Ch.149Chapter 149

“I have nothing to do.”

“…Yeah, I’m bored.”

Ouro nodded her head in agreement with my words.

There really was nothing to do. Everyone was preparing for their midterm exams for the second semester, and there was a strong feeling that I shouldn’t disturb them anymore.

The day ended with me quietly watching friends studying in their study group. Sera gave me a ride home, but the sentiment I felt then was the same as Ouro’s.

With nothing to do, I was bored. There was nothing I could help with either, and just watching quietly was all I could do.

So despite the tedium, I just quietly went along with the study atmosphere alongside Ouro.

Maybe I would have enjoyed it if I had worked hard on solving problems too, but unfortunately, the answers would pop into my head the moment I looked at the questions, making problem-solving useless even as a way to pass time.

It had become simple drudgery. Just filling in blanks with numbers or selecting correct answers felt like doing a job, making it boring and tedious.

“No, you have plenty to do!”

“…It’s not fun.”

Ouro stuck out her lower lip.

I was shocked that Ouro would say she was bored in a situation where she shouldn’t be bored. I stared at her blankly.

But it seemed Ouro had concluded that she was bored because what she was doing wasn’t fun. Though I’m not sure if not doing something fun automatically means you’re bored.

I thought it couldn’t be helped if studying was difficult and hard to get interested in. It’s difficult to become interested in suddenly starting to study without sufficient motivation.

“Yeah, I guess that’s possible. I’m back~”

After entering the Research Lab, I greeted the Professor and pulled back a chair. With a scraping sound, I plopped down on it, rested my chin on my hand, and sighed.

“Why are you sighing like that? Did something happen?”

“No, it’s just…”

The Professor seemed concerned about my dejected appearance and carefully asked.

I hesitated and looked toward where Ouro was. Ouro also seemed a bit drained, quietly looking at me.

I wondered if it was a lie that she didn’t feel fatigue. Or maybe she just didn’t feel the fatigue related to sleepiness, not this kind of emotional drain.

“It’s just that everyone’s studying, and that atmosphere is too difficult…”

“Studying is different, and it’s probably because you’re not used to it.”

“Used to it?”

“Yes, habit. With studying, you need to develop a habit to sit longer, concentrate more, and so on.”

Hearing the Professor’s words, I felt like I was realizing something.

Put that way, it made sense that I couldn’t concentrate since I hadn’t had to study like this before. Plus, it seemed natural that Ouro couldn’t concentrate either since this was her first time studying.

Well, it’s not like I needed to do it right now, and even if I were prepared now, I couldn’t immediately do anything, so I decided to just wait and take my time.

Time was something I had in abundance, wasn’t it?

Besides, being a Demon God meant being a creature that didn’t need to sleep. So I believed that when things got really urgent, I could study without sleeping and become several times smarter than others.

“Ouro needs to get into the habit too!”

“…I wish Ourr could do it for me. Take the exams for me too.”

“Hey…! How are you going to study when you actually need to!”

Where did she get the idea of having someone take the exam for her? It didn’t seem impossible, but still… asking someone to take an exam that was meant for her own learning was just too much.

I suppose it’s because we have identical faces.

Dumbfounded, I stared at Ouro with an exasperated expression. Ouro looked back at me with a puzzled expression, as if she didn’t understand the problem.

Her face said, “What’s the problem?”

“…I think Ouro needs to learn more about morality!”

“Where did you learn that word ‘morality’?”

When I exclaimed that to the Professor, she burst into laughter. As the Professor looked at me, chuckling, my mouth opened and closed.

After hesitating for a moment, I blurted out:

“That’s something everyone learns as they live…!”

I must have picked it up somewhere. Thinking that, I clenched both fists and shook them up and down.

After shaking them twice with a “hmm-hmm!” the Professor nodded and gave me a gentle smile.

“That’s right, morality is important. It’s like rules that people follow to live in society.”

“What’s that?”

Ouro tilted her head.

It was a typical response from a Demon God. Demon Gods had instincts focused on survival rather than morality.

Of course, Ouro, being an immortal who couldn’t die, had slightly weaker survival instincts. It was natural in a way that she didn’t feel the need to do anything specific to survive since she would survive no matter what.

Anyway, now that she had decided to live among humans, learning these rules was necessary. So it was better to think that she couldn’t just do whatever she wanted like before.

“…If you want to live with people, you shouldn’t do things they dislike.”

“Then what if people do things I dislike?”

“Well, there are laws that are set, and if they violate those…”

“So I just need to follow the law?”

My eyes widened at Ouro’s question.

Just follow the law? Besides that, to get along well with people, it’s good to follow the unspoken rules that exist, but would Ouro understand such a difficult concept?

“For now, that’s a good start…”

“Do you know the law?”

“No…”

And if she was going to interrogate me about knowing the law, that wasn’t fair either. Laws are typically compiled in thick legal codes, and it’s natural for non-specialists not to have memorized them all.

As I hung my head and pouted, Ouro looked at me intently with an expression that said, “See, you don’t know either.”

I felt like getting competitive, but there wasn’t much I could show even if I did, so I quietly closed my mouth.

A moment of silence. Then the Professor’s voice broke in.

“It’s okay. Even if you don’t know the law in detail, as long as you know what you shouldn’t do, that’s enough to live by.”

“Do you know what those are, Professor?”

“You shouldn’t hit or kill people.”

“I’m already doing that.”

Ouro stared at the Professor.

She said there was no particular reason to do such things, and she hadn’t done them even when she was just a Demon God, not out of interest.

It wouldn’t make sense to suddenly start doing such things just because she had come out into society and seen more people. I wondered how many Demon Gods would suddenly get murderous impulses just from seeing some humans.

The Professor gave a bitter smile at Ouro’s nonchalant voice.

“And now, you shouldn’t steal or break other people’s things.”

“I’m doing that too. But… what about that guy?”

Ouro tilted her head. I wondered who she meant by “that guy,” but soon the Professor’s expression darkened.

“He, that student has taken a leave of absence, I heard. That’s why I’ve been taking you to second-year classes after confirming that.”

“…Hmph. If it ends with just him not coming to the Academy, I don’t see why anyone should bother trying not to break rules.”

Ouro snorted.

There was a lot of talk about following the law and how things should be, but the guy who had actually swung a knife seemed to have just submitted a leave of absence form without any other consequences, which seemed absurd to her.

It wasn’t surprising news since I had already heard it from Iris.

The lack of punishment was unavoidable. It was because I wasn’t human but a Demon God.

“That’s because we’re Demon Gods.”

As I added my comment, Ouro also spoke up.

“If persecuting someone for being a Demon God doesn’t violate the law, then since I’m also a Demon God, wouldn’t it be fine if I harmed humans?”

Hey, I thought she was just naive, but does she actually understand the law well?

Having lived for so long, she seemed to have some depth to her thinking. I usually thought of her as a child because she just whined and asked for things, but perhaps one couldn’t ignore the years she had lived.

As Ouro shrugged and said this, the Professor quietly placed a hand on her shoulder.

“That can’t be helped. Laws are created based on humans, by humans, for humans. They’re fences put up for people, so for now, Ouro can’t receive protection under the law. But I’ll try to change that later. So that Ourr and Ouro can be protected within the boundaries of the law.”

The Professor seemed to want us to live like humans, as humans.

I thought a Demon God blending into human society was an unusual combination, but I never expected to be at the forefront of it.

As I looked at the Professor with a dumbfounded expression, Ouro tilted her head from side to side.

“That’s fine with me. As long as no one harms me, I won’t harm anyone either.”

“You’re happy as long as you have food?”

“I don’t appreciate being seen as a glutton, but yes.”

She glared at my words, but soon closed her eyes and nodded. Seeing her humming and calling for pizza, the Professor suggested we go home and eat pizza.