Chapter 65 - The Kids Can Hear You

I carefully shut the front door and headed to Houndry's hideout.

It wasn't simply because Houndry was closer than my luxurious lodgings. For some reason, I wanted to keep my nerves on edge. I didn't want the anger boiling inside me to cool too quickly.

On the way, I activated the [Ring of Disguise], then entered the hideout.

On the hideout's first floor...

“Waaaah!”

Lucia's little sisters were running all over the place. I reflexively checked the clock at the sight.

“What time do they think it is...?”

“N-no! Please don't run!”

I spotted another figure chasing after Lucia's little sister. Ash-gray hair, eyes that mingled purple and green and brought lavender to mind. And, most tellingly, an altered maid uniform.

“G-got you!”

Veronica barely managed to scoop up one of Lucia's little sisters. Wiping away a cold sweat, she looked for the other one.

Then our eyes met.

“You... What are you doing here?”

“Wah!”

Startled, she dropped the little sister in her arms. I caught the girl and set her neatly back on her feet.

I was catching an awful lot of falling things today.

“I-I'm sorry! I'll get everything in order right away!”

She acted as though she'd never seen me before.

Oh, right. She didn't recognize me because of the ring. Veronica mistook my original appearance for Karma, not my transformed one.

I left the first floor, deactivated the ring's effect, and came back.

This time, she'd collected both of Lucia's little sisters in her arms.

“Ah! W-why are you here...?”

Instead of answering, I pointed alternately at Houndry's dog emblem and my own face, as if to ask what was so strange about my being here.

“Oh, r-right.”

“So, what are you doing here?”

“Oh! No wonder Lucia called me over like she knew everything!”

“Did you not hear me?”

“What do you think? I'm working. Can't you see?”

She held out the little sisters she'd struggled to keep in her arms, showing them off. The children loved it, thinking she was bouncing them for fun.

So Veronica was the maid she'd hired recently...

I should have guessed when she said she'd found a maid who was immune to the pleasure district...

“You're being noisy. Go play outside or something.”

“How can I send these kids outside? It's dangerous.”

Inside or outside, I suspected it was equally bad for children.

“Anyway, you must have been surprised to find Lucia here.”

“Not really. I'm more surprised I've ended up employed by a junior. Damn money...”

She spoke as she somehow managed to bounce the children in both arms.

“Technically, you're in the same year.”

“S-shut up.”

“Where's Lucia?”

“Asleep.”

That was what she'd hired her for, but she really had left the kids to Veronica and gone soundly to sleep.

Their senior-junior relationship might be murky, but the employer-employee relationship was clearly defined.

“I see. Wrap it up and put them to bed. It's late. They need to grow big and tall.”

“Even if they grow, if they've got the same genes as Lucia, there's a limit to how tall...”

“That's cruel. The kids can hear you.”

“Oh, right. Girls, don't listen.”

She flinched and looked down.

“It's okay, girls. Your big sister Lucia might be short, but she's got other... Oh, they're asleep.”

Veronica gazed down at the children, who had miraculously fallen asleep. She stood staring at them for quite a while.

She didn't seem to realize her cheeks had flushed a little.

“You seem to like children.”

“W-what are you talking about? They're just my employer's property.”

“Why not just say you like them? What's that supposed to mean?”

“None of your business. I'm tired, so stop picking on me. You won't be popular that way, you know.”

“Not popular? Want to hear about the incredible thing that happened to me today?”

“I don't want to hear it.”

What a shame.

I'd been hoping to vent, but on second thought, it wasn't really something to tell a student.

Still, Veronica had certainly helped lighten my mood a little.

“Finally, a chance to breathe.”

She carefully laid the children on the first-floor sofa and stretched her back. Her skirt, which that lunatic magic-item shop owner had shortened without permission, rode up her thighs.

“The magic-item shop, and now babysitting too. What are you going to do about school, taking on all this work? If you need money that badly, why not ask your sponsor?”

“I don't want to owe them any more. Besides, what does it matter?”

“It doesn't, if you're prepared to give up a good night's sleep like Lucia.”

“Tomorrow's the end-of-term ceremony.”

Ah.

065

Right.

That was why Akikira had insisted on meeting the very next day, even though she must have had her hands full looking after Rebecca. Once vacation started, we wouldn't have any occasion to see each other.

There was normally an event called the Autumn Festival before vacation, but Amelia, the star of that event, had left the academy, so I hadn't paid it any mind.

Perhaps that was why the time had flown by.

At the end-of-term ceremony, I offered the students a few words of encouragement, just as I had before summer vacation.

The price of playing sponsor, I supposed.

This time, I could tell the students were looking at me differently, thanks to the extra fame the Peach Garden Festival had brought me.

Afterward, as the principal took the stage to discuss winter safety and launch into a tedious lecture, I headed to the infirmary.

“Oh, hello. Here to see Rebecca?”

As soon as I opened the door and stepped inside, Akikira greeted me from her desk with a nod.

“Yes. How is she doing?”

“She's still asleep.”

“Still?”

“Don't worry. She woke up once, then went back to sleep. It seems... she needs a little time.”

So it wasn't an instant transformation.

Come to think of it, formatting a disk always seemed to take a while too...

Not that people and computer parts were the same.

“I'm going to take her home. Vacation's started, so I can't keep her here forever.”

Home. Akikira's home.

The memory of last night left me flustered. Was Akikira completely unbothered?

Wait, surely not. Had she been too drunk to remember?

“What's wrong?”

That did seem to be how this was going.

She got drunk all by herself, then forgot everything all by herself.

What a carefree life she led.

“Nothing. May I take a look?”

I pointed to the curtain around Rebecca's bed.

“Yes. I'll give you permission on her behalf, as punishment for sleeping away without a care.”

SWISH

The moment I drew the curtain, I froze.

Rebecca's appearance. Her face.

“It's not as though she could keep her makeup on all this time. I removed it thoroughly. Still, you look awfully shocked... You'll hurt Rebecca's feelings.”

“...”

Honestly, I was so transfixed by her face that I barely registered what Akikira was saying.

“It's not as though her pretty face has gone anywhere, is it? Doesn't she have an innocent, delicate charm? Personally, I think she looks even prettier with her clear skin standing out.”

“... She does.”

I stared for a long time at Rebecca, lying there clutching the bandage-wrapped sword as though embracing it, before I finally managed to close the curtain.

My hand was trembling.

“Oh, and the bedside table. See the papers there?”

“Yes. These?”

“I happened to see them. Rebecca wrote them. She said she had something to tell you in a month, didn't she? It looks like she wrote it down in advance in case she forgot. Take them with you.”

I folded Rebecca's long account, written over several notebook pages, and slipped it into my inner pocket.

“It sounds as though you knew I'd come today.”

“You care about the children, after all.”

Well... I supposed that was how it looked...

“Anyway, I'm moving her out of the dormitory today and nursing her at my place.”

“Will you be all right moving her on your own?”

“Are you offering to help?”

“If you'd like.”

“No. As for my place, once Rebecca's recovered and gone home...”

Akikira casually scribbled something in the notebook on her desk.

“Come over again then.”

* * *

That night, at Houndry.

“It's annoying. What's with that look on your face today? You look happy, and it's annoying.”

Veronica spoke as she neatly folded the children's clothes.

“I was happy until a younger woman started insulting me. That soured my mood in no time.”

“So what? They say it's better to get the beating over with first.”

“...”

“So, what is it? I'm busy. Once I'm done folding the laundry, I have to prep tomorrow's breakfast.”

“Lucia must be living the good life.”

Making her work all day long... Was she planning to spend her entire scholarship on this?

We might get to see forty-eight-hour Lucia soon. That would be even harder to handle than the children.

I'd have to quietly make myself scarce.

“Don't bring her up. It pisses me off.”

“About those couriers you mentioned before. Do you know any?”

“Why? Have something to send?”

“I wouldn't ask if I didn't.”

“I do. There are couriers who come to the shop.”

“In that case, I should have gone to the shop first.”

“You think you could have a normal conversation with the owner?”

... No, not really.

“I'll introduce you. Just give me a little commission.”

“How much do you need?”

“Just... enough for dinner. I haven't eaten today.”

For someone who talked as though she planned to bleed me dry, she had remarkably modest demands.

“If you need a tip, I'll give you one myself. Take a bottle of wine from the cellar before you leave. Mention Lucia's name and they'll open the door.”

“Ugh, no. The people here scare me. Wait, Lucia has that much pull here...?”

“She does.”

“Hah... What on earth is going on...? Wait, now that I think about it, you know I'm a student and you're telling me to take alcohol?”

“Not to drink. To sell.”

“Forget it. How much could one bottle be worth? I don't know why people love drinking something so bitter anyway. I'll just introduce you for free.”

And so Veronica missed her chance to earn a week's wages.

“... Suit yourself.”

“Hand it over. Whatever you're sending, and the courier's fee. I'll stop by the shop first thing tomorrow morning and send it.”

Veronica held out her pale palm. I dropped the letter I'd prepared and some coins into it.

“Wait. Isn't this in the royal capital?”

She started at the address written on the letter.

“Right in the center of it, in fact.”

“The royal palace...? What on earth have you been doing...?”

“Don't ask questions. Just hand it to the courier. I'll pretend not to notice if you pocket the change, so you pretend you don't know who wrote it.”

“This is way too much weight for a single letter...”

Holding the letter in both hands, she carefully tucked it into her pocket.

She wasn't saying she wouldn't pocket the change, though.

“I won't steal the change! What do you take me for, a beggar?”

Hmm.

For some reason, hearing Veronica shriek at me felt strangely satisfying. That was probably why I kept deliberately needling her.

I'd have to reveal my identity someday. Constantly switching the ring on and off at the hideout was starting to get tiresome.

Anyway, I sent an express letter to Amelia at the royal palace.

I could have gone there in an instant with the Bond Skill, but that skill had a fatal drawback. It could take me to Amelia's side wherever she was, but I had to find my own way back.

I was planning to go home for vacation, so I wasn't free to move around just yet. Once I'd finished what I needed to do at home, I intended to join them.

The vow I'd made at Akikira's apartment that drunken night wasn't so flimsy that it would vanish like smoke in an instant.

This vacation, I would take on the Death God's cult.

Yes, it was vacation.

Like the Subjugation Festival during summer vacation, it was time to step away from Laward and the heroines and tell a slightly more personal, slightly different story.

My time.

Time to do what I had to do.