Chapter 70: Snowball (3)
Chapter 70: Snowball (3)
The next morning.
When I came to, Iona was right in front of my eyes.
“Hello! Hello! Did you have a pleasant night?”
“???”
Professor, why are you lying in the same bed as me?
Dark red hair. Delicate features. A playful voice.
No matter how I looked at it, the person lying next to me was Iona.
Thinking I might still be half-asleep, I rubbed my eyes and opened them again.
“What in the world…?”
The fact that Iona was right there remained unchanged.
Ignoring my voice, which was thick with bewilderment, Iona struck a familiar pose.
She threw both arms up and thrust her body forward… the very same pose she took every time she entered the lecture hall.
I was momentarily flustered by the ample chest suddenly thrust before my eyes.
Then, the line that felt empty if I didn't hear it rang in my ears.
“Iona, entrance!”
“No, Professor, you shouldn't be ‘entering’ here.”
Despite my deadpan reaction, Iona giggled and replied confidently.
“Ahem! Ahem! I’m a kind professor, so I came to visit a wounded student!”
“Since when did ‘visiting a student’ mean sharing the same bed?”
Besides, I was pretty sure I fell asleep while fiddling with Carla yesterday…?
Scanning the surroundings, I spotted Carla sitting right next to the bed, looking at us with a dejected expression.
The moment our eyes met, her face brightened instantly.
“Are you awake, Master? Are you thirsty? Shall I get you some water? Or perhaps the bathroom….”
Carla bombarded me with questions as if she had been waiting for this moment.
Seeing her sheer determination to get me out of bed somehow, I finally realized what had happened.
“You lost your spot, didn't you?”
“…Yes. The professor said she had something important to discuss and told me to get up for a moment, then she just laid down right there.”
Carla pouted as she spoke.
Iona, who had suddenly become a professor trying to sneak into her student's bed, jumped in protest.
“How mean! How mean! Carla, you’re being spiteful! I laid down here with good intentions!”
“Not lewd intentions?”
“I’m serious! And if anyone’s being lewd, it’s you, Student Yandel! I know you just took a good look at my chest!”
“Well, that’s…”
Given a vampire’s nature, a part of the body designed solely to allure the opposite sex was thrust right under my nose. Wasn't my reaction only natural?
“Anyway, Professor Iona, you seem very comfortable around Carla. Everyone else acted so awkward seeing her suddenly return as a slave.”
“Fufu! How old do you think I am, Student Yandel?”
“372 years old.”
“…Huh? Oh, right. Yeah. How did you know?”
“You’re quite famous, Professor Iona.”
I shrugged as I said it, but in truth, I’d seen it in a character profile someone had compiled on the H&A Cafe.
Iona was a suspiciously popular character, so even though she wasn't a romanceable option, all sorts of information about her floated around.
I’d answered without much thought, but Iona, seemingly a bit flustered, tilted her head several times before finally continuing.
“Ahem. Well, since you know so much, this will be quick! When you’ve lived this long, you get a bit desensitized to the rise and fall of others! Over the last 300 years, there’s been more than one or two students who had to drop out because of family troubles!”
Well… the Great War ended roughly 300 years ago. The Academy was established shortly after, so if you round up, she wasn't wrong….
Realizing Iona’s age all over again felt… a bit surreal.
Was it the difference between knowing her age as a setting and actually feeling that seniority in person?
Still, I could tell Iona intended to treat Carla as normally as she used to.
While I looked at Iona with a subtle expression, wondering if I should be happy about this or not—
Iona’s expression shifted instantly, and she continued with a beaming smile.
“Anyway, anyway! There’s another reason I laid down next to Student Yandel! I know your wounds are all healed, but your energy might still be low, right? I was going to share some of my Refined Blood if that were the case… but I guess there’s no need!”
“Your Refined Blood, Professor…?”
“Yep! I guess your recovery is fast because you’re young!”
A vampire’s Refined Blood is a special crystal created by refining their own blood.
It’s made by stripping away all sorts of miscellaneous energies and condensing pure life force… it’s practically a semi-elixir.
It’s that difficult to produce, and vampires below a certain level can’t make it at all.
Oh, and there’s no need to worry about turning into a vampire by consuming Refined Blood.
Creating a new vampire requires many things other than just Refined Blood.
More importantly, Iona had no intention of increasing her kin.
But what mattered right now wasn't how vampires reproduced.
“So… you were planning to give me Refined Blood?”
“Hmm? That’s right.”
I quickly lowered my head and began to groan.
“Agh! My head… my stomach…! Suddenly, I feel so much pain, I think I need to eat something good… specifically, something that maximizes natural healing…!”
“…Huh?”
“Aaaargh! My broken bones…! It hurts just to breathe… This kind of thing can’t be fixed with potions… I wonder if a strong, beautiful, and kind vampire professor would give me a piece of Refined Blood….”
As I continued my awkward acting while stealing glances at her, Iona pulled out a bright red bead with a dubious expression.
“I was going to give it to you if you needed it anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter….”
“Thank you, Professor!”
I snatched the crystallized Refined Blood before Iona could change her mind.
I’ll use this later to make an elixir with the Bleached Mana Herb.
Harmonizing life force and mana increases the quality of an elixir.
Of course, if you mess up, you end up with something useless, but with Fay’s skills, she’ll surely manage the balance.
As I chuckled and tucked the Refined Blood into my inventory, Iona finally stood up from the bed.
“That was… a little bit suspicious! But anyway, I’m glad you look energetic! Now, let’s move on to the second main point! Student Yandel, do you know how the current situation is unfolding?”
“Roughly. I heard some things from Carla. But it’s only a general idea of what happened after I passed out.”
“Aha? Then let me fill you in! First of all, while you were unconscious, the Academy was turned upside down. They took the first-year chicks out for practice, and they were almost massacred by cultists, right?”
I’d heard from Carla that not only the other professors at the Academy but also the students' families were in an uproar.
“At first, some people were even trying to blame you, Student Yandel. They said because you have a history with the Confused Unity cult, the other students were attacked as a result! They were saying nonsense like you should be held responsible.”
“Well, how many people can stay sane when their child has died or almost died? …Surely they didn't take that seriously?”
“Of course not! To begin with, you became their target because you killed a Bishop-class cultist before even entering the Academy, right? What’s wrong with becoming enemies while fighting cultists? All cultists are basically enemies anyway.”
Her voice suddenly turned cold. In that cynical tone, I could feel Iona’s deep-seated resentment toward cultists.
I knew it intellectually, but having it hit me so suddenly made me flinch a little.
Did she notice my reaction? Iona grinned and continued in her usual tone.
“So, so! I was about to give them a piece of my mind, you know? But the priests of the Righteous Light stepped up before I could! They asked if those people were actually cultists themselves, trying to kick Student Yandel out just to leave him defenseless!”
“Whoa….”
The priests in this world are fundamentally good.
The moment they fall into corruption, their holy power is revoked, and in severe cases, an oracle might even be handed down saying, ‘That guy is a bastard!’ It’s only natural.
You could call it a form of convergent evolution.
All the bad priests died out, so only the good ones remain.
Regardless, for such priests to say, ‘Aren't you a cultist?’ is a rare occurrence, even for the militant Church of Righteous Light.
Though I could understand why.
I was receiving the Sun God’s Blessing at a significant level and had been slaughtering cultists with their relic.
It made sense for the Church of Righteous Light, who loathe cultists, to protect me.
Even if not to the same extent as the Righteous Light, hatred for cultists is practically a passive trait for all Good God churches, so others likely shielded me as well.
As I nodded to myself, Iona chuckled and continued.
“Anyway, anyway! Things went that way, and now people are saying Student Yandel should be rewarded instead! Actually, I think so too! For a first-year to take down an Archbishop-class cultist is truly an incredible feat!”
Though political motives have grown strong over time, the Academy’s ultimate goal is to finish what the First Hero, Rahim, could not.
In other words, clearing all dungeons and subjugating cultists and monsters.
Now I finally understood why the system window called me the ‘Pride of the Academy’ and a ‘Distinguished Guest of the Good God Churches.’
So that’s how things played out.
“So, so! Is there anything you need? If you want, you can even exchange it for points!”
“Oh. That’s quite tempting.”
I didn't know how many they’d give me, but if I factored in this semester’s grades, I’d be able to buy quite a lot from the Achievement Shop.
However, there was nothing I needed right this moment.
Unless it was something as expensive as a Dragon Heart fragment, it would be better to stick to the growth plan I’d already established rather than overreaching.
In this case, it had to be that.
“I’d like the Academy to grant me a certain convenience.”
“Convenience? You’re already a Class A student, is there anything else you need?”
“It’s nothing major… whether it’s practice, classes, or anything else. Please allow me to have Carla accompany me wherever I go.”
“That’s not difficult… but are you sure? It’s nice that you cherish Carla, but it could be dangerous.”
“Ah, don't worry about that. Carla?”
“Yes!”
Carla came running the moment her name was called.
I held out a hand to her and spoke.
“Left hand.”
“Yes!”
“Right hand.”
“Here!”
“Fireball.”
“Burn. Scatter. Fireball.”
Whoosh.
The magic manifested at a speed incomparable to mine.
I grinned at Iona, who was staring blankly at the fireball blooming in the air.
“It’s dangerous, so I have to take her with me.”
For the record, the one in danger is me.
