# St. Yansk University and the Secret Room
While sitting on the sofa, I glared at the bed for a moment.
The bed shifted slightly, and the blanket gently slid down.
Golden hair spread out like a wheat field, with sharp ears poking through. It was Elfihera.
"Oh? You're awake? Did you sleep well?"
Ivan quickly scanned Elfihera's body. She was properly dressed in silk pajamas. He put down his dagger, secretly relieved.
"Why am I here?"
"Don't you remember?"
"Hmm."
"Hmm... hehe, really? Is that so?"
Elfihera crawled out of bed with a chuckle.
She glanced playfully at the fallen clothes and said:
"What do you think we did?"
"Nothing."
Ivan is a trained intelligence agent. This doesn't mean he trusts his self-control, but rather that he can gather sufficient information just by observing someone's clothing or physical state.
If he had done "something" while sleeping, Elfihera wouldn't be in such a neat condition.
Feeling his gaze, Elfihera pouted and grumbled.
"We didn't do anything, but it's not like absolutely nothing happened."
"...What?"
"The Saintess came by."
She clapped her hands once with a grumble.
Soon the door opened, and a servant entered to arrange refreshments on the table.
After dismissing the servant with a natural gesture, she picked up a teacup filled with black tea.
"Please eat something. You must be very hungry."
"Where's my nutrition bar?"
"What? What's that?"
"The thing in my vest. I put it in the slit."
"Oh... you mean that dog treat? I gave it to my Lord Montblanc, but he wouldn't eat it, so I thought it had gone bad and threw it away... Was that actually human food?"
"Lord Montblanc...?"
"My dog. He's cute. Want to see him?"
Ivan looked at the elaborate finger snacks laid out on the table and swallowed a sigh.
These foods made only of sugar and carbohydrates were pathetic, providing excess calories and insufficient nutrition.
He was about to complain about throwing his complete nutrition bar to a dog, but he picked up the teacup and collected his thoughts.
There were more important matters. While he could get plenty of nutrition bars from the director's office, what mattered now was the current situation.
He is such a reasonable and generous person.
"You said the Saintess came by."
"Ah, yes. She checked on your condition. Oh right! My goodness, why did you say nothing happened?!"
Elfihera put down her teacup with a thud and became angry.
Since following the emotions of an adolescent girl (which she wasn't) would be difficult and foolish, Ivan simply listened carefully.
"A curse! The Saintess stayed up all night trying to remove it. My goodness, what was all that about?"
"Misfortune."
Ivan shrugged nonchalantly.
"Did the Saintess say anything?"
"Not in detail... She just came, cried for a while, prayed all night, and left. She only asked me to tell you to visit the confessional three days a week."
"That was within the expected range."
Ivan took a sip of tea and stood up.
"Since that thing dealt with the concept of happiness, the side effects of its death throes were predictable. The absence of happiness is misfortune."
"Um... so... it was like 'that trap'...?"
Elfihera swallowed hard, remembering Ivan when he had just escaped that room.
A curse that inflicted "misfortune" equal in volume to that overwhelming "happiness" that had captured the soul at first sight?
"I was planning on that anyway. This university has a Saintess, and she's the most proficient at curse removal on this continent."
"...You predicted all this?"
"Yes."
"You're really... really insane!! Then you should have said something! What if you hadn't gone straight to the Saintess and waited until you woke up!"
"What would happen? If the curse had been urgent, I would have mentioned it first, but a curse that merely instills misfortune isn't life-threatening, so there was no rush."
"You...!!"
Elfihera cried out with tear-filled eyes.
"You're strange. You're really strange. I thought maybe it was just because you're human, but why have you changed so much? You weren't originally this kind of person!"
"Not that kind of person, you say."
"Yes! You were originally...!"
"That's presumptuous."
Ivan gathered his clothes and organized his things. He quickly checked consumables like his utility vest and sling bag (self-made) before turning his head.
"Elfihera. Your job is not to worry about me."
"What... did you say?"
"You're a student, aren't you? Your role is to study well and occasionally have field experiences like this."
For the children of the Hero Party, the future Hero Party and future protagonists of the scenario, nothing was needed except experience and learning.
Therefore, everything else was Ivan's responsibility.
Getting these kids to the ending. Pushing through the scenario safely and perfectly until finally facing the ending credits.
That would be his "story." The final page he would turn would surely be there.
So her own safety, the safety of the Hero Party's children, threats outside the scenario—none of these were issues for her to worry about.
That was his job. And since he was a selfish person, he disliked others interfering with his work assignments.
Ivan gave a brief nod to the dazed Elfihera and left the room.
The elves' residence, huh.
Ivan walked with a frown in the bright daylight.
Right next to the university was an extremely luxurious street. This area, commonly called the "Elf Dormitory District," was a residential area where nobles from the Kalion Archipelago lived.
Ignoring the elves who glanced at him, he walked straight toward the university.
Even when resting, reporting came first.
As he took one last look at Elfihera's mansion, he briefly regretted his actions.
He shouldn't have snapped at her like that. It might have been overly aggressive language to use with a youngster.
But it wasn't easy. Although the curse had been removed, "memories" wouldn't disappear even with the Saintess's blessing.
The memories of past misfortunes that the curse had evoked had meticulously recalled even the minor details he had forgotten over time, forcing raw emotions upon him.
The north wind and the sun, huh.
Ivan smiled bitterly.
It seemed he was a traveler more vulnerable to the north wind than to the sun.
As he had reflected, all happiness in this world had expired over the years, and all that remained in this land was duty.
To explain this again, the absence of "happiness" is "misfortune."
In other words, most of the past he could recall was generally miserable.
He had endured alone in that room, ruminating on 30 years of misfortune before he could escape.
The memories that had been temporarily forgotten due to his fainting were resurfacing through conversation, gnawing at Ivan's emotions.
How immature.
Ivan decided to apologize to Elfihera someday and turned away.
-Thud.
Elfihera sniffled as she stared at the closed door for a long time.
That human who had become so unfamiliar.
The fast and short life of humans.
The temptation of happiness and the curse of misfortune.
Grace and wounds.
The words swirling in her head gradually became clear pieces that began to fit together.
She was a magician. A magician is a profession that should view situations through reason rather than emotion.
Therefore, she regained her composure, partly out of professional calling and partly out of habit ingrained over many years.
-Clatter.
She narrowed her eyes as she drank the cold tea.
'A trap that tempts with what the target desires most.'
The trap she had encountered at the ruins contained treasures, rare magical texts, and reagents difficult to obtain even with a fortune.
And what that man had faced was.
'A comb.'
She thought about how that could be possible. The conclusion was simple. It meant that at that time, that was all he wanted.
Rather than having an unusual fondness for combs (which was somewhat true), it meant he simply didn't want much else.
'He has no desires.'
Elfihera's eyes gleamed sharply.
With the most beautiful woman of Kalion right beside him—an elf of "mythical beauty" from a human perspective—he thought of a comb rather than taking advantage of the situation, which proved this fact.
Elfihera nodded at this reasonable conclusion.
'He's broken.'
Here was proof that even if the reasoning was wrong, a correct conclusion posed no problem.
Did the Saintess know? Did her father? If those who had been colleagues with that man hadn't noticed, and if she alone in this world knew this fact...
'I have to do it.'
Elves are fundamentally faithful to desire. This doesn't mean they indulge in base pleasures, but rather follows the quite natural logic that precious things should rightfully be owned by elves.
After all, one cannot entrust precious items to short-lived species only to have them ruined.
So, Elfihera, as an excellent elf, concluded:
'There's no one but me.'
Teaching happiness to a man who doesn't know happiness would be quite an exciting task.
Just as dogs have different lifespans depending on their breed, that man seems to have been born with an extremely short lifespan even for a human.
First, restore his lifespan to make him look younger, periodically improve his constitution, feed him better food than those dog treats, and yes. By taking care of him like that, he would naturally feel "happiness."
She smiled as she gently picked up and stroked the small poodle panting at her feet.
"You encountered what in the ruins?"
"I encountered something claiming to be a god. It was impossible to identify its nature given the situation, but I will consult the Saintess about this and attach it to the report."
"No, no, no. I don't understand... A trap? Magic? A 2,000-year-old seal?"
"Yes."
Elizabeta Kirillovna Krasilov clutched her forehead and muttered.
"Why on earth would such a thing be under the university... Why wasn't it even mentioned in the royal archives? If such a thing had been sleeping beneath the capital, I... this country should have known..."
"..."
Ivan didn't feel the need to explain "common sense" to these medieval world people.
After all, ancient evil being sealed beneath the capital was within the realm of common sense.
"So, how did you destroy it?"
"All it could do was play with human desires."
"Oh, that's quite... epic. To hear such a story in an age when the Demon King is dead. Are you alright? Were you injured?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
Ivan continued while kneeling on one knee.
"It had no ability to exert physical force."
"I see, then tell me how you destroyed it."
"I crushed its head."
"...???"
Isabelle de Etoile and Asidis Einarsdottir sat blankly together on a bench.
"Why on earth...?"
"Why would he...?"
Coming out of an elf's house, and from "that girl's" house at that?
From the morning, with spiky hair and shabby clothes. Looking like he'd spent the night out...?
Like old friends, they simultaneously reached the same conclusion.
"An affair...?"
The fact that the premise of having an affair couldn't apply to their relationship meant nothing to these two.
What mattered was only that Ivan had appeared from "that girl's" house.
Again like old friends, after reaching the same conclusion, they agreed on future plans without conversation.
This time, it's an "alliance."
Ah, of course.
Forming a Hero Party to counter the evil elf witch!
EP11. St. Yansk University and the Secret Room.