Senior, I've Come to Visit - Chapter 16

“It was a house with a similar atmosphere to Senior Eloise’s. I only saw Senior for a moment and left right away, though.”

“Well, that makes sense. You went because Eloise was sick.”

Good actor.

Nardi lied smoothly. Saying he only saw me for a moment and left right away, when the truth was the complete opposite.

He’d been in my house all day yesterday. After we ate a late lunch, or an early dinner, he sucked my milk again. While gently massaging my sore thighs, things naturally turned into sex. After we had sex one more time, I passed out and fell asleep.

When I woke up this morning, we were still in the same bed. Nardi hadn’t gone back to his own house and had slept at mine. He made me a light breakfast and sucked out the milk that had gathered overnight. After that, we left the house together to go to work, and to avoid suspicion, we entered the Magic Tower with a slight time gap.

“All right. I’ll act the same as before in front of others so it won’t show.”

Nardi was keeping that promise perfectly.

“Since you two weren’t here, Mireille and I took it easy. We just reorganized the ingredients and reagents and slacked off!”

“Well, the lack of any demonic beasts to experiment on was the real reason. It seems the Safety Department is contacting us now.”

Mireille pointed to the crystal sphere flickering with a blue light.

“Oh my!”

Lupina rushed over to the crystal sphere and connected the call.

“Hello!”

—Hello. This is Jurgen Essenbach from the Second Wizard Division of the Safety Department. We captured multiple species of demonic beasts as requested and placed them in the Safety Department’s training grounds.

“Thank you! We’ll head over right away to pick them up!”

—If you could, we’d appreciate that. Then we’ll be waiting at the outdoor training grounds.

“All right, please wait just a moment!”

As soon as the connection cut, I stood up.

“I’ll go.”

“I’ll go too.”

Nardi quickly put on the white lab coat over his clothes.

“Really? I guess there’s no need for everyone to go.”

Lupina didn’t bother hiding how relieved she was. Everyone in our team knew she’d once been injured during a subjugation and was afraid of demonic beasts.

“Yes, the two of us should be enough. We’ll bring the beasts to the largest laboratory.”

“Then see you there! We’ll gather the reagents and bring them over!”

“Okay.”

Nardi and I left the research room first and headed toward the Safety Department.

Our team in the Magic Potion Development Division, Team 3, consisted of four people: Lupina, Mireille, Nardi, and me. Based on seniority, Lupina was the oldest and the team leader, followed by Mireille in his seventh year, then me in my second year, and Nardi, who joined at the start of this year.

Nardi might’ve been the newest, but I usually handled the troublesome tasks. Since Nardi and I were only one year apart in seniority, it didn’t feel different, and it was easier doing things myself than leaving them to someone else.

Of course, Nardi wasn’t the type to just watch either, so we often ended up working together like this.

“Are your legs okay?”

Once we left the research room and walked through a quiet hallway, he asked softly.

“…More or less.”

In truth, I was trying hard to walk as if nothing was wrong. Even though he’d massaged them a lot, the muscle soreness in my thighs and calves wasn’t going away anytime soon.

“Why? Does it look unnatural when you walk?”

“A little.”

“Oh no, other people can’t find out.”

“I’ll just say I exercised really hard. It’s a kind of exercise anyway.”

For some reason, Nardi smiled faintly. I was worried someone would notice, like a guilty person fearing exposure.

“…The breast engorgement is gone, but now I’ve got muscle pain.”

“Haha, the muscle pain will go away soon. I’ll loosen it for you again after work today.”

“Are you coming to my house again today?”

Nardi looked puzzled. “Then would you like to come to my house instead?”

“No, I meant… aren’t you going home? You didn’t even go home yesterday.”

“It’s fine. I should contact the butler and tell him to send a few sets of clothes to the Magic Tower. I’ll go straight to your place after work. Since we came to work together, we should go home together too.”

“What kind of logic is that?”

Saying he’d get his clothes sent here basically sounded like he had no intention of going home at all. If he planned to go home even late at night, he wouldn’t need clothes.

I’d never seen Duke Gracian’s residence in the capital, but it was obviously a luxurious mansion. I had no idea why he preferred sleeping at my place instead of his nice home.

“My house is small.”

“No, it was really nice. It’s pretty and warm, just like you, Eloise.”

What I meant was for him to sleep at his house….

We were speaking quietly when we saw people ahead and stopped talking.

“Hello.”

“Hello.”

We exchanged greetings with wizards from other departments as we passed.

We crossed the bridge connecting the Research Department building to the Safety Department building. I’d come here occasionally for work, but most faces were unfamiliar.

“Hello.”

“Hello.”

We only traded formal greetings, but unlike me, Nardi seemed to know many people.

“Hey, Nardi! How’ve you been?”

“Yes, I’ve been well.”

“It’s hard to see you now that you’re in the Research Department! Come visit here sometimes too!”

“Yes.”

We passed a noblewoman wizard, and before we’d walked far, a group of male wizards waved at Nardi from a distance.

“Wow, Nardi, that research coat suits you.”

The Safety Department wore wizard division uniforms, not research coats. Like a knight order.

“Does it?”

“I’ve never seen you in it since you don’t wear it during subjugations. Not that anything wouldn’t suit you, but come on, come to the Safety Department.”

“Right, why’s a talent of the Safety Department stuck in the Research Department?”

“I’ll go someday.”

“Hello.”

One of the men glanced at me and greeted me. The others followed, so I awkwardly greeted back.

“Hello.”

“We’ve been using the hemostatic potion you developed last year. It’s perfect for emergency treatment when we’re injured!”

“Yeah, it’s great in combat situations because we don’t have to use healing magic right away.”

“Oh… really?”

Their unexpected comments surprised me and made me proud.

The hemostatic potion was something our team made last year. Back then, it was just Lupina, Mireille, and me.

I didn’t know who these people were, and I thought it was our first meeting, so it felt strange that they knew about a potion my team made. But hearing that it was being used exactly as intended made me feel satisfied, like my hard work had paid off.

“Thank you for making such a good potion.”

“No, I just did my job. Our whole team made it together.”

“You’re too modest. If you’re free sometime, can I treat you to a me—”

“We have to go. See you again.”

“O-oh, right.”

Nardi cut him off and motioned for me to follow.

I exchanged a brief nod with the men and quickly walked away. When the man started with “If you’re free sometime,” I’d already predicted where it was going and was thinking of how to decline. I hated awkward rejection, so I was relieved Nardi stepped in at the perfect moment.

However, the one who attracted people like a magnet in the first place was Nardi. If I’d been alone, I would’ve just given short greetings and walked quickly, but because people kept greeting him and talking to him, I couldn’t do that. We kept getting stopped, having brief conversations in the hallway.

Walking with Nardi meant I also ended up receiving attention, which made me uncomfortable. Without realizing it, I slowly widened the distance between us, walking farther away as if we weren’t together.

“Sir Jurgen is waiting for us right now. See you next time.”

After finally shaking off the group of wizards, Nardi took long strides to return to my side.

“Why do you keep walking away? Stay with me.”