The professor’s desk, made of solid hardwood, shook as if it might break apart.
Professor Kane twisted his expression into sothing feral, like he might tear to pieces right then and there. “You! You call that a solution?”
I shrugged casually. “A solution? I’m just stating the facts as they are.”
Professor Kane ground his teeth, scowling. “Do you think anyone would believe that? Huh? Pretty much everyone in this academy knows you’ve been glued to Laneige lately!”
“Then I’ll just say I kept her close so I could tornt her.”
“You!”
“In the end, it’s not about what the truth is, is it?”
The truth never mattered. Only what looked like the truth ever did.
Professor Kane’s gaze sank low. “In that case, you will be the one punished.”
“I’m aware.”
“Your reputation will take a hit among those who don’t know the full story.”
“I don’t think I have any reputation left to lose,” I calmly replied.
“I can probably prevent expulsion, but you’ll still face heavy disciplinary action.”
“It wouldn’t be the first ti.”
Professor Kane pressed his fingers to his forehead, as though I were giving him a migraine. “You’ll receive at least two separate penalties at once, which ans that regardless of your test results, you’ll get a score of zero for this sester.”
“Ah!”
That stung quite a bit. So much for thinking I’d still have one chance left even if I got punished again. Considering the severity of the incident, they probably wouldn’t settle for just one slap on the wrist.
“Well, it can’t be helped,” I said.
Honestly, I desperately wanted to shake off the curse of constantly being at the bottom of the rankings. But letting Laneige get expelled? There was no world where I would sit back and watch that happen.
Professor Kane let out a deep sigh. “You really are...”
“So? Can you help ?”
Of course, taking punishnt on behalf of soone else wasn’t simple. If anyone could dodge penalties just by saying, “Soone else made do it,” people would exploit it to no end. However, if Professor Kane himself stepped up as a witness, things would change.
The professor closed his eyes, pondering it. Then he clicked his tongue, opened a drawer, and pulled out a sheet of paper. “It’s a statent form. Submit it by tomorrow.”
“Thank you!”
He flapped his hands at as though swatting away an annoying insect. “Beat it. I don’t even want to look at you. Get out.”
Suppressing a laugh, I took the docunt and turned to leave.
The professor’s voice ca from behind. “Dale.”
“Yes?”
With a face like that of a starving beast snarling at prey, he said, “I’ll try to keep this incident from leaking out any further.”
I barely managed to swallow a laugh as I walked away. Honestly, he really didn’t match or act the way he looked.
***
A few days passed after Laneige’s unauthorized withdrawal incident. She and I headed toward the mountain behind the academy, where we usually trained.
Laneige stretched out her hand, face taut with tension. “Hoo!”
A fierce blizzard gathered in her palm, and snowflakes swirled wildly. On the freezing ground, a single pure-white frost flower blood.
“Freeze!” she shouted.
The white flower burst open, scattering snowflakes around her. At first glance, it looked like a chaotic burst, but every flake she sent out struck only its intended target, freezing each one solid.
Laneige looked back at nervously. “W-what do you think?”
I nodded with a satisfied smile. “Perfect.”
Her control over her Blessing had skyrocketed, completely incomparable to how it was before. While its raw power was still weaker than what I had seen in my previous life, the precision and control were nearly flawless, far better than the indiscriminate freezing she caused the last ti around.
Laneige grinned shyly, clearly feeling the difference herself. “Hehe! Thank goodness. With this, I-I won’t beco the Witch of the Night, right?”
I nodded softly. “Of course not. And even if your Blessing goes out of control again, I’ll help you. No matter what.”
Laneige nodded. “Okay. Thanks, Dale.”
“Alright, let’s continue training.”
“W-wait. Before that...” She held out a neatly folded white shirt. “Here. T-the shirt I said I’d wash for you.”
I had completely forgotten about it. “Oh, right.”
As I looked at the shirt, I was surprised. “Wow! How many tis did you wash this? It looks brand new.”
“I-I scrubbed it really hard! It... it was my fault!”
Chuckling, I accepted the shirt. “You keep saying it was your fault, but it was just a bit of spilled soup.”
Laneige clenched her fists tightly and said, “Um, Dale.”
“Hmm?”
Her voice was steady, her eyes filled with firm determination. “I-I won’t run away anymore. No matter how hard things get, no matter how painful, I won’t run anymore. So, you don’t have to keep training with from now on.”
“Laneige.”
“I can do it on my own now. Even without you.”
The mory of the first ti I t her flashed through my mind. She had curled in on herself like a frightened child, trembling in the cold. A girl who had desperately clung to the warmth of others—that was what she used to be, but now she had grown strong enough to stand on her own two feet. Was this what parents felt when their good-for-nothing kid, who spent all day loafing around, finally got a job?
An indescribable warmth filled my chest.
Laneige said, “Still, it’s strange.”
“What is?”
She tilted her head, genuinely confused. “The academy hasn’t said anything. I thought... I thought I would get scolded really badly.”
I replied, “Well, maybe since you ca back the sa day, they decided to overlook it?”
“You think so?”
I quickly changed the subject and tried to resu practice. “Don’t worry about that stuff. Let’s just finish training.”
But Laneige stopped in my tracks. “Ah, Dale. Sorry, but do you mind if I head back a little early today?”
“Huh? Why?”
Laneige scratched her cheek awkwardly, smiling stiffly. “I-I have sothing I need to do.”
I had no idea what that ant, but I nodded. “Well, alright. Let’s wrap up early then.”
We headed back toward the academy. The mont we arrived there, Laneige said, “T-then I’ll go first!”
She sprinted off sowhere at full speed. Watching her figure grow smaller in the distance, I shrugged.
“Well, I guess things turned out well after all,” I muttered.
Thanks to this whole incident, Laneige had learned to control the Blessing of the Frost on her own, and I had even gotten a little more information about the hero who was secretly working with phisto. It had also probably given her so confidence.
I could still recall the mont she had tried to control her Blessing’s power by herself without relying on . It was sothing Laneige never could’ve done before. Her arms had turned blue and necrotic, yet she forced herself to take control on her own. It made smile unconsciously.
Maybe now she’ll stop being overly clingy toward .
With that hopeful thought, I headed back to the dorms.
***
Laneige closed the door behind her and set down the envelope she was carrying. “Heheheehehe.”
She stared at it and grinned like a lovesick idiot. “Let’s see.”
Like she were handling a priceless treasure, Laneige carefully pulled the contents out. Inside the envelope were high-quality printed photographs of Dale.
Spreading the photos over the table, she let out a blissful scream. “Kyaaaaaaaa! S-seeing them like this... It’s totally different from looking through the Hero Watch.”
These were the best shots from the “Dale Collection” she had painstakingly curated. Every single one was chosen with obsessive precision.
Laneige picked up one of the photos and approached the wall. “Okay, then...”
Humming, she began taping the photos onto the wall. Then she continued to the ceiling, then the floor, until the entire room was covered in pictures of Dale.
“Hehehe. Dale, I love you so much.”
Photos of Dale smiling, eating, chatting—everything was pasted all over the room. But among them, one stood out to her.
“Ahh, yes. This is the best one.”
Her favorite was the photo of Dale right after he ca out of the hot spring, towel around his neck, hair half-damp, and the loosely tied robe revealing his solid chest muscles. Laneige gulped and gently traced her fingers over Dale’s chest in the photo, almost entranced. It was just a picture, and yet, she could swear she felt warmth under her fingertips.
“Hehe. Thank goodness I saved this.”
From the bottom of her heart, Laneige silently thanked Iris for helping her get the photo.
“And lastly...”
She picked up Dale’s shirt, the sa one he had given her to wash. There was still a faint stain from the soup, but that didn’t matter in the slightest.
“Hup.”
She wrapped the shirt around a spare pillow. Then she attached a small picture of Dale’s face to the tip of the pillow.
“Finished!”
She squealed again at the sight of the makeshift Dale doll. “Aahh! D-Dale. Don’t look at like that, you’re making embarrassed.”
Wriggling and fidgeting in front of the Dale doll, Laneige eventually bolted into the shower in a fluster. “I-I’ll wash up real quick, Dale!”
After washing every corner of her body, she changed into pajamas and lay down in bed. She buried her face deep into the shirt and inhaled. Dale’s scent wrapped around her like a warm embrace. Laneige wriggled and shifted under the blankets, body heating up. A breathy moan escaped her lips, warming the cold room like a rising fla.
It was a warm winter night indeed.
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