A Date Gone Wrong
I followed Sena into the theater. But contrary to what I expected, there wasn't a single person inside. 'What the hell? Why is it so empty?' This was a theater in the capital, of all places. How could there be no one here? With that question in mind, I looked over at Sena. She, however, seemed completely unbothered by the lack of an audience. Humming a cheerful little tune, she plopped down in one of the empty seats.
'Maybe I'm just overthinking this.' With that thought, I sat down beside her. A moment later—
The curtains fluttered open.
The play started. Truth be told, even back in my modern life, I never really enjoyed watching plays. I didn't have friends to go with, and honestly, I preferred movies anyway. So I just watched without much thought. Until suddenly—
“Professor Elric!”
One of the actors called out my name. 'What the—?' Why was a complete stranger calling me? As I sat there stunned, another actor emerged from behind the curtain.
“Why do you call, Sena?”
A rather handsome actor addressed Sena by name. The moment I saw him, it all clicked. This entire play was something Sena had fabricated. There was no other explanation for why these actors would know our names. Not to mention—
'The empty theater makes perfect sense now.'
'Still, this is a huge improvement, right?'
While I was chatting with Jukchang-i and watching the play, the actress suddenly cried out.
“Professor! Could you please punish me?!”
I let out a dry, disbelieving laugh. 'No way…' It was so absurd I was at a loss for words. The scene unfolding before me was a reenactment of when I had “educated” Sena with my Jukchang to awaken her emotions and sense of pain. At least they’d toned it down—she was getting spanked on the palm instead of the butt. Clearly an attempt to keep things PG.
I glanced sideways. Sena wore an ecstatic smile, as if reliving the fondest memory of her life. Her cheeks were even flushed. 'How happy could those memories possibly be?'
'I’m starting to regret coming to this play…'
'Fair point.'
I turned my gaze back to the stage. Just as Jukchang-i said, the two actors were moving in for a kiss. 'But why did they completely change the ending?' I had never kissed her. This had to be Sena’s self-justifying fabrication at the end.
'I don’t know whether to be happy or horrified about that…' She had rented out an entire theater and turned our story into a play. On the surface, it was incredibly sweet. But the moment I remembered a yandere was behind it all—
'It stops being sweet immediately!'
As I rubbed the goosebumps from my arms, Sena’s sweet voice tickled my ear.
“Professor, it’s over.”
At the same time, her scent brushed against my nose. I gently pushed her head away and answered.
“Yeah. Let’s get out of here.”
“Uuu… Yes, I understand.”
She puffed out her cheeks at my iron wall of rejection and nodded. With that, we headed to our next destination.
At the same time.
Three women were secretly watching the pair. None other than—
“Have they come out?”
“Yes. They just left.”
“It doesn’t look like there was any significant skinship.”
Jane, Rose, and Ive. While the two of them had no idea they were being monitored, Sena and Elric left the theater and began shopping. The moment the three women saw that—
—All three of them gnashed their teeth at once.
Although they had formed an alliance, they all shared one common desire: to be Elric’s number one. To go on a date alone with him. Even if the first part was tolerable, Sena was currently living out the second. How could they not be jealous?
“I want to interfere somehow.”
At Jane’s murmur, the other two nodded in complete agreement. In their hearts, they wanted to ruin the date, but that wouldn’t accomplish anything. The reason they were monitoring her was twofold: to stop Sena from crossing the line, and more importantly, to confirm whether Elric had regressed like they had.
Of course, the probability was extremely high. But they lacked decisive proof. The only clue was his use of the green wooden staff. However—
'That alone isn’t conclusive evidence.'
In the previous timeline, he might have simply pulled it out late. They needed something more certain. As the three of them waited desperately for this hellish time to end—
“Looks like it’s finally getting serious.”
“Yes, it seems so.”
“Sena needs to do well from here on.”
Sena and Elric had entered a tavern. The real operation was about to begin.
Meanwhile, unaware they were being watched, Sena and Elric entered the tavern and quickly took a seat, scanning the menu.
“Professor, is there anything you want to eat?”
“Hmm. This looks about right. It should fill me up too.”
Elric pointed at an item on the menu. Sena followed his finger with her eyes. 'Chicken skewers, pancakes, and… monster shell?' The first two were normal enough, but she had never seen monster shell served as food before. She tilted her head in confusion.
“You look like you’re wondering why anyone would eat monster shell.”
“Ah, yes…”
Elric smirked as if he had read her mind. In truth, Sena had only ever purified and slain monsters. She had never eaten anything related to them. After all, as a Saintess candidate, she had to maintain her figure.
“Well, you’ll understand once you try it. By the way, alcohol is obviously out of the—”
“No. I’ll have some.”
She cut him off with a firm declaration. He widened his eyes.
“You’re really going to drink?”
“Yes. I will.”
“Didn’t the church forbid it?”
“Well, sometimes it’s fine to ignore doctrine.”
She smiled sweetly. Elric fell into thought for a moment, then nodded.
“Then just drink enough not to get drunk.”
“Yes. You don’t need to worry.”
With that, they called the owner and placed their order. Soon after—
“Here’s your order.”
The food arrived. The chicken skewers and pancakes were familiar, but—
“Whoa…”
The dish made from monster shell was completely new to her. It looked like crispy crackers. As she stared in amazement—
Glug glug glug.
Her glass had already been filled with alcohol. When she looked up, Elric was holding the bottle. She quickly snatched it from him.
“Professor, let me pour for you.”
She carefully filled his glass with both hands until it was full. Then—
“Then let’s drink, Professor.”
“Yeah. Let’s do that.”
They clinked their glasses and downed the clear liquor. At that moment, she had no idea just how weak she was to alcohol.
About thirty minutes later.
“Hic!”
Sena’s face was bright red as she hiccupped. I let out a helpless laugh. 'I never imagined Sena would be this much of a lightweight.'
There were roughly four empty bottles on the table. Looking at that alone, one wouldn’t think she was weak to alcohol. In my modern life, most people could handle at least two bottles without issue. 'She’d actually be considered a good drinker back then.'
But this wasn’t modern Earth. This was a world of magic. With her exceptional physical abilities, Sena shouldn’t be this weak to alcohol. Of course, that was assuming she wasn’t congenitally weak to it.
'If her body were average, she’d have passed out after one drink.'
To get this drunk after only two bottles with that kind of physique said everything. As I was thinking that—
She was right. My face felt a little hot. Even though my physical abilities had improved, it was still only by a tiny margin. In a way, I was just slightly above average now.
'No. The best part of drinking is getting drunk.'
I had no comeback for her brutal honesty and stayed silent. Then—
“Professor, do you hate me that much? Hic!”
Sena suddenly started crying like someone who had been dumped. Wait, what? Why was she crying all of a sudden? As I panicked at the unexpected turn, she hung her head and confessed.
“I like you so much, Professor…”
'Oh no…' How was I supposed to respond to a sudden confession? While I was still flustered, she started pouring herself another drink.
Glug glug glug.
Both glasses were filled to the brim with clear liquor. I had a bad feeling that if she drank any more, something terrible would happen. I immediately snatched her glass away.
“You’ve had enough. Drink this instead.”
I handed her water. She beamed at me.
“Ehehehehe. Professor, you’re worried about me, right? Thank youuu~”
She bowed her head in gratitude, clearly misunderstanding something. I figured there was no point in saying anything more and kept drinking. 'Ugh… I might’ve had too much.'
I had only drunk one more glass, but my head was already spinning. As I frowned and rubbed my temples—
“Ehehehehe. Professor, one more~”
Sena offered me the last glass. I downed it in one go along with some snacks. And then—
“…Huh?”
Suddenly, an unfamiliar ceiling filled my vision. 'What the fuck?' My brain momentarily shut down from the unexpected situation.
A sharp pain pierced my skull.
I endured the migraine by pressing on my temples and looked around. That’s when I saw it.
“Mmm… Professor… right there… ehehe~!”
“Uh… fuck?”
Sena was lying there completely naked, sleep-talking! The next moment, I looked down at myself.
'Why the hell am I naked too?!'
I was lying on the bed without a stitch of clothing. As I panicked internally—
Her voice dripped with exasperation. I asked the most important question.
'More importantly, just tell me what happened last night.'
With that, Jukchang-i slowly began recounting the events of the previous night.