Oh Luce… (1)

Knock Knock—

[Breaking and entering! Trespassing! My master's ability to abide by the law is nowhere to be found!]

"…"

Ppak—!

[Bello, attacked! No violence! No violence!]

It was the weekend, and the morning sun shined brightly on the trees.

It was quiet outside of the lower-middle-ranked student dorm, Briggs Hall, and had no students roaming around.

A female student in a one-piece dress rode her larger than usual killer whale familiar, Bello, as she peered into a specific window of Briggs Hall.

Bello wrapped himself with translucent water mana as he swam in the air. He was a familiar who could fly with a passenger as long as he was big enough.

Luce Eltania, who was riding on top of Bello, whacked the noisy familiar and peered through the window.

No one was there.

The window that was slightly opened for ventilation had no sounds coming out of it. The owner of the room was probably not in the bathroom or shower either.

'I already checked that Isaac left to train earlier.'

In truth, she already knew that the room would be empty. However, she double-checked just in case.

Creak.

Luce opened the window without hesitation and stepped inside the room. She put the window back to its original slightly opened state.

"Ugh, it's so damp…"

Due to Bello's water mana, her entire lower half was soaked, including her underwear. If only she rode on Galia, she wouldn't have been in this state.

On the day of the social gathering, after getting dragged away by the Student Council, she was asked to avoid summoning Thunderbird Galia.

Although it was acknowledged that Galia was now docile enough to be deemed safe, many students still had trauma from the terrifying performance it showed in the end-of-semester evaluation.

As a result, she tested out riding Bello, but the drenched texture of her dress and underwear only gave her discomfort. As expected, she was never going to ride Bello again.

[My master succeeds in breaking and entering! Crime perfe…!]

Luce unsummoned Bello. As Bello's voice faded away, a suffocating silence filled the room.

In her hands were a small paper bag filled with cookies. It was elegantly packaged with a letter taped to the bag saying,

I'm sorry about last time

– Luce

The letter even had a little drawing of a trendy character that she drew after much effort. She wanted to emphasize the smiling face.

'I don't know if this will make Isaac feel better…'

She read from a book that an apology gift was best given when one sneakily leaves the gift inside the recipient's private space.

Luce decided to follow the book to the letter. The problem, however, was that her method lacked both common sense and a willingness to follow the law.

On the day of the social gathering, her plan was to forcefully restrain Isaac. In the end, however, she achieved absolutely nothing. Fast forwarding to the present, she was regretful of the risk she took since the current state of her relationship with Isaac was in hot waters.

She had no guilt over her actions. After all, in her eyes, holding Isaac captive was inevitable.

However, Isaac was her only friend, a person who was precious beyond all measure. As such, she would rather die than be hated by him.

'It would probably have a greater effect if I put it somewhere easy to find, right…?'

The best location was probably the desk.

Luce's plan was surprisingly meticulous.

Leave the cookies in Isaac's room.

After a long and exhausting workout, Isaac, who barely managed to drag himself into his room, would see the cookies with a note and be touched.

After deliciously eating the cookies, he'll want to see Luce so badly that he will forgive her and, as a result, become even closer to her.

Now, all she had to do was leave the cookies and make her grand escape. After she gave Isaac enough alone time to be touched by her gesture, he would come to the conclusion that he should 'forgive Luce and hang out with her more.' It was indeed a very meticulous plan.

"…?"

When she placed the bag of cookies on the desk, Luce noticed an abundance of books and scrolls on the bookshelf. To be specific, the scrolls were behind the books as if they were meant to be hidden.

The books were not a problem, but the hidden scrolls were plenty suspicious. Why is he storing so many?

These scrolls were meticulously written plans that Isaac had organized ever since he first possessed his current body. They also contained information about the future.

Every plan and every single piece of information needed to defeat the Evil God of Destruction, Nephid, were stated in these scrolls.

The reason why Isaac had not disposed of these parchments was because there was no guarantee that his memories would be maintained until the very end.

The journey to defeat the Evil God was like a marathon. Without playing the game for years at a time, it was fully possible for Isaac's memory to slowly blur and turn inaccurate.

As such, Isaac kept these scrolls and hid them behind the bookshelf. However, it could not escape Luce's sharp eyes.

"Isaac's secret…"

She was sure that it was a pretty big secret.

Luce often saw Isaac catching glimpses of her. In conclusion, if he had a healthy libido, the scrolls had to be…

'It's porn isn't it?'

Luce smirked softly. He truly was a cute but perverted friend.

Honestly, she was curious as to what Isaac's kinks and sexual preferences were. As such, Luce took out the books that guarded the scrolls and reached out to grab one of them from the back of the bookshelf.

She untied the knot and opened the scroll to see what was written inside.

With a single nonchalant action, Luce uncovered Isaac's deepest secret.

"…What is this?"

Needless to say, it was not porn. More importantly, she didn't even know what it said in the first place.

Were these letters? A language that she had never seen before was written neatly. It was organized and concise.

Even Luce, who read a lot of linguistic books, could not read a single letter on the parchment.

'Is this similar to an ancient language…? How does Isaac know an ancient language?'

Hangul.1Editor's Note: TL went with 'Korean" but I'm changing it to 'Hangul' because it is in written form. Hangul is basically just written Korean

It would be impossible for a person from this world, such as Luce, to know this language.

At that moment.

Stomp—.

Outside the door, footsteps could be heard.

Luce was so startled that she acted out of reflex, sealing the scroll and placing it back in its original place. Her expression was utterly calm as her hands moved at blinding speeds.

She could hear the footsteps in the hallway. It was incredibly close.

These footsteps were…

'Isaac…!'

Isaac, the owner of this very room.

The reason why Luce could deduce this instantly was elementary.

It was because of the 'stride' of the footsteps.

Luce had already memorized the rhythm and sound of Isaac's footsteps.

Not only that, simple things such as his body odor, the shape of his irises, the traces of his palm line, the color of his skin, and the thickness of his hair were obviously memorized as well. As such, recognizing the sounds of his footsteps was child's play.

It was already too late to summon Bello and escape through the window.

If she was caught here, Luce's flawless plan would be in shambles.

Additionally, her relationship with Isaac was already shaky. Rather than meeting him in person, she would rather secretly give him the cookies so that he would feel better on his own.

Was there anywhere to hide? There was no space under the bed. Why was it designed this way?

She continuously blamed the innocent designer as she scanned the room.

Isaac was almost in front of the door. There was no time to waste.

There were only three places she could hide in with the time she had left: the closet, the shower, or the bathroom.

Luce broke out into a cold sweat as she ran into the bathroom while holding the bag of cookies.

* * *

I really need to shit.

Before going out to train, I decided that it was a better idea to take care of my business in the morning.

Even though there were public bathrooms, it was a lot more comfortable to use my own.

Click.

I opened the door and went into my room.

"…?"

How do I put it… It seems the same as how I left it but at the same time, it also feels out of place somehow.

It was as if someone came and left… My brain was ringing alarm bells.

"Eh?"

It didn't take me long to find the source of my discomfort.

The floor in front of the window was slightly damp.

There was no reason for any water to be there. It hadn't evaporated yet so it was recent. Therefore, someone had come into my room.

Since I was not gone for long, the intruder was probably hiding somewhere in here. I was sure that they were just waiting for me to leave.

If we were close with each other, there was no reason to break into my room. In the first place, one of my acquaintances wouldn't have hidden either.

Then who could it be?

"…!!"

Suddenly, I felt chills run down my spine as goosebumps arose.

Alice Carroll, the Student Council President, came to mind.

Not only have I recently met her face to face, but there was also a widespread rumor that I was under the protection of Dorothy.

As such, it was possible that Alice had come to investigate me.

'If it's Alice, wouldn't she have sent one of her subordinates?'

I didn't know why there was water on the floor, but I couldn't think of any other reason besides that.

When I opened the window to ventilate, I wedged a transparent piece of paper between the windshields. However, it had all but disappeared.

This meant that someone had intentionally left the window ajar, just like its original state.

There was no chance of Alice coming personally since her presence emitted grandiosity that was lacking at this moment.

Thus, if Alice sent one of her subordinates to investigate me, it was clear that they came to collect evidence that I was the disruptor.

'They… had no choice but to hide when they heard me approaching.'

The pieces of the puzzle started to match together perfectly.

Right now… Alice's subordinate was in this room.

I slowed my breath and tensed my body.

I took out the Sheath of Disaster while condensing my mana.

Concentrated ice mana swirled in my right hand, as I formed the magic circle for [Frost Explosion].

I held the Sheath of Disaster in my left hand and prepared myself so that I could immediately activate its effect on the intruder.

I determined that fighting was better than running away. There were three reasons for this.

One: Alice wouldn't be able to kill me so abruptly.

Two: I had more than enough justification to attack a trespasser.

Three: I was able to prove that I was significantly weaker than the disruptor who was known as the Black Monster. Alice would hear this and remove me from her list of potential disruptors.

In addition, if it worked out well, I had an opportunity to target Alice using the academy itself.

As long as I stayed alive, I could reap the benefits of this unexpected situation.

'Now, where are you?'

Alice made a big mistake. She never would have been able to guess that I would come back early because of an urgent shit.

I checked everywhere just in case they were hiding under the desk or attached to the ceiling like a cockroach. However, they were nowhere to be found.

I muted my footsteps and slowly approached the closet.

Creaaaak—.

There's no one there.

The shower room is next.

Creaaaak—.

They weren't there either.

If so… the bathroom is next.

I tried to swallow to moisten my dry throat. Behind this bathroom door, Alice's subordinate laid in wait.

The opponent was certainly… not a demon. Therefore, I have to fight in my normal Isaac state.

"Hoo."

I was ready to send two [Frost Explosions] with condensed ice mana in my right hand and the Sheath of Disaster anytime I needed.

The first one to attack was the one to win.

I inhaled deeply and yanked open the door

"…"

"…Huh?"

…For a moment, I thought my eyes saw incorrectly.

I was so confused that the condensed ice mana in my right hand melted away.

On the toilet, a student with rose-gold hair stiffly sat. As soon as the door opened, she froze in surprise as her eyes trembled.

"…What are you doing here?"

"Um so… I came to give this…"

The girl sitting on the toilet was Luce as she meekly handed me a small paper bag tied with a red ribbon.

When I took it and untied the ribbon, I saw that it contained asymmetrically shaped cookies. It was obvious that it was made with utmost sincerity.

"Oh, thanks. But, what are you doing here…?"

Luce dropped her head and chewed on her lips as if it was too complicated to explain.

At that moment, I saw that Luce's lower half was completely drenched.

I may… have made a mistake.

"Never mind, I'm sorry…"

I closed the bathroom door quietly and stood there without letting go of the handle.

Behind the door, the silence was so pronounced that it felt suffocating.

I don't know what happened… But there are some taboos in life that are better off being left unknown.

I think I witnessed one of those taboos…

Footnotes:

1Editor's Note: TL went with 'Korean" but I'm changing it to 'Hangul' because it is in written form. Hangul is basically just written Korean