"Oh, Professor Harold!"
"Student Geralt. As you said, when I climbed the hill, I found a suspicious vampire. He was a little farther from the location you ntioned, though."
"My apologies. I was checking too many prophecies at once, so there might have been so slight discrepancies."
"It's fine. In any case, I found him and killed him. I used Serista's blessed sword to cut him down, so I doubt he'll be getting back up."
The unexpected voice belonged to Harold, who was discussing the vampire with Geralt. In his arms, cradled like a princess, was soone familiar—soone I'd seen a few tis while eting with zzlen.
"This girl, I’ve seen her before. If I recall correctly, she was one of Princess zzlen's maids."
"Yes, that’s Kate! Saint Serista, please take her to the infirmary imdiately!"
"Y-Yes! Right this way, quickly..."
With that conversation, the four of them entered the academy church.
From what I overheard, it seed they had successfully dealt with the leader vampire and rescued zzlen's maid as well—all thanks to Harold stepping in and getting involved in the story.
‘Well, Harold is definitely reliable when it cos to combat.’
In the original story, Harold had been on the sa side as the corrupted Ethan, making him essentially an enemy. But in this world, he was more of an ally, so it made sense that he could help when needed.
Given that Harold had even used a blood transfusion spell to save zzlen, he likely didn’t see her as just an ordinary student. Perhaps they’d grown closer during their sumr expeditions in the highlands.
"...I ca all the way back to the church, but it looks like I wasn’t needed after all."
"You say that, but if you hadn’t co, Ethan, Seraphine and the others wouldn’t have been able to join us so quickly. And we’ve secured the fake Princess zzlen safely, too."
"...I only did it because Lilith kept insisting I had to."
It seed they had gone to Seraphine as I suggested and captured the doppelgänger.
I’d need to check later to see if they’d properly contained that troubleso monster, but it appeared that the zzlen kidnapping incident was finally coming to a close.
"By the way, where’s Miss Rosewood?"
"...I left her at the dormitory."
"Did you two have a fight? You’ve got that look like you’ve been arguing."
"...Hah."
Ethan and the hero were leisurely chatting now that the culprits behind Princess zzlen's kidnapping had been dealt with.
It was a surprising sight—seeing the hero and Ethan getting along like this was sothing that never happened in the original story. It was probably only possible because this was the new Ethan of this world.
Curious about how Ethan might talk about when I wasn’t around, I quietly hid behind a rock and eavesdropped on their conversation.
"We didn’t fight. It’s just that, because of my selfish actions, she might have gotten angry."
"Huh? What do you an?"
"Do you rember what happened earlier when we ran into that vampire in the underground hideout?"
"That situation?"
"Lilith recklessly threw herself into danger, relying only on the saint’s light. It was a situation where things could’ve gone very wrong."
"Oh, yeah, that. I thought it was dangerous, too. It seed like Miss Rosewood was acting with a plan, but it was risky. Luckily, everything worked out, and we managed to rescue Princess zzlen."
"...Yeah, we were lucky it worked out. Just thinking about what might’ve happened otherwise is terrifying."
"......"
"......"
With a heavy sigh, Ethan recalled what had happened earlier, and the hero fell silent, sensing the serious mood. I stayed as quiet as possible, continuing to listen without making a sound.
"I just had a bad feeling. If I didn’t forcibly stop her, I felt like she would throw herself into danger again."
"...Well, considering your position, I can see why you'd feel that way."
"So I used a bit of force to tie her up in the dormitory. I’m already dreading what she’ll say when I return."
"Still, you did it for Miss Rosewood’s sake, right? I think she’ll understand."
"...Even if she ends up hating , I wanted to make it clear to her. I wanted her to know that even without her putting herself in danger, things would still work out. And I didn’t want her to feel responsible for things she didn’t cause."
"Oh..."
"Everything was resolved without her help, so I hope she realizes that not every problem needs her to take the risk."
...So that was what it was about.
I had wondered what he was thinking, using the Chain of Obedience to tie up in the dormitory, but it turns out it wasn’t just so thoughtless, impulsive action.
Now that I’d seen for myself that things had been resolved just fine without , Ethan was right. Even though I wasn’t involved in securing Princess zzlen after her rescue, everything had gone smoothly afterward, without needing or Ethan.
The hero had fully utilized his mories from his previous life, the party mbers were just as strong as they were in the original story, and even one of the most dangerous enemies, Harold, was now their ally.
Realizing that everything could proceed just fine without my intervention gave an odd sense of relief.
‘I’ve been way too impatient.’
Now that I’d seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears, it was clear: even without , this world was heading toward a happy ending. The changes I’d made to the original story had only led to better outcos, and I didn’t need to feel the weight of responsibility anymore.
"You know, it’s not my place to ddle in your love life, but sotis you should take the ti to have a long, aningful conversation."
"...We’ve had plenty of those already."
"I an more than just typical romantic talk. I’m talking about opening up and sharing those little secrets you’ve kept inside. Trust builds from sharing those things."
"...Romantic advice from a hero with three relationships going on at once. Very credible."
"...I told you, it’s not three."
The fact that they could joke like this ant they probably had these kinds of conversations often.
Seeing Ethan and the hero like this was definitely a surprising side of them I hadn’t expected.
"Are you leaving now? Why not say goodbye to the professor?"
"No need. If I go to my father now, he’ll start talking, and it’ll take forever. Soone is waiting for at ho, so I need to hurry back."
"...Oh yeah, you ntioned you left her tied up, right?"
"I need to get back and untie her as soon as possible, or the resentnt will only grow."
...Oh, right.
Co to think of it, now isn’t the ti for to be listening to all of this.
The sight of the dormitory table leg still hanging from my neck sent a chill down my spine.
‘The state of the dormitory is a disaster right now...’
The table leg, which had been bolted to the floor, was now in my hand, and I had even disassembled the top of the table, leaving it thrown haphazardly on the dormitory floor. Not to ntion, I had put Isabel to sleep with a spell and laid her on the big bed. Considering how long the spell lasts, she might already be waking up.
‘If he finds doing sothing strange when he gets back, he really will lock in a cage.’
"......!!!"
Recalling Ethan’s earlier threat, I hurriedly rushed back to our dormitory.
Even if I ran as fast as I could, I wasn’t sure if I’d make it back in ti.
⁂ ⁂ ⁂
Crash!
"Huff, huff, huff..."
I ran full-speed from the academy church next to the theology dormitory all the way back to the swordsmanship dormitory.
The first thing I saw upon returning to my room was Isabel, still peacefully asleep on the bed.
‘At least Isabel is safe.’
Just seeing her lying quietly in bed was half the battle won.
Luckily, her last mory would be falling asleep in my arms, so there was a good chance she hadn’t realized I’d escaped from the dormitory.
Now that Isabel was still sleeping, it was ti to reassemble the table. If anyone saw that the table had been disassembled while I was supposed to be tied to it, they’d surely suspect I had tried to escape.
‘First, I need to fix the legs!’
Clink, clink, clink.
I reattached the table legs to the floor first, intending to deal with the table top afterward. Using the sa precision dagger I had used to unscrew the table, I tightened the screws.
Since the dagger was narrow, the silver one I’d received from Lizzy was perfect for this. The blades I’d gotten from Ethan or Seraphine were too wide and cumberso for this kind of work.
‘It just needs to look like nothing’s wrong. At least enough that I can argue it’s always been like this…’
I didn’t have enough ti to tighten the screws as firmly as they had been originally, but I made sure they wouldn’t fall off easily. Then, I started working on the table top.
Clink, clink, clink.
"...Lilith? What are you doing...?"
"Waaah, Sleep!"
"Uuuh...? Zzz..."
Isabel, groggily sitting up in bed, was hit with a second sleep spell and collapsed onto the bed like a puppet with its strings cut.
ntally apologizing to her, I quickly lifted the table top onto the legs and began reassembling it. Just as I was about to finish...
Click.
The sound of the door unlocking echoed through the room as the dormitory door slowly opened.
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