episode_0049

“What was that mana wave I just felt?”

Carl ascended the stairs with heavy steps.

While resting in the dormitory, he suddenly felt an unexpected ripple.

It was too intense to attribute it to his mood, so he had to check it out. He also felt a familiar sensation. Carl hoped his uneasy feeling was wrong.

The familiarity came from the energy he had sensed from the Unknown before. If his unease was correct, it would mean that the Unknown had appeared at the academy once again.

It’s better this way.

He had vowed to repay the debt he owed last time. He would definitely return the self-loathing he had felt back then.

He reached the end of the stairs.

“…?”

Voices of women could be heard from the rooftop entrance.

– That was really the end, remember that.

– Huk… I’m, I’m sorry, Beatrice.

He quickly held his breath at the faint voices coming from beyond the door. Startled by the mention of Beatrice, he cautiously opened the door. Two slender women stood on the other side, drenched in sweat, facing each other closely. Beatrice and the woman made eye contact.

Thump-

Carl’s heart seemed to stop in the gaze of Beatrice, as if she were looking down on him.

His heart raced like a child caught playing a mischievous prank. Her blue pupils were sharper than usual. It was the gaze she used to fix Chloe, but Carl didn’t know that. To him, it just looked like a scornful gaze directed at the person peeking through the crack in the door.

In the cold, icy stare, in Beatrice’s moonlit eyes, Carl felt excited. The only emotion he could express right now was excitement.

The provocative atmosphere, the two women in revealing attire, their sweat-soaked skin reflecting the moonlight, and the subtle allure of the night all contributed to the stimulating visual scene.

However, Carl could clearly say one thing.

The biggest factor that excited him was the chilly gaze on Beatrice’s face and her changing expressions as she discovered him.

Contempt, astonishment, confusion, tension… Karl’s golden eyes captured Beatrice’s changes without missing a beat. As if wanting to remember this moment forever, he carefully scrutinized Beatrice’s appearance.

It was an almost instinctive action.

But he knew this moment couldn’t last forever. He hoped time would stop, but he couldn’t just stand there peering like this.

“What are you doing here?”

Suddenly, thoughts about the unknown vanished. The reason for being led to the rooftop didn’t come to mind.

Approaching the two women, Karl spoke nonchalantly. Shifting his gaze from Beatrice, which had been fixed on her until just now, he looked around as if she had never interested him in the first place.

What caught his eye were the sword lying on the ground, the discarded uniform top and blouse…

By observing the items his eyes had landed on, he could naturally continue his sentence.

“Were you sparring by any chance?”

Karl’s voice made Chloe, who was standing behind him, turn around. She seemed incredulous that Karl was right in front of her, as if seeing a ghost.

“K-Karl Meiner?”

She was dressed lightly like Beatrice. Chloe seemed quite flustered. In the original work, she unconsciously succumbed to the heat while sparring with Karl, unbuttoning her blouse one by one, a seduction without realizing it.

“Some things never change.”

He thought to himself.

Although they hadn’t met at the sparring ground, deviating from the original, it seemed that Beatrice was continuing her training here. It was regrettable that he couldn’t watch her unbutton her blouse right in front of him.

“…So things have changed like this.”

*

Finally, he approached close enough to reach them if he fell over.

He glanced at Beatrice as people passed by. She seemed frozen, or perhaps angry. Karl couldn’t judge what she might be thinking.

Again.

It was Beatrice again. It wasn’t surprising anymore.

When she gets involved, it changes from the original. When she intervenes, things don’t go as planned. She is a bundle of variables.

But Karl didn’t dislike her.

Now, I looked forward to the new story that would unfold because of her. Since meeting the Unknown at the Magic Potion Academy, since deciding to become a true Karl Mayner, and since choosing the path of pretending until becoming real…

I decided to enjoy the variables that would unfold. As a result, Karl was currently very pleased and excited with the situation. He was on the verge of bursting into laughter.

Because I didn’t want to reveal my feelings, I turned my gaze from Beatrice to Chloe.

When facing Beatrice, sincerity might burst forth. Well, thanks to you, I’ve become a better person. The new stories you create have changed me. I want to know more about you, and I might even grab your hand.

“Are you going to stay here?”

Karl asked.

“You look really good right now.”

He knows. In this situation, he must be confident.

You shouldn’t act like a peeping tom. You should act as if it’s nothing, as if you know how to care like a gentleman, as if you are superior to them.

Rustle-

“I might catch a cold like this… Sweat dries quickly, but the night air is colder than it looks.”

He draped the suit jacket he was wearing over Chloe’s shoulders. And he gave her a sly smile.

A passive attitude is poison.

Karl knew this from his previous possession experience. It was a lesson learned through experience, indirect experience, delusion, and regret. The current behavior was what he wished an imaginary boyfriend would do, combined with the desires of a man who had been possessed…

He gives a gentle gaze.

He firmly wrapped Chloe’s body with the suit jacket draped over her shoulders with a warm touch. The oversized jacket covered Chloe like a huge blanket, completely concealing her exposed flesh.

Cloé belatedly realized her attire and blushed. Her red skin, flushing from the ears down to the slightly exposed nape of her neck above her jacket, was visible.

“Your eyes are red. You seem to be shivering too.”

Observing Cloé’s embarrassment, Karl quickly wrapped his arms around her.

“Oh, no. I think I might sneeze. The cold air… as you said…”

The wind was gentle, and the air wasn’t particularly chilly.

“Go inside and rest; you look unwell.”

“Yeah, I’ll borrow a uniform for a bit. Oh! I’ll clean it thoroughly and return it tomorrow!”

“It’s okay if you take your time returning it.”

“Thank you… Well, then, I’ll go downstairs first.”

“If you need anything, let me know. You know we’ve been assigned to the same floor, right?”

Confidently nodding, Cloé picked up her uniform from the floor. Carrying it up to her collar, she walked towards the entrance, but then suddenly turned back as if remembering something.

“B-Beatrice, sorry… I’ll go downstairs first. I’ll apologize properly tomorrow and talk to you again…”

With a sorrowful expression, she managed to finish her words somehow and quietly moved away.

Leaving behind an angry-looking Beatrice, Karl found it hard to walk away easily, but he felt he couldn’t improve her mood right now. It seemed like there was something wrong that needed an apology, but he feared that if he talked more with her, Cloé would end up crying uncontrollably.

After Cloé completely disappeared from sight behind the closed door, Karl finally faced Beatrice.

“What happened between you two?”

“….”

Beatrice’s long hair swayed.

“…Noth-”

“Yeah?”

Beatrice muttered softly.

She murmured so quietly that it was barely audible. She didn’t seem embarrassed or flustered by her attire, nor did she startle and search for her blouse and jacket lying on the floor, which Karl would have found satisfying.

Karl approached her, asking inquisitively, leaning in close to hear what she had to say.

“……There’s nothing you need to know!!”

As the blade’s face drew near, he shouted with sparkling blue eyes.

His blue eyes looked unusually moist. As if they were soaked with moisture.

*

The time his golden eyes lingered on me was fleeting.

It passed by indifferently.

I pitifully tried to stop him from leaving, but his gaze had already departed. So, he probably didn’t even notice my wistful look. It must have been of no interest to him.

I felt dizzy as if I had been hit on the head.

Though Karl said this and that, it was all directed at Cloé.

Only looking at Cloé’s water-like hair, only gazing at Cloé’s figure…

The soft voice that seemed worried, the warm consideration that slipped off his jacket, the affectionate gaze that reassured… they were all directed at Cloé.

Seeing him unbutton his jacket, seeing his delicate touch as he tenderly wrapped it around himself, was agonizing. Yes, this is agony. It’s so painful, so difficult! If this isn’t agony, then what is it?

….

Cloé… as if accepting a token, took your jacket as if it were a trophy.

Even though she could have picked up her own uniform, she didn’t let go of the jacket I draped over her shoulders as if to show off. I couldn’t hear the words she said to me as she left after looking back.

The audacious dominance, as if arrogantly putting on airs, shaking the jacket draped over her shoulders as if to assert her victory, flickered in my mind.

A fox-like woman.

Pretending not to know when she knows everything.

Is that coyness…? Even though she has the spirit to pick up an unsheathed sword lying on the ground, why would she insist on returning Karl’s jacket later, even offering to wash it before giving it back?

“Thanks for yesterday. I want to repay you. Is dinner okay?”

Obvious.

An annoying woman.

Just thinking about her making a fuss with that pretty face makes me furious.

….

After Cloé is gone, it’s too late for Karl to look at me with any kind of concern.

“What happened between you two?”

Now, finally speaking to me, you’re so infuriating.

Ugh, seriously.

“Al, you-”

I wanted to pour out my frustration, ask for understanding of my agony, and express my regret.

But it felt like something was stuck in my throat, and the words wouldn’t come out properly. So this is what they call a lump in the throat….

….

As I brought my ear closer, seeing the approaching knife… Sincerity hides within me, only mischievous and wicked intentions emerge.

“You wouldn’t understand!”

It was a relieved yet lingering remark.

Words that were not sincere.