Ch.105Smart College Life (5)

# Wednesday.

After receiving a report from Sonia that Ireh Hazlen had awakened, I rushed to the Southern Sanctuary as soon as school ended.

“Sonia!”

“You’ve arrived?”

I used ‘hug me’ on Sonia.

“I was lonely.”

“Please stop saying such cringe-worthy things.”

Sonia buried her face in my chest and sniffed.

“…This smell, it’s cellulose. What is this? Did you sleep with research papers instead of a blanket?”

Caught.

Sonia sighed and lightly grabbed and shook me.

“Until I return, you should clean up neatly… though I suppose that’s unnecessary. It’s a maid’s duty to take care of her inadequate young master.”

She twitched the corner of her mouth.

Afterward, I followed Sonia’s guidance to where Ireh Hazlen was.

When I entered the recovery room, there was a girl enjoying what looked like bondage play.

“Mmph, mmph.”

A gag in her mouth, a blindfold over her eyes, plugs in her ears.

Bound with wire-like material in a turtle shell pattern—goodness, wow.

“Sonia, explain.”

“She seemed likely to escape, so I just restrained her.”

“Who told you to go this far? This is basically kidnapping and imprisonment!”

“Still, I couldn’t beat an unknown person unconscious. What if we end up having to pay compensation later? This was all done with you and the family in mind, so please understand.”

Now that I hear it, she’s right. I can’t logically refute that.

But this state won’t do. We can’t communicate, and above all, it will only increase Ireh’s hostility toward me.

I decided to remove at least the facial restraints.

When I removed the blindfold, moist eyes appeared, and when I removed the gag, sticky saliva stretched like thread.

After catching her breath, she slowly opened her mouth.

“…Kill me.”

Protagonist, what are you saying?

Do you think I’d release a walking miracle with knowledge and know-how from 800,000 iterations? You escaped once, so I’ll make sure you can’t run away a second time.

Of course, since the protagonist was likely to be hostile to me, I had prepared a few necessary items before coming here.

“Sonia, please step outside for a moment.”

“Understood. However, just in case, please keep this with you.”

Sonia handed me something. It was a small plastic object.

“What’s this now?”

“It’s a personal alarm. If you pull this like this—”

Beep beep beep beep.

“The sound can be heard outside. If a dangerous situation occurs, please pull it immediately. I’ll come in and take measures.”

This is ridiculous. Am I a child?

“Well then, I wish you luck.”

After Sonia left, the atmosphere became even more oppressive.

Ireh was still looking at me with eyes that seemed to resent me.

“Sapaul, kill me quickly. I don’t want to see this guy suffer. Absolutely…!”

Her desperate struggling looks pitiful.

However, time would not rewind as she wished. Because this was a sanctuary where external gods could not exert their power.

Looking at Ireh struggling vigorously, I sat down in a chair.

With her bound while standing, my eye level was lower than hers.

Lifting my head slightly to look up, I could see tears of blood falling one or two drops at a time from Ireh’s eyes. She looked utterly frustrated.

“Are you okay?”

“……”

“I guess not.”

“You tie me up like this and have the nerve to ask that…!”

“I apologize for that. But compared to when you were suffering to death from external gods, isn’t being like this much more comfortable?”

“……”

Ireh closed her eyes.

She probably didn’t just faint. She just doesn’t want to talk to me.

“…Get it over with quickly.”

“What?”

“You know…! If you’re going to do it, just get it over with quickly!”

What exactly?

The interview?

Or is she asking me to end her life because she’s suffering?

If it’s the latter request, I reject it. If you’re gone, I’ll have to struggle alone in this world, and that’s not right. Isn’t there a saying that happiness grows when shared, and suffering diminishes when shared? So let’s suffer together.

Of course, to make her a companion in shared suffering, I first need to open her heart. Somehow, I need to convince her completely, beyond any doubt, that I am not the Eidel she knows.

It was time to execute the prepared strategy.

“Hehehe.”

I put down the bag I had brought on the desk. When the heavy sound thumped on the wooden table, Ireh’s expression slightly crumbled.

Yes, you must be surprised.

Now, see the rest. The comprehensive gift set I personally brought!

***

In a dazed state, I infiltrated the college, hiding my identity to monitor Eidel and Zernya.

But on orientation day, something went wrong.

Eidel von Rheinland. That guy knocked me out with a strange-looking tool just like last time, then dragged me to the sanctuary and imprisoned me.

When I came to my senses, I was restrained, and shortly after, Eidel appeared with a sly smile and asked about my well-being.

Naturally, I was displeased.

Various thoughts crossed my mind.

Why wasn’t Eidel banished from the family? Why was he still with Zernya? How much of that smile was fake? And why did the external gods order Eidel’s elimination?

My vision was blurry from the intense tug-of-war in my mind.

Eventually, Eidel smiled and put down a black bag.

“I’ve prepared a gift for you.”

Here it comes, I thought.

“It’s going to be very interesting.”

“Ugh.”

“But it takes a little time to make.”

For a moment, I thought about biting my tongue. Though extremely painful, it was the best method to avoid being violated if done right.

Unlike dramas or movies, committing suicide in one go isn’t easy, but in a situation pushed to the brink of rape, I could do it several times.

Just as Ireh was about to slightly open her mouth.

[This week’s headline news. The war with the Darwinian external gods in the southern region, which had lasted at least decades to centuries, has effectively ended. Some scholars have evaluated this as a historic event announcing the successful development of Aether Belt restoration technology.]

“…?”

A radio was placed on the desk.

Most of the content coming through the radio was good news.

The war in the south had ended, the Aether Belt was expanding, and external god forces were retreating—is that even possible?

It was something that had never happened in hundreds of thousands of iterations.

No, I still don’t know. Perhaps I’m seeing a flashback of life.

Eidel next neatly placed paper, notebooks, and a tablet PC on the desk.

Finally, after taking out writing tools, he alternated between looking at the tablet and notebook, then began scribbling what looked like equations on blank paper.

“What on earth are you trying to do…?”

“Shh!”

Eidel put his index finger to his lips.

“I’m going to make a gift for you now.”

Scratch, scratch.

Only the gentle sound of pen scratching echoed in the quiet recovery room.

A question mark floated above Ireh’s head.

What on earth are you plotting, Eidel von Rheinland?

Though curious, she managed to endure without asking for about the first 30 minutes.

But after an hour passed and she still couldn’t read the pattern of what he was doing, she became restless. Were the characters he was writing even human language?

Flutter—

One hour.

Unlike the motionless Eidel, Ireh faced a new crisis.

She needed to use the bathroom.

“…Ugh.”

This much she could endure.

Even if she had to make a request, she would ask that android, not the third-rate vermin who had been notorious for his perverted nature throughout the past hundreds of thousands of iterations. It wasn’t for rational reasons; she just instinctively disliked it.

But this guy showed no sign of switching.

How could someone stay in the same position for three hours, just looking at books and notebooks?

Moreover, he didn’t even glance in her direction.

Finally, the fourth hour.

“Phew.”

At last, Eidel stood up.

“I’ve finished organizing my ideas.”

“?”

“Now I need to write a paper.”

Eidel took out a laptop.

Click, click.

Like a smoldering bonfire, the gentle and subtle keyboard sounds shook out the last bit of Ireh’s soul.

“Ah, um, excuse me.”

“Yes?”

“Just, the restraints.”

“What?”

“The restraints, please, loosen them…”

“No. You’ll run away.”

“That’s not it!”

After another hour passed, in the fifth hour, Ireh, who had been flapping like a fish under the pressure of the restraints pressing on her lower abdomen, was finally allowed to go to the bathroom after pleading and promising she would absolutely not escape.

“…Haa.”

I want to die from embarrassment.

However, because the new news flowing from the radio was all unprecedentedly hopeful, Ireh couldn’t easily abandon this world line.

Eidel’s eccentricity continued even past the weekend.

“Can I nail it here?”

“Yes, that’s fine.”

Startled by such a voice from Eidel, Ireh, who had been sleeping soundly, jerked her head up. Eidel was hammering the wall with nails in his mouth.

“Nailed it, now I just need to hang it.”

“Young master, what madness are you up to now?”

“Can’t you see? I’m hanging a blackboard.”

“Did you lease the sanctuary?”

“No?”

“Then why are you damaging someone else’s property?”

“Sorry, I made you misunderstand. I didn’t lease it; I bought it.”

“?”

“?”

“Now this is a sanctuary overseen by the God of Education and Graduate School.”

In short, it’s a one-person study room—that’s what I’m saying.

While Sonia and Ireh lost their composure at Eidel’s declaration, he took out several sheets of paper and transferred the equations written on them to the blackboard one by one.

[“This can’t be.”]

Around that time, Sapaul, who had been quietly conserving strength, began to waver.

***

“Ah, shit.”

Seti cursed.