Chapter 102: Under Your Desk
[You look troubled.]
As I stood in the center of the silent room, mulling over what had just happened, Sierra’s soothing voice echoed in my head from far away so I quietly turned my head toward her and locked eyes with her.
[Was it bad?]
“Of course not, I enjoyed it. Very…”
I trailed off, a bittersweet smile on my face.
Sierra was less than thrilled with the idea of Aizel and I going on a date, but that was it.
She looked at Aizel, who showed up on time for our appointment, and muttered something like, “Hmmm.”
Soon after, Sierra told me that it was a “date” after all, and that I shouldn’t think about anything else tonight, and to focus on her.
Apparently Sierra thought her presence would be a distraction, which wasn’t necessarily the case.
My date with Aizel was good and although I had all sorts of thoughts and concerns distracting me, I did as Sierra said and tried to clear my head and focus on her.
She’s a regressor after all and she knew of a restaurant hidden in the Academy that I didn’t. It was a restaurant that served modern food, but I had never seen it in the game.
I couldn’t figure out why it existed, but I wondered if it was some sort of unimplemented Easter egg.
I hadn’t had soda in a long time…It was indescribably satisfying.
All in all, it was a happy and enjoyable time….And that was the problem.
My anguish deepened.
The game didn’t have any sort of dating or romance part.
Even if you had a crush on a character of the opposite sex, it was only a friendship, and there was no way to develop that crush into love.
You couldn’t cross the line.
Of course, now that the game has become a reality, there is no such thing as a line.
Well, that didn’t mean I was under the illusion that Aizel was in love with me. It was absurd to jump to that conclusion after only one date.
Still, it’s hard to categorize it as a friendship, and the experience made me think a lot.
For example, why would Aizel, a regressor, try to get close to someone else, namely me?
I had many other questions, but in the end, I had to do the same thing.
The person I wanted to protect, the person I wanted to save, became even more precious. That’s why I couldn’t feel pure joy.
If I failed, I wondered if I could live with the consequences.
The human spirit is more easily broken than we think, especially when the cause is loss.
To be frozen in place or to stay where you are, it was the same as death for me.
It’s none of my business what happens to them. I am more important.
I could have given up and gone into seclusion, telling myself that. But I couldn’t. Or maybe I should say, I didn’t want to.
I’ve spent thousands of hours with them and although to them, I’m just a stranger, to me, they’re all old friends.
I knew their stories so I could not ignore them.
If I didn’t move, if I didn’t act, if I didn’t take action, there was a very good chance that I would have a bad ending wherever I was hiding in this world.
It was my responsibility as a player that ultimately drove me.
‘Love is another story…’
Whatever it was, it was enough that Aizel seemed happy.
The fireworks were spectacular, especially from her favorite spot on the hill.
‘The view was spectacular, but…’
She was so adorable trying to explain the fireworks to me as best she could.
The date went off without a hitch, except for Sierra nudging, which caused me to turn my head away from her and back to the night sky where the fireworks were going off.
I was standing in the middle of the room, trying to organize my thoughts, when Sierra approached me.
[There you go again, smirking…A swordsman by nature must maintain his composure at all times…]
She covers the corner of her mouth with her sleeve as she says this, and immediately throws Sheddie from her arms at me.
Sheddie flies through the air and lands in a circle above my head.
[Go, Sheddie]
“Kerung!”
Sheddie lets out an adorable cry, followed by the sound of his molars sinking into my head.
Sheddie sucked blood without even trying.
Sierra said she was going to take him away, because she couldn’t have me bleeding out in the middle of a date.
I asked her where she was going to take her, and she said the Spectral Sword so I wondered if it was because he was a spirit after all.
Sheddie must have had an intimate conversation with Sierra, because the creature that went in and out of the Spectral Sword became very close to her.
When I asked Sierra about it, she said she was just “sorting things out.”
Sheddie hadn’t eaten any life for the day, so she was excitedly sucking it out.
There wasn’t much blood, though. So far, it seemed to be covered by the Bracelet of Origins.
I hadn’t gotten a chance to use his power, but Magredo said that the more you use it, the more life it demands.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to look for elixirs or other items to bolster my health recovery.
As I wipe the blood from the corner of my mouth, the wave I’ve just sent out catches my attention.
I could always sense the presence of cadets in other rooms around the dormitory, but the person I sensed was not someone who should be in the boys’ dormitory.
‘Well, it’s not my place to say, having been in and out of the girls’ dormitory, but…’
She silently approached and stopped in her tracks in front of my door.
I waited, but nothing happened.
She was obviously looking for me, but she wasn’t knocking on the door so I decided to open the door.
I walked up to the door, trying to be as quiet as possible so she wouldn’t hear me and when I opened the door it immediately collided with her head.
-Boom!
“…Ouch.”
She groaned in pain and held her forehead where the door collided with her head.
As she rubbed her forehead, I asked her in a small voice.
“……What are you doing here, Ms. Kaen?”
***
Kaen had seen Aizel and Zetto walking down the street holding hands earlier in the day and as soon as she saw them, she ran after them.
Why she did it, she didn’t know. It was an instinctive behavior that flowed like water.
They looked like lovers on a ‘date’ as Kaen watched them through the crowd.
…They seemed to be enjoying themselves.
It wasn’t a shock to Kaen; she’d always known they were close. But for some reason, she felt a wistfulness in the back of her mind. It was a feeling of resolve, similar to emptiness or loneliness.
Lately, Zetto hadn’t been looking for Kaen.
She wanted to go on another secret mission with him, but… nothing was said.
Eventually, just as it was getting dark around them, Zetto and Aizel made their way to the outskirts of the Academy, where there were few people… Kaen had to give up trying to follow them.
Any more than that and she’d risk being found out.
As Kaen trudged along the streets, the fireworks suddenly began.
The fireworks were dazzling against the inky night sky.
Even the people on the street couldn’t understand the meaning of the fireworks, but everyone enjoyed it.
They seemed to think it was something to celebrate.
Kaen was not amused. She felt like someone was giving them a blessing on the date she’d seen earlier.
Lately, Kaen’s mind had been filled with thoughts of Zetto.
Whether it was the words Sword Saint Chris had said to her or the sight of his body in the ice crystal…There were many factors.
Then, the scene of Aizel dropping Zetto off at the dormitory and sneaking into the dorm quickly flashed through Kaen’s mind.
It was a ‘sneak’, to say the least.
‘Is she doing it again today…?’
It was a wild guess, but Kaen wanted to confirm it somehow.
‘It’s not because I’m curious about the sounds coming from Zetto’s room…’
That’s what she told herself.
Sneaking into the dormitory in the dark wasn’t a problem for Kaen.
However, there was the problem of not knowing where Zetto’s room was…but this was solved by meeting up with a well-meaning male cadet around the men’s dormitory.
She had met Crank, whom she knew from their field trip to the north.
‘Do you happen to know what room Cadet Zetto is staying in?’
Kaen asked cautiously, and Crank answered succinctly, without questioning.
“Zetto is staying in room 505.”
With that, Crank gave Kaen a thumbs up, finished his bread, and walked into the dormitory.
The dormitory hallway was already dark, with all the lights out but Kaen found Zetto’s room without being seen by anyone. It was a very easy task for her.
‘Room 505.’
Standing in front of Zetto’s room, keeping the sound to a minimum, Kaen hesitated for a moment.
‘…Am I allowed to do this?’
It was a simple confirmation, just to check if Aizel had entered Zetto’s room.
With that, Kaen put her ear to the door.
She was blushing, wondering what she would do if she heard something when suddenly she heard the door open.
– Boom!
Without even a moment to duck, the door opened, and she was hit in the forehead by the open door.
“…Ugh.”
“……What are you doing here, Ms. Kaen?”
Rubbing her forehead in response to Zetto’s question, Kaen was trying to think of an excuse.
‘Maybe I shouldn’t have eavesdropped on Zetto after all…’
She was sure she hadn’t made any noise, but Zetto’s sensing abilities were beyond her comprehension. So Kaen lowered her head, unable to think of anything to say.
Eventually, Zetto’s mouth opened.
“…Please come in, it’s better than standing in the hallway.”
Kaen’s eyes narrowed at Zetto’s words. She wondered if she really should.
‘So…cadet Aizel is not here…?’
Kaen couldn’t look up as she entered the room, realizing that she had made a huge mistake that would make her seem rude to Zetto once again.
It was dark in Zetto’s room, as there was no light.
Looking around, Kaen came to the simple conclusion that Zetto was blind and didn’t need a light, and nodded weakly.
With that, she stood in the center of the room, shuffling about as if guilty while Zetto closed the door behind her and approached her, his mouth opening once more.
“…So what brings you to me at this late hour?”
“Well, it’s just that……I was wondering if you had any information…?! Mo, my body… I need to do something…”
“Aha.”
Zetto, who was rubbing his chin at Kaen’s answer, who had barely come up with an excuse, nodded.
“Well, I don’t have any information yet, but in a way, no news is good news, isn’t it?”
“…I suppose so.”
At Zetto’s unquestioning response, Kaen wanted to breathe a sigh of relief that she had gotten away with it.
She managed to stifle a sigh and rolled her eyes at the silence that followed. Then her eyes caught sight of the pure white bed in the room.
‘Zetto’s bed…’
It was an ordinary bed, neat and tidy with the futon neatly arranged. But as Kaen looked at it, a million erotic images flashed before her eyes.
It was a combination of a need that had been building up in Kaen and a shocking comment Chris had made to her.
Chris’s comments had made Kaen sexually conscious of Zetto. Well, she had been for a while, anyway.
‘Zetto’s child…’
Shaking her head, Kaen broke the silence that had fallen over the room.
“Well, then, Cadet Zetto…I should probably get going…I apologize for barging in at such a late hour.”
Kaen said, stepping hastily to the door.
She felt like she was going to lose her mind if she didn’t get out of here soon but as she was about to leave the room, Zetto grabbed her hand and a small moan escaped her lips at the unexpected contact.
“Hmph…?!”
Kaen’s body had already heated up from her ‘terrible’ delusion while Zetto grabbed her hand and leaned in close.
“What, what are you trying to do…?”
Zetto whispered in Kaen’s ear as she narrowed her eyes and asked the question.
“…Ms. Kaen, I think you should probably hide yourself, we have a visitor.”
“…A visitor…?”
Kaen wondered what he meant by a visitor, but then realized that someone approached the door.
It wouldn’t be a good situation for a girl to be caught in a boy’s dormitory, much less in his room so Kaen decided to take Zetto’s word for it.
‘Where can I hide…?’
Quickly scanning the room, Kaen’s mind raced, trying to figure out how to hide.
Zetto was calm, though Kaen was not and he quickly took her hand and led her to a table against one of the walls.
He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her down and Kaen sank to the floor without much resistance.
“…Can you hide under here?”
Zetto whispered again, this time in a low voice.
“…Okay.”
Kaen nodded, still dumbfounded by the situation.
‘How did this happen…?’
The next moment, Kaen ducked under the table, puzzled and just as Zetto had said, there was a knock on the door.
Then the door opens and the sound of Zetto and the ‘guest’ talking on the other side can be heard.
Kaen then realizes that the window is wide open.
‘…Should I have jumped out the window?’
Just like Chris had once done but it was too late now.
“Really? You’re sure there’s no girl in there?”
For some reason, the guest hadn’t left right away, but was coming into the room.
It turned out to be the dorm security guard and Kaen clamped her mouth shut, trying not to make a sound.
“…There really isn’t.”
Zetto said, walking over to the table where Kaen had been hiding and casually sitting down on the chair in front of her.
“That’s strange…They said they heard a woman’s voice…”
The guard scanned the room and clicked his tongue.
“……”
But Kaen’s mind was distracted by the sight of Zetto in front of her.
