"Should I be grateful that you're in the principal's body right now? You would've killed me on the spot if you were in your original form."
"You know well."
"I'm grateful for your generosity, but I've changed my mind. I want something from Shuraina, not you."
Yves had on quite an evil smile as he walked towards me. I was a bit stunned at Yves' words. My expression must've scrunched up quite a bit. Yves, who was just a step away from where I stood, lowered his face slightly and whispered at me.
"For you to drag me like that. How cruel, Shushu."
I pretended not to know what he was talking about as I avoided his gaze. I picked at my nose. When?
"If you agree to my request, I'll hand this over without a fuss."
As soon as he finished speaking, I heard fighting breaking out from behind me.
When I turned around, I saw Hylli trying to stop Swan, who had unsheathed his sword. Swan, who had been taunting Yves just moments before, was trying to run at him with murder in his eyes.
Even Hylli and Cory, who were preventing a murder from taking place, glared at Yves and told him that they wouldn't forgive him if he made a weird request.
I waved them off and looked at Yves. What a bunch of drama queens.
The principal stopped being angry and was just watching the whole thing in amusement. As soon as they realized that Yves wasn't their enemy, they were enjoying the situation.
Anyway, Yves' request? He and I were pretty close now, so he probably wasn't going to say something unreasonable. I just hoped he didn't ask for free business. I crossed my arms in front of my chest and nodded.
"What is it?"
"It's probably not too difficult for you."
"So what is it?"
When I narrowed my eyes at him, Yves bent his knees to match my height before placing his cheek in front of my face.
He pointed a finger and tapped his cheek.
"What do you want me to do about it?"
When I frowned as I tilted my head, Yves glanced at me. He glanced towards Swan, who was making a fuss, before lowering his voice.
"I wanted to receive one from you. Maybe a light peck."
"What?"
"This is as greedy as I can get."
I couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous this was. Did he really want a peck on his cheek that badly? Yves and I were pretty touchy-feely to begin with. He had even given me a kiss on my forehead, kind of like what you would do for a dog. And whenever that happened, I was in a frenzy to wipe it off. Did he resent that? What did he mean, greed? That was too heavy a word for this, right?
"That's so childish, what?"
A peck on the cheek? Am I getting the daughter treatment now, after getting the pet and little sister treatment?
I kind of got what Yves was thinking with this request, but a peck on the cheek? I felt like there were a lot of people who would misunderstand the whole thing.
Instead of a direct peck, I placed a kiss on my thumb and placed my thumb on his cheek.
Yves' eyes grew wide, as if he didn't expect my behavior.
"Call it even with this. Here, now stop making weird requests and hand it over to them."
Yves' round eyes grew narrow.
"I don't wanna."
Yves' expression morphed into a smile.
When he didn't seem like he was going to give up, I sighed. If I didn't do it properly, he wasn't going to give it back. I wanted to hurry back to my dorm to rest, so I didn't want to waste any more time.
I tousled my hair in annoyance and just decided to get the whole ordeal over with. I gave pecks to my younger brother, I gave pecks to my friend, Hestia, and I even gave pecks to my older brother, Harun, when I was little. What was so different about Yves? It was kind of awkward, but it wasn't gross or anything.
I sighed again and puckered up my lips. Yves stared as I closed my eyes tight and stretched out my lips and burst out in laughter. Then, his ears turned red as he put his cheek near my mouth. Yves' lips were curled up slightly.
I narrowed my eyes and tried to aim at his cheek when he suddenly turned his head. I had tried to give him a peck on his cheek, but had ended up pecking his lips because he had turned his head.
With a smack, our lips met and soon separated. As our lips moved away, he licked my lips slightly. It had been a short moment, but it felt long. I was so surprised that my eyes blinked wide open.
"What...."
When I opened my eyes, Yves was wearing an incredibly hazy grin. He raised his hand to pat my head.
As soon as his lips separated from mine, an incredibly loud explosive noise sounded from behind.
"I'm so excited, I have to run away now."
Yves glanced at my back before clicking his tongue.
Cory and Hylli stopped trying to stop Swanhaden. The principal had also been trying to prevent Swanhaden just out of pure enjoyment, but he had been thrown to the side a while back.
Swanhaden, who was slowly walking towards us, had a murderous smile on his face. It was kind of terrifying to see a kid who didn't usually smile with such a smile on his face. He cracked his neck left and right. I could hear the bones cracking. He also began warming up his wrists.
Cory had an equally terrifying expression on his face. His face was usually fierce, but his serious expression really made him look scarier. Half of his face was shadowed. He was drawing an attack-based circle in thin air as he walked towards Yves with Swan.
Hylli, who had been quietly stopping Swanhaden, had a similar expression on his face as well. He was exuding murderous intent, something that was pretty rare, as he poured his power into his sword. In his other hand was a packet of wet wipes that he had acquired from somewhere. Hylli passed by me and handed me a wipe, telling me to wipe my mouth.
Their walk soon shifted into a run as they chased after Yves.
Even as he was being chased, Yves had a happy grin on his face. On the other hand, the people chasing after him looked incredibly angry.
"Yvnes Lunaasha!"
"What was the formula for the binding spell again?"
I held the treasure chest that I had gotten from Yves and stared at the sudden chase. I sat on the floor and collected some of the black magic coming from the chest and recharged some of my energy.
The principal, who had been shoved aside, walked towards me and sat down to watch the chase from next to me. I handed the chest that I had gotten for my lips to the principal.
"You're incredibly popular, Shushu!"
I stared beside me at the hand that rested on my shoulder. The principal said that one line before snickering.
"I guess so. They must really be bored out of their minds."
The principal snickered harder at my words. They raised the hand on my shoulder to my cheek and pinched it. The worn hand felt scratchy on my skin.
"Anyway, I'm incredibly indebted to you!"
The principal patted my back a few times before dropping his head to stare at the chest sitting on his lap. At the end of his gaze was the real chest that Yves had brought over. The principal briefly licked his lips and opened the chest to check the contents. A black hunk full of magic was inside.
The principal carefully brushed a finger over their heart. They let out a short snicker with their mouth closed before a difficult expression crossed her face as she sighed.
"It's taken a long while."
The principal said with a sigh.
"I was even helped by those who I thought would be my enemies forever."
She stared at the chaos that had erupted on the other side.
"I guess we've taken the long way 'round."
The principal's eyes seemed to overflow with joy. I was quiet as I stared at her teary expression.
Little human crumbs.
The principal muttered as their hands brushed through my hair.
Chapter 20. Senior End Party
After returning Noirelle's heart to herself, we greeted each other briefly before she returned to her lair. She said that she would be staying on the Augran Mountain until the egg hatched.
"I'm bored, so come over often! I'll teach you black magic."
She told me to visit often before I went back to the academy. It seemed like she was bored and lonely on the mountain by herself. So I made it a point to visit her often before the egg hatched to chat with her.
I brought Hestia over and introduced her, even though she didn't know anything about the situation, wiped down the egg that Blanchielle would hatch from, and listened to her detailed explanations of various magical creatures. She had been alive for hundreds of years, so there was a lot that I could learn from her.
And, when we were bored, we read through the novels that Noirelle had read through as references to write the novel that had brought me to this world. This included the novel that Hestia had written.
"Hylli lowly whispered curses along with words of love and grabbed Hestia's hair. Then, their lips roughly….. Hylli.... Damn, that's low... Incredible..."
I munched loudly on a snack and read a line from the novel. It was weird to read something I remembered from my dreams.
I had my snacks all set up on the floor of the lair and read through the novel that Hestia had written. Now that I was rereading it, all of the things I didn't catch before were clear as day. It was really fun.
'It's even better to share fun things.'
It was a waste for me to read this incredible novel on my own. So I decided to lend 'Hestia and the Bastards' to Hestia herself. I handed her a bunch of books about different continents and sneaked in the copy of 'Hestia and the Bastards' somewhere in the pile.
Hestia's reaction was incredible.
"Shushu! Shushu! What is this book?"
"Mm? Isn't it one of the history books I lent you? Maybe it came from the library. What's it about?"
"Aaaaaaaaaaaack!"
Expletive. Expletive. Expletive.
Hestia screamed like a maniac as she read through her novel. Her face scrunched up angrily at the mention of Cory, Hylli, and Yves, then she was disgusted at the part where Swanhaden declared his love for Hestia. Hes yanked at her hair.
"Who the hell is the author?! Who is it?! I'm going to expose their private information! But I liked how they described me! They really nailed my beauty and my personality. But aaaaaaaaaaack!"
She shook my shoulders as she demanded to know who the writer was, but I just snickered at the hilarity of the situation. Sorry, Hestia. Her reaction was too funny.
I wanted to show the boys who had been the male character models, but I gave up because it would be too embarrassing for them. Noirelle and I would just keep laughing at it, though.
Once all of the incidents began to wrap themselves up, I became a normal side character in a normal Augran Academy once again. Time had flown and Yves had graduated, and I was also on the cusp of graduation myself. Life began to become more hectic now that graduation was just around the corner.
I felt like every situation that had happened had wrapped themselves up quickly just because of how fast-paced life was right now. After a certain point in time, I had stopped thinking of this world as a world in a novel. I felt like I was living life a lot more carefully now that this became my reality.
"It's really almost over."
I looked at the school bulletin board on my way to the club room. The bulletin board had an information page about the senior end party and was filled with announcements about it. This, the 20th senior end party, was going to be the one that my grade would be attending.