“It’s Alright, I Guess”

—

Numbness.

Leah felt this way after waking up, a sensation that made her feel as uncomfortable as if she hadn’t woken at all. The first thing she confirmed upon waking was her “state of activity.”

She actually… wasn’t tied up? Her hands could still move.

“Slept for one hour, twenty-nine minutes, and forty seconds. Within the expected duration of the drug’s effect.”

The first thing she saw was Will, who had taken off his hat. After he took off his hat, Leah noticed that his brown hair was much longer than before, with even strands reaching behind his ears. And his dark circles were quite severe; he looked somewhat disheveled from overwork.

“Teacher Leah should be much calmer now, right? I think we can have a proper conversation, talk about the past, the present, and the future.”

He narrowed his eyes slightly, tilted his head with a smile, then leaned back, sitting on the chair opposite Leah. Perhaps, the current Will possessed a unique aura that made him seem more “charming”… But now, when Leah saw Will, her body no longer trembled from “excitement”; perhaps… it was from a slight “fear.”

“I told you not to be afraid. Teacher Leah, you can ask anything you want, and I will answer each question. Hmm… this should make you trust me a little more, right?”

“What exactly did you inject…? I know Bloodmint Essence excites witches, but this is the first time… the first time I’ve seen something that can cool a witch’s magic circuits to this extent.” Leah clenched her fingers; she was furious. But even with such anger, her body remained lifeless. A normal “human,” let alone a witch whose blood and magic are deeply intertwined like hers, would naturally feel blood rush to their head when angry, right? But she didn’t even have that feeling now.

With her other hand, she touched her neck, feeling a small protrusion underneath. It was likely some device Will had temporarily attached, and the liquid within it had once again cooled down her fiercely revived magic circuits. Moreover… the switch was probably with Will? She hated this feeling intensely. It wasn’t just that she hated Will injecting strange things into her body without a word, but she also hated… that something could control a witch’s magic circuits, allowing a witch to cool down instantly. And what she hated even more… was being treated in such a completely suppressive manner by the one she “loved.”

“…You’re not curious about what liquid excited you, but what made you cool down? As expected of Teacher Leah, always curious about newer things?”

“Th-That… that was clearly some kind of strengthened mint essence…” Leah hesitated mid-sentence, unsure herself. No… Hadn’t Bloodmint Essence been ineffective on her for a long time? She herself had injected over a dozen vials into her body, and it had no effect. So what had cured her was…

“You’ve heard of Bloodmint Essence, so you should have guessed. There exists a corresponding type of mint in this world—as its first harvester, I choose to name it Snowmint.” Will interrupted her thoughts, easily answering her previous question as if deliberately avoiding the inquiry.

“You’re still the same, giving strange names.”

“The essence extracted from it is slightly less potent than the Bloodmint. But the good news is, in the dungeon where it’s harvested, there’s a type of mechanical ice worm that can be used for subcutaneous injection. Things injected directly into the blood are more effective than external contact.” Will, as before, always spoke passionately about theoretical and applied analysis when it came to “scientific research” related to dungeons. However, now, when he spoke these words, it was no longer just the “research” of his past self; he treated them more like “toys” that brought him pleasure.

“Dungeon…” Leah murmured the word, then scrutinized Will up and down again. The changes in Will were not something that could be discovered with just one or two observations. This third observation, she saw that Will’s equipment was vastly different from before he left. He had taken off all the equipment they had given him and returned it to them.

But… his current shoes, trench coat, and shirt weren’t even sold by the Adventurer’s Guild; they seemed to have been scavenged directly from dungeons. The shoes were dark red, looked thick, and even had iron plates on them. The trench coat was pure white, but its lining seemed to have a starfield-like decoration. The shirt wasn’t the one they had originally chosen for him, nor was it the one Eir and Treya later described.

The hooded shirt was entirely black, with no embellishments. He was like a very primitive dungeon explorer, rare to find now, someone who simply wore what they scavenged from dungeons as equipment. And his fingers were no longer the tender fingers of a young master; they were calloused in places frequently used when wielding a Staff. Even the thumbnail had signs of being split. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing some scars on his arms. In other words… during the time he was away from them, he wasn’t “recovering from an accident”; he had explored countless dungeons and endured many exciting battles. What… what exactly was he doing all this for?

“Teacher Leah, that’s not nice. Even if we haven’t seen each other in a long time, you shouldn’t just silently stare at my body from head to toe.” Will seemed to have noticed her gaze long ago, but he didn’t point it out immediately. He seemed to enjoy it, even welcoming Leah’s gaze upon him.

“You faked your death, and took off your ring…” Leah looked at the ring back on his left ring finger—he had chosen the ring finger like a perverse joke—”It was all to deceive us, wasn’t it?”

“Very clever, Teacher Leah. You noticed so quickly.” Will nodded calmly, showing no intention of hiding anything.

“You—!”

“Me?” Will looked at her innocently, as if he knew Leah wouldn’t be truly angry. Leah, however, saw in him a glimpse of the student he used to be, deliberately making mistakes to provoke her anger, then playfully begging for forgiveness. However, the current Will was not her subordinate “student,” but the absolute controller who gripped the magic circuits, which witches considered their “lifeline.”

“Did you fake your death… to… to see me… to see me grieve over losing you…?”

“No need to describe me as such a pervert, Teacher Leah. I swear to the heavens, though I’ve been misunderstood many times, I’m truly very ‘normal,’ never had any twisted thoughts.” Will pointed upwards, making a swearing gesture, and spoke quite flippantly. Although there was no sky in this seemingly cave-like room, his so-called oath was completely unknown as to whom it was addressed.

“But, well, I heard before that you were obsessively trying to…” Will paused, then pulled out the thin notebook from his front pocket. It was called a notebook, but it was actually just a collection of his “Quest System” printouts, with a few notes on completion written by Leah herself.

“When you wanted to complete the quests I left behind, and would only show a hint of a happy smile when doing so… that certainly got me a little excited.”

“Give it back—how can you just randomly look at someone else’s…” Although “anger” was absent. But… Leah was still driven by “shame.” She stood up and lunged forward, wanting Will to return the notebook that was so important to her, the one that had sustained her for the past few months.

“Heh… heh… heh…” She missed. After her body’s blood was cooled, her physical functions seemed to decline, and quite severely. And it was “sudden,” so she wasn’t given any time to adapt. She seemed to understand why Will hadn’t tied her up. He was convinced that even if she could move freely now, she couldn’t do anything.

“Imagine, a former teacher, holding a notebook she wrote herself, looking at the feasible yet utterly empty tasks listed within, treating them like treasures, completing them one by one…” Will looked at Leah with an amused smile.

“Stop… stop talking!”

“Then, even though her body was in a very strange and not-so-good state, she still insisted on challenging the Snow Woman, simply because that task was listed.”

“Don’t just look at my notebook—Teacher taught you that very well.”

“Mm-hmm, failing again and again, but never giving up. Even planning to continue next time—Teacher Leah, when you win, will you look up at the sky and say something deeply moved, like ‘Will, you saw it too,’?”

“You… you you you you you…” Leah tried to snatch the notebook back by standing on tiptoe several times, but Will easily dodged her with two quick steps.

“Wait, wait. First, this isn’t your notebook. These are quests I wrote, so of course I have the right to look through them, right?” The current Will was much taller than he had been in school—after all, Leah had experienced the entirety of his most significant growth spurt. So, Leah, short, unable to use magic, and in a slightly unwell physical state, could only fail to snatch the notebook back, panting helplessly and stomping her feet.

“Hah… isn’t it… isn’t it just to… to fulfill the wish you left behind after your death, after your death?”

“You… hah… you clearly guessed it, you clearly said it.”

“…I’ve read the Quest System you wrote. I know you’ve been observing me. I know you understand me best!” Her panting, initially from her body being unable to sustain strenuous activity, gradually turned into sobbing gasps.

“Yes. I… I like you. I love you. Even if you’re dead—now, are you satisfied?” Will listened as Leah, seemingly teased a bit too much, yet still upholding the “frankness” she had learned, poured out her confession despite her distress and shame.

After pausing to observe Leah’s panting for a moment, Will nodded.

“Hmm… it’s alright, quite satisfying.” He gave an answer that Leah had never expected, one that sounded perhaps a bit too “cold.”

—