"Huh? Shin, where did you just run off to?"
Tohru, carrying breakfast into the dining room, looked surprised as she saw Shin suddenly appear in the room.
When she woke up earlier, Shin was already gone, and she thought he had left the house early for some reason.
But unexpectedly, after finishing breakfast, she saw Shin suddenly reappear—drenched in sweat, as if he had just gone through an intense workout.
"I went out for some morning exercise."
Despite being covered in sweat, Shin smiled nonchalantly and casually offered a plausible excuse.
It wasn't entirely wrong to call it morning exercise—he had trained for several hours with the Kaioken on King Kai's planet, and his progress was remarkably fast.
Perhaps because he had prior experience with power multipliers like "Berserk" and "Numeral of the Saint," Shin adapted to the Kaioken at an astonishing rate. Even King Kai was stunned by his learning speed and repeatedly praised Shin, saying he truly lived up to being the God of Destruction's chosen proxy.
Though, to be fair, Shin still hadn't actually met Beerus in person yet.
Because he got a little too absorbed in training, Shin returned to the real world slightly late, which was why Tohru noticed his absence.
There was a difference between entering the Dragon Ball world through "King's Army" and entering through the system.
If he entered a mission world through the system, Shin's physical condition would reset upon returning to the real world—injuries, fatigue, and the like wouldn't carry over.
But if he entered a mission world through King's Army," there was no such benefit, which was why Shin was still covered in post-training sweat.
"Alright, I'll go take a shower first."
Since he still had to go to school today, Shin naturally couldn't show up drenched in sweat. So, nodding at Tohru, he headed for the bathroom.
"Okay, I'll wash the clothes Shin changes out of!"
Tohru, bouncing excitedly after him, wore a bright smile—though if one looked closely, there was a faint trace of excitement in her expression.
Shin knew that Tohru was probably planning to smell the clothes he changed out of before washing them.
As mentioned before, Tohru sometimes had some rather obsessive tendencies—behaviors like sniffing someone else's laundry were the kinds of things a stalker would do.
But since Tohru was a beautiful girl, Shin didn't mind too much.
After finishing his shower and changing into his school uniform, Shin stepped out of the bathroom and glanced at the laundry basket by the door.
Sure enough, the clothes he had changed out of were already gone—likely taken by Tohru to wash.
Though what she might have done with them before washing was anyone's guess... As long as they ended up clean in the end, it was fine.
On his way to the dining room, Shin spotted Gabriel, already dressed in her maid outfit and sweeping the hallway as part of her duties.
As he approached her, Shin expected Gabriel to greet him as usual.
But to his surprise, even as he walked right past her, Gabriel acted as if she hadn't seen him at all—not uttering a single word.
Puzzled, Shin turned to look at Gabriel and noticed that her expression seemed displeased. She kept her head down, sweeping silently.
"Hm? What's wrong? Bad mood?"
Shin stopped and asked Gabriel curiously.
This was the first time he had seen Gabriel sulking like this—though she sometimes got angry over online games, her expression then was completely different. If something frustrating had happened in a game, Gabriel would have already started venting to him angrily, not staying silent like this.
Hearing Shin's question, Gabriel puffed out her cheeks unhappily and turned her face away.
Now Shin was sure—Gabriel's displeasure seemed to be directed at him!
But Shin genuinely couldn't think of what he might have done to upset her. Everything had been fine last night when they were gaming together, and Gabriel hadn't complained about anything.
Was she jealous? That didn't seem likely—with so many girls in his household, if Gabriel were the jealous type, she would've been jealous long ago. Why would she suddenly start now?
Had she suddenly awakened a maiden's heart, making her prone to jealousy?
If it were any other girl, Shin might have believed it, but Gabriel... he simply couldn't imagine her suddenly developing a maiden's heart.
Maybe pre-fallen Gabriel could have, but the current Gabriel was completely obsessed with online games—any maidenly feelings had long been thrown to the dogs.
"Gabriel, I take it you don't want your paycheck anymore?"
However, Shin knew exactly how to handle this version of Gabriel—by threatening her paycheck.
Gabriel needed that paycheck to save up enough money to buy back the Horn of Apocalypse and free herself from Vigne's "clutches."
Sure enough, the moment Shin calmly issued that threat, Gabriel shuddered before glaring at him resentfully and revealing the reason for her displeasure:
"You promised to team up with someone else yesterday, didn't you?"
"Team up?"
Shin blinked before realizing what she meant.
"You mean Girl A?"
Last night, after Gabriel logged off, Shin had chatted for a while with his teammate whose username was "Girl A," and they agreed to team up for the next new dungeon's launch.
But what surprised Shin was that Gabriel had found out about this first thing in the morning. How?
"The first thing I did after waking up was log into the game."
Gabriel, seemingly sensing his confusion, explained proudly—though Shin didn't see what was so praiseworthy about that.
"And when I went online, Girl A told me about it."
Hearing this, Shin understood—Girl A was also a game-addicted night owl! She had been playing nonstop from last night until this morning!
Was the "self-proclaimed cute girl who's obsessed with gaming" some kind of common archetype now?
"It's just teaming up—no need to get this mad over it, right?"
But now that he knew why Gabriel was upset, Shin found it even more absurd.
He was close with so many girls in the house, and Gabriel had never shown any signs of displeasure.
Yet, the moment he made plans to team up with someone else in-game, Gabriel suddenly acted all jealous.
Now Shin understood—Gabriel could get jealous and possessive.
It was just that her possessiveness was tied to games. When Shin acted closer to someone else in-game than to her, that was when Gabriel would get jealous.
To be continued…
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