I Became an Academy Counselor

“Uh, umm…”
“Did you sleep well?”
“…?”

Perhaps because she had been exhausted for so long?
Orca, who had been sleeping for almost a day, seemed confused, not realizing the current situation.
I had thought she would have had a lot of sleep built up due to insomnia…
But I didn’t expect her to sleep all day. Thanks to that, I also stayed overnight at the academy waiting for her to wake up. It was more comfortable than I thought.
It’s not like I have anything to do at home…
Should I just get rid of my studio apartment and live here?

As for meals, the academy provides dinner too, so that’s enough.
With the principal’s kindness, it might not be bad.
But I had to put aside such personal thoughts for a moment.
It would be better to focus on Orca in front of me for now. To change my wandering thoughts, I took a sip of coffee from the mug and spoke to Orca.

“How long are you going to sleep, student? I was worried that you might’ve died.”
“…Slept? Me?”
“Well, yes. You must be thirsty from sleeping so much, let me get you a glass of water. Drink it slowly.”

She seemed surprised by the fact that she slept.
I handed a glass of water to her, who still looked confused even though she had woken up.

“…Thanks.”
“?!”

I was startled by her surprisingly docile expression of gratitude, expecting to receive only curses and be told to get out.
It was truly unbelievable for Orca to accept someone’s kindness so readily.
Has she become a bit more gentle after sleeping well?

“What’s with that surprised look? Is it that amazing that I said thank you?”
“Ah, no… It’s not that…”
“Hmph. Forget it. Give it here.”

Orca roughly snatched the water from my hand, opened the lid, and drank it roughly.
…Maybe I shouldn’t have reacted.
It was a rare gentle version of Orca.
I felt like hitting the ground in regret, but because Orca was in front of me, I could only cry inside.

“…Nothing happened?”
“Pardon?”
“I asked if nothing happened.”

After finishing the water, perhaps she was feeling anxious now, Orca asked me in an obvious attempt to hide her anxiety.
It was like someone who had a blackout after drinking, anxiously wondering what they might have done yesterday.

Seeing that, I felt a bit like teasing her…
But I’ll refrain here.
If she really gets angry, she might never want to meet me again.
Even if I honestly told her that the demon inside her body could no longer do anything, she probably wouldn’t believe me.
So I decided to tell a white lie.

“Nothing happened.”
“That can’t be… possible.”
“Come on, you were just sleeping like the dead. I wonder if it’s thanks to the expensive item I bought?”
“…Expensive item?”

I got her.
I thought she would naturally be interested if something suddenly popped up.
I smiled brightly, like someone wanting to show off an expensive item they bought, and said:

“Yes! Would you like to smell this fragrance?”
“Ah, no. I don’t really need to…”
“Come on, don’t say that! Here!”

At times like this, you need to push with momentum.
With that in mind, I thrust my face towards Orca to the point where it might seem excessive, and she spoke to me in confusion:

“W-Wait a minute. You’re too close! Back off!”
“Oh, don’t be like that…! You really must see this!”
“Okay, okay, I get it, so back off! Your chest is touching me! It’s hot!”
“…Huh?”

Chest?
Hearing something I hadn’t expected, I blankly looked down at my body.
Indeed, as Orca said, my chest was touching her leg.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I guess I got too excited.”

Ugh, how annoying.
This is the most uncomfortable experience I have had since becoming a woman.
My chest is unnecessarily big.
It was quite hard to get used to at first, and even after adapting, it’s still troublesome sometimes.

Like this, when I act just like I used to, situations like this sometimes occur.
It seems Orca doesn’t particularly like physical contact.
…Is she angry?
Feeling the awkward atmosphere, I looked at her expression, and then Orca sighed and said to me.

“…So? What’s with that fragrance that you’re making such a fuss about?”

Thank goodness.
She’s not angry.
Is it because she’s in a good mood after sleeping well?
Orca seemed to not think much of it.

“Ahem, this fragrance is…! It’s truly the cream of the crop! Just hearing the price would be beyond your imagination!”
“…What is it? Is it some kind of relic?”
“Hoho, just as you said…!”

It’s a lie.
There’s no way I could buy a relic.
This is just a top-quality fragrance by ordinary standards.
It’s much cheaper compared to relics that have magical effects and are literally more expensive than a house.

If it were really a relic, I couldn’t buy it even if I used up all the jewels the principal gave me.
In the first place, most relics are being collected by the imperial family, so it’s difficult to obtain them… according to the setting.

“This is a relic that helps you find peace of mind and body!”

A relic is like an item in the game.
You know, like a +12 Blood-soaked Demon Sword or something.
In the game system, even tree branches are treated as items. Among such items, those that are particularly strong or have a special setting attached to them are usually called relics. Most of them are end-game items.

Of course, not just weapons or armor, but also things that only exist in this world to progress the main story are mostly relics.
Naturally, relics are incredibly strong… but they’re not all advantages.
Because they have the setting of being created in the distant past befitting the name ‘relic’, you need an expert’s appraisal to know their use.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that all the relics you find are real.

…In other words, unidentified items. Gacha.
Since it was a solo play game, there wasn’t a sense of deprivation, but collecting relics over and over again to get the desired item wasn’t a particularly good feeling.
So why am I suddenly talking about this?

“Peace of mind and body…?”
“Yes. What was it again? If you’re around this fragrance, your mana stabilizes and even curses become quiet. I haven’t tried it, but they say it works on demons too.”
“…!”

As I said earlier, relics need an expert, an appraisal NPC’s assessment.
Ordinary people don’t know whether something is a relic or not.
There was even a quest in a sub-story where you catch a fraud who was using this to scam people, so it’s certain.
And Orca can’t interact with appraisal NPCs.

…In other words, she has no choice but to believe me if I say it’s a relic.
Even an expensive fragrance can be disguised as a relic.
Of course, if the effects don’t appear, it would obviously be a lie…
But she has already experienced the effects directly, hasn’t she?
The effect of nothing happening even though she slept all day.

The Haze she knows is a demon that wouldn’t miss an opportunity.
Just the fact that she’s not in a chaotic scene or locked up in prison the moment she regained consciousness is proof of its effectiveness.
It’s impossible not to believe.

“I see, so that’s why…”
“How is it? Is it okay? This is the first time I’ve let someone else smell it.”
“The first time?”
“Well… Maybe because its use is limited, but I don’t really feel the effects. Usually, it’s just an item with an incredibly good fragrance.”

Now, what kind of reaction will she show?
I watched Orca’s reaction while suppressing my pounding heart.
How much time has passed?
Orca soon nodded once.

“…It’s good. I like it.”
“I’m glad!”
“So that’s why you weren’t so afraid of me.”

Huh, does it work like that?
Seeing her come to her own understanding from an unexpected direction, I hesitated for a moment, not knowing what to say, and then gave an appropriate answer.

“I guess so.”

Well, it’s good if it’s good.
It’s convenient that she came to her own understanding, so there’s less to explain.

“I’m sorry but it’ll be taking that…”
“Oh no. You can’t. Do you know how much this costs?”

At those words, Orca stopped her hand that was reaching for the fragrance.
Although Orca can be reckless, she’s not without common sense.
She must have realized that if it’s really a relic as I said, there’s no way I would give it to her.
Relics aren’t cheap either.
She must also know that if she intimidated and took it from an academy teacher, the backlash would be no joke.

“…What do you want?”
“Pardon?”
“Money won’t do, but I’ll do anything you want. In exchange, give me that.”

Is she moving to negotiation now?
Saying she’ll do anything is dangerous, no matter what.
It seems she really wants this fragrance.
…Well, it being a relic is a lie!
To avoid being caught in that lie, I couldn’t give this to her.

“You just said ‘anything’, right?”
“…”

Orca swallows hard.
It was cute to see her so tense, unable to discern what I was going to ask

“Then, will you attend all your classes from now on?”
“…What?”
“And stop using harsh words too. Understood?”

Orca, who had been very tense not knowing what kind of favor I might ask, heard what I was proposing and asked back as if in disbelief.

“You’re giving a relic just for that…?”
“No? I’m not giving it to you.”
“What do you mean…!”
“What I want from Orca is just that. But if I gave you a relic for this, it would be a bit much, wouldn’t it?”

I waved the fragrance gently in front of Orca’s eyes so she could see it well.
Seeing her eyes fixated on the fragrance like a dog waiting for food, I smiled and said:

“So if you just keep what I said, I’ll let you sleep comfortably in the counseling room. How about that?”

Fortunately, there were two beds in the counseling room. It’s not that difficult to let one Orca sleep. It’s actually better as it makes it easier to control the demon.
After pondering for a while, Orca eventually nodded.