“T-That… I was j-just..”
“Just?” Fritzka repeated sharply.
The boy felt subdued and said, “I was wrong…”
He realized he was looking at Fritzka Spigent, the merciless ‘discipline dictator’.
‘Even professors don’t cross his path.’
An inhuman student council president who enforces the rules without compromise and a ruthless dictator who expects others to do the same. This was Fritzka’s reputation within the academy.
For this reason, the students hated him. The faculty, on the other hand, were in full support.
Fritzka represented the most suitable image as the representative. Therefore, it was only natural for him to become the student council president. Barbetz appointed the student council president through faculty recommendation.
‘He’s a dictator now, but when he was young, he was cute and adorable.’
I swallowed my regret.
Of course, there were always students who trembled just by looking at Fritzka, but still.
How adorable it was when little Fritzka and Katherine were always together, bickering and teasing each other!
‘Now they don’t even fight anymore. They must have decided to ignore each other.’
Fritzka took out his notebook and wrote something down.
“Ten demerits for admitting fault.”
The words startled him.
“Wh-What ten demerits? That’s too much! I’m a first-time offender, you should let me off with a warning!”
“There’s no such discretion. Besides, why should I let an idiot who can’t follow simple school rules off the hook?”
“What, you don’t? Then what did I read in…”
“You must have misunderstood something. And you’re being loud again. An additional deduction of 10 points.”
Fritzka said cruelly.
The boy ended up with a total of 20 points deducted. His sky was falling since penalties and merits greatly affected the final grades for the semester.
But Fritzka seemed dissatisfied, unable to give a more severe punishment.
‘How strange… Fritzka seems unusually grumpy today.’
I wonder what’s bothering him?
“If you don’t stop now, I’ll add another 10 points.”
“O-Okay.”
Under Fritzka’s intimidation, the boy gave up protesting and left dejectedly.
“Wow, the power of the student council president is amazing!”
I clapped my hands and heard Fritzka muttering in a low voice, “Who’s gonna marry who? You piece of sh*t”
“Fritzka?”
At my call, Fritzka turned to me, “Why are you talking to that thing, it’s annoying.”
“I’m sorry. I won’t bother you in the future.”
“No, it’s not me. I don’t want you to be bothered”
Fritzka said bluntly.
“Oh! You were thinking of me?
It’s really hard to understand Fritzka’s intentions, whether when we were young or now.
“But you…”
“Yes?”
Fritzka hesitated without answering and asked in a small voice, “Do you really want to receive a proposal with a flame-tailed lizard core?”
W-What should I say now? I didn’t expect him to ask me seriously with a face full of worries. I smiled awkwardly and replied, “No! I was just trying to get rid of him.”
“I see, you don’t want anything to do with that disgusting…?”
“Anyway, I even got one on my last summer vacation! I caught it with my hands.”
I proudly spread my hands.
Fritzka’s eyes widened.
“W-What did you say? You caught that creepy flame-tailed lizard yourself?”
“Yeah!”
“Why on earth?!”
“There’s a legend that if you make a wish on a flame-tailed lizard core, it helps you find lost connections.”
Fritzka’s expression darkened at my words.
“But it was a lie. Hehe. It just burned all my new clothes!”
I returned the core when I saw the lizard cry so pitifully when its core was taken away.
‘I thought it was going to die because of sadness.’
“…”
I forced myself to laugh as if nothing had happened.
Fritzka looked at me bitterly.
“You’re still looking for Brantley, aren’t you?”
My face stiffened for a moment. It felt like Fritzka was telling me that it was a hopeless endeavor. But soon I nodded unaffected.
“Hmm. We’ll meet again someday. I’ll definitely scold him for leaving without a word.”
As I spoke confidently, Fritzka smiled weakly.
“Sure. If you find him, bring him back. I’ll find a way to get him admitted to Barbetz, and I’ll deduct 100 points every time he breathes.”
“Promise?”
I extended my pinky to Fritzka.
Although he knew it was meaningless, Fritzka hooked his pinky with mine.
As I approached adulthood, I was still searching for Brantley.
* * *
Late at night, in the dormitory:
I was sitting by the window, waiting for someone. Then I heard my roommate, Katherine’s voice behind me.
“Miriam saw the cultists in the woods nearby.”
She was bouncing on the bed, telling me the story she had heard from her friends during the day.
Like Fritzka, Katherine was attending the Barbetz Higher Academy with me.
When I told them that I was going to Barbetz, they cried and begged Marquis Spigent to attend the same academy.
“They had kidnapped a man and a woman from the village, tied them together in the middle, and danced around them in circles.”
“Tied up? Why would they do that?”
“They must have been performing a demonic ritual. They tied them up and demanded money from the hostages’ families.”
“They’re clearly bandits! Why don’t we catch them?”
“They’re too secretive. When they tried to arrest them, they claimed they were in the middle of a traditional wedding ceremony. They say the money demanded from the hostages’ households was a dowry.”
“Is that why they kidnap in pairs? Ew, creepy! But the hostages know the truth, don’t they?”
“Apparently, they claim to have brainwashed them into believing they got married. But usually, they’re from rival families or feuding households, so nobody in the village believes them.”
“Maybe they were coerced into saying that?”
“Everyone thinks so, but without evidence, they can’t arrest anyone.”
Katherine shook her head with a horrified expression.
So the demonic cult has infiltrated this far. Dad had to go to the borders to suppress them. Now that Dad had stopped it from the borderlands, it seemed to be spreading to other parts of the continent.
‘But the gods Prache sealed were not actually demons.’
If so, they seemed to be more of a criminal organization that gathered people through religion.
‘Like a pseudo-religion.’
Chirp!
Just then, two sparrows appeared by the window.
A red sparrow and a green sparrow.
“Peep..Peep!”
“Peep..Peep!”
As soon as the two chubby sparrows perched on the window sill, they pecked at each other.
“Ah! It’s them again! Shut up!”
Katherine scrambled to her feet in annoyance. She threw a small box full of crushed almonds at the birds.
“Peep..Peep.. Peep!”
“Peep..Peep.. Peep!”
The birds buried their faces in the boxes of almonds and began to gobble them up.
“They’re so ugly.”
Katherine got annoyed and put a few small nuts into the box as well.
“Hanelope, what do you like about those winged pigs?”
“…….”
I think she cares for them more than I do. I smiled awkwardly as I scooped up the water to keep the birds from choking.
“I’m going to go get cleaned up, these birds are stinky. Chase those winged pigs away.”
Katherine left the room.
– Winged pigs? Was she talking about me?
From somewhere, I heard a pleasant, low, male voice.
– That girl is always coming up with creative swear words.
It was followed by a slightly higher-pitched, raspy male voice.
The words were spoken by a red bird and a green bird, respectively. These were the beings I had once known as “Uncle Rabbit” and “Not a Miss Butterfly anymore”.
And now-
“Todd, Natu.”
At my call, the sparrows glanced up simultaneously.
“Show me the letter.”
– Are you ordering me now?
– You must be the first human to boss around the gods of death and nature like this.
“You want the almonds?”
– “Peep, peep, peep!”
– “Peep, peep, peep!”
The birds handed me the letters tied to their legs as if tossing them.
“Oh my! Are you annoyed right now? How agreed to deliver the letters as a reward for feeding and sheltering?”
I thought that I had impressively tamed the Linker, but the reality was different.
The sparrows turned their heads away hearing my words.
“Are you rebelling now?”
These defiant birds were the sealed gods. They were Todd, the god of death, and Natu, the god of nature.
After I could communicate with the gods without a Linker, they revealed their true names.
‘I was really surprised to find out that Uncle Rabbit was Todd and Butterfly was Natu. It didn’t match at all!’
How could such a frivolous human be the god of death? And the entity who duped me into believing she was a sister?
Anyway, as time went on and the seal grew weaker and weaker, they found a way to get out of the seal stone.
They contracted with a ‘vassal’ and borrowed the body. But they could not use their powers and were restricted in their activities.
‘Besides, it was still impossible for them to contract with a creature with a strong ego.’
As making a contract with me was impossible, they ended up with two cute little sparrows.
The sparrows only wanted one thing.
– I want to live longer!
– Three years is too short!
The average life expectancy of these cute little sparrows was sadly only three years.
Todd and Natu promised to triple their lifespan when they regained their powers. Until then, the two sparrows have decided to act as vassals for the gods.
After all, a body possessed by a god does not normally age or die.
In any case, even with Todd and Natu’s seals broken, there was still no news of Prache. Perhaps his injuries were more serious than I had thought.
I unfolded the letter the two sparrows had tossed me.
‘Your Highness, this is Maxim.
I am reporting the results of my tracking of Young Master Brantley for the past month.’
- Notes on the Gods names:
So finally their names have been revealed
Uncle Rabbit turned out to be Todd. So when Hanelope saw their broken names it looked like 토__ (To__) so she made up/ assumed his name was 토끼 (Tokki=Rabbit) but in actual it was 토드 (Tod).
Same goes for Butterfly. They were 나투 (Natu), but Hanelope thought from the first letters that 나__ equals to 나비 (Nabi=Butterfly) - I spent a lot of time thinking if I should just go with Tokki and Nabi. But I felt I was taking away the childlike innocence of the MC and the fun convos. Hope this clears any confusion!
