Chapter 225

He muttered in a dazed voice.

“Do it together.”

“Yes.”

“…Okay. Really.”

He approached me with a smile, his eyes filled with madness.

“Will this open your heart? This is the first time you’ve shown interest in me.”

“Maybe I’m interested in the drug. …Whenever my head doesn’t work well, I take morphine and go to bed, but I got tired of that and was looking for something new in the magic potion line.”

I muttered while looking around at other vials.

“I couldn’t lately because of you.”

“Ah~”

He continued slowly with a smile, his eyes losing focus.

“…Don’t worry. Worried that illusions will shatter? I like you no matter what. Even if you become an Old Human, even if you turn 180 right now, it’s fine.”

“I’m not fine with it.”

He already had no interest in my words. Immersed in his own sentiments, he only said what he wanted.

“A drug, huh. I thought that Nicolaus wouldn’t think anything of this, but to feel guilt over addiction…? Hahaha! But it’s really unexpected. Sir Nicolaus doing drugs… Hmm…. That Sir Nicolaus doing drugs? Unbelievable…. It’s as satisfying as watching Nicolaus Ernst deceive everyone and act as the high school representative team.”

“You’re not going to tell anyone, right.”

“Of course. Why would I? We have a new secret that only you and I know?”

He answered with gleaming eyes.

I bit the inside of my lip slightly and said.

“Then let’s do it right now.”

“Ah, no.”

No?

Dumbfounded, I just stared at him, and he said while half-hugging me.

“Next time. Let’s do it when we meet next.”

“…Why? I want to try it now.”

“How about tomorrow? Or the day after? Wait while thinking of me until the day after.”

His irises trembled intensely.

His eyes were fully filled with the intent to exploit this opportunity. Having found a topic I reacted to, he clearly aimed to use it as bait to make me eagerly await time with him.

I could faintly read his anxiety over not getting a positive response.

I pulled him slightly closer and lowered my head.

“Can’t we do it today?”

“…….”

He stared at me and answered.

“Next time. It’ll be better the more you wait.”

For someone whose expressions revealed everything, it was a firm refusal.

I saw his determination to milk this one chance relentlessly.

Anyway, the deadline for the Eszett favorability +12 point proposal was approaching soon.

It was questionable if I could fill all 5 points, but today or tomorrow was a day I needed to get closer to team members, so it didn’t matter how he postponed the schedule.

“…Okay.”

I answered with a casual smile and moved aside.

After that, I ignored him and pulled out other vials and bottles one by one to examine them. On the third or fourth question about their uses, he muttered without answering my question.

“Do drugs together….”

“…….”

What do you want me to do?

I answered with a smile.

“If it keeps coming to mind, let’s just do it now.”

“…Do it together. How can you say that to me? To push away the chance to do drugs with you with my own hands! No, actually, if you felt exactly the same as me, I wouldn’t have reason to do this.”

He’d been saying only what he wanted since earlier, truly like a madman, so I shook my head and moved far away from him.

There were no special new drugs. A magic potion to draw blood faster, a magic potion that maintains covenant magic while remaining in the blood, etc…. They were potions that could fully be made at Wittelsbach.

‘…No, it’s surprising that they’re comparable to Wittelsbach.’

And there was a possibility that important potions weren’t kept at home.

I recalled the labels and uses I’d read earlier, went outside, and casually toured his house. If he showed dislike, I planned to stop out of courtesy, but he was just gleaming with his eyes.

The mansion was vast and splendid.

It was much larger than the Wittelsbach capital villa I was borrowing, probably because this was an actual residence, not a villa.

“You prefer outside over inside.”

After finishing the tour and sitting on a bench by the lake, he followed and sat beside me.

A cool dawn breeze brushed by. Mana lights placed throughout the mansion grounds softly illuminated the surrounding scenery.

“It’s comfortable.”

Why else do people go to forests and parks.

Before the stalker attached, whenever I had time, I rested in the Wittelsbach mansion’s flower garden and yard. I should smell the trees occasionally, right.

And crucially, outside was better than inside for fighting if something happened.

After that, he was silent for a while.

About 10 minutes passed, and he muttered while staring intently at my face.

“No matter how I look, pink eyes are the best for you over other colors.”

Earlier, I’d been walking around with blue eyes. Walking around with pink eyes in the Pleroma world would be advertising to catch me.

“I see.”

“Of course, blue eyes are cool too. But it’s quite traumatic for us. Especially, the flag and armband color of the Nicolaus Ernst special unit is blue. Know why? Only the eyes are visible on the face, so naturally, what comes to mind first when recognizing you?”

“Hmm, it’s an honor to have left such a strong impression.”

Interesting.

Thinking that, I asked another question.

“What does my special unit do?”

“They track your location. Try to plant spies in the Kingdom of Bavaria. Lately, focusing on Berlin too.”

“Do they know me like you do my identity?”

“…….”

He blinked while looking at me with a smiling face. Then grinned.

“No way. If so… Hahaha…. I’d have too many enemies?”

As expected.

Though I didn’t expect him to answer so readily, even if it was as expected.

I stroked my chin and asked.

“Where did you learn my identity?”

“There is. A way to know.”

He ended cheerfully and stared into my eyes again.

His interest seemed more in my eyes than other conversations.

‘If I go too deep, he won’t answer. Anyway, he’ll get the drug next time we meet, so waiting until then isn’t bad….’

“No matter how I look, it’s marvelous. How were you born with pink eyes? Human eyes being rabbit eyes….”

“…….”

It was a remark fitting for the guy who rudely said on first meeting, staring at my eyes, ‘How does it feel to have a unique color?’

“I didn’t expect proper words, but it’s more shockingly insulting than anticipated.”

“It was a compliment?”

“How is that a compliment? Are you kidding?”

I wasn’t born this way, but I didn’t want to tell him that fact. Instead, an urge rose to correct his wrong analogy.

‘Never mind…. Let’s just not talk.’

Even with the drug session scheduled, I couldn’t spend the remaining time on such conversations. He wanted to act as my lover and have pointless talks with me, but not me.

I recalled the conversation we had earlier.

He probably wouldn’t answer most questions. So, it was better to dig deeper into the stories he’d spilled from his own mouth.

“Just one question.”

“Yes! What is it?”

“‘The Lord you seek’ and ‘the messenger of the covenant’ are the same being. ‘My messenger’ is a different person, though.”

Thus says the Lord of Hosts. Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in.

It was a question about the passage he’d mentioned earlier.

He looked at me with a bewildered expression, not expecting such a question suddenly.

“If you misheard and relayed it wrong, I’d understand, but Pleroma wouldn’t commit such an error casually.”

“…….”

“Why do you see the two differently?”

He said ‘Since the messenger of the covenant has come, the Lord will soon come.’ Saying the same being comes separately twice clearly sounded odd.

Soon, he broke the silence and said.

“Because the prophet Malachi expressed the two differently.”

“Putting aside that it’s a sentence clearly showing they’re the same person… The Bible often repeats content for emphasis. Expressions change in the process too. You should know that?”

“It was just a literary expression.”

As I just smiled and looked at him, he shook his head as if he couldn’t stand it.

“Ah~ You’re sharp. Obsessing over such trivial parts? The important thing is that we’ll be saved, not that.”

He muttered that and suddenly widened his eyes.

“Did you get this far by obsessing over trivial parts?”

I’d heard that recently from someone. Madmen must connect somehow.

I shook my head and answered.

“I don’t think it’s that trivial. What reason is there not to find it odd that the same subject comes at different times?”

“Again, if you nitpick that much, the Bible writers shouldn’t have used synonym substitutions either. It was wordplay that can be accepted tolerantly to some degree~”

These guys’ mistake was seating strong in force, not theology, in clerical positions. After spouting nonsense and getting my sharp glare, he pondered and opened his mouth.

“When Christ came, people didn’t know He was the Lord. Then, did Christ know His essence from the womb? Opinions differ on this…. The dominant interpretation now is that He realized as He grew. Is that enough?”

What is?

But I just stayed silent. Pressing more didn’t seem to yield better answers.

‘The messenger of the covenant only knew his humanity and didn’t grasp divinity, huh.’

A peculiar interpretation, fitting for a cult.

Divinity might follow later.

Anyway, this wasn’t particularly new info to me.

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