For dinner, Flora had tried her hand at a new dish: pumpkin stewed meat.
The pumpkin was freshly harvested from the garden, cut into chunks, and stewed until tender, fully absorbing the savory meat juices.
The magical beast meat was stewed to perfection, its tender elasticity apparent with a single pinch of the chopsticks.
“Delicious,” Loviki said, narrowing her eyes after taking a bite.
Flora smiled and scooped another spoonful onto her plate.
Luolin sat next to Miya, eating in small bites and occasionally looking up at the others around the table.
Miya had also begun to adapt to life here, happily sipping her stew.
The rabbit sat on Chen Mian's lap, its front paws gripping the edge of the table, its pink eyes staring unblinkingly at the meat in his bowl. “You can't eat this,” Chen Mian said.
Hearing his words, its ears immediately drooped.
Miya slid down from her chair, ran to the kitchen to fetch a vegetable leaf, and squatted in front of the rabbit. “Here you go.”
The rabbit sniffed the leaf, looked at her, and then took a small bite.
Miya reached out to stroke its ears. A smile graced her doll-like face, and her cat ears twitched happily.
Chen Mian set down his chopsticks, took a sip of tea, and called out, “Luolin.”
“Yes?” Luolin set down her bowl and sat up straight.
“No need to be so tense,” Chen Mian said, setting down his teacup. “How is the injury on your leg?”
“It doesn't hurt anymore,” Luolin said. She paused before adding, “I should be able to help out in the garden tomorrow.”
“No rush,” Chen Mian said, standing up to bring the dishes to the sink. “Wait until you're fully recovered.”
“Okay,” Luolin replied, her voice slightly softer than before.
After dinner, Loviki stood at the sink, rolled up her sleeves, and began washing the dishes. Luolin had wanted to help, but Loviki turned her down because of her leg injury.
Flora was wiping the table nearby.
Nearby, Miya was rolling around on the floor while hugging the rabbit. The rabbit struggled briefly before giving up, allowing Miya to bury her face in its soft fur.
Chen Mian leaned against the kitchen doorframe, watched for a few seconds, then turned to go upstairs.
As he reached the stairs, he paused. “Loviki.”
The figure at the sink stiffened slightly. “Yes?”
“Is there something on your mind?”
Loviki turned around, a flicker of surprise crossing her eyes before she shook her head. “No.”
Chen Mian nodded and didn't ask further.
Given Loviki's stubborn pride, expecting her to just open up was unrealistic.
He opened the system panel and glanced at it.
【Current Points: 4,740】
【Flora's Sense of Belonging: Level 2】
【Loviki's Sense of Belonging: Level 2】
【Current Apartment Level: Level 3 (Upgrade Conditions: Tenant Count: 3 (Unmet) + 5,000 Points (Unmet))】
It seemed completing the system's main quest would require more effort; the Sense of Belonging level was not that easy to raise.
Chen Mian closed the panel and walked back to his room.
The moonlight outside the window was bright, and the distant roars of beasts echoed from time to time.
He closed his eyes.
...
After some time, faint footsteps echoed in the hallway. They were intentionally muffled, the sound of shoes treading on the wooden floorboards barely audible.
Then came an even softer sound—the front door of the apartment being pushed open and gently shut.
Chen Mian opened his eyes and walked to the window.
Under the moonlight, a tall figure was walking toward the forest, her ponytail swaying gently in the night breeze.
It was Loviki.
Chen Mian watched her retreating back, threw on his coat, and slipped out of his room.
The living room light was still on its dimmest setting; Flora had likely forgotten to turn it off again.
Pushing open the front door, the cool night breeze rushed to meet him.
The roars of beasts from the forest sounded closer now.
He followed the path Loviki had taken, making no effort to hide his footsteps.
After passing through a dense stretch of woods, the view suddenly opened up.
It was a small clearing with flat, trampled ground. The surrounding tree trunks were heavily scarred with sword marks.
Some cuts had already healed over with new bark, while others were still oozing sap—a mixture of old and new.
In the center of the clearing lay a massive boulder, its surface also covered in deep scratches.
Loviki stood in the center of the clearing with her back to him, her rapier pointing diagonally at the ground.
“What are you doing here?”
“Can't sleep,” Chen Mian said as he walked to the edge of the clearing and sat down on a fallen log. “Keep practicing. Don't mind me.”
Loviki's shoulders tensed slightly, then relaxed.
She took a deep breath, tightening her grip on the hilt. Silvery-white mana surged from her body, condensing into a thin shroud of blazing light over the blade.
She raised her left hand, and two swords of light materialized from the void, circling once above her head before shooting forward simultaneously.
One stabbed straight into the tree trunk ahead, while the other curved through the air to strike the same tree from behind.
Both swords hit the target almost simultaneously, the sharp crack of splintering bark exceptionally loud in the quiet forest.
“Almost,” she muttered.
“I know,” Loviki gritted her teeth, dispersing the swords of light before conjuring them again. This time, she didn't rush to shoot them. Instead, she let the two swords slowly hover and circle in the air, adjusting their speed and angle. The blades shimmered with a pale silver glow in the moonlight, resembling two fish swimming through the night sky.
Chen Mian didn't say anything.
Loviki tried three more times. On the third attempt, the sounds of the two impacts overlapped almost perfectly.
“That's enough,” Chen Mian said.
Loviki sheathed her sword and turned to look at him.
The moonlight illuminated her face, highlighting a fine sheen of sweat on her forehead and a few stray hairs clinging to her brow. Her ruby-like eyes shimmered even brighter under the night sky, but within them was something Chen Mian had never seen before.
A deeply suppressed frustration.
“You didn't come here just to watch me practice.”
Chen Mian didn't deny it.
Loviki stared at him for a few seconds, then averted her gaze, looking down at the hilt of her sword.
Her voice was much softer than usual. “During our spar today, I asked you what you would do if you found out one day that what you've been chasing all along doesn't even exist.”
Chen Mian looked at her, remaining silent.
“You told me to change my goal,” Loviki said, raising her hand to look at her sword. “But I know this is the only thing I'm good at. The academy professors called me the greatest genius the Hella Kingdom has seen in three hundred years. My family said I was the most promising heir of the Lorenz Family... Even I firmly believed that I would one day become the strongest fencer in the kingdom.”
The blazing light on her blade had already died out, leaving only the cold metal glinting in the moonlight.
“But here...” She paused, a trace of faint bitterness creeping into her voice. “Here, I can't even see the limit of your strength.”
“No matter how much I learn or how much I progress, it never seems to show when I'm in front of you. In fact, it feels like the gap between us is only widening. During our first spar, I told myself I would definitely defeat you. But now, it feels completely hopeless. I have this sinking feeling that even if you stood completely still and gave me decades to catch up, you would still be far stronger than me.”
She looked up, her beautiful eyes staring straight at him. “And it's not just you.”
Chen Mian raised an eyebrow slightly.
“Flora. Before she was sealed, she was a Red Jade Rank eighth tier (Level 78).” Loviki let out a self-deprecating laugh. “I'm only a Platinum Rank ninth tier (Level 59). I don't even know how long it will take me to become a Diamond Rank adventurer. Even if I manage to break through to Diamond Rank, there's still a massive gulf between that and Red Jade Rank eighth tier. The gentle Flora who usually chops vegetables and cooks soup in the kitchen is actually the second strongest person in this apartment.”
After letting those words out, the heavy weight that had been building up in her chest finally seemed to ease.
Chen Mian stood up and walked over to her. “Done? So this is why you've been so distracted these past few days?”
Loviki looked up at him, a trace of stubbornness in her eyes alongside a faint, barely perceptible trace of anxiety.
Chen Mian looked at her and asked calmly, “Does the fact that you're weaker than me and Flora sting that much?”
“Or is it the rental requirement to spar, even though you can't win, that you find so repulsive?”
Rate on N.U.
