Senior, I've Come to Visit - Side Story 2

“Mmm….”

Maybe it was because I’d downed it all at once, but my throat burned, and I grimaced. The alcohol slid down my esophagus, heating my stomach, and my face flushed hot. I sank further into the pleasant haze of drunkenness. When I worked at the Magic Tower, I always ended up focused and alert, but right now I was the complete opposite, completely relaxed.

“Come here.”

Nardi patted his thigh, telling me to sit.

What a bother….

Still, with a generous heart, I slowly got up and walked around the table. As soon as I plopped down on his thigh, he let out a dramatic groan and wrapped his arms around me. I’d washed up before dinner and was wearing pajamas, curled sideways in his arms. He wrapped one arm around my waist and used the other to pat my back, laughing.

“You’re such a cutie when you drink.”

“I’m not a cutie.”

No matter what anyone said, I was far from anything like that.

“You’re the cutest little thing. Adorable.”

I didn’t know if it was brainwashing, but Nardi kept calling me a cutie.

“I’m not a cutie….”

With my flushed face buried against his chest, I rubbed my head in protest. He laughed softly, then suddenly lifted his head to meet my eyes with an unexpectedly serious look.

“Eloise, when I’m not around, you really can’t drink. Promise me you won’t drink with other people when I’m not there.”

I had no intention of doing that anyway, but being told not to made me want to do it even more. Feeling a bratty impulse rise, I blinked blankly, then answered, “But… it might happen because of work. If there’s a team dinner at the Magic Tower while you’re on a subjugation mission, I’ll drink.”

“…No.”

His expression stiffened so seriously that I barely held back my laughter. I’d intended to tease him a little.

“Then just don’t go to the team dinner. Actually, should I just stop going on missions? I’ll tell them I’m too scared to leave because my lover might drink without me and turn into a cute little flirt.”

“You’re a wizard in the Safety Department. You can’t skip missions.”

“Then I’ll just transfer back to the Research Department. Easy.”

“Fine, fine, I won’t drink, I won’t drink.”

“…Really?”

“Yes, yes.”

“Promise.”

What a nuisance….

Grumbling inside, I took the hand that was patting my back and hooked my pinky around his.

“I’ll only drink when we’re together, promise.”

“…How can someone be this cute?”

Who told him to find me cute?

“Are you drunk too?”

His face wasn’t red at all. Completely normal.

“No, I’m not drunk.”

Come to think of it, I’d never seen Nardi drunk. Even tonight, he’d drunk a fair amount, and at last year’s team dinner he’d drunk endlessly while everyone else passed out, yet he’d stayed perfectly sober. Maybe because he was big and had a large chest, he could just hold a lot of alcohol.

“But you… even when you’re sober, you act like a drunk person.”

He said and did things with a straight face that other people couldn’t even when they were drunk. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t tell the difference.

“Ahaha, really?”

It wasn’t a compliment, but Nardi laughed and hugged me tighter, rocking me gently. Through the thin pajamas, I felt the firmness of his muscular body.

“….”

Heat rushed through me so suddenly that my breath hitched. As warm as the alcohol sliding down my throat, even lower I felt myself grow hot. My hips and thighs were pressed directly against Nardi’s long, thick thigh.

“Eloise.”

“What?”

“Do you have anything on your mind these days? Any worries?”

“What kind of worries out of nowhere?”

“Eloise, you don’t talk about your feelings easily, so I have to ask you at times like this.”

“No, I do talk about them.”

Maybe I hadn’t been like that in the past, but now, whenever I had a worry, I talked right away. And no matter how I thought about it, I didn’t have anything to worry about lately.

“I don’t have any worries. Not even one.”

If I had to come up with something, it’d be that I was a bit sleep‑deprived from having sex late into the night…. But that was an old, chronic problem, and talking about it wouldn’t solve anything. At most, whenever Nardi went on subjugation missions, I caught up on sleep and managed a sort of balance.

“That’s a relief.”

He smiled softly, but strangely, he looked like he was the one with something on his mind.

“Do you have a worry?”

“I do have a worry.”

“What? Tell me.”

It was unusual for Nardi, so I was genuinely curious. Leaning comfortably against him, I straightened up and listened.

“In winter, you always curled up in my arms. But now that it’s summer, you don’t anymore. That’s my worry.”

“Uh… that’s your worry?”

“Yes. I miss winter. You’d say you were cold and ask me to hold you, and you’d cling so snugly…. Was I nothing but a space heater? Now that it’s warm, you don’t need me anymore?”

“….”

It was true that he’d been useful—no, precious—during the winter. I got cold so easily; winter was always hard for me, but last winter, I barely felt the cold at all.

Thanks to him, with his large body and so much warmth.

Just like he said, whenever I felt cold, I’d ask him to hold me, and when he did, I’d cling to him. His wide chest blocked the cold winter wind and shared his warmth with me.

Then, as the weather warmed and summer came, the frequency naturally decreased. Now it was hot and humid, sticky even. It was a natural reaction. How was this something to worry about….?

“It’s summer, so it’s hot if we keep holding each other. And I’m holding you right now.”

“You’re only doing it now because you’re tipsy and being affectionate. Lately, you’ve kept avoiding hugs, saying it’s hot.”

“Aren’t you hot too?”

Unlike me, he overheated easily, so he should’ve been even hotter.

“What does it matter if I’m hot? I just like holding you so much that I don’t care. Do you care?”

“Hot is hot….”

“But doesn’t the happiness of holding me outweigh the heat?”

That was practically emotional blackmail.

“Of course you’re warm and it feels nice.”

“Right?”

As if trying to maximize the appeal of hugging, he wrapped me tightly and gently patted me.

Ah, it’s hot….

For this to be his worry… he really lived an easy, peaceful life. Still, he was being earnest in his own way, so I tried to take it seriously.

His worry was something I never expected….

It wasn’t even a hard problem, and since I was in a good mood, I decided to match him.

“Alright, we’ll hug often. Let’s hug every day.”

I draped one arm over his shoulder and hugged him back. He let out a strange sound of delight.

“I love it. No avoiding because it’s hot, okay?”

“Okay.”

I had to keep the words once I said them.

“Do you have another worry? I’ll solve it for you.”

Feeling bold from the alcohol, I spoke confidently. I wanted to blow all his worries far, far away. He burst into a big laugh, making my body shake along with him.

“You’re so reliable and strong. Actually, I do have one more worry….”

“Tell me.”

“Eloise, you love me, right?”

Here we go again.

I stared into his violet eyes, then nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Say it out loud. Tell me you love me.”

“….”

I pressed my lips together, then reached for the bottle to take another sip. But Nardi caught my hand and stopped me.

“You need alcohol just to say that?”