A cottage in the mountains.

　It's just me and Erica, our clothes are disheveled.

　Erica is looking at me happily with a blushing face.

　.........
　....................
　................

　Wait, what and how did this happen.
　I mean, what did I do!

　Remember, remember, Hermes, remember.

　It was ... a few hours ago.

　　　　　☆

　Erica forced us out of the mansion and put us in a carriage for a few hours.
　We came to a cottage-like place in the mountains.

　A moderately remote, moderately elegant (!) environment.
　A middle-aged, bearded man with an unfriendly look on his face greeted us there.

　He greeted us and led us to a dining room-like place in the cottage, and then he quickly retreated to the back.

　The rest of us were me and Erica.
　Erica sits down beside me and sticky in a good mood.

'Where am I?'
It's a restaurant.
A restaurant?
'Yes!　Erica, I checked. This is the best hidden restaurant in the Darling's territory. It's a place that serves a variety of mountain delicacies.
'Huh ... there's such a thing?'

　I looked around the room.

　If you ask me, it looks like it.
　At first I thought it was a diner, but the more I realized it was, the more it looked like a restaurant.

'But why again?'
"Date with a Darling.
Okay.

　That one word made it all make sense to me, and I knew there was no need to pursue any more reasons, and they wouldn't exist in the first place.

　I guess there's no better reason for Erica than to play with me.

'Hey darling,'
Hmm?
This place has a hot spring. I'll join you later.
No, the hot springs...

　I thought for a moment that the monkeys might become huge, but I didn't say anything.

　In the meantime, the bearded man from earlier brought the food.
　It was aromatic, but with a complex aroma.
　It was dark in color and full of spices.

It looks like a lot of spices were used.
'Yes!　Erica was also curious when I did my homework and asked her about it, and she said it was wild beast meat, so it had to have plenty of spices or it wouldn't smell beastly and be inedible.
Yeah.

　
　Come to think of it, I remember a long time ago, some book was written about the taste of bear meat.
　They said that the meat from completely wild bears was bad, but the meat from bears that went down to the mountains and ate human food was better.

　I knew that farming and livestock were great.

'Yes, darling,'
Hmm?
Uh-oh.

　When I come back from my thoughts, I see Erica picking up a slice of food and offering it to me.
　I'm not sure because it's full of spices and sauce, but it's probably some kind of meat.

　No, that's not the point........ahhh?

What?
Uh-oh.
No, it's not.
No?

　Erica puts down the food she's thrusting out of her mouth for a bit, and it makes her cringe.
　It's a good thing that you're able to do this, because it's not just a matter of time before you're able to do it.
　It's very........difficult to refuse.

No, it's the eyes.
Yeah, Erica thought so too, which is why I picked a place with fewer people.
Huh.

　I couldn't help myself.

　So that's what it is, Erika.

　If you're wondering why you chose a famous restaurant in the middle of nowhere to bring me here out of the blue, that's what you're talking about.

　I'm the queen of Karamba.
　When it comes to the queen, she can order any kind of feast, and it's normal for her to call in an entire cook.
　There is no need for her to come all the way to the mountains.

　Still, she came because she knew I'd be able to dodge (...). There's not a lot of people here, so we'll be fine.

　d*mn, you're a schemer, Erica.

"Hey, darling,

　Erica said moistly.
　I sighed softly.

"If you ask me,

　I gave up.
　If it's not popular, which means there's no one else to watch it, well, that's fine.

　It's not that I don't like Ahn.
　I've had him do that to me at Ortiz's place every time.

　Erica's refusal to do that is because it makes her look bad.
　It doesn't make you stand out just because you had a hooker give you an "ah-ha" in a whorehouse.
　Again, if there is no one watching, there is no problem even if you have it done.

　I'll look for signs of the surroundings just to be sure.
　Yeah, there's really no one else around.

　The only thing left is a man who looks like a cook from earlier, a sign of a horse in a carriage, and what looks like a small wild animal.

　This should be good.

''Uh-uh.''
'Yay. Aww.

　Erica was delighted and offered me a piece of meat that she had left unpicked.
　I snapped it into my mouth.

　I chewed and chewed.

'Mmmmmm.'
How's that?
There's not much fat, maybe because it's wild. There seems to be a lot of spices in it, but it's just the right amount of anchoring in the mouth.
Yeah.
I knew the cook was skilled and that I shouldn't eat anything cooked by anyone but this guy.

　It's hard to imagine that the spices are just right, the original ingredients must have a very animalistic smell.

Then next.........this one too....
Uh-oh.
You should try this one, it's my homemade aisle.
The aisle?
It's the name of the sake, which was originally made when my daughter was born and then taken out and served when she was married.
Yeah, yeah, that's pretty good.

　I let Erica feed me with one "ahhh" after another.

　Yeah, I wondered how it would be at first, but it was good.
　I went in one after the other with plenty of spices.

　The food and drinks were going so well that I was getting bloated.
　And then.....

"Huh?

　It's like the world is starting to spin.
　And why is the world spinning?　World.
　The Master is rocking this again, this one.

'Darling?　Are you okay?
Huh?　It's good to see you. The world is going round and round from the rakera.
Okay.

　Erica gave a small gut-punch for some reason.

'Dare?　What ... where did the cook go?
I got them to go. From here on out, it's just Erica and Darling's memories.
Huh?

　Before I could understand what was going on, Erica, who had been clinging to me, pulled away from me and took off her clothes in front of me.

　In no time at all, Erika was naked.

"Erika...?
This time, Erica will be your darling.

　And then she hugged me.
　No, not just a hug, Erica puts her hands around my body and pulls my clothes off.

　My body heats up, the base of my ears cackle, and my heart flutters.

　Puzzling.

　As soon as I hear that sound in my ear, my consciousness is cut off.

　　　　　☆

　Hermes grabbed Erica's shoulder firmly.
　His eyes were bloodshot, staring straight at Erica.

'You did it. Come on, darling. Do what you want with Erica.

　Erica closed her eyes.
　Thinking of the sweetness of the moment of realization of the thought that was to come.

　But, but.

　I'm not going to be able to get it right.

'Erika.'
'What?　Darling?
There it is.
"Huh?
Sit up straight!
Ha, ha!

　Opening her eyes, Erica sat upright in her chair, pushed by the momentum of the wide-eyed Hermes.
　In that pose, she asked fearfully.

''What's wrong, darling? You're scaring me in a different way, okay?　If you're going to do something scary anyway, you might as well mess up Erica--
We can't do that, Erica!
What?
Don't scare the shit out of me by getting my man drunk.
....

　Erica went blank.
　The scene was 180 degrees opposite of what she had expected, and even the wise queen froze in her tracks.

'You're happy about that!　No!　I value myself more!

　Hermes lectured Erica without even a good roll of the tongue.
　This is not a good idea.
　He was lecturing Erica like a hard-nosed father.

　That sermon was--

　　　　　★

　Consciousness returns.
　My eyes are fuzzy and my head is throbbing.
　My throat is tingling, and I can't think straight.

　Is this--is this alcohol?
　When was the last time you had a drink?

Good morning, darling.
...Erika?

　I sat up quickly.
　I had passed out, and it seemed that I was kneeling on Erica's lap.

　So I get up like a flash - and I'm even more surprised.
　Erica was naked!

'Yeah, yeah, Erika!　And me too!

　I realized belatedly that I'm wearing my clothes off too.

　I turned pale.

　The alcohol, the lack of memory, the disarray in our clothes, both of us.

　What they meant was--.

　I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do.
　Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Calm down, calm down, calm down, calm down, calm down.

"Don't worry, my darling.
'Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

　His voice flipped over in further panic.

'Hey darling,'
Oh, God, oh, God, it's for Erica.
It's okay, I didn't do anything.
What?

　I stopped dead in my tracks.

'Nothing happened.'

　Erica repied the same words.
　Really, there was nothing there?
　I mean, if that's the case, I'm just relieved I didn't do anything terrible.

"You didn't do anything?
'Yeah, I haven't done anything with my darling yet.
Yeah?
That's why I love it.

　Erica said and kissed me.
　She rained kisses down on my face.

　I can't keep up with my understanding, and I'm pouting.
　I didn't do anything, so do you love it?

　What does that ... what does that mean?
　I have no idea, I just don't get it.

"Uh-huh.

　Erica has a look of satisfaction on her face.

　What the hell is going on here?