By Zephyria 
Aska, who only knew how to curse and hit, had mastered a new way of whining.
“…….”
“…….”
I was nibbling on a jujube when I felt an intense gaze. Aska didn’t touch the table laden with food enough to break its legs, but only sat next to me, glaring at me.
“Eat quickly.”
“…….”
“If you’re not going to eat, I’ll have it cleared away?”
“…….”
Actually, Aska didn’t need to eat. But was it because he always ate so deliciously? Seeing Aska distracted even with food in front of him felt so strange and unbearably odd.
“Haa…….”
“…….”
“Haaa…….”
“…….”
I put the jujube I was eating back on the plate and sighed repeatedly.
Clearly, Aska’s rebellion wouldn’t end today. Just like when he shut his mouth, didn’t eat or sleep, and only read books, he would be like this for days.
At first, he just stared at me from a distance, but when I didn’t say what he wanted to hear, he started getting closer and closer. And now…….
“…….”
He was staring at me so intensely from a distance so close that his nose almost touched my face. This was clearly a protest.
“Alright. Then not right now, but let’s go out after the banquet is over.”
“Promise. You have no credibility.”
“…….”
I widened my eyes at his reply, which came as if he had been waiting for it, after not saying a word all this time. No credibility……. More than that, he was using difficult words quite well now, so it seemed he hadn’t been reading books carelessly.
But what good was it for someone with no credibility to make a promise with words? No matter how much he studied, he was still naive.
“I promise.”
“What if you change your mind even after the banquet is over? And decide how soon after the banquet we’ll go out.”
“Seriously, you’re going too far…….”
I did lie quite often, but was it really to this extent? I felt wronged, but after thinking about it carefully, it seemed like it was to that extent.
I cleared my throat a few times and said,
“Let’s go out……. within a week after the banquet.”
“You promised?”
“Yes. I’ll promise and swear before the Sun God.”
Whether it was because I mentioned the Sun God, or because he really saw that there wasn’t a shred of falsehood in my words, Aska didn’t say anything more.
“Stop glaring and eat something.”
At my words, Aska reached for the food as if he had been waiting for it. Perhaps because it was his first time eating in a while, his expression brightened as soon as he put the bread in his mouth.
Looking at his sparkling eyes and reddish cheeks, I asked,
“Is it good?”
Aska nodded at my question. There were crumbs on the corner of his mouth, so I was about to reach out to wipe them off when suddenly, a piece of bread slammed into my mouth.
“Ugh…….”
It didn’t hit me hard enough to hurt, but the spot where Aska had hit me last night hadn’t healed yet, so I felt pain.
“Why, again?”
Now he was hitting people with bread? I frowned, touching my mouth, and asked, and Aska held out the bread to me.
“No, I’m telling you to eat……. Why aren’t you eating?”
“I ate earlier.”
“Just this one?”
Aska picked up a jujube and asked back with a dumbfounded expression.
“You didn’t even finish eating this.”
I didn’t have much appetite, so I wasn’t planning on eating more, but I couldn’t be bothered to explain. Besides, once Aska became curious about something, he would persistently ask until his curiosity was satisfied, so it was even more so.
“I’ll eat it later.”
“Later when?”
“You’re going to eat this. I have my own.”
Eating with Aska was everything, but I just said it vaguely and kept touching my lips. I could feel it swelling and throbbing at my fingertips.
“This is delicious…….”
It was bread that looked crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I reached out for it, thinking there seemed to be some kind of yellow cream inside, and Aska handed me the bread.
I looked at the inside for a moment and put it in my mouth. As expected, the first thing I felt was the crispy crust of the well-baked bread. The inside was soft and chewy, and a slightly warm and rich cream seemed to melt and disappear on my tongue.
“It’s good, right?”
When I nodded, Aska smiled and put the jujube I had left over into his mouth. Watching him, I took another bite of the bread, and Aska had a proud expression as if he had made this bread himself.
I didn’t know why he was doing that, but he looked so happy that I ate all of the fairly large bread.
¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸
Was it because I promised to take him out after the banquet was over? Aska quietly listened to me and devoted himself to studying.
“Exam? What happens if I get it wrong? You’re not going to cancel going out, are you?”
“Of course not.”
“Then? Will you hit me?”
I was just saying that because I thought it would be good to have him take a test soon, but Aska was saying strange things.
“Hit you? Me?”
“Don’t you hit me if I get it wrong?”
Could it be that he learned that from being beaten in Calderia? I wanted to ask, but if he got depressed again, I would only ruin my mood, so I shook my head.
“No, you’ll get a penalty instead.”
“What’s the penalty? I don’t like anything painful.”
“It’s not painful.”
“And don’t be stingy with food.”
“……What do you think of me?”
I was feeding him, putting him to sleep, and raising him so beautifully, but Aska didn’t even know that and seemed to think of me as a thug.
But when I thought about it, Aska got along with me fairly well even though he had only heard seriously bad things about me in Calderia.
So, even though he knew I was a monster who tortured people and opened their heads to extract brain fluid…….
It didn’t seem to matter much to him whether I was a villain or a good person.
“Then if I get a perfect score, you get a penalty too. It’s not fair if only I get a penalty.”
I was the one helping him with his studies in the first place, so I didn’t know what was unfair. Still, I thought he would work harder if he had a motive, so I nodded.
“Okay. The penalty is tying your hair.”
Aska’s face turned pale at my words.
“Execution?”
“Would it be an execution? It’s just tying your hair.”
“Why is tying hair a penalty?”
“It’s just funny.”
I laughed, imagining Aska with pigtails.
“Like that all day long.”
“Alright.”
Looking at me laughing, Aska also smiled with a confident expression.
That’s how the test time with the penalty began.
There were a total of three subjects, and I would give thirty questions per subject, and Aska would solve the problems within the time limit.
I made the questions moderately, not too difficult, but not too easy, to match Aska’s level, but honestly, I didn’t think he would get them all right.
But surprisingly, Aska got 299 points out of a total of 300 points. He got 89 out of 90 questions right and only got one question wrong.
“Hey, why did you get this wrong?”
The absurd thing was the wrong question. I had made a 1-point question just to give away points as a bonus, but Aska happened to get that wrong.
“Don’t you know your teacher’s name?”
“Where do I have a teacher?”
“Me! I’m the teacher!”
At my shout, Aska glared at me with a strange expression, as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have.
“You do know my name, right?”
“Anyway, you got all the questions right in two subjects and only one wrong in one subject, so you get two penalties and I get one penalty.”
“Are you really going to let this go like this? I’ll give you credit for it now if you say it.”
“What do you tie your hair with? Like a rope?”
“I said it’s not an execution.”
Whether I sighed or not, Aska looked around with an excited expression at the thought of tying my hair. I brought the hair tie I had prepared in advance and handed it to Aska.
“Tie it with this. It’s hair, not a neck.”
“How do I tie it?”
“Do whatever you want.”
When I sprawled on the sofa and mumbled, Aska came close to me. And kneeling down, he carefully touched my hair a few times.
When I frowned slightly because my scalp was itchy, Aska took his hand away and said.
“You do it first.”
He seemed to not know what to do even after touching it.
I was naturally going to tie it in pigtails, but it was impossible with just one hair tie. After thinking about it for a while, I had no choice but to grab my bangs and tie them together.
“Are you done?”
When I nodded, Aska jumped up and ran to the mirror. And after looking at himself for a long time, he approached me with a puzzled expression.
“What kind of penalty is this?”
I had overlooked the fact that Aska had no sense of shame. As if telling me to hurry up and tie it, I lowered my head, and Aska touched my hair again.
As if he was worried, he touched it for a long time, then grabbed my head and forcibly lifted it up.
“Sit up straight.”
When I straightened my back and sat up straight as he told me to, Aska grabbed a handful of my left hair. And he tried to tie it clumsily, but he was pulling so hard that my scalp was about to be torn off.
“Can you do it gently?”
“It’s not tying well.”
“The hair tie doesn’t tie itself just because you pull the hair.”
“Just shut up.”
As I waited quietly with tears in my eyes, he finally seemed to have finished tying it and came to my other side this time. And he grabbed a handful of hair again just like before. Only then did I realize what kind of work Aska was creating.
I was going through exactly what I was going to do.
“Hmm.”
After grabbing and twisting my other hair, Aska stood in front of me and looked at me with a serious expression. But all the hair was sticking out above my forehead, so it was just funny.
Aska grabbed my chin and turned it this way and that, observing his work for a long time, then smiled and gave a thumbs up.
“Pretty.”
I burst out laughing at his cheeky words.