Pina Grancia felt an uncomfortable sensation while looking at her spirit.
“Stop it, Hayan… please.”
A man and a white wolf were completely sprawled out on the floor.
Hayan, lifting Licht’s helm, focused on licking the burn marks.
Huff, huff.
Hayan let out rough breaths continuously.
She was already pinning Licht down, repeatedly sniffing him from above.
‘…He’s mine.’
Pina bit her lip while lying beside him.
With the short distance of their handcuffs, the two couldn’t help but be close together.
Just being next to Licht made Pina feel fine, as time flew by quickly.
But her heart began to ache due to an unexpected intruder.
Isn’t Hayan a girl too? Maybe the rumor that animals like handsome men rings true.
Her spirit obviously favored Licht, a wolf that would normally ignore others.
‘Hayan… please… stop…’
Pina felt as if her territory was being invaded.
Licht’s face was already shiny from saliva, as another woman was claiming the spot she applied ointment to every day.
“It’s ticklish. You can stop now, Hayan.”
Thinking about it, spirits were strange.
Just moments ago, Hayan seemed to be playing around with Licht’s legs and hands, acting all cutesy.
But now, she was staring longingly at his face, leaping at him like when she was first summoned.
If it was out of affection, it would make sense.
‘This feels weird…’
It felt as if she was licking Licht with her own tongue, a strange déjà vu.
A spirit reacting to her master’s emotions. Perhaps she was worried about Licht’s burn marks.
Puppies often lick wounds to heal them, after all.
“Stop licking… Hayan… are you an anteater?”
Ahhh!
Even when she commanded, Hayan didn’t listen.
Could this be how Licht felt watching her with Hayan?
Her face grew hotter and she wanted nothing more than to disappear.
Just as Hayan resembled Licht, she also mirrored Pina herself.
“Your eyes are pretty, Hayan.”
His compliment for her spirit made the weight in her chest go thud.
An overwhelming pressure made her feel as if she couldn’t get up from this floor.
Golden eyes shining, snowy fur as white as winter snow, and a fluffy tail.
“Looks like you just woke up.”
“….”
She suddenly imagined herself atop Licht in Hayan’s place.
At that moment, Hayan must have reacted to Pina’s feelings and climbed off the man.
“Pina..?”
Thanks to that, Licht, who had managed to get up, was now getting sticky words thrown at him by another woman.
“…Was it good?”
Words unbefitting of her intentions shot out like thorns. Why did she keep acting this way?
All this was because of Licht. It wasn’t her fault.
“Yes, I just love puppies.”
Pina bit her lower lip.
When he gently stroked her head, Hayan vigorously wagged her tail and panted with her ears down.
“That’s not what I meant, Licht.”
Why was he so dense? Pina fiddled with the choker around her neck as if to respond.
“…Playboy.”
She hated it. He fastened the choker on her and had invited her as a partner at the social club. Didn’t he owe her something for that?
She worried about Licht’s safety in the Academy.
Pina’s gaze turned cold.
Who would have thought the daughter of Rock Grancia would feel something similar to when he was around?
“Then, should I treat you the same way?”
Thud, a large, rough hand landed on her head.
It felt bumpy and hard. He must have wielded a sword for a long time.
Strongest but the gentlest touch.
Hmph…
She indeed wanted to be petted, but his touch always felt overly stimulating.
He smelled good. Perhaps it felt similar as she had meticulously marked her territory just a while ago.
But behind it was the scent of an alluring man.
It clouded her senses. Her ears drooped and her tail twitched, and Pina swallowed.
“Pina, is it okay to be jealous of a spirit?”
“I… did it wrong. So the ears….”
Even with her eyes tightly shut, her voice rang sharply in her ears.
Why was this happening? Was it some kind of contagion? Or was it due to being so close thanks to the cuffs?
She felt like if this continued, she might unknowingly cross a line.
Even if she tried to hide her expression with her arm, her burning cheeks felt relentless.
“…If you’re satisfied now, let’s seriously find a way to exit the room.”
Pet me a bit more.
Instead of admitting her honest desire, she sighed as soon as Licht’s hand dropped away.
*
Pina’s reaction was strange.
“2:11 PM… should I just adjust the clock like this?”
Even while fixing the clock hands, she showed no response, acting like a broken winding doll.
“….”
“Pina?”
She folded her wolf ears like paper corners and hung her head low.
Hic.
She clung to my arm tightly, showing no intention to let go.
She shouldn’t have been surprised by the head pat.
It wasn’t like it was a new thing after all.
Did I pet her ears too much…?
They were soft and squishy, almost irresistible. It was beyond her control.
Maybe they looked nice tidily arranged, and that was her unique charm, but somehow they felt different from other Inrang Tribe members.
“Licht… I, this clock… it’s the overlapping time.”
With a cute hiccup, Pina finally opened her mouth.
2:11 PM. It was the moment the hands overlapped.
Now that she mentioned it, why hadn’t she noted it as 14:11?
The contradiction of saying it was a night with a blue moon.
Could it have been strange at 02:11?
Just in case, she aimed for other times when the hour and second hands overlapped.
She twisted the clock hand, moving it towards nighttime.
7:37 PM, 9:49 PM, and finally…
“…It opens when set to midnight.”
00:00.
With a click, the bottom of the wall clock opened.
[Thanks for catching my hint, could have been a big problem if Kate noticed it, boy.]
So that was it. That familiar tone had been heard before.
[If she spots this, she’ll figure it out in no time.]
It was the voice of the Celestial Demon and Dennis.
Could they have planned this escape room game together?
“Licht.. this is a piece of cloth?”
The small piece of fabric emerged from the clock. While I was examining the note, Pina snatched it first.
“Let’s leave it to Hayan.”
Wolves generally have a keener sense of smell than humans.
Pina had a good nose, but there was a reason for using the spirit.
She didn’t want to hand over some mysterious clothing item to her either.
Grrr…
Hayan sniffed at the piece of cloth several times, then growled towards the curtains nearby.
“This piece likely comes from those curtains.”
The color matched, the pattern was almost identical, and most importantly, there were traces of being cut with scissors.
Just as I was reaching out to the curtain right next to me…
“Eek, w-wait… slowly…”
Clank, a metallic sound echoed in the room.
I had completely forgotten. I was still cuffed to Pina.
The curtain I wanted to move was just behind where Pina stood.
Consequently, my hand ended up right next to her head.
“….”
In the suffocating proximity, Pina bit her lower lip in tension.
I wasn’t even trying to do anything, just trying to move the curtain.
The overwhelming presence I felt below, the magnetic pull of our gazes left me speechless.
…Huff.
With each of Pina’s hiccups, her body trembled greatly, and our faces mirrored each other, flushed to perfection.
“..Licht.”
Pina bit her lower lip. Was it because she disliked our closeness?
Or was it that she was dissatisfied with the situation?
Her breath trembled like a delicate thread, making my heart race.
I leaned closer to her. Pina’s golden eyes widened like balloons.
After all, there was no one watching.
If I were to steal her lips that were subtly puckering like that…
What expression would the Pina I knew make?
Just as our breaths were about to intertwine…
[Hey there, students!]
[Excessive displays of affection result in elimination! Focus on escaping the room!]
Another intruder had barged in.
Somewhere, a mischievous male voice echoed, almost as if watching us.
I didn’t want it to end like this.
I had been wanting to comfort Pina, who had been increasingly jealous lately.
“Pina, believe me with this.”
Tilting my head upward, I gently bit one of her wolf ears with my lips.
A kiss might be too much, but this much should be okay.
Only the soft sensation remained on my lips.
Ticklish and strangely exhilarating, my lips curled up involuntarily.
“···Huh!”
As soon as that short but timeless moment ended, Pina, weak from her legs, covered her face with both hands and sank down.
Along with a scream that was unlike her usual self.
*
Time passed, and Pina and I had escaped the room.
“Licht, what the heck did you do in that room to get eliminated?”
Indeed. Why was I eliminated?
To be precise, I got kicked out for breaking the rules. Something about being unairable now.
“Laplace was watching, so I would’ve been fine as long as I didn’t do anything weird…”
A blue-haired man sighed at us while watching.
As Dennis freed Pina and me from the cuffs with the Master Key, he added to the conversation.
Hic, sniff.
Pina had been suffering from hiccups for a while and was drinking water to soothe herself.
“Drink slowly…”
This was how it always went. When she approached, she never seemed surprised or embarrassed.
“Looks like Licht did not intentionally release the cuffs either, what a fine time.”
“Y-yeah?”
Dennis gazed at us both with a broad grin.
What did he mean by not intentionally?
“Wait, did you two not solve the clock puzzle by any chance?”
“We did though…?”
I squinted, feeling something off.
The only thing retrieved from the clock was the curtain piece.
“…Ah, sorry. I must’ve forgotten to put the key into your room.”
That couldn’t be true. It might be for someone else, but not for someone like Dennis, the original protagonist.
“Was there any chance, Mardol, you happened to see the key?”
She was sipping water while wearing a masterpiece outfit.
“N-no, I didn’t see any star-shaped keys…”
Pina, don’t drink water while wearing a glass helm! You’re spilling all over!
Looks like she was the culprit. Perhaps there was a reason she lied.
“…Understood.”
I had committed the act of violating Pina’s ears, so I decided to keep quiet.
“Ah, right, Licht.”
While I was getting tangled up in my thoughts about how to appease her mood…
“I just heard, Rock is here at the Academy.”
One bad piece of news reached me.
The wolf king who bites the sun and swallows the moon.
“His Majesty the Emperor…?”
He was frantically searching for me.
