It Must Be the Alcohol
The next day.
Click. Click.
Clack. Click.
A sound you hardly ever heard in this world.
It was the noise of a joystick being worked.
And of course, the one moving that joystick was me.
I was playing a game similar to that famous plumber in the red hat from my previous life, but….
“…This sucks.”
I dropped the joystick and flopped backward onto the bed.
The claim that the game sucked was a lie, of course.
It was modern entertainment I hadn’t touched in years—there was no way it could be boring.
In fact, three whole hours had already flown by.
But….
“Princess….”
She wasn’t there.
My princess wasn’t sitting beside me.
Well, of course she didn’t have to be. It wasn’t as if we had to spend every single second together.
Her room was right next door; I could go see her anytime.
The reason I didn’t was simple.
“…How am I supposed to wait three days?”
The princess had left her seat for three days.
After we visited the auction house together yesterday, I had tried to fulfill my duty as her tutor by teaching her how to play the game.
But then—
“Ah, I’m sorry, Teacher. The Red Legion Commander asked for help. The situation in the south seems bad lately. I’ll be back soon.”
“Huh…? How long will you be gone?”
“Hmm… about three days?”
The moment I heard “three days,” something inside me cracked.
I had just realized I didn’t want to be apart from her, and now I had to be.
On top of that, she was heading to the south—the region with the most frequent monster clashes. What if she got hurt?
Of course, given her magical ability, that was probably impossible, but still….
“The… game, right? Anyway, you’ll behave and wait for me while playing, won’t you?”
She had stroked my head like a parent leaving a child home alone. How could I possibly complain?
All I could do was quietly see her off.
With a series of beeps, my game character died.
I had stopped moving the controls while lying down.
“Sigh…”
I didn’t throw the joystick onto the bed—I set it down gently.
The princess had spent an absurd fortune on this gift. I couldn’t treat it roughly.
I even wiped it clean with a disinfectant cloth.
“Still… I have to eat to live.”
I shuffled out of the room in my pajamas.
Not that it mattered anymore. There was no one here to call them cute.
I changed into a comfortable short-sleeved shirt and dolphin shorts before heading to the dining hall.
When I arrived at the dining hall, the head chef treated me like royalty even though the princess wasn’t with me.
Was he afraid of getting scolded by her if he was rude to me?
I wasn’t anyone who deserved this kind of special treatment….
My expression must have looked terrible, yet the chef went about his work as if he didn’t notice.
“Will you have your usual today?”
“Yes, please.”
“It’ll be right out.”
It was still convenient.
I had no energy to begin with; forcing the corners of my mouth upward would have been too much effort.
I simply answered “yes, yes” to everything he said, and before I knew it the food had arrived.
“Then… oh, right.”
I instinctively turned to feed the princess.
But she wasn’t beside me.
We had only been doing this for a week, yet the mealtime etiquette had become far too familiar.
I awkwardly brought the fork that had been heading into empty air to my own mouth.
Eating by myself felt strange.
I wasn’t even part of the demon race, yet here I was, accustomed to their dining customs. The thought made a dry laugh slip out.
I chewed the meat that had entered my mouth.
It was delicious.
After all, this was the head chef of the Demon King’s castle. There was no way it could taste bad.
“…Was it always this flavor?”
Today it somehow felt ordinary.
Was my appetite gone?
Or was it because the princess wasn’t here?
With those thoughts swirling, I quickly finished the meal.
There was no princess whose eating speed I had to match.
Besides, it felt rude to the chef to keep making this kind of face while eating.
“Thank you for the meal.”
“Thank you, Lady Melly.”
I wiped my mouth with a napkin and stood up.
In the end, I returned to my room and turned the game console back on.
It occurred to me only then.
There really was nothing to do in my room.
I didn’t have any books to read, nor was there anything in particular to research.
Well, even if there were, I wouldn’t have done it.
I had already smelled enough parchment in the lab.
I’d have to be crazy to do magical research here.
Normally I would be teaching the princess right now, but with the entire class period suddenly free, I truly had nothing to do.
I had never asked for this forced vacation….
“…Maybe I should take a nap.”
The stage had gotten too difficult and I kept dying anyway.
If I kept playing and stressing myself out, I really would end up throwing the joystick, so I threw myself onto the bed instead.
The mattress that embraced my body was soft.
The blanket that covered me was warm.
However….
“…It’s cold.”
There was no warmth.
At this time of day the princess would normally be holding me tight.
We had only been together for a little over a week, yet I had already grown used to her body heat.
“Haa…”
I tossed and turned, wallowing in my own misery.
Sleep refused to come, so I started a staring contest with the clock.
Why was the hour hand moving so slowly?
It was a day spent resenting how slowly time flowed.
It was the second day since the princess had left.
I had woken up long ago but was still lounging in bed.
“Mmm…”
Rather than lounging, I was seriously contemplating.
A profound philosophical question: Did I actually need to get out of bed?
It wasn’t that I had suddenly lost my mind. There really didn’t seem to be any reason to leave.
Let’s review my daily routine as a tutor.
When I woke up in the morning, the first thing I did was slip out of the princess’s arms after she had crawled into my bed at some point.
Since she wasn’t here, I could skip that.
Then I would wake the princess who kept trying to fall back asleep and head to the dining hall.
Maybe it was because my body had become smaller, but I wasn’t particularly hungry.
Come to think of it, I had only forced myself to eat with her for the sake of her health.
I wonder if the princess is eating breakfast properly right now….
Before I knew it, I was thinking like a wife worrying about her husband who had gone off to war.
Anyway, back to the main point.
After eating a combined breakfast and lunch with the princess, we would go to her room for the prepared lesson.
It wasn’t a theory class on magical synthesis, my specialty.
The princess’s knowledge of magic was far deeper than mine, so there was nothing left for me to teach her in that area.
Instead, I mainly taught her about the history of the demon realm.
Then the princess would use my lap as a pillow and take a nap during class….
“…? When I think about it, that wasn’t a class at all.”
What the heck? I was the only one actually doing classwork?
The actual student had simply used it as naptime.
But someone who sleeps that much—would she really not doze off on the battlefield…?
Ah, I had fallen into worrying about the princess again without realizing it.
“…Have I caught some kind of disease?”
The fact that I kept having these thoughts made me seem less like a teacher concerned for her student and more like a lover worried about her partner.
No. Absolutely not.
No matter how cool, pretty, cute, and beautiful the princess was, I had to see her as a student.
Even if my heart raced whenever I saw her, and even if her absence made my chest feel hollow….
I was her teacher.
I was the adult.
I had to endure.
The person who was supposed to lead the princess forward couldn’t depend on her.
That was what I was thinking when—
Knock, knock, knock.
“Um… Lady Melly?”
Someone outside was calling my name.
For a second I got excited thinking the princess had returned early.
It was wrong to judge by voice alone, but I was terribly disappointed when I heard the deep male tone.
“Is this… the head chef?”
“Yes, it is. You didn’t come to the dining hall today, so… I became worried and came to check on you.”
Huh…? Had that much time already passed?
My eyes flicked to the clock on the wall.
Breakfast time had long since passed, and even lunchtime was already over.
…I had been thinking about the princess so much that time flew by this quickly?
How had I stayed lying down without even going to the bathroom once?
Marveling at my own astonishing concentration, I bolted upright.
I rushed to the door and opened it.
“Ah, I’m so sorry! If I wasn’t coming I should have told you in advance….”
“I’m fine. More importantly, are you feeling unwell?”
“N-no… I’m okay. I just slept in today, so….”
I had actually woken up early, but I couldn’t exactly say I had spent hours thinking about the princess, so I gave a vague excuse.
“That’s a relief. Would you like to eat even if it’s late?”
“Ah… I feel too guilty making you do this….”
“It’s no trouble. To begin with, the only people who eat my cooking are His Majesty the Demon King, the princess, and you, Lady Melly. Besides, I’m more worried about you skipping meals. If you’d like, I can even deliver it to your room.”
Was this person a saint?
He had every right to be angry that I hadn’t shown up on time, yet here he was offering to deliver the food….
I was about to refuse because I couldn’t possibly impose like that.
“That really would be too much of a bother—”
But then a thought crossed my mind.
Asking for what I was thinking would be even ruder, but since I was already causing trouble, I might as well ask for everything at once. I opened my mouth.
“…Actually, yes, please. And if it’s possible… could you also bring a bottle of alcohol?”
“…Alcohol?”
“I-if it’s too much trouble, that’s fine. I was just asking if it was possible….”
“I’ll bring it right away.”
The chef disappeared from view in an instant.
And then he reappeared just as quickly.
With a silver tray in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other.
…What? Why was the chef so fast?
Was he some kind of track athlete?
“Is the type of alcohol not to your liking?”
When I stared blankly, the chef must have thought I was dissatisfied and bowed his head.
I jumped and quickly took the tray and wine.
“N-no! Thank you. Really, thank you so much! I’ll definitely repay you later.”
“For me, enjoying the food is repayment enough.”
“Y-yes. I’ll eat it deliciously. Thank you.”
The chef gave a polite bow and vanished again in the blink of an eye.
…Just who was that man? Why was he so kind?
Anyway, I closed the door and set the tray and wine on the table in my room.
Rather than the food, I first poured the wine into a glass.
I tilted the bottle until the glass was nearly overflowing.
I lifted the full glass and drank it straight down without pausing.
Gulp, gulp.
“Khhuu…”
Maybe it was because I hadn’t drunk in so long, or because I drank it too quickly.
Or maybe it was because it was expensive liquor, but I could feel the intoxication surging through me.
“Ugh… it’s bitter.”
People usually said alcohol tasted sweet when they were struggling.
I must not be struggling enough yet, because it tasted bitter. Extremely bitter.
“Ugh… my stomach feels bad.”
My insides were already churning, so instead of pouring another glass I ate the food on the plate.
As I slowly spooned the warm soup, my stomach seemed to settle.
But the spinning sensation in my head only grew stronger.
I hadn’t been this weak to alcohol before.
It seemed this changed body was weak to liquor as well.
Shouldn’t at least one part of me be strong…?
“Phew… Oh, I think I’m in trouble.”
The world was spinning and my body felt hot.
My emotions were growing strangely intense.
“…I miss the princess.”
Words that should have stayed inside my head slipped out on their own.
“She’ll come back tomorrow… but when exactly…? How would I know that….”
I didn’t even know who I was asking.
I kept muttering to myself, not knowing who I was answering, either.
“Honestly, it’s not my fault I fell for her. She was the one who suggested we kiss first…. She seduced me first….”
Sudden emotion welled up and I felt wronged.
“I-I definitely tried to hold back… but the princess is just too cool… why does she treat me so well….”
And then—
“…Why should I have to hold back? The princess is an adult too. Nineteen is an adult, right….”
All the words I had kept buried.
“Honestly, what man could possibly resist falling for the princess… but, but she’s my student….”
Kept spilling from my lips.
“If I stop being her teacher, how can I stay by her side….”
Feelings I had even hidden from myself kept surfacing.
“If I become the Demon Queen… maybe I could stay by her side… since my body is female now….”
And then—
Slap.
“…What am I thinking?”
Using the last of my reason, I smacked both my cheeks hard with my palms.
“The demon race needs an heir… so I can’t become the Demon Queen… but if I turn back into a man, wouldn’t that work…? No, the princess would probably hate that….”
My tongue was getting heavier.
The fact that the spoon in my hand looked like two meant my vision wasn’t normal either.
“I don’t know… it’s complicated, I don’ get it… I just miss the princess so much….”
My reason was gradually sinking while emotion—more precisely, the influence of alcohol—began to rule my head.
Which was why—
“Haa… I’m back, Teacher. I returned faster than expected, didn’t I? I wiped out every last monster. Whew, but moving my body after so long has left me sore. I should probably exercise more regularly…… Teacher? Did you drink?”
The fact that the person I wanted to see had appeared before my eyes right now.
It must have been because of the alcohol.