Mia blinked, staring at Teacher Sefina’s suddenly flushed cheeks, her slightly trembling body, and those burgundy eyes that seemed to be losing their focus. A clear sense of confusion welled up in her heart.
‘The teacher’s state… something doesn’t look quite right.’ It didn’t look like she was simply feeling unwell; it looked more like she was desperately enduring some kind of great pain, or perhaps… was she holding something back?
“Teacher Sefina, is something wrong?” Mia set aside her previous playful mood, her tone turning serious and concerned. “You look… really uncomfortable?”
At that moment, Sefina could barely spare the attention to answer. The sensations brought on by the magic crest were stimulating her in waves, each one stronger than the last.
She felt as if her legs were as soft as overcooked noodles, nearly unable to support her own weight.
To keep herself from collapsing onto the floor, Sefina instinctively reached out and gripped Mia’s shoulder tightly, using the girl’s body to barely remain standing.
This dependent posture brought a faint sense of shame to her, but her loss of physical control left Sefina with no choice.
‘Damn it…’ Sefina gritted her teeth inwardly.
‘It just flared up 2 days ago when I was with Lisika. Why is it happening again today? Why is the frequency getting shorter?! That cursed magic crest of Ophidoro’s is like a tightening noose. This is… just terrible!’
Mia was startled by Teacher Sefina’s sudden leaning movement.
The teacher’s arm was gripping her tightly, her fingertips digging into her shoulder, transmitting a faint heat and a tremor through the contact. Mia had never seen Teacher Sefina look so fragile, so… out of character.
Teacher Sefina didn’t answer her question, but her tightly pursed lips and the fine beads of sweat forming on her forehead all indicated that the situation was very bad.
“Teacher, you…” Mia was about to ask again if they needed to go to the Infirmary or if there was anything she could do.
However, Sefina interrupted her with a trembling voice, squeezing out a few words: “Mia… take me to… your dormitory.”
“Huh?!” Mia froze, completely blindsided by the request.
‘To my dormitory? Why?’
‘With the teacher like this, what can we do at the dorm?’ A series of questions popped into her head, causing her to let out a small, instinctive gasp.
“Hurry…” Sefina’s voice became more urgent, even carrying a hint of pleading.
She no longer had the strength to weave a plausible lie. The impulse within her was nearly breaking its shackles, threatening to consume her completely.
Sefina needed a private, enclosed space immediately! Right now! Otherwise… otherwise… she couldn’t exactly handle it right here, could she?! What a joke!!!
Looking at Teacher Sefina’s eyes, which seemed on the verge of a breakdown, and her increasingly flushed face, Mia realized the urgency of the matter despite her confusion.
The teacher’s condition was definitely more than just a simple illness.
“Oh, okay! Teacher, hang in there. Come with me!”
Mia stopped asking questions and quickly reached back to support Sefina, walking rapidly toward her dormitory located on the second floor.
The key was inserted into the lock and turned, and the door opened with a *click*. Mia quickly helped Sefina into the room and then shut the door behind them, isolating them from the empty hallway outside.
Sefina practically stumbled into the relatively safe space. She leaned her back against the cool door, gasping for breath, her eyes vacant.
‘There’s no other way…’ she thought helplessly. In this situation, it was already impossible to use any reasonable excuse to send Mia away. This hidden space was her only option left. She couldn’t very well do it in the hallway…
‘Ugh — if it came to that, I’d rather just kill myself.’
Seeing Teacher Sefina still in such unbearable pain, Mia grew anxious and said hurriedly, “Teacher Sefina, what is actually wrong with you? Is your stomach upset?”
“I have some common stomach medicine here. Maybe you should lie down and rest for a bit? Wait, I’ll go with you to the school infirmary…”
Before Mia could finish, Sefina suddenly straightened up and, with a speed that bordered on fleeing, rushed straight into the private bathroom attached to the dormitory.
She slammed the door with a *bang*, followed by the distinct sound of the lock clicking from the inside.
“Teacher?!” Mia was stunned by the sudden move and tapped on the bathroom door in vain. “What is wrong with you? That’s so strange…” She scratched her head, wondering what had happened to her teacher.
Meanwhile, inside the bathroom, Sefina had entered a total “emergency state.”
She leaned against the cold porcelain tiles, her body sliding down the wall until she sat on the floor, not even having enough time to reach the toilet.
‘It’s too late, and I can’t find any suitable excuse anymore…’ The string of Sefina’s logic snapped completely.
With trembling hands, Sefina pulled down her knee-high socks and the underwear that were part of her student uniform, beginning that incredibly shameful “self-resolution.”
‘Ugh — in a student’s dormitory… I am… so terrible.’
Fragmented thoughts flashed through Sefina’s chaotic mind, but she had no choice but to deal with it all. Sefina bit down hard on her collar, trying to suppress any sound from escaping.
Outside the door, Mia paced anxiously. She couldn’t hear any dialogue or explanation from inside, only a faint, leaking sound… fragmented, hurried gasping.
Initially, Mia was just worried. But as those sounds continued, reaching her ears in an extremely suggestive rhythm, she eventually understood, no matter how slow she was.
Her cheeks turned bright red in an instant, like a ripe apple, and even the tips of her ears were stained crimson.
Mia instinctively covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes widening into circles.
‘Te-Teacher Sefina is actually… in there, doing… in there… AAAHHH!’
‘Oh my god! The usually strict and cold Teacher Sefina, who seems so detached from the world… how could she…?’
‘How could she do that in a student’s dormitory bathroom?! This is too bold! It’s, it’s unbelievable!’
Moreover… for some reason, the teacher’s desperately suppressed gasps sounded… kind of cute. A strange feeling began to sprout in Mia’s heart.
‘Cough, cough! No, no, no!’
Mia shook her head violently and slapped her hot cheeks. Now was not the time to think about that! Once she calmed down and thought about it, Mia realized that Teacher Sefina couldn’t have suddenly felt “in the mood” for this.
‘She clearly can’t help herself! After all, there’s no way Teacher Sefina would do this voluntarily; she must have been forced into it.’
‘Does she have some strange illness? Or is it some kind of evil curse that causes this… this unspeakable side effect?’
‘Maybe… maybe that little secret between Princess Ellaria and Teacher Sefina refers to this?’
Mia suddenly realized it. No wonder when she had asked about “that” at Teacher Shalina’s house, the teacher refused to say a word and got so angry…
‘If it were me, I’d never be able to say it either! This is just too embarrassing!’
‘Ugh — has Teacher been enduring this all on her own? That’s way too hard on her…’
Thinking of this, Mia’s worry and sympathy for Teacher Sefina instantly overwhelmed her previous shock and that tiny, strange flutter.
However, at that very moment, a *swish, swish* sound came from outside the door, accompanied by a rhythmic friction and the occasional slight sloshing of a bucket.
It was the sound of a mop hitting the floor! It had to be the cleaning lady coming to do the routine cleaning of the hallway!
‘This is bad, she’s coming this way!’
But Teacher Sefina was still—