Chapter 487: Ping Pong Ping Pong

(Lian Li POV)

It's vexing. So vexing.

I wanted to watch the sunrise with my beloved Master, preferably with Master's arms around me while I sit on His lap. Then we would start with a touch, then a kiss, and I would turn around and slowly guide Master into me...

Then we would make love as the sun rose, enjoying the warmth and the view.

But Master had decided to go with Brendan and Cai Hong in the Men's bath instead.

Ugh... I want to peek... I want to peek so badly.

Diao Chan actually tried to climb over the wall but got hit by something and flew back down. I didn't want to disappoint Master like that so I refrained myself from doing the same.

Instead... I joined the other girls in entertaining ourselves while watching the sunrise.

Our bath time ended up taking about two hours, Master had already left His side of the hot springs by then. At least we still have the evening bath to look forward to.

"Don't suppose Reverend Mother has any more of... That?" Kiyomi asked when all of us were changing our clothes in the changing room.

Reverend Mother smiled at her, "Oh? Whatever could 'that' be?"

Manami giggled, "Ara ara? Reverend Mother does like to tease us. We're talking about the wonderful book you gave us of course."

"Ufufufu~ Of course I do. Does my cute son's girls wish to see more? I have the ones where he was at the age of three~"

Oh yes, the most holiest of holy things: Master's childhood pictures!

Reverend Mother had found someone who could imprint her memories on pieces of paper just like Manami, carefully archiving the entirety of Master's childhood in picture albums.

"Could we... Possibly ask to see them?" I pleaded.

"Fufufu~ Of course, you girls can come to my room tonight and I'll show them to you~"

It really felt like today was the luckiest day for us.

"But we shouldn't tarry here any longer, I'm sure my darling son has waited for us long enough."

Oh! We really must apologise to Master for taking so long!

*

(MC POV)

The girls were taking a really long time with their bath, not that I don't understand why considering what they were obviously doing while they were in there.

In the meantime, I found out they actually served us milk when we got out of the hotsprings and they even had ping pong tables in the rest area.

I took the time to teach both Brendan and Cai Hong how to play it while Shiori and Akari watched us from the side with great interest.

Brendan started out understandably mediocre at it, but he quickly learned how to control his strength and his keen senses helped him keep track of the ball's trajectory during the game. He turned out to be quite proficient at the game.

Cai Hong couldn't stop giggling when I played with her, so she didn't really play that well. But as long as my little dragon is having fun, that's the most important thing satisfied. And she did look like she was having a lot of fun.

But when I teamed up with Cai Hong to play with Brendan, the loli dragon had suddenly switched gears, easily delivering several smashes and curves easily in quick succession and even countering Brendan's smashes.

It got to the point that I just let the two of them play and Cai Hong easily dominated Brendan eleven to two.

I'm not sure if Cai Hong was going easy on me or she was genuinely enjoying herself too much to play like she did with Brendan.

"Papa! Cai Hong win! Head pats?"

Or... I guess she thought I would give her head pats if she won so she went all out for her match with Brendan.

Well, since she asked, there's no reason not to give her the requested head pats.

I gestured for her to come closer and Cai Hong immediately leapt into my embrace, the little dragon nuzzling my chest while seated on my lap and letting me stroke her hair.

"Ara, ara? Did Master wait long?"

I looked up to see my girls appearing at the doorway, all of them fresh out of the hot springs where a few of them still have yet to dry their hair.

I shook my head, "Not at all. Did you girls drink the milk? It's something you should take after coming out of the hot springs. They're quite nice."

"Ehehehe, I knew Onii-sama would like it!" Elaria pointed out proudly.

"Ara? I see little brother has also found the table tennis area. How is it?" Odriana asked, her eyes sparkling.

"Well, it's alright I suppose. Why?"

"Fufufu~ In that case, want to play a match with me?"

Before I could answer, Eris had suddenly appeared in front of me, "Oooh~ What's this? Looks like fun! Master! How do we play this?"

Well, since everyone is here and they'd undoubtedly be interested, I quickly gave my disciples a quick lesson about the rules and how to play the game.

Since there were more than one ping pong table, my disciples quickly paired up to try out the game, leaving Odriana and myself to play a game of our own.

She smiled at me, "Just so that you know, I've been practicing a lot, little brother. So don't underestimate me~"

I believe her.

She let me have the first serve, nodding to me while holding her paddle in an forehand grip to show me that she was ready.

Deciding to test her out first, I gave her a serve that was easy to receive.

I watched my elder sister move to receive the ball, but instead of a simple receive, she had waited for the ball to bounce in front of her before immediately delivering a smash.

Seriously? A smash right from the start?!

I barely managed to receive it in time, but because of how my wrist was angled, the ball ended up bouncing off my paddle and flying out to the side.

"Oh~ As expected of my little brother! To be able to receive my 'serious move, serious smash at the start of the match' like that! Anyone else would have totally missed it!"

Oh right, I almost forgot she was also a chuuni like Elaria.

Right, since she got the point for this round, it's still my turn to serve.

A little cautious now, I started the next round with a ball that bounced lower than the previous one.

Odriana let a sinister smile crawl onto her face.

"'Surprise second match curve smash'!" She yelled out like it's some kind of technique.

Too bad, I was prepared this time so all I had to do was move my paddle to the right place and the ball bounced back to her side of the table.

Odriana was so surprised by my counter that she didn't react to it, allowing me to score a point.

Elaria gasped from the side, "Onii-sama countered Onee-sama's 'Surprise second match curve smash'? Sugoiii! As expected of Onii-sama!"

And here I thought Elaria finally broke out of her habit of using those random words.

Wait, if she knew about it, that means these two have been practicing this game even before Elaria had became my disciple. How long did they train?!

And Odriana expects me to play against her? Isn't that a little unfair?

Ah, I guess seeing how I scored a point against her, that argument is kind of moot.

Alright now, I'm just here to have fun... So can we just play normally please?