Don't Feed the Professor! - Chapter 69

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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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I’m going to die. I just have to be brave for one moment, that’s all.
“Hrrk…!”
Hair wound around my neck. Just five more minutes—if I can hold on, all the pain will end.
“No… don’t…”
I curled my body as tight as I could, trying to keep those strands from winding further around me. But I knew I couldn’t hold out much longer.
What seeped into my mind wasn’t thought—it was emotion itself.
A despair so profound I couldn’t bear it, a hopelessness that wasn’t mine. My tears flowed without my will, streaming down my face.
‘What do I do?’
I was a fool to trust my luck. I’d grown arrogant because things had been going well.
I should just die. It would be easier.
I couldn’t tell anymore where the voice in my head ended and my real thoughts began.
I’m completely exhausted now. Mother, I’m sorry…
‘What?’
My mind snapped awake.
What am I apologizing for? If anyone should be sorry, it’s Mother—not me. I have nothing to apologize to her for.
‘That’s right. I’d never think something like that.’
I wrenched my wrists downward with all my strength, trying to work the bonds loose.
Then—a rustle.
“Huh?”
The candy. The one Mallo had given me. I was still holding it.
Maybe Mallo had foreseen even this. Maybe she’d prepared a way out for me.
It was absurd to pin such hopes on a single piece of candy, but I had no other option.
“Gack…”
The hair tightened around my neck again. At this rate, I’d lose consciousness before I could try anything.
I twisted my arms violently. Without thinking further, I shoved the candy—wrapper and all—into my mouth.
A sweet taste bloomed on my tongue. But that was all.
“…”
Nothing’s happening, I thought—and then, with a sudden give, my right arm went slack.
‘…What?’
I quickly worked the bonds off my left arm with my freed hand. When I grabbed the hair wound around my throat like a rope and pulled, my strangled breath finally came rushing back.
“Gasp, hrrk…”
The pressure crushing my entire body began to loosen, gradually releasing.
‘But why… can’t I feel the ground?’
I dangled halfway, kicking my legs, but my feet found nothing but emptiness. I tried to look around, but my vision was still dark.
The only things I could see were my own two hands…
‘Huh?’
When had my hands become so small?
No, wait. Don’t tell me the bonds didn’t loosen—
‘I’m shrinking.’
The moment I realized it, my body dropped downward.
“Wait, just—”
Before I could grab anything, I was silently swallowed by the darkness beneath me.
* * *
―This is wonderful. We should all consider it a great honor.
―Stand up straight. Don’t ever think of running away again.
―Remember: when you go there…
‘Hm?’
Something soft tickled my face. I opened my eyes to find myself lying in grass on a Hillside bathed in sunlight.
A gentle breeze passed over me. The grass, grown to my knees, rippled like waves, while beams of light filtering through low-hanging clouds illuminated an endless expanse of Plains.
‘Hah…’
What is this now? Where on earth am I?
I looked down to assess my condition. My shrinking wasn’t an illusion—my body really had become smaller.
My hands, my feet—all smaller. I was never tall to begin with, but now even my line of sight had lowered.
The problem was it wasn’t just that I’d become smaller…
‘It’s like I’ve gone back to childhood. To when I was young.’
Scrawny limbs, filthy nails, knees covered in scars. My hair was unkempt, hacked short in a way that looked awful.
And this worn cartoon T-shirt, these torn jeans, these grimy sneakers with broken heels.
I was back in the body of my childhood self.
Eight… nine years old, maybe?
‘What in the world did Mallo give me…’
Well, I suppose being shrunk is better than being strangled by hair. But this is…
‘Huh?’
My body moved on its own. The child version of me pushed through the grass and started running forward.
‘Hey, wait, stop, just—’
I ran down the Hillside.
‘If I run like this, I’ll get hurt—’
And then I understood. I’m not actually smaller. I’m reliving a Memory.
As proof, I was crying now. A sound like hiccups welled up in my throat.
Did I cry then, or didn’t I?
‘I have no idea.’
Now that I think about it, there’s a considerable gap in my memories from around this time. Did I really come to a place like this? Alone?
The child version of me didn’t seem to know how far this endless Plains stretched. This wasn’t a purposeful journey—it was panic, mindless flight.
Fortunately, the Hillside wasn’t very steep. No houses were visible, but beyond some rocks I could see a place where the grass was sparser.
‘A path?’
The grass was flattened. As if someone had made a way, soft and pressed down smooth, a track stretched from here to the bottom of the Hillside. It was wide enough for one person to lie down.
And at the end of that path…
‘A Cave.’
At the edge of the open Plains, the earth split like a fissure. Light beams filtered through the clouds, dancing at the mouth of the Cave.
I drew near as if entranced. The massive stone pillars, as if warmed all day by the sun, felt dry and warm.
‘How deep does it go…?’
Something lay at the entrance. Thin, translucent, glittering.
Like a Shed Skin.
The striking thing was that this single piece was far larger than my palm. Whatever creature—whatever beast—it had belonged to must have been enormous.
But the child version of me didn’t think that far. I lifted the semi-transparent veil-like skin over my head and held it up to the sunlight.
Glitter and shine.
Against my will, my mouth fell open slightly.
‘…Am I really thinking it’s pretty right now?’
Before I could feel any shock, my feet were already moving.
‘No, wait! Hey! Don’t go—’
The child version of me ran fearlessly into the Cave.
‘As if I didn’t know what was inside… Well, it doesn’t matter, does it? This is my Memory. I’m alive and well…’
The Cave grew wider as I ventured deeper. The ceiling soared far above, and light streamed in like curtains through a skylight opening in the middle.
After walking through the silent Cave for I don’t know how long, my vision suddenly opened wide, and light flooded in.
When I carefully opened my tightly shut eyes,
‘…Oh.’
On a vast sandstone rock, there was a snake. An enormous snake, brilliant white and radiant.
I gasped—the child version of me gasped. But not from fear. Not only from fear.
Neither I nor my younger self had ever seen such a massive and beautiful creature.
It sensed my presence. The snake, which had been basking quietly, opened its eyes. Cold, pale gray pupils with a vertical slit.
Could it see me? I couldn’t read any intent or emotion in those eyes.
‘Of course not—it’s a snake.’
And yet, why did it feel as though that snake was seeing straight through me?
The snake exhaled a long breath as the child version of me stood frozen in place.
It tilted its head slightly, then spoke.
“Not yet.”
And in an instant, I was yanked back to reality.
* * *
My palm itched.
‘I’m sorry…?’
Someone was writing letters on my palm over and over. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
I lifted my heavy eyelids.
I was back in the dark Corridor. The Scarecrow was crouched in front of me, writing an apology on my palm with its fingertips.
The despair I’d felt moments before almost certainly came from the Scarecrow. Specifically, emotions from just before it hanged itself.
If Mallo’s candy hadn’t taken me to another world…
‘Was the warning about danger meant to alert me to this?’
I wanted to say it was fine, that it wasn’t intentional. But before I could—
“Huh?”
I quickly pushed myself up. At the end of the Corridor, through the crack in the Equipment Room door, someone was looking this way.

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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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