☆★☆★☆★
And thirty minutes later.
“Um… why are you two cleaning Sheryl’s room, exactly?”
Just as I said, Maria and Anastasia were in the thick of tidying a room in a dire state.
The room was… not so much dirty as comprehensively strewn. Grimoires scattered everywhere, and my first impression was of my own laboratory back when I lived alone.
Come to think of it, Bridget was always angry at me about that once we married. And once I started taking disciples, Merlin cleaned up of her own accord, which was a help.
And the mistress of the room, Sheryl, was doing nothing at all, savoring an apple pie.
“…I don’t say it to boast, but I have zero capacity for daily life.”
“That’s genuinely not a boast, no. By the way… why are you sitting on my lap?”
Sheryl had asked Anastasia and Maria to tidy the room, and asked me to sit down in the middle of it.
That was the condition for becoming a class representative, but…
And the moment I sat cross-legged, she plopped herself down between my knees.
“…Ephthal smells good.”
And for the whole thirty minutes she’s been sniffing at my chest and my neck.
I’d like her to stop, but is this some habit particular to beastfolk?
“You said something like that before, too.”
“…Mm. You really do smell the same as Brother.”
She sniffed at my neck, her nose creeping steadily upward—and by the time it reached my ear it tickled.
“…Haha, that tickles, so stop.”
I pried her away with a wry smile, and Sheryl puffed her cheeks out and—
“…Raargh.”
I’ve been threatened. Or is she angry?
“Are you angry?”
“…Mm. I don’t like being pushed away. So I’m in a bad mood. Bad enough that I might say I won’t be a class representative.”
And she puffed both cheeks right up.
Good grief, what a handful, I thought, and spread both arms.
“Sorry, sorry. I won’t push you away again. It just tickled, that’s all.”
And Sheryl’s face lit up like a flower blooming… although, well, still expressionless.
“…Huuug.”
And she dove into my chest.
Just then Maria, cleaning the room, turned an exasperated look our way.
“You’re weirdly used to handling little girls, huh?”
“Am I? Well, I think she’s honest and a good kid. For some reason she seems to have taken to me.”
“…Mm… good kid? Sheryl’s a good kid?”
“A strange one, though.”
And Sheryl said “Ehehe” and clung to me harder.
Still completely expressionless the whole way through, mind.
And—
We got the room somehow tidy, and by way of a break Anastasia made everyone tea.
Incidentally, the business about Sheryl having zero capacity for daily life turned out to be true—she had no tea set and no crockery, so it ended with a trip to Maria’s room in the dorm to fetch some.
“Ah, Ephthal, it’s about lunchtime, so—eat this.”
Maria came out with that suddenly while we were all drinking tea.
“…A sandwich?”
“You like beef, right? I stuffed the filling with a stupid amount of roast beef.”
It was a good-looking sandwich, generous with the beef, lettuce tucked in.
Well, let’s see, and I took a bite.
Mm, it’s good. A steak-sauce base, with a light note of lemon that pulls at the appetite.
“How did you know I like beef, though?”
“You can tell that much watching what someone eats.”
And Maria lowered her lashes and muttered.
“…I’m always watching you, so… I’d know whether I wanted to or not. I just would…”
Well, now she’s started saying things that are hard to respond to.
And Anastasia has frozen in sheer bewilderment.
At that, Sheryl sent Maria a look of naked want.
“…I’m hungry too.”
“Yours is here. Ah, and there’s one for Anastasia too.”
And Maria pulled paper-wrapped sandwiches out of a parcel.
“They’re from the place Ephthal always goes, so they should taste good.”
“…Mm.”
Delightedly—though, well, expressionless—Sheryl started working through her sandwich.
“Why is mine the only handmade one, Maria?”
“Because Sheryl’s and Anastasia’s are obligation, and Ephthal’s is the real thing.”
Said with a completely straight face.
Does this girl have no intention of hiding it… no, that’s bad. That’s a bad sign.
And Anastasia’s watched Maria’s attitude and gone into total freeze, like a PC that’s stopped functioning.
“Ah, Ephthal. That favor I said I’d grant you as thanks for saving my life—that wasn’t a joke, it was serious. Think properly about what you want.”
“Meaning?”
“Anything’s fine, really. For example…”
“For example?”
“Asking me on a date. There’s all sorts.”
Straight face again. Lately she’s really been—
—coming at me hard.
This is… ah, this is a nuisance. That’s exactly the development I don’t want to think about right now…
“Ah, that reminds me, Merlin gave me a lunchbox.”
“From Merlin-sama?”
“Yeah, let’s all eat it together. Merlin’s a good cook, believe it or not.”
My previous-life self drilled the fundamentals of cooking into her, so her seasoning necessarily runs to my taste.
There’s a certain guy-cooking bluntness to it, but it’s good, no question.
“…Mm. It’s good.”
“That’s a surprise. It really is good… I assumed Merlin-sama would have made something strange.”
Merlin’s lunchbox seems to be going over well.
And Anastasia looked about to cry.
“Um, uh… I’m sowwy!”
She tripped over her tongue for the first time in a while. What’s wrong?
“U-Um… I-I didn’t notice! I’m sorry for not making anything!”
“Ah, that’s what it is. It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”
“B-B-But… this bit—no, Maria-san went and made sandwiches! And I’m a clumsy, useless slave who can’t even read the room!”
I just heard “bit—” there…
Surely not. Surely she wasn’t about to say “bitch.” Anastasia isn’t that sort of girl. She just tripped over it.
Right. That’s bad for my mental health, so let’s think of it that way.
“No, really, don’t worry about it, Anastasia.”
Still, I thought, and looked around.
A room without even a table, all of us sitting in a circle on the floor—thinking about it properly, this is quite the chaotic situation.
Well… compared to camping out in my adventuring days it’s nothing at all.
“Um… Master?”
“Hm? What is it, Anastasia?”
“This has nothing to do with anything, and it’s rich coming from me when I made the tea, but… I have a cat’s tongue. I can’t drink it hot.”
“Ah, is that right.”
At that, Sheryl turned her left palm toward Anastasia’s teacup.
“Level 1: Create Ice.”
Moisture in the air condensed, and ice went tumbling into Anastasia’s cup with a clink, clink.
“Awawa, it’s going to spill!”
Anastasia grabbed the cup in both hands in a panic.
Well, holding it in both hands doesn’t help, but the tea didn’t spill, so, fine.
“Huh, handy little utility spell. Making ice that small… actually, I’ve never heard of that spell?”
And I lifted Sheryl off my lap. I stood, set her gently on the floor, and turned back around—
“Hey. You. That spell… where did you learn it?”
It wasn’t the student who asked that. It was the Thunder God Emperor.
The first time I saw that spell was the night before the decisive battle, in a tent, camped outside the Demon King’s castle.
—This is the Ice God Emperor’s original spell.
Or more precisely… I, with knowledge of the modern world, gave the Ice God Emperor the concept of chilling a drink with ice, and he devised the utility spell off the back of it.
“…What’s wrong, Ephthal? Your face is frightening.”
“I’ll ask again. Where did you learn it?”
“…Will you keep it secret? I’m not forbidden. But I think speaking of it… wouldn’t be good.”
I nodded, and Anastasia and Maria nodded after me, and Sheryl let out a small sigh.
“…My name is Sheryl. Sheryl Oldis. Adopted daughter of a ducal house of a certain country. No… I was. And—”
Sheryl thought for a moment, gave a small nod, and said this.
“The name I had before I was taken in was Sheryl Alford. Which means—the Ice God Emperor… the founder of that line is my ancestor.”
So she’s a blood relation of the Ice God Emperor Isaac, the one the Fire God Emperor killed… is she.
Now that she’s said it, I feel like a faint trace of him lingers around her eyes.
But thanks to that, I understand why she suddenly went from genius to ordinary. And why she was a genius before.
Because—it seems that idiot Isaac really did cross the species barrier and father a child.
I told him again and again to leave it alone, that it would absolutely become a mess. The cat ears had me thinking beastfolk at first, but Sheryl isn’t.
Right. It isn’t beastfolk blood in Sheryl, it’s spirit blood.
And it’s outrageously thick.
Something like an atavism. Her magic power running dry is a matter of time.
I mean, I did everything to stop him, and now I get to clean up after him? Come on, Isaac.
“Haa…”
Nine years old. Leave her be and dying inside a year is on the table. This is nothing but a nuisance.
Still. She’s an old friend’s descendant.
Can’t very well let it slide.
“Hey, Sheryl?”
“…What? Ephthal?”
“Your dorm fee waiver runs out soon, doesn’t it? Looks like your adoptive father’s abandoned you, too… if you’ve got nowhere to go, want to come to the mansion where Anastasia and I live?”
Merlin’s going to grumble at me about picking up strays again, but it can’t be helped.
I need her close by to observe the situation. Honestly, give me a break, Isaac… And there I laughed at myself.
No… I’m at fault too.
Level-headed his whole life, and then he lost it over a spirit at past forty. My mouth told him to stop. Somewhere in my heart I was cheering him on.
“…Ephthal. Your air changed suddenly. But… you really do smell like Brother.”
“So? What’ll you do?”
“…Mm.”
And Sheryl gave a small nod and said it.