Chapter 88 – Oblivion

000

Today, a new day at the academy has arrived.

In order to satisfy the appetite for knowledge that wells up like the rising sun, students of all kinds prepare to go to class.

Among them, there are those who find it rewarding to learn every day.

There were also those who felt doubts or anxiety about their studies that were not progressing.

But this is the academy. The continent’s largest ‘repository of knowledge’.

There is no puzzle that cannot be solved by their hands, and no matter how many generations it takes, the answer will surely be found.

21 departments research different disciplines and nurture new intellectuals.

And it is the chiefs of each department who lead it.

They are the most outstanding talents in each department, and they are students recognized by the council of elders.

Because he succeeded in leaving a meaningful footprint in his field of specialization, he becomes an example for other students.

They receive more support than other students, to the extent that they are provided with a residence in a dedicated academy.

And here.

Even in such a mansion district, it was a much larger and more luxurious mansion.

It was the mansion where Lyla Flamewatch, the head of the magic department, one of the three major departments of the academy, lived.

When Lila opens her eyes in the morning, a homunculus with dark red hair is waiting for her with her eyes closed.

Next to her were clothes that were well folded and arranged, and at the same time Layla opened her eyes, the homunculus also opened her eyes to her.

There was no light in the eyes of the homunculus, just like the eyes of a dead person.

It is only because she is an artificial being created by Layla’s hands of her, and she is definitely a living creature.

“Are you awake, Master?”

She greets Lila with her usual demure and polite tone, saying her good morning.

Homunculus`Innis` bows down and pays respect to his creator and master his.

Lila stretches her lightly and greets her.

“Good morning Innis. How about Sasha or Quon?”

“Both Sasha and Quon-sama have already woken up. She said that Mr. Quon had almost prepared breakfast, and asked Master to come.

Sasha and Quon were originally adventure companions with Layla, but in order to investigate and treat the abnormality that occurred in Sasha’s body along her way the way.

He came to the academy with them.

“Of course you helped too, right?”

Lyla asked, narrowing her eyes at Innis’ words to her.

Innis nodded his head expressionlessly.

“Of course. I am a homunculus created by the master to manage this mansion. The housekeeping of this mansion is originally my responsibility.

“I know. Quon is steady.”

Lila gets out of her bed and stands in front of Innis, raising her arms over her.

Then, with her familiar hands her, Innis helped her undress, and she changed her master’s clothes into the clothes she had prepared.

“As expected, it’s comfortable. I’m glad Innis is here.”

“You’re saying too much.”

After Lila’s instant recovery, it was her turn her to brush her hair her.

“Today’s plan is to select a budget for restoration of the damage to the city area from the previous battle after attending the meeting of the chiefs… Really. It doesn’t give me time to study.”

In the meantime, Lila sighs as she looks through her notebook her, which is packed with her schedule her.

A week ago, the academy chiefs raided their hideout to subdue the Enforcement Division.

However, in the process, some characters escaped to the ground and fought in the city to catch them, but unfortunately, I missed a few.

Of course, since there are only a few of them, rather than forcefully chasing them.

Now, in order to reduce the damage to ordinary students caused by the fight as much as possible, a quick restoration was a priority.

“Well. But once this is over, the next step is to finally do research to find a way to get Sasha’s body back.”

Layla knocks on the cover of a notebook in which she herself has written down her new hypotheses, in her spare time, as if she wants to restore her reassurance to her colleague as soon as possible.

“That’s right. Have you checked the unopened room in the mansion?”

As if she had just remembered, she asks Innis.

In fact, in one of the rooms in this executive mansion, there is a room with a strong barrier.

Even the owner, Ryla, couldn’t get inside.

Until now, I hadn’t paid much attention to what was in her mind.

Recently, she sensed that the magic response she felt inside was unusual, so she entrusted the investigation to Innis instead of her busy self.

“I’m sorry, Master. It’s impossible to unlock that barrier with my specs.”

“Hmm…Then should I open it?”

Laila thinks that far, then she shuts her mouth for a moment and then shakes her head.

“No, that’s okay. It’s a mansion with too many rooms for the three of us to live in, but if one of them doesn’t open, there won’t be any problems. Maybe my former head of magic department sealed something and forgot about it.”

Wizards often do that. Layla gets up from her seat after she finishes dressing up.

“Then, shall we go down?”

Innis bows down at Lila’s words and follows her.

After Lila first left her room-

After looking around her master’s room for a while, Innis looked somewhat forlorn.

She carefully closes her door and follows her own master.

001

“Lyla, you’re down. Innis sit down too.”

Quon, who had finished preparing her meal, was laying out her tableware her, saying good morning to Lila.

Sasha’s eyes are slightly sleepy, and she sits at the kitchen table, but it seems that she is already ready to go to school.

Innis shook his head at Quon’s words and answered.

“It’s okay. With Master’s design, I’m replenishing all the energy I need by absorbing mana in the air.”

“I’ve heard that story many times already, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t eat it, does it?”

At Quon’s words, Innis is silent for a while, then looks back at his owner Layla.

Then, her lila would point her smile at an empty seat at her table for four and ask her to sit down.

Innis did not change her expression of her, as expected, and sat down in the chair designated by her master of her.

“But it’s surprising, Layla has a tableware like this.”

As Quon said that, what he saw was tableware for men.

Laila looked at it for a moment and said, ‘Umm… I tilted her head while making a noise.

“Did I buy that?”

Layla questioned.

Following Lila, Quon also puts a question mark above her head.

“Oh my. So, did you belong to this mansion from the beginning?”

“No, basically, when you leave the mansion, you take your belongings with you…”

“Then who did she get a gift from she? Ah, but Laila does n’t even live with a man, so it’s strange that she gives men’s tableware as a gift…”

Lila, who had been worrying about her while holding her chin, but soon she couldn’t answer and shook her head.

“I don’t know. But in terms of number of people, it’s better than nothing. Innis, are you okay with that?”

“Thank you for your consideration. Master. Yes. There is no problem with that.

Mealtime started by four people like that.

Sasha came to her senses with the scent of Quon’s warm cooking, and recently, she has been talking a lot about her friends her.

Kuondo Sasha, too, feels proud and a little lonely at the feeling that her little brother is becoming an adult after meeting a new person.

It was to realize once again that this is human growth.

The topics of the three women change quite often.

All three of them are like-minded friends, but basically, their interests are separate and their personalities are different.

Now that I think about it, it’s strange how the three of them managed to get to this point.

And the story changes to the story of the taste of today’s food.

Of course, Cuon’s cuisine was close to a typical home-cooked meal, but it was faithful to the basics.

Think about the people who eat it, imagine how they will be delighted, and take care of both nutrition and taste.

It was truly a wonderful meal that her wife and mother would make.

“Oh, that’s right. Innis, can you do some shopping today?”

Quon says that while she was talking about cooking, she suddenly remembered it.

Innis, who had been eating quietly without interfering in the conversation of the owner and his companions his, nodded at Quon’s request.

“Okay. Write a list of things you need to buy, and I’ll come over.”

“Thank you. I’ll use it before I leave, so please ask.”

When Quon smiles, Layla becomes proud and Sasha smiles as well.

“I think it’s really fortunate that Innis-san is here! Innis-san is stronger than us, and Quon-san, when you went to the grocery store by yourself, you couldn’t carry a heavy load, right?”

When Sasha speaks, Quon nods her head too.

“That’s right…Ummm. But looking at the household account book the other day, it seems like I bought quite a lot at once even when Innis wasn’t there…”

Quon speaks like it’s a little strange.

Layla then replied:

“Well, didn’t you get a delivery or did I go with you? If you apply a little flying magic, you can bring it regardless of its weight.”

“Is that so… ? I think it was.”

Innis listens to it for a while and then replies:

“I wonder if it really did.”

“Innis?”

“Perhaps, there might have been a man who went shopping with Quon-sama.”

At Inis’ sudden words, silence fell between the three of them around the table.

Immediately after the silence that seemed to stop time, it was Lila who burst into laughter.

“Ahaha! Quon with a man? Ah~ Ah~ Our Kuon is already at the age to marry~”

“Lyla! After all, I’m a year older than Lila! Innis, don’t worry. I don’t date men.”

“Since Mr. Quon is an attractive person, he will surely find a good man!”

The three of them talk together and treat Innis’ words as a joke.

Innis still did n’t change his expression and did n’t say anything.

002

Despite being the daytime on weekdays, due to students enjoying their lunch break and shopping.

The free market was still bustling like a weekend, and lively voices were coming and going.

The existence of Innis walking among people with both hands full of the burdens requested by Quon and Lyla.

They are a rare species called homunculus, and at the same time, thanks to their extremely well-groomed features.

It was to catch people’s attention.

Innis felt the stare her at her regardless of gender, but that did n’t change her expression her, so she did n’t show a hint of displeasure.

It was to go home and organize in my head what I had to do.

First of all, organizing the purchased items, then washing and cleaning.

Kuon-sama said that afternoon classes ended late, so he had to prepare dinner for Sasha-sama and Master.

Thanks to the division thinking unique to artificial life forms, the body is here, but the mind seems to exist elsewhere.

As she walks away with a little bruise, she bumps her shoulder without being able to avoid a woman approaching from the opposite side of her.

“Ah. I’m sorry.”

Of course, it was wrong to bruise herself, so Innis apologized first.

“Oh, no. I was talking to a friend too…”

Answering that was an ordinary-looking girl with blonde hair.

Perhaps, she was walking around the market with her friends.

“Really, look ahead and walk. Aruru.”

“Sorry, sorry. Ah! Let’s go to the store over there too, Cecil!”

While chattering with the girl wearing glasses, I looked at the girl walking away as if nothing was wrong.

Innis felt the throbbing in her chest.

Somehow, feeling even more depressed than usual today, Innis heads for her mansion by taking a long way to feel the outside air a little more.

At the free market, pass in front of a building that is a bit far from the other department buildings.

A huge tower-shaped building in the middle, and dome-shaped training buildings on both sides.

As I walked, thinking that it was an unusual shape, the students from the department of the building just finished their classes and exited the building all at once.

But they all walk gracefully without disturbing order, and respect each other.

It was to move while maintaining a neat appearance, as if being careful not to get a single dust on the body.

“It seems that there is an opportunity to study royal etiquette with the professor in this afternoon’s class. Pailou sister.”

“That’s really looking forward to it, Luzuri. If you faithfully listen to the etiquette department’s classes, your parents will surely be delighted.”

When I look at the sisters who talk amicably with soft voices.

The two of them were dressed in formal attire that almost covered their entire bodies, far less exposed than the prescribed academy uniforms.

They can be seen walking down the street with a neat smile.

Clearly, even though they were seeing them for the first time, Innis thought that they felt a familiar energy.

The power that goes into your feet walking on the street is gradually disappearing.

Why has this academy become like this?

A week ago. The day after you were born. After the fight that changed everything.

There was a light covering the entire academy.

After Quon and Sasha, who were at home, fell under the influence of the light.

Not long after, Layla stumbled home.

Without being able to tell Innis much.

After setting up a barrier in one of the mansion’s rooms, he collapsed.

Then, when I woke up again, I forgot all those memories.

Just like Quon and Sasha, they completely forgot about the existence of ‘him’.

“…Papa.”

From Innis’ mouth, the most high-pitched voice flowed out of all the voices he had heard that day.

No, originally, this was her original voice of hers.

In a world where something had become strange, Innis was by Lila’s side of her, hiding her true nature her first.

Everyone was acting like it was normal.

No one in this academy remembers ‘Papa’.

The fact that his creator completely forgot the existence of the person he shared his affections with and loved.

It certainly won’t be an ordinary thing.

All humans within the academy were affected.

Innis thinks. Since he himself is a homunculus, he may not have been affected by the strange light.

If everyone got weird, he thought, it would be better if he got weird too.

Suddenly, I saw a toolbox lying on the side of the road.

“…”

Innis had vague memories of Papa, who constituted her essence of her.

When he was in trouble at the academy, he would avoid the students and hide in this toolbox.

For a moment, Innis looked at the luggage he was carrying.

He steps slowly and enters the tool box.

One day.

Innis had only been with Papa for one day.

No, to be precise, less than a day.

Even so, Papa was a precious existence to Innis.

He is the one who gave his life so that he could be born.

The affection or heart for him engraved in the foundation of his own soul his.

It didn’t matter how long we spent together.

Because his memories are connected to him.

There wasn’t much left of him in this small toolbox.

There is only herself holding on to the fragments of her faint memories of her.

Only sadness accumulates in the body where tears do not flow.

At that time-

“That way! The remnants of the Enforcement Division have gone that way!”

A shout came from outside the toolbox.

Innis blinks at the voice, and he refuses to leave this toolbox until the commotion has passed.

I let out a sigh at the voice that slowly faded away.

For a moment, he is about to return to the mansion with the memories of ‘Papa’ buried in his heart.

He sees the toolbox being opened by someone else’s hand, not his own.

When the sound of the door opening and the light pouring in from outside came inside.

There was a man with a shadowy face behind the light.

“…”

There is a brief silence where they do not say anything while looking into each other’s eyes.

And.

“-Papa?”

“Ha. Innis. What are you doing here?”