Please Get Me Out of Here
Crunch, crunch.
Mmm... the apple that had just entered my mouth was incredibly sweet. Still, I didn't indulge in the luxury of savoring the flavor — I just chewed and swallowed with determined diligence.
Gulp. The moment I finally forced the apple down my throat and emptied my mouth—
Slip.
Crunch, crunch.
Another neatly sliced piece of apple was pushed right back between my lips. Without a word of protest, I accepted it and once again chewed and swallowed with everything I had.
And again. And again. And again...
Inside the infirmary room, the only sound echoing through the air was the relentless crunching of me eating apples.
......Somebody please get me out of here.
The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was an unfamiliar ceiling. I wondered for a moment why it wasn't my own room — then the events from right before I'd blacked out came flooding back.
I tried to bolt upright to get a handle on the situation, only to feel something pressing down on my stomach. Caught in an awkward half-up, half-down posture, all I could manage was to lift my head a little.
I glanced down to find the source of the weight. Curled up in a tight little ball atop the blanket covering my stomach was a black cat — Yaongi. She usually only ever slept in the sunniest, most nap-friendly spots. What on earth was she doing here?
Or maybe my stomach made a decent waterbed? The way it rose and fell with every breath might have felt as soothing as a rocking chair.
Careful not to wake her, I slowly eased my upper body upright.
"Mrow~"
Of course, sneaking out from under her was a lost cause. Yaongi woke at the slightest shift, hopped down from my stomach, and darted out through the slightly open door.
Anyway — Yaongi was here, and I was lying in what looked very much like a hospital bed. This had to be the academy infirmary. I'd never had reason to come here before, so I hadn't known what it looked like. Turns out even I could end up admitted.
Thump-thump-thump.
While I was still sitting there blankly, lost in pointless thoughts, footsteps approached from outside. The door slid open with a rattle, and Presia stepped into the room.
"Ah, Boss."
Judging by the footsteps, she'd clearly been running right up until she reached the door — yet the moment she entered, she strolled over as if nothing were amiss and settled gently into the chair beside the bed.
Still, the fact that she'd been sprinting down the hallway meant she'd somehow known I was awake. How? Had she spotted Yaongi bolting out of the room?
"Lie back down."
Presia pushed at me, trying to force me flat again. The hand of a small girl who'd never trained a day in her life was easy enough to resist — but I didn't bother fighting it. I simply followed her touch and settled comfortably back onto the bed.
"Does anything hurt?"
I had a dozen questions of my own, but Presia beat me to the punch. Answering a question with a question would have been rude, so I took stock of my condition first. I'd need to actually move around to be sure, but for the moment I felt neither discomfort nor pain.
"Probably not?"
"That's a relief."
After that brief exchange, the room fell quiet again. The silence settling over us was a little uncomfortable, so I was just about to ask my own questions when Presia once more opened her mouth before I could.
"Um... so..."
But for someone who'd started speaking, she was uncharacteristically hesitant — nothing like the Presia I knew. She was always so confident. Even in the middle of the day when her condition was at its worst, even when she was drowning in boredom, that self-assurance of hers was never something she could hide.
Which made the way she looked right now surprisingly fresh to me.
"I... I'm sorry..."
After a long, wandering pause, the words she finally managed were an apology.
?
"Huh? Why are you apologizing, Boss?"
"Because of me... you got hurt trying to protect me..."
The girl in front of me genuinely seemed to believe that my getting hurt — though given how I felt right now, whether I'd even been hurt was debatable — was entirely her fault.
"No. Strictly speaking, I'm someone you pay to do a job. You're supposed to work me hard at times like this. Sure, things got a little more unexpected than planned, but that wasn't your fault — that was on the people higher up."
Even so, my reassurance did nothing to ease the look on Presia's face. If anything, her shoulders slumped further, and she buried her head even deeper.
"Right... because it's a relationship built on money..."
That was when I finally understood why she looked so dejected. I could relate to how she felt. I had plenty of friends now, but before coming to the academy, there hadn't been a single person around me I could call one.
I didn't know what kind of life she'd lived, but it couldn't have been entirely smooth. So I reached out and laid my hand over her small one where it rested on the edge of the bed.
"Well. It's true we're connected by a contract — a professional relationship. But that doesn't mean we can't get along on a personal level too, does it?"
"Really...?"
Only then did she finally lift her head to look at me. Her eyes were exactly those of a girl her age.
"Of course. Or what — did you only ever think of me as a subordinate, Boss? Don't tell me I was the only one who thought we'd gotten close..."
Shake-shake-shake-shake.
I'd only meant it as a light joke, but Presia's head started whipping back and forth at a frantic pace. The way her long hair flapped around was cute, sure — but if she kept that up she was definitely going to get dizzy, so I stopped her.
"Then... will you keep working with me from now on...?"
Presia's voice was barely more than a whisper, but it was laced with hope as she looked up at me. My answer had already been decided.
"Of course. And according to the terms of the contract, neither side can just cancel it without mutual agreement, remember? I have absolutely no intention of canceling."
That seemed to jog her memory of the clauses she'd written into the contract herself. Presia clasped both her hands over mine where it rested on the back of hers and nodded.
"Yeah. From now on — for the rest of my life — I won't cancel it."
The rest of her life, huh... I hadn't been thinking quite that long-term... But watching how happy she looked, I couldn't bring myself to correct her.
And the more I thought about it, was a side job that paid five gold coins a month for life really such a bad deal? It was only part-time work I did whenever it was needed, and there was even extra hazard pay. At this rate, I might be the one clinging to the contract forever.
"Oh — by the way, what happened to that demon?"
Presia seemed to have calmed down enough, so I brought up the thing I'd been curious about. I remembered managing to take off one of the demon's arms right before I blacked out, but I had no idea what had happened after that.
"Mm. I killed it."
Hearing a cute little girl announce so cheerfully and casually that she'd killed someone was... a strange feeling.
"By yourself, Boss?"
"Yep."
Apparently my boss was considerably stronger than I'd given her credit for.
"And about you getting hurt during the job... I'll make sure you get separate compensation for that."
"Huh? Why would you pay for that, Boss?"
"? You got hurt doing my work. Of course I should take care of you."
"No. I mean, sure, I like money as much as the next person, but it wasn't your fault. If anyone's to blame, it's the academy and Felches. Couldn't we just claim compensation from them later?"
Whether those lofty higher-ups would actually pay up was questionable, but I had no intention of taking money from my boss either way. I was already getting hazard pay, and protecting her was something I'd chosen to do myself.
"Is that so...? Okay. Got it."
Presia tilted her head for a moment, then stood up from her chair.
"Then you just rest up, Elicia. I'll go squeeze plenty of money out of them."
"...Excuse me?"
Presia tossed out that outrageous declaration as lightly as if she were announcing a stroll, then walked right out of the infirmary.
Uh... she'll be fine, right...? Then again, unlike me — a student — Presia was a professor. It should be okay... probably?
Yeah. I'd just trust Presia and do as she said — rest up properly. Sure, classes were in full swing at the academy right now, but if I wasn't going to play hooky at a time like this, when would I ever?
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.
Just as I was settling back down for another nap, the sound of running footsteps came from outside again — and then the infirmary door didn't so much slide open as slam open with a bang.
Caught off guard, I looked toward the door in that same awkward half-sitting, half-lying posture. The first person to catch my eye was Celian. Right behind her came Anne and Yuri.
"Uh... hey?"
Still in that awkward position, I lifted a hand in a small wave. Celian approached with a face that looked halfway to tears.
"You really are...!"
"Um, Celi—?"
I tried to say something, but her actions were faster.
Celian strode right up and threw her arms around me.
It caught me off guard, but the realization that Celian and I had somehow become close enough for her to worry about me like this filled me with a quiet happiness. Come to think of it, the fact that I — the person who'd once tried to assassinate her — was now receiving her genuine concern was pretty hilarious. You really never could tell how life would turn out.
I lowered the hand that had been hanging awkwardly in the air and rested it against Celian's back as she clung to me, gently soothing her.
"We were worried too, but Celi was especially beside herself — so you're obligated to indulge at least this much clinginess."
"Now that we've seen you're okay... we'll come back later, El."
As if that had been the plan all along, Anne and Yuri gave a light wave and slipped back out of the room. Just as Anne had said, I kept patting Celian's back and comforting her, and before long her trembling began to subside.
But the moment her faintly shuddering, tearful body settled down, it started trembling again — differently this time. Not like someone crying. More like someone barely holding back their anger.
?
And then Celian jerked her head up. Naturally, our eyes met.
The look in Celian's eyes as they locked onto mine was not the look of someone worried about me... wait...?
Not...?
Huh...?