episode_0025

After sending Elin away, I opened my inventory.

“Cool… ….”

As expected, Dien was still asleep.

With her entire body covered with hair and her eyes covered with a blindfold.

So how could I feel Elin slipping away every night?

bean.

I felt resentful for no reason and hit Dien’s small temple with a hammer.

“What, what is it…?”

Dien, who was greeted by an unpleasant weather, glared at Luke with a half-asleep look.

“Good morning, senior.”

“Hmm… Really? Good morning.”

Then, she wraps her hair in a ponytail.

“Koo… .”

I quickly pulled the ball back as my breathing became steady.

“Ayaayaayaya!”

“Good morning is not a greeting you say at bedtime.”

“Ah, I got it! Okay, let go!”

I let go of Dien’s cheek, which was stretched out like cheese.

The softness was on par with Elin’s or lower.

“Sigh… You said you wouldn’t interfere with whether I sleep in the morning or not.”

Dien wiped away the tears that had formed at the corner of her eyes.

“So why did you wake me up?”

He was holding the ball tightly with both hands for fear of being pulled again.

“When are you planning on going back?”

“Where are you going back to?”

“Where are you? Are you planning on spending your whole life in inventory?”

It’s already been a few days since I put Dien to sleep in my inventory.

…meaning that Elin had been sneaking into Luke’s bed for several days.

“Ha, but you said you’d check to see if there were any side effects, right?”

Clearly, Dien has remained until now under that pretext.

“If nothing has happened so far, isn’t that okay?”

But that was literally an ‘excuse’.

Except for the first day, I had no trouble drinking the potion.

Dien took up the inventory space without doing anything.

“I’m just saying that because I don’t want to bother going back.”

“Oh, no. I mean, there’s some material I was supposed to get from Lanian.”

“Are you talking about alchemy materials?”

“Yeah, I’ll just take that since he said he’d save me. Can’t I just stay until then… ?”

Dien looked up at Luke, wary, like a tenant three months behind on rent.

“Is your inventory that convenient?”

“Yeah, there’s no place this quiet.”

“Okay, I understand. But please go back as quickly as possible. It will be difficult to put you to sleep in your inventory once you leave the prison.”

“Okay!”

Dien, excited by the promise to let her sleep a little longer, wraps her body in her hair again.

I knew this would happen.

“only.”

“… but?”

Dien swallowed hard at the anxious addition.

“If you’re going to stay here, at least make me some coffee.”

“Huh? Coffee?”

“I feel like I’m going to die after not drinking for over a week. Look.”

He showed his trembling hands.

“All the materials will be in your inventory.”

“Then why haven’t you made it until now?”

“Doesn’t it smell?”

What would he think if the smell of coffee wafted through the prison, where the only inmate was Luke?

“Senior, please ask me to make it in your inventory.”

“Ugh… Okay. But don’t wake me up from my nap? Call?”

“Call.”

A dramatic deal was reached.

Dien started making coffee, one after another.

*****

Choop.

In a week, caffeine will be up your esophagus.

“Ugh… … .”

I felt like I was being forcibly awakened, so I let out a strange noise.

“How is it?”

“Senior, please open a cafe. What kind of alchemy is this?”

The coffee the alchemist brewed was the best.

“Huh. Even the mixing is done perfectly like this because you’re an alchemist?”

“Haa… Senior, you are the best.”

“That, that’s it?”

Dien hesitated for a moment, feeling proud after receiving a little praise.

“… Are you okay? Your eyes are a little weird.”

“Of course, that’s okay. I’m still thinking about how I can turn you into a coffee machine.”

“Eek… !”

The terrified Dien disappeared into his inventory.

Can I use this as a coffee machine?

It didn’t seem like there was much to do anyway, so this is a good thing―

Twinkle-

―The thought was interrupted by a notification on a long-distance communication paper.

Luke, who had come to his senses, picked up the letter.

Shu-

As soon as you open the portal, Elin suddenly pops out.

“You must have enjoyed it. It’s all over your mouth.”

I wiped the cream soup off the corner of my mouth.

“Yeah. It was delicious. Did you eat something delicious too, teacher?”

“How did you know?”

“You look like you’re in a good mood.”

Ellen keenly noticed the changes in Luke.

“I asked my senior to give me some coffee.”

“Do you like coffee that much?”

“Yes.”

“Then I want to drink it too.”

“That won’t do.”

“Why?”

“Your Highness is still growing. You can drink it after you become an adult.”

“… What is that.”

“Tch,” Ellin said, pouting her lips.

“Then let’s hurry up and go to class.”

He quickly fluttered his stupid hair and clung to Luke.

Classes are important, too.

“Before that. Did you take the potion?”

The most important thing was to take the potion three times a day.

“Yeah. I ate.”

“Look straight into my eyes.”

“It’s true.”

He says that but doesn’t make proper eye contact.

“Princess. No matter how much you don’t want to eat it, you must not refuse it.”

“… I ate it last night, so it should be okay.”

“What are you going to do if you get sick again?”

“Um… … .”

Elin, who has no words, starts to cry.

He took advantage of the gap and took the potion and gave it to Elin.

“I feel like I’m going to throw up just from smelling it.”

“If you eat well, I will give you a reward.”

“What kind of prize?”

“I’ll let the princess decide… … You eat well.”

Before I could finish speaking, I gulped down the potion.

“Euh… … .”

It didn’t make me gag like the first time I ate it, but it still made me frown.

“Oh, try it.”

“Ah… .”

I put the candy into her slightly open mouth.

It was a grape candy made by Dien because she couldn’t stand seeing Elin suffer every day.

“Well done. What kind of reward would you like?”

“Hug me.”

“I can do that for you.”

It’s embarrassing to sneak under the covers while you’re sleeping.

Luke also welcomes such a cute request.

“Pat pat too.”

“Thank you for your hard work drinking the tasteless potion.”

Patted me on the back.

“Tsdamtsdamdo.”

I stroked her soft hair.

“You only have to suffer twice more today.”

“… … You don’t have to say useless things.”

Elin, who had been feeling Luke’s touch with her eyes closed, glared at him.

“Now that you’ve had the potion, let’s get started with today’s lesson.”

“Oh, but.”

Elin opened her mouth as if she remembered something.

“My brother came to visit me this morning.”

“Your Highness?”

Why all of a sudden?

Surely Gerald wouldn’t have come to see me out of concern for his sick brother.

“So I gave it water.”

“Yes? I think there are a lot of omissions.”

I was taken aback by the unexpected conclusion.

“What brings you here?”

“Um, that’s… … .”

*****

The time is this morning.

It was when Elin returned to her room through the portal.

“If you’ve finished eating, I’ll clean it up for you.”

After Ron, who had become like a personal chef, prepared a sumptuous breakfast.

Elin was planning to write a letter asking for the portal to be opened.

Knock knock.

I heard a creepy sound.

thud.

I felt like my heart was falling.

The blood drains from my hands and feet and my whole body trembles.

Everything else is somewhat better.

Knockman still stirred a sense of fear in my mind.

Hit the button!

Ellen quickly ran and opened the door wide.

“What, what is it? Why are you here in such a hurry?”

My heart, which felt like it was going to burst, quickly calmed down.

It wasn’t my father at the door.

“Haa… Haa… What is it?”

“What are you saying, Mr. Lee, to your brother?”

Gerald Bertine raised one hand and threatened.

“Huh? You’re not going to do it anymore?”

But Ellen didn’t flinch.

Now Gerald wasn’t afraid.

Because after seeing what happened to Luke, I felt like Gerald was just a kid like him.

“Why are you here?”

“Don’t open your eyes like that. I didn’t want to come here either.”

Gerald answered the very wary Elin roughly and then entered the room without permission.

“Hiya, your fortune has improved. You moved from that small room to such a spacious place.”

“… Why did you come?”

“My mother told me to check up on you.”

It’s not verification, it’s surveillance.

Elin barely managed to swallow those words.

“It’s much better. So don’t worry about it.”

“I see? You must have been very comfortable in the tutor’s cell?”

“… … What?”

“That’s right. You gave me a dedicated maid, but she beat me up with magic, and you put my tutor in jail. You said you were a little sick, but I guess it was all an excuse?”

Hehe, Gerald is smiling.

That’s how you summarize it, knowing what happened.

Brrrr.

My little fist is shaking.

“Why? You want me to hit you too? Hit me. Then I’ll just get sick again and the tutor will rot away in prison.”

It was clear that he was still thinking about the incident from last time.

“Don’t bother me.”

“It’s not a lie, it’s a fact. You make everyone around you suffer. That’s why no one wants to approach you― Pfft!”

Gerald’s chattering mouth was forced to stop.

It was because I opened the inventory above my head and poured out the water.

“You… What the heck, did you just use magic?”

“Yeah.”

“Huh! This is crazy. You got that bad feeling because of magic and now you’re doing this again?”

“Don’t worry.”

“Fuck, don’t give a shit. I want to die… … Aaaah!”

Chomp!

This time I sprinkled water from my inventory.

Gerald growled, water dripping from his face.

“Why are you okay? I’m sure you’d collapse if you used magic… … .”

Gerald’s approaching feet stopped.

“… … ”

Ellin’s gaze, which was staring at me silently, was unfamiliar.

Originally, I was always in a role where I couldn’t even make eye contact and just quietly accepted the situation.

Since when did you become so confident?

“… Tsk. ”

I took a step back at the ominous look in his eyes.

“Be careful. Don’t act like you have a tutor.”

As he said that, Gerald carefully left the room.

* * * * *

Gerald ran straight to Natia’s room.

“Mother!”

“Would you mind knocking and coming in?”

“Elin uses magic and is fine.”

“… Hmm?”

Natia’s head tilts as she tries to point out the rudeness.

“A sick child uses magic and is fine?”

“I just saw that it didn’t look that sick. It was just spraying water normally… … .”

The threats made to Elin were meaningless.

Gerald whined to Natia about what kind of humiliation he had suffered.

Natia let out a familiar whimper.

“Luke Bucklin… .”

Naturally, I mentioned the name of the person I suspected to be the culprit.

It’s possible that Ellin suddenly became fine on her own.

Because there’s no way I could have learned magic.

“What have you done again?”

Natia shook her head and gave orders to her servant.

“Bring a tutor.”

“You still have time left in prison?”

“It seems like he’s already escaping prison freely.”

The snake-like pupils narrowed.

“Ask what you did to make Elin use magic.”

It was the day that Luke’s early release was decided.