episode_0054

Time on a weekend morning.

Arthur was passing the time by reading a book diligently, while Alice was sitting somewhere out of Arthur’s sight, scribbling notes in her notebook.

-Swish, swish.

Alice’s hands moving busily.

If someone else had seen it, they would have passed it off as a student studying hard, but unfortunately, the content in the notebook was not related to studying.

The content was written in a format similar to a diary, and if asked, he might have shown organized content and called it a record book.

Of course, Alice had no intention of showing the contents of the note to anyone else, and if Arthur had tried to see it, she would have torn it to shreds.

Why can’t you show it to others? Because the book is full of gruesome content that summarizes Arthur’s reactions when he does certain things to torment him.

“Hmm.. I don’t know how much longer I have to tease you..? If you do this, you might get angry at least once.”

While Alice was tapping away at her notes with her pen, she took out a red pen and marked the part where she had sworn at Arthur.

The words checked are disabled, trash, orphan, rag, and prostitute.

These words were essential to showing Arthur’s despair, as Arthur reacted more violently than usual when he said them.

“It seems like there is a limit to just talking. We need to add other new methodsㅡ”

-Tak!

But before she could finish her monologue, Alice closed her notebook and looked back with a smile on her face.

Because a familiar sound was approaching.

“Aris~!!”

Arthur approaches me with a bright smile like an idiot.

Whenever she saw Arthur like this, Alice felt a strong desire to destroy Arthur right then and there.

Grab Arthur’s body with these two hands…

“Haa.. Just hold on a little longer…”

It’s not time yet. You have to make Arthur happy during the day, so that the fun of tormenting him at night will be doubled.

The more Arthur stayed by her side and made a happy expression, the more satisfaction she would feel from Arthur’s ruined face and shedding tears.

“Huh? What did you say?”

“… ”

“Aris…?”

“Ah! Sorry.. I was just thinking about something else for a moment.”

An indifferent attitude that causes a sudden drop in affection from the other person’s perspective.

It wasn’t really because Alice wasn’t interested in Arthur, it was just one of her actions to make things easier every night.

Of course, if this behavior were to occur frequently, it would usually lead to a breakdown in the relationship, but since Aris thought that the relationship between her and Arthur was not a horizontal one, but rather a vertical one in which Aris was far above Arthur, she decided to use this to her advantage.

In fact, when Arthur acted resentfully, you could see him finding the cause in himself rather than blaming Alice.

As these situations piled up, Arthur, whose mental strength was exhausted, easily gave in to Alice’s drastically changing attitude every night.

Well, it’s not that I really hate Arthur, it’s just something I do to make the nighttime skits more interesting. And it’s also fun to see Arthur pretending not to care while watching my reaction.

“Aris!! We decided to go there! Didn’t you forget?”

Hearing Arthur’s words from the side, Alice briefly stopped thinking and remembered the ‘pet shop’ she had heard about last time.

I heard that it was a place that had recently opened and was very popular because there were lots of cats and dogs there, and if you paid money you could play with them for a certain amount of time, and you could adopt the ones you liked.

“Hehehe! I want to see the cat soon!!”

Arthur was already excited and his eyes sparkled as he urged Alice on, and Alice, who wasn’t really interested, played along appropriately.

“Yeah, that sounds fun. Then shall we go right away?”

Arthur nodded his head and snorted at Alice’s words, and started walking ahead with light steps. Alice followed Arthur and thought.

Does Arthur like those kinds of animals..? I’m not sure.

It was only natural that Alice didn’t understand Arthur, because Alice had Arthur.

Arthur is a much cuter and more playful pet than those things.

Even if it was accidentally damaged, it had an A/S function that restored it to its original condition overnight as if nothing had happened. Compared to Arthur, who showed various reactions, it was a strange situation where interest was rather aroused.

… … …

After leaving the academy and walking while chatting, Arthur and Alice were able to arrive at the pet shop faster than expected.

“Welcome!!”

As he entered the building, he was greeted by clerks dressed as dogs or cats, and Arthur approached the ticket seller with sparkling eyes.

“I think it’ll take about 2 hours.. How much is it?”

When Arthur asked about the price, the employee kindly answered.

“1 silver in 2 hours!”

Of course, despite the friendly face, the prices were not friendly at all.

The employee, who saw Arthur’s surprised face at the higher-than-expected price, continued with the following comment he had prepared as if he had expected this much.

“How about purchasing a pet shop membership and enjoying it at the extraordinary price of 10 coppers per hour?”

Arthur began to fall for the words of the employee who spoke as if it were a secret, looking around cautiously.

“I really want to buy a membership.. How much is it?”

Arthur, who had the qualities of a hustler, received the paperwork to create a membership without the slightest doubt.

And Alice, who had been watching all of this from behind, sighed deeply at Arthur’s weakness for temptation and snatched Arthur’s documents away.

“Huh? Ah, Alice!! Give me that!”

“Whew… Arthur, all this is just a trick!”

“!!”

Arthur looked at his staff with a shocked expression, as he believed Alice’s words first.

“Ahem..”

The staff also looked away and began to cough in vain, as if their consciences were pricked by Arthur’s empty gaze.

And Alice lightly ignored the employee and pointed out important parts of the documents she had received and explained them to Arthur.

“Look here. The price is 10 silver, and the membership lasts for 6 months from the date of writing.”

“… ”

“1 silver is 100 copper, but 10 silver? Sigh… And once the semester starts, I can’t even leave the academy, so how much time will I have this month to just make back my investment..!”

That’s how Alice’s nagging began, and Arthur’s mentality began to deteriorate.

Alice..? I know it was my fault, but.. that expression hurts me…

Arthur eventually became gloomy. And when Alice noticed Arthur’s condition, she stroked his head and said.

“Ugh… I’m saying all this for your sake! What are you going to do when I’m not around? You should start paying attention now so you don’t get screwed later!”

“Huh? Why aren’t you here, Alice? Where are you thinking of going?”

Are you too relaxed these days? To make such a slip of the tongue?

“What are you talking about? You can go to class for practice, or you can go by yourself for a while because you’re busy.”

Arthur nodded briefly, somewhat convinced by Alice’s words.

Unlike before, Arthur was easy to deal with because he didn’t ask questions in detail and just nodded, but seeing him like this made Alice’s heart ache.

Arthur was clearly a normal boy when he first entered the academy, but after experiencing various incidents and accidents, he became so stupid and naive that it was hard to believe he was an adult.

And unfortunately, there was no way to help Arthur. The day he lost his memories, his speech became more and more childish, and after he was raped, he became completely strange as if he had let something go.

Of course, since I was smart, I could easily remember what he told me, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was seeing Arthur when I was young. On the contrary, my sense of caution had completely disappeared, and when something happened, I had a mindset of ‘Alice will do something!’, so I thought that maybe it was worse than before.

“Haa…”

A sigh escapes my lips.

What on earth are you going to do when I die? The world is full of people who want to catch a sucker and make a living off of him.

But, despite Alice’s worries, there was a lot of reason why Arthur was becoming increasingly strange.

The reason Arthur became stupid was because he was too smart, so when he closed his eyes, the memories of the warehouse and the hellish times he had been through for two weeks came back to him as vividly as if it had just happened, so Arthur decided to forget them in order to escape from them.

Forgetting. Unfortunately, the human mind is not so simple as to forget only what is necessary, and even Arthur had to give up many things in order to forget painful memories even for a moment.

Excellent judgment and logical thinking.

These were things that could not be done in exchange for forgetting painful memories, and the wounds that Alice engraved into Arthur’s heart every night remained in his subconscious and stimulated Arthur’s trauma, so Arthur had to give up more and more things in order to forget them.

Of course, Arthur tried to forget the trauma that grew bigger every day for some unknown reason, and there were many days when it was so hard that he shed tears without telling Alice, but he still felt happy.

In exchange for becoming a little more stupid every day, memories no longer hurt him, and the person he loved most was by his side.

Arthur hid these facts from Alice in case she would worry, and of course there was no way for Alice to know.

“Anyway! I’ll buy it for you today, so from now on, check the documents and contracts carefully! Got it?”

“Yeah! Thanks, Alice!”

Arthur, who received the pass from Alice, entered the space where the animals were.

After confirming that Arthur was fully inside, Alice did not follow Arthur straight away, but instead headed to the souvenir shop.

It wasn’t originally planned, but while I was at the pet shop, I got the great idea to send Arthur to the abyss.

Alice entered the souvenir shop and went to the corner with tools for dogs and found what she was looking for.

“There are more types than I thought.. The colors are also very diverse.”

My eyes were drawn to something with black hair, similar to Arthur’s.

“Should I try this?”

Alice, who had made up her mind, decided to buy it, and as she was leaving the corner, her eyes were caught by a silver dog food bowl and she ended up taking it away without realizing it.

“Hmm.. I’ll buy two of these.”

Alice was just trying to make a purchase quietly, but the employee suddenly started asking questions.

“Do you have a pet dog?”

A pet dog…? Well, I guess it wouldn’t be ok to call Arthur a pet dog, right?

“Oh, yes. I have a pet dog that I have been raising for a long time.”

“The item you are buying is a high-end dog collar that rarely sells.. You must really love your dog. Usually, not many people spend this much money on their dogs.”

Of course. It’s a necklace that will be worn around Arthur’s neck, so we can’t use something cheap, right?

“Well, I just always want to give you the best.”

“You’re such a dog person!! Oh, wait a minute. Here’s the receipt! Just check it and give me the money! ”

The man helping with payment showed her the receipt, and after checking the price, Aris’ head started to hurt.

Mom, 20 silver for one necklace? Oh… I misread the price tag, I thought it was 2 silver.

“Could you please tell me some information about the dog collar I’m buying?”

“Of course I should tell you! Hmm.. I looked this up and it says that this dog collar is made from the back skin of a black drake.”

Black Drake? It’s a monster that A-class adventurers hunt in a party of 6~7! I wondered why it was so expensive..

Since it was impossible to come all this way and not buy something, Alice wiped away her tears and handed over the money, including the price of the dog food bowl, along with 20 silver coins.

“Thank you for your purchase! Have a nice day at the pet shop~”

Aris had a smiling face in front of the staff, but after leaving the souvenir shop, she sighed deeply and put all the items she had purchased into her subspace pocket.

How hard would it be to earn 20 silver? Since I’m going to use it for Arthur anyway, I should get it all back from him, right?

And of course, Arthur couldn’t possibly have that much money. He didn’t have any money saved up by being an adventurer like Alice. And Alice knew this fact well.

I said I would get the value back, I never said I would get it in cash.

“Well, Arthur can pay with his body instead of cash..!”

Alice, who was upset about spending so much money, soon felt better again, and smiled bitterly as she thought about what she would do to Arthur that evening.

I was already going crazy wondering how Arthur would react, so I watched Arthur playing with the cats from afar and waited for time to pass quickly and for night to come.