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After Selian and Yuli finished cleaning, I stepped inside to find the room tidied up so well that there was no trace of last night’s chaos.

“I’m sorry for making you two clean up alone. I meant to just take a quick walk, but I ran into someone I know and ended up talking, which made me late.”

“It’s fine. It looked like you picked up a bit before you left.”

I had just done a quick tidy-up, worried that I might wake my friends while moving around, but if I had known it would turn out like this, I would have just cleaned up properly right away.

“Really, it was just a few empty blankets and some big trash lying around. Ah…”

Speaking of which, I remembered that among the trash I cleared, there was alcohol.

“Linne?”

– “Yes?”

Linne, who was perched on the top bunk looking down, tilted her head in response to my call and hopped down.

“The alcohol we drank last night—was that your doing?”

– “Hehe… You caught me?”

Without needing to showcase my interrogation skills as an assassin, Linne immediately confessed her guilt. She seemed to be grinning, attempting to brush it off, but not a chance.

“…Get down on your knees.”

– “W-what, Elle…?”

Seemingly still not grasping the situation, Linne was slow to react, just watching my expression. Well then, as a former assassin, it was time to display some authority.

“Right now.”

I put on a serious face to show that I was mad without raising my voice too much. I wasn’t genuinely angry, but it wasn’t difficult to act since it was a situation that required discipline.

– “Y-yes!”

As expected, once Linne sensed the shift in my demeanor, she quickly knelt before me.

“For every time your body floats in the air, it’s an extra 10 minutes.”

I had my doubts about whether Linne would try to pull a fast one, so I threw in a warning just in case.

As time passed and her legs probably started to ache, Linne squirmed and wiggled her toes while still kneeling.

– “Um, can I get up now…?”

“Hmm!”

– “Eek…”

But I couldn’t let her off this lightly. While I knew Linne enjoyed playing around, secretly getting our friends drunk was risky. More so for me.

While my friends might laugh it off if they slipped up while drunk, I couldn’t afford to be so casual about it.

If I were to lose my faculties while drunk and accidentally reveal that I’m an assassin infiltrating the Academy to kill Selian, I couldn’t even imagine what my fate would be.

“Um… How about forgiving me now?”

“Y-yeah. Linne must have learned her lesson by now.”

Even though Linne wasn’t as guilty as I was, Selian and Yuli could very well be upset, yet they were instead defending Linne. Both of them were genuinely kind-hearted. I was already worried about how they’d survive in society later with that personality.

Well, since Linne had suffered genuinely without resorting to any tricks, as Yuli said, it was probably time to forgive her. Linne must have reflected enough.

“…I’m letting you off this time because of those two. Be grateful to them and get up quickly.”

The moment Linne rose to her feet, she wobbled just like I had when Selian and Yuli scolded me yesterday and plopped down on her butt. Massaging her backside to ease the pain, I once again issued a stern warning from the depth of my throat.

“Next time, it won’t just be 10 minutes, so remember that. Got it?”

– “Yup! Of course!”

Thanks to my serious face, Linne promptly nodded in agreement. I’m just that scary of a person.

“Ugh…”

As I scolded Linne and raised my voice, I heard Anne rustling as she woke up, rubbing her eyes and trudging over.

“What’s everyone doing so early? Is something going on?”

“Linne secretly got us drunk last night, and I was just scolding her for it.”

“Alcohol?”

Having just woken up, Anne seemed dazed, tilting her head in confusion. However, after a while of tilting her head back and forth, she finally recalled her drunken antics from last night, her face turning bright red as she covered her lips with both hands.

“I… I’m going to the bathroom!”

Then, she dashed off into the bathroom as if escaping. What had she remembered to be so embarrassed about? As the first to lose my memory, I was curious about what Anne had been up to.

“Why is Anne acting like that? Did she do something weird after drinking?”

Considering Linne also loved to mess around, it wouldn’t be far-fetched for her to have done something odd as well.

“Eh, ‘weird’ would just mean Anne….”

“Hmm? What do you mean by that?”

Yuli seemed to know something and attempted to spill the beans about Anne but quickly covered her mouth and fell silent.

There are two ways to frustrate someone: first, by starting a sentence and leaving it hanging… to experience it firsthand is infuriating.

Instead, it left me more curious since Yuli left her statement unfinished.

“Nothing, Anne’s just private!”

However, since Anne wasn’t present, we inevitably ended up gossiping, and Selian didn’t seem inclined to satisfy my curiosity either. Well, I could always drop hints about it later when Anne was around.

“By the way, you two really have great characters. Not even getting mad for secretly getting us drunk.”

“Hahaha… Well, it was a party yesterday, so it could happen, you know. Don’t think too much about it.”

“That being said… Do you remember what happened last night…?”

“Well, if I had known, I wouldn’t have asked what Anne did, right? Wait, could it be… Did I mess up somehow?”

Since I was the first to lose my memory, all I could recall was drinks disguised as snacks, laughing and chatting around.

“Oh, nothing happened. Elle just… fell asleep. Right, Yuli?”

“Uh-huh! Of course!”

While I said nothing happened, the two’s faces turned slightly red as they spoke. It’s starting to feel like their statement about just sleeping isn’t true.

Wait! Could it be…!

Could it be that in my drunken state, I lost control of my desires and went wild? Normally, I suppress my desires as a man due to my conscience, but I couldn’t dismiss the possibility that I lost control after drinking.

For instance, did I, using the fact that I was in a girl’s body and concealing it as mere skinship between friends, inappropriately touch Selian like those days?

Could Anne’s mad dash to the bathroom while blushing also be because of me?

I sneakily glanced at the two, but they couldn’t meet my eyes, their faces still slightly flushed as they looked around like they were avoiding it.

…Damn it. My suspicion seems to be correct. Otherwise, why would they be avoiding my gaze?

“I’m sorry!”

After scolding Linne, I couldn’t just pretend like it wasn’t my fault and quickly bowed my head to both of them.

“Huh…?”

Both of them seemed taken aback by my sudden apology, only managing to mutter in astonishment.

“Um… I don’t know what I did to the three of you, but I must have done something wrong, so… I’m really, genuinely sorry!”

When apologizing, one should do so sincerely without excuses.

With my head bowed, I sneaked a glance at their faces. Despite not knowing what wrong I’d committed and shamelessly apologizing, even if they got mad at me, I wouldn’t have anything to say; fortunately, they didn’t appear to be angry.

Instead, they were huddled close together, whispering to each other, likely discussing how to deal with me.

“Lift your heads. Elle didn’t do anything that warrants an apology.”

“Right. And it’s natural to make mistakes while drinking. Isn’t it?”

After a brief moment, it seemed the two had decided to forgive me, speaking softly.

When I looked up to check their expressions, I saw kindness on their faces. Could they genuinely be the Goddess Serena sent down to Earth?

Shivering,

I gently smacked Linne on the head while my friends weren’t looking, keeping quiet. I knew mentioning the Goddess Serena would annoy me, but come on, be perceptive. It’s just a metaphor.

Leaving the unusually calm Linne behind, I once again realized that I was the trash possessing lustful thoughts towards such pure and innocent friends.

“Or, do you think if we mess up, Elle won’t forgive us?”

“No way! Of course, I’ll forgive you!”

After all, why would Selian and Yuli need to ask for forgiveness? Maybe if the roles were reversed.

“Is that a promise? That if we drink again later… even if we mess up, you’ll let it slide?”

“Of course. Do I look like a liar to you?”

Of course, I was a liar, but I wasn’t so brazen as to break a promise as trivial as this.

Fortunately, the two seemed pleased with my confident demeanor and nodded, completely forgiving me.

 

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