Annoying Attention
“Ugh-gh…!”
“Kuh…!”
I may have been out of it, but to think I’d be caught so helplessly. It was because there hadn’t been a single ripple in the mana. It was truly a terrifying display of skill. It wasn’t that I couldn’t break free from this state, but if I did, our cute yet terrifying principal would surely get dead serious.
However.
“…Hah!”
Seeing that fucking insane nun—who was giving me the middle finger despite having a look on her face that screamed she was just as screwed as I was—made my blood boil.
“Hup!”
I unleashed my Ryunar, slicing through the gravity that was pinning me down. It was a technique that required quite a bit of application, and I could feel Principal Lenea admiring it before she even got angry.
“Oh?”
Mullin let out a scoff, and then a brilliant radiance erupted from her body.
“……”
She muttered something, and the voice rang out like that of a holy angel, pushing back the force that had been crushing her.
“No, these people…!”
Only then did Principal Lenea’s eyes flare with fire, but we had already lost our minds.
“Hup!”
“Haap!”
Our fists crossed; my fist slammed into her stomach, and that bitch, that fallen nun, buried her fist into my forehead.
“Kuh.”
“Ugh.”
Mullin clutched her stomach, staggered back, and collapsed to her knees. …I won, right?
Surrender or not, if the opponent can’t fight anymore, I win! On top of that, Mullin didn’t just drop to her knees; to make matters worse, she started retching, “Ugh… Ugh…!” and then, “Wuaaagh!” she began to spew a rainbow-colored liquid from her mouth.
A sense of sadism welled up in me. I opened my mouth to cackle, but I was too dizzy to do so.
Huh?
When did I drop to my knees?
And this stuff overflowing inside me is….
Damn it… Ugh…!
“Wuaaagh…!”
I threw up, too. Maybe we both ate too much yesterday, because the volume was massive, and it started to spread, our vomit mixing together. Isn’t it a bit erotic that it’s mixing?
What was that, you son of a bitch?
“Wuaaagh!”
“Ugh! Wuaagh!”
The effect of being forcibly released from the principal’s gravity was compounding, so the vomiting wouldn’t stop. It seemed the same for Mullin.
“What… on earth…”
Clarire’s voice sounded hollow.
“Really… they do all sorts of things…”
The principal’s voice, which had gone past anger into a state of nirvana, followed. After that, a pressure even stronger than before bore down on us.
“Don’t resist anymore. I’m going to get angry from now on, okay?”
“…Yes.”
Let’s stay quiet.
“Ah, sister, wait a second… That bastard started it…! Ouch?!”
“Be quiet, Mullin.”
I closed my eyes, listening to the voice of that stupid fallen nun who couldn’t read the room. I was a bit dizzy from throwing up, but my body hadn’t taken any major damage. It definitely wasn’t enough to knock me out. But sometimes, it’s more comfortable to be unconscious. I’m tired. Let’s sleep.
I’ll say this just in case: I am absolutely not passing out from Mullin’s power.
And so, I drifted off to sleep for a while.
I came to.
…Huh.
What am I resting my head on right now?
The warm, soft sensation I feel against my head isn’t a pillow. It’s probably a living person. When was this?
Dad used to always watch over me when I was unconscious, but he never made unnecessary contact. He said it was gross.
But there was one time. He let me rest my head on his lap. I think it was when I’d gotten into a huge fight and passed out. At the time, I thought, This is unexpectedly uncomfortable…, but I just lay there anyway. I remember that even though it was uncomfortable, I actually slept better.
What happened then? I’m pretty sure I tried to do something in my sleep, got kicked, sent flying, and then he cursed at me.
He said things like, “Why are you doing things you don’t usually do? Does it hurt?” and then he’d stroke my face with his calloused hands.
No, shouldn’t that be described as grabbing?
But well, this was only the second time in my life my face had been stroked in such a situation, so the memories came flooding back. So, unlike usual, I didn’t get up right away and enjoyed Asita’s touch like a pet. As I kept my eyes closed, she seemed to gain courage; her cautious hand moved up and began stroking my hair.
I’d never had this done to me before. Dad was the type to smack my head rather than stroke it.
How much time had passed? It probably hadn’t been more than a few minutes.
But it was enough time for her cautious touch to become bold. Feeling like she was really touching a pet, Asita used both hands to press down on my head, ruffling and stroking it.
“Hehehe.”
The satisfied laugh she let out made me feel quite at ease. The sensation of her lap and the scent of her perfume were nice, too….
“Does it feel goood? Drae?”
“……”
“Hehehe, I guess it does. There. There.”
Asita pressed down on my head with a teasing voice. Oh, really?
Just because I’m staying still, does she think I’m actually a puppy?
It was a pretty decent feeling, entrusting my body to Asita, to someone else. Because it felt somewhat humiliating, I decided to pay her back in kind. I raised my hand and gently stroked Asita’s cheek. Asita froze instantly.
Hehe. You damn virgin.
It’s a year too early for you to challenge me, someone who even has experience having sex with a virgin married woman. However, my confidence was truly short-lived. Asita took her hand off my head and placed it over the hand I was using to touch her cheek.
“Haaaa….”
A hot sigh could be felt even on the hand I had resting there.
Uh….
It definitely hadn’t been that kind of atmosphere. It had been a friendly, warm feeling. But in that cozy atmosphere, something—truly something—suddenly changed into an erotic one.
Asita’s eyes, which had looked cute and fresh, curved slightly and looked seductive. The hand covering mine was gripping it so tightly it felt hot. So, I couldn’t possibly just stay still.
I lowered my hand a little and touched her neck, and an “Ah…”—a thin moan—leaked out. She seemed embarrassed by her own voice and bowed her head, so I used my index finger to lift her chin to see her face, looking at that face as red as a ripe persimmon.
A surging impulse. Following that impulse, I pulled the hand I had on her neck and sat up. Our faces grew closer and closer. When we were so close I thought, Does she not even have pores? Her skin is incredibly clean…, Asita said in a shrinking voice.
“N-noooo…”
Asita pushed against my chest with both hands. But the strength was so weak. Even considering that Asita’s physical strength was low, it was weak enough to make me laugh… so I moved more forcefully and boldly than usual.
“No?”
“T-this isn’t why I came… so no….”
“Why?”
“I, I have a boyfriend….”
“Really?”
I brought my face even closer, using a tone that made me wonder if I was always this cheesy, and Asita squeezed her eyes shut and muttered.
“N-no, you can’t….”
Impulse and reason. A phrase popped into my mind while I was conflicted between the two.
Live a good life.
“……”
I brought my face even closer, passed her lips, and bit her ear.
“Hiyak?!”
I pulled away from Asita, who jumped, and shrugged my shoulders. Asita, trembling and gasping, shouted, “Ugh, damn it!” and sat up, smacking my chest hard.
The voice of the Mangshin came through, sounding as if it were bored. I forcibly ignored it.
“I lost out on worrying about you!”
“You were worried?”
“Of course! I heard you and Instructor Mullin hit each other! I was finally learning the secret elixir recipe from Master Emily! I heard the news and just ran over!”
“…Thanks for coming. But what is Mullin that you’d be worried about me?”
Perhaps her mood improved at the word of thanks, but she pouted her lips as she answered.
“What do you mean, what? She’s the person who brought a troll to demonstrate a practical exercise and smashed its head in until it couldn’t regenerate.”
“……”
The more I hear, the more that woman seems insane. Not a cleric, but a warrior. Wouldn’t a berserker suit her better? Why did she become a cleric in the first place? And how did she become an instructor?
…Anyway, with this, Blan’s arm is out of the question. Self-loathing washed over me, and I recovered a second later. There’s nothing in the world that can be solved by being discouraged.
I have to find another way. Fortunately, I have a vision I’d been thinking about. It’s a bit unrealistic, but it’s the blessing Heston gave me: ‘Blessing of the Blacksmith God.’
The description of the blessing was that my manual dexterity would improve to the extreme, the weapons I touched would be further enhanced, and anything after that would depend on my own capabilities.
Yes, the idea is for me to make the prosthetic arm myself.
The difficulty is high. In the first place, I could have gotten a prosthetic arm from the Heart family anytime, but they were trying to give me the best reward, the right to regenerate my body, to match my status. So, it would be meaningless unless I made an item that was at a similar level to my original body—no, an item much better than my real body.
Mullin, you damn bitch. I don’t need your help. Blacksmithing skills are profitable in many ways—they’re money, they’re experience points, and I can make the things I need myself—so maybe this turned out for the best.
“By the way, where is this?”
“It’s the guest room in Instructor Emily’s laboratory.”
“Ah.”
The witch’s guest room? I was just thinking about having a chat with Emily for the first time in a while.
Kuak!
I thought I heard the principal’s voice, and then mana began to flow. A warp appeared in front of me, and I thought about cutting it, but I stood still because I felt like the principal would get fucking angry.
Kuaak!
When the swirling blue mana subsided, I was in the principal’s office. Beside me stood Mullin, her hair sticking out in various places and her clothes crumpled and beaten to a pulp in the middle, standing there with a blank face, holding a liquor bottle.
The silence was brief.
“Oh. This bitch.”
“This son of a…”
We both growled and clenched our fists. And then the principal smiled brightly and said.
“Both of you. If you move again this time, I will really, truly get angry.”
“……”
“……”
The tone itself was relatively soft, but I could feel that she was fucking pissed. Honestly, I was scared. I stood at attention, and Mullin, though not as much as me, stiffened her movements with a tense face. As we quieted down, Principal Lenea smiled.
“Yes, you two. First of all, thank you so much for lowering the prestige of the instructors. So, so much!”
“……”
“……”
“Well, fine. You’re human, so you can fight. There’s the pretext of a class, too. But listen. Couldn’t you have fought in a way that, if not dignified, was at least something the students could admire? But what? Fisting each other?”
“I was wrong to say that Instructor Mullin used a toy hammer instead of her fists. I apologize.”
“……”
My wagging tongue stopped on its own under her chilling gaze.
“Right. Let’s say you had an emotional fight. But you should have stopped the moment I appeared, yet you kept fighting and started vomiting? Both of you?”
Principal Lenea, who glared at us one more time, sighed and said in a chiding tone.
“An instructor must be a noble existence. I won’t ask you to maintain your dignity at all times. Because you are strong and capable enough to ignore dignity. However, do not show such ugliness in front of the students who have come to learn techniques from you. Even if you do show ugliness, make sure you can turn that ugliness into admiration in the end.”
Mullin answered nonchalantly.
“Those stupid… I’m sure the students learned something, right? They probably realized that people can fight that desperately.”
As she said that, she tried to put the liquor bottle to her lips. Naturally, Principal Lenea’s eyes turned sharp. Honestly, I didn’t know she was a person who could glare so fiercely, so I was intimidated even though the gaze wasn’t directed at me.
Mullin froze, swallowed hard, and slowly put the liquor bottle down.
“…Huuu. Please, only do this kind of disgraceful thing once. If you really want to settle the score, meet separately and do it.”
“There won’t be any reason for us to get involved anymore.”
“That’s what I want to say. Brother.”
Since our opinions matched, it was all for the best. Now we can just look at each other like strangers.
“However, it has become impossible for that to happen.”
With a sigh, the principal said something annoying.
“What do you mean? If you’re telling me to do something with a woman like this, I don’t want to.”
“…What do you mean by ‘a woman like this,’ Brother?”
“A woman who smells like alcohol, is old-looking, and has a dirty temper.”
Everything except the old-looking part is true. Mullin got angry and tried to say something, but this time, balls of water were floating around us.
“Do you really want to be scolded?”
“No.”
“I apologize. Sister.”
“…Huuuuuuuuuu.”
I feel a bit sorry because she seems genuinely exhausted.
“There is someone who needs you both, and due to our academy’s founding philosophy, I cannot completely ignore it.”
“Someone who needs us?”
Mullin tilted her head as if puzzled, and I felt like I knew who it was.
“Don’t tell me, Kai…”
“Come out.”
No sooner had the principal finished speaking than I felt a presence behind me. Turning around, as expected, that guy was standing there.
The Hero. Kaits Hiro.
Did he move by warp? No. This guy had been here from the beginning. It was just that Mullin and I hadn’t noticed.
This son of a bitch. I haven’t seen him for a while, but he seems to have gotten several times stronger in that time?
“……”
I feel like shit. He must have focused on stealth to avoid being detected, but to think I hadn’t even noticed him in the room.
“Hello, instructors.”
Kaits, greeting us with a pleasant smile, was fucking handsome today, too. At this rate, even the bad-tempered Mullin would fall for him.
“What business do you have calling us? Clown.”
“…?”
What is this? Far from falling for him, her voice is full of hostility. It might even be worse than when she deals with me. Besides, calling someone a clown. Even if that guy is a fucking asshole, he doesn’t look like a clown. So I said.
“That’s right. What business do you have calling us? You clown son of a bitch.”
“Ahaha.”
To think his smiling face wouldn’t break even after saying that much. He’s an amazing guy. But why is Mullin looking at me as if I’m the unexpected one? ……I want to poke her eyes out.
“I will speak straight to the point.”
“Don’t do it. Clown.”
“Don’t do it.”
“Hey. You two.”
Aww, Principal. Why are you getting angry again…
But our Kaits Hiro was a man who would say what he had to say without hesitation, regardless of whether Mullin and I were bickering.
“I would like to borrow your strength for the subjugation of Askatlov, one of the ‘Eight Monster Kings,’ which will take place in about two months.”
Askatlov? I frowned, and Mullin twisted her face. In addition to that, Kaits added.
“And there is one more thing I would like to ask of Drae.”
“I don’t want to.”
“I would like you to become the Sword of Light.”
I told him I didn’t want to do that last time; he’s a persistent guy. But why is this? The air in the room changed.
Astonishment. That emotion dominated the room.