Chapter 99
Chapter 99
Episode 99
EP23 - Hand (9)
Maid Lucy sometimes thinks.
‘…….’
That she was the only normal one at the Hidden Dragon Hall.
Everyone else was somehow strange.
“Ughhh…!”
“Ughhh.”
The place was the living room. As Elise jumped and spasmed, Kendrake next to her also spasmed.
Normally, Elise would be the only one acting like this when something happened. Now, Kendrake had joined her.
“Haaat…!! Aaaang…!!”
As if finding it amusing, Quan next to them also started cackling, letting out strange groans.
Maid Lucy sighed.
Up to this point, she could accept it. They were dogs, idiots, lunatics. But for some reason, even Balmung, who was usually dignified, started howling.
“Awoooooo…!”
No, why is he acting like that…?
This is driving me crazy.
However, from Maid Lucy’s perspective, it was understandable.
With only 2 hours left until the Assassination Daily results were announced, everyone had gathered at the Hall to see the results together.
It was the moment the numbers that would decide their future would appear. It would be strange not to be excited.
“Ughh…!”
“Ughhhh.”
“Hwang! Aaaang!!”
“Awooooooooong…!!”
Despite the quartet of madness, just as Lucy felt her own sanity slipping away.
Perhaps due to increased abdominal pressure? Blood began to seep from between Balmung’s bandages.
At that, Gray, who had been quietly observing, suddenly yelped in alarm and smacked Balmung’s head.
“Tch!”
“You crazy bastard…! Stay still…!”
Balmung, having been hit on the head, snapped back to his senses.
“…What? Why was I making such a vulgar howl….”
But as Elise and Kendrake started spasming again, he let out a ‘Awooo…!’ howl next to them.
This had been going on for several minutes. Maid Lucy sighed.
There was a problem.
It didn’t matter if they acted like that, but this was the time when the Master of the house was present, and he did not like disturbances. She was merely a Hall maid, but she was chosen by the Master, and she had the responsibility to correct this chaos.
“Hey, hey! Everyone…!”
Lucy stepped forward, waving her hands.
“I know you’re all nervous about the sales figures announcement, but can we just, juuuust a little, lower the tension!?”
As she said this, she pointed to the second floor and made a gesture of beheading with her fingertips.
The students flinched and covered their mouths. Ah, right. They remembered.
“Ugh! Ugh! Ughhhh!!”
There were those who didn’t.
Thwack!
“Be quiet…!”
Kendrake, who had been hit on the head by Gray, also shut up, looking dejected.
Gray, the one who had hit him, looked incredibly calm. But Lucy was puzzled. Wasn’t he the one who couldn’t sleep due to tension last night and had called her to sleep in his bed together?
But. Perhaps it was already too late.
Footsteps began to sound from upstairs.
The students looked there nervously.
They expected ‘He’ to be enraged.
Indeed, it was as they expected.
Rebecca appeared.
“……”
Rebecca’s expression was stiff. Anyone could see the slight annoyance mixed in her furrowed brow.
As everyone silently watched their surroundings, the Princess, with a sigh that swept over them all, opened her mouth.
“…You all look like beggars.”
At that, Elise tilted her head.
It was true, they did look like beggars.
She only had one Hica coin in her wallet.
Then, a bombshell dropped from Rebecca’s lips.
“The Assassination Daily will be coming for additional filming soon, and no matter how much they film daily life, we can’t possibly greet them looking like this.”
Huh?
Additional filming?
Everyone’s eyes rolled.
“Go wash up and tidy yourselves immediately.”
Balmung spasmed at this.
“…Everyone, you mean?”
Rebecca replied without answering, frowning. As if asking why he was stating the obvious.
Then, glancing at the red-haired rooster, she asked again.
“How many days have you left him like this?”
“Two… days….”
“Go wash him immediately.”
“……”
At that, Balmung’s anger began to surge internally. It was because the king of beggars among them, seeing him, had started to look at him with a ‘Ugh…’ expression.
‘Ah, f***ing hell….’
Balmung began to hate the entire universe.
But it was his given duty.
As he stood up, Kendrake ran away.
“Stop right there, you bastard!”
“Ugh…!”
And Rebecca’s words were true. Not long after, as everyone reluctantly got up, an administrative assistant from the department arrived and delivered the same message as Rebecca.
“Filming is coming soon! They want to film Student Gray, who is checking the sales figures, and the Hidden Dragon Society! In 30 minutes…!”
Upon hearing this, the Hidden Dragon Hall descended into chaos once more. This was true even after they had washed up.
“This shouldn’t be happening….”
Meanwhile, Rebecca said something incomprehensible, then went out onto the terrace and began puffing on a cigarette.
And the person in question?
Lucy looked at Gray again.
“……”
While everyone else was in a mess, Gray didn’t need to wash. He was already clean today. However, as soon as he heard that filming was coming, he started fidgeting with his fingertips. Lucy, who was close to Gray, realized that this was Gray’s unique sign of anxiety.
“Do you need any help?”
“No?”
Gray shook his head calmly, but then suddenly got up, went to the armrest of a corner sofa, and sat down pressed against the wall, after which his fidgeting hands became more intense. This, in turn, made Lucy anxious. She felt there must be a way, but she had no idea what to do.
Lucy felt that Gray was that kind of person. He was inconsistent in life somehow, and his expressions and feelings often differed. Very occasionally, those thoughts could be extremely radical. At the same time, she knew it was due to Gray’s upbringing.
Once, a drunk Gray had said.
The Habanero family needed a ‘butler’ to embrace them according to their bloodline.
He didn’t like that fact.
That they shouldn’t try to use the Habaneros. That they shouldn’t harbor useless feelings. That there should be someone who could provide warmth simply by existing in the same space.
-
Isn’t that funny…? Our family has been searching for such a person for over a thousand years… In history, there has never been a human who genuinely tried to embrace us….
That’s why he didn’t need such a thing, and wouldn’t seek it in the future. Relying on others was for fools who couldn’t stand on their own.
But, well. Lucy thought differently. In the end, no one could stand alone, and Gray needed such a person.
Therefore, Gray had to find them. Before the shadows hiding something in his body grew any larger…
As these thoughts continued, Gray’s anxiety intensified a few minutes before the filming crew arrived. The increasingly severe fidgeting was proof of this.
“……”
At first, it was just holding and fiddling with his left index finger with his right hand, but later, he seemed to be trying to calm himself by tucking his hands under his armpits.
Then, his knees started to tremble, and he couldn’t stop fidgeting with his toes.
It was only natural. He couldn’t help but be nervous.
The atmosphere of the entire Hiaka Academy would be decided by Gray’s sales figures alone. The fate of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people depended solely on Gray’s shoulders, on the numbers that would appear before his eyes. Such a national mission rested on the shoulders of a mere first-year student at the Academy.
“……Um…. Um….”
Then, as a voice that sounded like it was struggling to breathe began to be heard, Lucy’s frustration grew.
‘Should I warm up some milk?’ ‘Bring the butterfly cushion?’ ‘MiniMini Moong?’ She offered anything that might provide a sense of stability, but Gray kept shaking his head. He said he didn’t need it.
What should I do?
As Lucy wavered in confusion.
Knock knock!
Someone knocked on the door.
Huh? Had the Assassination Daily arrived already?
When Lucy opened the door, she had to look up quite a bit.
“…Ah, Professor.”
Tall stature. Indifferent gaze. Pink eyes that always looked down at people.
But after returning from the Empire together, he was no longer as frightening as before.
It was Senior Professor Dante Hiacapo.
“May I come in?”
“Yes, yes. Of course. Everyone, Professor Dante is here…!”
At that, the Hidden Dragon Society members snapped their heads around.
It might have been Lucy’s imagination that Gray’s toes stopped moving at that moment.
As expected, the Hidden Dragon Hall was in an uproar. Everyone had washed up and was filled with an inexplicable busyness.
“Professor…!”
“Ugh.”
Elise came and held out her palm, so I awkwardly bumped hers. Kendrake also held out his palm… What is this guy? Anyway, I bumped it.
Amidst this, Balmung glared at me with a very serious expression.
When I held out my hand, he politely bumped it with both of his. Bowing halfway.
“I will prepare a seat.”
“…Huh?”
He suddenly offered me the center of the sofa. I didn’t understand why he brought a cushion and a blanket.
“……”
I moved over to sit beside him. Today’s protagonist was Gray. But the person in question was crammed into the corner of the wall.
“What are you doing there?”
“Eh…?”
“Come here.”
“No….”
“What if you don’t want to? Come here. I checked, the filming crew just entered Zone 0, and they’ll be here in 10 minutes. Do you plan to stay like that then?”
“……”
He cautiously came down. It was different from the first day he approached me boldly. Gray walked very carefully and took the center of the sofa. Then he snatched the blanket I had next to me and covered his head with it.
“Hey! That was for the Professor!”
“……”
From his hidden spot, a hand emerged and fumbled with the blanket, then turned into a middle finger.
【 Gray : Convex 】
"Ah, really." I can’t even take it back.”
Balmung grumbled, then suddenly said, ‘I’m sorry. Professor, would you like me to bring you a comforter?’ and rubbed his hands together.
……Why go that far.
In any case, the preparations to greet the filming crew were complete. In that brief moment, the Princess, who had drawn her eyeliner tail downwards, came down to the living room.
Soon, the Assassination Daily filming crew arrived. Accompanied by the Department Head Shaman’s assistant professor.
“Hello, students. Thank you for accepting our urgent schedule. We’ll film quickly and be on our way.”
“We’re just here to film natural scenes, so there are no guides. Please act as you normally would!”
Even though only two people arrived carrying two large camera-like ‘Filming Devices’ on their shoulders.
A sense of tension suddenly descended upon the Hall.
We sat with the students and turned on the Crystal Ball TV, fixing it to the Assassination Daily’s channel on the video platform.
< Time until sales figures results are revealed: 10 minutes >
Only 10 minutes remained.
But because it was such an important metric, attention was focused.
< Viewers watching together: 74,215 >
I speculated that 60% of them were Hiaka students.
30% would be Kreutz.
Although not as famous as Gray, Amulet had also gained considerable recognition.
Even if those viewers bought just one copy each, it would be close to the department’s target number of copies.
< Time until sales figures results are revealed: 8 minutes 13 seconds >
Let me explain briefly.
Among the wealthy imperial nobles, it is common to recommend assassination education as a cultural lesson for their children.
(It was originally magic, but after it became known that assassins had an advantage due to their compatibility, the number of applicants for assassination education increased.)
To commemorate their child’s minor achievement (like dipping into an S-class dungeon…), they would pay a large sum to the Assassination Daily and have them featured as models.
Most would become weekly models, but if they occasionally got a monthly feature, they would jump for joy among themselves.
< Time until sales figures results are revealed: 6 minutes 43 seconds >
As a custom, they would buy thousands of copies themselves to avoid standing out, but the reality is that they wouldn’t reach 10,000 copies.
Is 10,000 copies then a small number?
No.
A Countess who achieved 10,000 copies would gain prestige in high society, and if 20,000 copies were sold, half of the other Countesses would start copying her fashion from the next social gathering.
Conversely, a Countess who sold 5,000 copies would skip social events for a couple of months out of shame.
Everyone here knew these standards. But in the midst of this, what was our target number of copies?
80,000 copies.
< Time until sales figures results are revealed: 4 minutes 10 seconds >
Within those standards, 80,000 copies.
What I, the Hidden Dragon Society, the Assassination Department, and the kingdom’s citizens of Hiaka all wished for.
80,000 copies.
< Time until sales figures results are revealed: 3 minutes 00 seconds >
Finally, 3 minutes.
Gray was no longer covered by the blanket in front of the ‘Filming Device’. He had taken it off and draped it over his shoulder, fidgeting with his toes.
Beside him, conversation continued to prevent Gray from feeling the tension.
Elise and Quan spoke to Gray, and Gray replied with something.
However, this chatter felt a bit forced, and even those speaking knew it.
Recognizing that they were all tense made them even more tense.
< Time until sales figures results are revealed: 59 seconds >
Finally, with less than a minute left, the ‘Filming Device’ moved a little closer. Isn’t this totally nerve-wracking? Someone asked. This time, there was no answer. Everyone stared at the numbers, breathing heavily.
Amidst this, the ‘Filming Device’ was merciless. As Gray’s knees and toes continued to wiggle, the lens subtly lowered. Did he notice that? Or was it because he was wearing shorts? Gray lowered the blanket draped over his shoulder to cover his knees. Even then, he couldn’t control his trembling, and the blanket above shook slightly.
< Time until sales figures results are revealed: 20 seconds >
The sound of breathing gradually became noticeably loud, to the point of being irritating. Normally, the ‘Filming Device’ has a faint magical hum. A buzzing sound, like a ant’s puff of breath. While it should normally be inaudible, it was clearly audible now, and there was a particularly sharp breath. It came from Gray’s small nose.
His breathing was uneven, and his exhale caught somewhere around his throat, so anyone could tell. This cat’s tension had reached its peak. Should I say something like it’s okay? Should I have gotten something like a calming pill if I had known? But since when was I such a kind professor, I thought.
Then, Gray grabbed my thumb.
It happened under the blanket. I was surprised inwardly and looked at her. Although she had held my hand a few times before, this time was different. The strength in her grip.
I couldn’t understand what this hand-holding meant. Then, suddenly, Lan’s words came to mind.
Hands have many sensory nerves, so holding hands is an action where both parties sense too much of each other’s unfamiliarity at once.
Therefore, hands are extremities where sincerity is revealed, and holding hands fundamentally requires mutual trust.
Gray trusted me, and in the face of anxiety, he hoped to lean on that trust. The small finger fidgeting against my thumb demanded it.
……But.
As a professor, was this hand-holding appropriate? The thought suddenly occurred to me.
I wasn’t attributing any particular meaning to it. It was just that this contact was against the common sense I had lived by.
Wasn’t he a student who approached and touched me without hesitation? A professor should correct that.
So I did not react to Gray’s hand.
< Time until sales figures results are revealed: 15 seconds >
The hand that the cat had extended on its own, those fidgeting fingers, received no reaction from me and soon carefully withdrew. A retreating hand. A shrinking shoulder. Now, even his inhales began to catch in his throat.
< Time until sales figures results are revealed: 10 seconds >
At some point, for some reason, I was reaching out. Following her slender wrist, I found her small hand. After the shortest chase in the world, I grabbed her hand. As she tried to escape by opening her hand, I held on. I held on even as she struggled. It just felt like I had to.
Then, at some point, I thought I might have held too tightly and loosened my grip. But it didn’t come undone.
It was because the cat had interlocked our fingers.
⋮
< Time until sales figures results are revealed: 3 seconds >
< Time until sales figures results are revealed: 2 seconds >
< Time until sales figures results are revealed: 1 second >