episode_0066

Early morning, when the cold night air has not yet disappeared.

It was a time when the city, which had been quiet as if in a deep sleep, began to come alive again, and everyone was welcoming a new day.

Originally, I should have been heading to the academy, but today I was walking on a different path than usual.

As I watched the Academy students walking down the street disappear in the opposite direction, I spoke to the girl walking next to me.

“The weather is nice, Senior Perjena.”

The senior, walking slowly with his arms roughly shoved into his school uniform jacket, answered while looking up at the sky.

“That’s right. Someone almost got lost yesterday, but there’s not a single cloud over there. Damn me.”

“Haha… Is there anywhere that is inconvenient to move?”

I asked her a question out of concern because her movements were slower than usual, but my senior just opened her eyes and glanced at me as if she was bored.

“You’re already asking me that question for the third time. Are you okay? You’re almost better now that you’ve taken up the bed and are sleeping soundly. Aren’t you the bigger problem? After fighting like that, why don’t you just lie down on the floor and sleep? Why are you making a fuss by leaning against the bed and falling asleep? You idiot.”

“Haha… I was watching my senior sleep soundly… and before I knew it, he had fallen asleep while sitting up. I didn’t do it on purpose, I just passed out without realizing it because I was tired from the battle.”

Actually, I couldn’t remember exactly when I lost consciousness while taking care of my senior yesterday.

The battle that took place yesterday was an extreme situation that required all of my abilities, which had been developed through months of training, so I was in a state of fatigue that was incomparable to my training.

I had learned the recovery technique called ‘Unkijoshik’ from Heidiera over the past four months, and had mastered it so that it could be activated automatically while I was sleeping. So now that I’ve had a good night’s sleep, my condition has returned to normal.

However, the damage accumulated in his muscles and magical circuits from working them almost to the limit was not something that could be completely recovered in just one night, and since he had not slept in a comfortable position, his entire body was still aching and uncomfortable.

Senior Perjena glanced at me with a frustrated gaze as I limped slightly, then sighed and patted me on the back.

“Ugh… Yes, you couldn’t even rest properly because of me… I’m sorry, disciple.”

“No, thanks to that, I got to see the precious scene where my senior was laughing, but it was nice.”

“What, what, what did you say…?!”

At my joking remark, Senior Perzena’s face turned red and she took a step back from me.

As I was looking at that sight with a snicker, my senior asked me with a look of astonishment.

“I, I didn’t do anything weird like talking in my sleep, did I? Right?!”

“I don’t know what it was, but… he was whining and saying he couldn’t eat any more.”

“Huh?!”

“The cat was so cute~ and acted cute too… ”

“Neuok?!”

“I’m lonely alone―he even cried… ”

“Hey, you’re joking right now.”

“Haha… ”

Oh my.

You won’t be fooled three times.

I raised both hands to express my intention to surrender to my senior who had a serious expression on his face.

“Actually, there was no time for that. Even after he passed out, my senior was still in pain from the seizure, groaning and sweating profusely. So I wiped him off a bit… ”

This time, I told the truth, but Senior Perjena looked the most shocked.

“What?! Did you wipe it?! Where?! Your bare skin?!”

“Ah… That’s… ”

“Oh, you took off your clothes?! How far did you see?!”

Sasa sak!

The senior, whose face was red, crossed one leg as if protecting the area he was imagining, and wrapped both arms around his chest and abdomen.

The senior shouted, stuttering heavily, his posture resembling some kind of martial arts stance.

“You… You you you! Disciple! Erto! You know that a man is responsible for seeing a woman’s insides, right? Huh?!”

I quietly closed my eyes and revealed the area where I had wiped the sweat from as my senior continued to snap at me without giving me a chance to respond.

“… Forehead.”

“Ah.”

…

“Tsk.”

The senior, who had been hanging down with his arms and legs raised, clicked his tongue for some reason and came back next to me.

“Say that quickly. I almost got married, damn it.”

“There’s no way I could touch your body without permission… ”

“Huh…? What the…?”

I thought I said something very obvious, but my senior’s expression changed again.

This time, rather than being surprised, the look in his eyes was one of anticipation swelling up somewhere.

The senior placed both hands on the back of his head, made a deliberately shuffling sound as he walked, and gave me a strange look.

“If I give permission, does it sound like you’re going to touch me? Disciple~?”

“Uh… It’s better to wipe away cold sweat to prevent colds.”

“Hey… You actually wanted to touch this master’s naked body? ”

“Cold sweat… It’s better to wipe it away… ”

“You wanted to take off the clothes of your senior who was like the sky?! Like an animal?!”

“… Do you have a cold?”

Senior’s tension is high today.

If it’s like that, maybe some kind of bacteria has invaded my head.

Or maybe the aftereffects of the seizure you forcibly ignored yesterday have gone to your head?

As I was staring at his face, holding back laughter, my senior put his hands in his pockets and turned his head away.

“What… If that’s what you want to do… Actually, it doesn’t really matter… ”

“Huh? What did you say?”

My senior was mumbling something, but I couldn’t hear him clearly because he was turning his head away.

When I bent forward to check his complexion, my senior glanced at my face and put his hand between his eyebrows.

“What are you looking at! You pervert!”

puck!

“Ugh.”

I couldn’t understand English, but Senior Perzena was someone who sometimes committed such unprovoked acts of violence, so there was no need to question him.

However, judging by her bright red face, it must have been quite an embarrassing statement.

Let’s not ask questions in the future.

“PervertPervertPervert.”

“It’s unfair, it’s unfair.”

As we walked along the street, chatting with our senior, a refreshing place appeared in front of us.

“Ah, here.”

The moment he took in the sight, the senior’s complexion brightened noticeably.

“It’s a children’s playground.”

A large park created as an entrance to a residential area from a large street in one part of the city center.

The children’s playground inside was where we were passing by now.

Slides, swings, horizontal bars, jungle gyms, etc. installed on a wide sandy beach.

Just an ordinary playground with a great environment for children to run around and play in the dirt.

My senior, who was looking at the place with a somewhat nostalgic look, smiled at me and asked me.

“… Shall we sit down for a bit? Erto.”

“Oh, is it hard to walk?”

“Well, that’s not it…but something comes to mind when I look here.”

“Of course. Shall we go and sit on the swing over there?”

“Yeah, it’s a bit of a shame to fit a fully grown adult’s butt in there.”

We decided to stay at the playground for a while and took a break by sitting on a small swing just sized for children.

“Ugh… ”

“Oh my… ”

Both of them were pretending not to notice, but in fact they were both in such a mess that the moment they sat down on the swing, they let out a sob.

If there were children in the playground, they would have looked at us like we were old people, but since the children who would come here were still sleeping, there were no eyes on us at all.

In a quiet and empty playground with no one nearby to eavesdrop on or talk to, Senior Perjena looked up at the sky while gently swinging back and forth on the swing.

“Haa… This reminds me of the old days.”

Seeing my senior with a warm smile and longing eyes, I became curious about what kind of times she was recalling.

“What are you thinking?”

“Want to know?”

“I want to know.”

As I looked at him with interest, my senior slowly lowered his gaze and met my eyes.

Blue jade eyes stare intently at my face.

“I still vividly remember an incident that happened here one day.”

“Hoo… ”

“I was very young. Before I even entered the Academy’s elementary school.”

“… ”

As I remained silent, my senior nodded with a snicker and continued speaking.

“I’ve been the neighborhood bully since I was little. I didn’t really have any subordinates, but… I was a problem child known for my bad temper.”

“I see.”

“So that day, I was patrolling my territory like usual… and a kid from another neighborhood I hadn’t seen before showed up at the playground.”

“… Who is that?”

It was a simple question, but the senior didn’t bother to answer and just smiled and shook his head.

“I don’t know how he ended up here, but… the kid who came to the playground got into a bit of trouble with the group of kids who were there before him.”

“Hehe… ”

“The common kids in this neighborhood have been pretty rough since they were young, and they always played the game of bullying the weak.”

“These are bad friends.”

When I said that with a snicker, my senior chuckled as if he found my reaction particularly amusing.

“Kuhhhh… That’s strange, the stranger I saw back then said something similar to you.”

“What did you say?”

“Hey you bad guys! He charged at the group of villains.”

“Oh, so you won?”

Senior Perjena covered her mouth with both hands and told me with a joyful look in her eyes that she couldn’t hold back her laughter at that part the most.

“I got beaten up so badly that I got thrown onto the sand. Khuhhh… ”

“He was a guy with good guts but lacking in skills.”

“That’s why I thought he was a more interesting guy. He couldn’t stand injustice when he didn’t have the strength to fight and win, but he rushed at it. Is it righteous, or is he just stupid… ”

“So, what did you do, senior?”

In response to my question while looking at him expectantly, my senior showed a cool smile, revealing his fangs.

“Well, he was a fool who put himself in danger on his own two feet… I don’t hate fools like that. I beat up those guys who dared to cause trouble in my territory… and I saved that guy with sand in his hair.”

“Senior, you have always had a righteous personality.”

“Well, maybe it was just a whim. I’ve never seen a weakling rush in so fearlessly in my life. I didn’t live long though.”

“So, how did he react?”

“Thank you! He shouted loudly and ran off somewhere. He probably had a destination in mind. He stopped at the playground because he saw a kid his age being bullied.”

“You haven’t seen each other since then?”

“In the first place, since they are from different neighborhoods, if you don’t go outside your own territory, you probably won’t see each other even if you are from the same city.”

“It’s a shame that you left without even giving your full name.”

At those words, the senior snickered and turned his body towards me.

“Well, since we’re facing each other like this, it doesn’t matter, right?”

“Ahh… ”

I also turned the swing around and looked at my senior.

My senior looked straight at me and smiled kindly.

“Erto, you’ve been the same since you were little.”

“… ”

“You may not remember because it happened a long time ago, but I’ve known you since then.”

To my senior who smiled at me as if he was confessing,

“Senior Ferjena,”

I made the same expression as her and confessed one thing.

“Actually, I also remembered my senior from back then.”

“Huh?”

There’s no way I could forget it.

That day, that back view.

That intense moment when I discovered the idol of my life.