“Is that so?”
Hearing Greg's response, Vivian did not show any visible signs of disappointment. She simply gave a gentle nod. Deep within her ice-blue eyes, a fleeting look of realization—as if to say, just as I thought—passed by, and perhaps... even a touch of relief.
Uh... She didn't just cook up some weird scenario in her head, did she?
Vivian's reaction struck Greg as a bit odd.
Vivian had no intention of ending the conversation there.
She leaned forward slightly, her eyes filled with concern as she carefully looked him over. Her gaze lingered for a moment on the areas where he had been injured during his previous battle, and her voice softened even further:
“Have the injuries on your body fully healed?”
This subtle yet clear concern made Greg freeze for a moment.
In his memory, Vivian had never spoken in such a tone before.
“Yeah, I'm pretty much fully recovered.”
Greg rotated his shoulders in front of her and did a few simple stretches to demonstrate his good condition:
“Thanks to Silvia's continuous treatment, the auxiliary potions Chloe specially brewed for me, and those extremely precious herbs you brought me earlier, I recovered much faster than expected. I'm basically fine now.”
Although he had turned a misfortune into a blessing and experienced a massive surge in strength during his last battle, his injuries had been very real.
Without the simultaneous help of the three girls, he would never have been up and active in just a few days.
He would remember this debt of gratitude.
Besides, there was still an unsolved mystery deep in his heart: why did the Thirsting Maw suddenly enter Phase Two, a state that had never been mentioned in either the game data or the player community?
The only reasonable guess seemed to be related to his own dark mana.
However, due to Nightmare's missing memories and the fact that his mouth had been sealed by the Mother of Fragmentation, the exact reason remained impossible to verify.
“I see.”
Hearing that Greg's injuries had healed, Vivian seemed to let out an almost imperceptible sigh of relief.
But immediately afterward, when Greg naturally mentioned the names of the other two women, her eyes, which had just softened, stiffened for an imperceptibly brief moment.
Right after, that relaxed expression was replaced once again by her usual coldness, with even a trace of... scrutiny added to it.
“Your relationship with them...”
Vivian's voice remained steady, but Greg somehow caught a probing tone, as if she were assessing something:
“Is it very good?”
“Huh? My relationship with them is indeed pretty good.”
Greg wondered why Vivian was suddenly asking about his personal relationships.
Wait...
A sudden flash of realization struck Greg's mind. He recalled his near-self-destructing declaration from a while ago—that nonsense about “actually, I've always admired you.”
Originally, seeing Vivian's flat reaction afterward, he assumed she hadn't taken it seriously at all. To avoid stirring up that hornets' nest again, he hadn't bothered to explain himself.
But looking at it now... could Vivian actually care, but just hadn't shown it at the time?
Combined with their experiences of life and death together in the dungeon...
Could it be that she now views me as her simp, and upon finding out that I have relationships with other women, she's starting to get anxious?
The more Greg thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
Hmph, a mere villainess trying to string me along? No way!
In a flash, Greg had already played out an entire soap opera scenario in his head.
Making a prompt decision, he immediately spoke up:
“Also, Vivian, there's a very important matter that I feel I must clarify with you once more.”
Vivian looked at him quietly, her ice-blue eyes crystal clear, as if patiently waiting for him to continue.
Greg met her gaze and said, word by word:
“Fundamentally speaking, everything I've done has been for my own sake—to get stronger, to establish a foothold in the academy, and to achieve my personal goals. Therefore, I don't actually harbor those... uh, special feelings of ‘admiration’ toward you like I said that morning. I hope you won't misunderstand.”
Having said all of that in one breath, he looked at Vivian with an open gaze, waiting for her reaction.
In his expectations, there might be shock, or a faint sense of disappointment and embarrassment after having a misunderstanding cleared up, or perhaps she would fly into a rage out of humiliation?
No matter what, he had to completely nip the idea that she might think of him as a simp in the bud!
Vivian listened quietly, her ice-blue eyes watching him without blinking. There were none of the intense emotional fluctuations Greg had anticipated.
In fact, when he finished saying that he “didn't actually harbor those special feelings of admiration,” the last trace of scrutiny in her eyes—which had arisen from hearing Silvia and Chloe's names—rapidly melted away like thin ice under the sun.
She simply gave a very gentle nod.
“I see.”
Her voice was calm and flat, yet it seemed even softer than when she had asked about his injuries just moments ago:
“I understand.”
Greg: “...?”
That... that was it?
Not a single one of his expected reactions had occurred.
No questions, no persistence, no hint of disappointment or embarrassment from being rejected, and not even the slightest emotional ripple?
She had just accepted it so calmly?
Greg was momentarily dumbfounded. All his prepared follow-up remarks and various contingency plans were stuck in his throat.
Looking at Vivian's still cold and beautiful face, he suddenly felt as if his solemn declaration to draw a line had been like punching a soft ball of cotton.
Could it be... that I really overthought things? She actually didn't mean anything by it? She was just caring for me as a companion who shared life-and-death experiences in the dungeon, and simply asked about my social circle in passing?
Greg scratched his head, feeling a bizarre sense of frustration and self-doubt.
The current situation was like spending immense effort to put on a grand play, only for the audience to completely miss the point but politely applaud anyway.
“...”
Vivian did not look at the colorful shift in expressions on his face any longer.
She turned slightly, presenting most of her elegant profile to Greg. Her gaze drifted toward the lush green canopy at the end of the path, gilded by the sunlight, as if she were enjoying the scenery.
From an angle completely hidden from Greg's sight, the corner of her lips, on a face that was usually as devoid of superfluous expressions as a precision instrument, curled upward into an extremely faint, warm arc.
As I thought... He went through such a massive detour to do all of this, but in the end... it was still all for me.
He probably said that on purpose because he was afraid I would feel indebted or burdened... What a tsundere fool.
A gentle breeze blew past, lifting a few strands of her aqua-blue hair and softly brushing over her slightly upturned lips.
The sunlight was perfect, the shadows of the trees danced, and the young girl's inner thoughts, like the dappled light filtering through the forest, flickered in a quiet and beautiful harmony.
Rate on N.U.
