Hearing him calling her name, brought her to flinch as she made an 'Ah'. The fact was, even though she saw millions of humans doing this kind of things, she could also see how it ended thereafter.
'..He said that he won't do anything, and I'm misunderstanding..but..'
Her own thoughts, made her feel that her cheeks were still red as she added
"Yes..I understood that, but, I'm still weak to this kind of thing.."
Without even realizing it, Light brought her fingers to touch her lips while Ethan, couldn't help but smile as she was behaving in a completely different way from the serious attitude she had just a minute ago.
"..You are cute"
His words, brought her to twitch as she looked away as her face was even more red
"...I just finished saying.."
Shaking his head, he firmly replied
"We won't get to that point, I am quite confident about it, so, what's the problem? I don't think it will matter at all if you let yourself go with the flow..You see, in a normal relationship, you get to know the person you're going to date before even starting that kind of thing..at least, that was how it worked in my original world. And even if there were people who didn't follow that example, I am one of them..."
Staring at her, she didn't say anything as she didn't return her eyes on him. This, made him continue with his speech.
"The fact is, I like a lot of girls from the Danmachi world, and that makes me feel that it will be really easy to fall in love with someone else as well. That's why I said to Ais that she had to accept this, because, for example.."
Thinking about Lefiya, Ethan looked down as he remembered all the times he made her blush during the small amount of time he was in his new world. But, even though he wanted to mention her, he decided not to as he changed his speech
"Never mind..I just wanted to say that even though I asked Ais to accept this fact, I fell in love with her, and I want to keep our relationship as close as I can to my heart. That means that, as I said before, Ais will be the one to approve this relationship... not because she has to, but because she doesn't know you, and I would feel like I'm cheating on her.."
This words, made her turn her head to look at him as, the fact he mentioned their 'relationship', brought her to think about what kind of relationship they had, now that they will be in contact for...
'Together..for eternity...'
This, made a small smile to form on her face as she directly passed on to more important matters..
"I understood your words, but..what kind of relationship are we in now?"
Her question, brought him to furrow his brows as, they actually never specified their relationship, now that they could see each other and the 'machine' part, was as well as gone, Ethan didn't want to say anything related to the 'System'. Rolling his eyes, he decided to just be honest with himself.
"I don't know. Our fate is so intertwined that I don't think you'll ever be something I can classify as a friend.. There's some kind of interest from me..as I really like your personality, but.. I'm not sure.."
Thinking about this as well, Light sighed as she raised from the table before adding
"Well, we have all the eternity to think about it, so..I guess I will just return to.."
Seeing that a smile formed on his face, she thought he was okay with it, but..
"Where do you think you are going? Barely a few minutes passed! I won't ask you for too much time, but lets at least enjoy a few more meals.."
His words, brought her to sigh as she stared at him, but, he returned her stare without hesitation as he added
"..Please"
Deciding to do as he said, she sat while he immediately added
"I know that you can see this timer as well.."
Thinking about the latter, Ethan saw as it appeared before he let the panel approach her while she looked at it.
"Yes, I can obviously see it.."
With a nod, he added
"It's at [3 hours] - [34 minutes] now, I want you to have a rest every 2 hours. If you don't do that, I will annoy you until you will be forced to do that"
Smiling 'evilly' he knew that she couldn't exactly hurt his own User as she replied while bringing her elbow on the table to rest her chin on her hand.
"...It's fine, I will follow this instruction as well"
Shaking his head, he added
"It's not an instruction, nor an order. This, is just my own way of taking care of you. As I said, Seeing you work way too hard for something we can take slowly, makes me feel that it's wrong.."
At his words, she replied with a stare while Ethan decided to try with some other food as he was still quite hungry.
'Mhh, I don't want to buy something too complicated..'
Thinking about it, the first thing that came to his mind were..
'Onigiri!'
Typing in the search bar, he was actually curious to try the 'taste' of the Onigiri that came from the System.
Selecting the first one he saw, made a container with a few Onigiri to appear right next to them as he immediately nodded in satisfaction.
"Light, let's try this. They are called Onigiri, but, you can say that they are only rice balls wrapped in nori"
Understanding that nori was the paper-thin sheet of dried seaweed that was used to wrap the rice ball, made her think about it as she saw that he was opening the container.
Without hesitation, he took an Onigiri with his hands before passing it to her while his smile didn't fade from his face.
"I bet you will like it"
At his words, she replied with a stare as she took it from his hands.
"After this, I will really go to continue the villa.."
Saying so while taking a bite, she could feel the saltiness of it as she smiled
"Well, this dish is quite good. What was its name again?"
Her words, brought him to nod as he took a bite as well.
"They're called Onigiri..and yes, as I expected..the System brings the best kinds of food..even if the price isn't that much.."
Seeing that he spent 1000 SP, Ethan knew that if he wanted to speak purely in terms of costs, his [Earnest Volcano's meat] was really cheap compared to this 'expensive' food.
'I will start gaining SP after I exit from this space..'
With these thoughts in mind, the two continued to eat their Onigiri as silence slowly fell on them, but, it wasn't an awkward one, as both were focused on other things. This, continued to work until no more Onigiri remained in the container while Ethan was thinking about the fact he had to try his [Dungeon] function.
'..I have two keys, as well as a more complicated Dungeon..but the real question is..which one should I start with..?'
Bringing his hand to take another Onigiri, he didn't even realize that they were finished as he felt that he took something warm, instead of the former. This, brought him to furrow his brows slightly as he returned his focus on to the real world, just to see that he took Light's hand.
While he just realized so, Light had 'seen' everything from the start as, this happened because she thought there was some other Onigiri.
Trying to take an Onigiri, she quickly understood that they were finished as she was about to retract her hand, before she saw Ethan placing a hand on hers without hesitation. This, brought her cheeks to become even more red than usual as she didn't say anything before understanding that he was absent-mindedly trying to take an Onigiri...
Even though his reaction made her pout with a slightly annoyed expression, this had the opposite effect to that d.e.s.i.r.ed as he chuckled again...
"It was my fault.. sorry. It's just that it's hilarious when you get fl.u.s.tered so easily.."
Seeing that she was still pouting, he sighed as he approached her before patting her head. The fact she wasn't resisting, made him smile as he saw that she turned to let him stroke her hair easier.
"...You know that I will laugh anyway if you stare at me with such a face, right..?"
Nodding slowly, she didn't reply as she could feel him ruffling her hair while she closed her eyes, as if by instinct. This because, he wasn't using any kind of force to do so, and, the gentleness contained in it, was quite addicting...
"...You like my hair that much?"
This sudden question, made him immediately reply with a 'yes' before adding
"I don't think you understand just how silky your hair is. I feel like your hair isn't natural at all compared to what I was 'used' to touch.. there are no points where the hair binds, as if they had just come out of a long adjustment session, and these are your natural hair...I can't help but wanting to touch and play with them, but I guess that, now it's time to return to work.."
Saying this, he 'released' her hair before sighing while she immediately turned to look at him.
This, made him tilt his head in confusion as she tried to add something, but, she decided not to before nodding in affirmation.
"Right..let's do our best then..."
Smiling at her, he went away as he decided to clarify an important thing, knowing that she could hear his thoughts.
'Even though I am focusing on your hair, this isn't the only thing that makes you beautiful. I don't want to make you think that I like just this aspect of you..so please, don't misunderstand me.'
Hearing this, her expression turned to a surprised one as her cheeks, that were still hot from his 'playing' with her hair, felt as if they were burning now..
---
(I have a discord server. discord.gg/cpVr5X8 . You may ask me: "Why should I enter the server?". At this question, my answer would likely be: "Because it's fun? I don't know either. Just join." Ah, and you can find some image reference of items in the story such as Light..! (Soon even Qienta).. so it's recommended to join. One last thing, I post chapter updates in my discord right after I posted on , so I guess you can join to be able to know when I post chapters faster.)
(Do you enjoy reading my novel? If the answer is yes, then thanks. I'll leave my ******* here. w ww.pat reon.com/watashiwavdesu)
(When you focus too much on the individual moments of your life, you wonder what will happen after such a long time passes? Instead, when you focus too much on the overview, you will find yourself with a feeling of losing sight of what is really important to yourself. These two sensations alternate in the course of our life, and lead us to do actions that we will regret, and others that we do not. These actions, put together, lead us to understand what kind of life we lived, and this, in the end, will be the only thing you can take with yourself to the grave)
(Alternate Titles: "Rainbow as a lifestyle", "[Earnest Volcano's meat]..someone remembers it?", "Ais is still the main girl here...I just wanted to remember this.")