Communal Dormitory.
Zephyr and Lili packed their luggage, said a quick goodbye to Charles and the others, and then carried their bags back to the Familia headquarters.
The room, which had already been cleaned, was located at the end of the second-floor corridor on the east side of the estate.
The moment Zephyr pushed open the door, the scene in his field of vision was many times better than he had imagined.
The room was about twenty square meters in size. The floor was kept clean, and inside were two beds with quilts already spread out, a mahogany wardrobe, a desk, and a chair.
In the innermost corner, there was also a separate bathroom.
Opening the window, he could overlook the neatly tended flower garden in the backyard of Twilight Manor.
Compared to the cubicle in the Communal Dormitory, which was less than ten square meters and didn't even have a decent window, there was simply no comparison.
"Tsk tsk. As expected of Orario's top Familia." Zephyr's heart was filled with emotion.
During his time in Orario, he had been mired in a predicament and killed Zanis, successfully leaving the Soma Familia. Now,
he had ranked up to Level 2 as a member of the Loki Familia. It was a fulfilling life.
However, he remembered the description of Outsider. His system didn't intend for him to relax, did it?
Constantly shifting terrain and special Gourmet Creatures refreshing at any time would significantly increase the difficulty of exploration.
But Zephyr knew—the bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish.
Level 2 seemed to be slightly higher than most Adventurers of the same age. But in Orario, it seemed to be just past the newbie stage, with the core strength of top Familias generally starting at Level 4. There was still a very long road ahead.
Lili, who had changed into comfortable, loose home clothes, sat on the edge of the bed beside Zephyr.
Normally, she had to deal with the potential threats from the Soma Familia, and considering the need to flee at any time, she rarely showed such a relaxed posture.
She at Zephyr, who was deep in thought, and asked, "What are you thinking about?"
"The future. Too comfortable a life will make one's heart slacken. That doesn't feel good, does it?"
To put it simply, Orario was like an open-world RPG. No one would actively assign you quests. Repeating Dungeon exploration every day, ultimately, was just to improve one's own strength.
What's more, this labyrinth city, known as the 'World's Center,' could hide pests like Zanis in its corners. Was the seemingly calm surface truly as he imagined?
Zephyr turned his head to look at the girl beside him. "But my goal has already been set: to get stronger as much as possible."
"I can't possibly lack even the most basic sense of crisis while under the protection of the Loki Familia, can I?"
"For now, I'll just treat it as a half-day vacation for myself, a chance to rest."
After Zephyr finished speaking, Lili saw him pull back the covers and burrow in.
There was a lot she wanted to say to Zephyr. But seeing him already burrowed into the covers, looking ready to rest, she ultimately swallowed all her words.
Lili, who had been with him since the Soma Familia, knew best how much pressure Zephyr was truly under.
If it weren't for him, who truly had the ability to change the future, perhaps they would still be rotting in the Soma Familia's stinking mud pit.
Lili jumped off the edge of the bed and wanted to walk back to her own bed. But after only two steps, she stopped.
Zephyr's words from earlier surged back into her mind: she couldn't lose her sense of crisis just because of the Familia's comfortable environment.
To understand it another way, Zephyr had gone from a Supporter in the Soma Familia to transferring to the Loki Familia. The stage he would encounter would only grow wider. Then, the probability of attracting the attention of other members of the opposite sex, would also increase exponentially.
Just today, she could count Lefiya's loss of composure, and Eina's special attention.
Moreover, as Zephyr's strength increased, this situation would only become more frequent.
A hint of seriousness appeared on Lili's face.
Zephyr was the kind of blockhead who was hard to enlighten.
Make him proactively wise up?
It would be easier to expect him to become the new captain of the Loki Familia.
She thought it over and over and felt it was very necessary to do something proactively.
She turned around, looking at the bed in front of her, her cheeks gradually covered in a red blush.
She took a deep breath and moved to the bed Zephyr had just burrowed into. After a moment of hesitation, she finally mustered her courage and lifted a corner of the quilt.
Immediately after, she stuffed herself entirely inside. She pulled the entire quilt over her head, covering her face.
Meanwhile, Zephyr, who was originally preparing for a nap, felt something. He opened his eyes and saw Lili's silhouette, curled up on the other side of the bed, even her breathing deliberately suppressed.
His gaze shifted to the left side of the room. Less than three meters away, he saw another bed, neatly made, with the quilt untouched. He felt it was necessary to ask about the situation.
"Um... Lili, aren't there two beds in the room?"
"Uh-huh."
"Then why aren't you sleeping in your own?"
"..."
Lili felt her cheeks burning, not daring to show her face. She had already come this far, she couldn't just crawl out sheepishly now, could she?
After a sigh, she mumbled, "Then I'll ask Loki-sama to help move it later."
"??"
This isn't right!
As a master of Galgame, this kind of development made Zephyr feel very wrong.
What did she mean by moving the bed?
He had finally found a new Familia and moved into a spacious room, and he still had to sleep on the floor?
Zephyr's mood was a bit complex. He propped up his upper body with his elbow, looking at the curled-up figure in the quilt.
"Um... Lili, tell me, what exactly do you want to do?"
Hearing Zephyr's question, Lili finally revealed her face from the quilt. Her eyes swirled with complex emotions, a mix of shyness and seriousness.
Lili bit her lip, holding it in for a long time. Finally, she mustered her courage and spoke, "Zephyr, you have the future you pursue. Then... Then Lili also wants to..."
Her voice grew softer and softer. "...grasp her own future."
Zephyr's lips twitched.
Being admired by a beautiful girl, what kind of feeling is that exactly?
Zephyr had never experienced it.
Looking at the anticipation written in Lili's eyes, clearly waiting for his reply, Zephyr's mood was quite complicated.
Thinking back, from the moment she was threatened by Zanis to leaving the Soma Familia and arriving at this point, the sense of dependence Lili had developed had actually been traceable for a long time.
Trapped in a predicament, facing a straw of hope offered proactively, sharing rent every day, cooking, and helping with bag management during Dungeon explorations
.
All the experiences of suffering together recently had been interpreted by Lili as "like," but the problem was that in his modern cognition, Lili's appearance was really...
Zephyr weighed his words and finally gave a compromise answer. "Lili, I think the future should be in your own hands. If you choose to rely on others, who knows, your expectations for the future might just fall through?"
Lili's fingers clutching the corner of the quilt loosened. At the very least, she hadn't been directly rejected.
Given Zephyr's personality, if he really wanted to shut things down, he definitely wouldn't use words like "who knows" to brush someone off.
She gathered her courage to say, "I... know the future I want."
Since it had reached this point, Zephyr had no intention of continuing to persuade her, so he shrugged his shoulders helplessly and said, "Then wait until you grow up before considering these things."
"Okay." Lili nodded.
But then, the faint smile on her face froze once she realized the specific meaning of that sentence.
Grow up?
She puffed out her cheeks and began to seriously examine herself.
According to the idle chatter of those members in the Soma Familia, Pallums basically couldn't grow any further than her current height.
But as she thought of this, her gaze suddenly shifted to her chest. The somewhat frustrated mood she had felt began to recover.
At the very least, there should still be room for growth in the chest area, right?
She bit her lip, her face gradually covered in a rosy flush, even the tips of her ears heating up. She hurriedly pulled the quilt up to cover that burning hot face.
She had actually had thoughts like that pop into her mind!
She tucked the corner of the quilt and turned over, saying in a muffled voice, "Then let's rest first. Later, Loki-sama said she wants to take us to a restaurant to celebrate."
"Sure."
Zephyr turned over to face the inside and closed his eyes to take a nap,.