episode_0049

The first night of my cohabitation with Elfin was surprisingly uneventful.

‘I didn’t know you’d sleep at the end of the bed.’

I’m not sure if Elfin was wary of me doing something stupid to him or of him doing something stupid to me, but he slept far away from me, so we had this mysterious and bizarre thing where we slept separately in the same bed.

While I was eating breakfast at the restaurant and thinking, ‘How should I entertain Elfin at this point?’, I realized belatedly that Bandi was sitting in front of me.

“Uh… When did you come?”

“Just now. You were sitting there.”

Bandit, who says that he honestly noticed Hela’s size.

“Bandi calls Hela by her name properly.”

“When Ain sees the way you speak and act toward Hela, he knows how I should treat this person.”

“You’re the best, Bandi.”

Bandi blushed and smiled as if she was pleased with my candy-coating, and replied, “At least the chairman and Ion would have noticed.”

“But I can’t accept it with my heart. Because of what Hela did.”

At Bandi’s words, Hela bows her head and says, “I am ashamed.”

“It’s in the past, and if Ain has decided to forgive you, then so should I. I’m a female who doesn’t know how to fight, so I’ll just leave it to you.”

“I won’t disappoint you, my lady.”

Bandi laughed, seeming to like the sound of the master of Hela.

“You acted like you were going to die soon, so why did your attitude change?”

“Well, I guess he’ll confess his sins deeply at the temple and atone for them by serving me.”

“A temple? I see. I can guess how things went.”

He nodded as if he understood my half-assed answer, as expected from a bandit with amazing insight and judgment.

“Ain, you don’t want us to look down on Hela, do you?”

“Bandi, I’m so glad I don’t have to explain every little thing to you.”

At my answer, Bandi smiled faintly and blushed.

“I’ll talk to the chairman and Hoyo. Even if the chairman is like that, I’m worried about Hoyo. He’s the type who likes everything, but absolutely hates things he doesn’t like… But if it’s related to you, Ain, I’ll accept it.”

“Please take good care of me. Hela is essential not only to me but to all of us.”

Bandi nodded to my words, said, “See you at lunch time,” and left the restaurant.

“Let’s go too.”

“Yes, master.”

So after the morning lecture, I leave Hela outside the club room and go into the study group. Bam, Hoyo, and Bandi, who were already there, greet me.

“Are the morning lectures over?”

“Oh, I’m sleepy.”

“Did you end up watching it all until dawn?”

“Every day is new…”

As time passed, Elfin and Lulu also showed up at the study group.

“Welcome. But where’s Ion?”

When I asked why Ion wasn’t there, Lulu answered, “Where did you go with your slave?”

“Hella? Hmm…”

After asking for the females’ understanding and leaving the clubroom, I asked the maids where the two were, and they said they had gone to the nearby gym.

At the gym I went to, Ion and Hela were working out. To be exact, Ion was teaching Hela systematic endurance training.

“Inhale when you lift, exhale when you lower. It’s not about how much you do, it’s about doing it correctly.”

“Phew… sigh, I see.”

“You don’t have to answer. Just think about the correct movements and breathing. 5 more. ”

Ion helps Hela exercise by closely observing her movements with a sharp expression that he doesn’t show me often.

I was wondering if they were harassing me or what, but the picture looked nice, so I stood at the entrance to the gym for a while and watched the two.

“Ain, you can come closer.”

As expected, Ion, who sensed my presence, my magic, or something, called out to me and I quietly approached the two of them. Hela only realized I had come after Ion told her, but perhaps because she had told her to do something, she just turned her eyes toward me and continued exercising.

“Your concentration is good. You can see that your posture doesn’t change even when Ain comes.”

“How is it?”

Ion looked at Hela for a moment before answering my question that cut across both the front and back.

“Not bad. It’s not a systematic build-up of muscle, but it’s just randomly placed, and the muscle mass is considerable… Judging from his posture and breathing, he’s a real fighter. At least he’s better than some of the junior knights. He doesn’t whine about it being hard.”

She snickers and teaches Hela another pose again.

“Move only the lower arm while being careful not to move the body and upper arm. Inhale when extending, exhale when lowering. Don’t lower too quickly, so that the upper arm can receive sufficient stimulation.”

Following Ion’s instructions, Hela continues exercising without any problems.

Just in case, I checked her status and she’s growing at a decent rate, although not as fast as me.

“But why all of a sudden?”

“Not all of a sudden. I thought about it after seeing your usual gait, range of motion, and how you exert yourself.”

Ion, who answered like that, said that he also met a professor of large-scale weapon combat techniques.

“They say you have quite a talent. I don’t know how you figured it out, but the professor who initially looked down on you as a slave says you’re fun to teach.”

That would be the case, since Hela had never shown herself using large weapons from the beginning, which is why Ion says this.

“Don’t push too hard.”

“I’m just teaching you the poses right now. Later, I’ll have the servant put some simple equipment in her room.”

After about 30 minutes, when Hela’s training was over, I pushed her into the shower room.

“Thank you.”

“Thank you. As I said, I have to protect you, and if we’re going to be together in the labyrinth or something, it’s something I have to do.”

Ion and I cleaned up the exercise equipment that Hela had been using.

After a while, Hela comes out looking fluffy and we head back to the Japso Research Center.

“Last night.”

“Did you do it?”

This time, Ion asks me with a mischievous smile and I shake my head.

“I was sleeping at the end of the bed.”

“You must have been naive.”

“If that’s what you’re saying, then that must be it…”

I grumbled and patted Ion’s waist with my tail.

“I usually compliment you a lot by saying things like you’re pretty or something, but if you react like that, it gets annoying.”

“I wish you would rush in like a female?”

Ion asks, grabbing my tail and gently stroking it (Hela looked at him with envious eyes. Why on earth?).

“I don’t know about running, but I’m just saying that it’s too much, so it’s okay to sleep with it at night.”

“Well, it’s not as easy as I thought.”

Elfin is so shameless, I expected the same reaction, but surprisingly, I looked at Ion who was defending Elfin.

“Really?”

“Well, you’re pretty too. My heart is pounding and I’m nervous and stuff. Even Elfin doesn’t know, but I bet you couldn’t sleep well.”

“I see…”

When I saw him in the morning, it didn’t seem like much of a problem… I went up to the club room, and it was quieter than usual.

“Elfin fell asleep because he was tired.”

As Bandi smiled and whispered, Ion looked at me with an expression that said, “Are you sure that’s what I’m saying?”

“Aeg, if that’s the case, then just run at me.”

“What are you talking about?”

When Lulu asks about my mumbling, I give her a brief explanation of why Elfin slept away from me.

“Well, I don’t mean that I don’t understand.”

“This is another mystery of females that I don’t know about.”

Bandi shrugs his shoulders at my words.

“It’s not something that is commonly used, Ain. It’s because the target is you.”

“Me? Why me?”

“Why, it’s because of my looks.”

“No, I have nothing to say when it comes to appearance.”

My answer is not one that acknowledges my own appearance, but rather one that I have not yet been able to objectify my own appearance.

Now, I can roughly judge whether males or females are handsome or not just by looking at them, but I can’t tell how I look at myself.

“Isn’t he just a kid?”

I looked in the mirror and twitched my moustache, but the females didn’t agree with me at all.

“First of all, your hair is different.”

“Isn’t it just black?”

The females looked at each other in bewilderment at my answer.

“Ain, you don’t wear makeup, right?”

“I don’t like that kind of thing.”

After asking that, Hoyo touches my cheek in response to my answer.

“Well, that’s right. I’ve touched my dad’s hair both when he’s made up and when he’s not, but it’s not as good as this. I know my dad’s hair is really soft.”

As he spoke, Hoyo’s hands carelessly touched my face, and I looked like a wrinkled cat.

“Have you ever worn makeup in your life?”

I answered ‘yes’ to Lulu’s question, but the sound that came out was ‘woo-woo’.

“Ahem.”

Lulu raises her eyebrows at my reaction and says, “I see.”

“What about emerald eyes?”

Bandi says that and looks into my eyes. Her gray eyes are pretty, but Bandi’s expression as she looks into my eyes becomes hazy.

“I’ve never seen a jewel with eyes like that in my life.”

“Is that true…”

Hoyo scratched his chin this time with a serious face. It felt so good that I couldn’t help but let out a purring sound.

“The shape of the snout is like something created by God.”

The night seems to like my side, as Hoyo comes up next to me and strokes my mustache with both thumbs.

“The Creator must have had a lot of dirty work to do. He could have just made something like this and sat down.”

“That’s blasphemy.”

Ion answered like that and laughed out loud.

After a brief moment of appreciating Ain’s appearance, some more time passed and the lunch hour ended with Elfin waking up with a start.