Selene's Summons
A soft “Haaah—” slipped out before I could stop it. The yawn that had escaped without warning turned out to be louder than I expected. I quickly clamped my mouth shut and swallowed the rest of it before the professor’s gaze could land on me. She must have heard it, but she simply continued the lecture without bothering to hunt for the culprit.
“...Therefore, when a party leader takes such actions, there is usually a reason behind it. Of course, venturing into a labyrinth alone...”
The male professor with the long beard paced back and forth across the quiet classroom, continuing to scribble on the blackboard. The students copied his notes with half-dead eyes, moving like machines. Like most classes, it was boring, but this professor’s voice was so quiet and hard to hear that even students besides me were visibly suffering in their attempts to fight off drowsiness.
“...That will be all for today. Thank you everyone for your hard work.”
If there was one saving grace, it was that the professor herself didn’t seem to enjoy teaching. If the class was scheduled for three hours, she would almost always wrap things up just past the two-hour mark. The students knew this and simply endured the boredom until then.
As the professor magically erased the blackboard, the students began packing up their writing tools and filing out of the lecture hall. I stuffed my pen and notebook haphazardly into my bag and stretched. A satisfying crack ran through my body, but the thought of what was coming next kept me motivated. I massaged the back of my neck, slung my bag over my shoulder, and stood up.
Unfortunately, neither Chloe nor Eloise were in this class, so they weren’t here. Still, I would be seeing them soon enough.
‘I need to meet up with Eloise first… Guess I’ll head back to the room.’
Since she would probably be the one guiding me anyway, I decided to return to the dorm first. I wove through the students still organizing their things and made my way toward the dormitory—already feeling happy at the thought of teasing Chloe later.
“...So. Selene called for you?”
“...It’s Professor Selene. Show some respect.”
“Yeah, yeah. So Professor Selene called you, right?”
“Yeah. I was planning to bring you straight to Lady Chloe after class, but a crow suddenly flew in, dropped off a letter, and left. I think it was probably one of Professor Selene’s familiars.”
“Hmm—”
By now it felt completely natural to be lying half-dressed on Eloise’s bed. She let out a long sigh at the sight.
“Um… This is my room, you know. Don’t you think you’re being a little too comfortable barging in like this?”
“What’s the big deal? Between us. Besides, we’ll be sleeping together anyway.”
“Haa…”
Eloise sighed as if admitting defeat. She looked strangely tense. I wondered if Selene was really that scary, but then I remembered how nervous I had been when I first met her—and how I had immediately started apologizing. Her tension suddenly made perfect sense.
‘The only reason she would specifically call Eloise after me… is probably because of that, right?’
There could be other reasons, but given that she had summoned Eloise right after me, there was really only one plausible explanation. The content of the hypnosis I had placed on Selene. The part where I told her that caressing Eloise’s pussy had been an act meant to improve their relationship.
‘If I had to guess… she wants to verify the facts? Is that what she’s planning to do?’
It did seem a bit excessive, but once you removed the part about being hypnotized and having weird information implanted, it wasn’t actually that strange. Fact-checking was a perfectly natural thing to do.
Once my thoughts were somewhat organized, I called out to the visibly anxious Eloise and tried to comfort her.
“Don’t worry, Eloise. I think I have a pretty good idea why she called for you.”
“Huh? R-really?”
I pulled the still-disheveled Eloise into my arms and gave her a simple explanation of what had happened that morning. Of course, I left out anything about the hypnosis. Her reaction was even more entertaining than I had anticipated. The look on her face—something like ‘You expect me to believe the professor actually bought that?’—was so funny I almost burst out laughing.
“So don’t worry too much. She’ll probably just ask whether we really made up, or if you felt uncomfortable about it. That kind of thing.”
“F-for real? You’re not messing with me, right? I mean, even if we’re different races…”
“Well… Elves have different standards for what they’ll accept, don’t they? Still, just in case, you should tell her too. Since this is my own unique way of apologizing, it probably won’t work the same for anyone else.”
“...This is sounding more and more ridiculous…”
If Selene ever tried to “apologize” to someone else by caressing them, it would clearly end in disaster. I made a mental note to visit her again later and warn her.
“Anyway, so we’re going to see Selene first? What about Chloe?”
“I already sent word to Lady Chloe. She said to just push our appointment back a little. So I’ll go see Professor Selene first… then I’ll come get you and we’ll head to Chloe together.”
“Mm… Got it. You’re going right now?”
“Yeah. She called for me… so I should get there as fast as I can.”
Eloise seemed a little less tense now. I smiled and began taking off my top. She swallowed hard as she watched my body, then suddenly remembered something and scooted back a little.
“Y-you’re not… right? You said your body wasn’t feeling well because we’ve been doing it too much lately…”
“What are you talking about? I’m obviously just going to take a shower.”
“Ah. A-ah, of course. Since we’re going to see Lady Chloe, we should definitely wash up!”
I watched the clearly flustered Eloise with a fond smile. Embarrassed, she started pouting and lightly punching my back with her small fists.
“Ow. H-hey, that actually hit bone. Stop hitting me.”
“Hmph…! I was nervous and scared, and you—!”
The moment I realized she had caught on to my teasing, I grabbed her arm, spun her around, and pulled her down onto the bed with me. I savored the way the air between us had instantly grown thick with heat, then gave her a light kiss on the cheek before getting back up.
As much as I wanted to keep going, Selene was waiting for Eloise. I decided to let her go for now. There was also the urgent matter with Chloe to deal with. The sooner I sent her off, the sooner I could start dealing with that.
“Anyway, you don’t need to be as scared as you look. Just tell her it’s my special way of showing affection. She probably won’t make a big deal out of it.”
“...Just what exactly have you been doing all this time…”
Eloise sighed and rubbed the spot where I had kissed her. I pulled her into another hug, then lifted her up and began unbuttoning her shirt one by one with fingers that moved like snakes.
“...I thought we weren’t doing anything?”
“We can still shower together, can’t we?”
Of course I didn’t stop there. I wasn’t the kind of person with enough patience to look at a woman’s naked body and do nothing. After a quick shower, I saw Eloise off until she left the room. As a final touch, I gave her a long, deep kiss to help ease the lingering tension she still carried.
“Don’t worry too much. Just do what she tells you. I’m sure everything will be fine.”
“Y-yeah… Then I’ll really get going now.”
I waved until Eloise disappeared through the front door, then began preparing to head out myself. Personally, I hadn’t planned on devouring Chloe tonight, but you never know what might happen. Besides, since I would be nursing and attending to her, I needed to be completely sincere. It was probably going to be a busy night.
With that thought in mind, I got dressed and waited for Eloise to return.
“So, you’re saying that Student Serina’s words were not false?”
“Y-yes… And the part about reconciling is also true…!”
“Hmm…”
The woman in front of her rested her chin on her hand and closed her eyes for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. Eloise swallowed hard, the tension making her throat feel dry.
While Selene was briefly distracted, Eloise let her eyes wander around the office. The shelves were impeccably organized, not a single speck of dust to be seen. The books on the shelves were arranged so neatly by category and in perfect order that it almost felt obsessive. It was clear that whoever maintained this space had an extremely meticulous personality.
And that person was obviously the one sitting right in front of her.
Selene Tenebris. A dark elf who had been a professor at the academy for so long that no one could quite remember when she had started. Eloise, who came from a rather wealthy background, had once looked up information about the academy by contacting alumni. Naturally, the professors had come up in those conversations—and among them, Professor Selene had always been one of the most mysterious figures.
Despite her stunning beauty, she was said to have almost no social life. Unless something special came up, her daily routine supposedly consisted only of research and teaching. Many claimed her magical ability must be outstanding given her position, yet almost no one had actually seen her cast proper spells. Still, her lectures were highly praised because she didn’t just teach theory—she explained things in ways that were easy to apply in real combat. Because of that, there had even been rumors that she had once worked as an adventurer.
There seemed to be many hidden stories about her, but Eloise had simply shrugged it off at the time. Everyone had secrets, after all. And since she was a long-lived dark elf, it only made sense that she would have a past.
But now that she was actually sitting here alone with the professor, she couldn’t help but feel nervous.
“...Then, as I informed Student Serina, I will not be issuing any additional punishment.”
“Y-yes! Thank you!”
When Selene finally opened her eyes again after finishing her deliberation, Eloise swallowed once more, the tension returning in full force.
‘S-Serina actually acted shameless in front of someone like this?’
Eloise was inwardly impressed. Her roommate was far more insane than she had realized. Just as Serina had said, when she gave appropriately vague answers, the dark elf before her accepted them surprisingly easily. Or perhaps it was because Eloise herself had confirmed the story that the professor chose not to press further.
“...To summarize, this is Student Serina’s unique method of building rapport. Thanks to that, the two of you reconciled, and her relationship with Student Chloe has also progressed. Is that correct?”
“Yes… That’s right.”
Even hearing herself say it made her question her own sanity, but Professor Selene lowered her head in thought for a moment before nodding and continuing.
“Yes…! I will keep that in mind.”
“Very well. You may leave now.”
“Ah. Yes!”
Eloise stood up with mechanical stiffness, bowed deeply, and practically fled from Professor Selene’s office. Even as she walked away, the same question kept spinning in her head: Did that really just end so easily? Still, she decided to be grateful that she had escaped safely.