episode_0070

“Clown-nim?”

After quickly assessing the situation, I first turned off the sound of the communicator I received from Johanna.

I couldn’t hang up on Yerika’s call and answer that communicator’s call right now.

Sorry to Johanna, but I thought I’d call her back after I finished talking with Yerika, and I spoke to Yerika as if nothing had happened.

“What? There was no sound at all. Perhaps Yerika misheard?”

It was a strange excuse, even to myself.

Of course, not all communicators made the same sound, but perhaps because both the one I received from Yerika and the one from Johanna were high-grade, their sounds were similar.

“Oh, really? If Clown-nim says so, then I must have misheard.”

Despite the strange excuse, Yerika didn’t seem to suspect anything and let it go.

Yerika didn’t bring up the sound again after that.

“Speaking of which, I hear there are a lot of good restaurants near the academy. Has Clown-nim ever been to any of them?”

“Yes, I went to one today. I probably know all the good restaurants near the academy.”

“Then you’ll have to take me sometime later, won’t you?”

“Of course. If the opportunity arises, I’ll take you to the best place.”

“I can look forward to it, right?”

“Yes~ You can definitely look forward to it. I’ll take you to a very special restaurant where you can eat something Yerika has never tasted before.”

“When I enter the academy next year, you really have to treat me.”

Next year, huh…

Next year, I’ll surely be able to kill all the necromancers and live a peaceful academy life.

“But Yerika? I don’t recall saying I’d treat you?”

“Aw~ You can treat a cute junior to a meal, can’t you?”

As Yerika said, treating her to a meal wasn’t difficult.

Honestly, I wanted to treat her.

“If I buy you a meal, what will Yerika do for me?”

“If Clown-nim buys me a meal once, then I’ll pay the next time we eat together.”

“Does that mean you’re going to eat with me at a restaurant twice?”

I said that expecting Yerika’s surprised reaction, but.

“Is that how it works?”

Yerika retorted casually.

After that, Yerika and I talked a lot about the distant future, specifically about her entering the academy next year.

“You’ll eat school lunch with me, right?”

“Wouldn’t it be better for Yerika to eat with her friends?”

“No, I think it would be more fun and better to eat with Clown-nim.”

“Oh, right! Please teach me how to use the training ground next year too.”

“I don’t know the details myself, but I guess I’ll have to find out beforehand to teach Yerika.”

“Hehe, then I’ll look forward to it, okay?”

“Let’s go to school together when we wake up in the morning too!”

“Yerika won’t be sleeping in the dorms, she’ll be commuting from the imperial palace, won’t she?”

“At school-commute time. I can just wait for Clown-nim below your dorm, right?”

“It would be a big problem if I overslept.”

“I’ll wake you up with the communicator in the morning so you don’t oversleep.”

Like a calm lake.

And so, my heart felt at ease.

We had such a conversation.

“Then, let’s talk tomorrow, Clown-nim.”

“Have a good dream.”

“It feels like I always have good dreams when I talk to Clown-nim before sleeping.”

Hearing Yerika’s words, I paused for a moment.

“……. I also always have good dreams after talking with Yerika.”

After finishing the call with Yerika, I put the communicator into subspace and took out another one.

And I was surprised.

The person who had called was Ascal, not Johanna.

‘Ah, right. Ascal took my communicator earlier and connected it.’

I never thought she’d call so soon.

It was a bit late, so I hesitated whether to just call tomorrow, but I was curious why she called, so I just called her back.

“Why didn’t you answer earlier?”

“I was doing something for a moment, so I couldn’t answer. But, Princess Ascal-nim, why did you call?”

“I was originally going to tell you, but you’re calling me Princess-nim again? I’m annoyed, so I won’t tell you.”

“Huh? I’m curious, can’t you tell me?”

I was curious about what she wanted to say after calling, but Ascal didn’t tell me in the end.

“If you need help later, tell me. I’ll grant everything except asking me what I didn’t tell you today.”

Ascal said that and hung up the call.

I was curious about what Ascal originally intended to say, but.

Right now, my thoughts were focused on why I hadn’t had a nightmare earlier.

Since the day the children died, I had been having the same nightmare repeatedly.

After meeting Duke Adelien, I was able to avoid nightmares with the medicine he gave me, but since coming to the academy, I haven’t received any more medicine.

‘Looking back, talking to Yerika at that time was truly lucky.’

Fortunately, I was able to avoid nightmares while talking to Yerika, but on days I didn’t talk to Yerika, I immediately had nightmares.

But why didn’t I have a nightmare earlier? Only one thing happened in between.

Killing Mordor, the cause of my nightmares, with my own hands.

Honestly, the surest way to confirm is to sleep tomorrow night without talking to Yerika.

Even if I didn’t have nightmares, I had no intention of stopping talking to Yerika.

At first, I talked to Yerika to avoid nightmares, but now it’s different.

“Let’s do the experiment slowly later.”

* * *

After Loki and Johanna returned to the academy, Ascal heard a story from her father and mother.

The secret of the Freya family.

When I first heard it, I was dumbfounded.

The family’s secret was obsession with one’s lover.

It was hard to believe.

If her mother had said it, she would have thought it was a joke, but the person who brought it up was her father.

When there are siblings. That trait only appears in one of them…

“It doesn’t seem to be me, so Johanna inherited that trait, right?”

If I hadn’t seen Johanna today, I would never have thought she inherited it.

Originally, Johanna was someone who didn’t express her emotions well and always practiced swordsmanship with blank eyes.

However, the Johanna I saw today expressed her emotions so clearly that she couldn’t be thought of as the Johanna I had seen until now.

And all the emotions Johanna expressed were jealousy and obsession.

“The object of her obsession is clearly Loki and……”

Her father bowed his head and muttered Loki’s name as if to kill him, but.

She didn’t mind, as her father wasn’t like this just for a day or two.

“But aren’t they not yet lovers?”

Because of the mask Loki was wearing, she couldn’t tell what kind of gaze Loki had for Johanna, but it seemed certain that they weren’t yet lovers.

“To be precise, it’s someone they want to make their lover. Or someone they consider their lover.”

Is that why she reacted like that when I just put my hand on Loki’s shoulder earlier?

“Then will she keep obsessing severely like earlier? What if Loki gets tired and distances himself?”

“She can probably control herself normally. The problem is when she can’t control it due to some trigger, even while trying to control it…….”

A trigger, huh….

Ascal recalled when Johanna’s obsession with Loki was severe.

‘The mask!’

All the times Johanna acted sensitively were when Loki tried to take off his mask and show his face.

*****

All the special class students gathered in the classroom.

Professor Alicia, who would normally tell them to ‘attack,’ said something different.

“You all know that the special class receives missions, right?”

The students looked at Professor Alicia with disbelieving eyes.

“Yes. Your first mission has arrived.”

The students looked at Professor Alicia with eyes filled half with excitement and half with worry.

“Raise your hand if you know about Baron Ashro’s household.”

Most of the people who raised their hands after hearing Professor Alicia were imperials.

The swordsmen from the East and Kuran didn’t raise their hands, perhaps because they didn’t know.

“I thought you wouldn’t know since he’s a noble on the frontier, but you do?”

Sepia, sitting next to me, looked at me with surprised eyes and spoke.

“I stopped by there once before. The night view was very good.”

Especially the night view I saw while stealing drugs from the Baron and avoiding the soldiers was so beautiful.

“Raise your hand if you know about Phantom Thief Cardinal.”

This time, all the students raised their hands.

Naturally, I raised my hand too.

Because that was me.

They probably didn’t know about Phantom Thief Cardinal originally either, but they must have learned about him when he reappeared this time.

“The place where Phantom Thief Cardinal first appeared after decades was Baron Ashro’s household.”

The students’ eyes widened, as if they were slowly realizing what the request was.

“The client is Baron Ashro. The request is to find the family heirloom that Phantom Thief Cardinal stole.”

“Is the reason it wasn’t mentioned in the newspaper that they didn’t want to announce that their heirloom was stolen?”

Sepia muttered to herself next to me.

Wow~ So the heirloom of Baron Ashro’s household was drugs.

Then I was the one who stole the heirloom.

Anyway, I can’t believe they actually made a request.

I couldn’t understand what they were thinking at all.

What if the special class students found out about the drugs?

As expected, are they targeting one of the special class students?

But I wasn’t worried.

Because I had something I could rely on.

“Is Professor-nim coming along too?”

I raised my hand and asked Professor Alicia.

“Of course, I’m going too.”