Chapter 122
Chapter 122
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 122
Chapter Title: How to Warm Up
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[ o︿o ]
A large emoticon drawn boldly on the whiteboard.
It looked somehow aggrieved, vicious, and mixed with a bit of petulance.
I held it out slightly toward Karnel.
Just silently showing him this expression explained my current mood perfectly.
“……How long are you going to keep doing that?”
Karnel asked with a weary face.
But even as he said it…
What can I say, aside from that tired expression, there was no other reaction.
He didn’t panic or get angry… didn’t even smile.
He just let out a deep sigh like he was exhausted and pressed his forehead with his fingers.
That’s why—
For Karnel like that, I flipped the whiteboard around with a flick.
[ 0v0 ]
Round eyes and upturned lips forming a bright smile.
Since I couldn’t express it directly with my own face, this would have to substitute.
“…….”
Karnel stared at the expression wordlessly.
His gaze held some indefinable emotion.
Amusement? Indifference? Or maybe… a smile he was trying to hide?
So I added a line.
[ Aren’t I cute? ]
This time, it definitely had an effect.
Karnel’s eyes widened just like the expression on the whiteboard, and he pressed his lips together tightly as he turned his head slightly.
“………Yes.”
Karnel’s reply came small, very small.
A reaction that tried to play it cool but couldn’t quite hide it.
He didn’t outright deny it, but his affirmation felt half-hearted too.
“Ahem…… How’s the uniform?”
[ No ]
“What a shame.”
[ Does the president like it? ]
“……More than I expected.”
[ Glad to hear it, though I’m a bit uncomfortable ]
“I heard that earlier.”
……Thud.
Karnel’s footsteps stopped.
I kept walking blankly for a beat before stopping when I saw him turn around.
As fallen leaves scattered by the wind brushed past Karnel’s back, he shot me a glance.
That gaze soon traveled from top to bottom, then back from bottom to top.
He did that for a while before finally…
“If we just do something about this hair, it’ll be perfect.”
[ Huh? ]
Twirl, twirl.
Karnel picked up the ends of my white hair in his hand and wound them around his fingers a few times.
That little gesture made me uneasy for no reason.
[ What’s wrong with it? ]
“It’s long. It looks like it’d cover your eyes… and you don’t even take care of it?”
[ True, but ]
“So let’s cut it a little.”
[ o︿o ]
I let out a deep sigh inwardly.
Why did it feel like things kept escalating?
…Karnel stroked my hair once more, then muttered casually.
“Hmm… If we just tidy it up, it’d suit you even better.”
[ Sexual harassment ]
“Not at all. It’s purely an aesthetic judgment.”
Karnel’s hand, which had lingered on my hair, slowly moved downward…
Thud—
This time, he grabbed my wrist.
“Do you have scissors in the dorm?”
[ Why? ]
Suddenly asking for scissors.
Was he planning to stab me if I didn’t listen?
…At that moment of slight tension, Karnel added,
“Then should I cut your hair without any?”
[ Oh ]
“…?”
So that’s what he meant.
I thought he was going to chop me with them.
[ Yeah, we do ]
“Hmm… Then let’s head to the dorm.”
[ Right now? ]
“Then when? We need to get ready by next week at the latest.”
[ o︿o ]
I probably made that expression naturally.
He hadn’t even touched me yet, so why did I already feel a pang of regret…
***
“You…… really only have black clothes?”
Dorm room.
Karnel hung a few uniforms from his hands one by one in the closet, then glanced back and came over to my side.
He peered into my closet.
Black. Black… more black.
No matter where you looked, only scraps of black fabric hung there.
Clothes that would blend into the darkness, indistinguishable even as existing.
“And you haven’t even organized your school uniform…….”
Karnel spotted the uniform crumpled and shoved into the deep corner of the closet and furrowed his brow.
It was literally a sackcloth now.
“Why not just sell it at auction then?”
[ I thought about that ]
“You did?”
[ Felt like I’d get murdered ]
Did he think I hadn’t considered it?
Selling the uniform wouldn’t be hard.
The problem was who gave it to me… who expected me to wear it, and how they’d feel about it.
If that bold person found out…
I might end up wearing a burial shroud instead of the uniform.
“Still… wearing only black is too drab. It doesn’t stand out at all….”
[ That was the point ]
“Sigh…….”
Karnel pressed his forehead and let out a deep sigh.
His expression said something like, ‘Where do I even start teaching this kid…’
“And…… what’s that?”
[ What? ]
“That.”
Flick.
Karnel pointed somewhere with his finger.
I followed his fingertip with my gaze.
There… Mikurebi and Bahamut were peacefully traveling to dreamland.
[ Doesn’t look like a problem ]
“……That?”
Karnel stared at the scene with a dazed face.
Several tissues neatly layered to make a makeshift bed outside the tank.
Mikurebi sprawled halfway out, sleeping on it.
And next to it…
Bahamut had made a fancy nest with twigs and was sleeping covered with leaves it scavenged somewhere as a blanket.
[ I tried making it warm for them and they freaked out ]
“Sigh…….”
Having heard my excuse that wasn’t really an excuse, Karnel…
Let out another loooong, deep sigh.
“Anyway… come sit here.”
Karnel pulled a chair in front of the full-length mirror and naturally pressed down on my shoulders to seat me.
And then…
Flick.
He pulled out scissors from somewhere and brought them to my hair.
[ You’re not going to stab me, right? ]
“……Want me to?”
[ No ]
…Snip, snip.
The ruthless sound of my hair being cut rang out.
I instinctively squeezed my eyes shut.
And… when I cracked them open a little, the cut hair wasn’t falling to the floor but floating lightly in the air.
‘…….’
I squeezed my eyes shut again.
I just couldn’t bear to watch part of myself being chopped off.
And a moment later…
“All done.”
“…….”
Swish…
I calmed my troubled heart and cracked my eyes open to look…
“……?”
The me in the mirror looked better than I expected.
My hair was just a bit shorter, and the thickness tidied up.
Whoosh—
The hair that had been floating beside me burned up and vanished.
Karnel crossed his arms, nodded in satisfaction, and said,
“Your base material is so good… this much is enough.”
[ Perfect ]
“If you took off that mask, it’d be even more perfect?”
[ Has the president ever seen my face? ]
For a moment, a strange silence flowed.
Had I ever taken off my mask in front of Karnel?
No, even racking my memory, no.
At best, it was that time Bellamir made me and my mask came off in the dream.
Plus, that dream Karnel… was just an illusion created by the fantasy, not the real one.
“……Ah, it’s nothing.”
Karnel stammered for a bit before whipping his head away.
I glanced at the mirror.
In it, Karnel’s ears were bright red.
“?”
Of course…
My own head sported a huge question mark above it.
“Ahem…… Anyway, wear just that for a while.”
[ Huh? ]
“You said it was uncomfortable, so keep wearing it until you get used to it.”
[ Wear this to school? ]
“Yes. You don’t wear the uniform anyway?”
[ o_o ]
“What.”
[ ⊙ˍ⊙ ]
“I won’t accept rebuttals.”
[ ╰（‵□′）╯ ]
***
Karnel really vanished like the wind, saying he had student council business.
And I… had no choice but to return to the clubroom all alone, feeling lonely.
“…….”
On the way to the clubroom.
More gazes followed me than ever before.
“Look at that….”
“Wow… what is it? Is that the top student?”
“What’s with the uniform? Did he sell the school one…?”
Whispers erupted here and there.
…It was understandable.
The school uniform shoved who-knows-where… a student wandering around in what anyone could see was an unidentified uniform.
Add the white mask and the silent walking, and……
‘Sigh…….’
I ducked my head like I’d pulled my hat low and hurried to the clubroom.
Clunk…
The moment I opened the door, I slipped inside without a word and closed it.
And inside…
Everyone in the clubroom tilted their heads, staring at me.
“…Hm? Adel?”
“Nyaang…….”
“……….”
Klaus, fiddling with the hem of his neatly worn uniform, looked at me with question.
Neru, sprawled on the sofa, gazed at me with eyes searching for churu, a huge question mark popping over her head.
Lev, sitting beside her, just stared through me with his usual blank expression.
“Student Adel… what’s with the uniform?”
And…
Delphine, who’d been turning book pages, quietly closed it and spoke with curious intrigue.
‘…….’
I squeezed my eyes shut.
I should’ve just holed up in the dorm…
Why did I bother going to school even though Veronica told me to rest well.
The model student life… was distant and harsh.
Swish…
I nudged aside Neru’s legs dangling off the sofa and took a seat next to Lev.
The moment I tilted my head back and stared blankly at the ceiling…
“……Hair… got cut.”
[ Correct ]
Should I call it sharp instincts?
Even though it was just a little shorter and thinned out…
Lev noticed like a ghost.
“Oh… cut your hair, nya?”
[ A bit ]
Neru peered at my hair…
“Oh……… So where’s the churu?”
There it was, her true intentions.
I shrugged and pulled a churu from my inventory, handing it to Neru.
Flick!
Neru snatched it deftly and turned, plopping her head right on my knee.
“Nyum…….”
The brazen Neru… started devouring the churu heartily.
I suppressed the urge to flick her forehead.
***
The uniform that made today so exhausting.
Like the school uniform gathering dust in the corner… I wanted to do the same to this one.
But I couldn’t bring myself to.
…In the end, I silently folded the uniform and carefully put it in the closet.
That moment…
“……Pfft.”
A strange chuckle from the desk, next to the tank.
I headed quietly to the kitchen without turning around.
“…….”
Pour…
I filled the kettle with water and lit the stove.
A moment later—
Bubble bubble…
The kettle spewing steam.
I nodded in satisfaction, picked up the kettle, and returned to the room.
And…
“……?”
Next to the tank, Mikurebi—wrapped in dozens of layers of tissues like a cocoon…
Stared at me holding the kettle, a question mark over its head.
I approached Mikurebi like that…
‘I told you I’d make it warm.’
Carefully opening the lid…
And showing the bubbling hot water inside.
‘How’s this.’
Even adding a warm gesture.
“……….”
Mikurebi trembled and shook its head side to side.
……Looked like it was passing on getting boiled red.
Rustle—
A sudden noise from under the desk.
The faint rustle of twigs.
I quietly looked down.
【…….】
A nest made by weaving small twigs.
Inside, Bahamut huddled under a few leaves…
Its eyes filled with fear directed at me.
I gave a slight smile and asked.
‘Want me to warm you up too?’
At that…
Bahamut, just like Mikurebi… trembled and shook its head side to side.