The next morning, Shun was woken up by the feeling of something warm and soft leaving his embrace. As expected, it was Ana, who still had to go to work in the morning.
However, Shun, who had nothing to do that morning, had no intention of getting up. After all, half a year ago he was still a university student who only knew how to eat, sleep, and sleep after eating.
Now that he had finally settled down completely, no one could make him wake up early. He didn't want to attend any 8 AM classes either!
His consciousness grew fuzzy again. Sure enough, this was the speed at which university students fell back asleep… While Shun was still thinking this, he had clearly already fallen asleep again.
After quite some time had passed, Shun finally woke up from the bed. When he went out and checked, the hour hand of the clock was already pointing close to ten. Was this the result of not staying up late last night?
If this were in the past when he had no morning classes, there was no way he would have gotten up before eleven.
Shun scratched his messy, bird's-nest-like hair and went down to the first-floor living room. There, he saw a note that Ana had left for him on the dining table.
"I know you might not wake up so early in the morning, so I've put the breakfast I prepared for you in the microwave. Remember to heat it up. You're not allowed to skip breakfast, okay!"
Besides that, Ana had also drawn a simple chibi figure next to it. Shun could tell at a glance that it was her Chibi-version big-head portrait.
"Hehe, as expected of my wife. So cute." Shun stared at it for quite a while before putting the note down and heading toward the microwave in the kitchen.
After finishing breakfast, Shun thought about what he should do today. Right… Yesterday he had only mentioned to Seele that Bronya was at St. Freya.
But Shun hadn't had time yesterday to arrange for the two of them to meet. After arriving at St. Freya, he definitely wouldn't be able to stay by Seele's side every day like he did at Taixu Mountain.
In that case, it was only natural for Bronya, as her sister, to take his place. However, since Shun was the newcomer, perhaps Seele would actually prefer spending time with Bronya over him.
It was no wonder Shun thought this way. After all, back when he was playing the game, who didn't ship the two in the Sea of Quanta?
What he didn't know was that because of his existence, many logics in this world could no longer be understood through the mindset he had before crossing over.
Since he thought of it, he might as well do it. Whether it was Seele or Bronya, both had been recruited in advance. It was only early December now, and there were still a full four months until the start of the new school term.
That meant that for the next half year, unless he planned to just follow the current first-years around and audit classes, he would really have four whole months of doing nothing at St. Freya Academy.
Shun decided to call Seele first. Since she was living with Fu Hua, it would be very difficult for her not to maintain an early sleep and early rise schedule. Compared to Bronya, who might stay up late playing games with Kiana, Seele was definitely already awake at this hour.
Sure enough, after a short while, the call connected. "Good morning, Brother. It's Seele."
Listening to Seele's sweet voice, Shun felt healed from the very start of the morning. With a little sister like Seele, it would be hard not to become a siscon.
"Good morning, Seele. Do you have anything planned for today?" Shun asked.
"Me? Today I…" Seele was just about to say that she would continue studying under Fu Hua today, working hard to become someone who could help her brother. But she was interrupted by the other Seele's voice.
"Idiot! Why are you still talking about studying? Can't you tell this guy wants to ask you out?" The other Seele spoke in a tone full of "hating iron for not becoming steel."
"Eh, is that so? Then… what should the other me, Seele, say?" Seele admitted she had little experience and didn't know why the other her understood so much.
"You… just say that you don't have anything going on today…" Her voice carried a strong "if you can't do it, then I'll take over" feeling.
After getting confirmation from Seele's side, Shun decided to go find Bronya. As for why he went in person…
Because he had called several times with no response from Bronya's side. Shun guessed that she had probably stayed up too late, and the sound wasn't enough to wake her, or perhaps her phone was on silent.
As the saying goes, the first time is unfamiliar, the second time is easy. This time when coming to Himeko's house, there was no need for someone to specially open the door for him. Shun jumped over the iron gate and entered the courtyard.
"I wonder if those girls are up yet…" Shun activated his Imaginary phase and passed through the door, entering the interior of the house. He changed into the slippers he had worn here last night.
However, the moment he stepped inside, he bumped into Raiden Mei, who was holding a vacuum cleaner and looked every bit the virtuous wife and caring mother.
"Mei, you're up so early?"
"Ah, it's Teacher Shun. I'm used to waking up early. I saw there was quite a bit of dust in the house, so I decided to clean up a bit while I had nothing else to do. Teacher Shun, you came so early—is something the matter? Are you looking for Kiana?"
In the past, Shun's relationship with Kiana had been the closest, so Mei naturally assumed he was here for Kiana.
"No, Mei, you actually guessed wrong this time. I'm here to find Bronya… Um, which room is hers again?"
"The one with the Homu sign hanging on the door that has Bronya's name written on it…" Mei reminded him.
"Mm, thanks. When I have time someday, I'll take you to practice your Herrscher authority, Mei." Shun casually drew a big empty promise and headed toward Bronya's room.
The moment he opened the door, he was greeted by an explosion of Homu-themed decorations. Although Shun had no feelings toward that cheap yellow rabbit,
the thought of the other unbearably cringy yellow corpse chunk made him suddenly find this silent rabbit rather cute. At least, it was better than that yellow corpse chunk.
What surprised Shun, however, was that Bronya seemed to have stayed up all night, huddled in front of the TV playing games.
Her mental state made it obvious. With such an absolutely magnificent mental state, it was no wonder she hadn't heard Shun's phone calls—or even the sound of him opening the door.
Shun stood at the doorway and called again. Even though the phone's ringtone was clearly ringing inside the room, Bronya still showed no intention of picking up.
Meanwhile, the character on the TV kept dying over and over. He frequently saw Bronya getting solo-killed by small mobs.
Shun sighed helplessly, walked over, and patted Bronya on the shoulder, forcibly shifting her attention from the game to himself.
"Ah, it's Shun. What's up? Bronya is playing a game." Bronya looked somewhat down. Wasn't she in pretty good spirits last night?
But then again, kids at this age always suddenly got emo out of nowhere—like "the rain soaked me, I can't tell if it's rain or tears" or something.
"Mm, so that means you don't have time today?"
"Mm, Bronya has decided to play games all day today." Bronya said casually. Ever since Seele disappeared, she had often been this depressed.
"Sigh, so that means when I invited Seele out today, you don't have time either. Then I'll go tell Seele that her big sister Bronya doesn't want to see her anymore…"
Shun put on a regretful expression and was about to make the call.
"No! Bronya has time!" Bronya suddenly stood up and declared. Her face-changing speed was faster than even the peak Yan Wang, and she didn't even hesitate.
Seemingly afraid Shun wouldn't believe her, she summoned Project Bunny and immediately unleashed a barrage of punches on the TV in front of her, smashing it into scrap metal.