Don't Feed the Professor! - Chapter 33

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Could it be that it was never a window, but a door leading to the attic from the start? No, that’s impossible. It defies the structure.
Yet the wooden staircase kept climbing upward, ever upward.
I looked back at the text message from Mallo.
[Watch your step.]
Was he telling me to come up?
“Don’t cry too much.”
Now that I think about it, he’d said something like that earlier in the day. It’s as if he could peer into my very thoughts.
“…….”
I hesitated for a moment, then began climbing the stairs.
The ceiling was so low I had to crawl as much as climb. The only mercy was that the stairs weren’t as long as I’d feared.
Soon, a small trapdoor appeared above my head.
I’d come this far—no point in hesitating now. I pushed the handle, and the door opened silently.
‘The smell of plants……?’
Before I could even stick my head through, I felt the temperature change. The air was slightly humid and warm, carrying the scent of wet earth.
‘A greenhouse.’
My vision opened up. It was a Glass Greenhouse lit by small pendant lamps. Incandescent bulbs twinkled among the broad-leafed foliage plants.
“Is this a dream……?”
I murmured, rubbing my eyes. Without realizing it, my lashes were wet.
“This tree here.”
At the sudden voice, I looked up to find Mallo standing behind the door.
He reached out his hand. When I grasped it—cool and steady—he pulled me up in one smooth motion.
“Don’t you think it’s odd?”
Nothing surprises me anymore.
“……Is there anything in the Fortress that isn’t odd?”
I stood beside him, looking up at the tree he’d been observing.
It was a kind of palm. Ordinary enough—nothing particularly special.
Except the shape of its leaves…….
“They’re symmetrical.”
Excessively so. The leaves stretched out on either side like mirror images, as if stamped from a decalcomania.
Mallo tilted his head thoughtfully. Then the lower branch drooped and unfurled into two matching branches.
“……We’re still inside the Dormitory, right?”
“No.”
I looked at Mallo. He wore a cream cardigan over his T-shirt. Maybe he really did feel the cold easily.
“Where’s your lab coat?”
“I clocked out.”
“You get off work?”
“Professors clock out too.”
“…….”
“And where are the rest of your clothes?”
“My clothes……?”
Only then did I realize what I was wearing. The cotton sky blue pajamas were terribly thin, and I didn’t wear a bra to bed.
And Mallo and I were standing directly under the lights.
“……Would you mind lending me that?”
Mallo blinked, quickly understanding, and slipped off the cardigan for me.
I took it with an awkward cough. It hadn’t seemed large when he wore it, but on me it was enormous.
There was no lingering warmth from his body, but it was comfortable nonetheless.
Only then did I look around properly. Red brick paving lay between delicate shrubs.
A metal bench sat among young weeping willows.
I walked to the bench and sat. Mallo settled beside me and handed me something—a large paper cup with the Goldilocks logo.
“Oh……, I’m not actually hungry.”
“I know. But you said sweet things don’t fill you up, didn’t you?”
Sweet things?
I accepted the paper cup. The surface was cold. It was a Milk Shake from Goldilocks.
He called me up here at this hour just to give me this?
“……This is a pretty strange situation, isn’t it?”
“Is it.”
Well, what does it matter.
I put my lips to the straw and sipped the Milk Shake slowly. It was sweet and smooth as the night air, and it seemed to lift my gloom a little.
Mallo asked abruptly.
“How’s School?”
“……You sound like a parent asking that.”
“You said there’s nothing in the Fortress that isn’t odd. Is School the same?”
“Hmm…….”
Now that I think about it, why is that? When I consider School in isolation, there’s nothing really strange about it.
But except for students gathered in the Plaza or on the Promenade, the grounds are mostly empty. Walking across those vast lawns alone in broad daylight always felt unsettling.
Like I’m the last survivor in a world where humanity has vanished…….
“I don’t know how to say it……, isolated somehow, like time has stopped…….”
“I haven’t stopped time.”
“……What?”
“It flows differently than outside, but time is still irreversible……. Wait, that’s not what you were asking, is it?”
Mallo laughed, and I nodded.
“I’m not entirely sure, but……, School doesn’t change, you know? I haven’t been here that long, but it’s a new semester and nothing’s different from when I first arrived…….”
“I’ve never thought about it that way.”
I’d only recently realized that time felt thin at the Fortress.
There is day and night, but the weather doesn’t change, the temperature is always the same, and the seasons never shift.
Mallo made a small thoughtful sound.
“So you humans sense time through spatial change?”
“If you mean humans in general, then yes. You can’t see time directly, after all.”
“I see. So what kind of change do you think would feel good?”
“Hmm…….”
As I pondered, my eyes caught on the willow leaves rustling gently.
“What about flowers?”
“Flowers?”
“New semesters are usually in spring, right? Lilac blooms along the Promenade, and when the wind blows, the petals pour down like rain. Wouldn’t that be symbolic?”
Mallo looked like he didn’t understand.
“You like that?”
“Well, it’s pretty, isn’t it? I like it here, anyway. It reminds me of a greenhouse near my house when I was small. I always felt at peace there—I loved it.”
“…….”
Had I talked too much by myself?
Now that I think about it, why have old memories been coming back to me so often lately?
Maybe it’s because Mallo organized my thoughts after the maze last time.
Recently, I’ve realized I barely remember my childhood.
Before, I thought I’d simply forgotten it while caught up in daily life. But after course registration, my memories became clearer, and it became obvious that there are gaps in my memories from specific periods.
As if those parts were deliberately erased, not just forgotten with time…….
‘But does that even make sense?’
Then again, at the Fortress, is there anything that’s truly impossible?
“Professor, how did you know I was going to cry?”
“Hmm?”
“You told me not to cry too much on the phone earlier.”
True, I nearly died twice, and I woke from a nightmare to find myself suddenly locked in the Freezer…….
But not everyone cries in situations like that.
“Well.”
Strangely, Mallo seemed to fall into thought for a moment.
“Predicting your reaction wasn’t difficult. But if you ask why……, can you explain it? Why did you cry?”
His gray-blue eyes fixed on me, waiting for my answer.
“Hmm……. I don’t quite know myself……. But right now it just feels……, scary and unfamiliar.”
“Scared.”
“Yes, I suppose…….”
“Then that’s good.”
“……What?”
“Fear comes from ignorance. Once time passes and you understand everything……, there’ll be nothing left to fear.”
“Do you really think so?”
“It has to be.”
But the answer lacked conviction.
The smile he always wore was absent, and his usual tone—playful, almost careless—was gone. And his expression felt strangely unfamiliar to me.
“Professor…….”
“Yes?”
“What exactly are you trying to teach me?”
I’d wanted to ask this for a long time.
He’d said he had no intention of teaching other students. That first day’s excuse about auditing was a lie—he knew it, and so did I.
So why me? Why specifically me?
“I thought I knew. I’m not sure anymore.”
Mallo was still looking up at the tree.
“I guess professors don’t know everything.”
“…….”
“Still……, I’ll tell you the things you want to know. I won’t tell you anything you don’t want to know.”
“What……, what do you mean?”
“Sleep well.”
That smiling face was the last thing I saw before my eyes closed.
When I opened them, it was morning. I was lying in my own bed.
“…….”
It had been a dream.
I stared blankly at the ceiling, then sat up.
“What kind of dream was that…….”
But then I realized I was still wearing Mallo’s cardigan.
‘Surely not.’
I went to the window and opened the curtains. The staircase was gone.
Instead, the Backyard—which had been empty just yesterday—was now filled with pale purple petals swirling in the air.
Lilac petals, their fragrance so thick it stole my breath.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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