My Unconventional Lover: Seeing A Different World

What kind of question was that?

I was about to retort back when Sanji beat me to it. “Nice pick-up line, Mario. But, you know better not to do that in front of a girl’s legal guardian. Unless, you want to get beaten up.”

Again, he was emitting cold air around him. Why would he put his guard up against these boys? He was always the friendly young lecturer who had hundreds of admirers among the students, boys or girls. He was on a good terms with almost all the boys in the faculty and I even saw Senior Mario as one of them.

Then, why would Sanji change the way he treated them? Also, from the way Senior Mario was looking at me, he didn’t look like he was joking. Was this their new prank? If so, his acting skill must be really good to act all confuse from the first time I stepped into this room.

“Ah, I didn’t mean that.” Senior Mario’s expression came to a realization and he awkwardly shifted his eyes. “It’s just-”

“I don’t care what it is. Just make sure to stay away from her.” Sanji cut him off and gently led me towards the door.

He did it gently but there was a little hint of rush in his action. It was as if he couldn’t wait for me to leave the room quickly.

There must be something wrong. Senior Dino and Mia’s change might not look too suspicious, but for Senior Mario to ask me that weird question, it really caught my attention. Moreover, from the way Sanji reacted to it, he must know something.

.....

“It’s done now. Since we’re done registering you back and there will be no classes for today, let’s go.” Sanji returned to his usual warm self, totally different with the ‘him’ previously.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Where to?”

“A date, of course. It’s a rare chance for me to be left alone with you. Tom will be very busy training himself, so it will be just the two of us for the rest of afternoon.”

I was sure he didn’t say anything about this date to Tom. Look at that smile! That kind of smile only appeared when he won something with little efforts. It was a cheeky triumphant smile. I bet he had it plan so perfectly. Sneaky!

Seeing that he was in high spirit, I couldn’t bear to expose himself. As long as he was happy, I didn’t think it would be a hassle to grant him this one date.

Thus, we went on a date. We went on a walk, watched movies, and all kinds of date that we could think of. Coming to this city brought back some memories. However, I also noticed that there was something that seemed off. It was the same feeling when I saw the changes in Senior Dino and Mia’s selves, as well as Senior Mario’s strange question. Sanji’s protective behavior got worse even when he looked like he enjoyed our date.

I didn’t want to ruin our date, but I really needed to ask him what was going on. My curiosity took control of my mind and without realizing it, I had asked him what I wanted to hear.

“Don’t you think my friends were acting weird? It’s either they forgot about me or they had a big changes in their personality.” I took a sip of my juice lightly while observing his reaction.

As expected, his expression changed. It was just for a second but it was enough for me to confirm my suspicion that he knew something about those changes. I hid my smirk into my glass of juice as I took a sip of it again.

Putting down the glass of juice a bit further away from my hand, I looked at him straight in his eyes and smiled, “Do you want to tell what you are hiding from me?”

Sanji tried to meet my gaze head on, but his wavering gaze failed to convince me that he was innocent. Maybe this matter wasn’t just what meets the eye, but there’s something manipulated behind him. This was my first time seeing this case, so I truly had no idea and just waited for him to spill anything about it.

“I suppose you don’t work alone. No, scratch that. You are not the one who did it, but you are the accomplice. Now, the one mastermind behind it is someone you think so highly. Someone that you can’t refuse. Who might it be?” I really enjoyed every change on his face. It was rare the see the wise and mature mask on his face cracked and made him flustered.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His calm voice could deceive me if I didn’t see his face.

“Siji.” That Advisor of mine appeared as soon as I finished calling his name. Another smirk threatened to appear on my face again after I noticed his pupil dilated hearing Siji’s name was called.

“Here, Milady.” He was still as polite as ever every time I called him.

“What have you done to my friends?” I switched my gaze towards the ever-so-calm Siji. Unlike Sanji, Siji had the perfect poker face ever if he wanted to. Even his gaze wouldn’t flatter when his eyes met mine when he talked. Well, he wouldn’t lie to me so he was calm with whatever questions I gave him. The only thing was he was very careful and would only answer based on my questions. That’s why I usually chose my words carefully before I asked him something lest I got a different answer from what I expected.

“I believed I don’t quite understand what Milady means.” He pretended to be a fool! There was no way he wasn’t related to this matter.

“Then, tell me, is there any way to manipulate someone’s memory? Like a forbidden skill or something like that?”

Siji pondered for a while, as if he was really thinking about such things. I was sure he knew the answer, but he just deliberately dragged this matter -probably going to avoid the topic later-until I grew impatient and decided to skip this question.

He might forget that I was an impatient towards some things, but I was particularly patient towards things that I was curious about. If I did grow impatient, I would just use my authority over him to answer my questions. I didn’t like the last option but if it was necessary, I wouldn’t mind abusing my power.

Sighing helplessly, Siji straightened his back and started talking about one of the most sacred yet forbidden skill – apparently one that he purposely didn’t teach me for a reason.

The name was Mind Manipulation -he said something in a foreign language for me but then he translated it. As the name said, it was a skill to manipulate mind and it could only be used by spirit or soul. As a human, she couldn’t possibly do it. Even if she detached her spirit and learned it, it would be in vain. In other words, only the dead could use it.

“Sanji knew about it, right? How could he know it and I didn’t? You might as well tell me the reason you manipulated their memories.”