Don't Feed the Professor! - Chapter 61

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

With a crisp shuffle, Mallo spread a deck of cards across the table.
I looked around.
We were still in the Casino, but the crowds that had filled it moments before had vanished somewhere, and the slot machines that had glittered with light now sat silent.
Only Mallo and I remained, separated by a small table.
“How……did this happen?”
Mallo said nothing.
He kept his eyes lowered, tapping the smooth card surface with his fingertips—tap, tap.
Normally by now he would’ve melted into that lazy smile and spouted something nonsensical, but today he seemed somehow……dejected.
I asked him.
“……Are you angry?”
Mallo looked up.
“Am I? You always make that face when you’re upset.”
“How would you know that?”
“……Huh?”
Right—how do I even know that?
Instead of answering, Mallo gestured toward the stack of cards on the table.
“Draw one.”
“……?”
I stared at the deck uncertainly.
“What if I don’t?”
“……”
“If I don’t……, I can’t leave here?”
I asked while my mind was still muddled, and Mallo smiled quietly.
“When did you ever get my permission?”
‘……He’s definitely angry.’
I reached out and drew a card from the deck.
“Here.”
I flipped the card over.
“This isn’t a regular playing card, is it?”
Mallo chuckled softly as he looked down at the card I’d drawn.
“You really picked the one suited for you.”
The Fool
“The fool, Lee Yuri.”
“Who are you calling a fool, exactly——!”
Wait.
‘This is strange.’
Haven’t we had this conversation before?
Mallo let out a small sigh.
“Here’s what happened—you jumped off the balcony, Lee Yuri.”
“……I did?”
I looked up at the VIP area a half-floor above. Then the memory returned. I had jumped from there to escape the Manager dressed as Bibi.
‘So Mallo came to save me again.’
“It might’ve been nicer if you’d caught me from below,” he said with a bitter smile.
I forced a laugh and played along.
“I’ll ask for that next time.”
And the moment the words left my mouth, I realized I’d said something foolish. After all, this wasn’t something to joke about with the person who came all the way here to rescue me—my professor.
“I……sorry.”
“……Sorry for what?”
“Just that I’ve been a bother again.”
An awkward silence fell.
After a long pause, Mallo spoke again.
“I may have been worried about you, but that’s not something you need to apologize for.”
“……”
“Still……”
Mallo raised his arm and playfully poked my cheek with his finger.
“It’d be better if things like this didn’t happen again, don’t you think?”
My body went rigid. In my panic, I tried to push his hand away but my fingers only met air.
When my reaction didn’t come for a moment, I turned my head and saw Mallo looking at me with a strangely complicated expression.
‘What is that look?’
An awkward silence stretched between us.
“That……as you may know……I was in the middle of an investigation.”
Either way, the Customer Registry came first. We needed the one that the Manager—the Hotel Manager—had.
“……Right then. Shall we try again?”
“Huh?”
But before I could even voice my confusion, the ground beneath my feet crumbled away.
“Ahhhhh!”
The next moment, I was falling from the Balcony toward the Casino floor. And standing among the gamblers staring up at me in shock was……
“I was joking!”
Whether I shrieked in indignation or not, Mallo below was already bracing himself to catch me, a smile on his face.
Whether from adrenaline or not, what could only have been a few seconds felt impossibly long. I curled myself into a ball and squeezed my eyes shut.
Then, moments later, I landed impossibly gently in Mallo’s arms with a soft thump.
I carefully opened my eyes, and the familiar gold filled my vision.
“……Was all that really necessary?”
“You asked for it.”
An infuriating smile.
‘I knew he’d pull something like this.’
“Put me down. I’m getting dizzy from the height.”
I grumbled, and fortunately Mallo set me down on the floor without complaint.
“Hmm?”
“What?”
Mallo tilted his head as he studied me for a moment.
“Your dress is only half there.”
Ah, the Backless Dress.
* * *
The gamblers in the Casino who had shown a moment’s interest in me soon returned to their games. Despite everything that had happened, the Casino continued its business as usual.
Thus Mallo, Bibi, and I found ourselves in the VIP Area.
Fortunately, by the time I returned to the Casino, the Manager had already vacated Bibi’s body.
But Bibi seemed more concerned about my condition than anything.
“Are you really okay?”
“I told you I’m not hurt—why do you keep asking?”
“I know you’re not hurt. But according to you, you went through a Loop alone. Three times.”
“Yeah.”
“You were coerced by a Higher Being, and then jumped from the Balcony trying to escape.”
“So?”
“So you shouldn’t push yourself. Let’s go back and rest first, recover, and then……”
“I appreciate the worry, but shouldn’t we handle that first?”
“That’s……yeah.”
Bibi’s gaze shifted to the man hanging upside down from the ceiling.
Mallo stood before him, examining the man’s pupil reactions with practiced ease.
From the circumstances, it seemed the Manager had returned to the body of the Broker that originally housed him. Mallo had moved the Broker, who had collapsed in the middle of the Casino, up here.
But even hanging upside down, the Broker showed no signs of waking.
I approached Mallo’s side.
“The Manager is still in there, right? I mean, there’s no chance he jumped to someone else or anything……”
“No, he’s still in there.”
Mallo answered without lifting his gaze.
“How can you tell?”
“If he weren’t, he would’ve come greet me.”
“……Huh?”
Mallo glanced toward me.
“He didn’t come to pay his respects.”
Come to pay respects? The Manager would……to Mallo?
“Well……there could’ve been something more urgent, right?”
“Unlikely.”
“……”
I could read it in his expression—the word ‘dare’ was omitted from the end of his sentence.
Just then, having run out of patience, Bibi interjected abruptly.
“Rather than that, how much longer are you planning to stare? Is there even any clue left?”
Mallo lifted his head. He glanced toward me, then answered Bibi.
“I can’t fix this.”
What?
To find out who had attacked Nest Building and why, we needed the Black Market’s Customer Registry.
If the Manager who held that registry didn’t wake up, then all our suffering so far would mean nothing.
“But until just a moment ago, he was perfectly alive—laughing and rambling and spouting all sorts of nonsense.”
I gestured to the Manager hanging upside down.
“What kind of nonsense?”
Mallo asked.
“……”
“Tell me. What nonsense was he spouting?”
“Well……”
Mallo didn’t look like he’d back off before I answered.
‘He did say some disgusting things. Various things.’
Honestly, having him hanging upside down like that was satisfying enough.
But I didn’t want to tell Mallo about it.
“He said……to offer him Tribute. That he’d reveal his true name if I did.”
So the Manager of Sarim Hotel was also not a simple oddity but one of the Higher Beings.
Food from the outside world had always been acceptable Tribute. But since I had known him as a Broker, the Vitamin I’d initially offered him didn’t count as Tribute.
I was thinking whether I should count that as fortunate, when——
“I see.”
When I looked up, Mallo was staring at me intently.
“You must have been terrified.”
His words, spoken without any emotion, made me flustered and my eyes dart away.
“Well……a little……?”
“And then?”
“Huh?”
Mallo kept his gaze fixed on me as he asked.
“When the Manager was spouting that nonsense and you were terrified, what crossed your mind?”
“Um.”
“Did you think of calling for someone?”
“I don’t……know.”
I couldn’t meet his eyes. His expression was the same as always, but his eyes—his pupils—weren’t smiling at all.

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