Apocalypse Dark Elf Style -Magical Tribes Reincarnated in the Modern World - 17 - Chapter 3.2 Is There An Answer To This Case? (2)
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- 17 - Chapter 3.2 Is There An Answer To This Case? (2)
Is There An Answer To This Case? (Part 2)
TL: Xean || ED: Cubic
†
一Today’s classes were over and the long-awaited after-school period had descended.
一Somehow, I managed to make it through the day without arousing suspicion.
The school hadn’t changed at all. Even though I’d become a treeman, and my insides were all tree-like, nothing really changed.
I didn’t let my self-mockery and resignation show on my face. The classroom was rowdy in the background as I prepared to head home.
The after-school hours at the Knight School weren’t that different from any other regular high school. Those who wanted to go home could do so, while those who felt the need to do so could study or train on their own on the school’s well-equipped facilities. There were also a variety of club activities to develop one’s ability in areas other than academics, or just to relieve daily stress.
However, today after school, I felt that the classroom was especially lively. Was there some kind of special event?
──Well, it had nothing to do with me. I only wanted to wait.
Waiting to meet her again.
Her presence was already engraved in my mind. When I closed my eyes, I could easily draw up the image of her figure. She was all that I could think of.
The scene of our first encounter. Her up in the tree, staring at me.
The parting scene this morning. Her turning around and smiling in the sun underneath the tree.
It wasn’t just her appearance. It was also her warmth. I would never forget her warmth on my back as my body soaked in the warm bathwater.
Honestly speaking, I was missing her even though we had only been apart for half a day.
Perhaps it was because I was at school that I felt that way even more. Regardless of how others saw me, the atmosphere of this place was still the same for me. The memories of her could distract me, but the suffocating feeling of being trapped in this place remained the same.
The buzz in the hallway and the classroom seemed to have increased. Noisy. It was as if I was loudly chastising myself for being a liar who didn’t fit in with the world. I felt even more suffocated and uncomfortable.
I lifted my head to take in a deep breath.
Then─ the first thing I sensed was the smell. It was like grass, like the forest. It was simple and nostalgic, a faint scent that calmed the primal part of my mind.
Then, before my eyes, I saw a smooth curvature on the desk.
An arc that curved gently downward. It extended long towards the edge of the desk. The surface of the desk caved slightly from the weight of the person above. One can easily imagine that the surface of the desk, pressed against the warmth of the contact, would be very delighted.
The color of the skin was a healthy, earthy brown.
“… Ha?”
A dumbfounded sigh escaped from me.
I thought I was hallucinating. A delusion that had invaded my brain and hijacked my vision.
However.
“Hee~. So this is the school, huh?”
I heard her voice, too. Definitely.
I blinked several times, my heart beating loudly as my eyes traveled up to confirm it. Then, I was met with a definite answer.
Looking up close, the lines of her lower body stretched from underneath her skirt, the flesh a dark brown complexion. I didn’t know how to properly describe this perfectly round and smooth area I was seeing. Was it the buttocks peeking out from the skirt or the thighs that were accidentally revealed too much in front of the skirt? That dark brown complexion gently moved to the side, her two long legs lightly crossed and dangling from the desk. A little further up her skirt, my gaze wandered to her upper body, clad in a white shirt. A glimpse of her toned abdomen and her bewitching navel peeked out. When I turned my gaze towards it, I knew that─
I saw Sheena’s face sitting on top of my desk. She was looking around the classroom with great interest.
“Sh… Sheena…?”
She looked at me sitting in my chair, *woosh woosh*, and raised her hand lightly and calmly said.
“Yo. I’ve come to pick you up, okay?”
‘No way this is true’, I thought as my head spun.
The next moment, the attention of the classroom focused on a single spot. Belatedly, I realized the reason for all the commotion was because her entrance.
“Uwah! What’s with that Rensuke, who’s that girl?”
“Explain it, explain it now! You’re not from this school, right? Because you have a different uniform?”
“Your name is Shii-meina-san right? Well, what’s your relationship with Asakura? I’m not really interested, but my friend told me to go ask!”
My head was spinning and I had no choice but to tell a lie with a completely unexpected meaning. First, I had to take advantage of their misunderstanding.
“O-oh… she’s Sheena. In fact, she is my older sister’s subordinate from another school.”
“How long have you known each other? Was it the day before yesterday?”
Sheena pinpointed only the ones she could answer and meekly replied out of the wide variety of questions that came her way. Hou… older sister’s subordinate… we met the day before yesterday… strange…? A number of suspicious gazes bored through me.
And the situation got even worse when a teacher heard the commotion and came into the classroom.
“What’s with all the commotion? What’s with all the fuzz… who are you, a student from another school?”
The math teacher was a middle-aged man who was fat, intimidating, foul-mouthed, and always wore a jersey. He was the type cast demeaning glances at female students, and was a classic example of a teacher that the students hate. Seeing how Sheen ignored him, he became angered. He tried to grab her wrist in the name of dealing with a suspicious person, however, Sheena quickly dodged his hand, and said with narrowed eyes.
“Hands off me. What the hell is wrong with you, why are you ugly like an orc?”
“U-ugly…!?”
“Seriously, your breath stinks like an orc, and you look like you would reek like an orc tool. I can tell your eyes that you’re staring at my legs. Or are you interested in my cleavage? You really look like a pig who only cares about breeding.”
” You, you…!”
The teacher’s face was fuming with anger, his mouth clenched to stop the barrage of words. The surrounding students (mostly girls) said things like “What’s an orc?”, “I don’t know what it is, but I agree that he’s looking at her in a lewd way”, and “He did overdo it too”. They showed a certain amount of sympathy for Sheena.
As for me, I had reached my limit. Even if it seemed unnatural, I should take action.
“Sheena, let’s go.”
I got my bag and stood up. I grabbed her hand and pulled her along. She got off the desk with a thud and walked behind me as I led the way. Before the teacher could come to his senses, I wove through the crowd of classmates to the doorway of the classroom.
There were probably many disadvantages to this forceful exit, and it may not have been the best or right choice, but for me it had an unexpected benefit.
Maybe it was a sort of reward for handling the situation well.
Although she was a dark elf, her hand was like a normal girl’s.
Dodging the attention of the students, we managed to take refuge in the cleaning equipment storage area behind the stairs on the first floor. It was an inconspicuous space with lockers, cans of mop and wax, and the EF charging pods for the cleaning robot. We would be hidden for a while.
As we crouched down, I slumped my shoulder, and Sheena looked at me curiously.
“You know, you told me to live a normal life. Didn’t you say you didn’t want to stand out?”
“Hmm? Did I stand out that much?
“Yes, you stand out. You’re very conspicuous!”
In the end, I told her straight out.
“You weren’t aware of it? Frankly, I think you might be the most conspicuous person to come here since the school was founded.”
“Seriously? I see.”
A little anxious, Sheena tilted her head and said, “Was it really a bad idea?”.
If she wasn’t aware of it, she must be quite confused right now. I asked her while regaining my composure.
“First of all, may I ask you why you came here?”
“Of course you can. The reason for why I’m here… first, it’s because I told you I’d pick you up. Second, I had some errands to run, and third, I was curious about the school Rensuke goes to.”
She enumerated it one by one on her slender fingers. She thought about it for a while, then lifted her other hand and started folding it as well.
“The reason why I thought it would be okay to go is because I was wearing this uniform, and I look the same age as Rensuke, and also, you know, you and I were treated like a couple in front of the store the other day. So I thought it would be fine even if we were together.”
“School uniforms are different at every school.”
“No way. I didn’t know that. I mean, aren’t there some schools that allow you to wear casual clothes? If that’s the case, then I shouldn’t stand out no matter what I’m wearing.”
“There are such schools. Colleges and universities are like that. But this is a school with a set uniform, and wearing a different school’s uniform is one of the most conspicuous things.”
“Seriously. That God really is. I want to give him a piece of my mind.”
She mumbled a few complaints underneath her breath.
But I also had some things to reflect on. From yesterday’s incident, I should have questioned Sheena’s 『common sense』 and taken into account the possibility that she would continue to act in unpredictable ways…
“So. How bad was it? Did I really screw up really irreparably?”
“No… Hm. It’s not that serious.”
“Really?”
“Damn right you stood out, but it’s not like they’re going to call the cops. The teachers might contact me or something, but I can cover it up as long as Sheena doesn’t get caught. I’ll make full use of my honor student mask. As for my classmates… well, they don’t really matter.”
Then I remembered what she did earlier.
“I mean, didn’t you handle the situation properly? I thought you would immediately beat the teacher up, just like at the convenience store. I didn’t expect you to only tell him off.”
“Hmm, well, either way would have been fine. If I had acted physically, it might ruined the 『errand』 I mentioned earlier. That’s why I decided to hold back earlier.”
What errand is she talking about? I wondered, tilting my head to the side.
“And also, the teacher was simply annoying, but the rest of the students were noisy-”
Suddenly, Sheena chuckled as if remembering something.
“Really, it’s weird. It’s seriously weird. There really are no dark elves in this world, isn’t that right? I’ve never seen so many people looking at me like that before. Actually, I was rather surprised, I guess.”
“What do you mean by ‘looking at you like that‘?”
Sheena contemplated for a moment.
“Hm-… normal eyes, I guess.”
She said this with a quiet voice.
“We dark elves were naturally hated. We were looked at like thieves and people always want us to leave as soon as possible. But here, they’re just curious or interested… It’s very rare for me to be looked at like that.”
What should I say to that? While I was hesitating, Sheena changed her tone to an easy-going one and continued.
“No, I know what you’re thinking. I know they don’t know I’m a dark elf. So of course it’s only natural… that they look at me like that. That’s right, it’s all your fault, isn’t it?”
“Eh, Why?”
“It was by chance that a normal human saw through me at first glance, and that’s how it all started. It’s no wonder I don’t have my camouflage disguise.”
For a moment, my breath hitched. At that moment, it wasn’t just me who felt like the world had changed colors, but also her, that there was reason or 『meaning』for her being here – that’s probably what she felt.
Her eyes evaded my gaze. My eyes softened as I said gently.
I didn’t want her to forget. I wish for this special thing to continue.
As if praying I said.
“I’m the only one. I’m the only one who can know who Sheena really is.”
Silence enveloped us. After a while, I caught sight of her face. Sheena was smiling soundlessly, her lips curved in a grimace. I suddenly feel embarrassed.
But. Then.
Maybe I didn’t need to worry about it anymore.
“Among the reasons from earlier, you said you were interested in school, right?”
“Hm? Well,after all, our race doesn’t have a school. From the time I can remember, we just struggled to survive. If we don’t learn how to catch fish and make money, we will die. A place where one can just study was like a luxurious tourist spot for us. So I just wanted to see what it was like… well, I got the gist of it.”
That couldn’t be right, I thought. That was why I found the answer.
Everything I am now was just a disguise. The real me existed with her.
And if there was anything that she desired, I wanted to make it happen.
I didn’t know what consequences there would be later. In the first place, I didn’t even know what would happen to me tomorrow.
However, it was okay.
“Okay! Then let’s have a tour of the school.”
Sheena was surprised for a moment.
“Heh? Is that okay? You said I stood out like a sore thumb.”
“We can just fake it. It’s like the saying says,『If you eat the poison, might as well eat the plate as well』. You get that saying?” (TN: https://www.fluentu.com/blog/japanese/funny-japanese-proverbs/)
“Yes, I understand. It’s like, 『When a doofus wants to buy you a drink, let him buy the store』.”
“I don’t know about that one, but… anyways, let’s just go around the school. But if someone talks to you, don’t speak badly or talk too much. Basically, I’ll take care of it.”
“Okay! I’m getting pumped! Hehe, thanks Rensuke!
Sheena sprang to her feet from her crouching position.
Her satisfied smile showed her two canine teeth as always, but it seemed to radiate pure joy. When there was no devilishness or cynicism in her smile, she appeared just like a girl of her age.
Seeing this sight, I felt embarrassed and turned around.
Right now, I couldn’t hold her hand like I did earlier.