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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Parent-Teacher Day
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-You still haven't fixed that bad habit of yours.
Lev always scolded me harshly for the lies I told to smooth things over. Of course, to everyone else, it just sounded like a cat's meow, so I ignored him.
My life is built on lies anyway, so adding one or two more doesn't change much.
Lev, of all people, should know that best. Yet he got angry without tiring.
-It's deplorable that my words can't reach them! Who would ever guess what a shameless liar you are?
Mroooow!
The cat's powerful cry echoed through the room.
Acting as if I knew nothing, I smiled sweetly and hugged Lev tightly again.
"There, there, Lev. What's wrong? Are you hungry? Want a snack?"
-Do not compare my benevolence to such a trivial thing as appetite!
But his voice didn't reach the others. I told Lev, "There's food in the kitchen. Go ask for a snack!" and shooed him out of the room.
Click.
After closing the door again, I glanced around the messy room and grinned. I decided to ignore the angry *kyaoooong!* that sounded from outside the door.
"Should I start with the healing?"
Yulia and Edmond were a mess, so I figured I'd take care of them first.
"What about Isaac?"
"He'll calm down eventually. Now that Hazel is gone."
Probably.
"Haaaah~."
Yulia, finally feeling a bit relieved, slumped to the floor.
"That was a close call."
"Too close."
"More importantly, Emily. That story you told the daughter of Count Vischet..."
Edmond asked, his brows furrowing slightly.
"...Are you just going to leave it as is?"
"Pfft!"
As soon as he finished, Yulia burst out laughing. She clamped her hands over her mouth, but the sound leaked out, making it pointless.
"So, khh, you're saying... our eldest brother and second brother are, pfft, in *that* kind of relationship... ha, this is hilarious."
"Yulia Walker."
"Well, what can I do? It's funny. Could you hold back a laugh, brother? My goodness, the two of them... in *that* kind of... khhhk."
Yulia was practically rolling on the floor, letting out strange sounds like *khhh-hh-hh*.
"Wouldn't it be weird to correct it as a misunderstanding now?"
"..."
He seemed to have nothing more to say and kept his mouth shut, but his dissatisfaction was palpable.
Yulia continued to laugh her head off beside him for a good while.
***
"I did that?"
Isaac looked bewildered. He tilted his head, a genuine look of confusion on his face.
"You did! Ed and I had such a hard time because you were on a rampage!"
"Really? I don't remember a thing."
"That's only because Emily healed everything, so there are no traces left. It was absolute chaos."
As Yulia snapped at him, Isaac scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.
"I do remember feeling an intense thirst before I blacked out..."
Come to think of it, he had mentioned being thirsty when his first enhancement finished. I didn't think anything of it back then. But with how things turned out, it was something that needed to be addressed.
"What kind of thirst?"
"Well, it's hard to describe. But I sometimes feel this uncontrollable urge."
"For example?"
"..."
Isaac hesitated for a moment before continuing with a small sigh.
"I want to attack anything and everything."
"Attack?"
"Yeah. Especially if there's a living creature in front of me. You seem to be an exception, Emily, but when I see the servants who bring my meals..."
He trailed off. The displeasure was evident in his deeply furrowed brow, suggesting that being controlled by his instincts was not a pleasant sensation.
"But it's not that severe. It was always manageable. That's why I kept quiet about it until now."
Isaac ran his hands through his hair.
He had always acted under the firm belief that he could control himself. But this incident had completely betrayed that long-held belief.
As a result, Isaac couldn't hide the unstable waver in his eyes. I placed my hand over his eyelids, gently closing them.
"...Emily?"
"It was just because of Hazel's divine power. Most Holy Knights dispatched within the empire don't leave their posts, so you won't run into any for a while."
"..."
"So you don't have to worry."
I stroked the back of his head and whispered gently. I could feel the tension in Isaac's stiff shoulders slowly release.
"And I've... figured out a solution, for now."
"What is it?"
Edmond, who had been watching quietly, interjected.
"Simple. We just need to enhance him more."
"Are you sure? Yulia and I felt a sense of repulsion, but our minds were clear. In fact, it was the enhanced Isaac who lost his reason..."
"I was told that more enhancement reduces the chances of being consumed by instinct. If he hadn't been enhanced at all, it might have been different, but it seems a half-baked enhancement leads to this kind of outcome."
I heard it from Lev, so it's probably true.
"Does that mean..."
"That's right. We need more corpses."
Perhaps far more than we thought.
"It's a relief we don't need them right away, but..."
Edmond muttered, frowning.
"I'll look into it further."
"And tell them not to pick up just any old thing from the street."
"I've already warned them sufficiently about the last incident, so it should be fine."
As the conversation came to a rough conclusion, we all sighed in unison.
"Why can't we have a single quiet day?"
"Tell me about it."
Isaac and Yulia flopped onto the floor.
"Ugh... Living as a zombie isn't easy."
"You know, I once saw a play where I thought if everyone in the world became a zombie and I was the only one left, I'd be better off just quietly becoming a zombie too. But I take that back."
"Yuli, are we the same as those zombies? Technically, we're zombie-like, not actual zombies..."
The two of them exchanged words listlessly. As I listened blankly, a wave of nausea suddenly washed over me. My stomach had been a wreck ever since I met Hazel, and I had finally reached my limit.
"Ugh!"
I clapped a hand over my mouth and ran for the bathroom.
I only stopped retching after I had thrown up everything in my stomach. Behind me, the conversation between Isaac and Yulia drifted over.
"Wait. I've changed my mind."
"You too, brother? Me too."
"Being a zombie does have its conveniences."
And with that, the two of them nodded in agreement. It was quite annoying.
***
"I'm home~."
"Oh, Andrea, you're back?"
His voice announcing his return was a bit gloomy today. I looked closer to see what was wrong and noticed his lips were pushed out in a pout.
"How was the academy today?"
"Umm..."
When I probed gently, Andrea put on a bright smile.
"Nothing happened!"
That much was plausible. He could have fought with a friend at the academy. Kids that age tend to be moody, after all.
But during dinner, I realized Andrea's troubles were not something to be dismissed as a minor incident.
"I'm done eating."
"Huh? Already?"
"Little bro, you've only had two bowls. And it's your favorite omelet."
"I'm full."
And then he put down his spoon. But there was no way we could send him to his room after he'd eaten only two bowls.
Normally, he wouldn't be satisfied until he'd had at least three!
'You're going to do it, right?'
'Yeah. We have no choice.'
We exchanged glances. Isaac declared he would take drastic measures.
"Here comes the gargoyle~. *Shoooo~*"
A spoonful of omelet swirled through the air and landed in front of Andrea's mouth.
"Coming in for a landing! Say ahhh~!"
'Did it work?'
We watched Andrea's face closely. Normally, he would have giggled and accepted it.
But today was different.
"I don't want it."
Andrea turned his head away completely!
*Thud!*
It felt like that sound effect was playing in my head. The shock was immense.
'Our baby brother...!'
'Is refusing to eat?!'
Something was definitely, terribly wrong.
After dinner, Edmond called for an emergency family meeting.
***
Given the gravity of the situation, the family meeting proceeded in a solemn atmosphere. We began a serious discussion about what could be upsetting Andrea so much that he wouldn't eat.
"He must have fought with a friend, right?"
Yulia brought up the most likely possibility.
"I mean, he even avoided Isaac because he didn't want to catch a cold and pass it to his friends. It makes sense that he'd be upset if he fought with them."
"But is it enough to make him stop eating?"
"You might not get it, Ed, with your cold heart, but Andrea has a sensitive side."
Then Isaac countered.
"Isn't it because of that girl he mentioned, Juri or Julie or whatever her name was?"
That was also a plausible theory.
"Getting rejected by your first love is sad. If you think of it as heartbreak, it's understandable that he wouldn't eat."
To be precise, Andrea hadn't stopped eating, he'd just eaten one bowl less than usual. Anyway.
"Yulia. How did he react when you offered to dress him up last time?"
"Ah, that..."
Yulia averted her gaze awkwardly.
"His homeroom teacher contacted us, asking that he refrain from wearing accessories other than his uniform in the future, as it created a sense of discord with the other children."
Edmond answered for her.
"But he said Juri liked it! Andrea was cheerful up until then."
"Tsk, tsk. Maybe that's what got him on Juri's bad side. She might have thought he was trying to win her over with jewels."
"But he said she accepted what Matthew gave her!"
"Matthew probably gave her something appropriate. You sent him with that 'Mermaid's Tear' thing, didn't you?"
"Ugh..."
If it was the 'Mermaid's Tear,' wasn't that one of the finest jewels in Yulia's collection? She just gave it away?
"Well, you have to show that much sincerity!"
Now I understood why the homeroom teacher had personally contacted House Walker.
"So, in the end, the cause is either his friends or Juri."
Edmond concluded clearly.
"Alright, then I have a good idea."
"What is it?"
"I just so happened to receive this notice from the academy."
Edmond placed a document on the desk.
「Notice of Parent-Teacher Day」
