房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

Benevirau and Miriette were easy enough to convince – Zoemi merely mentioned that he needs their help and they both immediately agreed with no questions asked.

With them, the only thing left was to explain what exactly they have to be ready for.

Aspaekony was a slightly different matter though.

"What? Hold on – you want me to just go and take all of my corpse puppets and sent them to die or something? Ghosts of Bellcpehora are the single group that you don\'t want to fight with numbers! Do you expect me to try and crush them with the overall weight of all my puppets or something? Because that would be the best shot, considering what those traitors have at their disposal!"

The gray-haired necromancer scoffed and raised her foot above the plushies and pillows she was buried in and pointed her toes at the black-haired boy with accusation.

"Come on. Please?

Zoemi stepped towards her drawer and kneeled by it, grabbing her foot and holding it as if it was the girl\'s hand, offering to be kissed.

"I.. wha... wai... no.. wait... hold on...?"

The sudden skinship seemed to shortcircuit the girl\'s brain as she suddenly got incredibly embarrassed for some reason, and burrowed herself deeper in the plushies and pillows, so that only the upper half of her face with big gray eyes, and the leg that the black-haired boy was holding, was visible above.

|I kind of suspected it already, but it seems that our Aspaekony is the same as the one from that other timeline. She does have a thing for me~|

|Say\'s the man who has trouble keeping it together when she is around.|

Zoemi thought to himself with relief, and the original personality scoffed at him in disbelief.

|Hey! I... I don\'t have anything to defend myself, so I will ignore the matter for now.|

The black-haired boy ended up also blushing slightly once his actions and feelings were pointed out like that, and he certainly wasn\'t going to deny it, but he sure wasn\'t willing to talk about it in detail.

|I am not saying that it\'s a bad thing. If it\'s for my master\'s sake, I don\'t see anything wrong with any approach. Go on, boy. Seduce her to your heart\'s content. Although...|

|Alright! Seriously! I am not trying to trick her or anything – I explained things like they are!|

The original personality was very transparent about his intentions, although by the end it seemed that it was hesitating a little bit – Zoemi was embarrassed enough as it was, so he didn\'t let him finish and talk over him before returning back to the real world.

"...h-hold on... I... it\'s been a long time since I... I need time to prepare my heart..."

"...?"

And back in said word, Aspakeony was looking to the side with extreme embarrassment and muttered shyly while stealing cute glances at Zoemi\'s face.

At first, the black-haired boy didn\'t realize what it was about, after all, he didn\'t expect getting her foot held was one of the necromancer\'s kinks, but then he realized that while he was talking with the original personality inside his head, he was focusing on a single point.

On the plushies and pillows-covered spot right by the base of the gray-haired girl\'s leg...

|Shit! I made I look like I am in heat or something...!|

Zoemi gasped internally and used up a lot of his strong will to not pull back immediately after noticing.

"Will you help me out, Aspie? I would be... more than grateful if you did."

Bracing himself for what he was about to do next, he started leaning in toward the gray-haired necromancer.

"You don\'t need to risk your life or even all of your corpse puppet. What we need is more eyes to keep everyone safe. If the fighting will really start, we need someone to evacuate the entire royal castle immediately – maybe even a part of the capital too. My sentinels are necessary during the fight and there are too few now to carry out that task... As for the King\'s Guard, just them teleporting people away would also be too slow. But you and your corpse puppet are a different matter. You do have quite a lot of light magicians at your service, don\'t you?"

The black-haired boy was leaning in closer and closer.

He wasn\'t pushing Aspakony\'s leg in front of him, but after letting go of her foot he let her calf rest on his shoulder and was sliding closer and closer to the girl\'s face...

...until he was supporting himself against the side of the drawer, mere inches away from the large silver-gray eyes gazing straight at him without even blinking...

"...you... you can hire mercenaries – or ask some nobles for help..."

The gray-haired necromancer gulped down her saliva and hesitated, glancing down – not in shame but rather at Zoemi\'s body – before speaking up in a voice that suggested she was only a few seconds from giving in.

"Relying on all of them to act for the common good is not the wisest option. There will be at least a few that would try to use the situation to their advantage and leave their political opponent or just someone that they don\'t like to die. In that case, the blame would be pushed back onto us or even worse, Horeo. That is what we need to prevent. That\'s why we need you. That\'s why I need you, Aspie."

"...!"

Zoemi shook his head and looked into Aspaekony\'s eyes, delivering lines with the perfect amount of theatrics but keeping it tame enough to not sound cheesy – and judging by how the girl\'s eyes trembled, it did work out as intended.

"Aspie..."

"F-fine...!"

Carefully calculating his chances, the black-haired boy gulped down his saliva and spoke in a low, raspy voice – and as if it was the straw that broke the camel\'s back, the gray-haired necromancer gave in and cried out, while completely burrowing herself in the plushies, hiding from the black-haired boy\'s sight.

"Aspie?"

Zoemi blinked a few times and asked, slowly straightening his back, wondering whether he should reach out and excavate the hiding necromancer from her soft and fluffy hiding spot.

"I said I will help you out! If the Ghosts of Bellcephora will show up at the celebratory ball in the royal castle in a few days, My corpse puppets will teleport everyone to safety! You have my word!"

Although it was muffled by the plushies and pillows, the voice of the gray-haired necromancer carried all the embarrassment that the girl felt without any drop of adorableness.

If anything, the muffling effect made her even cuter.

"Thank you – if there\'s anything that I can...!"

*CLICK*

"Dad! Metavicero and both Roiso and Mirienne said they will definitely help!"

"But we will have to get them official ballroom dresses because those aren\'t part of their current wardrobe!"

Zoemi breathed out in relief and said without standing up from the drawer – but then the door to the headmaster\'s office opened with a soft sound and Ettemi and Oemir, Zoemi\'s two corpse puppet sentinels, busted in with a cheerful expression, carrying the good news.

"That\'s great. I was hoping for that. They will definitely mess with the Ghosts if they show up."

The black-haired boy stood up a little bit too fast to not be suspicious, but he was able to keep a straight ace and a calm voice well enough.

As for Aspakeony, she didn\'t even move an inch, making it seem like the drawer was just filled with plushies and pillows and nothing else.

"Dad, are you done talking with the lady you like?"

"Yeah! Didn\'t you say you want to go to the royal castle\'s treasury as soon as you can?"

The two sentinels asked, looking around curiously, even though they both knew full well where the necromancer was actually hiding.

"...!"

Funnily enough, the mention of the lady that Zoemi likes, caused some of the plushies and pillows to jump, which suggested the gray-haired girl flinched once she heard it, but Zoemi decided to not let her know that he noticed.

"We do. I really want to check up if things are the same in that regard too... not to mention I want to test something out."

The black-haired boy took a few deep breaths and nodded, before turning to his corpse puppet sentinels and smiling at them.

"We are indeed done here. We don\'t have much time but we have to prepare the best we can."

"We will~!"

"Don\'t worry, dad!"

Zoemi declared and the two sentinels nodded their heads in unison, cheerful as always.

"Aspie. See you around~!"

Zoemi turned around and waved his hand at the drawer, but before the gray-haired necromancer had a chance to respond, the two corpse puppet sentinels activated their spells and made all three of them disappear.

-----

The black-haired boy and his androgynous corpse puppet sentinels appeared in front of one of many passages in the royal palace.

"Ah, perfectly on time. My pleasure, lord Banemor, lord Banemor\'s entourage."

As soon as they did show up, a studious-looking red-haired woman who dressed in a way that made her look like a nice elderly lady from the bookstore in a rural town, but was definitely far too young to have the same aura around her, approached them.

"Lord Valto Yora Erest has been informed about your arrival and is expecting you. Now, if you may – please follow me."

The woman didn\'t introduce herself at all but was already walking down the hallway without even looking back.

Normally Zoemi would count that kind of behavior as rude, but seeing how tense her shoulders were and how much her knees were shaking while she was talking to him, the black-haired boy decided there was no need to add to her stress.

She will introduce herself later if she wants to, for the time being, she was fulfilling her role of taking him to the archives and the secret treasury according to the wishes of the new king.