Wriothesely's POV
"Pervert."
"Perv- You dare accuse me after pulling his shirt up yourself?!"
"I wasn't the one who turned into a blushing mess just by seeing a small part of someone's waist!" Sigewinne whispered accusingly.
"I did not turn into a blushing mess!"
"If you're so sure about that, you should keep your eyes elsewhere!"
"I keep my eyes where I want to!"
"Stop staring at Monsieur Neuvillette before I beat you to death, you pervert!"
The only reason we were able to have this... conversation was because Neuvillette promised to restrict his enhanced hearing for a while.
Otherwise...
"Stop staring, you damn pervert!"
No matter how much we whispered, he would have been able to hear it even from the other side of the house, let alone the other side of the room like now.
And...
"I'm not staring. I'm observing one of the only dragons in Teyvat."
Definitely.
"Pervert."
"Stop calling me a pervert already! Why would you care if I stared anyway?"
"I care because he's my- He's the melusines's guardian. We can't have you charming him away just because he's a bit too innocent in that regard." She mumbled.
"Just admit you pretty much consider him your father and I might start taking your opinions into account."
On that note.
Innocent in that regard?
I wonder how much I can tease him before he realizes it.
"Even if I consider him as such, I'm not crazy enough to admit it out loud while he's around."
"Not crazy enough?"
What was she talking about?
"Do you think I'm the first melusine to think of Monsieur Neuvillette like that? No, we all do. Well, most of us anyway. But we're still sane enough not to go around randomly awakening a dragon's parental instincts."
"Parental instinct?"
"The 'touch my kid and I'll drown your nation' kind." She explained.
Oh oh.
A shiver ran down my spine as I glanced over to Neuvillette.
He was busy with the paperwork Sedene had dropped off not too long ago and true to his words, he didn't seem to be listening in on our conversation.
"Say, Sigewinne..."
"What?"
"How come Neuvillette never realized how the melusines think of him?"
"Monsieur Neuvillette is a bit... slow when it comes to emotions."
Well, so about that...
"What if someone went and spelled it out for him." I asked hesitantly, my voice shaking a bit.
"Well, if such a, forgive my lack of better wording, crazy bastard exists, they will be beaten to death by the melusines before they can-"
She stopped speaking the second we locked eyes.
She blinked a few times before her eyes widened in realization.
"You did not!"
"I might have."
In my defense, I didn't know any of this before.
"Duke Wriothesely!"
Bang!
She slammed her hands on the table as she rose to stand on her chair.
"Sigewinne. Sit down." Neuvillette's stern voice came from the other side of the room.
Sigewinne immediately plopped back down onto her chair, letting out a frustrated sigh.
"Are you insane?! We melusines have been refraining from doing so for 400 years! 400 years! And you go and just tall him like an offhand comment?!"
"To be exact, we had a whole conversation and-"
"I don't care how long you talked about it! All I care about is the fact that you talked about it at all!"
"It's not as if there is a glowing sign saying: Don't point out the obvious to Neuvillette." I retorted.
"That doesn't mean you have to do it! Do you go jump off a cliff if there is no sign telling you you shouldn't?!"
"I-"
"You two, please keep your whispers at a level where I cannot clearly hear them from across the room without my hearing enhanced. You're getting so loud that you're interrupting my work."
We both froze as we heard his comment.
"Cough... Monsieur Neuvillette... Exactly how much did you hear?"
"Something about signs and jumping off of cliffs." He said blankly.
Phew.
We both let out a breath of relief.
"While I did not hear your full conversation, if you wish to continue arguing, I have to ask you to go upstairs."
While it did sound like one, it wasn't a request.
Not with that look that seemed to say: Shut your mouth or disappear from my sight.
Of course, it was only me who got that look too.
Sigewinne got a gentle smile instead.
Totally unfair!
What did I do to deserve to be glared at?
But eventually, we did end up going upstairs.
After all...
"You damn crazy pervert!"
We couldn't have Neuvillette listening in on this.
"Insane meddlesome bastard!"
This was the first time I had seen Sigewinne curse.
Like, curse at all, let alone this much.
But I knowingly shut my mouth and let her vent.
I wouldn't want to provoke her further.
"What did he do?"
"Huh?"
"Monsieur Neuvillette. How did he react to it?"
"Well, his tail popped out..."
"And?"
"And that's it. Nothing else happened."
"Nothing?" She asked suspiciously.
"Nothing." I reassured her.
Though, it looks like it wasn't as reassuring as I had hoped for.
"So he did nothing else... That's weird. That's really weird. This is bad! This is so bad!"
"How is nothing happening bad?"
Why is she so worried?
"Look at it like this: You set off a bomb but it doesn't go off. At that point you have two options: Poke at it and try to figure out the reason why it didn't blow or leave it be and hope it doesn't blow up in the future either. You're either meddling with or ignoring a live bomb! Do you understand why I'm worried now?!"
"You're just assuming the worst. Maybe I didn't even trigger this draconic parental instinct."
"You should always assume the worst and never the best." She retorted.
"Who taught you that nonsense?"
"You did, Your Grace."
Well, well, well.
If this isn't shooting myself in the foot then I don't know what is.
"Sigewinne-"
"No! Let me think! I need to figure something out!"
She went into full panic mode, pacing around the room.
"I need to tell the others... Going back to the village to do some research is also an option... No... This isn't good enough... Stupid Duke... Stupid pervert..."
And then she stopped.
"Wait."
"What?"
Did she manage to think of something?
"I've figured something out."
That's great, I think.
"Now that the cat's out of the bag, I can confidently tell you to stop staring at my father you stupid per-"
Crash!
Our heads whipped around at the same time to see Neuvillette saying in the doorway.
His hands were holding an empty, tilted tray. What made the crashing sound was the tea set that fell off and shattered on the floor.
We both watched in shock as a blush slowly crept up his neck, turning his whole face red.
"I- I wanted to bring you some tea since I know you both like it... I- I didn't mean to- Please excuse me."
And without letting us get in another word he disappeared with a flash of blue.
"F*ck..."
This time, even I couldn't help but curse.
"Your Grace..."
"Yeah?"
"So about that bomb... We poked at it and it just went off." Sigewinne muttered.