Belly hugged me tight and froze his body just like that. I couldn’t budge as if my limbs were bound. Belly’s breath, seemingly holding back anger, touched the back of my neck.
Was this thing mounted on top of my body the Belly I knew? He had never felt like such a strange beast as he did now. He had always been my gentle Belly. Obedient and devoted to me, my precious Belly.
However, he who had pounced on and pinned me down felt like a massive beast. I felt like I had realized that the cat that had been acting cute toward me was actually a tiger.
“Don’t say it……”
Belly muttered again in a voice like boiling lava and hugged me even tighter. He even brought out his thick tail and wrapped it around my body—it was truly no different from steel bars.
But faced with the first fear I’d ever felt toward Belly, I could only stay still, unable to say or do anything. Like that, a night different from usual passed.
* * *
Jay faintly crumpled the notice in his hand. The image of Ivan collapsed in a corner of the secluded garden still came to mind vividly.
The notice was once again ordering Ivan to attend class in Building A. Jay really didn’t want to give this paper to Ivan. That cold body temperature still seemed to remain on his fingertips. But there was nothing he could do.
Jay inwardly mocked his own incompetence. Vinoshu looked at the gloomy Jay as if to say “speak up if you have something to say,” but he couldn’t say anything. As if displeased by that sluggish appearance, Vinoshu eventually asked quietly. It was a question like a prompt.
“Is there a problem?”
Only then did Jay become aware of his actions and emerge from his reverie. Then he hurriedly continued speaking.
“……Could I receive a few more blankets?”
“Blankets?”
At the out-of-the-blue topic, Vinoshu raised her eyebrows. The days were entering early summer. Since Connubium had distinct four seasons, there would be no need for blankets from now on unless winter came. Jay also knew this, so he rambled out excuses.
“It’s still chilly and a bit cold at night.”
Perhaps because Jay’s acting skills were quite good, Vinoshu seemed not to sense anything strange. She calmly answered Jay.
“You don’t need to tell me—if you tell the supplies manager, they’ll give you blankets.”
“Ah, right. Thank you.”
Jay belatedly composed his attitude and answered politely. Though there was a slightly flustered aspect, because it was similar to his usual appearance, one couldn’t sense anything strange. Vinoshu nodded while looking at Jay.
Jay, who quickly left the room, went straight to find the supplies manager.
“……”
The supplies manager said nothing and bowed his head respectfully. On his clasped hands, numerous scars were carved as if representing his rough life.
They couldn’t open their mouths without permission. Because they were slaves belonging to Connubium. Even in this school where originally noble students weren’t treated as human, there were slaves. They were like cogs in this school. It was natural since it was impossible to run this school with only students and professors.
The supplies manager had dark skin tone and dark hair color. They were typical characteristics of a Chatis person.
“Give me some blankets. The warmest ones.”
I had decided Jay was from Philina Kingdom, which had no slave system. Because there was also a setting that he had taught in other countries, he wasn’t unfamiliar with slaves themselves, but he wasn’t familiar enough to look down on them or treat them roughly either. Ordering people around was also something that required experience.
The supplies manager, without any particular reaction, quietly took out several blankets and respectfully held them out. Jay’s gaze, receiving them, lingered on the manager’s roughened hands, but it was only for a moment.
“Then…… good work.”
No one in Connubium greets slaves. Even children from countries without slave systems had become desolate, crushed by this school. The slave, who must have experienced much resignation, just deeply bowed his head without any reaction.
“So soft.”
As something provided to professors, the material of the blankets was luxurious. Jay didn’t know that these were items that, excluding professors, only A-grade students could enjoy. He was only thinking of wrapping Ivan’s body with these warm-looking blankets.
Behind Jay’s feet, receiving the morning sunlight, a dark shadow stretched long. Endlessly long, as if signifying his foolishness. But Jay didn’t notice and just walked to the guidance room with a smile in the refreshing breeze.
An afternoon like any other. Jay thoroughly searched the park in case Ivan had collapsed like the previous day. Because today too, Ivan had been ordered without fail to attend a transfer class to Nokeum Hall.
However, no matter how much he searched through the park, he couldn’t find even a single hair of Ivan’s. But Jay didn’t give up and searched other places. Fortunately, those efforts bore fruit.
Nokeum Hall and Pine Hall were at a slight distance from each other, and if you looked carefully around the path connecting them, there was one hidden trail. That path, cleverly concealed between dense trees, seemed hard to find unless you had sharp eyes.
Jay, lucky enough to find the path by chance, entered there with a hopeful heart. Perhaps because students’ footsteps were rare, weeds had grown densely. And on one side of that path, among the long-grown grasses, was Ivan crouched down. His white uniform was crumpled here and there and stained with grass, looking unsightly.
Jay rushed over hurriedly. Because he was certain that people were rare and no one would come, there was no hesitation in his steps. When Jay spread out the soft blanket to wrap Ivan, he opened his eyes with a flash.
“Again……”
The low voice speaking through gritted teeth was full of irritation. Just hearing that voice, one could tell how irritated he was.
Just what kind of class was he receiving at Nokeum Hall that Ivan was reacting like this? Judging from the other students’ reactions, one could guess it was something serious.
Ivan looked at Jay as if looking at an unwelcome guest. And rightfully so. To Ivan, Jay was no different from an unwelcome intruder who had barged in while he was soothing his fatigue.
“I don’t need it, this kind of thing.”
Ivan threw away the blanket that had been clumsily wrapped around his body with his weak hand, then trampled it with his foot. Contempt even filled both his eyes as if he had touched something disgusting. His legs trembled, but that anger was intense.
Jay wasn’t hurt by such actions. Because he knew the hostility and rejection Ivan showed him, he didn’t think he would easily accept goodwill.
“But you seem cold……”
It was a tone full of worry, but to Ivan, it only aroused even stronger anger.
“Don’t you know my origin? I’m from……”
Ivan ground his teeth for a moment. He was from Varno Kingdom in the north. Northern countries were piercingly cold, and to him, cold was a familiar friend.
Fierce eyes like bluish-white flames that would burn everything blazed in Ivan’s pupils. That which had taken root and grown in hatred was an emotion directed at something far more distant, not Jay.
But that too was brief—Ivan convulsed while crouched as if feeling extreme pain. It was a seizure from the reformation class.
“Ugh…… urk.”
“Scotilino? Scotilino!”
Jay hurriedly approached Ivan and checked his condition. Ivan convulsed irregularly and dripped cold sweat. To make matters worse, his body was rapidly cooling and becoming cold because of the cold sweat.
Feeling like something terrible would happen at this rate, Jay hastily shook off the blanket sprawled on the ground, wrapped it around Ivan’s body, then hugged him tightly. It was an intention to somehow make him warm with his own body heat.
Too shocked, he couldn’t think of a place called the infirmary. Even if he had thought of it, there would have been difficulty in taking Ivan there alone.
Despite Jay’s every effort, Ivan’s body grew increasingly cold.
“Sor…… ry, ugh, urk…… sor……”
Ivan muttered something. It was a small voice that was even hard to understand, but Jay remarkably understood and answered.
“What are you sorry for. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s okay. It’s okay……”
Although it wasn’t an apology directed at Jay, and Ivan probably didn’t want an answer from him either. But at Jay’s kind words, Ivan slowly stabilized. As his sharpened mind, honed by education, softened, his body also stabilized.
“Who…… are……”
Ivan flailed his arms slowly, struggling to secure his vision. That action was pitiful like a weak child. But even though Jay was right before his eyes, he couldn’t grasp him at once. As if he thought Jay was a phantom.
Jay’s image floating on his retina wavered like an illusion.
“It’s okay……”
A kind voice as if soothing a child. A gentle touch like a spring breeze. Jay comforted him tenderly as if treating his own child.
Ivan wriggled his hand several times, then carefully grasped Jay’s arm. The seizure seemed to have made him unable to recognize the man he had hated so much. Otherwise, there was no way Ivan would touch Jay’s arm.
Ivan’s eyes became hazy as if dreaming. Like a young child slowly rocking in a warm cradle, he stayed still for a moment with a languid face.
But dreams have their time to wake up. Ivan squeezed his eyes shut then opened them gently. Jay, with pale skin and raven-black hair, filled his pupils completely.
He blinked his eyes slowly for a while, then soon realized that the one caring for him was Jay. At that moment, as if his obedient behavior until just now had been a lie, he hardened his face fiercely and pushed Jay away.
