Master, I Swear I Didn’t Mean To! - Chapter 52

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Milla’s misunderstanding was something Eki wanted to clear up… though in truth, it was only half a misunderstanding. They just hadn’t actually slept together yet.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have time for a long conversation. Before the two could even catch up, Milla had to return to the local branch of the Association. They agreed instead to have dinner together after work and talk then.

That evening, since the required quota for the next inspection had been reduced by half, Eki abandoned her usual overtime work and went drinking with Milla.

They splurged and used a teleportation device to fly straight to the capital, then stopped by Mansandro, where they ordered beer for the first time in ages.

As soon as a chilled glass of Alber Mountain beer arrived, Eki tilted it back and drank it all in one go. Her small throat bobbed up and down, and with a loud clunk, the empty glass hit the table.

“Haah… I feel alive again.”

“You must have been dead until now.”

“Yeah. Half a corpse.”

Eki popped a freshly fried potato wedge into her mouth and rested her chin in her hand.

“I’ve been drawing magic circles like crazy, making potions, then drawing again, then brewing again… after doing that nonstop, I can’t even tell if I’m a golem or a human anymore.”

“But in the middle of all that, something happened between you and your master, right?”

“Uh-huh. Something totally— Ah, no? Not at all?”

Thankfully, the potion that made her overly honest had already worn off. Thanks to that, Eki was able to keep her sticky private affairs to herself.

‘When did the potion’s effect end, anyway?’

She only realized it later, when Cassius, in the middle of their hectic all-nighter, suddenly remarked,

‘Come to think of it, you’ve stopped saying nonsense.’

‘Nonsense? What nonsense?’

‘The stuff you kept blurting out because of the potion.’

‘What stuff? …Ah, the compliments?’

At her reply, Cassius’s cheeks flushed red, and he quickly turned his head away. He looked so cute—no, funny—that she nearly laughed.

‘But even after the potion wore off, I kept saying I wanted to touch him…’

She thought for sure Cassius would lose his temper over it. But he said nothing. It seemed like he didn’t want to think about their strange, inappropriate master-disciple relationship until it… became physical again…

“Hmm.”

At that moment, Milla glanced sharply at Eki, who had drifted into thought. Being both her longtime friend and a naturally perceptive person, she saw right through her.

“So you two aren’t dating yet, but there’s some kind of awkward tension between you, huh?”

By now, it was hard for Eki to keep pretending otherwise. She gulped down another glass of beer and admitted quietly,

“A little… yeah.”

“How in the world did that happen? He’s your master.”

How could she possibly explain that she got aroused after seeing her master react under the influence of a powerful luck potion, and then made a move on him? She couldn’t have said it even if her mouth were split open.

Eki stuffed a piece of potato into her mouth with a sulky expression. When she only mumbled in response, Milla pressed her again with a sharp look.

“Don’t tell me you two slept together after drinking or something?”

“No, we didn’t. I said we didn’t, okay? …Well, it’s true we got closer because of something that just happened by, uh, chance.”

“You’re unbelievable. Every time you came here before, you were always saying ‘Cursius this, Cursius that,’ and cussing out your master out nonstop.”

“I know. But back then, he really was awful!”

He’d call her a goldfish-brain every day, scold her for being slow, and once even kicked her out of the tower just because a single drop of water splashed on the cover of one of his precious books.

But lately, he hadn’t lost his temper. No, more accurately, he couldn’t.

‘I act like everything’s normal, but every time he looks at me, he gets embarrassed.’

Of course, that didn’t stop him from letting her touch him when she wanted. Even if it was only to help him relieve himself.

‘Still… what now?’

It had been about two weeks since the ‘luck potion incident’. After another two weeks, its effects would fade away just like the truth potion’s had. When that happened, what would become of their relationship?

‘Will we go back to the way we were?’

They had signed a contract agreeing to cover up all the inappropriate incidents caused by the luck potion. So, returning to being a normal master and disciple again should have been the right thing to do.

At least, that’s what she had thought until recently.