Chapter 197

A night drenched in alcohol.

Dawn retreated, and morning burst into the dormitory.

Sunlight slipped through the curtains and pricked at her eyes.

Javert opened her eyes, still dressed in her rumpled uniform.

“Mm...”

Her distinctive green eyes blinked blankly.

Her consciousness drifted in and out.

She brushed back her red hair.

The fatigue from last night still lingered between her brows.

“Ugh...”

A reflexive groan slipped past her lips.

A crushing hangover weighed her down.

Her throat burned, and her head throbbed as though it might split apart.

It was the first time she had ever drunk alcohol. And since she had gotten dead drunk on hard liquor, the hangover was bound to be severe.

“Ugh...”

Javert sat upright, feeling stiff and sore.

Her half-awake brain could not think properly yet.

She merely looked around.

‘A dormitory bedroom...?’

Several others were sprawled around the room beside her.

Only then did Javert realize she was in Viktor’s room.

A chunk of her memory had simply been skipped.

She tried to shake herself awake.

There had been a drinking party in the living room. After a certain point, only fragmented memories remained.

‘What happened at yesterday’s drinking party...?’

Her memories stuttered.

She could not remember what had happened the night before.

Javert exhaled a breath that still reeked of alcohol.

Her pounding headache got in the way of her thoughts.

‘It feels like something happened, but...’

She pressed a hand to her brow with a low groan.

Just then, a familiar figure appeared beyond the open bedroom door.

“Ah, Investigator. You’re awake.”

“...Student Viktor?”

The black-haired boy wore an apron despite the early hour.

With a ladle in one hand, he looked like a demure newlywed wife.

“You must be having a hard time with your hangover.”

“Yes, a little...”

“You drank too much yesterday. Come out and have breakfast first. I made stew that’s good for a hangover.”

“Did you prepare it yourself, Student Viktor? All alone, this early in the morning? I feel terribly sorry, but...”

“It isn’t anything special. Please have some with us. You need to settle your hangover too.”

“Then, I’ll gratefully accep...”

Javert tried to get out of bed.

At that moment, her head rang sharply.

Her hangover sloshed through her like a wave.

Her hazy consciousness slowly came back into focus.

As her brain woke up, the memories of last night that she could not recall began returning one by one.

-This is all because Student Viktor is bad...

The memories flooded in as though a dam had burst.

Every moment replayed in vivid detail.

-Student Viktor, Student Viktor...

-Smooch, smooch... Haa...

Those memories were so stimulating they felt unreal.

Tongues obscenely tangled together.

It felt as though the sensation had returned to her mouth.

Their bodies pressed together, their ragged breaths, even the heat of their bodies. All of it.

Javert could only sit there blankly as the memories of last night poured into her mind.

“Investigator?”

“...”

Her brain refused to process it and simply broke down.

For several seconds, her dazed mind remained frozen.

She just sat there without changing her expression.

“Investigator, are you all right...?”

Only then did her face flush bright red.

Before Viktor, who tilted his head in confusion, Javert could only hide her reddened face.

She seemed to sink into herself, utterly helpless.

A sound like a boiling kettle escaped her throat.

“Ghhk...!”

Javert Droit.

Even she could not escape the mortification waiting for her the next morning.

* * *

“Everyone.”

“......”

“Everyone?”

“......”

No answer came back.

Everyone was seated on the sofa, just as they had been last night.

Six people occupied the wide sofa.

Even their seating arrangement was exactly the same.

The only difference from yesterday was that they all had their heads lowered.

“......”

They seemed to be avoiding my gaze.

I awkwardly rubbed the back of my neck.

‘Looks like they’ve all come to their senses.’

They needed something for their hangovers, so I woke them up and fed them breakfast.

Maybe because they had not fully woken up yet, none of them showed much reaction while eating.

But afterward, they gradually seemed to regain their senses until they ended up like this.

Ranne, Alice, and Rin were doing better than the others. Ranne had not gotten drunk, while Alice and Rin had gotten drunk quietly without making a scene.

“Isn’t this your fault...?”

“What? You agreed to it too...”

Carmilla and Caitlin argued in hushed voices.

They were two of the three people who had gotten the drunkest yesterday.

“I, I made such a fool of myself... Why did you make me say those things...?”

“You actually did it just because I told you to? I never told you to explain it that explicitly.”

“But you called me cowardly and pushed me to ex, explain it...!”

“Shut up. It’s not like I was sober either.”

The two whispered at each other.

Everyone dealt with their hangover in their own way.

Of course, one person had suffered the worst damage of all.

“Investigator.”

“...”

Javert.

Earlier, she had tried to get on her knees, and I had barely managed to stop her.

Now she sat hunched beside me, only listening to the conversation.

Her eyes kept drifting to my wrist.

“Mm...”

The wrist Javert had tightly bound yesterday.

Bruises ringed it like lingering marks.

I casually pulled down my sleeve and smiled.

“I told you it’s all right. Bruises like these disappear easily if I just apply some potion.”

“B-but...”

The moment I brought it up, her green eyes trembled violently.

It was my first time seeing Javert this shaken.

Part of me wanted to tease her, but she looked like she would genuinely fall apart, so I held back.

Her inner thoughts constantly reached my ears.

Her thoughts spilled out amid anxiety and regret.

[I did it... Because of me, Student Viktor... again...]

[I assaulted him and even forced a kiss on him... I’m the worst.]

[I deserve to be despised. No, he must already despise me.]

Fear.

Her breaking heart reached me too.

[I didn’t want him to hate me.]

[If Student Viktor ends up hating me like this, I...]

Pat.

I placed a hand on Javert’s head.

Gently, I stroked her red hair.

“I would never think that.”

“...”

“So please, calm down a little.”

“...”

I had to reassure her several times.

Caitlin, on the other hand, was still grumbling.

The bronze-skinned girl rummaged through one side of the living room.

Before long, she pulled out the Recording Crystal Ball she had hidden away.

“It failed in the end. Fuck, why can you hold your liquor so well...?”

It was the crystal ball she had prepared to record my drunken antics.

She retrieved it with a frustrated expression.

“You’re still three hundred years too early, Miss Caitlin.”

“Tch...”

As if taking out her anger on it, Caitlin tapped the crystal ball for no reason.

The recorded footage began to play.

It showed the sofa from last night.

“I really thought it would definitely work...”

She kept chewing over her regrets.

Meanwhile, the recording continued to play.

I leaned in beside her.

I was curious how much it had captured.

After all, my memory seemed to have cut out from a certain point yesterday too.

‘I think I got drunk and passed out too.’

I roughly skipped through the beginning.

In the current situation, more than one person would probably cough up blood.

I played it from the point I could no longer remember, when I fell asleep on-screen on the sofa.

[Oh! Everyone has fallen sound asleep.]

The others also glanced toward the screen.

Ranne appeared in the recording.

After everyone fell asleep, she was the only one handling the situation.

She cleaned up the living room, then carried everyone into the bedroom one by one.

“Miss Ranne, you worked hard...”

She really was our angelic protagonist.

No wonder the living room had seemed strangely neat when I woke up in the morning.

“Thank you. You did all that work by yourself.”

“Oh! It... it was nothing.”

Ranne answered awkwardly.

She seemed strangely concerned about everyone’s reactions.

[Sir Viktor.]

[Uh... Mmm...]

Ranne took care of me last, while I stirred on the sofa.

I mumbled in my sleep.

[Teacherrr... I-I wann’ see you...]

[Teacherrr, why aren’t you heeere... Why’d you gooo...]

[My neck hurts... Why does my neck hurt so muuuch...]

Had the alcohol hit me late as well?

Nonsensical words spilled from my mouth.

[Woooow... It’s Ranne, Ranneee...]

At that moment, Ranne covered the Recording Crystal Ball’s screen.

She seemed to want to stop us from watching.

“W-wait... I think it would be best if we stopped watching around here...”

“What? Why stop it here? It feels like his drunken antics are about to start.”

“B-but...”

“Don’t block it. Move.”

Whoosh.

Caitlin snatched the crystal ball away as if that was out of the question.

Ranne tried to stop her, but she could not stop Caitlin, one of the three fastest students in their year.

[...Sir. I’m holding myself back too.]

[And yet, you only keep shaking me up.]

The footage continued.

[I think I understand a little. What the Investigator said, that it was all Sir Muro’s fault.]

[Yes, a little. I think you’re a little bad.]

The girl crouched in front of the sofa and met the eyes of the boy lying on it.

Everyone watching the recording sensed something strange at the same time.

Caitlin, who held the crystal ball, tilted her head.

“...Huh?”

Then the scene played clearly.

A voice that sounded like a whisper.

[It’s all right. If you allow me just one thing, I’ll take back what I said about you being bad.]

[Please stay just like this for a moment.]

Ranne in the recording kissed me.

No, she did not just press her lips to mine.

Had she learned from watching Javert earlier?

She carefully supported my chin and mingled our tongues together.

Drunk as I was, I offered no resistance as I received the girl’s deep kiss.

[Th-this is kind of difficult...]

[The feeling of our tongues touching is s-strange...]

Even though she had kissed me herself, her face turned red as she looked around nervously.

She seemed timid and shrunken, like a child stealing something.

Ranne kissed me several more times.

The recording kept showing similar scenes for over thirty minutes.

“Blondie.”

“...”

Ranne now sat hunched over with her head lowered, just like the others.

Caitlin stared at her in disbelief.

“You weren’t even drunk then, were you?”

“...”

“It’s always the quiet ones.”

“...”

Her face was red enough to burst.

And so, a world where no one was happy came into being.

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