Episode 108
"Frey! Where are you going!"
"...Sigh."
Ever since yesterday's partner declaration, Perrotte has been following me around all day like a shadow.
By this point she should be tired, but with an excited expression like a dog chasing a chicken, she keeps following me around, so it seems like I'll be exhausted before Perrotte is.
"Ah! What are you taking out of your bag right now!"
"A notebook."
"Why are you taking out a notebook!"
"To study."
"Don't lie!"
That's because these kinds of questions and answers have been repeating all day long.
"Perrotte, isn't it time for prayer?"
"I can just pray next to you!"
"...Haah."
Even when I try to divert her attention somehow, she doesn't take her eyes off me for even a moment. Thanks to that, I really feel like I'm going to go crazy.
'...I need to infiltrate the slave market soon.'
Originally, today I had planned to infiltrate the market to gather information about the 'Slave Market Liberation,' the biggest main event of the second semester.
Of course, I've been preparing diligently for this main quest since my previous life cycle, so I'm confident, but complacency is forbidden.
That's because there has never been a single time when unexpected situations or variables didn't occur in the plans I've made so far.
Therefore, I needed perfect preparation to the extent that there would be no problems even if unexpected situations or variables occurred, and for that purpose, preliminary reconnaissance was absolutely necessary.
But.
"Frey!"
"What now."
"What are you thinking so deeply about! What kind of evil deed are you plotting again!"
Thanks to Perrotte, my plan is about to fall through.
Somehow I managed to come to a cafe near the entrance of the slave market, but since she's interfering with everything, I can't seem to find the timing to enter the entrance at all.
What should I do about this?
"What do I need to do for you to be satisfied?"
"Hmm... please die! Then I'll be satisfied!"
Hearing Perrotte's declaration as she shouted with her fist clenched tightly, it seems there's probably no way to satisfy her.
But I can't chase her away either.
Because if I maintain the partner system positively, I get various bonuses from the system.
[Name: Frey Raon Starlight]
[Abilities: Strength ???/ Magic Power ???/ Intelligence ???/ Mental Strength 9.5(+0.2)]
[Special Notes: Protection of the Stars/ Time-Limited/ Partner's Blessing]
[Alignment: Hero]
[Goodness: 100]
My strength, magic power, and intelligence are for some reason invisible now as they were before, but with mental strength increasing by 0.2, I can infer the approximate ability enhancement values.
In other words, Partner's Blessing is a cheat-level buff that has already risen to a quite high level and raises my stats by 0.2 each, stats that normally wouldn't increase easily.
Therefore, during the second semester, it seems I'll have no choice but to be tormented by Perrotte.
"Ah! Frey! Look over there! Something is flying this way!"
While I was thinking such thoughts with a gloomy expression, Perrotte started pointing with a dazed look in her eyes as she stared out the window.
"...Could it be?"
I looked out the window with expectation, and a quite surprising situation was unfolding in my field of view.
"Kuuu!!"
"Coo coo coo!!"
Serena's white owl and an unidentified white pigeon were flying toward the window, entangled with each other and fighting.
That owl is having a 'fight' rather than a one-sided assault? It's a major incident I've never seen even in my previous life cycle.
"Ah! Don't fight! I said don't fight!"
"...Do you know that pigeon?"
"Yes! That child's name is Gugu!"
When I asked Perrotte who urgently opened the window and embraced the pigeon, a quite intuitive name popped out.
"Why is the name specifically that?"
"Well, I asked what name it wanted... and that child said 'coo coo'! So I named it that!"
Answering like that, Perrotte, who was stroking the pigeon, started to beam with a smile for some reason.
"Wow! A letter came from the Order!"
"I see."
Before long, I quietly watched Perrotte opening the letter from the Order, and naturally started reading the letter the owl had spat out.
- Western Continent journey failed. Returning to Academy.
"...Ugh."
But, as soon as I read the first paragraph, bad news appears.
It seems Serena, who was heading to the Western Continent, failed to go there for some reason.
I don't know what happened, but I really hope nothing serious occurred.
- Please take good care of the owl until I arrive.
"Kuuu!"
After reading the following paragraph, the owl, who had been glaring resentfully at the pigeon being stroked in Perrotte's arms, started acting cute toward me.
"Perrotte."
"Yes?"
I, who was stroking that fellow's chin, soon spoke to Perrotte in a low voice.
"I'm going to the bathroom for a moment."
"I'll come with you too!"
"...What?"
I tried to come up with a way to somehow separate from Perrotte before more time passed, but I was blocked right from the start.
"You want to go to the bathroom with me?"
"...Yes! I also had business in the bathroom!"
So when I asked with an absurd expression, Perrotte said while clenching her fist.
"Come on, let's go! Hurry!"
"...Fine, let's go."
I had to somehow shake her off somehow, so eventually I stood up from my seat with my characteristic sickly smile.
'...Surely she wouldn't really follow me.'
No matter how much she made up her mind to monitor my every move, would she really follow me to the bathroom?
Perrotte, who would foam at the mouth at even the slightest sexual scene, and who would surely punch me with a fist containing the Sun God's protection if there was any sexual contact, would never do that.
"W-wait a moment! You said you're going to the bathroom, so why are you going outside the shop?"
"This shop doesn't have a bathroom. So I have to use the public bathroom outside."
"T-there's no such thing!"
"What did you expect from a shop in the corner of a back alley?"
"Uuuugh..."
Besides, if where I'm going is a public bathroom, the possibility of her following me approaches 0%.
She, who is more saintly than anyone except for being very pure, wouldn't follow me into a men's public bathroom, would she?
-Creeeak...
With such thoughts, I carefully opened the door and headed toward the public bathroom.
-Swish
Upon arriving at the public bathroom, I carefully started taking out a robe from my bosom.
Now I just need to put on this robe, watch for an opportunity, and secretly slip out of the bathroom...
"What are you doing?"
".....!"
I, who was thinking such thoughts, was startled by a voice suddenly coming from behind and hurriedly put the robe back in my bosom.
"You, why are you here?"
"I, I told you... that I'd go to the bathroom together."
I, who had asked Perrotte a question, soon started making an absurd expression at her answer that came back.
"This is... the men's bathroom?"
"Don't make excuses! You're saying that and then kicking me out so you can plot something bad again, right!"
"No... what could I possibly plot in a bathroom."
"...Fine! Just do your business quickly!"
Perrotte said that and pushed me away, her face completely red.
"Haah..."
Thanks to that, I, who was now facing the crisis of even my last plan to shake her off being thwarted, quickly started racking my brain.
'...Should I pretend to attack her to chase her away?'
But, only such an answer comes to mind.
Ever since I learned about her past a few months ago, and since I learned about the secret she holds last time, for some reason I've been reluctant to touch Perrotte, so I tried not to touch her as much as possible...
But still, this might be the method most needed for her, who doesn't listen to reason.
"Hey, Perrotte..."
I, who finished that thought, started approaching Perrotte with a lewd expression, but.
-Thud, thud.
"".......!!!""
When the sound of footsteps heading toward the bathroom was heard, I ended up freezing.
"W-we need to hide!"
"W-wait."
Perrotte, who was urgently looking around, started pulling my hand and heading toward an old cabinet in the corner.
"Rather, let's go to the toilet stall..."
"That place is unclean!"
Saying that, Perrotte, who opened the cabinet, started forcing me inside.
"Wait, wait a moment!"
"Grrrr..."
When I, flustered by her actions, started struggling, Perrotte started pushing me into the cabinet, even using the Protection of the Sun.
"If only you get in! Just you!"
"...Ah."
Truly feeling what the sentiment of people who suffered my oppressive violence in the past must have been like, when I urgently shouted, Perrotte, who finally succeeded in pushing me into the cabinet, started making a dazed expression.
-Creeeak...
But of all times, at that very moment, the bathroom door slowly started to open.
"...Hieek!"
Because of that, Perrotte, who let out a scream without realizing it, soon hurriedly stuffed her body into the cabinet as well and closed the door.
And then, silence flowed for a while.
.
"...Boss, didn't you hear a woman's voice just now?"
"I don't know? I didn't hear it?"
A few seconds after Frey and Perrotte hid in the cabinet, two men who entered the bathroom started talking with frowns.
"Maybe, did a slave run away here?"
"What kind of nonsense is that. If a slave runs away, they'd run out to the back alley, why would they crawl into the men's bathroom?"
"But... I really did hear a woman's scream."
When the foolish-looking man said that, the man called 'boss' by him answered with a sigh.
"You've heard so many slave screams that you're seeing things. I was like that too when I was new."
The man who said that soon started doing his business with an unconcerned expression, but the other man still frowning started heading toward the toilet stalls.
"Let's see... are they hiding here?"
-Bang!!
When he started kicking open the toilet stalls one by one with his foot, the man who was doing his business snickered and spoke.
"Already wasting your energy like that, what are you going to do? We're already exhausted from the new beastkin slaves from the beast tribes anyway."
"Still, if we catch a runaway slave, the reward is enormous, isn't it? Maybe because I'm new, my earnings aren't very satisfactory."
After finishing his words, the man who kept kicking open the toilet stalls soon discovered something on the floor and started smiling with a look of triumph.
"Boss... look at this."
"What is it?"
"I think I found something."
On the floor that he pointed to, footprints leading toward the cabinet in front of them were scattered disorderly.
"No way... for real?"
"What did I tell you! I said I clearly heard a woman's voice!"
He said that with an excited expression, took out a baton from his pocket, and started slowly heading toward the cabinet.
"If you come out now, I won't hit you."
Upon reaching right in front of the cabinet, he started speaking with a slightly nervous expression as he knocked on the door thump thump.
"Come out quickly. I know you're in there."
"Hey, come out."
"Ah?"
The senior, who was looking at him with disapproval, pushed him aside, grabbed the cabinet handle, and spoke.
"Damned rats."
After saying that, he pulled the cabinet open with force.
"...Huh?"
But soon, the two in the bathroom couldn't help but be bewildered.
"Hey, wasn't it here?"
"B-but! It was definitely here!"
The old cabinet was empty.
.
While the men were bewildered looking at the empty cabinet.
"Remember, remember, remember, remember, remember."
Perrotte, who was watching Frey from behind as he looked around the dark underground with a bewildered expression, soon started biting her nails and mumbling.
"...That I must protect him no matter what."
That mumbling continued until Frey's gaze turned toward her again.