Nothing to Worry About
I was out at a cafe a bit early today.
And I wasn't alone. I was with Lilit Tistina—my lover, and perhaps the woman I would marry one day.
She had surprised me by showing up at my dormitory early this morning.
She said she felt a strange sense of anxiety and couldn't bear to be apart, even though we had only been separated for a single day.
Since she was already here, we decided to go on a casual date.
Come to think of it, was this my very first date, spanning both my past life and this one?
A strange flutter of excitement stirred in my chest.
Lilit seemed to feel the same way. Even as we sat across from each other at the table, she held my hand tightly.
She kept absentmindedly squeezing and tracing my fingers.
"Hehe... Is it because we're dating now? Even though we've been to this cafe so many times, being here with you today feels completely different."
"Huh? Ah, you're right... Now that I think about it, we used to hang out at this cafe all the time when we were just friends."
"Exactly~ We used to come here as friends... and now, before I knew it, we're back here as lovers."
Ever since her dating plan with Marc Visus fell through, she and I had frequented this cafe.
I had worried she would be heartbroken over not ending up with Marc, but fortunately, she recovered quickly.
After all, she was always bright and cheerful, greeting me with a warm smile every time we met.
Looking back, others might have mistaken us for a couple even then.
Well, we actually were a couple now.
"Yeah. Back when we hung out all the time, I never dared to dream we'd end up like this."
Although she said she was fine, I had secretly been anxious this whole time.
We were lovers now, but if you traced it back to the beginning, wasn't it all because of the one-night mistake I had made?
I worried she might just be forcing herself to act like she loved me out of a sense of obligation, simply because she had given me her first time.
But that worry melted away when I looked at how she had behaved over the last three days, and the genuine, honest gaze she was directing at me right now.
"Uh-oh. Rofel, didn't I tell you not to put yourself down so much?"
"Ah, sorry, sorry. It's a hard habit to break."
"Rofel, if there's one thing I want you to fix, it's that. Sometimes it actually breaks my heart... I'm asking this carefully, but... did something bad happen in your childhood? Or with your family?"
"Haha, it's nothing like that. It's just my nature, so don't worry too much."
If I were to go into detail, it would be related to my past life.
Just thinking about my past life made it hard to breathe.
A life where no one accepted me, where I faced nothing but rejection.
Memories of a past life where I wasn't living day by day, but slowly dying.
But of course, there was no need to tell her about my past life or those memories.
It wasn't a pleasant topic, and it wasn't something she needed to know anyway.
...And honestly, it was too painful to say out loud.
"Rofel? What's wrong? Your face suddenly went dark. Come to think of it, you look really tired... Did I come too early after all?"
Lilit looked up at me, her voice laced with concern.
I probably did look exhausted right now.
I couldn't stop yawning, and my eyes felt hollow and sunken.
"Oh, it's not that. I just... remembered a bad time, that's all. And don't worry about the time. I'm usually awake by now anyway. I just went to bed late last night because a lot of things happened after I got back to the dorm."
Starting with Seraphina Serion's sudden visit, I had also received letters from the other two heroines of the original game, Eliseo Gremlina and Isabella Kshatri, at the same time.
And for some reason, all three of them had brought up my marriage prospects.
It had left my head spinning in confusion.
I was worried that I might have gotten so deeply involved with them that it would disrupt the original storyline.
But thinking about it again, I hadn't really done anything out of the ordinary.
Although their letters contained some slightly misleading phrasing, in the end, they were just worrying about me as a friend.
"What kind of things?"
"It's nothing major. Seraphina was waiting in front of the dorm, and besides that..."
"What? Seraphina Serion? Why was that bitch waiting for you?"
The moment Seraphina Serion's name left my mouth, Lilit cut me off.
Her voice was so sharp that I flinched slightly.
"Huh? Ah... Well, I was surprised at first because she said she'd been waiting all day, but it turned out to be nothing."
"What? She didn't just wait, she waited for a whole day? Why? What did she come to see you for?"
"Well... it seems Seraphina heard about my marriage talks from her father. Normally, I would have marriage arrangements lined up with other noble ladies after graduation, and she came to talk to me about that. She told me to cancel all future marriage talks."
"Marriage talks? Ah, right... Indeed, even in the reply to that letter..."
She lowered her head and muttered softly to herself.
Then she looked back up at me, her expression sour.
"But who does she think she is, telling you what to do with your marriage arrangements, Rofel?"
"Seraphina considers me a close friend, so I think she just wanted to give me some advice. We did help each other out during the sparring exam before, after all."
"I know that. She's been hovering around you ever since. What I'm asking is, what does that have to do with her bossing you around about your marriage?!"
"Wait, wait. Calm down first. I'll tell you exactly what we talked about yesterday."
I recounted my conversation with Seraphina from the day before to Lilit, word for word.
Everything from her bringing up the marriage talks to her sudden shift in attitude after hearing my response.
"...Is that really true?"
"Of course! We said exactly that, word for word."
"...Rofel, you really need to reconsider your attitude."
"...Huh? What do you mean by that?"
"Sigh... Rofel, you really are a charming, wonderful person, but that side of you is just..."
She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, looking like she had a headache.
I couldn't help but feel puzzled.
What was the problem?
Well... I did think it was strange how Seraphina's attitude had suddenly shifted, but still.
"Rofel, when are you going to meet Seraphina again?"
"Well... we haven't set a specific date, so we'll probably just run into each other at the academy."
"I doubt it. I bet Seraphina will come looking for you again very soon. And she'll be completely bloated with her own misunderstandings and delusions."
Lilit continued, her expression tight with displeasure.
"Listen to me. If Seraphina calls for you, no matter when or where, you must go with me. Even if she insists on meeting you alone, you absolutely must!"
Lilit seemed exceptionally wary of Seraphina.
Then again, even if we were just friends, Seraphina Serion was a woman, and a famously beautiful one at the academy.
If I were in her shoes and my partner was meeting a famous beauty alone, I'd worry too. It was only natural for Lilit, as my girlfriend, to feel anxious about Seraphina.
"Alright. I actually wanted to explain our relationship to Seraphina anyway. It'll be easier to explain if we go together."
"Yes, always keep that in mind, Rofel. You are my boyfriend, and I am your girlfriend. You must never forget that!"
Lilit leaned in until our noses almost touched, declaring it with a slight furrow of her brow.
Looking at her face so close to mine, I found her incredibly cute.
Perhaps that was why I leaned forward without thinking.
Chu.
!
Even though we had already seen everything there was to see of each other naked in bed, she still seemed flustered by the sudden kiss.
Her fierce attitude from a moment ago vanished, replaced by a deep blush.
She glared at me with a look of mock resentment, the corners of her mouth twitching as she tried to suppress a smile.
"Ugh... Rofel, you...! That's... really unfair..."
"Sorry. I just thought you looked too cute to resist."
"Honestly...! I'm being serious here, and you're...!"
I pulled her close, wrapping her in a warm embrace.
Supporting her back, I gently stroked her hair with one hand.
Then, I whispered softly into her ear.
"Don't worry. No matter what anyone says, I'm your boyfriend."
"...Promise me."
Finally, she wrapped her arms around my waist.
We held each other, sharing our warmth, completely forgetting that we were in a cafe.
Fortunately, it was still early and there were no other customers around, so we didn't have to feel embarrassed.
"But Rofel, you said 'besides that...' What else happened other than Seraphina?"
She was sharper than I thought, picking up on the detail even though I had been cut off earlier.
"Ah... it's nothing. I just got some letters from other friends asking about the marriage talks, so I wrote back to them. It took longer than I expected, which is why I went to bed late."
"...Replies? You wrote them yourself?"
"Of course! I wrote them very carefully so as not to offend anyone, so don't worry."
"...I knew it. Now I'm really anxious."
She looked highly dissatisfied, but she eventually closed her eyes and snuggled deeper into my chest, choosing to enjoy the feeling of being held.
What was there to be anxious about, anyway?
Come to think of it, my father, my sister, and everyone else around me always got incredibly anxious whenever I wrote letters myself.
They said I had a knack for making people misunderstand things in weird ways.
Well, this time I had stuck strictly to the facts in my replies, so there shouldn't be any strange misunderstandings.
Probably.