Chapter Chapter 60: 7. Is your backside safe? (12) (2/2)

Even if there are showers at the academy I don’t have a change of clothes.

Even if I want to wash them I only have the one set of clothes so I can’t even wash them.

Although put in a complaint to Professor Nicerwin, all we got was the inhuman answer to escape faster, and so due to all the subsequent fights in our attempts to escape our pyjamas were in tatters.

“Hang on a sec, I don’t think you get it, but I’m telling you that your uniform and underwear is in here?”

“What’s that… eh?”

Just as I was about to ask what that had to do with me, my rage against Risen evaporated and reason replaced it.

Inside there was a fresh pair of underwear to change into.

And as a bonus there was also a fresh uniform to change into.

I can get rid of these filthy pyjamas, and wear a clean set of underwear and uniform.

As my blank stare turned to the clothes in Risen’s hands, he made a relieved face.

“Now, now, think about it? The pleasure of washing with warm water and having a clean set of clothes to change into afterwards. If you put your fist down, you can say bye bye to your dusty and sweaty pyjamas.”

The moment my attack stopped, the devil’s whispers came instead.

My body was telling me to hurry up and kill that little shit, but my head was already imagining something different.

The pleasure of taking off these pyjamas, taking a hot shower, and changing into that clean uniform.

“Y, you think I’d fall for th…”

But my anger was still stronger, and just when I was about to…

“Tahdah! Take a look at this!”

Refuse…

“It’s your favourite, best in the empire, no best in the continent, the 100-a-day limited strawberry cake from your favourite cake store!”

The other thing he took out from his pouch.

The 100-a-day limited cake.

Talking about its rarity would make one’s mouth hurt, and noble, grand merchant or whatever your status was, the only way you could get it was purely by first come first served, it’s a mirage of a cake you could never get otherwise no matter how much extra you paid.

That cake was an such an incredible item that when it was being sold, there were even reports of thieves attacking people specifically to steal those cakes.

Because of that, there were even rumours that the imperial court attempted to stop the sale of the cake because of the adverse effect it was having on public order, but it was overturned due to sheer number of people opposing the proposal.

The cake of mirages that I had only ever managed to eat three times was right here…

“Th, that’s a lie, isn’t it? There’s no way you could ever have managed to get your hands on one of those!”

Thinking logically, the kid who’d half-ass most aspects of life aside from the times where’d do something pointless would never have something like that in his hands.

Risen, the one who’d prefer to eat at a nearby stall with no lines rather than a tasty restaurant, would never buy something that you’d ordinarily have to wait at least four hours for just the chance to get one, wouldn’t he?

“Really? Do you really think that, vice-pres? Don’t you see this seal on the packaging?”

“Kuukh… there’s, there’s no way.”

But the seal that shined into my eyes even from far away was indeed, that legendary seal inscribed only on the packaging of the cake that I dreamed of daily, yet could only have on my birthday, and only very rarely at that.

“Now, vice-pres should know more than anyone else that this is the real deal. Think about it. You can wash off in hot water, change into a clean uniform, and then eat the best cake afterwards.”

“Ahhh…”

Is the devil’s disciple also a devil.

Right now, Risen was pouring out the sweet honeyed words that not even Professor Nicerwin could beat.

“And what if in addition to the cake… this was added on top?”

“Ahhhh!”

And what he skilfully pulled out from his pouch was a packet of tea leaves from the greatest tea company in the empire, one where in our family, we would only serve to very esteemed guests.

“Now if you put that cake together with this tea…”

I can’t win.

As a woman, no, anyone who liked desserts, this was the devil’s combination that no one could defeat.

As my anger cooled and the seed that the devil’s whispers planted in its place spread quickly, dying my entire heart in its colours.

“I want to give this to someone, you see, but her fists are just too scary.”

“M, hmm?”

And as if to worm its way through the gap in my heart, Risen’s grumbling voice accompanied his hand which enveloped my own, that had unconsciously risen up.

“Ri, Risen? You know…”

“Really, I honestly had all of you in mind when I ran away with my life on the line. To fetch clothes for all of you, food to feed you with, I didn’t even sleep at the crack of dawn, encountered the silver devil and ran away risking my life, I don’t think you guys understand me.”

What he said as he cut me off could be heard as nothing but lies no matter who was listening.

I wanted to yell at him to cut the bullshit, but my mouth was saying something else entirely.

“Re, really?”

Why was I doing this?

Why was my heart that had been consumed by bloodlust only seconds ago, now filled with a different type of greed?

“Mm, even now I want to hand these over to vice-pres.”

I wanted to yell at him to hand over the goods right this instant, but my mouth refused to move.

“Vice-pres is on my side, right?”

“M, mm. y, yes. We’re both vice-presidents, aren’t we?”

In his gently wiggling hands, I also saw the cake wiggling from side to side in time with his movements.

“Yes, I was believing in vice-pres, and vice-pres was also believing in me too? I’m so happy.”

“Yeah, who else would believe in you if not me?”

Although the majority of the time I believe in him with very bad implications, there was no reason for me to say that now, was there?

“Really, there’s no one else for me but the vice-pres, right?”

It’s getting closer. My clothes and cake are getting closer.

One step, and another.

And just as Risen came close enough that I could touch them if I reached my hand out, he stopped as if realising something and said wide-eyed,

“Ah, that’s right!”

“What!”

An irritated noise instinctively burst out from my mouth.

“Ah, are you angry, right now? Scary.”

I wanted to kill Risen who was acting scared and taking a step back so badly right now, but it couldn’t be helped.

“There’s, there’s no reason for me to be mad at you, right? I’ve just been locked up for way too long in the academy.”

I pushed down on my anger, and said to Risen with a smile.

“Risen? Why are you so far away between us?”

“Mm? Because Karen’s too scary.”

With an expression that did not look at all scared, using my name that he almost never normally used, I faced him while forcing down my anger.

“No, I’m not scary.”

“You’re not going to hit me?”

“Of course.”

“You’re not going to say that you’re not going to hit me but kill me instead or something like that, right?”

“Nah, there’s no way I’d do something like that to my beloved Risen, right?”

“Really?”

With a satisfied smile Risen came and handed over the goods in his hands.

“Ah, and I also brought over some of the toiletries and towels that you had in your room. Ah, and these looked like makeup, so I brought a few of them as well. They are makeup, right?”

“Sob… you’re right…”

The familiar yet unnoticed, but the items I had missed the most when I had to live without them appeared one after another in front of my eyes.

“Sob… I love you, Risen.”

The anger that had piled and piled within me melted down in an instant.

And so despite myself, I pulled Risen into an embrace and said so…

Clack.

“Uh… um… sorry for interfering.”

At that moment the classroom door opened and another member of the student council saw the two of us, said that and quickly closed the door again.

Interfering? With what?

And as if to answer my question, the voice of the person who just shut the door echoed throughout the corridor.

“Vice-president Karen just confessed to vice-president Riseeeeeennn!”

…Eh?