...
Among the many horse girls splashing water, Taiki Shuttle and Air Groove splashed the hardest.
One was repaying a favor, the other was taking revenge.
In the end, it was only when T.M. Opera O started playing energetic music to warm up the crowd that the horse girls dispersed and Lucian was finally freed.
"Hiss... They really went all out one after another." Lucian kept blinking his water-soaked eyes, which stung a little, as if someone had sprinkled fine salt into them.
"Lucian-kun?" Silence Suzuka noticed the abnormality first. She swam over and looked at him in astonishment. "Your eyes... are a bit red."
"How did this happen?" Silence Suzuka's voice trembled with anxiety. "I thought everyone was just joking..."
But she couldn't blame anyone, because at the time she had thought the same as everyone else—it was just a joke.
"It's nothing, Suzuka don't worry." Lucian glanced around. The sky was gradually darkening, and the horizon was a melancholic shade of blue.
This water park was the only entertainment facility here open until ten at night.
When no one was paying attention, he gently rubbed Silence Suzuka's head. "It's really fine. It'll be better in a while."
Silence Suzuka was still uneasy. "Okay, I won't go anywhere. I'll just stay beside you and watch for a bit."
"Good. Let's go find them together."
...
The streetlights around the pool had all turned on.
The host lowered the restless music. Electronic notes gently trembled on the water surface, and red and blue interwoven lights wandered along the bottom of the pool, drawing everyone's gaze.
"Ladies and gentlemen, aha~"
"Let us dance in the water with the rhythm. Next, a giant wave will wash away everyone's troubles and fatigue from the day. Are you all ready?"
"Ready!"
The tourists in the pool shouted in unison.
The next moment, the distant water surface rose into a long ridge, then surged forward like an unstoppable water wall, crossing the warning line and rushing over with ferocious momentum.
Screams rose and fell one after another. Some people were lifted to the crest of the wave, the sky tilting in their vision; others sank to the trough, their ears filled with dull roaring...
"Lucian-kun!" Silence Suzuka instinctively wanted to turn back and grab Lucian's hand, but the powerful wave forcefully separated the two of them.
"Glug glug——"
After one round, Silence Suzuka emerged from the water, but Lucian's figure was nowhere to be seen.
She could only sigh and puff out her cheeks. "Mou—— honestly..."
...
On the other side.
Lucian, who had been washed away, poked his head out from underwater, only to be startled by a mass of hair floating and spreading out like a jellyfish.
He instinctively leaned backward. "What the—!?"
The next moment, the "jellyfish" contracted, revealing a half-face underneath that carried surprise. "Trainer?"
The afterglow of the waves gently rocked their bodies.
Lucian wiped the water from his face. "Ines? Why were you washed over here too?"
"If Trainer can explain why... then I can explain why too." Ines Fujin floated up a little more, fully exposing her mouth and nose.
But everything below her shoulders remained hidden underwater, as if deliberately maintaining a certain delicate balance.
"Alright, alright, let's not talk about anything else first." Lucian looked at her in confusion. "What are you doing right now? Planning to fall a few more times like this morning?"
Ines Fujin immediately retorted, "How is that possible? I can swim, okay!"
"Really? Do you want me to get you two life jackets?" Lucian remembered that the first time he went into the water he had worn two life jackets before freely roaming the deep end.
"No need..." Her voice suddenly dropped a few degrees, her gaze drifting as if embarrassed to speak. "I just need Trainer to help me a little."
"What's wrong?"
"It came off."
"Huh?"
"...The string."
Lucian was stunned, then immediately understood.
The atmosphere instantly became somewhat subtle.
He cleared his throat and tried to sound as natural as possible. "Should I dive down to help you?"
"Okay." Ines Fujin's voice was as quiet as a mosquito.
She had just wanted to turn around when she heard the host's excited announcement—
"The second wave is already brewing! Everyone get ready!"
"Wait!" Ines Fujin stopped him.
"How about we go to the shore instead?"
The two of them spoke in unison and were both stunned for a moment.
Without wasting any time, they immediately swam toward the nearest shore.
...
Leaving the brightly lit pool, the two escaped under the cover of night.
Fortunately, almost everyone was still in the pool and the various entertainment facilities had basically stopped operating, so no one noticed them.
Ines Fujin covered her chest with one hand. "Tra... Otouto, please."
Lucian suddenly felt that Ines Fujin wasn't actually shy.
He moved behind Ines Fujin. Two black strings hung down at her waist like withered flower stems. "Looks like the quality isn't very good."
"Why don't you just say that Ines-nee's figure is too good?"
Droplets of water that had not yet dried slid from the tips of her hair and shattered into thousands of moons in the puddles on the ground.
Ines Fujin's breathing was very steady, and her words carried a hint of teasing amusement.
Indeed, she wasn't shy.
"Yes yes yes, Ines-nee has the best figure~" Lucian's Adam's apple bobbed as he skillfully tied the string. "Done."
But Ines Fujin had not lied. He had indeed felt a sense of tightness.
The tiny thin string was bearing pressure it shouldn't have to bear at this age. It was only natural for it to occasionally come loose.
"So fast?" Ines Fujin slowly lowered her hand. "Little brother, how are you so experienced?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Experience."
"Oh, experience." Lucian lowered his head slightly, wondering if water had gotten into his ears. "This thing isn't hard, is it? Just pull and tie, that's all."
"So that's how it is..." Ines Fujin tilted her head skeptically, then suddenly leaned forward. "You called me 'Ines-nee' again just now. How about it? Are you gradually getting used to this way of addressing me?"
"If you're willing to pay me cash, I'm willing to call you that every day~"
"How much?"
"Shouldn't you refuse?" Lucian thought he had grasped Ines Fujin's weak spot as a little money-grubber, but she directly asked for the price.
"Isn't making money just for spending? If I had money... I would keep my little brother." Ines Fujin's voice gradually grew softer, but it remained within the range where Lucian could clearly hear it.
The softer tone wasn't because of shyness; rather, whispering seemed to more easily breed temptation.
"Then Ines-nee would have to work several jobs a day again."
"It's fine. Just treat it as my little brother helping me take care of my little sisters at home."
"Forget it. It'd be more like me keeping you."
"That... is not impossible either." The corners of Ines Fujin's mouth curved into a sly smile.
...