Her five fingers closed. Accompanied by a crisp yet muffled cracking sound, the maiden beside her stiffened slightly, like a taut string pushed past its limit, along with another kind of breakage on a different plane.
The humidity in the air rose almost imperceptibly, as if a minty fragrance were drifting in every direction.
—Tears? Was she crying? So she could feel pain after all... But, um... mint?
—Could it be that a beautiful maiden's tears really aren't just salty? Hmm... Considering her unusual race, it wasn't impossible...
She heard Persephone's light breathing. Its tone was more magnetic than usual, with a sticky quality to it. Several seconds later, Persephone regained her composure.
"That's enough observation for now, Surtr. Although you will inevitably learn everything I've done in the future, this unease and bashfulness before the secret is revealed are also worth savoring and reminiscing over. So let me preserve them properly, Surtr. I'll send the relevant report to Kal'tsit once I've finished organizing it."
"Uh... why Kal'tsit?" —And what kind of riddle are you talking about now? Does this mean I only need to wait for the results?
"Nothing much. I just asked her to eat something sour. Consider it a courtesy to an old colleague." Persephone answered, and the room fell quiet again.
Why the hell was I able to write enough of this stuff for an entire chapter?!
Anyway, that's that... Hopefully Shuke doesn't shark me... I only wrote one H-word, without any description at all!
—And I still got sharked... Who reported me? _(:з"∠)_
Section Sixty-Seven: A Long-Absent Person, Long-Absent Matters
Time flowed on—
Several hours passed in the blink of an eye.
After that brief "examination," Persephone lay quietly on the bed for several hours. During that rare stretch of peace, Miss Surtr also