A Restless Morning
Restless Morning ─Tweet! Tweet-tweet, tweet…!! Birds chirped beyond the small window. Cool morning air brushed against my skin. At the same time, a single ray of sunlight rippled across my face, gently caressing it. Before I knew it, the morning sun had already risen. Time really did pass in the blink of an eye. When you were suffering, it crawled like molasses, but……
‘Still…… This feels like the first proper deep sleep I’ve had in ages.’
Usually I woke up exhausted, but today I felt exceptionally refreshed. “Hwaaaah……!” I stretched my arms out of habit, yet there was no trace of stiffness. My arms and shoulders extended smoothly toward the ceiling. Not even a single crack sounded. I felt lighter than a feather. Both body and mind were clearer than ever before.
‘Did my body always have this kind of flexibility? I haven’t exactly been taking care of it lately…… Is it because I finally got a good night’s sleep?’
‘It feels like I’ve been reborn in a new body…… Like I could float away.’
More precisely, it was as if my soul had been cleansed. Almost like I had shed some impure energy through an out-of-body experience. Either way, I had slept deeply for the first time in a long while. I wished I could sleep like this every night.
The clock showed I hadn’t overslept. It was exactly ten minutes before the alarm would go off. “Huh? Wait a second?” While savoring the unusually refreshed state of my body, I suddenly realized something felt off. “Why did the bandage on my cheek fall off?”
No wonder my face had felt strangely bare…… The bandage I’d stuck on to hide the kiss mark was nowhere to be found. I patted my cheeks. My fingers met only soft, smooth skin. Even the fine downy hairs at my fingertips felt pleasant. ‘Did it come off while I was tossing and turning? But there’s nothing on the bed either……’
It wasn’t a big deal, yet the lack of any trace left me oddly uneasy. I flipped over the hand mirror I kept on my work desk before turning off the alarm. Naturally, I wanted to check my face. “Huh? Wh-what……?!” The moment I looked into the mirror, I couldn’t help but be startled. “The lip print is gone?!”
Raylin’s clear lip mark from yesterday had vanished without a trace. Both cheeks looked completely normal, as if I couldn’t even remember which one had been kissed. But something even more noticeable than the now-clean cheeks caught my eye…… ‘Why do my lips look like this?’
They were swollen and puffy in the reflection. Only now did I notice how heavy they felt. At first I thought leftover Johnsonville sausage from yesterday was stuck to them. It wasn’t that bad, but they were definitely swollen—like someone had been sucking and biting on them all night. “What the hell……”
Moving my lips felt awkward, almost like my pronunciation was slurred. There was no pain, but it was strangely irritating. Lip marks on the cheek could fade with time, but why had my lips ended up like this? Had someone sneaked in during the night? A chill ran down my spine at the thought. No way. Even if I was exhausted, that was impossible. Sofia? Derke? Raylin? There was no way those proud dragons would do something like that. And even if they tried, what if I woke up and caught them? Their pride would hit rock bottom. Of course, if they erased all evidence it would be a different story, but I definitely wouldn’t have slept through someone messing with my lips until they looked like this. I would’ve woken up the moment I sensed someone nearby.
‘Probably just got bitten by some annoying bug……’
Otherwise I wouldn’t have missed it unless Derke had literally sucked out my soul. My lips had been tingling since earlier. Still, I couldn’t exactly slap another bandage on them…… I decided to deal with what needed doing first. “Ha, if I just leave it alone like my cheek, it’ll probably go down on its own, right?”
「Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding—!!!」
I muttered in resignation and rang the morning bell. It was 7:30 a.m. Perfect timing to wake the young ladies and start getting ready for work. —Creaaak……! Thud! “Huh?” Just as I opened the dorm door to head to the lounge, a small note that had been stuck in the doorframe fluttered to the floor. I picked it up and unfolded it.
Breeder? Let’s meet briefly during evening roll call today. I have no doubt that you will tell me nothing but the truth.
The note carried a distinctly threatening tone. It didn’t even say who had sent it.
“Another day begins.” After waking everyone up, I arrived at the lounge and muttered to myself. Calling it a lounge was generous—it was my workplace. I decided to set the note aside for now. The subtle unease still nagged at me, but I had Sofia backing me up. Whoever wrote it, if I told her, she would probably protect me. “That aside…… it went down faster than I expected.”
I stared into the lounge mirror and shook off my stray thoughts. Reflected there was a young man with ash-gray hair, looking to be in his early to mid-twenties. He was rather handsome, if I did say so myself. My original appearance hadn’t been bad either, but the more I looked at this face, the more it felt unfamiliar. The sense of dissonance aside, the features were unrealistically well-sculpted. Still, at least my skin regenerated quickly. The lips that had been so swollen earlier had already calmed down. My cheeks were completely back to normal too. I must have been really exhausted yesterday. Why did swelling or inflammation happen when immunity dropped? That was probably why they’d puffed up earlier.
‘……But this is a real problem.’
My face returning to normal was a relief, but a much bigger issue remained. I had no idea what I was supposed to do today. I couldn’t get a grasp on how to handle the day’s tasks. —Gurgle……! I had roasted coffee beans and brewed a cup for myself as usual, but…… “Is it really okay to just stand here like this……?”
A heavy sense of wrongness pressed down on me. Mornings were supposed to be busy. I should have been preparing for lunch service by now. Normally I’d already be making the dishes I’d planned yesterday. “Slurp……!” Instead I calmly sipped my coffee. On the outside I looked perfectly relaxed, but inside I was screaming. ‘What am I supposed to make?! I can’t think of a single thing……!!’
I shouldn’t have trusted tomorrow’s me and gone to sleep. Nothing came to mind. It was like my once-limitless idea bank had stopped giving out loans. Especially today, when I had a mountain of work. I had to prepare lunch, and Benetric was supposed to visit to properly assess my skills again. ‘Where do I even start? What should I make to satisfy her? I can’t just stand here—I need to find something right now!’
—Flip, flip……! I started paging through the dessert recipe book Johnson had given me. “Damn it, why ask for cooking when you could’ve just eaten dessert……!” Come to think of it, dessert wasn’t the only thing on the menu. Besides the young ladies, there was also Benetric. She had requested foods with unusual combinations, like mint chocolate. So today’s workload had effectively doubled. And these lizards didn’t even pay extra. They really did demand an awful lot.
—Thud! After flipping through the book for a while, I had no choice but to close it. Johnson’s gift contained plenty of desserts, but almost none of them were particularly novel. It was a basic recipe book. There were a few exceptions, but most required long preparation times and special ingredients, making them impossible to whip up on short notice. “Nothing decent comes to mind…… Haah, guess I have no choice.”
—Rattle, clack……! I made a resigned decision and pulled out a mixing bowl and flour. ‘I’ll just make do with coffee biscuits today. I’m a little scared the star-candy-covered hardtack might cause a blood-sugar explosion……’
—Squish, squish……! I began kneading biscuit dough, prepared to get scolded. I wasn’t a professional baker, so how was I supposed to come up with a new dessert every single day? Even a real patissier would have struggled in this environment. In a way, I’d done pretty well so far. Maybe I’d just been lucky. After all, I’d managed to satisfy everyone with new desserts every time. ‘One day off won’t hurt, right? I’ve done well until now…… Maybe they’ll let it slide this once. Especially after that huge incident yesterday—everyone could use a break……’
—Knead, knead, knead……! I kept justifying my actions with flimsy logic while continuing to work the dough. I just needed to make something, anything. Whether it was coffee biscuits or cookies, as long as I put something presentable together, Sofia—who had formed a pact with me—would cover for me. I firmly believed that.
—Bang, jingle, jingle……!! While I was mindlessly kneading the dough without any clear goal, the door swung wide open. The person visiting at this hour was obvious. Johnson had probably come to slack off again. This time he hadn’t even knocked—he’d just thrown the door open. “I’m busy right now. Come back later.” “……” I answered coldly without even turning around, focused only on kneading. ‘Wasn’t he disappointed about the mint chocolate yesterday? So why is he back again?’ I really needed to concentrate. I absolutely did not want to be interrupted today. There was too much work and no plan, so I couldn’t help feeling anxious. “Haat—? Y-you were disappointed by my clumsy appearance yesterday after all……?” “Huh?” “Well, I was pretty bad yesterday, wasn’t I? I’ll apologize……! It really wasn’t on purpose!”
A completely different voice from what I expected came from behind. Instead of the short, stout Johnson, a tall young lady stood in the doorway. Her face was flushed bright red with embarrassment. “M-Miss, what brings you here at this hour……?”