327. The man who does it
“…Ugh.”
“Are you finished?”
When Yuri opened her eyes, she stumbled on her head, as if she had just completed the circle.
Her red eyes turn round at my question.
“Zeto…? When did you come?”
“A little while ago.”
“…I thought you were sleeping.”
“I didn’t sleep. Of course, it seems like everyone else was asleep except me.”
I raised my head and pointed at the table.
There were as many as six heads that fell on the table.
Instructor Rayna, Amon, Lucia, Crank, Aizel, and even Orphel fell asleep.
Has the desire to sleep become contagious?
It seems like everyone was tired from enjoying the festival.
The sun would rise soon, and the eve ceremony had to come to an end, so sleeping now didn’t seem like a bad choice.
‘After drinking too much on the eve of the festival, I won’t wake up until the afternoon… So it would roughly coincide with the highlight of the Phoenix Festival scheduled for the second night.’
While she was once again understanding the structure of the festival, she heard Yuri’s voice and cleared her mind.
“Zeto didn’t drink?”
“As you know, alcohol is not suitable for your body.”
“That’s really surprising too. There’s something even Jeto can’t do.”
“How did you feel about creating another circle? I heard she was in the middle of drinking.”
“…Oh, did you hear?”
“Amon.”
“My impressions… How can I say it? It’s not very pleasant.”
“Why?”
I tilted my head at Yuri’s bitter expression.
“If you really want to be specific, it’s an abnormal phenomenon. Last time, he was sleeping, and this time, I really can’t believe it, but he was drinking. I thought it was because he was tied to Beno, but he said it wasn’t him.”
“But isn’t it a good thing that you’ve become stronger? I heard that it’s common for wizards to stay in the 5th circle for their entire lives.”
For wizards, circles are quite important.
Non-mages can be strong regardless of the amount of mana, but compared to that, it should be said that the magicians’ circle has an absolutely strong feel.
However, this does not mean that strong non-mages have less mana. Most strong people are likely to have gone through harsh battles and training, so they usually have a lot of mana.
For ‘players’ like me, it is convenient to think of the amount of mana as being replaced by level.
Soon, Yuri raised the corners of her mouth in response to my comforting her and opened her mouth.
“I don’t know. One thing is for sure, mana is not something that has to be obtained in this way. My father often said this. To a wizard, mana is the ‘karma’ that a person has accumulated throughout his life. Perhaps that’s why he can obtain it without any effort. “I’m scared of this power.”
That’s how it felt to Yuri.
She was afraid of unknown growth that even she could not define.
Well, like a user playing the game, ‘the bus is comfortable.’ Or ‘I sucked the honey well.’ She wasn’t expecting such a reaction, though.
It is true that her growth lacked ‘naturalness’.
Aside from her rapid growth, she accumulated mana without any battle, making her quite scary.
As with all humans, the ‘unknown’ is an object of fear. I’m afraid of what I don’t know. So humans try to uncover the identity of the ‘unknown’.
“Now that I think about it, it seems like Zeto wasn’t around all the time.”
“Is that so?”
“Did Zeto give me mana as a gift?!”
Sharp interpretation.
From Noble mtl dot com
Actually, it wasn’t a completely wrong expression.
“I should have even packaged it for you.”
But there is no evidence anywhere to support that.
“…Uhm…”
When I answered with a shrug, Izel, who was leaning her head on my shoulder, turned over.
“Pooh… Please help me find the cause. Benno is no help. This perverted lizard is always talking nonsense.”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
Yuri became very close to Beno, the dragon in the orb, and used the term ‘perverted lizard’ in his mouth. It wasn’t announced publicly, so it was limited to when I was alone with him.
“Ah… Um… It seems better not to know that.”
Yuri, who had been pausing, shook his head.
“It seems like he often says obscene things, which is uncharacteristic of a dragon.”
“How can you do that…? You can’t hear it…?”
Yuri, taken aback by my rough guess, asks an obvious question.
“No, I can’t hear it. You just called it a derogatory term that felt like that.”
“Ah…”
“Doesn’t it have an effect?”
“Well, except that sometimes he makes strange demands or makes noise if his demands are not met…”
I don’t think it needs to be removed.
Beno appears to have a significant influence on Yuri.
“What is this strange request?”
“Hmm, embarrassing things…? Yes, for example…”
Yuri rolled her eyes here and there without letting go of her focus, and then thrust her face right at me.
“…Something like this…?”
After hearing the sound in his ears, Yuri parted his lips and lowered his head and muttered softly.
“……”
A kiss.
Is there a reason why it was given the derogatory name ‘perverted lizard’?
“Kissing the opposite s*x in front of you… It’s more serious than I thought, isn’t it?”
“B-Beno told me to do it…! I’m not doing it to just anyone…!”
I was so worried that I was touching her chin and seriously thinking about it, and Yuri started yelling.
Judging by the smell of alcohol on her breath, it seemed like she had been drunk even before she started the circle.
Even when Yuri is drunk, it doesn’t show that much.
“Zeto… I thought Zeto would be okay…”
Yuri’s despondent voice is soon heard in a low voice.
I’m fine.
Izel, who is sleeping next to me, may not be like that, but I am fine.
Aside from the question of whether she could concentrate enough to form a circle while she was drunk, it was fortunate that everyone was asleep and away.
[ Ah…? ]
However, Sierra, who was the only one awake and had no intention of falling asleep, stared at Yuri with a flushed cheek and a look of embarrassment on her face.
I don’t know why, but he had an expression on his face that said, “I trusted you as much as I did.”
She did like Yuri, saying he seemed kind-hearted.
“”……””
Immediately, an awkward atmosphere comes between me and Yuri.
The only thing that could be heard through the silence was the snoring of those sleeping on the table.
“Um… By the way, where did Kaen go?”
Yuri belatedly finds Kaen due to her awkwardness.
“Well, I heard she went to the bathroom… Oh, she’s coming here at the moment.”
She reflexively spread energy in response to her question and then found Kaen walking towards her tavern.
Yuri spots Kaen on the other side of her, and she immediately turns her head to me and whispers.
“Erase what happened just now from your memory. It’s related to Beno. Okay?”
“What if it’s a memory you don’t want to erase?”
“…Well, what is that…”
Yuri’s face heats up as he is speechless.
As expected, the reactions are fun.
Unknowingly, Yuri’s cute reaction as she stuttered and lowered her gaze to the floor made her happy, and the corners of her mouth rose.
And not long after, Kaen arrived at the tavern.
“I’m sorry I’m a little late. Cadet Zeto has already arrived. I guess the two of you were talking about something interesting?”
Kaen immediately pulled out her chair and sat down and asked that question.
It was a difficult question for her to answer truthfully, but she was confident in equivocating.
“We were talking about who snores louder.”
In response to my answer, Kaen’s eyes turn to those who were sleeping with their heads on the table.
“Is there any need to talk about it? It’s Cadet Amon.”
Then, Kaen found an empty bottle, poured her drink into a glass, and immediately poured it down her neck.
“Miss Yuri thought so, but if I had to ask, Orfel was a little noisier.”
“It’s surprising. The child of the Aisin family, famous for being as quiet as a lake in the middle of winter, is the loudest…”
“Ahahahaha… Right?”
Yuri, who has matched my rhythm, smiles awkwardly.
“But why are you so late?”
“It’s just… It was hard to find a bathroom.”
Kaen responded that way, but looking at the atmosphere, it seemed like she wasn’t simply unable to find the bathroom.
‘Strangely, he seems a little angry.’
What is the reason?
She looked at the relationship chart in her status window, where she can check her emotional state, and saw that ‘disappointed’ and ‘displeased’ were showing next to Kaen’s name.
Just looking at the timing, I think she might have met Howol, but was there a reason for her to feel bad after meeting Howol?
“Cadet Zeto. I have a question.”
While I was thinking about this, Kaen asked me a question first.
“What is it?”
“What if? If someone were to threaten us with a knife to ruin our relationship, what would you do if you were Cadet Zeto?”
Only then was she able to be sure that she had met Howell.
“What about our relationship?”
“Just… My relationship with the cadets.”
Kaen vaguely explains.
Although the premise of what if was attached, the intention of the question was clearly visible from my perspective.
Didn’t Howell make a foolish threat to me before, telling me not to touch Kaen?
The important thing here is that I actually avoided talking to Kaen after that.
I don’t know why, but it was because the King of Conquerors was controlling me by possessing my mouth at the time, but from Kaen’s point of view, who had no way of knowing this, it may have felt disappointing.
It is a guess, but it is true that there was a misunderstanding.
But I couldn’t tell you everything straight away.
For now, there was no way to explain the possession of the King of Conqueror, the reason for which even I did not know.
‘I don’t really want to reveal it…’
But I had a simple and clear answer that could solve this twisted situation and clear up her misunderstanding.
“Isn’t it a good idea to first consider whether the threat has any meaning to me?”
“I can’t even imagine threatening Zeto with a knife and nothing else?”
Yuri, taking a sip of alcohol, adds to her words.
“Ah… That’s right. I brought up something pointless.”
As if Kaen understood, she uttered a single word, and her face gradually brightened as if she understood the logic.
Look. Wasn’t it solved easily?
I didn’t tell you the truth, but I clearly conveyed my meaning.
Because I often talked to Bernice, who was dangerous if I uttered even one wrong word, I may have become good at speaking and dealing with people without even realizing it.
“Even if my life is at stake, I don’t want to let someone else ruin my relationship with you all. Don’t Miss Yuri and Ms. Kaen feel the same way as me?”
While I was already throwing them away, I had another drink to instill trust in them…
“That’s all good… But can you please not risk your life…?”
“I don’t think there’s any need to die.”
…Unlike expected, the response is not good.
I also forget things sometimes.
In their minds, I am a ‘man who will do it’ in a bad way, sacrificing his life to save Eisel.
I think they have ptsd from his self sacrificial behavior.