“Cory, I’ve always been curious, but why do you have so many blankets? You have a bunch of different types, too.”
Cory’s eyes blinked open as he stared at the blanket on him as he listened.
“Oh.”
Cory quietly muttered, seemingly understanding my question.
Until now, I had seen dozens of different blankets that Cory owned. Starting from the strawberry blanket, there was also the grape blanket, the pineapple blanket, the apple one, and a ton of other fruit ones. I thought he only had fruit blankets, but he also had vegetable ones too. Who owned a cabbage blanket? Oh, he also had a carrot one, didn’t he?
“You know how I’m a picky eater. And I like eating snacks.”
Cory explained, half asleep. He spoke slowly, probably because he was about to fall back asleep.
“My parents wanted me to get a friendly outlook on healthy foods even if I chose not to eat them, so they gifted me fruit or veggie blankets. And I just ended up having a bunch of them.”
I didn’t know until now, but it was quite a cute reason. It seemed like Cory’s parents’ efforts payed off in the end. Cory did eat a tiny but consistent amount of fruits and vegetables.
He did pinch his nose as he ate vegetable though. No, never mind, he did that when he was younger. Recently, he created a spell that would make vegetables tasteless and scentless. He was eating properly thanks to that.
I asked Cory why he was receiving blankets as gifts instead of any other kind of product in the world. He explained that it was probably because of his tendency to fall asleep in random places. It seemed like Cory’s kindness stemmed from his parents.
But it was strange. His parents left him alone to the point of it almost being neglectful, from what I knew. He was always alone during birthdays so I hung out with him, and whenever I called Cory’s home, they never responded.
“Cory, there’s apparently a new delivery place open. Let’s get some food from there once.”“Oh, I don’t eat that kind of….. frog…… but it was cool……”“Huh?”“…..huh? Sorry, what did you say?”“You’re really sleepy, huh.”
Cory slowly nodded.
“Go back to sleep.”“…..thanks.”
The room was quiet. I could hear Cory’s quiet breaths as he slept.
Hearing that made me feel relaxed, so I closed my eyes too. I fell asleep almost instantly. It must’ve been a mix of everything that had happened recently, but the nap I had just taken was absolutely perfect.
Cory woke me up before our next class started. He wiped the drool on my cheek and popped a candy in my mouth as he got me ready to head back to class. I was very reluctant about the whole thing.
I was so sleepy and relaxed that I felt like I was floating.\nI met up three times a week with Yves. He complained that he never got to see me naturally, so he made it a point to meet with me at least three times a week.
The reason for meeting was a simple request. He asked me if I didn’t want to make some quick cash, and gave me small tasks that I could do even within school.
There was a small gazebo a bit further away from the dorms that was made for students. It was a bit tucked away, so a lot of students didn’t even know that the gazebo existed.
It was a pretty private, quiet place with beautiful scenery, so that was where Yves gave me work to do. There were times when Yves gave me his personal requests, and times when I worked on others’ requests.
Yves’ requests were always well-paying and safe. It made for some good cash.
It was great fun, working and meeting with Yves. It was great, but there was just one thing that I didn’t like.
“Can, can you let me go?”
He stuck to me too much.
Yves always worked with me pulled into his arms. He read his documents with his chin resting on my head.
“No. The weather’s too nice.”
Yves denied my request instantly.
“What does that have to do with it?”“Shushu, you’re super relaxed. This is a rare opportunity.”
I was definitely feeling incredibly laid-back right now. My body was completely lazy. So I didn’t try to push Yves away and just leaned on him. I was as relaxed as the time that Swan put the spell on me last time.
I had gotten used to Yves’ touchiness at this point. He’d done so too often.
Yves had a strange expression on his face as he watched as I leaned back, then began to stroke my hair like he did his puppy.
He took out his camera to show me a picture.
Inside of the camera he shoved towards me was a tiny orange-haired puppy he had adopted named ‘Shushu’.
“Cute, right?”“So you actually ended up getting one.”“Mhm.”
I didn’t know how to respond so I just stayed quiet.
Time time, Yves took out a video.\nInside of the video was a video of Yves teaching Shushu the puppy some tricks.
[Shushu, paw.]
In the video, Yves stretched out his hand towards the fluffy orange dog and was asking for her hand.
Shushu the puppy didn’t seem to understand what he said and just panted with her tongue out, tail wagging furiously.
[Shushu sit.]
Shushu continued to pant, tongue out. Her tail continued to wag furiously.
Shushu stayed still for a moment and, for the first time that I’d seen, did something other than wag her tail or pant.
She sat down. I didn’t know if this was technically a success, but Shushu listened to Yves and sat down.
[Shushu……..]
I could hear Yves’ touched voice from within the video.
[You’re pooping.]
Shushu hadn’t listened to Yves. She had just taken a seat to poop.
Shushu didn’t listen to a single word that Yves said. When Yves tried to pat her, Shushu bit at his fingers. She bit him with a stupid expression on her face, but Shushu was small and weak so there was basically no damage. Shushu, who had a stupid expression on her face as she continued to drool, plopped down on the seat, right on her own poop.
I felt very strange. The feeling, to be more precise, was extremely disgusted and displeased.
That wasn’t the end of Shushu the puppy’s horrible deeds.
After she pooped, she ran here and there without a thought. She stuck herself onto random passerbys and ran straight into excrement on the floor.
The killing point of all this is that her tongue was out and her tail was still wagging through everything.
I could hear Yves’ voice in the video saying things like, “Shushu, where are you going!”, “I’m sorry. My Shushu’s a little aggressive,” “Shushu, you’re a dog, not an anteater. Stop eating ants.” and more.
I felt incredibly strange listening to all this.
As soon as the video ended, Yves smiled brightly as he received my uncomfortable look.
“Super cute, right?”“……”“But the original one is better.”
When I glared at him, he smiled impishly as he stretched his hand towards me.\n“Hmm. I don’t get it, but does that mean it works?”
Swanhaden waved at Hylli in thanks and headed off to wherever he needed to go.
Hylli yelled, “I don’t know who it is, but don’t bully them too much!” at Swan’s retreating figure.
I didn’t know what it was, but Swan seemed to be thinking of different ways to bully other people.
My grip tightened on the magic taser that Yves gave me for protection.