“Mom.” Dia suddenly appeared while I was mixing potions in the Academy’s secret little room after school.
“Huh?! Oh, Dia!”
“Hee hee hee, Big Brother Cas is here! Also, the captain wanted me to ask you if you’re almost done. And he found something great too. He said it’s a quest for you, mom.”
Cas was slumped over my head, completely sprawled out. Dia suddenly climbed up there, too, to perch on top of him, which startled me even more. It was like a baby turtle on top of a parent turtle—my head was jam-packed with magical beasts. Of course, both of them were manipulating gravity for me, so they weren’t heavy.
“Welcome back, Dia,” I said. “If it’s the item the captain asked for, it’s already done. As long as this thread maintains the elasticity and strength of the nylon from my past life, it’s just a matter of assembling the premade parts.”
Dia had been on an expedition with Captain Dread from early yesterday morning until this morning, which also served as training. This angel had grown so much, being able to deliver messages properly like this—I was completely smitten!
Cas had also come back late last night. Thanks to that, I’d made quite a bit of progress with my R18 novel writing.
But was it really okay for a little kid to stay up so late? Though small, he was a sacred beast. Applying human common sense to him was tricky.
“Come on, Dia,” Cas told her. “I always tell you to check before climbing onto Lavi’s head.”
“Aw, sorry. But your back is so warm and soft, Cas, I love it!”
“Mm. Well, liking it is fine, but...”
Cas was a softhearted big brother to his youngest sibling. He had to be burying his face in that white fur, utterly content—Dia was an angelic natural charmer in full bloom. The little fox going all gooey was unbearable.
I wanted to dive onto Cas’s back too, and fluff fluff...and maybe breathe in his belly fur too...
“Lavi, your hands stopped. I hate perverts.”
“R-Right...” That was weird. How did he catch me? And I wasn’t a pervert. It was instinct...
“Mom, focus on your work!”
“R-Right. Thank you, Dia.” The angel was right. I refocused on my work.
I was sitting on the sofa, facing the table, upon which stood a scientific experiment set reminiscent of my last life. There was an alcohol lamp with a flame, a tripod stand, and a beaker on top of that. All commercially available equipment, by the way. Inside the beaker was a clear liquid. It was an old friend of mine from rubber making—dissolved amoeba.
In my left hand, I held a strand of translucent green spider silk. This wasn’t something I’d pulled from one of the empty nests. I was trying to imitate the way silkworms had been used in my last life and see if I could raise my own green spiders. If rubber production became widespread, after all, there would surely be a shortage of empty nests. Perhaps it was the nature of green spiders, but when I hung a round wooden frame for them, they spun their silk in it.
I’d noticed this when I hung my homemade hula hoop on a tree branch. I’d taken a nap after I’d been playing with the hula hoop with Dia, and when I woke up, a large dream catcher was sparkling in the sunlight.
Now, I would untangle the dream catcher, remove the stickiness by boiling it in hot water, and then dry the thread. I felt like a silkworm farmer. Right now, I was about to coat this thread with amoeba liquid. If I dunked the whole thing in, though, it would dissolve faster than an empty nest, so I had to be careful to keep the threads from sticking together. I looped the loosely wound thread around my left finger, and with my right hand I used a pair of tweezers to dip the end into the liquid. I tried preparing five, ten, and fifteen strands, varying the thickness by twisting them together.
I had started with the thinnest thread and was now working on the thickest one. The others were floating up in the air—those were the ones I’d made earlier. Cas was keeping them suspended for me while they dried. His drying ability was incredibly handy.
When I used my tweezers to dip the tip of the thread into the beaker’s liquid and lifted it out, the end started bobbing up into the air. Cas’s timing was absolutely perfect. To prevent the threads from sticking together, I coated them one by one using the tweezers in my right hand and movements of my left hand. It looked like a bunch of long, thin, translucent tubifex worms were escaping the beaker.
“Wow, it looks like cotton candy floating around!”
I couldn’t help but tip my hat to Dia’s choice of metaphor. I’d have to stop using that tubifex worm comparison from now on.
As a writer, I wondered if it was okay to just steal it? I’d ask my little angel for permission later.
As I was thinking this over, the work finished.
“All right then, let’s assess the strength and consider recoating it.” I began checking the threads I’d coated first.
The process of verifying the experiment was tedious and boring for my angel. Before everything was finished, she fell asleep right on the little fox’s back.
By the time the cleanup ended, it was already late into the night. I postponed the captain’s quest until the next day and went to bed too. The next morning, I got the exact location from Dia and teleported over right away; I thought it would be better to act quickly.
The place definitely lived up to the captain calling it a quest, but this time I understood his intent—I was going to have to manage it myself without borrowing any power from the sacred beasts at all.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Come on, come on, Heinz! Please accompany me for a little walk over there.”
After checking out my quest, I wrapped up today’s half-day classes like a proper student. I captured...no, located my Doggie. Though, really, I’d just been hiding in the shadows of the boys’ dorm, keeping watch.
Right now, Doggie and the other fourth-years had half-day classes as usual before their graduation research presentations. I’d already confirmed that some aspect of the graduation research he was supervising was out of his hands, due to the need to coordinate illustration work. I’d also learned that he was extremely busy right now.
As expected, I didn’t even have to wait a full hour before he—currently on a friend reduction campaign—came nonchalantly, no, suddenly, back, without any particular detours.
He stiffened suddenly at my request, then stared at my face with a terrified look. After a moment of silence, he muttered something so softly I couldn’t quite make it out: “Nah.”
Huh? “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that. What did you say?”
He fixed those frightened eyes on me once more. Why on earth...? “I said I don’t want to! That’s definitely the face you make when you’re scheming something terrible! You’re up to no good!”
“Oh my, scheming? Your adorable junior is just inviting her senior out for a little something, that’s all.”
“That blank expression is the one you make when you come asking for something utterly insane!”
Hey, Doggie, don’t point at people. “Now, now, that’s not—”
Suddenly, a deep, pleasant voice came from behind me. “I’d very much like to hear more about that.”
Behind me was the boys’ dorm. I’d been blocking Doggie from entering, but could it be that the first prince, the Academy’s head supervisor, had somehow teleported here? Or had he been staking it out like me? Should I have brought him some bread and milk?
Oh dear, Doggie just flinched again. Then he awkwardly took two steps back. His movements were so jerky it was like he was doing some terrible robot dance.
“It’s nothing that should trouble the busy head supervisor. As a junior, I was simply inviting my senior for a little stroll.” Of course, I turned around with a proper ladylike smile, but why was my Doggie throwing me such a gloomy stare? Could it be that the stakeout was actually to keep an eye on him?
“What have you done now?” the first prince demanded.
“Don’t look at me like I’m the one who did something,” Doggie protested. “Your target was definitely—no, never mind. If anything, my lady, you should rely on him instead of me. Right? Ask him. Yeah?”
Doggie, why are you pleading with me with such a desperate look? When I glanced at the prince, though, his eyes seemed to be sparkling? Why was that?
Hah! Could it be he wanted to experience the feeling of being relied upon by students?! Well, yes, given his position as this country’s first prince, it wasn’t easy for students to casually rely on him. From my perspective from my first life, though, he was my grandson! Grandma will be the student relying on you!
“Fine! With the two of you, I won’t have to do anything!” I wrapped my arm tightly around Doggie’s.
“Why does it have to be like that?!”
“Tch.” Hee hee hee, my grandson came rushing over, clicking his tongue in frustration. Of course I wouldn’t forget him! His face froze in surprise when I wrapped my arm around his.