Chapter 102

Chapter 102

Under the Desk

[ You seem to have many worries. ]

As I stood in one corner of the room where silence had settled, recalling what had just happened, Sierra’s gentle voice rang in my head from some distance away.

I quietly turned my head toward where Sierra was and took her into my eyes.

Soon, Sierra opened her mouth again.

[ Was it not good? ]

“There is no way. It was fun. Very much so...”

I said that and wore a bitter smile.

Sierra had not seemed pleased at all that Eisel and I were going on a date, but that was as far as it went.

She looked at Eisel, who had come out at the appointed time, and let out a hum like [ Hmm... ]

Soon, Sierra said that since it was a “date” anyway, I should not think of doing anything else today and should focus on her, then entered the cursed blade.

It seemed Sierra thought her existence would be a hindrance. Though it was not necessarily so.

My date with Eisel was good.

All kinds of distracting thoughts and worries interfered with me, but just as Sierra said, I tried to empty my head and focus entirely on Eisel.

Perhaps it was because Eisel was a regressor after all.

She knew a restaurant hidden in the academy that even I did not know.

It was a restaurant that sold modern food, and it was a place I had never seen in the game.

I could not tell why such a restaurant existed, but perhaps it was some kind of “Easter egg” that had not been implemented.

The carbonation I tasted after so long... was satisfying to a degree difficult to describe in words.

Overall, it had been a happy and enjoyable time.

...And that was the problem.

My anguish deepened.

In the game, there had been absolutely no romance parts like dates.

Even when one raised favorability with characters of the opposite sex, it was only “friendship” to the end. The process by which that feeling developed into “love” did not exist in the game.

It could not cross the line.

Of course, now that the game had become reality, such a “line” had naturally disappeared as well.

Well, that did not mean I was mistaken enough to think Eisel loved me. Getting that far ahead over a single date would be absurd.

Even so, it was difficult to dress this date up as friendship. Having experienced it myself, many thoughts came to mind.

For example, why Eisel, a regressor, was trying to get close to someone else, that is, to me.

There were many other questions too, but in the end, what I had to do remained the same.

The precious person I wanted to protect, wanted to save, had merely become even more precious.

That was why I could not be purely happy.

Because I kept thinking of whether I could endure the result if I failed.

A person’s mind breaks more easily than one expects.

Especially if the cause is “loss.”

Being unable to endure it and stopping.

Remaining in that place.

To me, that was the same as “death.”

Whatever happens to them is none of my business.

I am more important.

I could comfort myself that way, give everything up, and hide away.

But I hated that.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say I did not want to do that.

I had spent thousands of hours with them at the very least.

To them, I was merely a strange outsider, but to me, every one of them was someone I had grown attached to over a long time.

Because I knew their stories.

Because I “understood” them.

I could not ignore them.

To begin with, looking only at the Hero, if I did not move, if I did not act, then no matter where I hid in this world, there was a very high possibility that it would become a “bad ending.”

The driving force moving my legs was ultimately my sense of responsibility as a possessed person, as a player.

“Love is another matter, though...”

Whatever else, was it not enough that Eisel had looked happy?

Especially the fireworks we watched from the hill, her favorite place, had been a magnificent view.

“The scenery was scenery, but...”

Because she was so lovely as she tried somehow to explain the fireworks to me, I expressed to her as much as I could.

In that fleeting moment, Eisel was truly beautiful.

Afterward, Sierra hurriedly popped out from the cursed blade and quietly turned my head, which had been aimed toward Eisel, toward the night sky where the fireworks were bursting. But the date ended safely and well.

As I stood blankly in the middle of the room, sorting through the worries in my head, Sierra approached me.

[ You are smiling foolishly again... A swordsman who handles a blade should maintain composure at all times, yet... ]

She said that while covering her mouth with her sleeve, then immediately threw Shady, who had been in her arms, at me.

Shady flew through the air and soon landed softly on top of my head.

[ Teach him a lesson, Shady. ]

“Krrng!”

Shady gave a cute cry, and then I heard the sound of his fangs sinking into the crown of my head.

Shady really did suck blood at every possible moment.

Sierra had said that no matter what, I could not bleed in the middle of a date, and that she would take Shady with her.

I wondered where she would take him, and it was none other than the cursed blade.

Perhaps because he was ultimately a spiritual body, he could go in.

Perhaps Shady had had some close conversation with Sierra, because after entering and leaving the cursed blade, he had become extremely intimate with her.

When I asked Sierra about this, she said she had merely “settled the pecking order.”

Perhaps because Shady had not eaten life force all day, he was excitedly sucking in a large amount of it.

That did not mean blood was pouring out.

For now, it seemed still within the level covered by the “Bracelet Bearing Wishes.”

I had not properly used his power yet, but according to Magredo’s explanation, the amount of life force demanded could increase in proportion to how much power was used.

So before that, it would not be bad to find an elixir or an item to strengthen stamina recovery.

As I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth, the wave I sent out by habit touched someone’s presence.

Since this was the dormitory, I could always feel the presences of students in the rooms nearby. But the owner of the presence I had detected was not someone who should be in the male dormitory.

“Well, I suppose I have no right to say that, having gone in and out of the female dormitory myself...”

She quietly approached my door and stopped.

I waited to see what she would do, but nothing in particular happened.

It was certain she had come to find me, yet she did not knock separately.

And so, I decided to open the door.

I approached while erasing my presence enough that she, standing before the door, would not hear.

—Clack.

Then I opened the door.

Immediately after, the door collided with her head.

—Bonk!

“...Ugh.”

With a short groan filled with pain, she held the forehead that had struck the door.

I asked her in a quiet voice as she rubbed her forehead.

“...What are you doing here, Miss Kaen?”

***

During the day, Kaen had witnessed Eisel and Zeto walking down the street holding hands.

The moment she saw them, she hid herself and followed them.

Even she did not know why she had done such a thing. It was an instinctive action that continued as naturally as flowing water.

The two, whom Kaen secretly watched from among the crowd, looked like lovers on a “date.”

...They looked very happy.

To Kaen, it was not exactly a great shock. She had known from before that the two had a connection.

But for some reason, in one corner of her heart, she felt a sense of disappointment. It was an emotion similar in nature to emptiness or loneliness.

Recently, Zeto had not been seeking out Kaen.

From her perspective, she had wanted to carry out another secret mission with him... but there had been no separate talk of anything like that.

Eventually, when their surroundings began to grow dark, Zeto and Eisel headed toward the outskirts of the academy, where there were almost no people... and Kaen had no choice but to give up following them.

She judged that if she went any farther, the danger of being discovered was high.

As Kaen trudged down the street like that, fireworks suddenly began.

The flames embroidered across the ink-colored night sky were dazzlingly beautiful.

To the people on the street as well, they were mysterious fireworks whose meaning no one knew, but everyone enjoyed them.

The atmosphere was that they must be celebrating something.

Kaen was not happy.

It felt as though the fireworks were blessing the two she had seen dating earlier.

Recently, Kaen’s head had been filled with thoughts of Zeto.

There were various factors: the things Sword Saint Chris had said to her, and Zeto’s body that she could see through the piece of ice.

In the middle of that, the scene from before, when Eisel had brought Zeto back to the dormitory and then secretly entered it, flashed rapidly through Kaen’s head.

It was unmistakably a “tryst.”

“Surely not today too...?”

It was nothing but baseless speculation, but Kaen wanted to confirm it somehow.

“It is absolutely not because I am curious about the sounds that might come from Zeto’s room...”

She deceived herself that way.

Secretly entering the dormitory in the dark of night was not a major problem for Kaen.

However, the problem remained that she did not know where Zeto’s room was... and this was resolved when she met a male student with a plump impression near the male dormitory.

She had met Crank before, during the party in the North.

“Do you happen to know what room Student Zeto is in?”

At Kaen’s careful question, Crank answered concisely, without asking why.

“Zeto’s room is... room 505.”

Crank said that, gave Kaen a thumbs up, then continued eating the bread he had been holding as he entered the dormitory.

The lights in the dormitory corridor had already been turned off.

Kaen found Zeto’s room without being discovered by anyone. This was extremely easy for her.

“Room 505.”

Standing in front of Zeto’s room while reducing the sound of her footsteps as much as possible, Kaen hesitated briefly.

“...Is it all right to do something like this?”

This was just a simple check.

She was only confirming whether Eisel had entered Zeto’s room.

And so Kaen pressed her ear to the door.

She was blushing, wondering what she would do if moans happened to be heard, when—

—Clack.

Suddenly, the sound of the door opening was heard.

—Bonk!

Without even time to hide herself, the door opened immediately, and her forehead was struck by the opened door.

“...Ugh.”

“...What are you doing here, Miss Kaen?”

At Zeto’s question, which drove into her like a dagger, Kaen, rubbing her forehead, was desperately thinking through what excuse she should give.

“Eavesdropping against Zeto was impossible after all...”

She thought she had definitely made no sound, but Zeto’s detection ability was at a level beyond her common sense.

Like that, unable to think of anything to say, Kaen lowered her head deeply.

Soon, Zeto’s mouth opened.

“...Come in for now. It seems better than standing in the corridor.”

At Zeto’s words telling her to come in, Kaen’s eyes widened. She wondered if it was truly all right.

“Then... Student Eisel is not there...?”

Thinking she had made yet another rude misunderstanding toward Zeto, Kaen could not raise her head as she entered the room.

Soon, the inside of Zeto’s room that greeted her was utterly dark, without a single light.

Looking around, Kaen reached the simple conclusion that because Zeto was blind, there was no need to turn on a light, and nodded faintly.

Like that, she stood awkwardly in one corner of the room, fidgeting as though guilty of a crime.

Soon, after closing the door and approaching her, Zeto opened his mouth again.

“...So, what is the reason you came to find me at this late hour?”

“Th-that is... I wondered if any information had come in...?! About the matter where a b-body... is needed...”

“Aha.”

At Kaen’s answer, after she barely managed to think of an excuse, Zeto rubbed his chin and nodded.

“No separate information has come in yet. Still, depending on how you look at it, would no news not be good news?”

“...That is true.”

At Zeto’s reaction, showing no special doubt, Kaen felt she had managed to pass it off and wanted to let out a sigh of relief.

Barely holding back the sigh, Kaen rolled her eyes around amid the silence that followed.

Soon, the snow-white bed inside the room entered her eyes.

“Zeto’s bed...”

It was a clean, ordinary bed, with its blanket neatly arranged.

But to Kaen, who was staring at it, all kinds of suggestive imaginings flickered before her eyes.

This was caused by the desire building up inside Kaen and the shocking words Chris had said to her.

Because of Chris’s remarks, Kaen had become sexually conscious of Zeto.

Well, if one had to be precise, she had been that way since long before.

“Zeto’s child...”

Kaen shook her head furiously and then opened her mouth, breaking the silence that had continued inside the room.

“Th-then, Student Zeto... I will be going now...? I am sorry for coming suddenly at such a late hour.”

Kaen hurriedly moved her feet toward the door as she said that.

It was because if she did not escape this place quickly, she felt she might lose consciousness.

In the middle of that, Zeto caught Kaen’s hand as she tried to leave the room.

At the utterly unexpected contact, a small moan escaped Kaen’s mouth.

“Hngh...?!”

Kaen’s body had already grown thoroughly heated by her “terrible” delusions.

Soon, Zeto, who had taken Kaen’s hand, brought his face close.

“Wh-what are you trying to...?”

As Kaen squeezed her eyes shut and voiced her question, Zeto’s whisper reached her ear.

“...Miss Kaen, I think you should hide yourself. A guest has come.”

“A... guest...?”

She wondered what he meant by a guest all of a sudden, but Zeto had been able to notice even when Kaen approached his door.

Being discovered as a woman inside the male dormitory, and in his room no less, would not be a very good situation.

Kaen decided to trust Zeto for now.

“Where do I hide...?”

Kaen quickly looked around the room, but because her head was complicated, she could not decide how to hide.

Even if Kaen was not calm, Zeto was.

He quickly took her hand and approached the table in one corner of the wall.

Then he took hold of Kaen’s shoulders and pushed her down.

Kaen sat down on the floor without any particular resistance.

“...Would you hide under here, at least?”

Zeto whispered again.

“...All right.”

Kaen, still unable to understand the situation and wearing a dazed expression, nodded.

“How did this happen...?”

Around the time Kaen hid herself under the table and felt puzzled...

—Knock, knock.

Just as Zeto had said, a guest seemed to have arrived, as the sound of knocking came.

Then the door opened, and from over there, the conversation between Zeto and the “guest” could be heard.

To Kaen, the wide-open window entered her eyes.

“...Should I have jumped out the window?”

Just as Chris had done before.

But that was now impossible.

“Is that so? Are you truly certain there is no woman?”

For some reason, the guest did not leave immediately and was entering the room.

The identity of the guest was a dormitory guard.

Kaen covered her mouth, trying not to make even the sound of breathing.

“...I told you, there really is no one.”

Soon, Zeto said that and approached the table where Kaen was hiding, naturally sitting on the chair in front of it.

“Strange... He said he heard a woman’s voice...”

The guard clicked his tongue while inspecting the room.

“...”

As for Kaen, her mind was going hazy because of what she saw before her.