From that point on, the Einzbern family began producing homunculi with Justeaze as the template.
Those magi clearly weren't satisfied with her. They wanted to create something even more perfect.
As if it were that easy.
Justeaze's very existence had only been possible with Laurent's help.
If anything had changed, it was this: the Einzbern family now had more and more homunculi with "humanity" in them. Some of them had even started joining the research team.
As for Justeaze herself, because they trusted Laurent—an existence like some kind of "ancestor"—they left her in his care.
More than once, they tried to take Justeaze for experiments. Laurent refused them flat-out every time.
In truth, only the Einzbern family knew who he really was. They had plenty of connections to the outside world, but Laurent only ever made occasional contact as a bystander.
And "in his care" didn't mean he did much for her, really.
All he'd done was teach her some common sense. A bit of basic knowledge.
And now Laurent was facing a maddening problem.
Every night, in the dead of night, Justeaze would crawl into his room and sleep under the same covers with him.
It was a pain. A huge pain.
Even if he locked the door, she'd use a little magecraft to open it—then sneak in and wriggle into his bed.
Laurent had warned her countless times. Every time, she'd look at him with innocent, harmless eyes and promise she wouldn't do it again.
And then, the very next night—
Thanks to her, what started as something he had to be careful about turned into something the magi simply accepted. They'd gotten used to seeing Justeaze walk out of his room with a we all understand look on their faces.
...
Tonight, Laurent came prepared.
He didn't sleep at all.
He lay on the bed with his eyes open, doing absolutely nothing.
This era didn't have phones, after all. Laurent was used to boredom by now. Honestly, if you couldn't learn to live with boredom when you were immortal, you'd go insane.
Sure enough, not long after, he heard subtle movement at the door.
Click.
A faint sound of the lock being picked, and the door cracked open a sliver.
Justeaze stepped in, expressionless.
The next second, her ankle brushed something like a red thread—
It snapped tight around her, coiling around her ankle in an instant, then yanking straight upward.
With a brief thud and a flurry of noise, Justeaze didn't even have time to process what was happening before she was flipped upside down—dangling by her foot.
"Ah!"
A small, startled cry slipped out.
Click.
The light came on. Laurent sat up on the bed, fully dressed, staring at her with dead-fish eyes.
Even upside down, Justeaze knew exactly who it was.
She raised a hand to cover under her skirt.
Because she was in sleepwear, her panties were completely on display.
Several black lines appeared on Laurent's forehead. The corner of his mouth twitched as he walked up and looked down at her.
"My dear Justeaze," he said. "Could you please tell me what you're doing sneaking into my room in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?"
She didn't look embarrassed at all. If anything, she sounded like she was stating the obvious.
"Sleeping."
"Heh."
Laurent's eye twitched. "Don't you have your own room?"
"Uncomfortable."
"Then why the hell are you sleeping in lingerie!?"
"This is ordinary underwear."
More black lines. "Sure. Let's say your lace-trim underwear—black, revealing, half-transparent—is 'ordinary underwear.' Then why are you dressing up on purpose?"
"My sex is female."
"Heh."
Laurent's smile was already turning brittle. "I've told you plenty of times: I have someone I like. Stop setting your sights on my body. Also, I have divinity, so even if we did that kind of thing, it would only be for pleasure. There wouldn't be any children. And one last thing—cover yourself properly! Half-covering it so a chunk of black panties is showing—are you doing that on purpose!?"
"Lord Laurent hung me up, so I'm a little uncomfortable. It's hard to cover myself, too."
Laurent lifted his right hand and snapped his fingers.
Snap.
The red threads around her ankle vanished instantly—and only then did she start to fall.
"Ah!"
Another small cry, but her head didn't hit the floor. Laurent caught her with his power, guiding her smoothly so she turned right-side up and landed on her feet.
Her long white hair spilled down with the motion.
And with gravity restoring everything to where it belonged, her clothes settled and covered her again.
Laurent looked at her like she was a personal trial sent from Heaven. "Fine. You can sleep. But I'm getting you a new blanket, got it? Same bed is fine, but don't even think about sharing my covers."
As he spoke, Laurent turned his back and pulled out a fresh blanket from the wardrobe—completely missing the satisfied little smile at the corner of Justeaze's lips.
Once he'd laid it out for her, Laurent lay down again.
Justeaze climbed in beside him without the slightest awkwardness, then turned so she was facing him, watching in silence.
Laurent didn't want to talk. He shut his eyes.
But her gaze didn't go away.
He sighed. "I'm just saying—if you stare at someone like that, how am I supposed to sleep?"
"Does Lord Laurent need me to hold you to fall asleep?"
As she said it, Justeaze leaned in like she meant to.
Laurent immediately reached out and blocked her face with one hand. "I'm seriously starting to suspect those people built some weird fetish parameters into you for fun."
Justeaze replied solemnly, "A homunculus is like a blank sheet of paper at birth. What she becomes is shaped by her surroundings—including her personality. So if I've become this… 'strange'… it's all Lord Laurent's fault."
"I did not teach you any of that!!"
Laurent knew she was telling the truth. Which was why the magi sometimes looked at him with these weird eyes now, as if thinking, Ah, so Lord Laurent likes that sort of thing…
"But I've already taken Lord Laurent's shape."
Smack.
Laurent pressed a hand to his forehead.
He genuinely couldn't understand how Justeaze's personality had ended up like this. He'd always been perfectly proper. How had she turned into that?
"Where are you even learning these lines?"
Justeaze smiled gently. "I occasionally saw some strange books in the library."
"I strongly suspect you've been secretly reading porn."
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T/N: ... :sob: poor laurent he just wants his french girl back and now this german has his eyes on him...