Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Peeping and a Bold Plan (End)

After witnessing that guy enter the cafe with Student Eisel, I saw that the restaurant across the street sold chicken soup, so I ate that while watching them.

“Miss, you really eat well!”

“Slurp, this place... slurp... is delicious! So delicious!”

The shop owner was staring at me eating in a burdensome way, but that was not important right now.

“Why is he flirting with girls every chance he gets like that? Does he simply like women?”

After all, even when I saw him at the academy, he was often stuck to that girl from the Clementine family.

“Then could he perhaps be hiding his strength purely to seduce women...?”

That could be possible.

Grandfather had once said such a thing before.

“Kaen... men, you see, are beasts whose heads are filled with nothing but thoughts of women. Beasts.”

“Then what about you, Grandfather?”

“I was like that in my prime too. As you can see, I am old now. When I was young, I was so popular. There was even one persistent woman who followed me to the end, saying she liked me.”

“Grandfather is just that cool!”

Right.

According to Grandfather’s words, the possibility was not extremely faint.

“You beastly Zeto. Are you saying you live hiding your strength for nothing but that sort of reason? Unlike you, I am enjoying hiding my strength in a ‘pure’ way.”

I finished eating all the soup and waited in my seat for a while.

“Miss, should I give you some service?”

I wanted to answer the owner’s kind mention of “service,” but I spotted them coming out of the cafe. But the sight was strange.

“No, I’ll come again and eat next time!”

I hurried out of the shop and tried to grasp their condition in more detail.

“Student Eisel is supporting Zeto?”

I wondered if a fight had broken out in the cafe, but there was no way.

The cafe was quiet.

Then what on earth had he drunk in that cafe to be sagging so limply?

Whatever the reason, I followed them.

Zeto still had little movement in his body, and Eisel simply supported Zeto in silence and walked along the road.

Since it was late, not many people were walking around outside.

They moved quietly.

“This place is...?”

The place they headed toward like that was the male dormitory.

Eisel supported Zeto all the way to the front of the dormitory, and just then, they met the dormitory guard.

“Student Eisel! Naturally, women are forbidden from entering the male dormitory!”

Eisel and the guard exchanged words, and then something absurd happened.

Was Eisel not still supporting Zeto as she entered all the way into the male dormitory building?

“This cannot be... no, no. I still do not know.”

For a moment, I nearly imagined something truly strange, but I was not certain.

“...She must simply have agreed to take him to his room and come back out.”

No matter how I thought about it, that had to be right.

The dormitory guard was not a fool.

Naturally, he must have made her promise to come back out.

Just then, Eisel came out of the building alone.

“Right, that was it. I nearly made a strange misunderstanding. Student Eisel... I thought she would only be cold on the outside, but she is kinder and warmer than she looks.”

I did not know what relationship the “cool” Eisel, who had shown overwhelming martial force in the class placement exam, had with that guy, but I felt relieved inwardly when I saw Eisel leave the dormitory alone.

Eisel walked out, spoke again with the guard from earlier, and then walked along the road.

“Is this it for today?”

Even I did not keep watching after that guy entered the dormitory.

There was nothing to gain from waiting for him when he would be sleeping comfortably in his room.

I was also not good at holding back sleep.

“Should I go back now?”

I had finished today’s surveillance and was about to leave.

“Student Eisel...?”

Eisel, who had been walking along well, changed direction.

Eisel circled around the guard standing in front of the dormitory, approached the dormitory wall, and climbed over it.

“Eh...?”

At the rather shocking sight, I could not close my mouth.

“Student Eisel secretly entered the male dormitory again... could it be because of that Zeto guy?”

At the strange situation that had unfolded in an instant, I rubbed my eyes.

“What are a grown man and woman going to do in a room... What on earth are they planning...? And why does the guard even exist...?”

I felt as if I knew the answer, but I deliberately ignored it.

“He is a beast... I cannot let a beast like that steal people’s attention.”

It was the moment my thought that Zeto might be hiding his strength to seduce women turned into certainty.

***

“Whew...”

After shaking off the guard and climbing over the wall around the dormitory, I hurried my steps toward the room where Zeto was waiting.

I had opened the room with the key taken from Zeto’s back pocket and wedged a small object into the door so it would not close.

Because it was late, fortunately, I was able to enter Zeto’s room without running into anyone in the male dormitory.

It was a perfect crime.

When I entered the room, I saw Zeto, whom I had laid on the bed a moment ago.

Zeto was sound asleep.

It was something I had done in a fit of impulse.

Ever since I received Zeto’s clothes last time, my mind had been hazy because of the faint scent of him coming from them.

That did not mean I could have refused Zeto’s clothes at that time.

No, in truth, perhaps all of it was an excuse.

Maybe I was rationalizing to myself that I had no choice.

I could not come to my senses before the “sin” I had committed.

“Still... what’s done is already done...”

Zeto in the previous round was also extremely weak to alcohol.

Once he drank, he fell deeply asleep for a long time and could not wake up.

Zeto had not changed.

It was only that my actions had changed, delaying the moment Zeto would come to me.

I lay down beside Zeto, who would not wake for a long while.

Then I drew a little closer to him.

I slipped completely into his embrace.

I lay with his reliable arm as my pillow.

I buried my face in his chest.

“Inhale... haah...”

...The scent from his body, which I smelled deeply for the first time in so long, still made my mind go dizzy.

“Zeto...”

The bandage that always covered his eyes entered my sight.

A conversation I had had with Zeto in the previous round suddenly came to mind.

“The bandage?”

“Isn’t it uncomfortable wearing it every day?”

“Haha... It was at first, but now it feels strange without it.”

“I’m curious what Zeto’s eyes look like.”

At my words, which I had spoken without much thought, his face stiffened rapidly.

“That is something I do not think I can allow, even for you, Miss Eisel.”

He had left me with that cold sentence.

At that time, he seemed like such a different person.

Even though Zeto had been endlessly kind to me...

I wondered if he had some bad memory he did not even want to remember.

And just before he died, when he spoke to me while dropping the formal speech he never dropped.

I was able to see Zeto’s eyes for the first and last time.

They were blue eyes.

They were the color of the beautiful sea seen at the beach of Veleschanas, which I liked so much.

It felt like fate.

But because it was the last time, it was the worst.

I desperately wanted to untie the bandage wrapped around his eyes right in front of me and check the eyes that would be closed in sleep... but I could not.

With his good senses, even if I wrapped the bandage again, he would notice that it had been undone.

He would quickly realize that the culprit was me.

I did not want to be hated by him.

If Zeto hated me, it would be difficult to live beyond that.

I would have to start the round over again.

So for now...

I can feel the warm heat from Zeto’s body.

The sound of Zeto’s quiet breathing is right before my nose.

Zeto’s breath touches my face.

Only I, and no one but me, can see Zeto like this.

...This much was exactly enough.

I hugged him tightly.

“A kiss... wouldn’t that much be all right...?”

An indecent thought passed through my head.

I remembered my previous conversation with Zeto.

“B-but... I, I... why am I... not wearing clothes...?”

“Well...”

His words dragged on, and I wondered if perhaps I had crossed the “line” with Zeto.

I got angry.

I got angry because I had no memory of it.

I desperately hoped it was not true.

I hoped my “first time” had not disappeared like that, without even a memory left behind.

Fortunately, it was not like that.

I want to erase what happened then from my memory.

Thinking of that moment made me embarrassed, and heat rose to my face.

“This is... right, revenge.”

—Kiss.

I softly pressed my lips to the sleeping Zeto’s.

Zeto’s lips were sweet.

Was it because of the coffee?

It was my first time too, so I did not really know.

For a long while, I stayed like that, my face buried in his embrace.

***

“...”

When I came to my senses, I saw a familiar ceiling.

To be precise, it was the ceiling of my dormitory room.

“Ugh...”

When I raised myself, my head hurt as if it would split, and I clutched it with my hand.

“What happened yesterday?”

I had definitely drunk coffee with Eisel.

“While drinking coffee...”

It was around the time I was tracing back my memories.

A voice that should not have been heard came from one corner of the room.

“You’re awake. Somehow, it seems the situation from last time has been reversed?”

“Eisel...?”

When I looked toward where the voice came from, Eisel, dressed in the same uniform as yesterday, stood leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.

“Why is Eisel here... Ah.”

There was only one possibility.

“You brought me back.”

“That’s right. I didn’t know where the key was, so I worked hard searching your body for quite a while.”

Eisel wore her characteristic indifferent expression.

I lost consciousness in the middle of the night.

Eisel brought me back to the dormitory.

“Isn’t this quite a dangerous situation?”

I had many things I was hiding from her.

But I could not immediately question her suspiciously when she had such a firm iron mask on her face.

“I was going to leave a note and go... but it would have been useless to you, wouldn’t it?”

Eisel raised her hands and shrugged.

“That’s true...”

I deliberately scratched the back of my head and organized the situation.

When I touched the back of my head, there was nothing wrong with the bandage around my eyes. It was certain it had never been removed.

Even if my senses were dulled by alcohol, I could remember at least the feeling of the knot.

“Then what would Eisel, a regressor, do in this room...”

...Nothing in particular.

The materials for the cursed blade were, of course, stored elsewhere, and I tended to keep my room neatly arranged.

“My lips are a little moist... Did I drool?”

I naturally wiped my lips.

I could only hope that Eisel had not seen such an ugly scene.

“In any case, thank you. You must be tired... I’m rather weak to alcohol... Next time, please be sure to tell me if there’s alcohol in something.”

I said that to Eisel, who wore an indifferent expression.

For now, Zeto’s body seemed strangely weak to alcohol. It seemed that raising levels did not make one stronger with alcohol or anything like that.

The me in reality had also been extremely weak to alcohol... but I did not know what relation that might have.

“I’ll remember that. Then since you’re awake, I’ll be going.”

“Yes, I’m sorry for causing you trouble.”

Only then did Eisel uncross her arms and leave the room.

“Haa...”

After she left, I let out the sigh I had been holding back.

This time had truly been dangerous.

Of all things, alcohol.

Why on earth would a cafe sell coffee mixed with alcohol?

Since students were strictly adults, there was no problem selling it, but I had not expected alcohol to be sold at a cafe.

“I should have been more careful when it was a shop I was visiting for the first time...”

Still, it was fortunate the situation was not very bad. Eisel did not seem to know I would be this weak to alcohol either.

Nothing particularly special should have happened.

Probably.

“The object containing memories ended up being delayed somehow... and Kaen, who was secretly watching me and Eisel yesterday, what is she plotting this time...?”

Considering her meticulous and calculating personality, she was not someone who would go around doing useless things.

“Please, just don’t cause trouble.”