Five hours had passed since everything happened. Enrico and Valença paid for a carriage to take them back to the academy. As Valença got in, she thought she wished she could've stayed longer being carried on his back. Enrico exchanged a few words with the carriage driver before getting in right after. That battle had been tough, so he was feeling a lot of pain.
"Enrico..."
"Yes?"
"Do you want to rest your head on my lap?"
[You're not going to accept, are you?]
The system didn't want him to accept because it seemed embarrassing for her. Valença, on the other hand, was nervous, wondering if he would accept, especially since she did that while Enrico was in that weird unconscious state.
"Of course."
[You have no shame?]
To her surprise, Enrico laid down. He had been wanting to rest for a while, and with his body aching, walking all the time would be a pain, so he wouldn't refuse a good rest. Her eyes looked excited despite the sadness still present.
She began stroking his hair with a slightly sad look, remembering how Val'Drakar always left her alone with him whenever she started doing this.
"So it was you? Well, it makes sense—I don't think Val'Drakar would do that."
Valença looked confused at Enrico, and he explained that he once felt like someone was stroking his head. She had done that many times, not just once, but he didn't need to know that.
"I'd like to ask you something... what was that state you were in?"
She had wanted to know ever since she saw him like that, but with all the training she had done to improve, she hadn't had many chances to ask Val'Drakar, and when she did, he remained silent, unwilling to reveal it to her—maybe because it was something dangerous.
"You know that technique I failed? Well, it's that. A family secret, so I can't reveal it."
He lied. That family didn't even know this existed, but he preferred not to tell them and end up losing someone because of it. Besides, their potential was already high, so it wasn't necessary. Valença nodded while continuing to stroke his hair.
'So that was the technique he failed at... makes sense, after he came back hurt from that cave.'
Enrico started to fall asleep and closed his eyes. With a smile on her face, Valença had a calm and caring look. If Enrico ever went back to how he was before, she wouldn't give him a chance like this again—but she'd try to bring him back to how he is now, no matter what.
'I really started to love him... damn, my rival.'
Finally, after a while, they arrived safely, and Valença woke Enrico, who had wanted to rest a bit more. Walking to Astrong Academy, they arrived a few minutes later. Valença was wondering what kind of girl he liked, but they were interrupted by running noises coming from the front.
"What the—"
Enrico was hugged by Yumeha, who looked happy. Right behind her came Rina, Aoi, Seraphina, Serenya, and Kai running from behind. Everyone seemed surprised because of something—except Kai, who looked excited. Valença looked at Yumeha with an extremely calm but deadly gaze. Seraphina and Serenya both asked at the same time:
"Reaching the second circle is amazing, Enrico!"
"Subordinate, you really reached the second circle..."
"How did y—"
He was about to ask, but then looked at Yumeha and realized it. Since they were linked, she must have reached the second circle at the same time he did, and because of her excitement, everyone probably found out. Yumeha seemed to notice something and kneeled with an apologetic face.
"Sorry for hugging you without permission, Master."
"No need to apologize. You're my Musubinin, so it's fine."
Her eyes sparkled because her master was so kind—it must have been a gift from God for all she had endured. Valença, on the other hand, wanted to understand more about this Musubinin thing and what it had to do with hugging.
"Enrico, why don't you become my Ketsumei already? I'm sure that now that we're in the same circle, we're perfect for each other."
Rina tried to convince him with her words. She didn't understand why he hadn't accepted her as his Musubinin yet. Aoi, behind her, was surprised behind that mask—now she truly believed he had the same potential as them.
The conversation between Rina and Enrico was long. He insisted they should wait, and she insisted it should be right away. Kai wanted to interrupt to ask for his rematch, so he took a step forward.
"Enrico, I'm getting stronger, and I know you've completely surpassed me now, but I still want to fight you."
"Sure, how about tomorrow after class?"
"...You accepted? Alright, see you tomorrow."
Kai immediately got excited and headed to the training field, even though it was almost night. Serenya was irritated about something, and Valença, seeing him surrounded by all those girls, decided to mark her territory. She stepped forward and placed her hand on Enrico's hair.
"Enrico, I wanted to ask you something before we were interrupted."
All the girls narrowed their eyes at Valença—only Aoi remained calm but interested in what was about to happen. As for Enrico, he didn't really care about the hand on his head.
"Go ahead."
"What kind of girls do you like?"
The girls immediately understood what was going on and looked at Enrico, who remained silent. Even if they didn't like the way Valença was acting, depending on his answer, they would know if they had a better chance—even if it didn't mean they would give up easily.
[Enrico, isn't that the kind of question her friend should've asked Kai?]
'Yeah…'
Valença's friend wasn't a very important character—she wasn't even given a name in the original story. She was just someone who gave Valença love advice. The friend wasn't even a mage, just a civilian. But now there seemed to be a problem because it wasn't her friend who asked and it wasn't for Kai.
[So why was the question for you?]
'Should be obvious, right?'
[Unbelievable that someone actually has feelings for you…]
Enrico had noticed Valença acted differently around him—especially today. Before today it was just suspicion, but in that time, he had noticed very clearly what she was feeling. There was only one problem: depending on his answer, she might change her personality. Whatever—it was better to be honest about what he liked. Why lie? Besides, the answer might even make her stronger.
"I mainly like beautiful and strong girls."
Serenya, Rina, and Valença were already confident, thinking they were ahead. Seraphina and Yumeha immediately started planning to work harder to get stronger. Aoi, who only cared about having fun, thought this was her chance.
'That's a perfect description of me. Should I accept this confession just to have fun teasing the others?'
Seeing the look on the girls' faces, Enrico realized that most of them liked him. The only one who didn't show it was Aoi—but with that mask, how could he know?
'I think I may have caused some confusion in the academy.'
He looked innocently at the girls while the system, glowing, called him a monster and said those girls shouldn't be falling for him.