The bathroom of the Kuonji residence was a lavish room with a distinctly European style.
The floor was inlaid with warm-colored marble, carved with elegant, understated patterns.
A huge rectangular mirror, set in a waterproofed wooden frame with carved ornamentation, was mounted on the wall above the sink.
Several vases of varying shapes stood in the corner of the bathroom, each holding living ornamental plants whose condition had been preserved by magecraft.
Among those ornamental plants were European-style flowers and carefully pruned Eastern-style plum branches. Without question, they had all been arranged by someone who truly knew what they were doing, making them look remarkably natural and blend seamlessly into the bathroom's overall atmosphere.
At the center of the bathroom stood an enormous bowl-shaped bathtub with a round opening, surrounded by wooden steps for resting one's feet and setting down belongings.
Beside the bathtub were brass pipes and faucets, all neatly exposed along the ceiling and walls rather than concealed inside them. When Aoko first saw it, she thought the design had a wonderfully avant-garde steampunk feel, so she replaced all the plumbing in the Western-style house she shared with Touko with similar fixtures.
She had heard that Alice's father had designed this Western-style house, and Aoko could not help admiring his taste and artistic cultivation. No wonder an ordinary man like him had been able to marry a witch like Alice's mother.
Humming to herself, Aoko entered the bathroom wrapped in a pure white bath towel.
She walked over to the tub, bent down, and turned on the faucet to fill it. The magnificent peaks on her chest formed deep valleys under gravity, while her slender waist bore a weight no one her age ought to have, making anyone who saw it worry at a glance that it might snap.
While waiting for the tub to fill, Aoko rummaged through the storage cabinet beside it. A plain bath would do, of course, but if she wanted better relief from fatigue, a few extra ingredients were necessary.
She first took out a bag of Epsom salt and poured the entire thing into the tub, then picked up a bottle of lemon essential oil, her personal favorite scent.
Aoko found a glass dropper and drew up enough oil from the bottle. After adding roughly eight drops to the bath, she screwed the small bottle shut and put it back.
She dipped her hand into the water to test the temperature. Aoko found it fairly satisfactory.
"Alice, the hot water's ready, okay?" Aoko raised her voice slightly and called to the person outside the bathroom. "You can come in now~"
Before long, Aoko heard a rustling sound, as though someone were undressing at the bathroom door. Then the door opened, and Alice entered, wrapped in a bath towel.
Alice's body was quite slender. Compared to Aoko's dramatic figure, Alice looked younger and more delicate.
Her shoulders were narrower than Aoko's, but her skin was no less pale and fine. Compared to Aoko's healthy rosy complexion, however, Alice's skin carried a pale, fragile quality from long-term lack of sunlight.
As time passed, the bathroom filled with more and more steam. Aoko openly removed the towel wrapped around herself and set it aside, then casually stepped into the tub and sat down. Her long, beautiful legs crossed beneath the water, and her silhouette through the steam invited the imagination.
"Come on in," Aoko invited Alice. "If you don't get into the hot water soon, be careful not to catch a cold afterward."
Hearing Aoko's invitation, Alice slowly made her way toward the bathtub.
In all of Alice's more than ten years of life, this was her first time bathing with someone else. In her hazy childhood memories, Alice's mother had once held her and bathed her, but that was so long ago that even she could barely remember it.
But the housemate before her was obviously different. Even to Alice, another woman, Aoko's perfect figure was immensely alluring, and the hazy atmosphere created by the steam made Alice's cheeks flush slightly.
Suppressing the shyness in her heart, she sat directly in the bathtub, then cautiously hugged her legs and curled up to one side.
"Hmm~?" Aoko swept her teasing gaze over the shy Alice, then slowly scooted closer. When Alice was not paying attention, she pulled off the towel wrapped around her from behind.
The usually aloof and forceful fairy-tale witch let out an adorable cry entirely unbefitting her image. Giggling, Aoko hung Alice's towel to one side and leaned over to tease her embarrassed housemate.
"Who wears a towel while taking a bath?" Aoko said carelessly. "We're both girls anyway, so it's not like there's any problem with me seeing you~"
Flushed with embarrassment and irritation, Alice crossed her arms over her chest and glared fiercely at the grinning Aoko. Then her gaze unconsciously drifted downward, landing on Aoko's enormous headlights, and her face turned even redder.
Aoko did not take things too far. She felt that if she kept teasing her, this excellent housemate of hers was going to faint from embarrassment.
"Let's have something to drink," Aoko said after thinking it over. "How about red wine? It helps you sleep, you know?"
Seeing that Alice did not object, Aoko snapped her fingers and summoned an invisible servant, which brought in a bottle of red wine and two goblets on a tray from outside the bathroom.
After pulling the cork, Aoko poured herself and Alice each a little under half a glass of Bacchus. This time, they were drinking from that old mage's collection, clearly far more valuable than her cheap old man's stock...
She handed a goblet to Alice, then raised her own in invitation.
Alice hesitated, but she still accepted the goblet Aoko offered and lightly clinked it against hers.
"Ah-ha, a toast to successfully defeating Touko's dog."
Meanwhile, Miss Touko Aozaki, who had been defeated in their first clash due to insufficient intelligence, was hiding alone in her temporary workshop in the old school building. Smoking a cheap cigarette someone had given her, she sank into melancholy.
She had lost a large number of dolls, and even the full three hundred thousand words of Rune traps had failed to achieve their intended effect. Even the phantasmal species Lugh Beowulf, her greatest trump card, had been inexplicably killed. What possibility did she have left of turning things around?
Should I surrender...? Touko thought hazily, only to quickly reject the idea. She was unwilling to accept it. She still wanted to try again...
But Aoko's talent for magecraft was no less than her own, and she had inherited the Aozaki family's Magic as well. Whether she could fully wield its power or not, it was still a trump card that could not be underestimated. Besides, that girl had quite a few inexplicable techniques that conventional magecraft theory could not explain...
Touko stubbed out her cigarette, rubbed her forehead, then took off her coat and lay down on a single bed.
Unconsciously, she recalled the laughter and bickering she had shared with Aoko as children, remembered every little moment of their studying magecraft together, and then remembered how their grandfather had suddenly named Aoko as the heir. A wave of bitterness surged through her, leaving Touko unable to contain herself.
"I'm not like that girl," Touko muttered to herself as she turned over. "I won't be weak."