CH 32.1

[…*Whisper*…Dammit…!] – Cried Leo, as he punched one of the orphanage’s walls.

Leo fell to his knees. He was feeling a whirlwind of emotions right now, like pain, regret, sadness… and anger. It was like he came back home after a long-term overseas trip, just to see his wife cheating on him with another guy…… and that guy was Leena.

(Haaah∼, even though I came back as fast as I could… even though I was looking forward to all the money we were going to make during the festival–)

True, Leo was looking forward to making a lot of money during the winter festival, but he wanted to earn that money as a team… with everyone else by his side.

(–They didn’t even need MY* help, huh? ……Well, I at least have my copper coins……)

( *Tl/n: The literal translation is more like this: “They didn’t even need Leo ‘s help.” Which means, “I’m useless, but Leonora isn’t.”)

Whenever he was feeling depressed, Leo liked to count how many copper coins he had, so he always carried two or three coins with him in a hidden pocket under his clothes.

But as he was about to retrieve his coins to count them, Leo heard someone’s footsteps approaching him, so he turned his head to the side… only to see his own pale face–no, Leena’s pale face approaching him–

[L-L-Leena…!?]

–Her face was so pale, that Leo almost mistook her as a ghost.

[What is it? It’s like you saw a ghost…]

“……… . ”

“……… . ”

They stayed quiet for a while and just stared at each other. But Leena decided to break that stalemate, her cold smile was sending shivers down Leo’s spine.

[If you’re not going to say anything, then I will…… Leo, let’s have a talk…]

[Ah, uh, I-I need to go to bed early today, s-so we’ll have that talk tomorrow…] – Said Leo, as he stood up and tried to leave the place.

But Leena grabbed his shoulder, with an even colder smile, and said–

[–Uh-uh, we’ll have that talk right now.]

Leo couldn’t understand why Leena wanted to have a talk right now—

[Ah, I see…! So this is about that gold coin that you owe m—]

—But as soon as he realized why she wanted to talk with him, Leo happily extended his right hand forward to receive his payment. However, that wasn’t the case at all. Leena slapped that greedy hand out of her field of view and glared at Leo.

[—Ow! W-what are you doing to your own body!?]

[That’s what I want to ask!!! What are YOU doing with my bod–!?!?!?]

[–Wai-! You-! Even if we’re talking in Elandic, Kai will hear us if you scream! Besides, it’s already midnight!] – Said Leo, as he rushed to cover Leena’s mouth.

[Shut up! I don’t want to hear that from you! And Kai won’t bother us, he’s sleeping like a log! I just wanted to tell you that I don’t want to go back to my original body!]

[Huh!? B-but we had a deal! You can’t go back on your word just because you’re moody!]

[I’m not being moody! I’m angry because you told me that you were going to be executed by that prince!]

[……?]

Leo was a bit confused at first, but he soon remembered what he told Leena and Bruno moments prior of being re-summoned to the academy. ( Tl/n: Ch-20)

(Oh, right…! Of course Leena would be unwilling to go back to her original body, I told her that Albert was going execute me! I should clear this misunderstanding!)

With a proud smile and a thumbs up, Leo placed his other hand on Leena’s shoulder, and said–

[–It’s okay, Leena! Albert is a surprisingly good guy, so I was forgiven! He used to threaten me by saying: “I’ll lock you in a room for the rest of your life,” so I thought he hated me, however, that’s not the case! Kai told me that all the sweets I received from Bianca Neh-sama, were actually from Albert. He even returned my Kar-sama back to me! I was mistaken about him, so you don’t have to be afraid!]

[No way! He’s even worse than I thought!? (I was right, he’s a sadist that enjoys locking people in a room!)]

Leo was trying to clear that misunderstanding by telling Leena how much of a good guy Albert truly was. But it didn’t work. To her, Albert was still an evil person.

[How is that even worse? Albert is a good gu–]

[–Are you stupid!? Of course he’s a dangerous guy! Can’t you even recognize an evil person when you see one!?]

[N-no way, really!?]

Leo was stunned. Maybe all that kindness was just a disguise and Albert still wanted to execute Leo when he least expected. But if that was really the truth–

[–Why is Albert so obsessed with me, anyway…?] – Asked Leo, with a seemingly confused expression on his face.

[…A-are you being serious right now? …You really don’t know why he’s so obsessed with you?]

[Un, I really don’t know why…]

[\\\W-well, I don’t want to brag, but, my body is really beautiful… s-so he probably wants to g-grope it really hard! (\\\H-he’s a sadist, after all, so wanting to grope someone really hard is a given, no? That’s what my mom told me\\\)\\\]

[S-so he wanted your body all along!? Even though he’s still trying to execute me!?]

[………Huh?]

Leena was speechless, she couldn’t understand how the talk about Albert’s S&M tendencies, turned into Leo thinking that Albert still wanted to execute him.

[Thank you, Leena, you opened my eyes. I underestimated Albert’s evil side. I’ll try to be more careful, from no–]

[–Nonono, wait a bit! W-what are you talking about, Albert is in–]

‘Albert is in love with you, so he won’t execute you!’ – Is what Leena wanted to say, but she stopped mid sentence. That was something that Albert himself should tell Leo. She didn’t want to destroy the Prince’s first confession like that–

[–Hey, why did you stop mid sentence? [Albert is in-?] ‘Cmon, this suspense killing me!]

[You’re noisy! Shut up! I’ll tell you when you’re ready to know!]

[Muuu∼, stingy…]

–But thinking about it clearly, now Leena had a good excuse to stay on Leo’s body. This new misunderstanding was quite convenient.

[Hey, Leo, how about we make a new deal?]

[A new deal? Why?]

[Well, listen first, okay? …If you make sure Albert is a good guy, I’ll go back to my body and give you another gold coin.]

[Hmmm… if it’s like that, then I’m okay with it. But I still have a presentation to go and a new business meeting to attend, so I think I can finish this task by the start of the spirit festival.]

[‘Cmon, the spirit festival? Isn’t that, like, too fast? You can take your time, you know? Like six months, or a year… or forever?]

[Don’t f**k with me! Do you really think I want to stay in this body for the rest of my life!?]

[Why not? Your life is quite luxurious right now, you know? You can have free meals everyday and you have the best teachers in the whole world teaching you magic. If you discount your current body, you’re living a perfect life.]

[Ugh…! I-I know that, okay–!?]

Leena was right, Leo was living a perfect life… but he wasn’t content with just that.

[–But do you even know how hard it is to maintain a small business on that academy!? The nobles over there rarely even spend a silver coin to buy something cheap! You know, I have a dream! I want my own business! And then I’ll make lots of money! That’s why I want my body back!]

[Heee∼, that’s a beautiful dream, huh…?] – Said Leena, in a dry tone.

Everyone had dreams and things that they wanted to pursue… however, Leena couldn’t help but think that Leo’s motives were really shallow.

[Ah, that’s right! You still owe me one gold coin, Leena!]

As a money hungry beast, Leo rarely left anything go unnoticed when money was involved. And Leena had promised to give him two gold coins, one if he managed to escape from the academy, and another one after they returned to their original bodies.

Well, Leo didn’t technically escape from the academy… but a promise was a promise–

[Yeah, I have your money……… here.]

–However, since Leena had spent his money on something else, she had to borrow some money from Bruno.

[Ohh…… Ohhhhhh! G-gold! Another gold coin! N-now I have two Kar-sama’s!]

Leo’s eyes were shining like a child’s, he was caressing the coin like it was something precious to him.

[You’re amazing, Leena! You managed to earn a gold coin in just four months!] – Said Leo, with a cheerful smile.

Despite being this talented, Leena had close to none experience in being praised so straightforwardly like Leo did, so she felt rather embarrassed.

[\\\O-of course I’m amazing, working as a consultant is easy! I can earn two or three gold coins in a month!\\\]

[You work as a consultant? What’s that?]

[Well… I basically give good advices to the people running crumbling businesses and they pay me.]

[Wow, that really cool! Are you perhaps aiming to become the next director of the orphanage, Leena?]

[\\\O-of course not! Why would I want to become the next director of a mere orphanage! Besides……… I wouldn’t have enough time for that anyway…\\\]

[Why not?]

[For multiple reasons… I recently bought a church on the southern district of Richard. The place was burned to the ground by an enraged mob, so it was relatively cheap–]

(Wow! An abandoned church!? Being a consultant is an amazing job, as I thought!)

[–And then there’s the issue with the amount of people working for me. I have a lot of underlings, but some of them don’t even receive jobs that often, so I’ll make them rebuild the entire place for me–]

(A lot of underlings, that’s really cool! ….Hmm? Wait a second… wasn’t the southern district’s church responsible for the distribution of bread?)

[–That place will become a bread factory, and the bread will be so cheap, that even the poor people will be able to buy lots of it everyday.]

To say that Leo was seeing Leena in a new light was an understatement. His respect towards her had reached an immeasurable level. She managed to do something that he would never be able to accomplish……… even if he tried really hard.

(If we go back to our original bodies… Leena will lose everything that she worked really hard to get… that’s unfair)

Leo then stared one more time at the gold coin that he was holding–

(It’s dirty and filled with scratches… but she must’ve worked really hard to get it…)

–Then he grabbed Leena’s right hand and returned the coin to it’s original owner.

[…Here, you can have it.]

(OwO) – Leo is such a good loli– I MEAN , good girl, right?

(O3O)/ – Yeah, he’s becoming a good person!!!

(O-O) – BTW, do you guys want an extra chapter of MnS or LMtH as a Christmas present?

(-.-) – If any of you want to support my work, please, consider donating me a tip on Ko-Fi.

(OwO) – See you guys soon.