Chapter 23
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: 5. Confusion (4)
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Kaen von Dandelrion.
Baekya.
Yuzu Berna.
Saintess.
And the two imperial princesses from the empire, who weren't at the academy right now due to personal matters.
One of them was the author.
But there were two suspects.
"......"
My head hurt.
It felt like it would split open neatly if I just tapped it.
How the hell had this happened?
First off, there was no way those two had written it together.
I wasn't some expert with an eye for handwriting, but even I could tell that the writing belonged to a single person.
Which naturally meant one of them wasn't the culprit.
It would be great if I could just shrug it off with an 'Oh, I see,' but unfortunately, that wasn't possible.
Kaen von Dandelrion.
I'd already... thoroughly raped her.
The day Kaen came to my room, I'd been so excited that I'd grabbed her head and tried to force her into giving me a blowjob.
Even as she begged for her life with her forehead pressed to the ground that day, I'd pinned her down until broken moans escaped her lips.
Every single act was punishable by death.
If Kaen revealed any of this, I'd be turned to mist on the execution ground without even a chance to defend myself.
But Kaen had been overjoyed.
At being roughly fondled by me.
At having me call her name casually.
At being forcibly pinned down again and again.
She'd worn the most ridiculous, happy smile.
Up until then, it hadn't even crossed my mind that it could be a misunderstanding.
This must be the work of that woman.
I'd thought I'd found the culprit faster than expected.
Then Yuzu Berna had suddenly gotten involved, complicating everything.
Not content with slipping me what I suspected was an aphrodisiac every time she called me to the research building, she'd pretended to be aroused and started calling me Luke -nim.
Kaen, who'd come to serve me under the excuse of a reward.
Yuzu, who'd grinned slyly while secretly using formal speech, thinking I'd passed out.
What the hell.
Really.
I'd been trapped in that unresolved silence for a while.
Then the floating sensation enveloping my body began to fade rapidly.
As my mind cleared, I realized my body was lying on something soft and fluffy.
Moreover, something light was draped gently from my face, across my chest, to my left waist.
I slowly opened my lightly closed eyes.
At the same time, a stimulating aroma of tea leaves brushed my nose.
Right before my eyes was a scrap of pure white cloth.
"......Phew."
I wasn't in a coffin.
Exhaling my ragged breath, I slowly sat up in the bedding.
The rectangular scrap of cloth that had been covering my eyes naturally slipped down softly.
The cloth was a bandage.
I wondered why it had just been placed on me instead of wrapped around, but as fragmented memories returned, the reason came to me quickly.
Whoosh—a pale flame had suddenly erupted toward my chest without warning.
And the natural reaction when human skin meets fire.
Apparently, when I'd been brought to the church, I must have been in such a horrific state that it was hard to look at.
Luckily, my body felt fine now, but for the Saintess who had to infuse it with holy power, it must have been quite gruesome.
Seeing my shirt crumpled in the trash can gave me a rough idea of the damage.
Who had brought me to the church?
Yuzu?
Or someone else?
Confirming my hair was intact, I slowly turned my head to look out the window.
I'd thought it might be morning given how serious my condition was, but thankfully, the sparkling Milky Way was still leisurely flowing across the sky.
Wait, no.
Maybe not.
I might have been unconscious on the bed for half a day.
In that case, I'd have to catch up on all the backlog at once.
Feeling like I'd forgotten something important, I got out of bed.
At least my pants were intact—that was a relief.
First things first, I needed to find the Saintess.
There was no warmth in the large rocking chair right beside the bed, so she might have gone back to her mansion to sleep.
If so, I could leave a thank-you note somewhere visible before heading out.
That was the moment I opened the door and stepped out.
"Haaah.... Are you feeling okay, Author-nim?"
A yawn thick with sleepiness.
At the end of a small wooden table that looked like it would be cramped for two people, the Saintess sat rubbing her eyes.
Wearing baggy, cute yellow pajamas, no less.
"......"
Never mind the chick-like resemblance.
Her clothes were really thin.
Embarrassingly so, if I kept staring.
Was it because of what had happened with Yuzu?
Normally, my lust would surge in situations like this, but right now, it stayed quiet.
"Yes. Thanks to you. Good evening, Saintess-nim."
"Yeees.... Come have some tea. It's good for you...."
I wanted nothing more than to leave the church quickly and return to the dorm, but I couldn't be rude in front of someone who'd nursed me so diligently.
In the modestly furnished little space that felt like a plebeian's home,
I sat across from the table and carefully accepted a teacup from the Saintess.
"I thought you'd gone back to your mansion for sure. You stayed here because of me?"
"No? This is my house, you know? It's such a pain to walk if it's too big. That's why I don't even keep a maid."
"Ah...."
"I love how it's just twenty steps or so from the bed to the altar...."
I'd wondered why there were two beds when I cleaned here once before.
Not for multiple patients, but for her own use, huh.
I forced down a sip of the tasteless tea she'd given me, then carefully set the cup on the table without a clink.
Apparently that was one of the noble etiquettes. Well, the Saintess wasn't the type to nitpick, so I just mimicked it roughly.
She stared at me blankly for a moment, then leaned back in her chair and murmured.
"It wasn't even sparring day, and your whole body was a total mess."
"......"
"It was Yuzu-nim, right? She's the only one at the academy who can handle that kind of magic. It couldn't have been a professor."
I took another polite sip of tea and gave a barely perceptible nod.
That confirmed one thing.
Yuzu had set me ablaze and then handed me off to someone else.
I hadn't expected her to carry me all the way here, but still, there was a twinge of disappointment.
"How did that even happen? She's cool-headed and not the type to hurt people like that."
"Mm.... It's a complicated story."
"That's not the answer I wanted...."
"You look tired. No need to bore you with the details. I just made a mistake with Yuzu-nim."
"You can be honest. I already have a rough idea."
"...?"
Just as my suspicions were leaning more toward Kaen as the author,
The Saintess stroked the teacup in front of her with a soft squeak and opened her mouth.
"In the end, you must have pounced on Yuzu-nim, huh? Just like it said in that erotic novel I saw before."
A plebeian pouncing on a noble. Just like in your erotic novel.
That's the only way her dangerously reckless words could be interpreted, spilling from the Saintess's mouth.
If I'd been holding the teacup, I definitely would have dropped it.
If it had been any other noble saying that, I might have thrown myself to the floor begging for mercy right then.
But the Saintess's voice was utterly flat.
As if she'd known it all along.
"Th-that, um...."
"Right?"
What was her intention here?
It didn't feel like blackmail at all.
If anything, it seemed more like she was just confirming if it was true.
Better keep my words sparse for now.
I picked up my teacup, imitating her, and wet my throat.
"After piecing together all the circumstances, you thought, 'Ah! Yuzu-nim must be the one who wrote that erotic novel!'"
"......"
"And bam! You pounced, and flustered Yuzu-nim went whoosh...."
"......"
"Or something like that. Just my guess, anyway."
There were minor inaccuracies, but she was mostly spot on.
She'd accurately guessed the big picture: that I'd suspected Yuzu and pounced to confirm.
Could I just say yes, that's exactly it?
Tick, tock—the sound of the clock hands moving echoed.
"Sigh."
Propping her chin and looking up at my face, the Saintess murmured lowly, as if frustrated that I hadn't caught on.
"You told me before, remember? That you didn't write it yourself. Not to misunderstand."
"...Yes."
"So obviously, that novel—no, erotic novel—was written by one of the nobles at the academy, including me. Though not me."
The words I couldn't say bluntly in front of a noble.
One of the nobles is the culprit.
They came from the Saintess's mouth instead.
"Let me confirm first. Wait a sec. I'll get a pen and paper."
Without giving me a chance to reply, the Saintess stood, fetched some writing tools and a blue notebook, and returned.
Hesitantly flipping through the pages, I saw it was a workbook filled with ice magic formulas.
Freezing. Conduction. Evaporation. Drying. Pressure.
And countless other magic formulas beyond my comprehension.
The handwriting was delicate and fluid, but I was too overwhelmed by the bizarre equations ahead—more like drawings than writing—to admire it.
In the midst of that, a cute writing tool with a squirrel charm at the end caught my eye.
"Here. Try writing on the very last page."
"...What should I write?"
"Hmm.... I'd love to have you rewrite a line from the novel,"
She tapped the table with her index finger. Tap, tap.
"Write: 'I, Luke, pledge my loyalty to Lady Ishtar.'"
"Ishtar?"
"My real name. Haven't had much use for it since becoming the Saintess at ten."
"Ah...."
"You're the first man I've told my real name to. Anyway, write it. Quick."
Any sentiment about learning one of the Saintess's secrets vanished quickly.
Instead, I thought, She's still joking around at a time like this?
I worried how much she'd tease me with that line every time I came to her injured later.
Still, better than her dropping awkward sex jokes when I couldn't respond easily.
Grabbing the pen she'd handed me, I carefully wrote the small letters on the very back of her notebook.
Pouring all my focus to avoid any accusations of deliberately bad handwriting.
—I, Luke, pledge my loyalty to Lady Ishtar.
Even so, compared to the erotic novel I'd read before, my pitiful handwriting adorned the notebook's end.
It even resembled a signature at the bottom of a letter.
"Is this okay?"
"I could tell even upside down. You really can't write."
"...Not the nicest compliment, but at least it clears up the misunderstanding."
"I never misunderstood to begin with. I was just teasing you by calling you Author-nim because your reactions were fun."
"Figured as much."
I'd half-realized it from midway through that day, hearing her playful tone.
This woman was definitely messing with me.
Covering my mouth for a small yawn, I handed back the pen and notebook.
The Saintess stared blankly at the sentence I'd written, notebook open, for a moment.
Her lips curved into a wide grin—whether from my ugly handwriting or ideas on how to tease me, she seemed pleased either way.
"Ahem, ahem! Good. Seeing the handwriting, it's definitely not yours."
"Thank you."
"Now, down to business, then?"
The Saintess clapped the book shut with a thud, hugged it to her chest, and said,
"Want me to help?"
"Help how?"
"You want to find out who wrote the erotic novel."
"......"
"You might already think it's definitely not Yuzu-nim.... But who knows? Maybe she denied it out of embarrassment? Or maybe she used this as an excuse to get pounded even harder."
Saying that, the Saintess smiled even more brightly than before.
As if she had nothing to do with that erotic novel.
And as if it was amusing how I kept veering off track with the culprit right in front of me.
"Lately, Baekya-nim has been acting reeeally suspicious."
The Saintess, who'd been yawning just moments ago, gazed into my eyes with a mischievous yet unreliable smile playing on her lips.