“Haaam.”
Lunch was over, and it was time for the afternoon lecture.
I remembered thinking I could at least find a friend to have lunch with when I enrolled in the academy, but as time passed, I ended up being alone.
I thought there wouldn’t be anyone who’d want to befriend a weird guy entering as a fourth-year student, but I never expected there’d be zero.
In the end, I was spending a rather mundane yet spicy school life due to May and Eve.
Well, not that I felt lonely or that enduring this time was difficult.
Back when it was the end of salvation, I stayed alone in a world where everything had stopped, so what was the problem?
Comparing it to back then, this wouldn’t even scratch the surface of loneliness or solitude.
If I had to pick one different point, it would be that ‘I could at least see Eris back then.’
The fact that I could take in Eris, who stood there while time had stopped, is about it. Eris had an endlessly captivating charm, no matter how many times I looked at her during that time.
Thinking back, her beauty helped me endure much easier.
Thud.
I accidentally dropped my pen. It rolled and landed at the feet of the female student sitting next to me.
“Wait a second…”
As I leaned down to reach for my pen…
“Eek!”
She immediately jerked her foot away in a fuss.
“……”
What’s going on?
I was taken aback by her unexpected reaction and wondered what kind of situation this was, but the girl just scooted a little further back.
Glancing at the girl, I stealthily snatched the pen back, and only then did she let out a sigh of relief while lifting her book to subtly avoid my gaze.
“What on earth was that reaction?”
Was that a look of fear or just disgust?
Since we had never talked directly, I wanted to ask why she reacted that way, but she outright refused to converse.
Thud.
This time the pen rolled back to me. It seemed like the girl behind had dropped it, so I picked it up and handed it to her.
“Take it. I don’t need it.”
“……”
Take it?
But it looked like a pretty expensive pen.
At that moment, another student beside the girl whispered something in her ear. I wasn’t cool like Kurika, so of course, I couldn’t hear it, but the pen owner gasped and snatched it back.
“Give it to me! I don’t know what you might do with it!”
“What did you say?”
What is she talking about right now?
As I glared at her, she panicked and again hid behind her book to avoid making eye contact with me.
I glanced around.
I now noticed most of the students who were stealthily glancing at me shared similar feelings.
‘It’s not that my senses have dulled.’
Rather, having crossed too many diagonal pathways, I had reached a point where I wouldn’t react sensitively unless my life was in danger.
I guess I had built up a callus for sensitivity.
‘Did I do something wrong?’
I didn’t think I had done anything to be hated, but still, I wondered why everyone was acting this way.
‘Well, does it really matter?’
Why bother worrying about them?
It was probably just some rumor spreading among themselves. Since I had experienced this many times in the past, I ignored it and refocused on the lecture.
Soon after, I began to doze off.
“Wake up.”
Poke.
“Umm?”
“Wake up.”
Poke poke.
I slowly opened my eyes to a finger poking my cheek.
The first thing to come into my view was a familiar girl with white hair.
Senn, crouching down and looking at me, smiled slightly as I woke up.
“It’s been a while, big brother.”
“Sen?”
I was taken aback, but memories started to come back sequentially like buildings stacking.
“Oh, it’s the dream that Rin and Adriana used to manifest, right?”
“Yeah, actually, I thought we wouldn’t be able to meet tonight, so I asked Rin to do it around this time.”
“……During lecture time?”
“Yep, you usually sleep during lectures anyway.”
That wasn’t wrong, so I had no way to refute it. In fact, the reason I was dreaming now was that I had fallen asleep during lecture time.
“So, where are we?”
“The lake. Isn’t it pretty?”
A vast lake that could easily be called a sea. In the center, I spotted something that looked like a whale, and I wondered why it was there, but since it was a dream, I decided it could accommodate whatever I wanted to see.
“But what do you mean you can’t meet tonight?”
“Hmm, the villagers said a huge bear suddenly appeared. We decided to go hunting together tonight. It might take about two days.”
“You’re having a tough time.”
“No, I’m actually happy because I can pull the trigger on the dagger and Balester after a long time.”
Going to hunt wasn’t difficult per se, but the issue lay in actually spotting the bear.
If it was Sen, who was once an assassin, she wouldn’t take long to find the trace.
“Actually, if Rin or Adriana helped with magic, we could find it quickly, but then the villagers would become overly dependent, so they intentionally hide it.”
“Yeah, it’s not necessary to help all the time.”
I patted her head, and Sen nodded in agreement. This was something I had thought many times since having a younger sister; having a younger sister was great.
“How’s everything lately? Is the house feeling a bit empty?”
Since I had a break to gather together when going to the academy, now it was just Sen, Rin, Adriana, and the Goddess of Time at home.
“No, not at all. In fact, it’s nice. I don’t hear that annoying crying sound every night.”
“……”
Sen shot me a pointed look.
I found myself at a loss for words, so I coughed awkwardly and averted my gaze.
Being found out about my love life by my younger sister was unexpectedly embarrassing.
“I, um, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. The fact that you’re younger than me is nonsense anyway, so what’s wrong with doing that at home?”
By the way, Sen is 20 years old now.
Yeah, she’s older than me.
After I died and spent time in the Spirit Realm, Sen aged on the continent. And for clarity, I decided not to take mental age into account.
If I did, I’d have almost become elven in age.
Sen picked up a pebble lying on the ground and tossed it into the lake.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
The stone skipped neatly across the surface of the water. I thought I’d give it a shot too and picked up a stone, but suddenly Sen made a bombshell statement.
“Time has run away.”
“What?”
I immediately dropped the stone I was holding, staring blankly at Sen, who continued to stare blankly at the lake.
“She suddenly ran away. When I opened my eyes, she was already gone.”
“You have Rin and Adriana too, right? You’re saying she ran away without any of the three knowing?”
“Yep, we tried looking for her right away, but she was nowhere to be found.”
Sen said this with an expressionless face. It felt a little like a lie, but there was no reason to lie about something like this.
“Did she really run away? You didn’t, like, kill her, right?”
“I wouldn’t do that now. She’s like, um, not family but more like a pet, right?”
“Yeah, just think of it that way.”
There’s no way the Goddess of Time, who couldn’t return to the Divine Realm, would have anywhere to go.
“We’ll look for her again, but I thought it was better to let you know, big brother.”
“Yeah, good job. Even if she goes somewhere, it’s just nearby, so she won’t go far.”
Suddenly, I worried whether something might happen to her from the bear Sen was going to hunt that evening.
‘Nah, she’s a goddess after all.’
Getting mauled to death by a bear seems unlikely.
If that were the case, I would have taken care of it.
Yawn.
Suddenly, a wave of sleepiness washed over me, and my head nodded forward. It seemed like it was almost time to wake up.
“I think I should get going.”
I offered my goodbye first, and Sen waved her hand in reply.
“Yeah, see you later, Daniel.”
See you later?
Daniel?
Those cryptic words lingered in my ears and then faded away as I gathered my thoughts.
Back to the classroom.
It was noisy and bustling as if it were break time.
Then, in front of me, three male students stood yawning and rubbing their eyes. The one who looked most confident looked down at me and said,
“Hey, come here for a second.”
“Uh?”
“Come on, I want to ask you something.”
What’s going on all of a sudden?
I thought about telling them to just say it here, but the desperate look in their eyes moved me to get up and follow along.
They led me to a corner of the corridor.
Students were milling about, but since we can’t stray too far during break time, it looked like they intended to talk around here.
Still somewhat sleepy, I leaned against the wall. The guy from earlier cleared his throat.
“First off, I’m Levin. I’m in the same fourth-year Class E as you. This is our first time talking, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“The chubby guy is Cobalt, and the thin guy with glasses is Bilben.”
Both raised a hand slightly in greeting. Then, they cautiously leaned in to ask, making sure the other students couldn’t hear.
“Hey, who are you seeing, with that girl?”
“……Huh?”
For a moment, it felt like someone swung a hammer at the back of my head. Then something clicked.
‘Oh! It’s May!’
When May and I were in my room, she couldn’t hold back and ended up making noise. I guess that must have been heard by the students in the next room!
‘Ah, this is really bad.’
If May finds out, I can already tell she’ll definitely hit me.
“You’ve only just transferred, and you’ve already been with two girls! Who are they?”
“Two girls?”
Wait, hold on, two girls?
As I feigned ignorance, Bilben got all excited and shouted.
“I heard there were two girls! They said the voices were different!”
‘Did Eve’s magic wear off?’
At that time, I was too excited to notice, but it seemed like Eve inadvertently released her magic during her pleas.
‘Oh great, that’s where the rumors came from.’
So that’s why the girls were avoiding me like the plague. At night, the sounds of female moans echoed through the dormitory of a new male student.
And from a different voice, no less?
I understood why they were keeping their distance.
I couldn’t help but turn away and bang my head against the window. I wanted to scold those little brats for being so nosy and trying to poke their noses into something weird.
‘But wait, I was the one doing it in the dorm.’
Ah, this is a real disaster.
Even if Eve might make something of it, if the rumors got to May, that would definitely be trouble.
“Hey! Who is it?!”
“Come on, tell us your secret!”
“Please, we beg you!”
Ignoring the pleas of the trio behind me, I kept knocking my forehead on the window.
“Eh?”
Outside, I spotted a small silver-headed kid thrashing around on the ground, flailing their arms and legs in a commotion.
They were being surrounded by the guards yet still resisting fiercely.
As I opened the window, I could hear the commotion clearly.
“No! I’m not a kid! I’m really a God!”
“Okay, we heard you, but stop crying. Let’s find your mommy. The uncles will help you.”
“This is a place for big brothers and sisters to study! If you shout like that, a scary sister will come and say, ‘You brat!’”
“Don’t treat me like a kid! I’m really getting annoyed!”
As I watched the chaotic scene unfold, I thought more about why that runaway was here than the fact that he had escaped.
‘Ah, I just want to pretend I didn’t see anything.’
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