༺ Oh Luce... (1) ༻
Knock Knock—
[Breaking and entering! Trespassing! My master’s ability to abide by the law is nowhere to be found!]
“...”
Ppak—!
[Bello, attacked! No violence! No violence!]
It was the weekend, and the morning sun shined brightly on the trees.
It was quiet outside of the lower-middle-ranked student dorm, Briggs Hall, and had no students roaming around.
A female student in a one-piece dress rode her larger than usual killer whale familiar, Bello, as she peered into a specific window of Briggs Hall.
Bello wrapped himself with translucent water mana as he swam in the air. He was a familiar who could fly with a passenger as long as he was big enough.
Luce Eltania, who was riding on top of Bello, whacked the noisy familiar and peered through the window.
No one was there.
The window that was slightly opened for ventilation had no sounds coming out of it. The owner of the room was probably not in the bathroom or shower either.
‘I already checked that Isaac left to train earlier.’
In truth, she already knew that the room would be empty. However, she double-checked just in case.
Creak.
Luce opened the window without hesitation and stepped inside the room. She put the window back to its original slightly opened state.
“Ugh, it’s so damp...”
Due to Bello’s water mana, her entire lower half was soaked, including her underwear. If only she rode on Galia, she wouldn’t have been in this state.
On the day of the social gathering, after getting dragged away by the Student Council, she was asked to avoid summoning Thunderbird Galia.
Although it was acknowledged that Galia was now docile enough to be deemed safe, many students still had trauma from the terrifying performance it showed in the end-of-semester evaluation.
As a result, she tested out riding Bello, but the drenched texture of her dress and underwear only gave her discomfort. As expected, she was never going to ride Bello again.
[My master succeeds in breaking and entering! Crime perfe...!]
Luce unsummoned Bello. As Bello’s voice faded away, a suffocating silence filled the room.
In her hands were a small paper bag filled with cookies. It was elegantly packaged with a letter taped to the bag saying,
I’m sorry about last time
– Luce
The letter even had a little drawing of a trendy character that she drew after much effort. She wanted to emphasize the smiling face.
‘I don’t know if this will make Isaac feel better...’
She read from a book that an apology gift was best given when one sneakily leaves the gift inside the recipient’s private space.
Luce decided to follow the book to the letter. The problem, however, was that her method lacked both common sense and a willingness to follow the law.
On the day of the social gathering, her plan was to forcefully restrain Isaac. In the end, however, she achieved absolutely nothing. Fast forwarding to the present, she was regretful of the risk she took since the current state of her relationship with Isaac was in hot waters.
She had no guilt over her actions. After all, in her eyes, holding Isaac captive was inevitable.
However, Isaac was her only friend, a person who was precious beyond all measure. As such, she would rather die than be hated by him.
‘It would probably have a greater effect if I put it somewhere easy to find, right...?’
The best location was probably the desk.
Luce’s plan was surprisingly meticulous.
Leave the cookies in Isaac’s room. After a long and exhausting workout, Isaac, who barely managed to drag himself into his room, would see the cookies with a note and be touched. After deliciously eating the cookies, he’ll want to see Luce so badly that he will forgive her and, as a result, become even closer to her.
Now, all she had to do was leave the cookies and make her grand escape. After she gave Isaac enough alone time to be touched by her gesture, he would come to the conclusion that he should ‘forgive Luce and hang out with her more.’ It was indeed a very meticulous plan.
“...?”
When she placed the bag of cookies on the desk, Luce noticed an abundance of books and scrolls on the bookshelf. To be specific, the scrolls were behind the books as if they were meant to be hidden.
The books were not a problem, but the hidden scrolls were plenty suspicious. Why is he storing so many? Thê source of this content n/o/v/(el)bi((n))
These scrolls were meticulously written plans that Isaac had organized ever since he first possessed his current body. They also contained information about the future.
Every plan and every single piece of information needed to defeat the Evil God of Destruction, Nephid, were stated in these scrolls.
The reason why Isaac had not disposed of these parchments was because there was no guarantee that his memories would be maintained until the very end.
The journey to defeat the Evil God was like a marathon. Without playing the game for years at a time, it was fully possible for Isaac’s memory to slowly blur and turn inaccurate.
As such, Isaac kept these scrolls and hid them behind the bookshelf. However, it could not escape Luce’s sharp eyes.
“Isaac’s secret...”
She was sure that it was a pretty big secret.
Luce often saw Isaac catching glimpses of her. In conclusion, if he had a healthy libido, the scrolls had to be...
‘It’s porn isn’t it?’
Luce smirked softly. He truly was a cute but perverted friend.
When I opened the window to ventilate, I wedged a transparent piece of paper between the windshields. However, it had all but disappeared.
This meant that someone had intentionally left the window ajar, just like its original state.
There was no chance of Alice coming personally since her presence emitted grandiosity that was lacking at this moment.
Thus, if Alice sent one of her subordinates to investigate me, it was clear that they came to collect evidence that I was the disruptor.
‘They... had no choice but to hide when they heard me approaching.’
The pieces of the puzzle started to match together perfectly.
Right now... Alice’s subordinate was in this room.
I slowed my breath and tensed my body.
I took out the Sheath of Disaster while condensing my mana.
Concentrated ice mana swirled in my right hand, as I formed the magic circle for [Frost Explosion].
I held the Sheath of Disaster in my left hand and prepared myself so that I could immediately activate its effect on the intruder.
I determined that fighting was better than running away. There were three reasons for this.
One: Alice wouldn’t be able to kill me so abruptly.
Two: I had more than enough justification to attack a trespasser.
Three: I was able to prove that I was significantly weaker than the disruptor who was known as the Black Monster. Alice would hear this and remove me from her list of potential disruptors.
In addition, if it worked out well, I had an opportunity to target Alice using the academy itself.
As long as I stayed alive, I could reap the benefits of this unexpected situation.
‘Now, where are you?’
Alice made a big mistake. She never would have been able to guess that I would come back early because of an urgent shit.
I checked everywhere just in case they were hiding under the desk or attached to the ceiling like a cockroach. However, they were nowhere to be found.
I muted my footsteps and slowly approached the closet.
Creaaaak—.
There’s no one there.
The shower room is next.
Creaaaak—.
They weren’t there either.
If so... the bathroom is next.
I tried to swallow to moisten my dry throat. Behind this bathroom door, Alice’s subordinate laid in wait.
The opponent was certainly... not a demon. Therefore, I have to fight in my normal Isaac state.
“Hoo.”
I was ready to send two [Frost Explosions] with condensed ice mana in my right hand and the Sheath of Disaster anytime I needed.
The first one to attack was the one to win.
I inhaled deeply and yanked open the door
“...”
“...Huh?”
...For a moment, I thought my eyes saw incorrectly.
I was so confused that the condensed ice mana in my right hand melted away.
On the toilet, a student with rose-gold hair stiffly sat. As soon as the door opened, she froze in surprise as her eyes trembled.
“...What are you doing here?”
“Um so... I came to give this...”
The girl sitting on the toilet was Luce as she meekly handed me a small paper bag tied with a red ribbon.
When I took it and untied the ribbon, I saw that it contained asymmetrically shaped cookies. It was obvious that it was made with utmost sincerity.
“Oh, thanks. But, what are you doing here...?”
Luce dropped her head and chewed on her lips as if it was too complicated to explain.
At that moment, I saw that Luce’s lower half was completely drenched.
I may... have made a mistake.
“Never mind, I’m sorry...”
I closed the bathroom door quietly and stood there without letting go of the handle.
Behind the door, the silence was so pronounced that it felt suffocating.
I don’t know what happened... But there are some taboos in life that are better off being left unknown.
I think I witnessed one of those taboos...
Footnotes:
1Editor’s Note: TL went with ‘Korean” but I’m changing it to ‘Hangul’ because it is in written form. Hangul is basically just written Korean