Chapter 98: You Miss Me, Darling?

When Solomon awoke the second time, it was because he heard the sound of heavy boots stomping towards him.

Upon opening his eyes, the face of a stern-browed instructor greets him. Luckily, it is not the one he tried to maim…

The instructor initially says nothing, but he does unlock Solomon’s restraints.

“Out.” Is all he bothers to say.

Solomon rises to his feet, and he naturally towers over the instructor.

Stepping past him, he moves past the maze of wooden crates before walking up a short staircase and pushing open the doors.

Sunlight hits Solomon in the face like a brick.

He raises his hand over his face while his eyes adjust, stepping across the deck of the ship with nothing covering his bare feet.

Solomon looks around, expecting someone to be there to meet him.

However, there was no one present. Not even so much as a bird.

A ramp was lowered from the deck to the old dock that Solomon had first arrived on.

Sighing, he left the ship, wandered across the dock, and began heading towards the academy.

He felt like an orc. His only clothes were his animal pelt and the layers of dirt that he had brought from the savage realm.

This feeling only intensified when Solomon got within eyesight of the academy grounds.

He could already see the looks he was receiving from his fellow students. They were doing double-takes to ensure that he didn’t have tusks.

’….Tusks.’

Solomon thought of Fury, and subsequently, Jiaoying & Yari.

He could not say for sure how they would react to the news that his head was on the chopping block.

They might be furious. He worried they might not understand why he had chosen to act.

Finally, he realized that he had never had to apologize to a woman before.

Solomon stepped into the Academy building, and once again, he expected someone to rush over and meet him.

However, no one came near him. Aside from the other students, that is.

Solomon does the only thing that makes sense to him.

He walks up the stairs, heads toward the first-year dormitories, and twists open the door to his quarters.

His ears are instantly hit with arguing.

“You little shit! We went over this already! Stop throwing a tantrum!”

“Grrr…!”

“Rodent! I wish Solomon had gotten a sphinx instead!”

Bansha looked as if she were going to growl at the metal giant in front of her, or perhaps even bite him.

However, when the door opened, her entire demeanor did a complete 180.

Barking, she rushes right up to Solomon and leaps into his chest, eliciting a wave of laughter from her guardian that rattles the furniture inside.

“Ah… there’s my sweet girl. I missed you too, little one.”

Raizel slowly gets to his feet, nearly as surprised to see Solomon as the dog.

“I don’t know about sweet, but… We’re both glad to see you back, at the very least. How were the savage lands?”

Solomon arches his brow. “You know where I went..?”

“Well, when you suddenly went missing, I thought the witch had something to do with it. I went to interrogate her, and she told me about the exercise… she seemed a bit weird though.”

Solomon feels his heart strum once again.

Yari.

When he thought about his secret lover, he wanted to go and run to her immediately. But that would likely have to wait for a while.

For now… he needed a bath, some rest, and to go and check on Everett.

“So… How was it?” Raizel asked again. “It’s been ages since I’ve been-”

Solomon steps past his brother on the way to the bath.

“Gorgon was there. She and Jiaoying fought, and Jiaoying almost died. I made a blood vow that I’m going to rip Gorgon’s spine out through her back and force-feed it to her… You bathe my girl, or do I have to do it?” Solomon sniffs his pup. “I guess I have to do it…”

Raizel’s statuesque form was completely frozen as Solomon steps into the bathroom and closes the door behind him.

Upwards of two minutes after Solomon has started bathing, he hears a booming voice shake the walls of his quarters.

“WHAT!?!?”

Solomon sat in the tub with a neutral gaze, scrubbing behind Bansha’s ears.

“Your Uncle’s a bit slow on the uptick, isn’t he…?”

Bansha barks in agreement.

–

When Solomon steps back into the hallway, there is a distinct glow about him.

After a nearly two-hour-long bath, he has scrubbed away so much grime and grease that he is mildly certain that he wiped away a layer of skin.

He got dressed to go and find the rest of his group when he felt the claws of a small critter crawling up his pants, to his back, to the top of his head.

“Feeling clingy, are we?” Solomon chuckled.

Bansha establishes her natural place and looks out into the world, ready for an adventure.

Only because he didn’t have the heart to tell her to wait in the room, Solomon decided to take her with him.

As they travel through the academy, Bansha received a great number of stares and attention. All of which she felt was rightfully deserved.

Her three heads were raised with a noble arrogance that Solomon found to be adorable.

Finally, he pushes open a set of heavy doors, and the heavy scent of medicinal powders hits him squarely in the nose.

Coincidentally, so did Nila.

“FRIEND SOLOMONNNNN!!!!”

The elf lunges into Solomon’s chest, nearly knocking all of the air out of his body.

Nila wraps her arms around him so tightly that he feels his back crack. “Ugh…Nice to see you too, Nil-”

Abruptly, Nila knees her friend in the no man’s region.

His eyes immediately bulge out of his head as he goes down, clenching his crotch. “What… the fuck…!?” He gasps.

Bansha hops off Solomon’s head just before he hits the ground. She sits on her hind legs and stares at him with tilted heads. It is almost as if she is trying to understand the nature of this strange new game.

Suddenly, Nila jumps on top of Solomon and wraps him in a fierce headlock, tears streaming from her eyes.

“How dare you make us worry about you like that! We couldn’t see you, and we thought you had met your demise!”

Solomon coughs. “Somebody… help get this nut off of me..!”

A pair of feet step into Solomon’s field of view.

He looks up at Dakota and sees her red, puffy eyes, and he instantly knows that help has not come.

She speaks through clenched teeth. “I… I will not forgive you!”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!!”

Dakota places Solomon’s legs in some sort of assassin’s submission hold, nearly popping his knees out of place.

“Speak, you fiend!” Nila tightens her grip. “What was the meaning of your brazen actions?!”

Solomon grits his teeth as he begins trying to pry both women off of him. “I was… not going to let some bastard sit with his nose in the air and act as if Everett’s life was some fleeting thing! I would do the same for either of you!”

“You were being foolish!” Dakota cries. “E-Everett was stable, he could have waited a bit longer, but you could have been killed by that instructor for-”

Solomon unconsciously snorts.

“Is this funny to you, you son of a bitch?!” Dakota yells at the top of her lungs and tightens her submission hold, and Solomon feels something in his leg pop.

“Fuck, no! Get off me, you little vermin!”

“”No!”” Both girls yell.

Solomon starts to heat up his body to force the girls to release him.

However, just before he can give them some small burns, he hears a pair of footsteps approaching.

Looking up, he finds Everett. His wing and midsection are wrapped in bandages. His broken arm is encased in a splint.

Solomon starts to tell his friend that he is relieved to see he’s alright when he suddenly does something completely unexpected.

“…Ugh…” Wincing, Everett lowers himself to the ground and kneels.

As if that weren’t enough, he bows deeply with his head touching the ground.

The only sound in the medical ward is that of the winged boy, sniffling uncontrollably as he fights back sobs.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep