Come morning, Roxanne was ready to leave the devil's shop. But not before she ran into Freya as she arrived for another day of work. Just as surprised to see her, the motherly figure approached her at the counter. Drumming her fingers along the reception's edge, Freya looked her in the eye and asked.
"Did he?" Nodding in response before she'd even finished, Roxanne confirmed Freya's doubts. "I told him not to, but we had a fight about it before he left."
"It's… It's okay." Shrugging her shoulders, Roxanne forced a smile on her face. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm ready–"
"Hush, girl," placing a finger on her lips, Freya stopped her. "You don't need to explain it to me or anyone; the decision is yours, and you made the one that suits you best. I was trying to tell him the same, but he's been a little stubborn as of late."
Noticing Okio walking out of the backroom, Freya lifted her gaze and greeted the slave girl with a brief smile.
"We can talk about this later if you wish. I need to prepare for the day ahead." Nodding at Freya once more, Roxanne decided to take her leave from the shop. But even then, she spared a moment to leave a letter for Custer as he arrived downstairs.
Quickly opening it while the healer was on her way to her party members, Zephyr was quite surprised by the bold words inked on said parchment.
'Thanks for letting me stay last night. I owe you a favor, and one more thing. Can you please hug or kiss Okio? She seems interested in you, but is too shy or too scared to say anything. Not too unlike me, I suppose, the only difference is that she actually seems to love you. Now the question is, can you love her the same as you love Cecilia? Ignore everything in this letter if I'm overstepping, probably not the best idea to take advice about love from someone like me.'
Trepidation was apparent in her letter, almost as if it wasn't Okio's love that she was confessing but her own.
"Oh…" Having read the letter from standing behind Zephyr, Freya was quite surprised by its contents as well. "One night and you already seemed to have left an impression on her."
Shaking her head as Zephyr turned to face her, Freya scoffed.
"Quite the womanizer, aren't you?" Wearing half a flicker of amusement on her face, she huffed. "Well, whatever doesn't seem like she is in love with you, or else this mess that she's in would've gotten messier."
Staring at Zephyr's face for a moment longer than necessary, Freya questioned what it was about him that attracted so many girls. Even her own heart had been fluttering since that kiss from yesterday, and now even Roxanne seemed to look at him in a favorable way.
'It's not like he's that handsome…' The boyish face hiding the true contour of the devil further confused her, but upon realizing that she'd been staring at him for a whole minute, a burning red blush forced Freya to look away.
"I-I should get dressed…"
"I thought you didn't want to dress up again," Zephyr asked with a raised eyebrow.
Turning around and walking away, she responded with a tremble in her voice.
"I didn't know back then that I would get extra money if I brought in more folks." In truth, even she had no clue why she was changing into the bunny outfit, and the only reason she uttered an excuse was to spare herself the embarrassment of doing it out of sheer will.
While she changed and the others were left to their own devices, Zephyr took a moment to consider what had happened. He had planned to take things further with Roxanne, and from the looks of it, making her stay with Okio had paid off. Even so, for some odd reason, his heart ached for his slave–she was meant to be another device in his ploy, but the letter made him see things a little clearer.
'I can never escape that weak human heart, can I?' The reason for his harem being so large was not his lust, but the desire to save these women from their wretched fate, and perhaps another had joined that rank. 'Hmm, she will suffer if she knows the truth.'
Looking at Okio working on the documents for another day of registrations, Zephyr couldn't help but recall his past. Both the men and women in his army had suffered at the hands of gods or that of other humans; the women of his harem were affected the worst, leading him to form a closer bond with them as he shared their predicament. But now, he had no reason to save another, and yet.
"Strange thing, love. Isn't it?" He muttered, and both Aura and Okio looked at him blankly.
A moment of silence passed, then he walked up to the counter. Extending his hand, he asked the slave girl.
"Say, Okio. Do you wish to be with me?"
Okio's hand froze on the desk, and her eyes blinked in disbelief. Her mouth left agape, she nervously lowered her head and looked around until her eye fell on the letter in Zephyr's hand. For a moment, she stared at it, and then it hit her.
"D-did Roxanne say something about me in that letter?" While lifting her head again, her eyes stopped in front of the master's hand. Feeling a burning draw towards it deep in her heart, she gulped and took it without waiting for an answer. "Yes…I–"
Pulling her head closer from above the table, Zephyr sealed their lips in a kiss as warm as stew and as sweet as sugar. Okio's shock knew no bounds, and although her eyes remained wide open for a while, she forced them closed and clasped Zephyr's face with her hands.
"Alright, I'm done changin–wha–" Breaking the moment, however, was Freya walking back into the hall after having just changed into the mascot. "T-that was quick…"
Not sure what to think, she watched as tears of joy flowed down Okio's face. All the while, a low flame of jealousy burned within her own heart–a flame that she refused to recognize, even though she couldn't get it out of her head ever since that kiss yesterday.
'Why… fuck me, why am I feeling this way?' She wondered, but thankfully for her, she wouldn't have to wonder for long. After all, she was the first woman around Rudy that Zephyr intended to steal away from him.