Fire Season, 24th - Overcast

I scribbled two sentences and tossed the pen aside. Yep, this must be the shortest diary entry I've ever written. I bet this record will last a lifetime. Hahahahaha... hahaha... ha...

"...So dark." Lying here, I felt like I was dying. Pitch black before my eyes. Darkness always makes people uneasy, urging me to turn on the light, but I didn't want to move at all. Still, it was way too dark...

In the end, laziness won over unease, and I curled up on the bed. I think I've been in a similar situation before. When was that... about ten years ago?

Chime, I really haven't improved at all, have I? You'd probably laugh at me again.

Knock knock knock... The door was suddenly rapped on.

"Mira? The door's unlocked. If you need something, come in." Usually, room doors weren't locked. Besides Mira, no one else would knock.

Flip-flop, flip-flop. The sound of slippers shuffling reached my ears. Clearly, it wasn't Mira—she never wore slippers and never made such loud footsteps. Only one person here did that.

"Luo Sa." A loli voice came from behind.

"Hmm..." The moment I heard Loli's voice, I felt an incurable disappointment seep into my reply.

Flip-flop, flip-flop... The shuffling sounds slowly approached, stopping about a meter away—probably at the bedside.

"..."

"Go sleep in your own room..." Lately, Loli had been insisting on sleeping with me every night, but I always refused. Today, I really wasn't in the mood to deal with her antics.

"..." Loli recalled what Mo Mo had just told her. She looked at my huddled back on the bed, thought for a moment, then ignored me and ran to turn on the light.

"...What are you doing?" The sudden light was blinding. I struggled to raise my right hand to block the lamp, squinting at Loli by the door.

"If something's bothering you, it's better to talk about it, you know?" After turning on the light, Loli ran over, planted her hands on the bed, and leaned in close.

"...Do I look weird like this?" I asked a stupid question.

"Mm-hmm." Loli nodded without hesitation. "If you need it, I can be your bedmate tonight."

"...Stop messing around. What bedmate for a kid? That's criminal! I'm not that depraved." I poked Loli's forehead.

"I'm over a hundred years old, not a kid," Loli retorted, rubbing her forehead with one hand, a hint of defiance in her voice.

Tch... Non-human girls are great, but the gap between their appearance and actual age is always too big. I just can't see this cute little girl as an old lady!

"Alright, alright. Don't worry, I'm fine now." Loli's antics actually lifted my mood quite a bit.

"Then good night." Loli seemed to notice this too. She pushed herself up, hands behind her back.

"Good night." I watched as Loli turned off the light and left the room.

...

The room plunged back into darkness. With it came silence—nothing but my breathing could be heard.

Come to think of it, ever since I met her, we've slept together every night... Maybe this is better now.

It's just that she's not here. It's not a big deal. I'll be fine without her. Making a fuss like that was just torturing myself and worrying Loli and Mira. Why bother? Thinking this way, I was really stupid...

Without realizing it, my twisted self-comfort had already taken hold.

The night will pass, and the sun will rise as usual.

Today, I woke up much later than usual—or rather, I was woken by Mira's knock.

"Mr. Luo Sa, it's breakfast time." Opening the door, I saw Mira standing there.

"Hmm... I'll freshen up first and join you later. You go ahead." I rubbed my eyes and replied.

"There's no rush. I'll wait here with Mr. Luo Sa." Mira stepped aside, moving to the doorframe. "The weather doesn't seem great today, Mr. Luo Sa. What do you think?" ... Outside the window, the sun was shining brightly.

"...I think the weather might actually be quite nice today." I glanced at the window now visible as Mira moved aside. After a moment of silence, I smiled and shook my head.

"Understood. Then I wish Mr. Luo Sa a pleasant day as always www." Mira nodded and fell silent.

So I slipped back into my room, quickly washed up, and headed to the dining room with Mira.

As soon as I entered, I saw Nia chuckling lewdly, while Mo Mo flew around with a look of utter disgust. Behind Mo Mo trailed a golden thing.

"Heh heh heh..." Nia grinned like a pervert.

"Ew, get away from me!" Mo Mo wore an expression of disdain, as if looking at an otaku. And there was good reason for that.

Actually, Nia was pulling a prank. As everyone knows, Slimes have shape-shifting abilities. Their gel-like bodies can morph into various forms, scaling with their power. Nia, being a top-tier Slime, had exceptional skills.

Right now, she was using a small piece of herself to mimic Mo Mo's form, copying her movements as she flew. The fake Mo Mo had Nia's golden, translucent texture—identical in size and appearance, mimicking her actions. No wonder Mo Mo looked like she was about to call the cops if it came any closer.

"...You're going to lose your Mo Mo like this." After watching from the doorway, I couldn't take it anymore and chimed in.

"Oh, Luo Sa, good morning." Whether out of conscience or because my words made sense, Nia stopped teasing Mo Mo.

"Exactly! I've decided to ignore you!" Mo Mo stomped her foot angrily at Nia.

"Eh... how long this time?" Nia asked, used to this routine.

"Hmm... 3 hours and 47 minutes." Mo Mo replied.

"Eh—alright." Nia wriggled but said no more.

I glanced at the clock: 8:13 AM. Perfect time for lunch. They must have done this many times before.

After checking the time, I scanned the room... Only Nia and Mo Mo were there.

"..." I opened my mouth but swallowed my words, then turned to Mira. "Has Loli not woken up yet?"

Mira didn't speak; she just pointed to her right rear.

Following her finger, I saw Loli running over in a black dress. She seemed to love black.

"Good morning." Loli bounced over to me, looked up, and greeted me.

"Morning... Did Nia give you those socks?" I asked, noticing the black over-knee socks on Loli's legs. She hadn't had them until yesterday.

"Do they look good?" Loli spun around quickly. Her skirt flew up realistically, but since we were close, I didn't see her panties. What a... ahem.

"They look great. Did you thank her properly?" When it comes to dressing girls, Nia, being a girl herself, was the expert. Just adding over-knee socks made it hard to look away from this beautiful girl.

"Hmm... not yet." Loli shook her head, her long hair swaying with the motion. Would twin tails make her even cuter?

"Go thank her first." I ruffled Loli's hair.

"Got it." Loli tilted her head and gently bumped my stomach with her short horn hidden by her hair... If she grew any bigger, that could be lethal. Please, break this habit.

Then Loli ran to Nia, mumbled a perfunctory "thank you" in Demon Realm dialect, and dashed back. She used that language even though she could speak Oranda.

"What did you tell Loli to say to me?" Nia asked suspiciously, unable to understand and noticing Loli's half-hearted attitude.

"I told her to thank you for the socks." I led Loli to the dining table and sat down.

"Oh, that. Dressing up cute girls is my life's goal, so no need to thank me. By the way, Loli looks really pretty in them~ That absolute territory~"

After breakfast, I followed Mira to the training room. With nothing much going on lately, I spent most of my days here training.

"Mr. Luo Sa, we'll pause offensive training for now." Today, Mira didn't stand still like usual for me to attack her.

We'd been doing that for a while. They say to learn fighting, you must first learn to take hits. But I was completely clueless, so Mira had been drilling attack techniques into me.

"So what's next?" I had a bad feeling. Following the pattern, next would be...

"The previous training can't teach you more. So now, we'll move to real combat training. Mr. Luo Sa will learn to fight through actual battles." Mira's words confirmed my suspicion.

"This time, I won't hold back. But I'll still limit my strength to match yours. For the first phase, Mr. Luo Sa, aim to last ten seconds against me."

For some reason, I felt a dangerous aura emanating from Mira now.

"Alright, bring it on..." What must come will come. If I ran away now out of fear, all that training would be wasted.

The result was obvious. Before, when Mira stood still and used only one hand, she could beat me easily. Unrestricted Mira was naturally even harder to handle.

I'd thought that since I could last dozens of rounds with her before, I'd manage a couple of moves now. But reality proved I was naive. Fighting a moving opponent was completely different from a stationary one.

Previously, Mira used only one hand, so I just needed to focus on one target. And since she didn't move, I only had to watch one direction.

But now, Mira moved freely, attacking from all directions. I, used to focusing on one direction, wasn't accustomed to this kind of combat.

So the entire day, I was ground into the floor by Mira. Repeatedly knocked down, unable to last even an extra second.

"Mr. Luo Sa's combat awareness is really poor... We'll take it slow." After today's training, Mira said with a hint of helplessness.

"...Yeah." I touched my face, feeling a dull ache all over. It was simulated training, but the pain was all too real.

I’m not sure if it’s just my imagination, but Mira seems to really enjoy face-slapping others…

After dinner, I borrowed a game console from Nia. Apart from no online play, it’s just like Earth’s handhelds. For a transmigrator, the perks aren’t bad at all.

The loli, who had zero interest in the console, started an exploration game inside the house. Truth was, she’d tried this long ago—but seeing Humility nearly made her cry, so she quit. After all, anyone would freak out the first time they spot a pair of flying gloves in a huge mansion like this.

That incident hit Humility hard too. He even wondered if he looked too terrifying… In fact, no one knew what Humility looked like—not the other seven of the Eight Virtues, not even their master Nia.

Only after growing familiar with Humility did the loli finally shake off that fear. Today, she suddenly remembered she could restart her exploration game. But honestly, as a demon… no, as the Demon King, getting scared by a ghost felt kinda cowardly, didn’t it?

Around bedtime, I returned the console to Nia and headed to my room. I also led the loli—who was whining to sleep with me—back to her own room. After writing my diary, I turned off the light, lay down, and called it a day.

The last line read:

*A day without ▉▉▉ (blacked out).*

This kind of daily life… doesn’t seem so bad, does it?