“Mira…”

After getting knocked down by her for I-don’t-know-how-many-times, I didn’t bother getting back up for another beating. I just stayed lying on the floor.

【Mr. Luo Sa, what’s wrong?】

Mira walked over, stopping a short distance away from me.

I raised my right hand straight up, palm facing the ceiling. Staring at the back of my hand, I suddenly felt lost, like staring at my schedule after Golden Week and realizing I had two full weeks of nonstop classes ahead…

“What am I even doing…?”

I dragged myself to exhaustion every day, like a dog, yet it still felt like something was missing.

【What is it that Mr. Luo Sa wants to do?】

Mira didn’t answer me directly. Instead, she threw the question back at me.

“…What do I want to do? That’s…”

That was a hard one. If I had to say it, ever since coming to this world, I’d never really had a clear goal. At first I just struggled to stay alive. After meeting Aefina, I simply followed along behind her. And now that I’m living here with Nia, my goals have completely evaporated.

Maybe Mira sensed my hesitation, because she changed the question:

【Then, what is Mr. Luo Sa working hard here for?】

Her words sparked a flash of memory in my mind—a conversation from before I came to this world.

“Why do you keep learning this and that every single day? What’s the point?”

“Have you never heard ‘live to old age, learn to old age’? You can never have too many skills!”

“Photography, calligraphy, fine. But you? You can only keep a cactus alive. What’s the point of you learning flower arranging?”

“How can you diss cacti? They’re so cute!”

“I’m not dissing cacti. I just don’t get why you’re learning all this stuff you’ll never use. Isn’t it tiring?”

“It’s fine. I’m just the type who can’t sit still. Besides, you never know when this stuff might come in handy.”

“Come in handy, huh? Then why don’t you learn how to cook?”

“Hehe, isn’t that what you’re for?”

“Che. Planning to freeload off me for life? Not getting married or what?”

“Hehehe~ it’s way too early for you to worry about that.”

“Tch… whatever. But Chime, at least take a break once in a while. Hmm—how about hitting a con with me this weekend?”

“Mm… I’ll squeeze in some time to go with you. But Luo Sa, there’s one thing you’ve got wrong.”

“What is it?”

“No matter when, it’s never a bad thing to learn more. At least for me, I think that making myself study all kinds of things, improving myself, becoming a better version of me—that in itself is something really, really meaningful.”

…

Becoming better is, in itself, something meaningful… huh?

So am I learning combat skills from Mira just to improve myself? …It doesn’t really feel like that. I actually have a much more straightforward goal.

“I just want to lighten Aefina’s burden a bit. At least enough so she can go all-out in a fight without having to stick to my side protecting me.”

Yeah. That’s my goal. That’s why I’m training here. I don’t know how far I can go, but it’s definitely better than doing nothing.

【Mr. Luo Sa’s confusion lately is because you’re separated from Miss Aefina, isn’t it?】

Of course I couldn’t hide it from Mira… or maybe I was just that obvious.

“Yeah… I keep feeling like I’m kind of unnecessary.”

Maybe that’s why I never know what to say in front of Aefina… I feel like a third wheel, so I clam up. Guess my possessiveness is stronger than I thought.

【I don’t think Mr. Luo Sa needs to torment himself over that.】

Mira came a bit closer and sat cross-legged beside me.

【Miss Aefina’s feelings are very clear. To her, Mr. Luo Sa is someone irreplaceable. I don’t think that’s wrong.】

Very clear, huh? Am I just too caught up in it to see?

Maybe that really is the case…

The Loli who’d been sitting against the wall with Courage also got up and ran over. She stopped by my side and placed her hand on the one I had raised.

“Luo Sa is irreplaceable.”

The Loli bent forward slightly, smiling as she spoke.

Knew it—you can understand Oranda, can’t you?

“…I can see your panties.”

She was standing where my head was pointing, and she was wearing a skirt with no safety shorts. So lying there, I didn’t even have to try; I could see everything under her skirt clearly.

“It’s fine if it’s Luo Sa.”

The Loli didn’t mind at all, spouting a line straight out of a harem anime heroine’s script.

“…”

I gave her soft little hand a squeeze, then rolled to the side and kipped up off the floor.

Back in the day, if I’d tried that, I’d have stalled halfway and faceplanted, turning the move into a dead fish flop instead of a cool kip-up… I really have gotten stronger, haven’t I?

“Come to think of it, it’s already been a week since I last saw Aefina… Should I go check on her?”

Honestly, after screwing up like that, I can’t seem to work up the courage to go see her…

Damn it, what’s a guy pushing thirty doing being this emo?!

“Go, go!”

The Loli tugged at my sleeve, grinning.

“If only I could be as cheerfully carefree as you every day…”

I ruffled her hair roughly. Using the patented head-pat on a Loli really does lift your mood…

Hm? Her horn looks like it grew a tiny bit longer…?

I should probably get myself together a bit before going to see Aefina…

I’m not chickening out. Nope.

“Mira, do I look really lost right now?” I asked her.

【Yes, Mr. Luo Sa. If your heart is full of confusion, it’s hard to make progress.】

Seeing me stand up, Mira rose to her feet as well.

“I see…”

I took a deep breath, then lifted my head and looked at Mira.

“Let’s keep going.”

【No problem.】

Mira nodded and walked to stand across from me.

Because our strength difference was just too big—even if she suppressed her power to my level—it still wasn’t really fair. So before we started sparring, Mira would always open up a distance of over ten meters, giving me some prep time.

But halfway there, she suddenly stopped. Then she turned to look toward one side.

“What’s wrong?”

I followed her gaze, but saw nothing except the wall.

Before Mira could answer, the training room door opened.

A Nia appeared in the doorway.

“What are you doing here?” I stared at her in surprise.

Ever since that time she’d introduced the Eight Virtues, Nia hadn’t set foot in the training room once. So seeing her show up now really was rare.

“Courage, turn off the sim.”

Nia hopped in, shut the door, and gave Courage the order.

“No problem, boss.”

Courage waved his hand, and the simulated combat system shut down.

Normally, I get beaten up by Mira hundreds of times a day. If we didn’t have the combat sim, I’d have died several times over by now. And even if I somehow didn’t, I’d be spending all my time recovering from injuries. Since I mainly need combat experience, we almost always keep the simulation running.

“Luo Sa, what day is it today?”

Nia looked at me, clearly annoyed.

“Today… the 32nd?”

I keep a diary every day, so at least I know the date.

“How many days has it been since the 25th?”

Second question.

“…Seven?”

I still couldn’t tell what she was getting at.

Nia didn’t answer. She just walked up to me, extended a tentacle, lifted it—and…

“Smack!”

The tentacle whipped across my face like a slap. It was so fast I didn’t even react.

“That’s on behalf of Aefina!” Nia snapped. “It’s been a whole week, and you still haven’t gone to see her. How thick can you get?”

“…”

I had nothing to say. It really was my own stupidity… But thinking back now, why was I so agitated when Aefina said she wanted to leave that day…?

“Do you know why Aefina went to live in that cave over there?”

Seeing me stay silent, Nia sighed and shook her head.

“Eh…?”

I’d originally thought Aefina was just tired of sticking with me, but now that I’d cooled down, that didn’t really add up. That night when we formed the contract, I’d understood how she felt pretty clearly, hadn’t I?

“When a Great Dragon is molting, it’ll affect the process if she stays in human form for too long…”

Nia laid out the real reason, and explained the details of a Great Dragon’s molting period.

“Why didn’t she tell me that…”

So that’s how it is…

Even if it made things harder for her, she still transformed and stayed by my side.

Aefina…

“Couldn’t you tell something was off with her? You couldn’t ask?”

Nia’s tone was still full of irritation.

“You both kept quiet. Of course that was going to blow up in your faces!”

I had noticed something was wrong. I just thought Aefina felt down because being with me was boring.

Back then, we basically weren’t talking at all, and I was too wound up to pay proper attention to her.

“I was planning to let you figure it out on your own, but at this rate, Aefina’s just waiting and suffering. So I came to give you a little hint.”

Nia shook her head helplessly.

It was only a few words, but everything suddenly clicked in my mind. I finally understood why things had turned out like this.

After leaving Sivira, I’d always been with Aefina. And aside from my feelings for her, I’d also had no choice. In that situation, if I didn’t stick with her, there was a very good chance I’d die.

So my reasons for traveling with Aefina, besides liking her, also included survival pressure. And the fact that it’s unbearably lonely to be alone. That’s why I wanted to go with her.

For me, Aefina is irreplaceable. I need to rely on her to stay alive, and she’s the only person I can talk to without holding anything back.

My fondness for her got all tangled up with those helpless reasons, and together they became the feelings I had for her back then.

From Aefina’s side, it was similar. I was the only human she’d ever met who didn’t hate her for being a Great Dragon—someone who actually liked her.

She wanted to get close to human society, and my high cooking skill was a bonus, so she agreed to let me travel with her.

Things that happened during our journey made her grow fond of me too, and her feelings got mixed with those same factors.

The way we valued each other was heavily influenced by how “one-of-a-kind” we thought the other person was. That wasn’t a problem while we were out traveling.

But at Nia’s place, cracks started to show.

First, at Nia’s home, the survival pressure vanished. In terms of safety and comfort, this place is top-tier.

Plus, Nia is a fellow transmigrant from my original world, so we have tons of topics to talk about. The loneliness problem went away too.

The same applies to Aefina. Everyone here is kind, and no one hates her for being a Great Dragon.

Nia, with her information-overloaded Earth brain, has a treasure trove of knowledge. For a Great Dragon who’d always been alone, that’s incredibly attractive. So Aefina no longer has to talk only to me.

At that point, the “only one” status we held for each other disappeared.

And the feelings we had—so tightly mixed with that sense of uniqueness—were bound to wobble once that uniqueness was gone.

On top of that, when the problems came up, neither of us talked about it. So things ended up like this. I even started doubting my own feelings for Aefina.

When “the only one” stops being the only one, of course there’ll be problems.