[Kidnapping]
“Could you do something about those fingers? The way they are wriggling looks terribly sinister.”
Hans struck at me as I performed method acting.
“Come on. Immersion is important for this sort of thing.”
I had gone through the trouble of working hard, too.
Honestly, he was a master at spoiling the mood.
I pouted and reached toward Suni, who was holding a cookie.
But then—
Crack.
“This! Tastes good!”
Suni broke off half the cookie and offered it to me.
My heart hurt.
“Ghk...! They are too cute!”
In human society, coolness and beauty were what made things plausible. Should cuteness not be added now too?
“Sigh.”
Hans shook his head beside me.
Roughly translated, that expression meant, ‘What the hell are you doing?’
It brought me to my senses.
“Phew! I almost fell for it. Trying to get out of this situation through cuteness?”
“......”
“Could it be that spirits are cunning too?”
“Please stop making me want to curse and finish what you are doing.”
I shrugged beneath Hans’s cold gaze.
Really, how did he intend to get married while being so rigid?
“I sensed that you were having a deeply unpleasant thought.”
Click.
Hans’s hand rose to the hilt of his sword.
Was he reading the traces of thoughts now?
What was that?
Scary.
“Teachew?”
When I did not take the cookie, Suni called to me again.
“Suni.”
“Yes, Teachew!”
Our Suni had known nothing but casual speech.
And they had already learned how to speak politely.
“Could you put away that doting-father look and do some work?”
“Gasp! Was this Suni’s scheme too?!”
“Scheme, my ass. Are you really an idiot?”
Hans’s mouth grew rougher by the day.
He had not been like this even on the battlefield before.
Anyway.
“Suni, you fell into the trap that this sack-toting teaching assistant set.”
“?”
Suni tilted their head.
“You took the cookie without any suspicion and got trapped in the box. What did I say at the last Exchange Meeting lecture?”
After thinking it over, Suni’s eyes grew as round as bells.
“Beware of suspicious cookies!”
“That’s right. A cookie sitting in a corridor is suspicious to anyone.”
At my words, Suni tilted their head.
“But it smelled like Teachew, though?”
I could only stare blankly at that.
“...I didn’t expect that.”
“Is it possible to sense energy left on an object?”
Hans’s expression also asked what kind of thing that was.
An extremely small number of experts could sense the mana emitted by others.
But no human could sense energy left on an object.
“That is why Suni hesitated in front of the cookies.”
It was certainly suspicious for a cookie to be sitting all alone in a corridor.
But Suni could sense my energy on that cookie.
So it had to be a cookie I had left there.
In other words, that cookie was not suspicious!
After roughly that much deliberation, Suni had probably picked up the cookie.
“I can only recognize Teachew’s feeling!”
“That explains it. The children kept snatching only the cookies I left out.”
It had already been four days since I received the Chancellor’s approval and began kidnapping(?) spirits and elves all around the academy.
At first, reports said that the children fell into every trap I set, but they had gradually become immune to them.
Yet I had wondered why only the traps I set had such a high success rate.
“I wasn’t good at setting traps.”
“There seems to be something special that only Suni can sense from you, Lewis.”
Then it could not be helped.
Except it could!
“Even so, you must not pick up a cookie when there is an obvious trap.”
When I pulled Suni’s cheeks, they broke into a ticklish peal of laughter.
They knew far too well that I had no malice and that this was only a prank.
“What did I say would happen to a bad spirit who does not listen to the teaching assistant?”
“The sack-toting teaching assistant takes them to the professor’s office!”
“All right, to the professor’s office! I’ll kidnap you into graduate school! You’ll become a prospective graduate student!”
“Aaaaah!”
Even though I said I would kidnap them to graduate school, Suni laughed in delight.
And just as I lifted Suni onto my shoulders—
“Ah! I was one step too late!”
Elaine appeared at the end of the corridor.
“Suni! No!”
Beside Elaine were friends who patrolled the academy like the Student Discipline Committee.
“Ha ha! This sack-toting teaching assistant is taking Suni away!”
“Let’s go!”
Suni, Suni....
You should not be so excited.
But I could not help getting excited too.
The children with Elaine were proof of my efforts.
Those children, a mix of humans, elves, and spirits, had not gathered because anyone ordered them to.
They recognized that the common sense and cultures of the three races differed, and they admitted that those differences could become problems.
So they had voluntarily come together to resolve those problems smoothly and prevent incidents.
In fact, thanks to those children, some students had escaped Griam’s group’s harassment.
Once the term began, would they not be called the Student Council?
Of course, that was not what mattered now.
What this sack-toting teaching assistant needed to do now was run away from the Student Council (provisional)!
I turned and ran toward Kanibara’s professor’s office.
When I caught a glimpse of Suni in a window, they had both hands raised while riding on my shoulders, like a Dis*ney animation.
“Stop right there!”
“Have you ever seen a kidnapper stop just because someone told him to?”
“Suni! Come here! Hurry!”
“You are being kidnapped!”
The children called frantically to Suni, but Suni only laughed happily.
“Grr...! Then!”
Elaine swung the World Tree Staff.
Vines stretched out before us just as we were leaving the annex.
WHIP—!
Hans cut through the vines with his sword, opening a path.
“Ugh! Sir Hans! You look so annoyed, but you still help with everything!”
Elaine shouted at Hans in frustration.
Ignoring her, Hans looked at me and asked,
“Why is Elaine chasing us so desperately?”
“We made a bet a while ago. If fewer than ten students were kidnapped within five days, I would accept her as a companion.”
“Companion? What companion?”
“She thinks I’m preparing for demonfolk at the academy.”
“Was that not the case?”
Hans’s question surprised me instead.
“Who? Me? No.”
“Already the Eye of the Demonfolk and.... No. Never mind.”
“I told you it was all coincidence. I really came to the academy without any particular thought.”
As I protested, Elaine’s indignant shout came from behind us.
“Ugh! If only I had a bow!”
If she had a bow?
With Elaine’s temperament, she might actually have shot it.
If the World Tree Branch had turned into a bow rather than a staff, I might really have been caught....
CRACK—!
“Eek!”
A hand axe flew past me and embedded itself in a roadside tree.
“Hans! You need to block things like that!”
“She was not trying to hit you anyway.”
“It still startled me! How can she actually throw an axe?”
“Her throwing skill is impressive.”
“You should be rebuking her, not admiring her! This is an academy!”
What kind of mad elf threw axes at an academy?!
Of course, mad elves had already made a forest at the academy!
The spirits had dug tunnels and made wind paths too!
“...Now that I think about it, might humans be the abnormal ones in this one-eyed academy?”
“I do not know what strange train of thought brought you to that conclusion, but let us go inside first.”
Startled by the axe, I sped up, and before I knew it, we had reached the professor’s building.
Once inside, Elaine would not be able to throw an axe carelessly.
Of course, that did not mean she could throw one outside either.
Thus, we made it safely(?) into Kanibara’s professor’s office.
“We’re here!”
“We’re here!”
“Suni, you were kidnapped. You should not be happy about it.”
“Ah.”
Suni was even experienced at it.
They had been kidnapped once two days ago.
“Our Suni is definitely going to graduate school.”
“What a thing to say to a child.”
Laughter came from the far side of the room.
“Was it Suni again?”
“Professor!”
“Leave that wicked sack-toting teaching assistant and come here.”
When Kanibara spread her arms, Suni dashed toward her.
“Spirit windmill spin!”
“Aaaaah!”
Kanibara picked Suni up and spun them around and around.
She did not spin with them.
She spun them in place as though twirling a spear.
“...Is that not too rough?”
“I am like a rough uncle. Suni likes it too.”
Suni was a spirit.
It would take an extraordinary amount of force to physically hurt them.
“Huff. Huff.”
Kanibara had spun Suni like a windmill, yet Suni was the one breathing hard.
That must mean they were having that much fun.
“Do you want some candy?”
“Yes!”
They were so excited that the polite speech they had been using flew away for a moment.
Suni’s cheeks puffed out with candy.
“They are so cute I could die.”
“I agree with that.”
“Could spirits be an upgraded version of cats?”
Cats survived because they were cute even though their personalities were bad, but spirits were kind and cute as well.
“They are not animals to begin with.”
“Good grief. You know what I mean.”
Hans and I bickered, but our eyes rested fondly on Suni.
The fact that we had kidnapped Suni had already left our minds entirely.
“Suni.”
“Yes?”
“When you graduate, do you want to live in the desert with your professor?”
Suni’s eyes sparkled from where they sat on Kanibara’s lap.
“The desert!”
“I think Suni would be extremely popular in the desert.”
Even if she did not show it, Kanibara loved her homeland deeply.
Despite the unhappy past in which she lost everything and was driven out.
“I will build Suni a beautiful house beside an oasis.”
“An oasis!”
“If Suni goes there, the oasis will sparkle even more.”
Kanibara showed Suni a desert landscape painting and drew their interest.
“That is real affinity-building.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s nothing.”
That differed from me, buying goodwill with items.
If Kanibara could bring Suni and some other water spirits to the desert, it would become a much more livable place.
Going to the desert would not be a bad thing for spirits either.
Just as some people grew stronger in hardship, spirits had individual differences too.
Some grew even more in places that opposed their own attribute.
Bang!
“Suni!”
Elaine finally entered the professor’s office.
“Ah! You were tempting Suni again, were you?”
“Yes. Suni is going to the desert with me.”
“They’re going to Yggdrasil with me.”
It did seem that Suni going to Yggdrasil would be good.
As a water spirit, they would be a tremendous help in restoring Yggdrasil and the surrounding forest.
“Our Suni is popular.”
“I called dibs first.”
Elaine pouted.
“Is Suni a snack that you can mark by licking?”
“I meant I was going to become close to them by managing flowerbeds together. How can you snatch them away like that in the middle?”
“I do not know what you mean.”
“You knew Suni was heading to the flowerbed, so you set a trap in their path!”
Well. I had been caught.
“It was the last day, so I put in a little effort.”
“Sigh. There are plenty of spirits who would follow you if you merely asked them to go together in front of you.”
“That would not be educational.”
Everything I did was to teach spirits and elves how dangerous humans could be.
Did anyone really think I was doing it for fun?
Mm-hm. Absolutely not.
“But why were you so late? I thought you would follow immediately.”
“Elder Yureph caught me and scolded me.”
“Scolded you? Why?”
“Because I threw an axe....”
“Pfft.”
Hans could not hold back his laughter and turned his head.
Of all people, how had she been caught by Yureph?
Yureph was the only person in this academy who could give Elaine, the owner of the World Tree Staff, a proper scolding.
“Since it has come to this, could you turn the remaining branches into axe handles too?”
“Turn World Tree Branches into axe handles?”
Mother World Tree, heavens.
A World Tree Branch, with a lump of iron that had cut its own body placed atop its head?
It was such complete chaos that even writing it out made me wonder what it meant.
What was more frightening was that it was actually possible.
“No matter how much the World Tree likes you, that is a little....”
Still, I refused for now.
Elaine was already at her limit simply enduring the staff’s power.
She did not feel it herself, but.
“Then what about a bow? If I have two weapons, would my authority not rise as well?”
“That is not wrong, but....”
No elf in history had possessed two or more World Tree Armaments.
Even past queens had possessed only one: either a staff or a bow.
But as the original story progressed, Elaine would obtain three World Tree Armaments.
A staff, a bow, and an axe.
Elaine would rise as the next hero with the overwhelming support of the elves.
In one way, that could be said to follow the original story.
“Does it make sense that you thought of that to avoid getting scolded by Elder Yureph?”
I thoroughly tousled Elaine’s hair.
“Anyway, I won the bet, right? Ten people in four days.”
“Ah, right!”
Elaine widened her eyes and caught her breath.
During the four-day anti-kidnapping campaign(?), Elaine and I had bet on whether I could bring ten or more people to the professor’s office.
What I put up was accepting Elaine as a companion.
And what Elaine put up was becoming a graduate student in Professor Kanibara’s office after graduation.
Either way, we would become entangled together.
But the nuances were different.
I whispered like a villain in Elaine’s ear.
“I look forward to working with you, junior.”
Professor Kanibara’s office had gained an elf graduate student (in training)!
“I only needed thirty more minutes!”
“You must not let your guard down until the end.”
Elaine had let her guard down because it was the last day of the Exchange Meeting and the bet.
Otherwise, she would have headed toward her private flowerbed with Suni.
“Ah! This is annoying! Forget it, just hurry to the final lecture!”
“What about the children you were with?”
“I sent them back first. We are all going to gather in the auditorium anyway, right?”
Elaine pushed at my back, and together we headed to the grand auditorium, where the final Exchange Meeting lecture would take place.
But for some reason, the Main Quest and Sub Quest showed no signs of completing.
‘Will the quests complete when the Exchange Meeting is completely over? Or....’
Was there something left that I needed to solve?
An ominous feeling kept poking at the back of my head.
‘Should I check the quest contents now, after all?’