episode_0077

Bubble bubble――

The sound of water boiling and cutting sounds coming from the kitchen inside the store. The sound of students walking outside the window. The very slight sound of cutlery hitting plates floats around the cafe.

The owner of the cafe left the table to cook, and the cafe was so quiet that all the sounds were like noise, with only Priscilla and me remaining.

I didn’t think anything of it, but Priscilla seemed quite uncomfortable with my presence, even though she was sitting about 4 seats away from me.

If this were some place other than a cafe, I would have approached her thinking, “How can I attract Priscilla to me?” … .

Clatter–clatter–

I don’t really want to do that right now.

This cafe is my only sanctuary and safe zone. I don’t want to do anything dirty in a place like that. Because I decided that the only time this place would fail would be when the tsunami of rebellion swept away.

I cleaned up the remaining pasta and leisurely took a sip of coffee.

The warm feeling in my stomach made a small smile bloom on my stiff face, and the strong scent of coffee completely washed away the fishy and foul smell of blood and excrement.

“Hehe… … .”

It’s funny that even the smell of blood now feels like it’s become part of my body.

After smiling bitterly and taking another sip, let’s check the inside of the cup. The coffee that only had one sip left came into view.

When I finish drinking this, I will have to go back to the dormitory. Today, Hermel might ask for some physical activity to lighten the mood. I already hate it.

“Phew… … .”

I already felt dirty thinking about going back to reality, in a dreamlike place without any threats.

Just as a stone thrown high falls deeper into the mud, it feels really good when you come here, but the opposite happens when you leave.

okay. Well, because dreams remain dreams, they are even more pleasant and beautiful. Let’s think positively. At least it’s a dream you can continue to dream until a rebellion occurs.

Just come back next time. Because I can’t go often during the day. Let’s come back again at night like today.

Contrary to my mind that was somehow able to think positively, my still weak body could not accept that thought, and the coffee cup that only had one sip left was too heavy to lift.

“… … .”

The weight of the formless thing called reality that fills the empty space in the coffee cup that becomes empty every time I drink the coffee called dream is so heavy.

It was difficult to even hold the coffee cup, let alone lift it, with any amount of willpower.

I know very well that I shouldn’t do that, but… … .

Because I know very well that as soon as I leave this cafe, the only thing that unfolds is a thorny path that will tear my skin and make my muscles ache.

Every time I am here, I always hope that this brief escape will last forever.

Reality is so dark and painful that I think I want to stay forever in a sweet dream.

Uncharacteristically, he even uses metaphors and talks nonsense. The bitter taste of coffee is for reason, and the sweeter sugar is for emotions. regret. Lament. My weak emotions like fear.

That’s why I can’t easily reach for this last sip of coffee. Because in this last sip, everything that has not been dissolved and the bitter taste that has not been filtered out are condensed.

After looking down at my coffee cup for a moment, I sighed inwardly and emptied the cup.

For someone who had thought about it for a long time, it was an overly vain ending.

Yes, it’s reality, it’s nonsense, it’s a dream, it’s damned. What’s in the cup is just a simple sip of coffee. It is only my weak mind that gives it meaning.

I looked out the window and was about to get up, thinking I had to go home, when I heard Priscilla’s voice.

“Charlotte La Rochelle student.”

When I looked at Priscilla to see what was going on, she, who was looking at her coffee cup, looked at me with an expressionless face and said.

“I have one thing to ask, is it okay?”

“――Woohuhu, I didn’t expect the professor to ask a question… … .”

“Is this unexpected?”

I thought about giving him a grin as if he wasn’t answering and asking because I didn’t know, but he shook his head and looked down at his empty coffee cup.

What should I do? After thinking about it for a moment, I decided to just push ahead. My mother’s specialty is making trouble for the other person by changing words and twisting things around.

If you treat Priscilla, who almost hates her mother, that way, you will probably face backlash.

“Unexpected――rather, it would be better to say that I was a little surprised.”

“You were surprised?”

“I was a little surprised that a professor who didn’t look at me very favorably suddenly asked me something.”

“… … .”

Priscilla twitched her eyebrows, seemed a little surprised, trembled, and drank her coffee.

“The reason you thought I disliked student Charlotte was simply because you felt that way? If so, I apologize.”

“No. It’s not because I simply felt that way, but because I felt that the atmosphere when dealing with other students was slightly different than when dealing with other students.”

“Isn’t that how you felt in the end?”

I smiled slightly as I looked at Priscilla talking as she put down her coffee cup.

“I think there is a difference between simply accepting it that way and seeing it objectively.”

“What is the standard for that judgment?”

“It’s an experience. It’s a very personal story, but I needed to learn early on how to read people’s emotions for a special reason.”

After saying that, he smiled and touched the empty coffee cup.

“Of course, compared to Professor Priscilla, my experience is like a frog in a narrow well.”

“… … Is that so?”

Priscilla, who was quietly looking down at her coffee cup, looked at me and said.

“Rather than asking a question, I should apologize first. We apologize for the unpleasant experience you had.”

I was truly surprised to see him nodding and bowing in silence.

How can you bow your head in front of someone you truly hate and want to kill? It wasn’t someone’s compulsion, but he just admitted his mistake of his own volition and even apologized?

that’s interesting. How can that happen?

Various emotions came to mind, but I answered without showing them at all.

“It’s okay, Professor. Please raise your head.”

Priscilla nodded and raised her head, and I looked into her eyes and tried to read her emotions.

ah. That wasn’t an apology towards me. It was just those eyes that blamed themselves for their mistakes and blamed themselves.

Yes, that’s why I was fooled in the previous episode. How could I, who was so confused at that time, be able to read those twisted emotions?

I almost snorted at the thought of an old memory without realizing it, but I held it in and smiled a little.

“So, you said you wanted to ask a question. What is it?”

“Ah, that’s what I’ve been thinking since I heard your aspirations at the entrance ceremony… … .”

Priscilla covered her mouth with her claspers and continued speaking while looking at me intently.

“I’m curious as to what you were thinking when you said that.”

“… … I don’t know why you’re asking that question.”

“It’s mine… … . There is nothing grand like that. I was just curious. I am the one who makes my own enemies with my own hands.”

There was no emotion whatsoever on Priscilla’s face as she said that. Did you just get rid of all your outwardly expressed emotions with that apology?

Well, the more I look at him, the more he looks like a snake. No, if you look at the way it changes in an instant with a single word, it looks more like a chameleon than a serpent.

“Makes enemies… … . It certainly might seem that way. No, you’re right. It was an action that was no different from making enemies.”

I nodded and confirmed Priscilla’s words. Because that was correct.

Let’s all work hard together, we could have said something like that, but telling us to struggle hard was no different from saying, ‘We will oppose you all.’

I said that even though I knew it. Without much meaning, just to satisfy my sense of superiority? no. Are you lost in the excitement of being there for the first time? Neither is this.

“That’s right. Why did you act like that… … .”

Regardless of where I was standing, my stomach turned as I thought about the bugs that would stick to me to suck up the sweet water.

The thought of those horrible people who called me friends but then cursed at me, standing next to me and laughing loudly, made me feel so bad that my internal organs twisted and I spilled my intestines out of my mouth.

Of course, there was no need or obligation to tell Priscilla that, so I smiled and said.

“I entered the academy at the top of my class, so I wanted to graduate at the top of my class. Wouldn’t it be a shame to lose your position as head of the class after laughing haha with other classmates?”

“So did they deliberately take a hostile stance and make you hostile? If you do it wrong, it will be like strangling your own neck with your own hands.”

“I thought it would be better to have an enemy that you can clean up if you block it, rather than a friend that you can’t get rid of.”

“You are young. It’s reckless.”

I chuckled at those words and stood up.

“Because I take after my father.”

I heard it often.