Do You Have Friends?
Ryly… Why have you been doing that since a while ago…
Sugar’s cheeks puffed out. Her words tumbled out in a rush.
As always, Ryly’s hand was hanging limp at his side? No, not exactly. It was similar, but if I had to describe it precisely, it was a little different.
“You… Were you awake earlier?”
“No. ‘Were you?’ Of course I was asleep—what did you do?”
When Sugar, whose eyes were already glistening with tears of pain, asked suspiciously, Ryly answered as if he knew nothing.
Stung by that, Sugar looked away.
“Ah, I didn’t do anything… I just cleaned my ears… I didn’t do anything wrong…”
“…”
“At least… Do it with your hands. I don’t feel any affection…”
Because of the aftereffects of the earlier incident, she was reluctant to make direct contact, so she was waving her staff and pulling with magic power. But Sugar was the type who preferred to be touched directly by hand. She loved it when Ryly touched her.
“Hey… Please be quiet.”
Right in the middle of that.
A third party’s voice drifted in from the side, and the two immediately turned their heads. Leon was staring at them with a flustered expression.
“We got here first.”
“That’s right.”
Ryly answered bluntly, and Sugar nodded while replying. At that moment, Ryly stopped pinching her cheek. The soft flesh bounced back into place.
Leon let out a sigh.
“It’s really different from the dream…”
He muttered to himself and started packing his writing utensils. It looked like he was trying to study in a corner of the greenhouse, but since there were already customers, it was awkward.
“Even so, if it’s the real thing, I still feel bad.”
“Then what do you want me to do?”
When Sugar spoke, Leon frowned and asked.
“Okay. I’ll be a little quieter. Ryly. Let’s talk with lowered voices now.”
“Can you endure it?”
“Eh?”
Ryly immediately pressed his lips close to Sugar’s ear and whispered words like “Idiot, lewd Sugar, shameless woman,” and every time, Sugar’s body trembled.
“Whoa… Talking in my ear…! Why have you been so mischievous since a while ago…!”
While holding back the reaction, she asked in a trembling voice.
No matter how you looked at it, you had been awake earlier. So you were taking revenge now.
Sugar’s face was flushed as she pouted, but Ryly blew air into her ear as if he knew nothing.
“…”
It seemed even more sensitive than before. So when she let out a “Hic!” and her posture collapsed, Ryly pulled her into his arms and covered her with his cloak.
“What.”
And then one word to Leon. It was the tone of “What are you staring at?”
“…”
“It seems your relationship is good. Lucky for you.”
“It’s not like that.”
“…”
Leon felt like he was being hit on the head again, just like before. The words Sugar had said—“Not lovers”—kept coming to mind.
What is a lover?
A feeling of concepts twisting. He had lived without interest in women. He had no interest in other people’s love stories. He was only focused on his mother and studying.
Still, one thing he knew was that if it was this much physical contact, they weren’t just married or engaged to each other?
No? Had he thought too conservatively?
… Anyway, I like it.
A pair with a public indecency penalty of 60 points, rumored to have come to Stille for some reason, doing lovey-dovey or not.
Sometimes a creepy feeling came from the image in the dream, but when seeing them huddled together like that, it immediately made you feel relieved. So, thinking positively, he quietly got up from his seat.
With the permission of the herbology professor, one could freely enter and exit the greenhouse. It was a great place to study nearby, but today it was unavoidable.
When about to leave like that, Sugar peeked her face out from Ryly’s cloak.
“Ah, wait!”
“I’m going. What is it?”
“It’s nothing special. Leon, do you have friends?”
“…”
Do you have friends?
What kind of question was this. Asking a student who had come to study alone in a sparsely populated greenhouse during lunch break whether it was even okay.
Thinking she had been too insensitive, Sugar changed her words a little.
“Ah, no. I mean. Not necessarily friends, but people you know… Like, you exchanged names?”
Because she was popular, even when there were no people around, you had to ask if you accidentally met them.
It was a question for checking the original flow for Sugar. Was there a heroine you had met? Was there a male colleague? To see how much the flow had changed.
Since it’s only the fifth day of enrollment, it’s natural to have met a few people…
And the answer was surprisingly refreshing.
“There are none of those. Ah, if you exchanged names, there’s one person.”
“…”
“Who?”
“Chunja… Mr. Ian.”
Sugar hit her forehead.
Nothing matches the original story at all!
At this point, it was fun. Yeah. Go your own way. We didn’t do that.
“Then. I’ll be going.”
Leon bowed politely and left.
Sugar jumped out of Ryly’s arms and followed behind. Holding Ryly’s hand who didn’t want to go, she dragged him along.
“Why are you following?”
“Because Ian said it’s okay to call him by name. Ian’s friends are our friends. It’s good to get close.”
Her internal closeness to Leon was quite high. Even so, in any world-game, we’ve been together for tens of hours—it felt like “we’re comrades!”
Stille life with Ryly and Ian was good, but still, the more friends, the better. Sugar, based on her always extroverted and kind personality, had been twisting fate and creating connections.
I wonder why she became such a personality.
Plus, there was expectation for the Holy Staff. Hmm. If she was like this, I shouldn’t have high expectations, but still, human relationships weren’t always made by expectations and gains.
Therefore, the Saintess of the Evil God followed the black villain and the protagonist.
“No. Why are you following us?”
“We’ve met too. Let’s get close.”
“…”
“Ah. But don’t think too much about it. I’ll be closest to Ryly.”
“Who asked?”
***
What was she thinking now.
Ryly was fiddling with Sugar’s hand while walking beside her.
Doing impulsive actions hadn’t changed since childhood. Before, when something caught her interest, she would run there.
After looking down at Sugar, he turned his head to look ahead. A black-haired man was walking ahead.
Ryly narrowed his eyes and stared at the back of his head.
The man Sugar had been interested in for a few days. It wasn’t for some lame plan like “jealousy-inducing operation!”
Sugar said it was because of the Holy Staff.
Did she have that much faith? If it was heresy, she’d be scared, so was it a reaction to that?
Ryly also highly appreciated the achievements of the Saint and his disciples. He was interested in the staff. His name was taken from the first disciple of the Saint.
But Sugar didn’t seem like the type to do that. Sometimes she had mature thoughts, but basically she was a slightly airheaded woman. Her thought process was weird and her actions were weird. Recently even lewd.
When thinking that, looking down at Sugar, her sparkling eyes came into view. Her lightly tinted cheeks were a cute smiling face. Just looking at it made you think “Well, whatever…” As long as it wasn’t too weird things, you wanted to let her do as she pleased.
A free soul.
And, Ryly’s pleasure was seeing Sugar like that.
“…”
Free.
When chewing on that word, one thought came up.
If, instead of the grimoire, it was—
“Ryly. Ryly.”
A familiar voice broke the reverie in an instant.
When Sugar gestured somewhere, looking there, a tired man was leaning against the wall. An expression like compressed sadness of the whole world.
Their eyes met.
Soon, the man started muttering something.
“White hair… golden hair… caught hand… Aah… Aaaah…!”
And then suddenly, the momentum of running over was fierce. The upper body fixed, lower body moving was grotesque.
The three froze at the same time.
“You are the 60-point penalty couple…? Me a bit… Please help me…? Tell the professor, I’ll give you points for the shop…”
After being surprised, Sugar quickly figured out the situation and smiled.
“Tell me the story first.”
“There was a story… I have to avoid expelling you as much as possible. So not the human resources that can be exploited… but. Tell the shop to give points and make you do errands and such…”
“Ahaha.”
Even so, professors were saying that. Sugar nodded.
“That’s good for us too. So, what do you want me to do?”
“Clean the underground prison…”
“Ah.”
Sugar let out a small exclamation.
It felt familiar somehow.
“First, I am Hubert professor’s assistant… Do you know the professor who teaches Advanced Mana Operation? He wants to remodel the underground prison to create a research environment, but before that, I have to ‘clean’ first…”
“Points for the shop?”
“Um. Looking at what you’re doing…?”
“Hmm. Hmm. 100 points.”
“What? 100 points? No way! Just cleaning… 20 points would be enough.”
“Then 90 points.”
“… 30 points.”
“70 points. I can’t do more than this.”
“35 points. I’m also watching.”
“60 points. If not, ask someone else. We’re not free either.”
“… 40 points.”
“Let’s go, Ryly.”
“Ah, ah! Okay! 60 points! 60 points!”
Sugar’s mouth corners went up to her ears.
“Call.”
I did it because I knew how desperate he was. A bet.
There was a similar sub-quest in the original story. A prison in the basement of a school with deep history. Cleaning there, but the assistant’s tearful plea because of darkness, underground, ghosts, etc. being scary.
Actually experiencing it, it was a strange feeling.
Anyway. This was escaping minus points.
There was also an errand given by the herbology professor earlier. Once that was done, it would be plus 30 points for the shop.
Now, I could be lovey-dovey as I liked!
When Sugar looked at Ryly and laughed “Ehehe,” Ryly sighed deeply. His thoughts were visible in his eyes.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Leon quietly retreated. It was a favor he should have received, but he didn’t know that. He just didn’t want to get involved unnecessarily.
But since it wasn’t Sugar who would leave it alone.
“Ah! Leon with the Holy Staff! Where are you going! Won’t you help us?”
The more hands, the better.
Immediately, the surrounding students were staring at them.
“Ah…! You are that…! If you’re okay, can you help too?”
The assistant was also immediately recommending to Leon. A student holding the Holy Staff. There wouldn’t be many students who wanted to give so much work.
With sparkling eyes, pleading with his expression. The dark-haired man was making it awkward for others to see, but thanks to Sugar standing beside, it was somehow neutralized.
Leon was bewildered by the sparkling eyes of two people.
This, if I push a little more, it might work…
Sugar quickly poked Ryly’s side.
“…… Wow. I want to help.”
Speaking as if reading a Korean book, but the effect was big.
Since the three were openly pushing, Leon couldn’t refuse. Basically, he was a polite and kind friend.
Moreover, the arrogant man from the dream came out like that, so for Leon, the shock was indescribable.
“… Okay. I will help.”
“Great!”
Sugar jumped.
“Then, let’s meet after school.”
I have to call Ian too.
Enjoying a fun Stille life today.