Chocolate and Poison
Yohan ran a hand down his face. He was perched on the edge of his bed, and a long sigh escaped him.
[THE GROUND MIGHT COLLAPSE]
“⋯⋯I suppose it might,” Yohan muttered, letting out another sigh.
The box in his hand drew his gaze. The moment he looked at it, his expression twisted as if he had witnessed something truly unbearable.
[I SEE EVEN SOMETHING LIKE THIS EXISTS]
“Yes. It’s called chocolate.”
Yohan opened the box. A faint, sweet aroma rose into the air.
Fortunately, there was nothing wrong with the chocolate itself.
⋯Fortunately? Was that the right word?
With a soft click, he closed the lid again.
“You placed a spell on it so only I could open it.”
It was a seal cast directly by Professor Aria. She had designed the magic so that only Yohan’s faint mana could undo it.
[DID THE TOWER MASTER KNOW YOU WERE BEING BULLIED?]
“No, I don’t think so. She probably just wanted to protect something this expensive.”
If she had known, she never would have asked him to deliver the chocolate in the first place. She would have prepared something else entirely. She must have assumed that simply sending it would invite others to covet it.
And indeed, chocolate was a delicacy that only the tiniest fraction of nobles could afford. It sat at the very center of current trends among the upper class.
Moreover, the act of a woman giving chocolate to a man was⋯⋯.
Ha. Better not to think about it.
⋯⋯Anyway.
“She’s never done anything like this before.”
When he searched his memories, the Aria from that time had never forbidden him from seeing her off, nor had she ever sent him a gift. Except for the dagger, of course.
‘Even then, I received the dagger when no one else was watching⋯⋯.’
So why now?
“⋯⋯Tsk.”
Yohan clicked his tongue in clear displeasure.
[DIDN’T THE TOWER MASTER TELL YOU YESTERDAY THAT YOU LOOKED TIRED? THIS MAY BE PART OF THAT.]
Yohan nodded.
“I thought I was acting the same as usual, but something must have seemed different.”
If he forced himself to make sense of the situation, Zeno’s words were probably correct.
If he forced himself.
⋯⋯But of all things.
‘Why did it have to be chocolate?’
When he considered the rumors already swirling about him and Professor Aria, the whole thing was enough to drive a man insane.
“⋯⋯Haa.”
The sighs just kept coming. He had already lost count of how many times he had exhaled today.
Yohan set the box on his desk and flopped backward onto the bed. Lying there, he glared resentfully at the innocent ceiling.
“Nothing bad will come of this, right?”
[AS LONG AS THE POISONING INCIDENT REMAINS UNCHANGED, DOES ANYTHING ELSE MATTER?]
“Right. That’s the only thing that needs to stay the same. Everything else is irrelevant.”
Nothing else mattered.
As long as he could leave the academy, that was enough.
[YOHAN, WOULD YOU NOT LIKE TO TRY ONE? IT IS SOMETHING RARE. THIS MAY BE YOUR LAST CHANCE.]
At Zeno’s suggestion, Yohan shot upright.
“Should I?”
The situation was already irreversible. Even if he died again, there was no guarantee he would return to this exact point.
‘Then I might as well eat it before I die. How often does one get to taste something this luxurious?’
It was an item he had rarely encountered even across countless timelines.
In that case, enjoying it while he could was simply good sense.
Yohan opened the box once more.
He picked up a single piece of chocolate and slipped it into his mouth.
He rolled it around on his tongue, and soon a deep, bitter flavor filled his entire mouth. He opened his lips to describe the taste to Zeno.
“⋯⋯It’s bitter.”
[SO IT IS.]
Indeed. Terribly bitter.
The daily routine at the academy began in earnest.
Attend lectures, return to the laboratory to conduct research, then head back to the dormitory to sleep.
To anyone watching, it would have seemed utterly monotonous. Yet Yohan never lost his faint smile as he quietly repeated the cycle, savoring every moment.
[QUITE THE BUSY SCHEDULE.]
Zeno, who observed Yohan from the closest vantage, summed up his life in a single dry remark.
‘This is actually the relaxed version. It was far worse when Professor Aria was here.’
Yohan answered while tidying the inside of the laboratory.
This really was leisurely by comparison. At the very least, he no longer had to return to the dormitory late at night or arrive at the lab before dawn.
He could sleep enough. He could eat enough.
To him, it was a perfectly ordinary, easy life.
[EVEN WITH THE HARASSMENT IN BETWEEN?]
‘⋯⋯Since I’m already planning to leave, it doesn’t really affect me.’
Yohan answered calmly.
Over the past few days, the concentrated harassment aimed at him had begun in earnest.
If he listed them lightly: damaging his research notes, lying that his lecture hall had been changed, making fake appointments, suddenly dousing him with water, and so on.
Because of that, Yohan had to restart his research from scratch, was late to class and humiliated, wasted time waiting for people who never showed, and had to change his soaked clothes multiple times.
He had endured countless hardships.
Yet he always kept a smile on his face.
‘Compared to facing the Giants, this is nothing.’
Besides.
‘Nothing has changed, so it’s fine.’
After the chocolate incident, the events he remembered continued to repeat exactly as before. The relief he felt was almost embarrassing after how much he had worried that it might create new variables.
That was why he could maintain his smiling expression. In fact, the very people harassing him began to look visibly unsettled by his unchanging smile.
[I HAVE ALWAYS THOUGHT THIS, BUT YOU ARE QUITE THE TENACIOUS ONE.]
‘If I weren’t, I could never keep doing this.’
Living through the same stretch of time over and over was no easy feat.
With a soft click, Yohan finished organizing the laboratory and stepped outside. After confirming the door was securely locked, he began walking toward the dormitory.
‘Zeno.’
[WHAT IS IT?]
‘It should happen soon. Probably tomorrow.’
[I SEE. YOUR INTENTION TO CONSUME THE POISON HAS NOT CHANGED?]
“Yes. It remains the same.”
Yohan nodded. There was no room for reconsideration.
[UNDERSTOOD. BUT IS THERE ANYTHING IN PARTICULAR FOR ME TO DO?]
“Not exactly, but there is one thing.”
Yohan shook his head. There was indeed one task for Zeno.
‘Since I won’t be conscious during the process, I won’t know what happens. I’d like you to keep watch for me.’
Nothing unusual should occur, but it was better to confirm before he left. Zeno was the perfect one for the job.
[I SEE. I SHALL DO SO.]
“Thank you.”
And so the next day dawned.
‘Just as I thought. He came today.’
[IS IT HIM?]
“Yes, that’s him.”
After finishing his lecture, Yohan was about to head toward the laboratory when a person stepped into his path.
“Yohan, do you have a moment right now?”
It was one of the three seniors who had fed him poison in the past.
“Yes, senior. What can I do for you?”
Yohan greeted him with a bright smile. He couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from rising.
“I think I’ve misunderstood you all this time. I blindly believed those false rumors. I’m truly sorry.”
“Not at all, senior. They were rumors that could easily be misunderstood.”
Yohan waved his hands modestly.
“Thank you for understanding. If you have time, would you like to have tea with me today? I’d like to treat you as an apology.”
Yohan nodded.
“I’d be happy to. Where should we go?”
“How about the laboratory? I was thinking of inviting a few other friends too. I’ll call them over.”
“Yes, that sounds good.”
Finally.
The long, long wait was finally over.
Once he ate the poisoned tea, everything would be settled.
Yohan wore a radiant smile. He walked ahead of the senior who had invited him, humming a cheerful tune under his breath.
“Hmm~ mm-hmm~”
Joy he could not contain. The corners of his mouth kept climbing, and he made no effort to hide his delight.
He strode energetically toward the laboratory, and the senior followed behind him.
‘⋯⋯What is this? Has this commoner finally lost his mind?’
A thought Yohan would never have guessed.