Ch.39Chapter 39

Last Saturday, I somehow had to give a makeup class for an academy student, but this week I could stay home without any such obligations.

As I was thinking vaguely that I’d forgotten something, I realized I’d missed meeting Lenya this week and let out a sigh.

Come to think of it, I had a lecture on Friday afternoon.

While it would be nice to gather everyone for a study group, I realized that if things continued this way, I wouldn’t be able to meet with Lenya.

Friday afternoon academy lectures for first-years, and Friday afternoon study group?

With the schedules overlapping, I’d have to give up one of them.

It’s not like we’re extremely close friends or that I absolutely need to see her, but I’d like to have at least one good friend in each class I attend. I wanted to meet her face-to-face and chat beforehand. Thinking about this made me feel a bit disappointed.

“Hmmmm…”

I closed my eyes and placed my hands on both temples. As I concentrated so intensely that I thought I might be able to send telepathic messages, I felt a hand on my head.

I opened my eyes and quickly turned my head. The Professor was looking at me with a smile.

“Ourr, is something bothering you?”

“Not really… I just don’t think I’ll have time to talk with Lenya.”

After saying that, I stretched my arms across the desk and rested my cheek on them. The Professor placed several sets of documents next to me and sat down.

As I maintained my desk-friendly posture and quietly observed the Professor’s documents, I became curious.

“Professor, what are you researching so intently?”

“This?”

The Professor hesitated for a moment and shuffled through the papers. There was a title clearly written on the front, but it seemed there were quite a few of them.

So are these different topics bundled together? Just how many research projects is the Professor working on?

“There’s more than one or two?”

“Yes, that’s right. I brought these to check on various projects. When there’s progress in one area, I focus on that. This one is about the magic circuits of Demon Gods, and that one is research on auras. This one would be most relevant to you.”

The Professor pulled out a bundle of documents from the middle and handed them to me.

I took them, but they were full of difficult characters. I was already struggling with reading properly, so there was no way I could read something like this.

I was curious since the Professor said it was related to me, but reading it was a problem, and even if I could read it, I doubted I’d understand it. So I just skimmed through it like I was looking at pictures.

In the process, I spotted a familiar word and showed it to the Professor.

“…Demon God! Right?”

“Demon God, that’s right. And after that?”

“……”

As I furrowed my brow, the Professor chuckled and began playing with my cheek. My soft cheek was gently pulled by the Professor’s touch.

“Huh?”

It was so unexpected that I let out a confused sound. The Professor looked at me and smiled.

“Why are Ourr’s cheeks so soft? Even though I maintain some youthfulness, mine aren’t like this.”

“Nah wanna touch Profeshur’s cheeks.”

“Hm?”

Hearing my slurred pronunciation, the Professor’s eyes widened. When the Professor released my cheek, it felt like it snapped back into place with a pop. I puffed my cheeks with air once and then returned them to normal.

“I want to touch the Professor’s cheeks too.”

As I reached out slightly, the Professor quietly looked at my hand. Then, leaning in slightly, the Professor offered her face.

I grabbed the Professor’s cheek. I didn’t know the Professor’s age, but she looked quite young, so I thought her skin would be soft and played with it a bit.

I tilted my head. Even after touching the Professor’s cheek, I had nothing to compare it to, so I couldn’t tell if it was soft or not, and I gently removed my hand.

My hand, which had been kneading the air, soon moved to my own cheek. I grabbed my cheek and squeezed it. It felt much softer than before.

I realized that while I’d experienced others touching my cheeks and shaking their heads, I’d never kneaded them myself.

Finding this interesting, I held both my cheeks and looked at the Professor.

When I reached out again to touch the Professor’s cheek, this time the Professor touched mine too. We held each other’s cheeks and stared at each other.

The more we squeezed, the more our mouths stretched into “ooh” shapes. The sight of our faces stretching sideways was somehow funny, and I started laughing.

“Hehehe.”

It was so funny that I laughed while my cheeks were being held, and the sound came out strangely, making me burst into laughter. My hands naturally lost their strength. The Professor and I released our hands at the same time.

“Whew, that was a good laugh. Shall we get some work done now?”

I nodded.

The Professor started working, and I watched quietly for a while before slipping onto the sofa and lying down. As I relaxed completely on the sofa, I thought this must be what heaven feels like.

The cool leather of the sofa welcomed me. With my eyes closed, immersed in that comfort, I let out a “heh” of contentment.

I wondered if this was what weekends felt like. Surrendering my body to the indescribably cozy sunlight, I debated whether to sleep or do something else.

Everyone seemed to be sleeping in, as the chat was quiet, so I had nothing to do. Since the Professor was working, I felt awkward about watching TV, so I just tossed and turned, mulling over my concerns.

Scratching my stomach, I carefully observed what the Professor was doing from behind.

The Professor, having entered work mode, seemed to have cut off all awareness of her surroundings and focused solely on the documents. She held thick papers and speed-read through them, turning the pages. When she found something important, she took out a highlighter, marked it, and jotted down something brief on a separate piece of paper.

Seeing numbers written down, I guessed they were page numbers.

“Professor?”

“Yes?”

“Why did you become a professor?”

Having nothing to do, I just asked out of curiosity. I worried that I might be disturbing her work, but my concern didn’t last long as the Professor answered.

“…I just sort of ended up this way.”

The Professor’s hands didn’t stop. Relieved that I hadn’t disturbed her, I mentally sighed with relief.

I should stop bothering her now, I thought, turning my body back to lie straight. As I placed my interlocked hands on my navel, wondering if I should just sleep like this, the Professor spoke to me.

“But why do you ask all of a sudden?”

I had planned not to speak further since she was working, but when the Professor asked, I had no choice but to continue the conversation.

“You just look really busy.”

“Well, if you like research, you go through the Academy process, and if you want to research more, you go through the professor track. You earn money by teaching others, use that money to support yourself while continuing your research—that’s what people who enjoy this kind of thing do to become professors. That’s what I did.”

“Hmm, I see.”

I nodded.

“So did you always want to do research like this?”

“I did.”

The Professor tapped her pen.

I nodded at the sight.

“I see.”

**

When Yuria was young, her goal was the extermination of Demon Gods.

The existence of Demon Gods was harmful to humans. The same applied to other living beings.

The life-stealing aura. The tyranny without ethics or morals. People suffered and shed tears because of them. Yuria had witnessed this with her own eyes.

She had sent off her own family that way too.

So she researched Demon Gods. Where their weaknesses were, how to kill them easily. How to weaken their forces. That’s what she was busy contemplating.

It was an emotion closer to vengeance than interest or academic curiosity. She pursued it relentlessly. To the point of creating an original, to the point where it could be called an obsession.

The research on Demon Gods never ended. She killed them using new methods while researching. She met many types and pondered how best to deal with them, eventually earning the unusual title of “Demon God Slayer.”

Yuria still had an unhealed scar in her heart. The burning desire for revenge—that all Demon Gods must die, that they must disappear from this world—still burned within her.

But there was one exception.

“Professor?”

Ourr’s bright-eyed gaze shook Yuria’s heart.

It was a moment when her firmly held beliefs began to waver. It made her deeply consider whether there could be good Demon Gods in the world.

That answer had yet to be found.

If a Demon God had sufficient moral values, ethics, and didn’t emit aura, perhaps they didn’t need to be killed.

If that were possible, it would be wonderful.

Yuria tasted bitterness. Even though the world was unlikely to move in such an easy direction, a part of her heart vaguely held onto hope.

“Ourr, are you hungry?”

“…No.”

Ourr shook her head.

It was a typical Demon God answer, having a body that doesn’t feel hunger.

“Then shall we eat a little later?”

“Anytime is fine.”

Sitting on the sofa, Ourr swung her legs. Her legs, swaying left and right, stirred the air.

Yuria watched for a while, then quietly looked at her research documents.

‘Methods to euthanize Demon Gods.’

Although it was research for Ourr, it was content that she wouldn’t want to use even if it were possible, leaving only a bitter feeling.

If only Ourr were human. Then, her heart wouldn’t be wavering like this.

Thinking this, Yuria tucked the document at the very bottom of the pile.