“Tadaaah!”

Laladi opened a basket, showing a selection of tasty-looking sandwiches that she had put inside. The other basket displayed a juicy green salad.

The Master’s eyes sparkled when he looked at them. He then told Laladi just what he thought of it all, namely that he found it looked extremely delicious.

While Laladi hadn’t necessarily doubted that she’d made a proper meal, his words nevertheless put her at ease. She had, after all, no intentions of feeding the Master something he didn’t like the looks of.

Not that she’d be against including a small amount of bodily fluids or hair. Neither would anyone else, for that matter.

But enough about that. Laladi stared at the Master, her heart racing.