Ch.72Chapter 72

Next Thursday and Friday. The thought of an upcoming festival made me excited.

It’s not like I was tired from focusing on academics, and I was just enjoying being by the Professor’s side as a fixture, but who cares?

Good things are good, after all.

During the festival, besides the booths set up by clubs and departments, there were also events organized by the Academy itself, so they handed out pamphlets like this a week in advance so everyone could check them out.

A festival that runs from morning to afternoon.

They said celebrities would be coming too, so even I, who wasn’t interested before, found myself glancing at the information. The Academy’s internal map showed where each department and club would set up their booths, and it also showed that a stage would be installed for performances by celebrities and students alike.

Looking at this, I was curious about what performances the students would put on, setting aside the celebrities.

“Professor, is this organized by the Academy?”

Lying on the sofa at home, I stretched my arms toward the ceiling. The pamphlet in my hands caught the light, making the edges glow brightly. The part I was trying to read was darkened, so I had to narrow my eyes to see it properly.

I wiggled my legs a bit before folding them.

There wasn’t anything suitable for a study group focused on academics. Nothing that would be visible at the booths either.

The Professor, who was typing on her laptop, perhaps writing a paper, looked back at me as she always did.

“That’s probably… organized by the student council with the Academy’s permission?”

“Hmm, I see.”

I made a nasal sound as I flipped through the pamphlet.

A festival, huh? I guess they’re conducted similarly no matter where they’re held. Just as I was about to move on with that thought, something suddenly occurred to me. Not wanting to let the fleeting thought pass, I moved my feet.

I lifted my lower body slightly and then used the momentum to raise my upper body, making the sofa make a “poof” sound.

As I got up from the sofa, I could see the back of the Professor sitting on the floor, leaning against the sofa. When I gently touched the Professor’s hair, she giggled and said to me:

“Ourr, my hair isn’t as fluffy as yours.”

“…It just feels differently soft compared to mine.”

After impulsively touching the Professor’s hair, I almost forgot what I was going to do.

Oh! Trying to gather my thoughts, I opened my eyes wide and changed the subject.

“That’s not it, Professor.”

“Hmm?”

“Do graduate students participate in the festival?”

“…No? What are you talking about? Graduate students are busy preparing their theses. They have a seminar coming up.”

“Seminar…?”

“It’s where they decide on their own topics and present them. How should I explain this to Ourr in simple terms…”

The Professor made a “hmm” sound while rubbing her chin.

Then, as if an idea had struck her from her laptop screen, she let out a small sigh of “Ah.”

“Right, to graduate with a master’s degree later, you need a thesis. But it’s not just a graduation paper that you can simply pass off as ‘Ah, this is good enough’ like Sera or Aria might do. It goes to an academic society, and you need to have your own thesis, so they’re preparing for that.”

“???”

I didn’t understand a word she said, so my eyes just widened.

With my mouth slightly open, I stared at the Professor’s face, wondering what she was talking about. The Professor scratched her cheek with an expression that seemed to say, “Was that too difficult?”

And after a short while, she added more explanation for me.

“So, they’re preparing to write a proper graduation thesis. They need to choose a good title, and also decide how they’ll research and write the paper. When they present this, the professors give them advice.”

“Professors have a lot to do, don’t they?”

“…Well, yes. Somehow it ended up that way.”

The Professor smiled bitterly and resumed typing on her keyboard.

“What kind of research are you doing, Professor? Are you just supervising graduate students’ research?”

“No, I’m… well, researching a new Original, you could say.”

The Professor rummaged through the documents piled in front of her and answered.

Even though that unique ring seemed sufficient, human greed knows no bounds, and she was working on discovering a new Original.

I put my hand on my chin.

“Do you think I have something like an Original too?”

“…It might be an Original to me, but to Ourr, a Demon God, it’s probably just something common.”

“Hmm.”

I see. As expected, being a Demon God means I probably don’t have anything that could be called an Original. After all, what they call Originals are things they extract from Demon Gods that people don’t know much about and make their own.

“Then what about me?”

“What?”

“What if I were like you, Professor, with that ‘waaaaaah!’ feeling?”

I raised both hands, mimicking as if I were emitting some kind of aura.

The Professor smiled bitterly and shook her head.

“Ourr is cute enough without such things. Just like with people, the stronger you get, the more responsibilities you have to bear, and you might end up like the Professor?”

As if telling me to look at her current situation, the Professor shrugged her shoulders, making my eyes widen.

The Professor was so strong that she was called to various places besides her professorial duties. Thinking about it, I realized that being strong wasn’t necessarily always good.

I pouted my lips and then retracted them.

More than being cute, I wanted to find something cool. After all, this is a world with magic. The era was very similar to where I came from, so there was nothing I could use from my vague modern memories.

Rather, there were far more experts than what I knew, so there was no place for me to step in.

It seemed like both the situation and the surrounding environment were telling me to stay put. As if putting a finger to their lips and saying “Shh” to me.

‘Don’t do anything.’

I flinched.

It felt like I had realized something.

Just like how I suddenly came to this world. It felt like it was hitting my head again suddenly, just as I was about to pass it off as nothing.

“Wait,” I groaned softly, and my eyes widened. It felt like I couldn’t breathe, so I focused on my breathing, which is probably why I didn’t hear the Professor’s voice for a moment.

“…Ourr?”

“Ah. Yes…?”

I looked at the Professor with trembling eyes. The Professor, seemingly worried about me, adjusted her position to face me completely. We stared at each other in silence.

Blankly, with silence between us.

“Is something wrong? Your complexion suddenly doesn’t look good…”

“It’s, not that.”

I wanted to say it was nothing, but contrary to that, my throat felt choked. Speaking itself felt difficult, causing my brow to furrow.

As I groaned with a frown, the Professor immediately got up from her seat.

She lifted me up from the sofa.

“Whoa…?”

“Are you sick somewhere? Let’s lie down on the bed first.”

“…I’m fine.”

“No, you might be sick, so it’s better to be comfortable at times like this.”

The Professor stopped what she was doing and laid me down on the bed.

I was placed on the bed. The soft sensation enveloped my body. I folded my hands on my chest and looked up at the Professor quietly.

Could something be wrong with my body? I wondered why, since I had been fine until now. The Professor looked at me with a serious expression and placed her hand on my forehead.

“Could it be because of the alcohol you drank?”

“…I think it’s been quite a while since I drank alcohol?”

I shook my head, thinking that wasn’t it, but the Professor shook her head as if she couldn’t overlook it.

It was my body, but it was a body I didn’t know. I just kept my mouth shut because it wasn’t my area of expertise, so it was awkward to say anything.

I remained still until the Professor showed a relieved expression.

**

I felt like Ourr’s mood had changed for a moment.

It wasn’t just a feeling; Ourr’s expression had changed unnervingly.

Ourr, a Demon God who shouldn’t know the feeling of fatigue or drowsiness, was looking at me with a darkened complexion. It felt like my heart sank.

Fear arose. I stared for a long time, wondering if there was a new trigger I didn’t know about.

I placed my hand on Ourr’s forehead to check for fever. The temperature was normal. Her complexion, which had briefly worsened, had now returned to normal.

Should I measure her blood alcohol level? She drank last Friday, so it’s been several days, and the effects should be gone by now.

As numerous thoughts crossed my mind, Ourr simply closed her eyes and fell asleep. I was anxious, but I felt bad about waking her up, so I quietly left the room without saying anything.

“…What’s going on?”

Even after coming out to the living room, the anxiety didn’t wash away, and I felt uneasy.

Ourr doesn’t die. If she goes below around fifteen, as if saying “This is the end,” she returns to about twenty-five. And at that moment, her personality changes.

She emits an ominous aura. Remembering how the golden glow in her eyes glared at me amidst the darkness that rapidly filled the surroundings still makes me feel like I can’t breathe.

I wanted to teach Ourr about society because her personality seemed too kind and gentle. That was true.

It was also true that I wanted to suppress that terrifying personality hidden behind Ourr because it was too frightening.

Let’s put aside my complacent thinking for a moment and reconsider. Which of Ourr’s personalities is the main one, and which one is forcibly suppressed?

Sitting on the sofa, no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t find an answer. It was a problem I had thought about before, but thinking about it now didn’t change anything.

After all, neither the current Ourr nor the Ourr with that personality I fear showed any resistance.

If one was suppressed, if one was a personality seeking liberation, it would have definitely tried to kill me, but seeing how it remained still, it seemed like neither was the case.

Then, is the existence called Ourr actually living a life of coexistence?

I didn’t know much about Ourr. I only knew that she doesn’t die, and that she becomes younger when she dies, but nothing more, which was frustrating.