CH extra 23

“I have it. I was waiting with the door unlocked so that you could come in as you pleased.”

Yvnes didn’t give her a proper answer.

Yves, who was happy to see Shuraina after so long, just wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“Come in.”

“…..”

Shuraina shrugged off Yves’ arms and pouted as she entered his home, annoyed that he had fooled her.

His residence had two floors–the first, which was being used as an office, and the second floor, where he ate and slept.

Shuraina placed all of her items and request-related documents on his desk with familiarity and then took a seat on the sofa.

“Seeing as you’re not leaving right away, you have something to talk to me about, right?”

“yes.”

And then, somehow, she was on Yves’ lap, and she was eating the food that he was feeding her.

Yves gripped his arms around Shuraina’s waist tighter. Shuraina coughed. It wasn’t enough to make her uncomfortable, but she complained that she was to make him loosen his grip.

Being hugged like this was already pretty familiar so it didn’t matter, but she was concerned about the fact that he only had on a simple gown. He had pajamas on under it, right? She kept on getting distracted, so Shuraina tried to focus on the food that Yves was giving her.

“Yves. So I recently made a product using some of the mind properties of black magic.”

Shuraina took out her product explanation document and held in front of Yves as she explained it. Yves looked at the documents before speaking.

“Do you want me to distribute it? How much are you planning for the price?”

Shuraina’s hair was up in a neat ponytail, so her neck was completely exposed. Seeing Shuraina chatting away on his lap made him feel dazed. He stretched out his hand, pretended to touch her hair, and swept his thumb on the nape of her neck.

The lower his hand went, the more he wanted to feel Shuraina’s warmth. Her skin under her clothes were warmer, so he wanted to touch it–but any further and she would refuse.

Yves brought his hand back and focused on the text on the paper.

Shuraina was too used to Yves’ touch. His touches were becoming more seductive, but she didn’t even realize it because of how small the changes were.

Shuraina skimmed through the documents she had brought over. She focused on her work, uncaring if Yves touched her or not. Shuraina took out a pen and paper and calculated something before speaking out loud.

“300 gold.”

“Ooh.”

“It’s pretty expensive, but it’s still pretty reasonable. You know how mind-related products are rare because there’s a limited amount of people who could use black and white magic? And I’m the only one who could use mind-related magic to create products in the entire continent. It’s rare, so it has to add to the price. If you think about it, 300 gold is perfect.”

When she counted out her reasons on her hands, Yves grabbed her fingers and shook it. Don’t worry, I can make sure it sells out for even more. Yves put his face close to hers and said, smirking.

“Shushu, are you wanting to officially sell magic products again?”

“Yes. Right before I join the knights, that is.”

“Should I make Shunivalen your brand name?”

“Mm…..yes.”

Yvnes read through the product information in her hands. A product that let you see your dreams like a movie, a product that detected lies and more–there were products with incredible capabilities. The possibilities were incredible. 300 gold was the prefect price, but he could call up to 1,500 gold if he wanted.

But if he wanted to call that price, they needed to change up the design. The colors were off, and the design deducted from the overall look of the product. It looked like a children’s toy.

“Shuraina. What do you think about hiring a designer? The general color and design of the product makes the device look cheap. If we’re considering that the upper-class is the main customer for this product, we need to make it look more luxurious.”

“And you’re planning on raising the price?”

“Mhm. I feel like we can add a premium and sell it for more. All of the Shunivalen products thus far were useful, but the designs were a bit…. It was too based on efficiency, which a lot of customers weren’t pleased about. But if we put the price too high from the beginning, nobody will buy it, so let’s draft a list of all the people who will need your products and let them borrow it for a few days. But marketing aside, the design is the main problem.”

She had just suggested it, but seeing Yvnes earnestly think about it made her happy. She wriggled her toes in joy. She liked how straightforward he was.

“My design is trash.”

“Then I’ll look for a designer.”

Yves kept touching Shuraina’s hair with her still on his lap. He soon pulled her into a hug and stood from his seat.

“But why are you taking me to the second floor?”

“I had a nightmare.”

“Oh, no, so what?”

“The guild leader came out, so I’m in a pretty bad mood.”

“Oh no.”

Yvnes liked how he could use the tattered remains of his dark past, the one that he didn’t feel anything about, like this. Whenever he mentioned the guild leader, Shuraina became a bit more lenient. Oh, it was true that he dreamed of him though. And it was true that he was in a bad mood, too.

The small child in his arms rolled her emotionless eyes for a bit before patting his back twice. She looked slightly worried.

“Stay with me ’til the morning. I’ll just hug you.”

He placed her on the bed and stuck close to her.

“I put some ciabatta in the oven before I left. It’s going to get cold.”

Shuraina rocked her legs on the bed as she worried, dreaming of the ciabatta. She swallowed her drool. She meant she wanted to go home.

Yves, taken aback by her words, just raised an eyebrow.

“Just ciabatta?”

Yves took Shuraina to another room. He didn’t even like food, but he had a separate food storage area. When she looked around the storage room, she understood why he said ‘just’ ciabatta.

Wheat bread, grain bread, baguette…..

Cambert cheese, cheddar cheese, gouda cheese, and more…..

There were jams for various fruit, nut jams, and even chocolate jam. The snacks were organized by size and color. Pasta was displayed in various types, too. All of them were preserved by magic to make sure they didn’t go bad.

And he had wine, organized by type. It seemed like Yves, who disliked food, drank wine. A lot of the wine display was empty. Shuraina focused more on the food than the wine, though. She could see the neatly organized snacks in that corner. She wanted something salty.

“I, I’ll just stay here.”

Yves laughed lowly and internally thanked himself for making a food storage room, just in case. He only drank some wine and other drinks in here, but he needed something to make sure Shuraina stayed when she came over. This was a good choice.

Yves saw that Shuraina’s attention was focused on the snack corner and placed a variety of snacks in her arms based on size and color.

“Please understand even if I spill things here and there. I’ll clean everything with some cleaning magic.”

“It’s okay. I’ll clean up.”

The snack drawn on the red bag seemed tastiest, so she ripped it open first. She could smell the savory smell of potato chips. Shuraina began eating.

Yves’ eyes were still on Shuraina. She was cute with her cheeks puffed up like that. She was just like a puppy when she acted like this, but her generally cautious attitude reminded him of a cat. But she looked like a chipmunk when she ate. NO, a hamster.

“You have some around your mouth.”

He was staring at her cheeks, still a bit plump with baby fat, when he saw snack dust around her small mouth.

He stretched out his hand to wipe the crumbs off.

But Shuraina frowned as she saw Yves’ hand come towards her, so she licked the crumbs around her mouth. She accidentally licked Yves’ finger too.

“Ah, blegh.”

The small, red tongue licked both crumps and Yves’ finger. Yves stared at his thumb, where Shuraina’s tongue had brushed by, before his lips stiffened.

He wrapped his arm around Shuraina’s shoulder as she was engrossed in the food, then leaned onto her. He raised his ears and touched her red earlobe before speaking lowly.

“But Shushu, you’re dirty from going into the doghouse, so do you want to wash up?”

Yves added, ‘Use my shower room.’ slowly.

“Sure, sure. I’ll understand because you’re so neat. You’d be annoyed about dog poop getting on your bed.”

Shuraina stared at her state–she was a mess from all the dirt and snack crumbs on her before nodding. Yves was kind of a neat freak, so of course he’d be concerned about her getting into his bed like this. No, everyone would be annoyed about it.

Shuraina was just that dirty right now.

“Here, some change of clothes and a towel.”

“Thanks.”

Shuraina took the clothes and towel from Yves and went directly to the shower room. Everything else was pretty price-conscious, but his shower room was massive.

He liked clean things, so did he like baths, too? He had shampoos and conditioners laid out by scent. He had body washes by scent, too. Damn. Swanhaden wasn’t lying when he called Yves a pervert. Seeing his food storage so organized, too. There were a lot of interesting things that she learned from his everyday life.

‘He’d be great as a convenience store employee.’

Shuraina thought as she took off her clothes.

She had a variety of scents to choose from, but Shuraina was too lazy to pick so the chose the one closest to her. She just used as much as she wanted and just slathered it on her body.

‘It smells like Yves…..’

It seemed like Yves had used this particular scent recently. No wonder it was so close. She could smell his scent on her. It was a mature and adult-like scent.

Shuraina wrapped up her shower and, before putting on the clothes Yves gave her, checked the state of her muscles. She hadn’t exercised recently, so her abs were a bit harder to see. Damn. What a loss.

The pajamas that Yves gave her was a dress. It was incredibly soft and comfortable. It had been one of the clothes that he had tried to give Shuraina as a gift but she had flat-out rejected. Shuraina was short, so the skirt dragged on the floor slightly.

Shuraina wrapped the towel around her hair before letting it down. She left the bathroom, shaking the water out of her hair. Her hair covered her eyes and she almost tripped as she stepped on the hem of her dress.

“It would’ve been funny if you tripped like this.”

“……”

“Follow me. I’ll help you dry your hair.”

Just as she almost tripped, Yves caught her. His long, delicate fingers pulled her hair back, exposing her face.

T/N: we’re literally in the second chapter of Yves’ ending and she’s already STAYING THE NIGHT???????