episode_0137

“What is this?”

Elin, who was about to be sucked into the documents, raised her head.

Luke, who saved Elin, shrugged.

“Open it yourself.”

“Hmm.”

Luke came right away and handed me a luxuriously wrapped box.

Although it was disconcerting, it was also something to look forward to.

My birthday is still quite a while away, but what about a present?

Isn’t this something that lovers do?

I carefully untied the ribbon.

“… pen?”

“Wouldn’t it be nice to have one?”

It wasn’t something like the rabbit pen used on parchment (which is still in my inventory, by the way).

A fountain pen that looks suitable for writing documents.

It was a pen with an attractive, square sound.

“Thank you. But why the sudden gift?”

“I don’t think we’ll have time during the coming-of-age ceremony, so I’m giving it to you in advance.”

“… … ”

I was wondering why he gave it to me when it wasn’t even my birthday.

It was an early birthday present.

I wasn’t disappointed at all, but my hair was droopy.

“Why are you like that?”

“A gift from a teacher would be enough.”

“Then, thank you for your hard work. Sorry for disturbing your work… .”

Luke pretended not to hear and tried to leave the office.

“Just a minute.”

Ellen grabbed Luke.

“I have something to give you too.”

“It’s no fun if the princess says it’s a gift.”

“Why are you giving me as a gift? It already belongs to you, teacher.”

“… … ”

When she was repeatedly left speechless, Ellen continued speaking on her own.

“But I’m going to give it to you on the day of your coming of age ceremony. So look forward to it.”

“Then why did you call me?”

“Huh.”

“… I’m getting anxious.”

It gives me goosebumps to see him looking so happy.

Luke left the office, brushing away the fluff that had risen up.

* * * * *

The next day.

“Princess!!”

“How have you been?”

Bena and Nia arrived at the Bertain mansion first.

Since Bucklin was a family living in the capital, the distance was close.

Bena was kidnapped by Lanian right after graduating and was still at the academy.

Yes, that’s right.

She ended up becoming a graduate student.

“How did you make that choice… .”

“I, I didn’t want that either… !”

Bena cried in Elin’s arms.

Because of the height difference, Bena had to bend her legs a lot.

“I told you not to refuse.”

“Ha, but Senior Lanian gave me such good conditions… .”

A wizard is a being that will willingly kneel if only they have the funds to study.

However, Lanian took Bena to his lab on the condition that he would fully support her research expenses and accommodation.

Because of that, I ended up becoming a research slave who only sleeps 3 hours a day… .

“Thank you for inviting me so quickly. If not, I would have been caught by Senior Lanian and would have been writing the scroll… .”

“Hmm. Take it easy while you’re here.”

I barely managed to get the stuck Vena off.

Nia examined Elin’s complexion.

“I heard from my brother that you are also quite busy.”

“I’m going to go next time. And I don’t even sleep 3 hours a day.”

“Really? Then that’s good.”

“I need to look at some documents for a moment. Do you want to take a look around?”

“How long does it take?”

“Um… 8 hours?”

“… Elin. Don’t you know what a moment is?”

“Huh?”

Elin, who worked 16 hours every day, didn’t know what was wrong.

“Oh, my lady. We don’t do that in our lab either… ?”

Even in Lanian’s lab, they didn’t just work for 16 hours straight.

Don’t you have to eat and go out to buy ingredients?

“Um… But I have to finish this today.”

Ellen just immersed herself in paperwork.

From the moment the sun rises brightly until it completely sets.

After exactly eight hours, Ellen put down her pen.

“It’s over.”

“… I won’t whine anymore.”

“I should increase my training time too.”

Bena and Nia looked at Elin with compassionate eyes as she patted her head on the table.

It wasn’t just Ellen’s work hours that were long.

Because I processed documents five times my height while sitting.

Bena and Nia had no choice but to reflect on themselves.

“??”

Elin, who didn’t know English, just made a question mark out of her stupid hair.

“But was there originally a pen like this?”

When Nia saw the pen she had received as a gift, her cheekbones stood on end.

“The teacher gave me this as a gift today.”

“Ah, as a birthday present?”

“… … Yeah.”

“Why, why are you getting gloomy?”

Ellen shook her head, saying it was nothing.

“So I wanted to give my teacher a present too.”

“What would you like to give me?”

Thump.

Elin stood up, hitting the desk with both hands, and declared with a serious look in her eyes.

“I’m going to confess to my teacher.”

* * * * *

It was indeed a proud declaration.

I couldn’t help but have doubts.

“Uh… …But didn’t you confess last time?”

The trio of Elin, Bena, and Nia were somewhat close.

They are so close that they even share each other’s private lives.

So I confessed when I was 15, and I know I was rejected.

“That wasn’t a formal confession.”

“Hmm… ?”

“I’ll get married soon, so wait!” was clearly ambiguous enough to be considered a formal confession.

“So this time, are you proposing formally?”

“Yeah. I think the teacher has completely fallen for it.”

“Oh my! Now, will you give me a kiss first?”

“… Not that, but.”

Elin continued, her hair slightly withering.

“I used to tell her not to come in the bedroom. But now she doesn’t seem to mind.”

“Gasp…!!”

Although he still said with his mouth, “Stop coming,” he didn’t even put up a barrier in his room these days.

“… Did you originally sleep with a barrier in place?”

“Yeah, 8 times that too. I had a hard time unlocking it every day.”

“… … ”

Should I point out Luke who is sleeping with an eight-layer barrier set up to keep out?

I was wondering if I should point out Elin for breaking through that again.

Nia missed her chance to speak.

“These days, I just pretend not to like it, I don’t push it away at all.”

Actually, Luke was really in trouble.

It’s just that my health was deteriorating and I didn’t have the strength to push through.

Ellen also told Luke in detail how far she had come with the progress.

There are many instances where I blankly stare at Elin and our eyes meet.

Sometimes when we meet in the hallway, he runs away right away.

Or grabbing the area near the heart.

“Sa, you look like a teenage boy in love.”

“Right?”

Looking at the symptoms alone, it seemed as if love expert Bena’s diagnosis was correct.

“… You said that while receiving a kiss?”

But Nia felt something was strange.

If it were embarrassing, wouldn’t you be embarrassed or blush when you get a kiss?

Just listening to what you say, it seems like you’re hiding something from Elin…?

And Nia’s intuition was correct.

The reason Luke’s eyes met Elin’s was because he would often blank out as if he was having a breakdown.

The reason I ran away when I met Elin was because I was coughing up blood.

The reason I was holding onto the area around my heart was because my mana heart was screaming at me to kill it.

If Ellen had known the truth, she would have tied Luke up right away and called the doctor.

“Hmm… .”

Nia is just suspicious.

Unfortunately, there was no ability to uncover the truth.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, Elin plans to confess with Bena’s help.

“The time I spent with the princess was really enjoyable… … .”

Luke was writing a letter to be delivered along with his resignation.

The moment I disappear from this world, I have written all the letters I want to convey to others.

“Hmm… .”

I particularly dislike the letters I write to Elin.

In the end, I crumpled up the paper again today and threw it into another dimension.

I took out the long-distance communication paper.

I wrote the message after changing the recipient to Ranian.

The reply came back shortly.

Lanian shared the Academy’s lab with Luke’s tower.

It’s been empty for a while so it doesn’t matter.

Luke is retired and needs to get some work done so he asked me to take care of it.

If you’re at the academy, it’s worth coming that day.

Luke didn’t necessarily urge her to come quickly.

The sincerity was evident in the handwriting.

As Luke had installed all the convenience magic he knew how to use on the tower.

It was clear that the sense of inverse relationship was greatly felt.

I was so touched that they gave me the rooftop seat.

He even handed over the authority he had always held onto as a senior.

Lanian wrote a letter praising Luke so much that it filled the letter paper.

After a while he asked cautiously.

Lanian was not the type of optimistic person who would be happy if his junior handed over the magic tower.

The reason Luke and Lanian got along so well during their undergraduate years was because they never talked nonsense to each other.

At that time, I abandoned all desires and passions and was filled with a passion for learning.

They had a synergistic effect on each other, so Luke created his own magic, and Lanian took the early graduation-graduate school route.

For a while, no words appeared on the letter paper.

The handwriting is strangely shaky.

I decided to just pretend I didn’t see it and move on.

I put the shiny long-distance communication paper into my inventory and closed it.

I looked at my watch and saw that it was already dinner time.

Luke quickly left the room, thinking that Ellen might be waiting.

Because the day when I can eat at the same table as Elin won’t be long.

Elin, trying to confess.

Luke is about to retire.

It was a day when two people’s hearts were at odds.