Living Together (2)

Living Together (2)

Although Rumi has been dealing with difficult problems lately.

The talent Rumi possessed was worthy of being called genius.

If nothing else, her ability to learn and apply magic was at a considerable level within this world’s context.

‘In fact, without any special education, she ranked first in the entrance exam, surpassing the children of noble families and those called magic prodigies among the new students.’

This should give a rough idea of the level of talent Rumi possessed.

That’s why the occasional glimpses of her talent were at an incredible level…

The problem was that even in this situation, she was showing me a glimpse of that talent.

‘Instant tension magic.’

Just to pull me inside the blanket, she used tension magic that requires considerable skill to pull me inward.

Of course, I could have easily brushed this off.

Curious about why she pulled me, I let myself be caught, and Rumi buried my face in her large mana pouch.

“……”

Rumi’s unique scent, soft yet sweet, enveloped my nose.

I hesitated for a moment at this unexpected situation, then slowly tried to push Rumi’s body away to create some distance.

As if that was absolutely not allowed, she pulled me back again, burying my face in her chest.

‘She must be craving affection.’

Not having felt human warmth for a long time, she seemed to be unconsciously pulling in whatever was nearby… but the method was too excessive.

I was about to forcibly detach Rumi, deciding to give her a doll to hug later.

Rumi, as if waking up from sleep, slowly opened her eyes with a drowsy face.

“… Ah… uh?”

Then she made a strange sound as she looked at me.

As if gradually grasping the situation.

Finally, she opened her eyes wide and jumped up from the bed as if bouncing off.

“Eek, eek… Aah!”

Then, after letting out a short scream, she started bowing repeatedly and apologizing.

“So, so, so sorry!”

Fortunately, it seemed she was aware that she had done this.

I was relieved that there was no unnecessary misunderstanding, so I calmly replied.

“… It’s fine.”

“Y-Yes, yes.”

As I watched Rumi fidgeting nervously,

A thought suddenly crossed my mind: ‘How does she know what she did if she was sound asleep?’ However,

Since it wasn’t particularly important, I brushed it off and said,

“You look very tired, so get some rest for now. If you’re hungry or need anything, feel free to ask the maid anytime.”

“… Th-Thank you.”

I nodded briefly at Rumi’s words and immediately left the room.

* * * * * *

Rumi watched Deren leave, tightly clasping her hands and placing them on her chest.

The sound of her pounding heart.

Thinking that her heart hadn’t fluttered like this since she was young, she took a light deep breath.

‘I… I don’t feel like myself.’

Wondering why she was acting this way, she lightly slapped both her cheeks,

Then, to regain her composure, she shook her head a few times and smiled sheepishly.

‘Still, I’m glad… that he doesn’t hate me.’

To be honest, when Deren came out of the lab and bumped into the door, she had woken up startled.

‘I guess at home, I always have to get up and work immediately when I hear even the slightest vibration.’

As she always did, she woke up and regained her senses,

But realizing she had been sleeping on the floor, she couldn’t bring herself to get up and kept her eyes tightly shut.

‘I was embarrassed…’

If I had at least fallen asleep leaning against the wall, it wouldn’t have been so embarrassing.

As I continued to pretend to sleep while thinking this, Deren carefully picked me up and laid me down on a nearby bed.

His gentleness was almost excessive.

Others would usually treat me like a dirty bug if I slept like this.

Far from such treatment, he moved me as carefully as if handling something precious, which was the most surprising thing I’d experienced this year.

‘When I was clutching only my heart out of embarrassment.’

As Deren was about to leave after covering me with a blanket.

I unconsciously grabbed his clothes and activated attraction magic without realizing it.

‘Then, since I’d already done it, I hugged him recklessly as if to say “whatever happens, happens”.’

While I was savoring Deren like that, I barely came to my senses and awkwardly pretended to wake up…

“It’s okay.”

Contrary to my expectations, Deren forgave me and left.

As I recalled what had happened earlier.

I smiled foolishly while smelling Deren’s scent that still lingered in my arms, then got up and looked at the door.

‘If I wait in front of it again… will he hug me?’

No, I don’t even hope for a hug.

Thinking that it would be nice if he just showed interest in me.

Deciding to try it once more next time, I clasped my hands together and closed my eyes.

* * * * *

I collapsed into my seat, looking at the finally completed large-scale area attack magic.

‘I finally completed it.’

Creating magic itself wasn’t that difficult.

But trying to make magic that has efficiency, power, and above all, what I consider most important, ‘instantaneity’, these three things.

As I kept seeing points that were lacking and insufficient, I continued to make revisions, and it took longer than I thought.

‘Well, I guess it’s fine since I completed it.’

Whatever it became, as long as a conclusion was reached, there wasn’t a big problem.

I decided to test the magic I created soon and stretched out.

‘Then shall I go check if Rumi is doing well?’

Since she could have written an IOU and a letter like last time and run away, I went to check just in case.

Fortunately, I could receive a report from the maid saying she was asleep in the room.

I decided to let Rumi rest more and prepare for school.

‘Now there are two things left to do.’

Attending the banquet invited by the Herdi family.

And killing Ariel to sell her to the relic site.

I decided to proceed with the work quickly and headed to the Academy.

*

Arriving at the Academy, I see Delia sitting in her seat with a tired expression.

Wondering why, I asked for the reason.

“Ah… The number of corpses increased exponentially last night, and I couldn’t sleep because I was dealing with this.”

I hear about the free funeral service.

Feeling something strange about those words, I asked for more details about it.

“The number of corpses has increased?”

“Ah… yes. Roughly three times as many? There were already a lot, but this time it’s like there was some kind of fight, and the number has increased tremendously.”

Hearing those words, I couldn’t help but fall into deep thought.

The fact that the number of corpses had increased so much meant that some kind of incident had occurred.

But I couldn’t quite grasp what that incident might have been.

‘In the novel, I remember that around the time Rumi was despairing on the rooftop, unable to overcome the aftereffects, there were only scenes of Deren and others openly bullying her, so I don’t recall anything major happening.’

Seeing such an obvious increase in corpses.

There was a high probability that the Heaven God Cult or demons were up to something.

‘However, the demons only appeared in the middle part of the story.’

It would be right to assume that the Heaven God Cult is more likely to be making some moves.

I was about to ask Delia something to gather information about the Heaven God Cult, but.

‘No, I don’t want to involve her unnecessarily.’

For now, I decided to find out through others instead of Delia and turned my gaze away.

‘In that case, I need a person or organization that can take charge of information gathering.’

The problem was that in the case of the Information Guild, it was dominated by people from the Heaven God Cult, so if I entrusted them with this request, there was a high chance of facing backlash.

‘Other places either have poor quality information or lack skills.’

There was a high probability that entrusting them would cause more harm than good.

As these thoughts occurred to me, I pondered for a moment.

Then, recalling one idea, I smiled slightly.

‘Come to think of it, there was someone who helped Rumi in the latter half of the story.’

I got up from my seat, sensing that somehow persuading that guy would definitely be helpful in many ways.

“Huh? Where are you going?”

I nodded at those words and briefly said.

“Art room.”

“Oh… now? The lecture will start in 10 minutes.”

At those words, I checked the time written in the magic book and answered shortly.

“I’ll be back before then.”

Anyway, there were many things to consider in order to draw him in.

I decided to just throw some bait for now and headed to the art room.

*

Since magic is full of things that break common sense.

It often creates things unimaginable on Earth.

One of them was space expansion magic.

‘Of course, only childish level space expansion magic, far inferior to the ancient magic I’ve acquired, is available on the market.’

Even at that childish level, as long as there are expensive mana stones, it can ‘create new spaces’.

So there were cases of secretly creating hidden spaces like this.

I silently looked at the strange painting hanging in the corner of the art room, then threw a note ‘into the painting’ and turned around.

‘Now that the bait has been thrown, I can go.’

I slowly walked away, thinking about trying to lure Espin, the youngest inspector who would be quietly watching me from inside the painting