Sometimes, Maid Lucy thinks to herself.
‘.......’
That she’s the only sane one in the Dormant Dragon Cadets’ hall.
Everyone else has something wrong with them.
“Uwaaah...!”
“Uuhhhh.”
They were in the living room. Elize was hopping up and down in a frenzy, and beside her, Kendreik was also convulsing.
Normally, whenever something happened, it was only Elize who acted like that. But now Kendreik had joined in.
“Haaat...!! Aaaahng...!!”
Maybe it looked fun—because beside them, Quan started laughing hysterically while letting out weird moaning sounds.
Lucy let out a sigh.
That part she could accept. A dog, a moron, a lunatic—sure, fine. But then, even Balmung, who was usually reserved, started howling.
“Awoooooong......!”
Seriously, what is wrong with him...?
I’m going insane.
But as Lucy saw it, she could understand why.
Only two hours remained until the Assassination Daily announcement. They had all gathered in the hall to watch it together.
It was the moment the number that would decide their futures would be revealed. It would’ve been strange not to be excited.
“Uwaaah...!”
“Uuuuhhhhh!”
“Huuaaang! Aaahng!!”
“Awoooooooooooooooooooong......!!”
Still, with this deranged quartet shrieking, Lucy felt like she was about to lose her mind.
Maybe it was the rising blood pressure—but blood had begun to seep through Balmung’s tightly wound bandages.
Gray, who had been silently sitting alone, freaked out and smacked him on the head.
Whack!
“Kh!”
“You lunatic...! Sit still...!”
The smack seemed to snap Balmung out of it.
“...What the hell? Why was I howling like some cheap mutt...?”
But then, as Elize and Kendreik started spazzing again, Balmung let out another awkward “Awoong...!” howl.
And it had been going on like this for minutes. Lucy sighed again.
There was a problem.
She didn’t really care how insane they acted—but right now, their master was at home. And he did not like noise. She may be just a maid, but he was the one who had chosen her. It was her duty to keep the house in order.
“Hey, hey! Guys...!”
Lucy stepped in, waving her hands frantically.
“I get that everyone’s on edge waiting for the sales numbers, but could we maybe, just maybe... dial the tension down a notch!?”
She pointed to the second floor as she said it, making a throat-slitting gesture with her finger.
Immediately, the cadets clamped their mouths shut. “Ah. Right.” they seemed to remember.
“Uuh! Uuh! Uuuuhhhh!!”
Well, most of them.
Smack!
“Shut up...!”
Gray smacked Kendreik, and that finally shut him up too.
Gray herself looked strangely calm. But Lucy was suspicious. Just last night, she’d been so nervous she couldn’t sleep and had called Lucy to come lie down with her in bed.
But maybe... it was already too late.
Because footsteps echoed down the stairs.
Everyone turned to look.
They were bracing for her wrath.
And they were right to.
Rebecca appeared.
“.......”
Her expression was stiff. Even her frown showed a trace of irritation.
Everyone clamped their mouths shut and watched her warily. The princess scanned the room and sighed before speaking.
“...You all look like trash.”
Elize tilted her head.
It wasn’t entirely wrong.
She only had a single 5-hika coin in her wallet.
Then Rebecca dropped a bomb.
“Assassination Daily is coming by to film extra footage soon. Even if they’re just capturing your daily life, I can’t possibly let you be seen looking like this.”
Wait, what?
Extra footage?
Everyone’s eyes spun.
“Go wash up, tidy yourselves, and come out looking presentable.”
It was Balmung who freaked out next.
“...All of us, ma’am?”
Rebecca didn’t answer. She just furrowed her brow like it was obvious.
Then, glancing sidelong at the red-haired idiot, she asked:
“How long have you left him like that?”
“T-Two days....”
“Wash him. Now.”
“.......”
Balmung felt a surge of rage swell inside.
Because the King of the Beggars himself was giving him a pitying look and whispering, “Uuuh...”
‘Ah, f*** this entire universe....’
Balmung began hating everything.
But it was his duty.
As soon as he stood, Kendreik bolted.
“Get back here, you bastard!”
“Uuuuh...!”
And Rebecca was telling the truth. While they scrambled around, a teaching assistant from the department stopped by to deliver the same message.
“The crew’s coming soon! They want to film Cadet Gray checking the sales count, along with the Dormant Dragon cadets! In 30 minutes...!”
And just like that, another round of chaos exploded in the hall. Even after they’d washed up.
“This won’t do....”
Meanwhile, Rebecca said something cryptic, then went out to the terrace to puff away on a cigarette.
As for the one at the center of all this?
Lucy glanced at Gray again.
“.......”
She was the only one who didn’t look like a mess. She’d already washed up today. But once the talk of filming came up, her fingers started twitching.
Being close to Gray, Lucy recognized it: her unique sign of anxiety.
“Need help?”
“No?”
Gray shook her head calmly—but then stood up, shuffled to the corner of the sofa, and huddled into the wall. Her twitching fingers only worsened.
And that made Lucy anxious. There had to be something she could do. But she didn’t know what.
Gray was that kind of child. Inconsistent. Her expressions and feelings often didn’t match. And sometimes, her thoughts turned... extreme.
Lucy knew it came /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ from how she was raised.
Once, while drunk, Gray had told her:
The Habanero family always needed a ‘butler’—someone to embrace them because of their bloodline.
But she hated that idea.
Someone who didn’t try to use the Habaneros. Who didn’t develop useless feelings. Who simply existed in the same space and gave them warmth.
“Funny, isn’t it...? My family’s spent over a thousand years looking for someone like that... and in all that time, not a single person has ever embraced us purely. Not once....”
So she said she didn’t need that. That she’d never look for it.
That only fools who couldn’t stand on their own clung to others.
But Lucy didn’t think so.
No one could stand alone. Gray needed someone like that.
Before the number of drawings covering her body to hide herself grew any more...
As these thoughts passed, Gray’s nervous tics grew more intense as the minutes ticked toward the crew’s arrival.
“.......”
At first, she was just rubbing her left index finger with her right hand. Then she clutched her hand under her armpit to calm herself.
Then her knees began to tremble, her toes twitching uncontrollably.
Of course she was tense.
Gray’s sales count alone would decide the mood of the entire Hiaka Academy.
Tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of lives would hang on that number. And that national burden was placed on the shoulders of a mere first-year cadet.
“......Mm... mm...”
Soon, soft whimpers slipped from her throat.
Lucy grew more anxious.
‘Should I warm up some milk?’ ‘Bring her butterfly cushion?’ ‘MiniMiniMoong?’
She offered anything that might comfort her—but Gray just kept shaking her head.
No, no, no.
What do I do?
As Lucy flailed in confusion—
Knock knock!
Someone knocked.
Huh? Was Assassination Daily here already?
Lucy opened the door—and had to look up. Far up.
“...Ah, Professor.”
Tall. Cold gaze. Pink eyes that always looked down on people.
But after their trip to the Empire, he wasn’t so scary anymore.
Senior Professor Dante Hiakapo had arrived.
“May I come in?”
“Y-Yes, of course! Guys, Professor Dante’s here...!”
All the cadets snapped their heads toward the door.
And maybe it was just Lucy’s imagination—but Gray’s twitching toes stopped at that exact moment.
***
Just as expected, the Dormant Dragon Hall was in chaos. Everyone had washed up, but the restlessness lingered without reason.
“Professor...!”
“Uuhhh...”
Elize ran up to me and held out her palm, so I awkwardly slapped it. Kendreik did the same—...what the hell is his deal?—but I slapped his palm too.
In the middle of it all, Balmung was staring at me with an extremely serious face.
I held out my hand, and he returned the slap with both hands. He even bowed slightly at the waist.
“I’ll prepare your seat.”
“...Huh?”
Out of nowhere, he offered me the center seat on the couch. He even brought a cushion and a blanket. I had no idea why.
“.......”
I scooted over to the side. After all, the star today was Gray. But she was curled up in a corner by the wall.
“What are you doing over there?”
“Eh...?”
“Come here.”
“No...”
“And what, you’re planning to stay like that even when the camera crew arrives? They just entered Zone 0. They'll be here in 10 minutes.”
“......”
She slowly came down. Unlike the first day when she boldly walked up to me, Gray now shuffled carefully and took the center of the sofa.
Then, without hesitation, she snatched the blanket from beside me and threw it over her head.
“Hey! That blanket’s for the professor!”
“......”
A hand suddenly poked out from under the blanket, feeling around until it found the middle finger.
【 Gray : 凸 】
“Oh, this little— I can’t even take it back.”
Balmung grumbled, then suddenly bowed and rubbed his hands together. “Apologies, Professor. Would you prefer a proper quilt instead...?”
......Why the hell are you going that far?
Anyway, we were now ready to receive the camera crew.
Not long after, the princess—her eyeliner’s tail drawn long—came down into the living room.
Then the Assassination Daily crew arrived, accompanied by the Shaman Department’s assistant professor.
“Greetings, cadets. Thank you for accepting our sudden request. We’ll shoot quickly and be on our way.”
“We’re just here to capture your natural state, so no need to perform—just act as usual!”
Only two people came, each carrying cannon-sized Camera Orbs slung over their shoulders.
Yet their presence instantly dropped a heavy silence over the hall.
The cadets sat and turned on the Crystal Orb TV. We tuned it to the Assassination Daily channel on the video platform.
< Time Remaining Until Sales Count Release: 10 Minutes >
Ten minutes left.
Given how important the metric was, the attention was immense.
< Current Viewers Watching Together: 74,215 >
I estimated that 60% of them were from Hiaka.
The remaining 30% were probably Kreutz.
Amulet had built up some recognition too, though not as much as Gray.
Even if each of those viewers only bought one copy, it’d already be nearing our department’s hopeful target.
< Time Remaining Until Sales Count Release: 8 minutes 13 seconds >
Let me explain a little while we wait.
Among the wealthier nobles of the Empire, it’s common to enroll their kids in assassination classes as a form of high-class “etiquette education.”
(Originally it was magic, but once it became clear that assassins held a natural advantage in certain matchups, enrollment skyrocketed.)
To commemorate some trivial achievement (like clearing an S-rank dungeon once), they’d throw money at Assassination Daily and have their kids featured.
Most of those features are weekly editions, but if they get a monthly cover, the noble families go absolutely wild.
< Time Remaining: 6 minutes 43 seconds >
Traditionally, even when they secretly bulk-buy thousands of copies, they rarely break 10,000.
So is 10,000 copies a small number?
Not at all.
A noblewoman who breaks 10,000 is treated like a social queen. If she hits 20,000, the next noble gathering will have half the girls copying her fashion.
On the other hand, a girl who only sells 5,000 won’t show her face at social events for months out of shame.
Everyone here knows that standard.
So what’s our goal?
80,000 copies.
< Time Remaining: 4 minutes 10 seconds >
Within that metric, 80,000 is absurd.
It’s the number the entire Dormant Dragon Hall, the Department of Assassination, and the citizens of Hiaka are all wishing for.
80,000.
< Time Remaining: 3 minutes 00 seconds >
Finally, the three-minute mark.
Gray was no longer hiding under the blanket in front of the Camera Orb. She had draped it loosely over her shoulders. Her toes twitched endlessly.
Beside her, casual chatter buzzed—trying not to draw attention to the tension.
Elize and Quan were speaking to her, and Gray responded.
But even the ones talking seemed to know the small talk felt forced.
Being aware of each other's nerves only made them more anxious.
< Time Remaining: 59 seconds >
Finally, less than a minute remained. The Camera Orb inched a little closer.
“Isn’t this insanely tense?” someone whispered.
No one answered.
Everyone stared only at the number, breathing heavily.
The Camera Orb had no mercy.
When Gray’s knees and toes twitched constantly, its lens subtly panned downward.
Did she notice? Or was it because she was wearing shorts?
Either way, Gray pulled the blanket down to cover her knees. But the trembling couldn’t be stopped. The fabric over her lap shook gently.
< Time Remaining: 20 seconds >
Even breathing began to feel too loud.
The Camera Orb emitted a faint magical hum—like a high-pitched whistle from a bug.
Usually you couldn’t hear it, but now it felt amplified.
Then came one unusually loud exhale.
It was from Gray’s small nose.
Her breathing was uneven. One exhale caught somewhere in her throat. Anyone could tell—this kitten was at her breaking point.
Should I say something? Tell her it’s okay?
Should I have brought something calming, like an anxiety pill?
But since when was I the kind of professor who did that?
Just as I was entertaining those thoughts...
Gray grabbed my thumb.
It happened under the blanket.
I flinched and looked over. She had grabbed my hand before—but this time was different.
The force of her grip.
I didn’t know what this gesture meant.
But then I remembered what Ran had once said.
That hands are full of sensory nerves, and holding hands is a way of exposing your mutual unfamiliarity all at once.
That hands are the body’s most honest extremities. And that holding hands inherently requires mutual trust.
Gray was trusting me.
In the face of fear, she was leaning on that trust.
The way her small fingers rubbed against my thumb said it all.
......But.
Was it appropriate for a professor to allow this?
The thought suddenly crossed my mind.
I wasn’t trying to assign meaning to it.
But this physical contact clashed with the common sense I’d lived by.
She was a cadet who always acted however she pleased, who touched others without hesitation.
Shouldn’t a professor set proper boundaries?
So I didn’t react to her hand.
< Time Remaining: 15 seconds >
The hand Gray had reached out to me retreated quietly. The fingers that had been twitching against my skin slowly slipped away.
A distancing hand.
Shrinking shoulders.
Even her inhales began to catch in her throat.
< Time Remaining: 10 seconds >
Somewhere along the line, I found myself reaching out.
Following that thin wrist, I grabbed her small hand.
A chase shorter than any in the world.
When she tried to pull away, I held firm.
Even when she wriggled, I didn’t let go. It just felt like the thing I had to do.
But then I wondered if I was gripping too tightly—and loosened my hold.
It didn’t loosen.
Because the kitten laced her fingers through mine.
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