Time passed quickly, and several weeks had gone by.
During this time, after school ended, I diligently studied dark magic for two hours.
I was ecstatic at the fact that I could finally use magic and had no idea that I was growing tired from it.
I experimented with basic magic spells and researched how much vitality I needed to safely use them.
However…
“…What the…”
When I flipped the calendar page, I was struck with shock.
Somehow, there was only a week left until the midterm exams.
Since I had already told Lily I would study, I had to maintain good grades, but I had neglected my other studies while focusing on dark magic.
In the next week…
I had to prioritize my studies over everything else.
I holed up in the library and frantically memorized and tried to understand the contents of my notes and textbooks.
It felt like my brain was stiff from not doing this for a while, but as I gradually started to get into the flow, it became manageable.
Except for the time spent with Lily, it was study, and more study.
I was growing exhausted from the mental labor…
“Arthur~!”
When I returned to my room after finishing my studies, the fatigue melted away as I embraced Lily who came running towards me.
Lily sensed my exhaustion before I did and took great care of me.
The ratio of food like eels, pangolins, and goji berries, which were good for my health, increased, and she even sang me lullabies before bed.
When I left for the library, she prepared sweet snacks for when my energy levels dropped.
Of course, the goodbye kiss she gave me right before we parted ways at the library entrance gave me the most strength.
This must be what being nurtured feels like.
There was no doubt that Lily would make the best wife.
‘Hmm… Did I make a mistake asking her to wait until graduation…?’
I might not be able to wait that long.
Even after saying goodbye to Lily by waving our hands, I entered the library.
When I went to my usual seat, I noticed someone was already sitting there.
I sighed and approached to call out to them.
“Hey.”
“Oh, welcome, senior. I’ve saved your seat for you.”
“Don’t do that…”
The person who moved aside with a chuckling laugh was Callisa.
I kept bumping into her since I visited the library often, but we only recently started exchanging proper greetings.
A few days ago, she hesitantly approached me and suddenly bowed her head low.
“Sorry, Senior.”
I was startled by this sudden apology and asked her why, and she said that her grandfather, Eibon, had instructed her to apologize to me.
I could feel how reluctant she was to have a falling out with Lily.
Since there was nothing significant to apologize for (except for Lily’s jealousy), I accepted her apology.
Since then, she often greeted me, and we’ve now become friendly senior-junior acquaintances…
…though our conversations were still somewhat strange.
“Do you know, Senior? Cthulhu was actually made of water.”
“Huh? I thought Cthulhu was one of the stronger Great Old Ones?”
Cthulhu, the main character of the cephalopod-human hybrid illustrations that made me mistakenly believe the legends of mages.
“In reality, Cthulhu is the head of the Great Old Ones. However, he was made of water.”
“No way.”
“I heard that when Cthulhu tried to descend on another Earth a long time ago, he collided with a steamship—a huge ship made of iron—and burst like a balloon.”
“Uh…?”
It was hard to believe.
I had heard that one of the outsiders, who Lily said were Great Old Ones, had reshaped the continent’s coastline.
If Cthulhu, who could be called the leader of these powerful outsiders, had truly burst upon colliding with a ship…
“Of course, it happened during a resurrection ritual when his form wasn’t stable, so he was just a blob of foam.”
I turned to Callisa with a stupefied expression.
“…Shouldn’t you have mentioned that first?”
To talk about the result without mentioning the cause might make Cthulhu feel wronged if he heard the story.
“Ah, well, the explosion is the important part, isn’t it?”
I shook my head as I looked at Callisa’s giggling face and refocused on my notes.
“Senior~”
“I have exams starting next week.”
“Pfft, that’s boring.”
Getting to know her better, Callisa seemed, well… to have somewhat childish tendencies.
Born into a family that worships outsiders, she had grown up turning the extraordinary into the ordinary in ways I hadn’t expected.
Still, it seemed she wasn’t a bad kid…
‘Right now, I need to study.’
I had to deliver proof to Lily that I had been studying.
And if possible…
“…I might as well change dormitories.”
My initial reasons for studying weren’t false.
I really wanted to switch dorms.
My current dorm wasn’t bad at all.
Compared to an orphanage, it was practically a palace.
I was content living there alone, but now I had Lily.
It was only natural to want to live in a better environment.
And most importantly…
“Last time when I asked Reeti, she said the beds in the better dorms change too, right?”
Even though the bed I currently had was expensive, made from fine sheep’s wool, I heard that the beds in the dorms for top students had spells on them.
They were expensive, no doubt, and much more comfortable, but I wanted Lily to have the best place to rest where we spent most of our time.
And then…
…there might be that sort of thing in the future, right?
Thinking back, I didn’t think we would do anything that extreme in the dorm, but reflecting on the past, it didn’t seem entirely impossible.
Wouldn’t anyone prefer spending a night in the best possible conditions?
Anyway, I was serious now.
Honesty, maintaining my current grades seemed impossible.
I’d barely managed them by eating and studying all the time, but now that I’ve spent so much time with Lily and studying dark magic…
My goal was to at least make it into the top rankings.
If I could rank first in the practical test and keep within the top ranks for the written test, I’d surely be able to move dorms.
For that, it had to be…
study, and more study.
—-
“Welcome back, Arthur~!”
As soon as I opened the dorm door, Lily came running over and hugged me tightly.
The warm embrace melted away my fatigue, and I returned her hug.
At moments like these… it felt like…
“Isn’t it just like when a husband comes back from work, and his wife welcomes him?”
…Is Lily really reading my mind…?
“Not entirely wrong, now that we’re engaged.”
“Huhuhu, that’s right!”
Lily raised her left hand to show me the ring on her ring finger.
I always wore mine, but seeing hers on her made my heart flutter.
“Wasn’t studying too tiring?”
“Not particularly. It wasn’t that hard.”
In truth, it had been exhausting right up until I entered the room, but seeing Lily made all the tiredness vanish.
“Wash your hands and come over. Dinner’s ready.”
“Understood.”
Just as I was heading to the restroom to take off my shoes…
“Wait a moment, take a look at this.”
“Uh? Ugh…”
When I turned at Lily’s call, she immediately kissed me.
Peck—
After finishing the short kiss, Lily smiled and said,
“I’m rewarding you for studying so hard. Come on, wash your hands quickly.”
I awkwardly turned around and entered the restroom.
I splashed cold water onto my face after turning on the faucet.
“Phew…”
Looking into the mirror, my face was flushed red.
I placed my hand over my chest, feeling my heart pounding.
My heart felt out of control.
Thinking about how loving Lily was when she kissed me just a moment ago…
I washed my face with cold water to calm myself down before finally leaving the restroom.
“Hurry and come over. It’ll get cold.”
Sitting beside Lily, something felt off.
My place setting wasn’t on the table.
Wondering what was wrong, I turned my head…
“A~”
Lily matter-of-factly picked up a piece of eel and offered it to me.
Even though she wouldn’t let me eat with my own hands, it wasn’t unpleasant, so I silently opened my mouth.
“Tastes good?”
“Mm… Yes, it’s delicious.”
Afterward, Lily took care of feeding me the entire meal.
She even wiped away some food that accidentally got on my jaw with…
…her tongue.
Blushing furiously, I asked Lily,
“Do we need to eat this way?”
“You’ve worked hard, so you should rest at least a little.”
She could certainly wield chopsticks on her own…
After finishing dinner, Lily followed me to the restroom as if it were the natural order of things and took the toothbrush from my hands.
“Open wide. A~”
“…A~”
With my teeth brushed by Lily’s hands, the whole experience made me feel like I was back to being a baby.
The problem was that I felt a strange sense of stability in doing so.
‘…If I keep this up, it might become a bad habit.’
At this rate, I’d become completely unable to do anything without Lily.
While feeling an odd sense of impending doom, I finished brushing my teeth, and Lily pulled me by the hand toward the bed.
Lily stood me up for a moment and then sat down at the corner of the bed.
“Come here.”
When she began patting her thighs, I realized what she wanted me to do and turned red.
“Lily, this is…”
“Because I want to clean your ears.”
“……Huh?”
I doubted my ears.
“Am I serious? Why would it be strange?”
Strange…? Not necessarily.
“Come on, lie down. I haven’t ever seen you clean your ears while you’re with me, so they must be packed with earwax by now.”
Now that she mentioned it, I occasionally used to clean my ears myself, but I’d completely forgotten about it lately.
Lily patted her thighs again.
“Come on~”
Yielding to her urging, I awkwardly crawled onto the bed and let my head rest on her thighs.
Lying on my side, I saw a protruding curve in my line of sight and instinctively rolled over a little.
“Relax. You’ll feel pain if you’re tense.”
Lily gently stroked my head with a soft touch while caressing it.
Her soothing strokes eased the tension that had built up in my head.
“Stay still. It’ll be quick. You can either keep your eyes open or shut them if you want.”
At Lily’s words, I immediately closed my eyes.
I could feel something tickling my ear.
That sensation of something entering my ear was something I never got used to, even when I cleaned my own ears.
My body tensed up involuntarily and stiffened.
The soft sound of something brushing against my ear continued to echo.
It was a slightly ticklish but manageable feeling.
After a while,
“There! All done!”
“Huh? Already?”
“Yep! Didn’t hurt, right?”
“Yes, it didn’t hurt at all.”
It didn’t hurt—it actually felt like nothing had happened at all.
Even with the best skills, how could this be possible…? Ah, wait…
Now that I thought about it, Lily wasn’t holding an ear pick.
Then what did she use to clean my ear…
…I saw it then.
Clumps of what looked like earwax clinging to strands of Lily’s hair, which were wriggling.
“…You cleaned my ears with your hair?”
“Yeah! It’s way more precise and faster this way. And it doesn’t hurt.”
Definitely true, but…
Wriggle, wriggle…
Something about it felt strange.
As if sensing my inner thoughts, Lily’s hair slid closer.
At the tip was a large chunk of earwax.
“Didn’t know my voice was being muffled, did you?”
“Th, that wasn’t the case!”
“Well, flip over so I can do the other ear.”
I flipped over as instructed and sucked in my breath.
When I rolled onto my side, Lily’s flat stomach came into view.
Her narrow waist looked sculpted.
It was the kind of figure that alone could earn her the title of beauty…
“Eh? What are you looking at?”
“!!!”
Startled, I quickly shut my eyes as Lily’s laughter rang out.
“Let me start, huh?”
Once again, I heard that rustling sensation in my ear.
Keeping my eyes tightly shut, not long after, I heard Lily’s voice again.
“There! Done! Doesn’t that feel fresh?”
I sat up and shook my head from side to side.
No irritation, no discomfort—perfectly fresh.
“Wow… How did you do it? Whenever I tried to clean my own ears, it just made it worse…”
I used to hurt myself by cleaning incorrectly, but the current state was a world apart from that.
“Huhuhu, it’s because of my hair’s strength.”
strands of Lily’s hair wiggled playfully right before my eyes.
“The hair is far thinner and more precise than an ear pick, allowing it to thoroughly clean the debris inside the ear. Of course, I’m careful not to disturb the hairs inside too much. Even small dust particles are carefully removed, so there’s no chance of any itchiness.”
I never knew hair could have such capabilities…
This was bound to become a habit.
I had never felt such ear clarity before.
“Doesn’t that feel great?”
“Yes…”
It felt like this, but I swear Lily’s voice seemed clearer now…
“Hoo~”
“!!!”
Startled, I recoiled from the rush of wind entering my ear, but Lily held me tightly and wouldn’t let me go.
“What’s wrong with you jumping like that?”
“B, because you suddenly blew into my ear—”
“I was just checking if your hearing improved properly, that’s all.”
“Ugh…”
She had a point, leaving me with no argument…
“Are you mad?”
“…No.”
“You’re upset.”
“I said I’m not!”
“You’re exactly right.”
“…”
Not countering anymore, Lily smiled faintly and said,
“Apologize~”
She then suddenly said,
“Shall I spank your bottom?”
“?! What are you saying?!”
Turning back to her with surprise, Lily giggled,
“Huhuhu, isn’t corporal punishment necessary for naughty Lily?”
Speaking in the third person…
The tone was filled with flirtation.
Ever since that event when I absentmindedly spanked her bottom weeks ago, Lily would occasionally bring up this request.
‘What is her deal?!’
“Surely you won’t spank me?”
“Of course not!”
Last time, I lost my mind and did it, but in my right mind, I would never strike Lily.
Responding to my reaction, Lily… slightly frowned with lowering her eyes.
‘What does she mean by this?!’
Finding it baffling, I looked at Lily who leaned her face closer.
“Then, a kiss?”
“……”
This was an offer impossible to refuse.
The exams are D-7 days away.
I will definitely move dormitories after studying hard.
I’ll provide Lily with a better environment.
Definitely.
