Chapter 24.1

My face weary, I yawned.

Haah.

I couldn’t sleep properly last night, which made first period feel like death. I have no idea how much water I drank to keep myself awake.

I’d skipped lunch in case I got even sleepier from the food, so I sat on the bench filling my stomach with water.

“Guh.”

The wind chased the clouds away, revealing the sun behind them.

The bright sunlight immediately imparted just the right amount of warmth to me. Unfortunately, the warm sunlight just made me sleepier.

When I sat still like that, my eyes began to close on their own accord. My eyelids weighed a ton each.

With a small sigh, I relaxed my body.

Let’s just close my eyes a bit, just a tiny bit. I’m sure someone would wake me up…

***

“Gweh.” Making a strange sound, I opened my eyes.

I slept for longer than I had expected. According to my watch, it was still lunchtime, thank goodness.

My sigh of relief lasted only a moment, however, when I wondered why napping on this uncomfortable bench had been so comfortable.

“Did you wake up? Maybe I should’ve woken you up a little earlier.”

“…!”

Why was I… leaning on someone’s shoulder?

A shiver ran down my spine. I quickly turned to my side.

And at the same time, I could feel the blood draining from my face.

With creaky motions, I opened my mouth.

“Noah…?”

The owner of the shoulder I’d slept on was none other than Noah.

Tada.

I better not have drooled while I was asleep. Did I?

Panicking, I patted my mouth, but thankfully both my face and Noah’s shoulder were nicely dry and clean.

“What… just happened?”

“I stopped by the store and came to return your book, but you were asleep,” Noah answered, sliding out the book he’d borrowed from me. There was also a package of bread that he must’ve bought from the store. “I thought my shoulder would be preferable to leaning on the bench.”

He explained himself so matter-of-factly that it felt like I was overreacting over nothing.

“Oh, thank you…”

Embarrassed, I fixed up my messy hair.

“Why didn’t you eat lunch?”

“I was so sleepy, that… I thought if I ate something, I might doze off during class.”

Trying to talk made me want to yawn again, so I lowered my head.

Covering my mouth, I mumbled, “Sorry you saw me in such a crude moment.”

“It’s not crude. And you don’t have to be sorry. I just wanted to take care of you.”

Opening the crinkly packaged bread, Noah continued speaking calmly. “That’s the kind of person you are to me.”

“… you mean me? To you?” At the words he’d said while handing me the unwrapped bread, I pointed a finger at myself and asked, bewildered.

When Noah nodded, I also nodded slowly myself, my mouth hanging open. “Wow, I didn’t know.”

For now, since it seemed he’d given me the bread to eat, I took a bite. Though it was delicious, the eyes I could feel on me made me think I might get indigestion.

“I see.”

I quickly pretended to have gotten a deep impression upon reflection of what Noah had said—it felt like if I didn’t show some kind of reaction, the atmosphere would become very strange.

“Keh, cough.”

And since I was eating like that, I naturally ended up inhaling the food into the wrong pipe.

Really thankfully, though, the bell rang to signal the end of lunch and I grabbed the water due to be poured down my throat and took the returned book into my hands while saying goodbye to Noah.

“Thanks, cough, for this.”

With that, I speedily dashed away to the classroom. Not only was I late, I was also embarrassed to have been caught choking and coughing.

“Cough, cough!”

I started hacking again from trying to drink water while running.

“Cough, cough, ugh…”

I felt tears welling up my eyes as I shook my head.

I’m sure my face was growing red because I’d been coughing so much.

***

Standing in front of the clubroom, I gulped.

This was my second club meeting with Gloria.

Nothing had happened the last time, fortunately enough, but I had no guarantee for the future.

Since I also had my life, I wouldn’t be able to follow her around blindly, but at least inside the club, I should be able to stop any type of evil deed committed against Flora while I was there.

With that thought in mind, I opened the clubroom door—and immediately my eyes met with Gloria’s.

Not even lying, I thought my heart would jump out of my mouth.

“Hey.” Her eyes curved into a smile as she gestured at me. “Come here, sit next to me.”

Her seductive voice was unnecessarily alluring.

If the sirens of the legends really existed, would they sound like her? A voice that you know would be perilous to get close to but still makes you want to approach.

Though in this case, I knew, it was still dangerous even if you didn’t approach.

Swallowing, I stepped inside.

“Haven’t seen you in a hot second. How have you been?”

Long, white, and calloused fingers from wielding the sword, now barely ghosted through my hair, gently smoothing it down.

“G-Good.”

“Heh, why are you afraid?” Her laughter sounded like some kind of string instrument.

She playfully blinked her eyes, her lashes as thick as butterfly wings.

Only then did I come to my senses and bow my head. Even so, I still felt her staring at me.

It felt like my stomach would start to hurt.

“Have you read the book? Wow, it was way too hard for me.”

“Right? I also… yeah.” Doing my best to agree, I trailed off.

When her platinum blonde hair rippled in front of my eyes, a cool scent wafted toward me.

Looking downward, I tried sniffing my uniform. It smelled of the dorm’s laundry soap.

It probably smelled at least like laundry soap now because it hadn’t been too long since I’d washed it.