96 Romance talk with master

"Have you ever had a boyfriend?" I asked 

There was no reply so I was starting to get worried, Did I make her mad? 

I looked over and what I saw surprised me, Her usual emotionless poker face looked rather gloomy, although you wouldn't be able to tell unless you saw her usual face everyday 

"S-Sorry... Since master is pretty, I thought that you'd have plenty of guys after you" I muttered before getting into the push up position 

By light training, I'm assuming she meant doing a small amount of each training I've been doing recently, so let's start with 50 

Without wasting any time, I started. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6-" 

i stopped counting when I heard master suddenly say "1..." 

"1...? You had a boyfriend?" I asked while continuing the pushups 

I looked over at master and she nodded 

That means she has experience... So she should be able to help me... 

"So how did you two meet?" I suddenly asked 

"He joined my party" She replied 

"Oh, how did it feel like spending time with him?" I asked 

" it was good..." 

Oh, so master was in love... I need to find out why they drifted apart 

"so why did you two break up?" I asked 

"He died." She replied 

… 

"S-Sorry..." I muttered 

I looked over at her again, and she seemed even more gloomy than before. The mood between us had turned awkward... 

And I had also lost track of how many pushups I had done, but my arms had started to feel very sore and numb so I decided to end it. 

Next is sit ups... 

"Um... Master... You see, there's these girls I'm travelling with, and we're really close, almost like a couple..." 

I got into the sit up position and began to do sit ups 

"And you see... This whole time I felt like one of them didn't like me, yet she always helps me, I just don't know what to do..." 

God I can't even organise my own thoughts properly... Why am I so nervous 

"Was it those girls that were with you?" She asked 

"Yes! Thank you for helping them. Honestly, I'm always putting them in danger, so sometimes I wonder if they hate me, and yet they never leave, so... I don't know..." 

"They don't hate you. Otherwise they would have left." 

"M-Master..." 

"Do you like one of them?" 

For some reason, I was so startled by master's sudden question that I ended up hitting my head too hard on the ground while doing sit ups 

"Oww..." I muttered as I rolled around in pain 

I didn't have magic reinforcement active so it really hurt 

I guess that's enough sit ups... let's do crunches now..." 

"No, we're training your technique today, warm up" 

Technique? Finally! 

"Awesome! I'll start warming up right away!" I replied 

"She's warming up...? I wonder what we're going to be learning" 

While I said that, master suddenly caught up and while she was right beside me, she asked "Do you like one of them or not?" 

Like, huh... Honestly, when I first met ariel, I thought she would be hard to take care of, I had no choice, no one would party with a kid adventurer, and training someone homeless from scratch would suck 

I could have probably bought a slave, but I would have hated myself for it. However, Ariel surpassed my expectations, she had the gift of being able to use magic, and had a caring personality, which made it easy for me to trust her. 

As we got closer and closer, I started to think of us as something like siblings, but recently... Well I'm not sure 

As for serena... from the way we met to the way she acts, is almost contrary to ariel's. She's feisty, can be aggressive, and fights for what she believes in. She also really hates it when someone calls her short. 

At the time, I accepted her request to join the party since we lacked members, but now, I'm glad that I did. Spending time with her is pretty fun, even though we're always arguing 

To me, she's more like a close friend who's always nagging at me, but for my own good. I'm not sure how I feel about her either. 

if they were were to suddenly leave and I were to be left on my own then... Huh? 

Why does my chest hurt, when I think about it... 

"Like huh... I'm not sure, I never had a girlfriend before after all... But what I do know is that they're both very important to me, and if I choose one, then it might change the feeling of the party, and I wouldn't want that..." 

"Then why not go for both?" Master suddenly asked 

Eh? I can do that? I Guess polygamy is allowed... And I mean I went on a date with both of them... But am I really allowed to? Am I really allowed to be spoiled by two cute angels? Well, I wouldn't really consider serena an angel but... 

"hm... master, if the guy you were a couple with suddenly got another girl at the same time, would you-" 

I suddenly stopped when I felt an increased amount of pressure in the air, master's expression looked the same, but for some reason, it was scary... 

"U-Um... Master... Your bloodlust..." 

"S-Sorry" She said before calming down 

That was the first time I ever saw master get mad 

W-Well... M-Maybe, I shouldn't jump to conclusions, I don't know how they'll react, and they may end up really hating me for it... and I wouldn't like that... 

"Master, thank you for the talk. I'll be honest, you made me think about things I didn't consider..." 

For a moment, just a moment, it looked like master smiled as she said "No problem." 

"So master, what are we doing today? If it's not training the muscles?" 

"We're working on your form, you... You don't have a proper dagger stance." 

S-She didn't even need to ask... Was it that easy to tell?