Cat Wash
“Ah, no! Absolutely not!”
She shook her head, denying it with desperate force.
She looked so wretched that I almost believed her—almost.
You should’ve held back a little if you wanted me to buy it either way.
I said to her,
“What do you mean ‘no’? And I’ve never seen you act that way with anyone else the way you do with me.”
“That’s… because I was closest with you…”
Honestly, it made my chest tight.
Arguing here over whether her behavior had really been a joke would never end, so I decided to let it go for now.
“Fine. Let’s say that’s the case for the moment.”
“It’s not ‘let’s say’—it’s really not!”
“Who told you to raise your voice?”
“Sorry…”
The important part was still a long way off.
“So expelling me was a joke too?”
This time she had nothing to say; she just fidgeted.
The sight was so frustrating that I sighed again, and Veronica jumped with a start and cried out,
“I-it wasn’t exactly a joke—it’s just that things between us had gotten a little strained lately…”
“Yeah, thanks to somebody’s ‘jokes.’”
She hung her head even lower.
“S-so… like I said earlier… if you’d asked me, I was planning to vote against the expulsion!”
I was so speechless I couldn’t even find the words.
So instead of pressing the point, I said,
“Nah. Honestly, I’m kind of grateful for that one.”
“Huh…?”
At my answer, Veronica stared at me as if she couldn’t understand—then her face brightened a little, as if she’d somehow gotten the wrong idea.
“Ah, no! Of course not! As if I’d ever really expel y—”
“What are you talking about? I was already sick of party work with you people. Thanks for making me quit cold turkey.”
“Ah… aah…”
Veronica’s pupils shook wildly.
“Well… even if you say now that you were going to oppose it, I wouldn’t believe you anyway.”
“It’s true, please believe me!”
I snorted at her words.
What was the point at this stage?
“I had so much fun doing party work with you!”
“I’m sure you did. You treated me like some kind of toy…”
“Really, really not! I swear, Louis!”
Even as she said it, I felt no particular stirring.
“I won’t do it again—never again!”
“Yeah, got it.”
When I answered like that, Veronica’s expression seemed to brighten a little once more.
“Thank you! I’ll never—”
“We’re going to live as complete strangers from now on anyway, so there won’t even be a chance.”
“What…?”
Veronica looked like she wanted to say something, but my mouth opened first.
“And about what happened in the duel…”
The moment I brought it up, Veronica went deathly pale.
“I really didn’t know about that either!”
Before I could even speak, she was already shouting her excuse.
“It’s true, Louis! If you look into it you’ll see—you make a regular scroll first and then convert it into a Curse Scroll…”
She launched into a frantic explanation of magic-related knowledge.
I listened half-heartedly, then cut her off.
“I get that. But the reason you waited until right before the duel to say anything…”
“L-Louis, you were supposed to apologize first… I’m sorry…”
At least she seemed to feel some shame; she bowed her head.
Her face flushed and her voice shrank.
Is that even acting…?
A flicker of suspicion still lingered as I said,
“You’re seriously shameless.”
“Sorry…”
Even the duel, if I followed her explanation, wasn’t completely impossible to understand.
If Leo had only asked Veronica to make the base scroll and handled the conversion into a Curse Scroll himself, then her ignorance made sense.
Plenty of other people could have done it, so agreeing to Leo’s request was also plausible.
And waiting for my apology before telling me the truth… well, knowing Veronica’s personality, that part was oddly believable too.
“Haa…”
I let out a small chuckle.
Well, at least she’d come to apologize.
No matter how I looked at it, it was far too late—but still.
To Veronica, who stood in front of me waiting for an answer and watching my face, I opened my mouth.
“Alright, Veronica. I’ve heard you out for now.”
“Yeah…”
“But basically it all comes down to ‘it was just a joke,’ ‘I didn’t mean it,’ ‘that wasn’t my intention.’ And you’ve got no real proof.”
“Th-that’s…”
I waited for her to say something, but nothing came back.
Veronica fretted hard, then finally seemed to realize that the essence of everything she’d just said was exactly that.
As for me…
I didn’t know whether I should believe her or not.
But whether I believed her or not, what I was going to do wouldn’t change—so I reached a surprisingly simple conclusion.
“Then let’s do this, Veronica.”
“Y-yeah?”
“I’ll believe everything you just said. Honestly, hanging out with you before was fun for me too…”
“R-really…?”
Veronica looked at me with eyes that couldn’t quite trust it, so I nodded at her.
“Thank you, Louis! From now on I’ll never—”
She seemed so happy that tears even welled up.
But I wasn’t finished.
“Yeah. I’ll believe you, and I’ve accepted the apology…”
Veronica nodded vigorously.
“…so since everything’s been cleaned up nicely, let’s just live as strangers from now on.”
“Wh-what?”
“We’re not even in the same party anymore. Every time I see you, all the unpleasant memories come flooding back.”
“Y-you’re joking, right, Louis? Haha…”
“So I’ll accept the apology. Just don’t show up in front of me like this again.”
“Wait, Louis!”
To the girl who looked ready to shout something, I said,
“You said you were sorry, right? Then do me this one favor.”
With that I turned to leave.
Veronica grabbed my sleeve.
“D-don’t go…”
She begged in a voice thick with tears, but
“Let go.”
At those words she finally released her hand.
“Hic… sniff!”
From behind me came the sound of Veronica sniffling.
I headed back to my dorm room.
Once I was inside, the sweat I’d worked up earlier made my body feel sticky—but more than that, I needed to wash away the far stickier feeling, so I took a shower first.
The warm water helped my mood improve a little.
After washing and changing clothes, I looked at the sword I’d left in the corner of the room.
I debated for a moment.
“Ahh, let’s just rest today.”
Honestly, I was exhausted.
I postponed sword practice until tomorrow and threw myself onto the bed.
The moment I did, Veronica’s face from earlier kept rising in my mind—especially the way she’d been sniffling…
“Ah, damn it!”
I shook my head hard.
I’d said all that to her, but the real problem was the next event.
Clearing this event would be a lot easier with Veronica around.
It required a fairly high level of magical knowledge, after all.
Then again, at the critical moments she also tended to get in the way…
All kinds of scenarios spun through my head.
Sneaking in and just pulling Sally out… still impossible, huh.
It was ridiculously hard, and if I got caught with my current strength…
“Ah, seriously!”
I yelled, clutching my head and rolling around on the bed.
Do I really have to do this the proper way?
The next morning.
“Good morning, my disciple!”
“Yes, Master…?”
I felt a flicker of confusion the moment I saw her.
Why hadn’t I noticed this yesterday?
Had I simply gotten too used to it?
What I mean is—my master’s appearance right now was seriously scruffy.
The worn-out school uniform was one thing, but…
Honestly, she’s a little… dirty…
Had she not washed?
I carefully asked her,
“Um, Master…?”
“What is it?”
“Ahem… did you wash up this morning before coming out?”
“I washed my face properly!”
Cat wash…?
Yesterday she had definitely headed in a direction that wasn’t the dorms.
Just in case, I asked,
“Where did you wash?”
“At the mountain spring deep in the hills, the one I always use…”
“Master.”
“Hm?”
“Did you by any chance not apply for a dorm room?”
“I have no money!”
She answered with a bright, sunny smile, and I pressed a hand to my forehead.
Right. That was it.
Just then a student walking by pinched his nose and made a face.
“What’s that smell…”
When I glared at him he clamped his mouth shut and scurried off, though not without muttering about me behind my back.
It barely even smells…
She just looked a little scruffy, that was all.
Anyway, that wasn’t the real problem.
This academy was full of nobles, and even if it weren’t, every dorm room came with its own bathroom.
I couldn’t guarantee there wouldn’t be more students like the one just now.
I started thinking about how to handle this situation.
I could buy her meals, but she had no money for a dorm application—and even if the imperial reward came through, the semester had already started; I wasn’t sure applications were still open.
I also couldn’t just leave her living in a cave forever.
A thought suddenly popped into my head.
Maybe I could secretly let her sleep in my room…
I shook my head hard.
“What’s wrong all of a sudden, my disciple?”
Looking at her worried eyes, I thought,
No, even so… that would be too much, right…?