Today, again in the young lady’s peaceful room.

Sunshine brightly illuminating the window at 3 pm.

The young lady, who would usually be napping at this time, had parted ways with her afternoon slumbers after the private tutor’s visit and was now sitting in a chair for the first time in quite a while.

The young lady surveyed the room like a cat.

Perhaps in anticipation of another private tutor’s visit, aiming to educate her—a young lady known for her reactions.

Wrapped cozily in her blanket and seated at the table, she was exceptionally alert to even the slightest movements.

If there was a rustling sound, she would startle.
If she heard a whispering sound, she would hide her head under the blanket.
When the shadows of trees swayed in the wind, she would scream ‘eek’ and call for me.

The young lady, snug in her blanket roll, pointed with her finger at a black button that had fallen to the floor and spoke to me.

“Ricardo, look over there…”
“Yes?”
“Is that… a cockroach?”

I bent down to pick up the black button.

“Oh…”

Peering out from under the blanket, the young lady showed a scared face that inevitably made me want to tease her.

I stood still, looking at the button.

How could I tease her? I needed to find a way to playfully startle her without resorting to lies, as the young lady would quickly catch on to any obvious tricks.

After careful observation and with a brilliant idea sprouting in my mind, I concealed an emerging chuckle and addressed the young lady.

“Something quite large has fallen here.”
“Large…?”
“Yes, wonder where this came from… whoa…”

I shook my head in feigned disbelief and clenched my hand holding the button. As I made a ‘snap!’ sound that seemed rather menacing, the young lady made a bizarre noise and flipped the blanket over her.

“EEEK… WAAAH!!”

I reached out my hand as if nothing was amiss and unfurled my palm to show her the broken pieces of the button.

“It was just a button that fell.”

The young lady glared at me.

“Don’t joke around.”
“But it’s not a joke…”
“Liar.”

The young lady stuck out her lips, sulking, her gaze seething with silent rebuke.

Just as the corners of my mouth threatened to rise at her adorable expression, the quick-witted young lady promptly warned me not to laugh and then declared to me.

“From now on, words starting with ‘bar’ are forbidden.”
“Cockroach.”
“Eeek!!!”

She hurled a fork from the table at me.

*

Today is the day to make bath additives.

Together with the young lady who had sacrificed her nap, we were embarking on a day of creativity for the first time in a long while.

On the desk lay the ingredients for making bath additives and an opened volume of a substantial book.

[DIY Bath Additives for Everyone!]

A book filled with detailed illustrations and dense explanations on how to craft bath additives.

The young lady and I, both furrowing our brows as we read the instructions, found the content more challenging than we had expected. We were scratching our heads in thought.

“Um… one spoon of citric acid, five spoons of food dye?”
“No, it’s just one spoon.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”

The young lady and I concentrated intently on adding the ingredients to the prepared beaker, as if we were lab researchers crafting cosmetics.

Dressed in white coats and safety goggles, ready for any accidental mishaps, our clumsy get-up was no different from that of complete novices.

The desk housed a variety of items.

The powders and beaker that would form the primary material of the bath additives.
The fragrances to enhance them and the molds to set them.

Though a novice’s attempt at crafting might be clumsy, it was just the right setup to soothe the young lady’s heart, injured from the visit of the private tutor.

Upon seeing the bath bomb prototype we completed, the young lady’s eyes went round with amazement.

[Apple-Scented Bath Bomb]

“Wow…!”

It appeared we had done a better job than anticipated.

The colors and the round shape had formed; despite being a novice’s work, an impressively plausible creation had been birthed.

“Is it finished?”
“Yes, I’ve made it according to the book so far…”
“Oooh!”

The young lady, holding a new beaker, blew on it as if to cool it down. Her urge to create seemed to overflow.

I smiled slightly and suggested to the lady.

“Let’s each try making one now.”

-Nod, nod.

“I might be clumsy since it’s my first time making one…”

Before she even finished her sentence, the young lady had thrown off the blanket and began tossing ingredients into the beaker.

Laughing mischievously as she haphazardly added whatever caught her fancy, the young lady’s expression was like that of an alchemist mad with elixir experimentation.

“Hehehe… my very own bath bomb.”

An hour later…

Smoke was rising from the young lady’s beaker.

A beaker billowing black smoke, with bubbling froth; what had she concocted? An ominous feeling crept over me.

Hoping against hope, I rubbed my eyes and looked at the beaker, but the sight remained unchanged.

The young lady had been adding all sorts of things into it.

She plucked chocolate from her treasure pouch, plopped it in with a contented smile, and then, squeezing toothpaste into it, she nodded her head in satisfaction.

Staring at her, I felt like I was watching a witch brew poison, so I asked her.

“Is that a poison?”
Zap. The young lady stared at me piercingly.

“It’s not poison.”
“Looks like poison to anyone else.”

The young lady shook her head and replied.

“Vanilla ginseng mint chocolate bath bomb.”
“Excuse me…?”
“It tastes like toothpaste, you see. So, mint chocolate.”
“Why did you put in ginseng?”
“It makes you healthy.”

The young lady was indeed creating an unfathomable piece of art. Mixing chocolate and toothpaste made a certain sense, but ginseng… perhaps that addition was a bit off. Or maybe, it was actually a brilliant idea.

She puffed up her chest proudly with oddly convincing confidence that this could actually work—like a green tea bath is said to improve skin health.

On reflection, what the young lady said seemed to have merit. After all, great creations often come from mistakes.

The young lady, with a look of pride, extended the beaker to me.

“Ricardo, you use this.”
“That’s a bit…”
“Why?”

I declined politely.

No matter how significant the invention, its safety needs to be confirmed. Bathing with that concoction could deteriorate one’s health rather than improve the skin.

The young lady, with a look of regret, bid farewell to the departed Bath Additive No. 2 and began crafting a new one.

I should be making one, too…

Gazing at the empty beaker, I found myself lost in thought.

Watching the young lady burn with artistic passion, I hadn’t managed to make anything myself. Pondering what to create, I drummed my fingers on the table.

What to make?

Rose extract could be used to make a rose-scented bath additive, or perhaps something with chocolate, the young lady’s favorite, to craft another variety of bath additive.

Moved by a rising desire to create, I began to pour ingredients into a small beaker.

Just one ingredient seemed insufficient.

I tried adding ginseng.
I tried adding deer antler velvet.
I even tried adding a potion.

Before I knew it, in my frenzy, I had concocted a purple-hued poison.

The young lady sighed deeply upon seeing the bath additive I had made.

“Ricardo, you’ll die if you eat that.”
“It’s not meant to be eaten.”
“…Still, you’ll die.”

She was a straightforward young lady.

I sprinkled some sparkling powder into the bath additive, flashing a triumphant smile as if asking, “Doesn’t this look pretty?” But to the young lady, an expert in bath additives, both the brown swirl of mint chocolate and the sparkling poison seemed to look the same.

Once upon a time, she used to love beautiful things…

I felt both proud and regretful at the young lady’s growth.

It didn’t take long for a plausible-looking bath additive to be created.

Maybe three hours passed. Not yet completely solidified, but sufficiently set to be usable, the bath additives stretched long across the table.

The glow of the rose, chocolate, and medicinal bath additive bore a satisfying smile on my face.

I had been feeling upset ever since my meeting with Michail, but after spending some time creating, it seemed to help lighten my mood.

“Oh…!”

The young lady leaned her chin on the table and patiently waited for the bath additives to harden. As she constantly poked and questioned when it would solidify, a smile involuntarily crept onto my face.

It was a peaceful moment.

So peaceful and cozy, it didn’t remind me of the troubles from a week ago.

Feeling somewhat sentimental about my job choice of being a butler, I gave the young lady a gentle smile and asked her.

“Lady.”
“Hm?”
“Would you like to take a bath?”

She paused.

The young lady stopped toying with the warm, hardening bath additive and looked up at me. Her excited eyes seeming as if she was ready to strip down right there and then.

“A bath?”
“Yes.”
“A bath…?”

The young lady nodded her head vigorously.

“I want to.”

Before departing to the mansion’s bathhouse, the young lady gestured me to come closer, as if she had some secret to tell.

Leaning in, she began to stroke my hair as I brought my ear close to her. Running her fingers through my ginger hair as though petting a dog, she smiled.

But what seemed like comforting touches turned into a sharp pain, as she audaciously plucked a tuft of my hair.

An awkward look passed between us.

Our eyes met—hers expressing surprise for taking so much hair, mine feeling betrayed.

“Eh…?”

The young lady awkwardly looked at the bunch of hair in her hand and smiled.

With a “Heh!” she beamed cheerily. Laughter escaped me, too.

“Why are you pulling people’s hair? It hurts…”
“Does it hurt?”

Her alarmed response to my comment about pain had me shaking my head rapidly, denying it. I had to be careful with my words.

The young lady blew breath onto her palm bandaged hand as if I was hurt there.

“But that wasn’t where it hurt.”
“I just wanted to do it.”
“Oh…”

Curiously, it was rather nice.

The young lady then added the plucked hair into a new beaker and proceeded to craft another bath additive.

Looking contented, she announced.

“This will be Ricardo-scented bath additive.”
“…No.. Ha!”

I couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

A “Ricardo-scented” bath additive? I wasn’t sure it would ever be used. Her innocent act of making bath additives from a few strands of hair made me pluck a few strands of her hair in return.

As I grasped about three strands of her long hair, the young lady teared up while rubbing the sore spot on her scalp.

“It hurts.”
“That’s the intention of plucking it.”

Eek. The young lady, with a clenched fist, was about to throw a stick in her hand at me. I dodged the incoming stick and placed her hair into the concoction she had labeled “Ricardo bath additive.”

“This will be the Lady’s bath additive.”
“Oh…!”

The young lady held the beaker up, a wide smile on her face.

She seemed pleased with it.

If only it could stay like this…

I murmured to the empty air with a small sigh.

“Sigh…”

-A quest has appeared.

[Rescue Yuria.]

The situation was not in my favor.