Chapter 40
“D-dating?”
I barely managed to keep my expression composed as I asked. What on earth was this man thinking?
The vice principal opened his mouth with a rather relaxed expression.
“There’s no need to be embarrassed….”
“S-sorry I’m late.”
Before the vice principal could finish, the door burst open and Teacher Justina rushed into the dorm supervisor’s office, looking flustered.
The vice principal shrugged benevolently and turned toward Teacher Justina.
“It’s all right. It was my fault for not setting a definite time.”
His gaze shifted to Kairos, standing behind Teacher Justina.
“So, did the conversation end well?”
“Yes, Vice Principal.”
Kairos answered calmly, though there was a hint of satisfaction in his voice.
Teacher Justina nodded vigorously beside him.
‘What exquisite timing….’
It felt a little strange to bring up Evan’s name in this atmosphere.
I kept my mouth shut, and the vice principal gestured toward the seat beside me for Kairos.
“Sit down.”
“Yes.”
Kairos obediently came over to the seat beside me.
Judging by the way he looked at me as though he didn’t know me and gave me a sly wink, his conversation with Teacher Justina must have gone well.
“Just a moment, Vice Principal.”
Teacher Justina immediately bent down and whispered something into the vice principal’s ear.
I poked Kairos in the side and whispered,
“How did it go?”
“I’ll tell you the details later.”
“What?”
“For now, we need to listen to the vice principal’s lecture.”
Kairos snickered.
Soon, the vice principal nodded to Teacher Justina and turned back to us.
“Now then, shall we get to the main matter?”
A benevolent smile rested on the vice principal’s lips.
“Then, from this moment on, under my direction, I will begin a brief hearing regarding the two students’ unauthorized overnight stay.”
I wasn’t sure whether to call this fortunate… but at least he didn’t seem terribly enraged about our unauthorized outing.
※※
“W-what kind of magic did you use?”
The hearing with the vice principal ended so anticlimactically that it was almost absurd.
Our punishment was ten hours of school service (which sounded impressive but really just meant cleaning classrooms) and ten pages of a written apology.
It was the softest of soft punishments—nothing like what one would expect for staying out overnight without permission and then missing class the next day.
“I told you. I’d protect you somehow, no matter what.”
Kairos snickered and turned to me.
“That aside, Rene, shouldn’t you get back soon?”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“To Ria. She must be terribly worried.”
“Ah….”
I really didn’t live alone anymore.
Since it was my first time in a shared room, I had completely forgotten.
“Let’s talk about the details tomorrow. You must be tired from the mana depletion, too.”
As he spoke, Kairos casually placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Sigh… all right.”
I irritably knocked his hand away and nodded.
Then I shot him a sharp look and added,
“But tomorrow, you really have to explain everything from start to finish. Including who those brats are.”
What I hated most was people discussing me without my knowing.
“All right.”
Kairos nodded as though it were only natural, said, “Get plenty of rest,” and turned around without hesitation, walking down the corridor.
I glared at his back for a moment, then sighed and headed toward my room.
‘That Ria… she must have been terribly worried….’
Classes should be in session now.
Surely she hadn’t skipped class, though.
‘Besides, if it’s Ria, she probably knows I went to meet Kairos….’
Before leaving yesterday, I had clearly told Ria that I was going to the western forest today to meet Kairos.
‘Maybe she even told Ellie that I hadn’t come back….’
For an instant, Ellie’s eerie smile flashed through my mind.
……I shuddered without realizing it.
Shivering, I quickened my pace toward the room.
Peek.
That was how I arrived at the dorm room door. Surprisingly, it wasn’t locked.
I cautiously slipped just my head through the gap and peered inside.
‘She’s not here….’
As expected, Ria was nowhere to be seen.
The room was just as neat and tidy as when I had left.
“Phew.”
With a sigh of relief, I swung the door wide open.
Still, perhaps because it was home, the moment my tension eased, an unbearable fatigue washed over my entire body.
‘I need to apologize to Ria and Ellie….’
Though I thought that, my body was already heading for the bed. I simply collapsed onto it.
When I quietly closed my eyes, a cozy, languid sensation more comforting than ever seeped through me.
‘Is this because of the mana depletion?’
Well, Rene was human too. There was no way the mana depletion wouldn’t have aftereffects.
I tried to hold out a little longer, but the drowsiness weighing down my entire body was too tenacious to shake off.
I tossed and turned for a while, groaning… then finally gave up and buried my face in the pillow.
A ‘sweet’ sleep came over me in an instant and enveloped my consciousness.
……
How much time had passed after that?
“…….”
When I blearily opened my eyes, it was already dark outside.
I sighed and rubbed my face with one hand.
As I carefully surveyed the room, dimly lit by candlelight, I noticed the wall clock was already pointing to nine in the evening.
‘No way… Did I sleep for almost twelve hours?’
I must have been more tired than I thought. Astonished, I sat up.
“……Huh?”
No… I tried to sit up.
At that moment, with a jolt, I sank back into the bed.
I tried to sit up, but the sensation of something pressing firmly against my chest stopped me.
At the same time, I felt a dull pain. Puzzled, I raised my head and looked at my chest where the pain was coming from.
“……Rope?”
A rope was wrapped tightly around my chest.
I mean… the actual kind of rope used to tie something up.
“Are you awake?”
“Eek….”
At the eerie voice, I reflexively turned my head.
My eyes met Ria’s. She was sitting cross-legged like a shadow on the opposite bed, staring at me without moving.
“Y-you scared me… What are you doing over there?”
If she hadn’t spoken first, I could easily have mistaken her for a ghost. My heart had literally lurched into my throat.
“And what’s with this rope?”
I abruptly hardened my expression and demanded an explanation from Ria.
Ria’s gaze shifted briefly to my chest, then returned to my face. Her calm voice followed.
“It’s punishment.”
“What?”
“Punishment for getting a boyfriend without consulting me even once, and for staying out overnight without telling me.”
“Whaaat?!”
What ridiculous thing was she talking about all of a sudden…?
This time, the absurdity left me speechless.
Ria climbed down from the bed and slowly approached me.
“At first, I thought something had happened to you, Rene. Last night, on my way back after telling Teacher Justina, I was so worried that I even cried.”
I tried to loosen the rope, but it was tighter than I had expected.
Ria came to a stop beside the bed.
“But when I went to school today… well, wouldn’t you know it, that Kairos guy had skipped class too, completely unlike him? That’s when I knew.”
Her gaze, now cold, fixed on me.
“Rene, you went and got involved with Kairos without even telling me….”
“What, do you think I had sex with that Kairos bastard?”
“…and had an affair with him… Wha—what!?”
Ria’s words were cut off at once.
Her face was filled with bewilderment, as though she couldn’t believe her ears.
“As if that could happen, you idiot! Hurry up and untie this.”
It was such a ridiculous misunderstanding that it wasn’t worth answering.
Looking at Ria, who had frozen like an idiot, I thumped the bed.
“Hurry up and untie me. This actually hurts.”
“B-but….”
“There’s no way I’d do that kind of thing with Kairos! If I had to choose between downing a cockroach smoothie in one gulp and sleeping with that bastard, I’d choose the cockroach without hesitating for even a second!”
“Gasp….”
Ria looked at me as if to say, ‘That far?’
When I thumped the side of the bed once more, Ria timidly reached a hand toward me.
With a soft swish as the rope slid, the restraints around me came loose with absurd ease.
“Ria, sometimes you really do things I can’t even imagine.”
I immediately sat up and brushed back my disheveled bangs.
Then I let out a hollow laugh and looked at her.
“And even if I had spent the night with Kairos, who would tie someone up like this?”
“But… when I thought you’d done that, Rene, I got so angry.”
“What are you getting angry about… are you my mother?”
I sighed and shook my head.
“Then what on earth happened?”
Ria sat down on the edge of my bed and asked.
After taking a moment to choose my answer, I told her only half the truth.
“We were attacked by monsters in the western forest.”
“M-monsters?!”
“Yeah. So we spent the whole day running for our lives.”
I added with a shrug, “If you don’t believe me, ask Teacher Justina.”
Ria’s eyes went round as she asked,
“Were there monsters in the western forest strong enough to give even Kairos trouble?”
“Why are you bringing up Kairos?”
“Huh? Of course you were running away with Kairos, right?”
“Uh… that is true, but….”
She was surprisingly perceptive.
“Ahem, anyway, Kairos wasn’t in great shape either, since he fell and got hurt while gathering herbs. So we just spent the whole day running.”
Kairos really had been injured, after all.
This much embellishment should be harmless.
‘Of course, those brats had been human….’
In any case, I could get our stories straight with Kairos tomorrow.
I looked at Ria with an unwavering expression, and she soon let out a short sigh and nodded.
“Life really throws all sorts of things at you….”
Fortunately, she no longer seemed suspicious.
I asked instead, as though the whole thing were absurd,
“That aside, just because I spent last night out doesn’t mean I was necessarily with Kairos, does it?”
It was true that I had told Ria I was going to meet Kairos, but I had also clearly explained that my purpose was to confront him about Christina.
“No, I just… you two looked so close.”
“Whaaat?”
“The atmosphere was pretty suggestive when you danced at Mr. Friesna’s house. I thought maybe you’d fallen for each other then.”
“Absolutely not!!”
My voice rose before I knew it. What on earth was this bizarre idea she had gotten into her head?
Ria merely scratched the back of her head sheepishly and giggled.
“Well, if not, that’s a relief.”
Then she quickly changed the subject. “Aren’t you hungry?”
“A little.”
When I answered honestly, Ria headed toward the kitchen, saying she’d expected that and had prepared some bread.
As I watched her walk away, Ria suddenly stopped and turned around.
“Oh, right. Explain honestly what happened today to Ellie tomorrow, too.”
“To Ellie?”
Ria answered with an awkward giggle, as if she felt embarrassed too.
“Well… Ellie asked about you, so I just told her you’d spent the night with Kairos.”
“……What?”
My mouth fell open before I knew it.