Black Iron Magician

Chapter 38 Hugging Pillow

――The sixth day of training.

In the middle of the night, I somewhat felt the nature call and woke up drowsily. When I look out the window, the moon is still up in the sky. As someone who always sleeps like a log until morning, this was quite unusual for me. I heard that the older you get, the easier you to wake up in the middle of the night. I wonder if I’m that old… ugh, I’m a bit shocked. Pleasant Sleep skill, thou shouldst useth thy ability to thy heart’s content just like with Haru. What, there’s no need to hold back. I allow it.

「…… Enough with that stupid thought, let’s get back to sleep. But the toilet come first. Hm?」

When I try to get off the bed to go to the toilet, I have an uncomfortable feeling. I feel warmth in my futon that is not my own. It’s as if there’s a cat inside the futon, or having a woman sleeping next to me the next morning after drinking too much. Yeah, that one is not good for my heart. Anyway, that impression―― no, let’s stop escaping from reality. I’m an adult, I’ll face any absurdity head-on.

「What are you doing in my bed?」

「Kuu~…」

She’s sleeping. Haru is, for some reason, sleeping pleasantly in my bed while clinging to me. She’s wearing her tracksuit as a sleep-wear like usual, but she lets down her hair instead of the ponytail, so it’s kinda fresh, or not. I often see her letting down her hair after a bath.

Back to the topic. The question is why is Haru sleeping with me? If anyone found out about this, Anita would be happy to spread the word. That’s not good, the image of the inhuman Deris will be destroyed. Being labeled as inhuman is better than being labeled as lolicon.

「Oi, Haru. Wake up.」

I poke her cheek. First, get that hand off my arm, you bastard.

「… Uni~」

Although I relentlessly poke Haru’s cheek, she mutters an incomprehensible sleep-talk but shows no signs of waking up.

This girl is sleeping with all her might…! Now it has come to this, I have no choice but to use violence. I will pull your cheeks!

「Fue~…」

「…… She’s not waking up.」

Despite pulling Haru’s cheeks freely, she is still sleeping comfortably and shows no change in her sleeping face. It’s almost as if I’m just enjoying the feel of her cheeks. It’s true that the softness of her cheeks can make it a bad habit, but that’s not my intention. Even though she always wake up on time in the morning, why she’s not waking up at all now? It can’t be helped then, let’s wake her up forcibly.

「―― All Cure.」

「…..Fah?」

I treat her sleep as an abnormal state and heal her with light magic. This way, no matter how deep she’s in her dream, she’ll wake up for sure.

「Ah, Shishō~… good morning…」

「Yeah, morning. I’ll get right to it. Haru, do a seiza over there.」

「Eh…?」

I make Haru, who doesn’t understand the situation, sit seiza on the bed. I’m also at fault for not realizing it until this point. So in order to convey the seriousness of the situation as much as possible, I sit seiza as well. Just in case, I give her another All Cure to completely blow away her sleepiness.

「Haru, why are you sleeping with me in this bed? Night visit?

「No, there’s a deep reason for this that I had thought about.」

「Hou, and that deep reason is?」

「In short, it’s a strategy to raise my Pleasant Sleep skill efficiently!」

「………」

I silently put my hand on Haru’s forehead to check if she has a fever.

「Shishō, I don’t have a cold or anything like that.」

「Oh, you understand my intention? You certainly don’t seem to have a fever―― Are you serious?」

「I’m serious. Ehem.」

Just how healthy are you… Is that because idiots don’t catch colds? No, maybe that’s because of her healthy body and thorough health management. She must be doing her best on that too.

「I understand how amazing you are. But, what’s with that Pleasant Sleep skill strategy?」

「It’s a strategy to efficiently raise my Pleasant Sleep skill!」

She’s fussing over it…

「I realized that only my Pleasant Sleep skill is making a little progress compared to the other skills!」

「Uh-huh, and then?」

‘Little progress’ my ass. That’s great enough. I wanted to retort, but now I bear it and wait for her next words.

「After pondering over the reason for that, I realized something. There was only one factor that was different when I was sleeping compared to my sleep before I came to this world!」

「Uh-huh, and that was?」

「That was―― my pet dog, Pero!」

「…… Ha?」

Pet dog? Dog? Pet?

「I used to hug Pero as my hugging pillow when I went to sleep. Like this, gyuu. I haven’t been conscious of it recently thanks to the Pleasant Sleep skill. But, I think it would be easier to raise the level if I sleep the way I was used to.」

「…… So, you used me as a substitute for Pero?」

「Yes! Your arm is just as big as Pero and the warmth feels goo- ouch!?」

Chop, chop. I chop Haru’s head.

「Uhh, that hurts…」

「I’m sometimes scared by your ability to take action. Listen here, don’t treat your master like a dog.」

「Au, I’m sorry…」

「To begin with, you are a high school girl. Even though you have such a poor body, you’re a girl. Don’t easily sleep together with an old man like me. There are people in this world who have a unique fetish, you know? You saw it in the Ash Rope mansion, didn’t you?」

「Yes……」

「Doing your best in everything is a good thing. But you see, it’s also important to maintain moderation depending on the situation.」

‘Does that apply to me’ is it? I properly said ‘depending on the situation’, didn’t I?

「Shishō, erm, did you hate it?」

「It’s not that I hate it… but, doing that to anyone is not good, you know?」

「Even I wouldn’t do this to anyone! Erm, I did it because you are Shishō!」

Ack, stop that development! The relationship is going to get troublesome!

「That’s because you are like a father to me!」

「… A father?」

「Yes, a father.」

I see, a father, huh? It’s a bit different from the development that I expected, but I wonder about that. Substituting a high school girl’s father sounds disturbing in some ways. Is this out or safe….

「By the way, how did you feel when sleeping with me?」

「It was so comfortable! I fell asleep the moment I entered the futon, and I was able to sleep with peace of mind! Pleasant Sleep skill plus hugging Shishō, that was the best!」

Looking at Haru’s insistence, it seems that it was effective. I think you can sleep well even without it, but I think it’s okay to give it a try for a day.

「…… Then, I’ll allow it for today. From now on, you have to let me know in advance, okay?」

「Really? Yay, I love you, Shishō!」

「D-don’t hug me! There will be a misunderstanding!」

「…… I love you, dad?」

「There will be even more misunderstandings!」

Thus, we decided to sleep together today to check the skill’s growth. The moment I get into the same position as when I woke up, Haru starts to breathe peacefully in her sleep. She’s falling asleep damn easily. On the contrary, I’m wide-awake and having trouble falling asleep. Pleasant Sleep skill, do your job.

――And the next morning, I’m surprised twice to see how much her Pleasant Sleep skill has improved. Sleeping together proved to have an immediate effect, so it’s decided that we will sleep together from thereon. This is the beginning of my healthy life of going to bed early and waking up early.

Yay~, arc 1 end here~

Time to sleep~ Nite nite~