The Dog Needs a Master

When I first learned that everything had been a bet, it felt as though the world had collapsed beneath me.

Still, the payout had been far too enormous to spend forever grieving over it.

Erabelle swallowed her lingering regret and turned toward the spaceship window.

All around her, countless crew members moved busily between their stations.

Once I’m back, I’ll be buried in work too. Better get a little more sleep while I still can.

She curled up in her seat and closed her eyes.

“...You’re sleeping again? Wow, you really are...”

What kind of person even...

Aries Cider swallowed the rest of the sentence and buried his face in his hands.

A transfer was becoming urgent.

Anywhere would be fine. Anywhere except Surveillance Team.

For once, the leader of the Surveillance Team meant it with complete sincerity.

***

“Did you have a good trip?”

Erabelle looked at Dezeb, who had come all the way to Capital Station to meet her in person.

“Yes, I... I did.”

Seeing him again after a month was, as always, enough to steal her breath.

If she saw him rarely, he was breathtaking because she rarely saw him.

If she saw him often, he was breathtaking because she never managed to get used to him.

Either way, that face was a public hazard.

For the good of society, he really ought to be isolated.

“Let’s go.”

He took the bag from her hand.

“What did you bring?”

“Just some snacks.”

“It’s not alcohol, is it?”

“Not all of it.”

Dezeb snorted and opened the car door for her. Then he pulled two cans of beer and a chocolate bar from the bag before tossing the rest to the Dogs.

“That’s not ‘just some.’”

Now it was.

Erabelle stared mournfully at the two cans and lone chocolate bar in his hand.

As if he could read the protest in her eyes, he hid them in the back seat.

“Don’t even try. They’re mine.”

“Couldn’t you share a little?”

“I’ll think about it.”

Ever since the day she had been caught watching dramas in the hospital, he had become particularly strict about what she ate.

She had brought the snacks hoping to coax some silent permission out of him, but apparently that plan had failed.

“It’ll take about forty minutes from here.”

He spoke as he pulled out of the parking lot.

Amazingly, the Dogs had entered Capital Station through entirely normal procedures.

The Unified Station, an orbital hub, was connected to each planet by road.

A four-lane asphalt highway stretched through the Upper Realm.

It cost more than taking a shuttle, but less than using a Gate. Since it spared travelers the misery of crossing a planetary gravity well in a shuttle, it was the preferred method of transportation for Imperial citizens with a little money to spare.

“Here. Eat this.”

Keeping one hand on the wheel, Dezeb passed her a paper bag.

Inside was a still-warm loaf of rye bread that looked healthy at first glance.

“It goes well with beer.”

“Really? I’ll try it that way later.”

“...Yeah.”

With faintly mournful eyes, Erabelle tore off a rough piece of bread, chewed it, and gazed out the window.

The scenery of the Upper Realm rushed past them, like five colors of paint stirred together in water.

Before long, the streets of Sector 107 came into view.

Sector 107 was a typical upper-class residential satellite.

...Here.

After stepping out of the car, Erabelle looked up at a familiar villa.

Nine stories tall, quiet, immaculate, and luxurious, it looked exactly as it had in the catalog a month ago.

“Shall we?”

Dezeb got out beside her, slipped a cigarette between his lips, and started up the stairs.

There were people nearby who appeared to be residents, but no one so much as glanced at him for lighting up.

If he felt like it, he could probably tap-dance naked in front of the Emperor and nobody would care.

To repeat: this was a hopelessly overpowered world.

What mattered now was that Dezeb usually reached for a cigarette when he was holding something back.

Whatever it was, Erabelle sincerely hoped he would keep holding it back.

She followed quietly.

He pressed the elevator button with the ease of someone who had lived there for years and rode up with her.

A month ago, at Erabelle’s insistence, Dezeb’s new villa had been chosen to be relatively small and cozy.

“Do you like it?”

He slipped his arms around her from behind as he spoke.

The cigarette between his long fingers gave off the distinctive sharp scent of a sedative.

“I wondered if it might be too small.”

“I think it’s a good place.”

Since she had been the one to choose it, Erabelle felt obligated to sell its virtues.

“The location is excellent, the transportation is convenient, and the shopping street is only a ten-minute walk away. It has very good livability. Resale shouldn’t be a problem later either.”

“You sound like a realtor.”

The tip of his nose brushed her earlobe, then the nape of her neck.

The fine hairs there stood on end.

“There are several rooms. Use them however you like. A study, a dressing room, whatever you want. Think about how you’d like to arrange them.”

“Yes. For an optimal layout, I’ll hire an interior design firm...”

“Do that. Oh, they could share a room too. Those people who stan Erabelle. Don’t fans usually make some kind of fandom room?”

“...”

Does he actually browse fan forums? How does he even know that...?

“Did you spend your entire vacation just stanning me?”

“N-no.”

She had done other things.

Occasionally.

“Then why are you stammering?”

Because he had hit the mark.

“...Hah.”

Whatever he saw in her expression made him sigh.

He turned her around in his arms and looked down at her with clear displeasure.

Her heart thudded on reflex.

“Want to stay up all night?”

“Please spare me.”

“It comes out automatically now, huh?”

One arm circled her waist, and he pressed closer, slowly and deliberately.

Erabelle clenched her fists and trembled.

“What movie did you watch?”

“H-horror.”

“Was it good?”

“Y-yes...”

“Why?”

“It’s my favorite genre...”

“I asked why it was good.”

“...The boy living next door to the killer was very, very handsome.”

“Great. Let’s stay up all night.”

Honesty was not always a virtue.

For the sake of smooth human relationships, there were times when a kind lie was necessary.

Before she knew it, she had been dragged into the bedroom.

By the time she came back to her senses, it was already too late.

“Oh, we’ll choose our newlywed home separately later.”

The little awareness she had managed to recover scattered again.

Meanwhile, Dezeb continued talking as though nothing unusual were happening.

“Mm...”

She had no room to think about what that statement even meant.

And even if she had, she never would have guessed that was what he meant.

***

“...Pardon?”

Erabelle sat frozen across from Dezeb, trying to process what she had just heard.

“Let’s exchange signum. It’s about time.”

She swallowed and asked carefully.

“...With me?”

“Is there anyone else sitting at this table?”

Naturally, there were only two people at the table.

An entirely ordinary lunch.

At an entirely ordinary restaurant.

Far too ordinary a setting for a catastrophe.

“N-no. No one else...”

Usually, Erabelle responded to Dezeb with little more than “Yes,” like some automatic answering machine.

This time, she struggled desperately to get her thoughts in order.

It was not an easy question.

Her brain promptly broke.

“I, I mean, the... um... signum exchange, I mean...”

Once two people became a pair, there was no going back.

If one of them died, the survivor would spend the rest of their life dependent on sedatives.

That was not truly living.

It was merely keeping the body functioning.

Quality of life collapsed, and lifespan was effectively cut in half.

As for me, I was already living like that before I destroyed my ID tag...

But she could not imagine Dezeb willingly accepting such a fate.

“It’s time. We’ve been seeing each other for four years already. I considered proposing outright, but I thought if I sprang it on you without warning, you might faint the moment the proposal arrived.”

Her thoughts went hazy.

Seeing each other...

Erabelle stared at him blankly, remembering that he had used similar words when he sat Majia Oloror down.

“Once we settle things between us, we’ll send a formal proposal to the Count’s House and hold the ceremony in the fall.”

Dezeb smiled, his eyes half-lidded in a way that could bewitch anyone.

Her mind became even foggier.

Even now, his beauty was enough to make her lose focus.

So this is what it feels like to be bewitched by a fox.

Though if anything, he was more snake than fox.

No. Focus.

“Dezeb, I understand that exchanging signum is extremely dangerous. Please think it over a little more.”

“Why.”

He cut her off immediately.

The sudden chill in his voice sent a shiver down her spine.

No man-eating monster Erabelle had encountered in the conflict zones had ever frightened her half as much as he did now.

“After four years? Erabelle Vermilion. Have you been playing with me this entire time?”

“No.”

“I’ve been serious from the beginning. You weren’t? Was it fun, stringing me along?”

“Absolutely not. I meant we should think carefully about the wording of the proposal letter. Our Count is softer-hearted than you think.”