114. I Heard Keeping Tentacles as Pets Is the Trend These Days? (3)
114. I Heard Keeping Tentacles as Pets Is the Trend These Days? (3)
"...Huh? What? It's the old guy."
"I'm not an old guy."
"You look way too old for me to call you big brother, though."
Had she always been like this? No, I had known she was strong-willed ever since she cursed, "Fucking hell," but I hadn't expected her to stab directly at my weakness.
Sure, my face was so rugged that it seemed to belong in a completely different genre, but my Status Window had officially certified me as nineteen.
Even if my looks were on par with X-Seunggi and X-Hodong back in middle school...
Anyway, the point was that our physical ages were the same.
Probably.
"Is your body all right?"
"My severed arm's still throbbing."
My gaze naturally fell on Viola's severed arm, wrapped tightly in bandages. I'd heard that too much time had passed since it was cut off for even powerful healing magic to restore it. Fortunately, this feisty student didn't seem overly distressed about losing it.
At least, she wore a calm expression in front of me.
"W-well, don't worry about it too much. I would've died if you hadn't cut it off, right? I'm alive, and that's what matters. Surviving the rift at all was a miracle."
"A miracle... huh."
"What else would you call it?"
It wasn't wrong. The odds of returning from a dimensional rift were damn low. Even so, I could not help regretting it. If I'd found them a little sooner, she might not have needed to lose her arm.
Feeling sympathy and a little goodwill, I held out my hand first.
"If you face any difficulties, feel free to ask for help."
"Then can you regenerate my arm? Having only one is pretty inconvenient—"
"That would be difficult."
Unless I had access to Elixirs as freely as in the game, restoring an arm would be impossible. Knowing that, I shook my head. Viola seemed to have expected the answer; she gave a small snort and spoke.
"Figured as much—ugh, just thinking about living with one arm after I heal up pisses me off."
"Research, huh. You said you were in the Alchemy Department?"
I'd been planning to build connections with alchemy students, but given that Viola was a patient, this moment wasn't the best for it. Her skills were still an unknown quantity, anyway. Still, it seemed worthwhile to sound her out a bit during a few future hospital visits. Once we were on friendly terms, she could introduce me to other Alchemy Department students.
Whenever I spotted a promising graduate student—no, a promising talent—I intended to recruit them immediately.
"I'm one of the top five honor students, you know. Though I bombed the final, so my rank probably dropped hard."
"I testified that you cleared the dungeon well, so I expect you'll receive a fair score."
When the negotiations ended and I handed over the notebook I'd recovered from the rift, I made sure to explain her performance. The academy had probably given her fair marks. Whether they were excellent marks... even I couldn't guarantee that.
"Oh, really? Thanks. That takes a load off my mind. Who knows, if I play my cards right, I might even be in the running for a scholarship."
She was quite the optimist. Most people in her situation would have been completely dispirited.
She was not a heroine, though.
"...Well, I'll be going now. If you ever need help, come find me at Dawn Hall."
That last part was a small gesture of goodwill from me—goodwill toward a girl who was stubbornly trying to rise again despite the sudden misfortune that had struck her. Viola grinned at my words and replied playfully.
"I'm the type who sucks people dry to the marrow. Sure you can handle that?"
"Let's just say I'm doing fairly well for myself."
I shrugged and turned the handle of the infirmary room. The door opened, and a silent corridor greeted me. With vacation having just begun, there was no one else in the academy infirmary.
"Take care of yourself."
"Get going, Escort Knight."
She waved with her intact hand until the narrowing gap hid her from view. Once the door closed, I heard her shifting around and groaning on the other side.
Had she been putting on a brave front after all?
As I walked the path back to Dawn Hall, I couldn't help but think about Viola.
She had reminded me of myself when I was being put through hell on the uninhabited island.
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"Millia. What on earth is going on here?"
"The tentacles came outside and started wandering around, so I thought they wanted to go for a walk, and we've been out walking together!"
What was this situation? I pressed a hand to my forehead as I watched Millia walk the tentacle book around Dawn Hall's front yard.
A tentacle book being forcibly taken on a walk by a Dullahan. This was a spectacle I had never anticipated.
What kind of tentacle went for a stroll while tied to a leash?
Maybe I was still dreaming. Perhaps all of this was a dream, and if I slapped my cheek, I'd wake up in my studio apartment.
...Huh? Wait, did I live in a studio apartment—
"Yohan, Yohan!"
"What."
"Hey, can I have this book? I'd feed it well, wash it well, and take it for regular walks, so—"
"Millia. That is not a pet."
I could not let her treat a Grimoire ominous enough to be designated a forbidden book on sight like a pet. Carrying something like that around would corrupt her into a dark Wizard—or turn her into the book's host.
...Though, for a book like that, it hadn't caused any real trouble so far.
"But it's alive, and it moves around, and it even acts cute!"
"..."
She wasn't wrong, so I couldn't think of a rebuttal.
I did my best to ignore Millia's wide-eyed, adorable look and glared at the tentacle book instead. The book struggled violently, apparently desperate to avoid becoming Millia's pet, but whether Millia was unexpectedly strong or not, she didn't budge an inch.
In the end, the tentacle book gave up resisting, and tears flowed from the eye embedded in the middle of its cover. A crying book... I'd lived long enough to see every bizarre sight imaginable.
...It was a little pitiful.
Still, I could not allow it—
"Huh? Yohaaaan~"
"Acting cute won't change my mind."
"Fine, then."
With a face full of grim determination, as if deploying her ultimate weapon, Millia wrapped her arms around my waist and clung to me. Then she began rubbing her body against mine like a cat. I could see what she was trying to do, but it honestly felt like my little niece hanging onto me, so I felt nothing at all.
In any case, that was how it was.
I was not a pervert.
"Y-Y-Y-Yohan...??"
Her timing was terrible.
I looked at the purple-haired girl staring at me with wide eyes. She looked considerably shocked. Hoping to clear up the misunderstanding, I appealed to Elisa for rescue.
"Ah, Elisa. Help me get Millia off—"
"I-I don't think you should do something like that here!"
"It's a misunderstanding."
Why was she clinging even tighter as though this were her chance? To clear up the misunderstanding, I immediately grabbed Millia by the nape and lifted her. She resisted fiercely, but if I truly tried to pull her off, I could. No matter how tightly she clung, there was more than a twofold difference in strength between us.
"Ashley said men would fall for me immediately if I did this, so why isn't it working?!"
What the hell had Ashley been teaching her?
I rapped the grumbling Millia on the head, then turned my attention to Elisa to resolve the misunderstanding. Millia kept chattering away beside me with a pout, but it was just the noise of someone sulking.
I addressed Elisa, who was opening and closing her mouth as if struggling to force words out.
"Elisa, calm down for a second. This is..."
"I-I-I think that kind of shameless act is wrong! I-I'd rather, I-I would..."
"What do you mean, Elisa?"
"Uh, um... Eek!"
No, where was she going?
I sighed and lowered the hand I'd stretched toward Elisa as she sprinted toward the entrance of Dawn Hall.
Was I her babysitter or her Escort Knight? I released my grip on the nape of Millia's neck and warned her as she puffed out her cheeks in a sulk.
"That book is extremely dangerous. It isn't a toy, so hand it over."
"Okaaay..."
When I spoke in a serious voice, the troublemaking Dullahan reluctantly handed me the leash. The tentacle book, which had been warily observing us, scrambled to its "feet" the moment I took hold of the leash and began waving its tentacles about. Seeing the purple tentacles wiggle so plaintively, I couldn't help but watch.
What was this? Was this the "acting cute" Millia had mentioned?
As I stared blankly at the unprecedented sight, the eyeball in the center of the book began blinking like a headlight.
As though it were attempting an ocular assault, yellow light flashed into my face several times in succession. I covered my eyes with one palm and waited for the frantic ON-OFF show to end. After blinking nearly ten times, the tentacle book scratched at one corner with a tentacle and tilted sideways as though confused.
If it had been a person, it would have looked as though it tilted its head.
What had it been trying to do?
Before the tentacle book could stir up more trouble, I coiled the leash firmly around my hand. The tentacles were weak, barely at a child's level, so they couldn't resist my strength.
Ugh. I really hated this damp, sticky feeling.
"See? It isn't dangerous! It kept slapping me with its tentacles at first, but it doesn't even do that anymore!"
"That's probably because it gave up."
Not that I minded if its escape attempts were over. Carrying the book, which had suddenly turned docile, I entered the workshop along with Millia, stuffed it into an appropriately sized box, and wrapped the box tightly with a chain. It couldn't run away with this, at least. I planned to keep it sealed up like this, at least until I could show it to Principal Merlin.
"Good night, Soggy~"
...I had no idea what to think anymore.
It was time to go eat. Half resigned, I took Millia's hand and headed for Dawn Hall.
I needed a hearty meal today.
To replenish my stamina, if nothing else.
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'Why didn't it work?!'