*****

「W-What is this...?」

Noma looked at Elna with eyes as round as saucers, then confirmed the current state of the corridor again, her mouth hanging open pokan. The cleaning tools she had been holding slipped from her hands, clattering to the floor with a gachan, garan.

Contrary to Elna's assessment that she wouldn't return, Noma had come back exactly as she declared. The time she left Elna alone wasn't very long, so she must have accomplished her objective and come straight back without any detours. 「Eh, wait, huh?」 With a face even more confused than when she was introduced to Elna as a fellow maid, she opened and closed her mouth repeatedly paku paku. Once she understood the situation, she let out a voice like a hiccup, 「Hieee.」「Why?」 Her finger, pointing unsteadily, danced in the air.

「W-Wh-Why is it so shinyーーーー!!!?」

Elna could only keep her mouth shut and look away in a random direction.

After all, the corridor was gleaming. It was literally sparkling pikapika. It was so bright that Noma screamed 「Ugh!」 and leaned back.

Even though it was a part of the castle with little foot traffic and not much maintenance, it was still part of the castle. It was cleaned to a reasonable extent originally. Now, it was glistening bikkabika as if to say it had just been born this very moment. The spirits overdid it, Elna thought.

「...Terrifying! It's shining so much it's terrifying! Eeeeek!」

Noma was still screaming, but Elna understood the feeling very well. After all, it was sparkling. There is a limit to everything.

However, the spirits seemed very satisfied with the results achieved through their magnificent teamwork. Centered around the Hamster Spirit, they were repeatedly tossing each other in the air wasshoi wasshoi. They were even discussing holding a periodic "Make the Castle Shiny" meeting because it was so fun. Cut it out.

While Elna was silently retorting to the spirits with her gaze, telling them to do things in moderation, Noma gradually started trembling wanawana.

「Did... d-d-did you do this!?」

「N-No, it's not exactly like that...」

Of course, Elna worked desperately hard too, but even using dragon power, she couldn't win against the spirits in a victory of numbers. So saying Elna did it alone felt bad, like snatching their effort from the side. But it was also a fact that she could only reply "Yes" in this case. There was no way she could say, "The spirits helped me."

Meanwhile, the spirits continued to toss the hamster wasshoi wasshoi. 『Hammu-juraaaaaaa.』 Screams were starting to be heard, so please put him down already.

「How should I put it... saying I did it alone is wrong, but maybe, it might be like that...? But still, how should I say...」

「A-Are you okay!?」

「Eh, yes. Yes?」

With a fierce look, Noma stretched her taller height intimidatingly and marched closer tsukatsuka. Just as Elna wondered what is it, Noma snatched Elna's palm from the side with force.

「Aren't you bad with water!? Your palms, they're like this...!」

Noma's behavior at that moment seemed very strange to Elna. Noma tried to grip Elna's hand, but then, as if looking at something terribly painful, she gently lowered her eyes and softly placed her hand over it instead.

(...Bad with water?)

Indeed, when Elna was at the Calzeed house, work was pushed onto her by Laura and the surrounding servants, so her fingertips and palms were chapped to an extent unbelievable for a Baron's adopted daughter.

Even now, because she had cleaned with all her might, albeit for a short time, blood was oozing from the cracked wounds.

Even though her memories as a dragon had awakened, her body remained human. To Elna's senses, the human body was incredibly fragile. As she stared blankly at her own hand thinking this, Noma angrily took something out of her pocket and smeared it onto Elna's skin. Surprised by the slimy nutonuto sensation, if Elna had a tail like in the past, her scales might have stood on end and rung out jarari, jaran! with a terrible noise.

「Hiee, wh-wh-what is this...?」

「It's ointment. It works well. You acted very strangely when taking a bath too, so I intended to do the work involving water myself.」

"Taking a bath" referred to when Noma took care of Elna. Indeed, it was fresh in her memory that she had rampaged greatly, unaccustomed to entering a bathtub.

「Then, why didn't you just let me carry the cleaning tools from the start...」

Hearing this much, she realized that Noma didn't let Elna hold the bucket not because she didn't trust Elna. The question "Are you okay?" had been meant literally.

Noma's actions seemed quite inefficient to Elna. At Elna's question, Noma blinked her green eyes pachin.

Doing so, her tall, mature face suddenly became adorable.

「Ah, that's right. You're a colleague now. I see, I was still thinking with the mindset of when I was taking care of you... B-But it was so sudden! I told you! I didn't know what to ask you to do! But starting tomorrow, I'll think properly about what to ask you and prepare!」

Noma's cheeks flushed red like apples as she rattled on quickly.

Watching her, Elna felt as if scales fell from her eyes poron. Of course, it was just a metaphor. She simply felt that the scenery she saw had changed that much.

(That's right, this isn't the Calzeed house.)

She didn't think the people in that house were scary at this late hour. Still, she realized the malice that had soaked into her. It seemed to have clouded Elna's vision at times.

So, as if brushing it off, she quickly touched her clothes with her palms and stomped firmly dashi with the soles of her feet. Noma tilted her head in puzzlement, but Elna continued without minding.

「I'm sorry. If I thought it was strange, I should have asked then. I'll be careful. No, I will be careful... Let me greet you again. Noma-san, I apologize for the suddenness, but I look forward to working with you.」

「Oh stop it, I hate formal speech at this point. Thinking of you as the young lady I used to serve makes me feel weird. I'll call you Elna too, so nice to meet you. Also, I'm the same about not being able to ask things I found strange. Like why you ended up working with me.」

After saying that much, Noma nodded fufun, saying, 「But it's fine.」「A castle is like a lump of secrets. I've properly learned the art of keeping my mouth shut.」 She lowered her voice and laughed like a mischievous child, making Elna burst out laughing too.

「Thank you, I'm happy... Ah, also, about water, I dislike it a little, but only a little. You can treat me normally, it's fine.」

「Is that so? Then that's fine.」

As they brought their faces close and laughed quietly as if sharing a secret, the Hamster Spirit seemed to have finally finished its meeting, or greeting, with the spirits. It ran chakachaka choko on four legs to Elna's feet, then jumped pyon and climbed up her clothes, settling on top of Elna's head.

The moment it peeked its face out pyoko, Noma made a gesture like swallowing a scream that had jumped out of her mouth, 「Hingya.」 (Oops.) Despite being a spirit, it seemed this hamster could disappear and show itself at will to people other than Elna. Right now, it was in a situation where it was showing itself.

Trying to hide it with her palm too late, 「So-so-so-so-so, so cuuute.」 Noma was trembling gakugaku with teary eyes. The Hamster Spirit was twitching its pink nose hikuhiku busily and looking around kyorokyoro.

「So cuuuuuuuuuuuute!」

It was good that it wasn't likely to be chased out as a rat.

Thus, the Hamster Spirit gained a position where it could receive sunflower seeds from the maids.

Commonwald, who periodically came to ask if there was any trouble, moved at right angles as usual, a movement hard to call age-appropriate. 「Noma is very good at looking after others, isn't she?」 he laughed hohho, so Elna understood the reason why Noma became her attendant and was ordered to be her senior role even now that she was a maid.

「Yes, I am grateful of her presence.」

the words that spilled from Elna's mouth were very honest; even Elna herself was a little surprised, feeling a faint warmth in her chest aside from a slight embarrassment.