Chapter 91: A Man Must Withstand the Ultimate Trial
Shirazawa stared blankly for a good few seconds before realizing that Sophia was the one lying on the other side of the bed. He rubbed his brow, feeling a dull ache throbbing in his temples.
What in the absolute hell was going on here? Could it be that she had stayed in his room just to look after him while he was sick?
"Sophia? Sophia..." he called out tentatively.
The little girl on the bed shifted slightly, slowly fluttering her eyes open. "Mmm? Did you call me?"
Shirazawa nodded. "Yeah."
Sophia flashed a toothy grin. "What's up? Is something wrong?"
"Why are you sleeping here?"
"Ariel told me to keep a close eye on you. She said I'm not allowed to let you go look for Shiro."
"Uh..." The corner of Shirazawa's mouth twitched. What kind of absurd logic was this? He wasn't some big bad wolf out to devour an innocent little lamb. Was such extreme caution really necessary?
"I'm sleepy. Goodnight." Sophia buried herself right back under the covers and closed her eyes.
Shirazawa certainly didn't harbor any inappropriate thoughts toward a literal child; he simply viewed her as a glorified body pillow. Little Sophia snuggled deeper into his chest, found a perfectly comfortable position, and drifted back into a heavy, peaceful slumber. Having finally gotten exactly what she wanted, the little girl slept exceptionally sweet and soundly that night.
The next morning.
Having recovered a decent chunk of his energy, Shirazawa headed down to the dining room to eat, followed closely by a yawning Sophia.
"Morning," Sophia muttered, rubbing her bleary eyes as she greeted the group before sitting down to eat.
Shiro briefly glanced up at them but said nothing, instantly lowering her head to resume her meal. Ariel, on the other hand, beamed a radiant smile as she scrutinized Sophia. "Sophia, did you sleep well last night?"
"It was alright, I guess. Nothing special." Sophia waved her hand with a classic tsundere air, acting completely unbothered.
"Hehehe..." Ariel chuckled softly, her eyes flashing with a highly mischievous glint.
Shirazawa instantly registered a faint, nearly imperceptible wave of killing intent radiating through the air. He swallowed hard, immediately deciding to play dead. But just as he was about to pull out his chair, Shiro suddenly stood up, grabbed a large piece of grilled meat, and forcefully shoved it right into his mouth.
"Huh?" Shirazawa looked up at her in utter bewilderment.
Shiro offered no explanation; she simply gestured for him to chew and swallow.
Shirazawa: "..."
He painstakingly chewed his way through the meat, which tasted roughly seventeen parts salty and twenty-three parts spicy. The sheer intensity of the flavor nearly choked him to death.
"Does it taste good?" Ariel asked with a highly provocative grin.
Shirazawa coughed violently a few times, forcing himself to bite the bullet. "It's... delicious..."
*Delicious my foot, this crap isn't even cooked through!!!*
Seeing his reaction, Shiro calmly wiped her fingers with a napkin, looking entirely as though she hadn't just committed a culinary hate crime. The expressions of everyone else at the table grew wildly erratic and impossible to read.
"Cough, cough, cough!" Shirazawa's face turned bright red from choking. He aggressively gulped down several mouthfuls of tea, finally washing the bizarre flavor from his throat.
"Hahaha~!"
Watching Shirazawa's sheer misery, the group couldn't help but cover their mouths and burst into suppressed laughter. The stifling, heavy atmosphere that had plagued the caravan for days vanished into thin air in an instant. Even the corners of Shiro's lips imperceptibly curved into a breathtakingly beautiful arc.
*SMACK!*
"I didn't even do anything wrong this time! Why did you hit me?!"
"￣へ￣ I'm in a bad mood!"
"Why you little—"
*SMACK!*
"Ngh~ ⁄(⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄"
Nobody knew exactly what Ariel and Shiro had discussed the previous evening, but Shiro's mood had taken a turn for the phenomenally spectacular today.
That very night, Sophia was called away by the two of them, under the pretext of having some "exclusive girl talk." This left Shirazawa entirely alone as an empty-nest elder, facing the grim reality of sleeping without a partner.
*My bed has two pillows. One belongs to me, and the other... also belongs to me.*
Shirazawa: *QAQ What did I even do wrong to deserve this?!*
However, once his mind settled down, Shirazawa realized he finally had a quiet window to study the progression of mental-type magic.
"The Fundamental Concepts of Mental Power," "An Analysis of Mental Perception Methods," "Basic Applications and Techniques of Mental Energy"...*
Staring at the dense curriculum mapped out in his mind, Shirazawa fell into a profound silence. The agonizing trauma of being dominated by academic exams in his past life instantly surged back. These texts were literally over ten times thicker than a standard dictionary. Left with no other choice, it would take him at least seven or eight weeks of non-stop reading just to finish them. Forcing him to study step-by-step like a normal student was clearly asking too much of him.
Naturally, his mind began drifting toward a few shortcuts.
*If I can get Shiro to awaken her divinity ahead of schedule, and then have her assist me in manipulating the raw energy inside my body to accelerate my cultivation... wouldn't that speed things up exponentially?*
Shirazawa's master plan revolved around getting Shiro to help him unlock a god-tier support skill like
However, he completely overlooked one terrifying variable: if Shiro truly awakened ahead of schedule and reclaimed her cataclysmic baseline strength, would she just skip the pleasantries and lock him up in her personal confinement? She was no fragile, helpless queen; she possessed more than enough raw physical power and twisted methods to make it happen.
A sharp gleam flashed across Shirazawa's eyes. He decided this method was well worth a shot. Even if the cultivation aspect didn't pan out immediately, a fully awakened Shiro would at least be permanently liberated from the brutal agony of motion sickness.
"The only real issue is that getting Shiro drunk sounds incredibly difficult... Don't tell me I have to force it down her throat?"
It was glaringly obvious that Ariel, fiercely protective as she was, would never allow him to force alcohol onto the girl.
"What a massive headache!" Shirazawa pressed a palm against his forehead and leaned back against his pillow, completely stuck at a dead end.
Right as he was drowning in frustration, the guest room door was suddenly pushed open. Two beautiful figures quietly slipped into the room and approached the bedside. Without uttering a single word, and right under Shirazawa's thoroughly dumbfounded gaze, Sophia and Shiro climbed onto the mattress, sandwiching him flawlessly from the left and right.
Huh??! What kind of psychological game was this?!
Shirazawa's eyes widened. Just as he opened his mouth to demand an explanation, Shiro swiftly pressed her index finger against his lips to silence him. He blinked rapidly, his eyes overflowing with pure confusion.
"Sleep!" Shiro ordered in a hushed tone.
"???" Shirazawa grew even more bewildered.
The two girls paid absolutely no mind to his existential crisis. They casually pulled the covers over themselves, shut their eyes, and immediately drifted off toward dreamland.
*Are you serious right now? Is this how you test a dedicated comrade? What kind of man could possibly withstand this brand of psychological warfare?*
Left with no viable alternative, Shirazawa could only lie rigidly flat in the dead center of the bed, completely playing dead and refusing to move an inch. It was screamingly obvious that this bizarre behavior was part of some elaborate trap. The absolute best tactical response right now was total stillness: if the enemy doesn't move, I don't move. Let's see who breaks first.
*My bed has two pillows. One belongs to her, and the other... also belongs to her. In short, there isn't a single thing left for me.*
While the two girls slept with absolute peace and tranquility, Shirazawa, pinned tightly between them and terrified to flinch, nearly suffered severe internal damage from the sheer tension. Devoid of options, he could only resort to mental escapism–diving deep into the ancient archives within his mind and immersing himself in the vast ocean of knowledge, completely losing all perception of time...
The next morning.
Warm sunlight streamed through the window, illuminating the entire room. Shirazawa slowly sat up. His eyes practically glowed with the radiant light of pure academic enlightenment, and his entire aura exuded a dense, profound sense of intellectual sophistication and wisdom. "Both completely exhausted yet terrifyingly brilliant" was the absolute perfect description for his gaze right now.
"Yaaawn~"
"Morning~"
Shiro blinked her eyes open, flashing a row of pristine white teeth as she offered him a blindingly brilliant, pure smile. In that singular instant, the entire world seemed to lose its color, leaving nothing behind but the intoxicating sweetness of the girl's flawless smile.
"Morning..."
Having returned the greeting, Shirazawa could no longer fight off the wave of absolute exhaustion crashing over his brain. He collapsed backward and instantly blacked out. As his consciousness rapidly faded into the dark, he faintly caught the soft, squishy voice of the little vampire girl echoing nearby.
"Shiro, I'd score this specific wave a solid sixty out of a hundred..."
*Son of a bitch! I pulled a literal all-nighter studying cosmic magic theories, and you're telling me I barely hit the passing grade?! Damned Sophia, does your conscience not hurt at all?!*
"Should we keep it going tomorrow?"
"Mm..."
"How about we drag Ariel into this next time too?"
"..."
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