Episode 182
- Ring! Ring-ring!
"Umm..."
At the loudly ringing alarm, I opened my eyes to see warm sunlight streaming through the window.
"...Tch."
Though anyone would see a peaceful atmosphere, for me who knows the true nature of this sunlight, it's nothing but an annoying scene.
"Ugh..."
I covered my face with a pillow to block the sunlight and lay in bed for a while longer.
"Did I really get that drunk?"
Holding my throbbing head, I muttered with a dazed look.
"Really?"
It's been quite a while since I got drunk.
The last times were when I accidentally drank and passed out during my childhood in a previous loop, and during the period when I relieved stress through drinking.
Alcohol, which had been my support during those times, lost its effect as my mental abilities increased abnormally.
So I had secretly wanted to get drunk again, and perhaps that's why I drank too much.
I can barely remember yesterday's events, everything is hazy.
"Ah..."
I buried my face in the pillow and tried to recall memories, then started making blank sounds.
"Ugh..."
Kania pushing me against the wall and kissing me.
Kania feeding me blood she held in her mouth before making a blood oath.
Kania asking with a bewitching smile if I'd like to join her for drinks.
Her smiling at me not in her usual stiff and formal attire, but wearing a beautiful dress.
And...
".....?"
For some reason, cold sweat started running down my back. Why? Why is that? Did I do something wrong to Kania?
- Swish...
I was about to push the pillow aside and get up due to the continuing ominous feeling.
"Eek!"
"....."
I found someone lying flat on the floor of my room and screamed with a startled expression.
"Master, have you awakened?"
Then Lulu, who had been lying face down, slightly raised her head and began looking at me.
"Lulu? Why are you here..."
Calming my surprise, I asked Lulu who was lying prone while I sat on the edge of the bed.
"Good morning, Master."
Saying that, she crawled toward me while still in her prone position.
- Swish, swiiish...
With eyes gently closed, she started rubbing her cheek against my leg.
"...What are you doing?"
I asked while blankly watching her, and Lulu fixed her gaze on me for a moment before whispering in a low voice.
"Being affectionate."
"Being affectionate?"
"It's only natural... for a pet to act cute for their master."
Lulu, answering like that, closed her eyes again and wrapped her arm around my leg, rubbing her cheek against it.
As if that was her natural duty.
With such devotion that it didn't seem like mere loyalty, even feeling a strange sense of relief.
"....."
Lulu, who had been hugging my leg and rubbing her cheek for a while, slightly raised her head and stared intently into my eyes.
- Swish...
Without thinking, I stroked her head with my hand, and Lulu closed her eyes again and quietly accepted my touch.
"Hmm."
For some reason, that appearance looked like a pet rejoicing at being praised by its owner, so an involuntary soft smile formed on my face.
"So, why did you come here?"
After stroking Lulu for a while, I asked, and she answered while looking at me.
"I brought your meal."
Then Lulu took out the breakfast she had been holding in her arms, opened the lid, and offered it to me.
"Oh ho."
Today's breakfast was toast mixed with egg wash and hot chocolate.
"...Did you eat?"
I looked at the excellent-looking food that Kania must have prepared and asked Lulu, but she shook her head.
"Here."
Looking at her, I quietly picked up the toast on the plate and held it out to her.
"Eat."
"Yes."
As soon as those words ended, Lulu took a big bite of the sandwich.
"Chew chew..."
Then, looking up at me blankly, she started chewing the toast.
"...So, where did Kania go? And Irina?"
Since Lulu looked like a puppy being fed, I stroked her head once more and asked with a tilted head.
"She said something urgent came up... so they just went out."
She answered while chewing the toast.
"...Is that so?"
I, too, chewed on the toast Kania had made, then quietly began staring into space.
[Affection System updating......]
"........"
In the air, the update window of the 'Affection Measurement System' that I had purchased for 70,000 points in a past loop was floating.
"What is this."
When another me from the third trial purchased this system, I was truly shocked. The points I had gathered through blood and sweat, a whopping 70,000, had vanished.
But.
'Clearly... it was said that an essential hidden element was hidden within it.'
The 'Book of Prophecy' that the me of the past loop had is different from the 'Ancestor's Book of Prophecy' that I have now.
So it may be natural that he knows the hidden secret of the 'Affection System.' After all, he was a being who had gone through countless retries.
And seeing this update window now floating before my eyes, there really must be something there.
"Hmm..."
I looked at the Affection System floating before my eyes for a while.
- Whoosh!
Then, frowning, I pushed the system window aside.
'Isn't that Affection System also one of the Demon God's tricks?'
Knowing but still having to go along with it, irritation keeps rising. But there's no helping it. To be the one laughing at the end, for now I have no choice but to go along with the tricks...
Wait a minute. Does it really have to be that way? Isn't there surely hope that can turn everything around?
"Right, the DLC story."
"Yes?"
"...Never mind."
Shouting that, I jumped up from the bed, and leaving behind the bewildered Lulu, I moved my feet while lost in thought.
'Resting is good, but... things I must check during this vacation have come up.'
Originally, I had planned to rest completely during this vacation.
Because originally, no important events occurred during vacations, and the damage, fatigue, and stress accumulated during 1st year had built up.
And the original 2nd year story was a period when I would become truly bleak, so I needed to prepare.
The war with the Order that takes up the main trunk of 2nd year, and my privileges and wealth gradually intensifying.
The imperial family and the Order turning their backs on me, political and physical pressures coming from here and there, and...
The Academy being manipulated like a puppet with a fake Hero as its pillar.
To overcome such difficulties that become several times more bleak and difficult than 1st year, I needed to manage my mental state as much as possible and prepare during this vacation.
'But... now the story is different.'
Even if I don't know what effect the DLC will have on the 2nd year story, there's one thing that absolutely cannot be overlooked.
"Master...?"
Lulu, who had tried to abandon me and join the Hero's party, but for some reason chose me instead of the Hero's party, and is now crawling up to me.
And Isollet, who tried to kill me several times but for some reason couldn't draw her sword from its sheath, harboring unidentified emotions that can't even be confirmed with system skills.
The common point of these variables is that they are all 'sub-heroines.'
"Perhaps... what the DLC story is..."
This dramatic change that started after the end of the third trial could become the key to overturning everything.
So, I need to slightly modify the plan I had established for spending the vacation.
To the simple plan of sufficient rest and preparation for 2nd year.
Adding 'directly meeting the sub-heroines' as a plan that seems absolutely necessary.
'Well, it won't be that hard.'
Anyway, this vacation is quite long.
So even if I go around meeting all the girls currently defined as 'sub-heroines' by the system, rest time will be more than sufficient.
Of course, Aish is currently in the Western Continent, but she's coming to the Empire to enroll in Sunrise Academy this vacation, so that's not a problem.
"Hmm?"
While thinking such thoughts and putting on my outer garment, something was tapping against my feet.
"........"
Looking down to see what it was, Lulu, who had somehow come right next to me, was stuck to my leg and looking up at me.
"What's wrong? Lulu?"
I asked her.
"Ah..."
Lulu, with a blush on her face, asked with a red face.
"Will you take me for a morning walk?"
"........."
And then, silence fell for a moment.
"...Alright, let's go out."
For some reason, the trace of the brand remaining on her shoulder was shining uneasily, so I answered her like that.
'Then...'
I muttered quietly inside.
'...I should meet her first.'
.
In the empire's back alleys where all kinds of information, criminals, and dirty things gather.
"Hmm~ hmm~♪"
In the basement of the largest information guild in those back alleys, a girl was humming and engrossed in something.
"Lady Roswin, I'll convey..."
A female employee in charge of the counter who entered to deliver a message to her.
"...Huh."
Eventually lost for words.
"What are you doing?"
The female employee who had been watching her with blank eyes for a while asked.
"What do you mean?"
Roswin, who had been wearing an ecstatic expression.
"I'm looking at photos of the Hero."
Answered with her eyes fixed on the photos plastered all over her room.
"Sigh..."
The female employee, looking at such Roswin, sighed and then spoke.
"Is that really the Hero?"
"...What?"
Then, Roswin glared sharply at her.
"Since a few weeks ago, suddenly bringing strange photos of a woman and papering the room with them... decorating flowers you used to throw away on your desk..."
"......."
"Perhaps, have you been affected by bewitchment magic? Or is your actual preference women..."
"Be quiet."
Roswin, cutting off the female employee who kept talking back without backing down.
"The imperial family and the Order will hold a verification ceremony soon. I'll participate in that too."
Answered with a smile.
"You haven't even been verified yet?"
The female employee who looked at her with dumbfounded eyes started asking again.
"Why would you... if it's not verified..."
"I felt it the moment I first saw her."
"What?"
Roswin's words made her tilt her head.
"The moment I first saw her, my heart started aching, and goosebumps rose all over my body."
Meanwhile, Roswin, still fixing her gaze on the photos.
"...Is this what they call destiny?"
Answered with a blush on her cheek.
"........."
And the silence that began.
"Yes, I see."
The female employee, shaking her head, answered Roswin like that.
"By the way, there's news to convey."
"...What?"
She opens her mouth with a smile.
"Frey Raon Starlight is coming right now..."
"...Ah."
At those words, Roswin's expression rapidly soured.
"Is he going to give me flowers again this time? Even though he gave them to me last time..."
"Get out."
Eventually, Roswin waved her hand with a ruined expression to the female employee who was about to say something.
"...Then, I'll leave."
The female employee maintained her smile and left Roswin's room, where she had started carefully tending the fully bloomed flowers on her desk.
"Hah."
And.
"I'm going crazy."
From then on, the female employee's expression changed 180 degrees.
"Damn it, if not for this damn compulsion... I should have calculated for this when making the contract 1000 years ago."
With fierce eyes, looking into space, she.
"Scroll? Anyway, you said he finally did something with that? That it'll be different from now on so look forward to it, you drunkard peddler bastard."
Putting a cigarette in her mouth, she started muttering with an annoyed expression.
- Shaaaa...
From her body, moonlight energy was flowing out.