The sky is blue, the birds sing, and the grass grows.
Why am I saying such pointless things? No particular reason. I just have nothing else to do.
Although I consistently receive training from Rod, it’s not sothing I do every single day. He needs personal ti too.
So, when I have a completely free day like today, I usually just hole up in the dormitory and do nothing.
There’s nothing to do even if I go outside, and I can take care of als indoors. But today, I need to go out.
‘The Usk at is all gone.’
The stockpile of Usk at has been completely depleted. Looks like I’ll need to go grocery shopping.
When I’m with acquaintances, I usually eat at restaurants, but not on regular days.
Not using my excellent dexterity to cook would be a sin.
Besides, my cooking tastes better than most restaurant food, so doing it myself is preferable.
‘It has to be at, no question.’
I wrote down the necessary ingredients in my notebook. While I have plenty of seasonings, I’m out of the main ingredient.
All I need to do is go to the butcher shop and buy so at. No matter how much I eat, I never get tired of it.
‘Today, I’ll have pork belly.’
In this world, perhaps thanks to the advanced butchery industry, at cuts are classified in great detail.
Not only pork belly but also parts I’ve never seen before are available. However, the different nas made it tricky to distinguish them.
But after frequent visits to the butcher shop, the owner kindly explained everything to .
I’m practically a regular now, and he even recognizes my face. Occasionally, he gives generous freebies.
‘If only the oven worked properly.’
I sighed as I stepped outside. Every dormitory has an oven installed.
However, since science hasn’t advanced much yet, controlling the temperature is difficult.
Last ti, I misadjusted the temperature and almost set the dormitory on fire.
Ever since that incident, I’ve avoided using the oven and stuck to regular cooking thods. It made realize how underdeveloped science still is.
‘I’ll finish shopping and then head to Jane’s.’
Or maybe I should eat the at with Jane. She seems to devote herself to research so much that she barely eats properly.
I wonder how far Jane’s invention has progressed. With a hint of anticipation, I started walking.
Thanks to wandering around here and there recently, I no longer attract much attention. It seems people are finally getting used to .
I didn’t care much about the stares anyway. What mattered most was today’s lunch.
[Closed for today.]
“What?”
But the butcher shop was closed. Seeing the sign hanging prominently at the entrance, I felt disheartened.
This place is usually open every day, so hearing it’s closed feels like my dream of eating pork belly has just crumbled.
At this point, it seems like I’ll have to settle for eating at a restaurant. Skipping a al is not an option.
‘But nothing really appeals to .’
Unless it’s a Korean-style restaurant where you can grill at yourself, there’s nothing enticing.
For now, it seed better to settle for a buffet. Reluctantly, I turned away.
“Hello!”
“?”
As soon as I turned around, a voice reached my ears. It wasn’t from the front but from below.
Looking down, I saw a little boy staring up at . A kid with a buzz cut and sparkling eyes.
He looked like a character straight out of an old children’s cartoon I used to watch. Most people would call him a potato-head type character.
“Mister, are you here to buy at too?”
“······?”
Mister? Did he just call mister after looking at my face?
It was the first ti I’d been called mister, so I blinked in surprise. Could it be that I grew a beard without realizing it?
While I unconsciously rubbed my chin, the boy looked behind and reacted similarly.
“What? It’s closed today. Dad said we’d eat at.”
“······How old are you?”
“? Five years old!”
Whoever it was, sending a five-year-old on an errand seed absurd. No matter how sharp he looked, he was still just a kid.
But this kid… He looked oddly familiar. Especially with that buzz cut and his features, he reminded of soone.
As I was observing him closely, I heard a familiar voice from the front.
“Don! I told you not to go off on your own!”
A man, presumably the boy’s father, ca running over in a hurry. It seed the boy had wandered off on his own.
As soon as I made eye contact with the boy’s father, I widened my eyes slightly in surprise. He did the sa.
“Oh? Sivar, the student?”
“Instructor?”
It was Marlboro. No wonder the boy seed familiar—he resembled this man.
The boy, Don, had such a striking resemblance to Marlboro with his buzz cut. If Don grows up, he’ll probably look just like him.
Marlboro, startled to see , quickly grabbed Don, who was trying to run off sowhere, and lifted him with a cheerful smile.
“Gotcha! Where do you think you’re going this ti?”
“Let go! I want to run more!”
Don struggled to break free, but he couldn’t escape Marlboro’s sturdy arms.
Co to think of it, Marlboro is quite broad-shouldered, almost like an actor.
“Your son?”
“Oh, right. This is Don, my son. He’s a mischievous five-year-old. If you take your eyes off him, he’s always running around.”
“I’m bored. I don’t want to stay ho.”
“That’s why your mom has such a hard ti every day. Do you know how shocked we were when we heard you went into the forest last ti?”
“I just wanted to catch a beetle.”
A hardworking father and an innocent child. They’re the perfect picture of a typical father-son relationship.
As I watched them, feeling a bit strange, Marlboro glanced at the closed butcher shop.
“Oh no. It’s closed today. I guess we’ll have to eat out.”
“Yay! Eating out!”
“Hmm. No, never mind. Let’s eat at ho.”
“What? No! I want to eat out! Eat out!”
Don clung to Marlboro, whining persistently. Marlboro just chuckled.
It seed like he was just teasing, but Don, being a child, wouldn’t understand that. Truly, they had a harmonious father-son dynamic.
‘Later, that relationship······’
I quickly shook my head. There’s no need to think about that tragedy right now.
None of that matters. The demon is the root of all evil. As long as I rember that, such things won’t happen.
“Alright, alright. So, where should we eat?”
“Hmm······ Can that mister co with us too?”
“What?”
Why am I suddenly being dragged into this? Marlboro looked as surprised as I felt.
Being called mister is one thing, but we just t. I knew kids could be unpredictable, but this was unexpected.
Marlboro looked at , puzzled, after Don pointed at .
“That mi—no, no. Why him?”
“I want to play with him.”
“Huh? Out of nowhere?”
“Yeah.”
What did I do to make him want to play with ? I blinked in confusion.
Marlboro seed just as surprised, alternating his gaze between Don and .
The Academy doesn’t have any rules against instructors forming personal relationships. There isn’t even a similar regulation.
Since instructors can’t completely avoid political entanglents, such things are usually overlooked. That’s why strange rumors occasionally circulate.
But I don’t mind. I’m soone who ca from the wild with no connections or background. So, there’s no issue with getting close to instructors.
“Hmm······ I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know which of you two will cause trouble.”
Co on. No matter how you look at it, comparing unfavorably to a child is a bit much.
What’s worse is that Marlboro wasn’t joking—he genuinely ant it.
I did feel a bit wronged, but I couldn’t really make any excuses since I had it coming. I just had to accept it.
“Are you sure about this? If you say no, then there’s nothing I can do.”
“I want to play! I want to play with that guy!”
“······Fine, let’s play.”
It just so happened that I didn’t have anything else to do. Besides, I also needed to fulfill the event related to Marlboro’s son, Don.
Thinking of it as part of preventing a future tragedy made it easier to accept. It was a tragedy far worse than Grace’s, so I was determined to stop it at all costs.
‘There was an event where he went missing while playing, wasn’t there?’
From what I vaguely rembered, that was the case. He wandered into the Forest of Chaos on his own and went missing.
For now, the Forest of Chaos was off-limits, so that shouldn’t happen. But kids were always forbidden from entering the forest anyway.
Don would find so kind of “dog hole” to sneak into the forest. All I had to do was quietly follow him and keep him safe.
“Thanks. If it’s you, Don won’t be in any danger, but······ just don’t cause any trouble, okay? And don’t do anything weird either.”
“Weird?”
“Hmm······ If I had to give an example, sothing like launching yourself with a catapult? Just don’t do anything like that.”
No matter how reckless I was, I wouldn’t make a kid do sothing like that. What on earth did he think of ?
After that, I spent ti with Marlboro and his son, even having a al together. Considering the amount of food, we settled for a buffet.
“Oh, by the way. Sivar, how have you been getting along with Luna these days?”
“······Luna?”
“Yeah. There’s been a strange rumor going around. Sothing about seeing Luna leaving your dormitory? Right after the Freshman Banquet, too.”
“Is there a problem with that?”
I looked at Marlboro with a “What’s the big deal?” expression. Marlboro stared at for a mont before chuckling.
He then patted my back and spoke in a reassuring tone.
“Well, it seems like you still don’t know about these things. That’s a relief.”
“··· ···”
“Technically, according to the rules, you should be penalized······ but there are tis when we overlook things. I’ll see if I can find out who started spreading that rumor.”
I wasn’t sure what he ant, but I just answered that I understood. Honestly, from my perspective, it felt like I was juggling everything on my own.
It was like being in the eye of a storm. Luna and I were minding our own business, but the outside world was the problem.
Still, it seed impossible to completely ignore it. If the instructors had heard about it, then the students must have known as well.
Moreover, there was a high chance that others would overreact more than I would. For now, things were quiet, but once Grace returned, it would be quite a show.
‘Might as well grab so popcorn.’
For now, I’ll settle for so ribs. After filling my stomach, I left with Marlboro and his son.
“Don, make sure to listen to your brother······ um······”
Marlboro trailed off while trying to emphasize his point to Don. His expression showed he wasn’t entirely confident.
What kind of impression had I left on him for him to distrust over sothing so trivial? I was starting to feel a bit hurt.
“Anyway, don’t cause any trouble and listen to him. If anything happens, go to your brother first. Got it?”
“Okay!”
“Good, good. Sivar, you better not cause any trouble either.”
“··· ···”
I just nodded silently. Anyone watching might think I was raising two kids.
Even as he left, Marlboro kept emphasizing his concerns, glancing back at us repeatedly with a worried look.
Once Marlboro’s figure had completely disappeared, Don tugged at my pants and asked.
“Hey, mister. What are we going to play?”
“······Brother.”
“Huh?”
“I’m not a mister. Call brother.”
At the very least, we had to fix how he addressed . Don tilted his head at my request but eventually nodded.
“Okay, brother. What are we going to play?”
“Hmm······”
Good question. What should we do? What would catch Don’s interest?
After racking my brain for a while, an interesting idea suddenly ca to mind.
Sothing that kids of any era would love. Well, maybe not just kids—this was every man’s dream.
“Want to go see so robots?”
“Robots?”
“Yeah. Steel dolls. They move. They might even fly.”
“Whoa! Let’s go! I want to see them!”
“Alright.”
I grabbed Don’s hand and headed to Jane’s Workshop.
At the ti, I had no idea that Marlboro’s concerns weren’t unfounded.
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