Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Pleasure

Blackout.

People often say the film cuts off.

Whether it was because I lost consciousness or because I lost my memories afterward, even I did not know.

One’s body moving on its own without realizing it and wandering off somewhere is, without a doubt, not a pleasant experience.

“Of all things, it had to overlap with the instructors’ company dinner...”

Reina’s personality was as headstrong as her combat style.

And since she had been drinking... this was not a tantrum a mere student could stop.

I ignored Eisel and Sierra, who were staring holes into me, and buttoned up my shirt one button at a time.

Around the time I finished buttoning the shirt.

I heard someone’s footsteps approaching this room.

She entered through the open door and spoke.

“You’re awake?”

The owner of the voice was Priscilla.

“Then this is... Priscilla’s house.”

Overall, it was neat, without a single piece of furniture in a flashy color, an interior very much like her.

Perhaps Priscilla had been preparing to go to work, because she was in her underwear and had only half put on her shirt.

Maybe because she thought I could not see, she felt no embarrassment whatsoever about her appearance.

Just as she had when teaching me acupuncture.

Priscilla’s sensual figure, fully revealed, was more than enough to awaken the sensations from when she had taught me acupuncture.

“...Looking back now, it really is fortunate there were no acupuncture points in important places.”

Remembering Priscilla teaching me acupuncture made heat rush to my face.

Since the level of Keen Senses had risen, my memory of sensations had actually improved quite a bit.

In the middle of that, Priscilla approached me, who was sitting on the bed, with an alluring gait.

Soon, Priscilla stood beside the bed and quietly checked my condition.

Then she held out her hand and touched my forehead.

“...Your face was red, so I thought you might have a fever. Well, thankfully, you don’t.”

Priscilla seemed to have mistaken me for being sick somewhere.

“I don’t remember, so what exactly happened? My shirt is undone, and Miss Eisel is sleeping beside me...”

Clearing away the stabbing headache from the hangover and the lingering sensations of Priscilla’s skin brushing through my mind, I spoke to her.

“You passed out, then Eisel passed out too... Kaliman and Reina are one thing, but I couldn’t leave you two there, could I? So I brought you home. I live alone, so there’s only one bed... Thanks to that, my neck is stiff from sleeping on the sofa.”

Priscilla then held her neck, turned her head, opened the wardrobe beside the bed, and spoke while taking out clothes.

“...”

Eisel, beside me, watched Priscilla without saying anything and wrapped herself tightly in the blanket.

“Usually when this sort of thing happens, wouldn’t it be better to put me, the man, separately on the sofa? Haha...”

“Still, you were guests for the first time in a while, so I had to give you the bed. Otherwise, my conscience would bother me. Besides, both of you were so drunk you barely moved.”

“Thank you for looking after us....Did anything else happen during the night?”

I showed Priscilla a smile, expressed my gratitude, and then brought up the most important question.

Whether drunk me had muttered words I should not mention, or whether I had crossed a line between men and women that should not be crossed... In any case, things like that must not have happened.

Especially muttering. It was important enough that I would have to ask Sierra again later to confirm for certain.

“...Anything else? Only that Eisel kept clinging to you through the night. Still, the thing you’re worried about did not happen. I guarantee it. As for the shirt, I don’t know.”

Priscilla answered while glancing at my shirt.

Since I was entangled with two people full of secrets, I had worried, but at least this was fortunate.

If Priscilla was not acting right now, then it seemed nothing had really happened.

“What were you worrying about so much?”

Eisel, who had been listening to Priscilla’s words with me, spoke in a voice mixed with laughter.

I deliberately ignored Eisel’s question.

With this, I was certain that what had just happened was also her prank.

But...

“...What do you mean, clinging?”

Saying that, I turned my head toward where Eisel was.

“Recently, I developed a habit of trying to hold something while sleeping...”

At my questioning voice, Eisel, who had only her face poking out while wrapped in the blanket, lowered her head deeply and muttered in a small voice.

...Since the reason was cute, I decided to let it pass.

It was not a gloomy-bearded Kaliman. There was no reason to hate Eisel clinging a little in her sleep.

However, Sierra, who was behind Eisel, seemed to think a little differently.

[ Disciple, what a lovely sight that was...? ]

Sierra, whose face made it impossible to tell whether she was smiling or angry, said this to me.

From her characteristic languid voice, I felt an unknowable chill.

With those words, Sierra slipped neatly into the cursed blade.

Sierra had even taught me the “trick,” telling me not to lose consciousness. Had I disappointed her?

Watching that, I swept my hair back and wondered how to deal with what came next.

“By the way, are you two not going to school?”

Priscilla, who had gathered her clothes and was leaving the room, said this to us, still not getting off the bed.

Thinking it over, if Priscilla, the academy’s medical officer, was preparing to go to work, there was a high chance that we, as students, were late.

For now, going to school came first.

***

Sierra had gone into the cursed blade and still had not come out.

Ever since her soul moved into the cursed blade, she had rarely entered it.

“She seems very deeply sulky...”

It seemed I would only be able to speak with her after returning to the dormitory.

In the end, I was only able to receive the reward money when leaving Priscilla’s house.

The enjoyable thought of where to spend the money was put aside for a moment.

...And as expected, Eisel and I were late.

When Edward saw Eisel and I arrive late together, he let out an exclamation like, “Ho?” then soon told us to hurry back to our seats.

Avoiding the gazes of the Class A students, I quickly returned to my seat, but waiting there was Yuri with a face full of question marks.

After hesitating for quite some time, Yuri eventually asked me a quiet question during class.

“Mm, you two ended up being late together?”

“Ah, that is...”

I was about to explain and resolve Yuri’s question.

“Because I drank with Zeto and slept with him.”

Eisel, on the other side of Yuri, cut me off and jumped in with words full of misunderstanding.

Eisel looked at Yuri and tilted her head.

“Hm...? Slept... together...?

Hearing Eisel’s words, Yuri murmured like that, then whipped her head toward me.

“If that isn’t a lie, I’d like to know exactly what happened.”

Yuri’s eyes were dead as she spoke to me in a chilling voice.

It was not a lie, but because of Eisel’s words, which could cause more than a few misunderstandings, a very long explanation was needed.

Fortunately, once I mentioned the instructors’ company dinner, especially the matter of Medical Officer Priscilla, Yuri seemed to resolve her misunderstanding and returned to her usual face.

“Hmm... Zeto is weak to alcohol, then. You should have drunk moderately, and Eisel has quite the talent for making people misunderstand.”

After hearing all my explanation, Yuri made a sound argument, tilted her head, looked past me at Eisel, and said this.

“...”

Eisel answered Yuri’s words with silence.

Caught awkwardly between them, I used the opportunity to change the subject and responded to Yuri’s words.

“With Instructor Reina’s personality, it was difficult to refuse. Especially since she was drunk...”

“...True. If it was Instructor Reina, I can see that.”

Perhaps remembering Reina, whom she had run into several times while passing by, Yuri nodded.

Soon, it seemed Yuri still had something she was curious about. She carefully checked Edward, who was teaching, and then, avoiding his gaze, whispered to me again.

“...By the way, Zeto, I heard you’re going to spar with a Class C student? Is that true?”

“A sparring match?”

“Yeah, I think her name was Kaen...? I remember she also used a sword.”

“How do you know that, Miss Yuri?”

“That rumor has been going around among the students since morning. It seems to be getting more attention because it’s a Class A student against a Class C student.”

With Yuri’s following words, I immediately realized my plan had gone wrong.

“Should I assume Kaen deliberately spread this rumor...?”

The only people who knew about the sparring match were me, Kaen, and Sierra... so there was no reason for the rumor to spread except Kaen.

Normally, a simple sparring match between students would not receive such a heated reaction.

The fame I had gained through the previous lycanthrope incident seemed to have played a large role.

“She still likes attention, then...”

It seemed she had spread the rumor first without even explaining it to me, one of the people involved.

Considering Kaen’s personality and purpose, from the moment circumstances emerged that she had deliberately spread the rumor, this sparring match was no longer a simple sparring match.

I did not know whether this had been her purpose from the beginning.

After all, she had asked me to spar before I gained fame.

However, what mattered was that Kaen’s purpose was now clear.

She likely intended to defeat me, whose fame had risen greatly through the sparring match, and draw people’s attention all at once.

I had planned to call off the sparring match as Sierra requested, but given the situation, it did not seem easy to do so.

Whether because things kept happening one after another, or because of the hangover, my head throbbed.

It seemed I would need to meet Kaen in person and have a private discussion.

***

“Is it really okay for me to eat this all by myself?!”

The pink-haired girl with twin tails sitting across from me looked brightly at the slice of cake on the table.

“Of course.”

“It was too expensive for me to eat before. Thank you! Ehehe...”

Kaen laughed foolishly without taking her eyes off the slice of cake.

“Come to think of it, Kaen occasionally worked part-time jobs in the city...”

If one asked why she, despite being the Sword Saint’s disciple, had no money, it was because the Sword Saint himself did not have much money to begin with.

Still, considering the Sword Saint’s position, it would be more accurate to say he did not have much interest in money rather than that he had none.

He was very simple in that regard.

As soon as class ended, I brought Kaen from Class C to a cafe.

I already knew through the game that Kaen would like this cafe’s desserts.

Kaen, full of anticipation, placed a neatly cut piece of cake in her mouth.

Soon, her face melted blissfully.

“She really eats well...”

I could not say about anything else, but at least this reaction was not acting.

“...Miss Kaen, I heard a rumor about the sparring match.”

When I immediately got to the point while watching her, Kaen, who had been chewing the cake, flinched and wiped her mouth.

“I was going to tell you anyway, hehe... A friend I go around with brought up Student Zeto, and while we were talking about Student Zeto...”

“Thanks to that, it seems there will be many eyes watching the sparring match.”

“I know, even though it’s just an ordinary sparring match... Student Zeto seems to have become much more famous than I thought. Ah, I also thought what happened in the Labyrinth was cool!”

Watching Kaen’s painfully gloomy act of making a fuss, I barely held back a sigh that was about to burst out.

“By now, Kaen should be almost level 30, perhaps.”

Since Kaen was a special character, her level was extremely high from the beginning.

My level had only just reached 25, so by simple calculation, she was five levels higher.

Kaen knew very well that she was strong.

That meant she would be looking down on me just as much.

However, with Rebellion Against Heaven, I had more than enough chance as long as she did not take out the Sword Saint’s swordsmanship.

I had no intention of hiding Rebellion Against Heaven, nor any reason to do so.

No, considering the fundamental reason Sierra had created Rebellion Against Heaven, I might be able to win even if Kaen took out the Sword Saint’s swordsmanship.

Still, to avoid making things complicated, the best picture seemed to be defeating her before she brought out the Sword Saint’s swordsmanship.

Conveniently, Chapter One of Rebellion Against Heaven was suitable for landing a fatal blow on an opponent whose guard was down.

Watching Kaen’s clumsy acting, I felt that her purpose matched what I had thought.

Then what I had to do was simple.

“...So the sparring match is tomorrow?”

Tapping the table, I spoke to Kaen.

“Is that okay?! If you happen to be unavailable...”

“No, let’s do it tomorrow. The other students probably remember it that way too, and if there are many spectators, the sparring match will be fun.”

I cut off Kaen’s excited voice and spoke.

“Uh...”

Kaen was momentarily flustered, apparently not expecting me to agree so easily.

“...Okay!”

Soon, after not even a few seconds had passed, Kaen seemed to finish calculating in her head and answered.

I looked at that Kaen with a faint smile.

I did not know since when, or because of what, my relationship with Kaen had begun twisted like this, but since Kaen had acted as she pleased, I too planned to twist her plan to the fullest.

Kaen was treating me merely as a tool for obtaining the pleasure she desired.

From my perspective, I had no intention of silently letting Kaen use me as such a tool.

After the conversation ended, Kaen began eating cake again.

Meanwhile, I naturally touched the handle of the cursed blade at my waist while thinking about Sierra, who seemed to have no intention of coming out from inside the cursed blade.

“What would be good for lifting Sierra’s mood...”