Episode 208
I had a fairly happy dream for the first time in a while.
A dream where I was swallowed by Irina's tattered cloak to treat my frozen body.
After escaping from the cafe where I met Aish.
"Mmm..."
Thinking in my sleep, but it feels so good.
A soft, warm, and cozy energy is swirling around my entire body.
Is this roughly what sunbathing feels like? I haven't lazed around sunbathing since I was a child so I don't remember well, but it must be something like this.
'...I should get up.'
But I can't stay lost in reverie forever, so I should get up from my seat.
By the way, to have such a dream... is it because so many things have been happening to me lately? I haven't had such dreams for a long time, so why...
- Squish...!
As I moved my body with such thoughts, suddenly a familiar squishy feeling transmitted through my whole body.
"Hmm...?"
This feeling like I've burrowed into a soft slime. No matter how I think about it, there's only one thing this feeling could mean.
The dream I had was, in fact, not a dream but...
".....!"
Carefully opening my eyes, I froze, stopping my thoughts entirely.
Because Irina's body was blatantly entering my field of vision.
"W-wait... huh?"
In my flustered state, I tried to pull my body back, but Irina's cloak was blocking me.
So after flailing around inside the cloak for a moment, I carefully poked my head out from under the cloak.
"...Hehe."
Then, Irina's face with a happy smile appeared right before my nose as she lay on the bed.
"Did you sleep well? Frey?"
- Stroke...
Irina, who was wearing a soft smile, reached out her hand and slowly stroked my head that was peeking out from under the cloak.
"I-Irina? What is this...?"
"Ah, well..."
Of course, since our bodies were still overlapping inside the cloak, when I asked while slightly blushing, Irina answered while avoiding my gaze.
"You had too much contact with Aish, so the ice bird inside your body became much more active than I expected."
"Mm, hmm."
"So I had no choice but to melt it all day long."
"A-all day?"
Blankly listening to her words, then startled, I looked at the clock, and sure enough, the time indicated morning.
Does that mean a day has passed since I was swallowed by Irina's cloak in the carriage yesterday?
"...So, how's your body?"
While I couldn't hide my surprise, Irina asked in a low voice.
"I did my best, but there could be side effects. If your body feels even a bit cold..."
"Then, you stayed up all night for me?"
"Huh? W-well, yes?"
When I threw a question back at her, Irina nodded with an expression asking why I was asking such a thing so suddenly.
"...Thank you, Irina."
Expressing my gratitude to Irina who had melted my body all night without sleeping, I embraced her.
".....!"
Irina's rapid heartbeat was conveyed to me exactly as it was.
"F-Frey..."
"........"
After burying my head in her embrace for a moment, I raised my head and began to quietly gaze into Irina's eyes that were burning red like fire.
And between her and me, a strange silence began to flow.
- Scrape... scritch...
"Irina... please come out now... how long are you going to stay like that...?"
Until Lulu's voice, who had begun to desperately scratch at the door, reached us.
"W-wait...! Frey hasn't woken up yet..."
"Do you think my magic eye is there for nothing...?"
"I-I put up an anti-eavesdropping spell... N-no. It's nothing."
As Lulu spoke in a gloomy voice, Irina began to answer in a flustered voice.
"If you keep doing that... I'll have to cooperate... mmph!"
When Lulu said something incomprehensible to Irina.
"H-hem! Since the treatment is finished, let's get up, Frey."
Irina urgently tapped the cloak with her fingers, then got up from her seat.
By the way, the cloak seemed stiff before she tapped it with her fingers... Is it just my imagination?
"...Master Frey."
While I was thinking that, someone outside spoke to me.
"Arianne? What's the matter?"
"I have a report... hup."
Recognizing that it was Arianne's voice, I opened the door with clothes roughly thrown on my body, and Arianne, who was about to report from behind the door with a blank expression, froze upon seeing the scene inside the room.
"I-Irina..."
"...That's not the Irina you knew. Just give your report quickly."
When I urged her to report, she began her report with an expression half despairing, half strange.
"L-Lady Rosewin... has visited..."
"Refuse."
"She's so unreasonable that I couldn't do anything about it..."
"Anyway, I have to go to Isollet's house today, so I'll be leaving this house. So don't reveal my destination."
I was about to close the door after giving that command in a cold voice, but Arianne quickly opened her mouth.
"A-and Lady Aish also wants to see you..."
"...Refuse that too. Just explain that I'm very sick today and can't play with her."
"Y-yes... And there was contact from the imperial palace."
"The imperial palace?"
I thought the news about Aish would be the end of it, but contact from the imperial palace? What does this mean?
"T-they said to attend the Hero Verification Ceremony that will be opening soon. As an advisor from the Hero family..."
Upon Arianne's continued answer, I understood why the imperial palace had contacted me.
I thought it was about time to enter the 'main event' of winter vacation, the Verification Ceremony scenario, and sure enough, the contact had finally come.
There, Ruby would truly soar, and I would fall... To call me to such a place, they are truly cruel people.
"T-then I'll take my leave..."
Arianne, who had given me the time and place while I was slightly frowning, looked at Irina who was now leaning against my side with a strange expression again, then stepped aside.
""........""
And silence began to flow.
"Frey, I'm going to the Western Continent for rotation soon."
Irina, who broke that silence, whispered in a low voice.
"Probably around the time the 'Verification Ceremony' opens, Clan will be with you. She'll probably come next week or so."
"...Is that so?"
"Yeah, so..."
Putting on her clothes little by little, Irina, who was subtly bumping her body against mine.
"Remember this."
She whispered in my ear with her face deeply flushed.
"That when you embrace someone, the person who can feel the greatest happiness is me."
"......."
"You know it well enough that there's no dispute even just looking with your eyes, and it's already been imprinted all day long... right?"
Having finished speaking, she gently pressed her lips against mine and headed toward the door.
"I'll wait at the entrance. Get ready and come out."
"...Okay."
"Oh, right."
Then she suddenly stopped walking and glanced back.
"...You, were amazing."
With her face flushed, she said that while looking down at my lower body, then left the room.
"......Sigh."
I hurriedly checked the Ring of Chastity, and thankfully the ring was still shining white.
Fortunately, it seems Serena won't go on a rampage.
"....."
Feeling like I'd been swept away by waves here and there since opening my eyes, I was preparing to go out, and Lulu, who had been standing outside the room until then, poked her head in and began to look at me.
"M-Master..."
"Lulu?"
Then, she came running to my side and began rubbing her body against me while watching my expression.
"...What are you doing?"
"I-I can melt the cold for you too."
"Is that so?"
"A-and... as my master, please cover me with your pet's scent."
Staring blankly at her, I patted her head, then sighed and fell into thought.
'Now I just have to wait for the coronation ceremony...'
The first goal of this vacation, 'Meeting all sub-heroines,' was successfully completed yesterday.
So until the second goal, 'Participating in the coronation ceremony,' time will pass in the blink of an eye.
And once the coronation ceremony participation ends, I'll be busy preparing for war with the Order, the third goal, so time will fly by again, and before I know it, the second year will have started.
And then, the hardship begins again...
"Huu..."
Shaking my head to shake off the gloomy mood, I crossed my arms and began to look up at the empty air.
Isollet Arham Baiwork [Capture Rate: 95%]
Details.....
Isollet's capture rate rose by a whopping 5 percent in one week.
What on earth did I do for her capture rate to rise on its own?
All I did was answer a few of her calls and sexually harass or insult her.
Then the capture rate should have decreased instead, but it's truly bizarre.
'Should I just... capture her?'
After pondering for a long while, such a thought suddenly occurs to me.
For some reason, that 'affection system' has been giving off suspicious vibes ever since the version was updated.
I had forgotten to experiment with it because I was busy, but... it still bothers me.
If that capture rate reaches 100 percent and the capture is completed, wouldn't there be some kind of special benefit?
'But that's a bit ambiguous to assume...'
It's not certain, but Lulu's capture point, who is currently rubbing her body against mine, is the day the servants left my house.
But the point when Lulu's magic eye changed was when she was attacked by Miho... so there's a slight time difference between the two events.
"...Lulu, when did you say your magic eye changed?"
"Ah, yes. Well... it was when I desperately thought I wanted to protect Master."
When I asked Lulu with a serious expression, she answered in a low voice.
"How desperately did you want it?"
"...Enough to offer my life."
Looking at her clear eyes as she answered my question once more, I quietly drew a conclusion inside.
'Perhaps when some trigger occurs with the heroines I've completed capturing... latent abilities awaken?'
It's a quite persuasive hypothesis.
Like Lulu's case, the sub-heroines each have strange abilities or talents waiting to awaken.
Could this be the hidden element that the me from a previous round mentioned in the third trial?
If so, then Isollet is certainly worth capturing.
"Then... should I even seduce her?"
So I inadvertently muttered while blushing, and Lulu, who had been fidgeting beside me, looked at me blankly.
"Master...? What are you going to do..."
"Nothing, nothing at all."
"......."
When I answered with a calm expression, Lulu, who had been watching me with anxious eyes, gently closed her eyes and began rubbing her body against me again.
'Well, it's true that I want to capture her...'
Holding her hand and stepping out of the room, I muttered to myself.
'...But right now is impossible.'
If I seduced her now, I don't know what would be done to me.
And there's also the long-awaited 'fourth trial.' I'm already having a headache because more people are getting caught up in the fourth trial, and if I captured her and she started 'worrying' about me, it would be a big problem.
'But I can't hold out forever...'
But Isollet's capture rate is already at 95 percent. In other words, even a small mistake means she'll be captured.
'...I really need to take some measures.'
So I have to somehow lower the capture rate before she gets captured, but is there any good method?
Originally, sexual jokes or actions helped lower her favorability, but now they're only having the opposite effect.
"Something Isollet would hate... something she would hate..."
So, after being lost in thought for a long while.
"...Aha!"
I clapped my hands and muttered to myself.
'Isollet hated Aish the most among the students, right?'
In the prophetic book written by the Ancestor, there's a 'Character Relationship Chart' that organizes the relationships between characters in Blacktail Fantasy 2.
Things like Cania and Serena being opposites, or Clan can't stand up to Rosewin but after awakening she puts her under her feet, or Arianne being Irina's close friend.
In such a chart, Isollet and Aish's relationship was listed as the worst.
Because the thing she hates as much as promiscuity is 'arrogance.'
It's a fact proven by my actual experience. She hated and smashed arrogant nobles or delinquents as a daily routine.
"Good... it's solved."
Having found a way to deal with Isollet, I smiled and arrived at the entrance.
"".......""
Then Lulu who was beside me, Irina who was waiting at the entrance, the birds sitting on her shoulder, and the cat doll that had somehow poked its head out of my coat pocket, all began to make tense expressions.
"Let's go."
Leaving them behind, I stepped out of the entrance and muttered with a confident expression.
"...I just need to copy exactly what Aish did."
.
"Hello, sister?"
One hour later from that.
"Just like always, today too..."
Frey Raon Starlight, just as Aish had done to him yesterday, covered his mouth with one hand and wore an arrogant smile, then...
"...You're really giving off that spinster vibe...?"
Placing his hand on the shoulder of Isollet, who had come to meet him and was looking down at him blankly with a shadow cast over her face.
"...You look truly pathetic."
Standing on his tiptoes and smiling with his eyes, he whispered softly into her ear.
"Pathetic teacher."