The three options were like a noose tightening around Loran’s neck.
He could even feel that invisible force drawing tighter, urging him to make a decision.
If he dragged this out any longer, who knew what that damn system, which took pleasure in creating chaos, would do next?
Make Roderika turn dark on the spot?
Or have her pull out a knife and commit a lovers’ suicide right here?
Both seemed possible.
Rejecting the confession would reset her Affection to zero, destabilize her mental state, and carry the risk of her turning dark.
The consequences of that option were too severe.
Giving her the Good Person Card had a ninety-five percent chance of making her treat him as a white moonlight and start looking for substitutes, and a five percent chance of making love turn into hatred and sending her down an evil path.
He could not gamble on that five percent.
Then only one option remained…
In that void of thought, Loran’s consciousness fell upon the first option.
[Accept the Confession.]
The instant he made his choice, a warm current poured down from the top of his head and flowed through his limbs.
The tension that had been resisting the system’s temptation all this time vanished.
In its place came a helpless relaxation.
He felt his body being taken over once again.
He saw his own arms tighten on their own, pulling the slightly trembling body in his embrace even deeper into his arms.
He heard his own voice speak in a gentle tone that even he found unfamiliar.
“…Okay.”
One word.
But to Roderika, that one word was the entire world.
The girl in his arms trembled violently.
Then, like melting snow, she completely softened against his chest.
A muffled, joyful sob that had been suppressed for far too long came from within his embrace.
[Roderika’s Affection: +80 → +100 MAX]
[Status: Overjoyed / At Peace / Complete Trust / In Love]
[Special Buff “Power of Love” has been activated.]
[The worldline has undergone a major change. You have deviated from the known “ending” and officially stepped onto a brand-new, unknown path.]
Loran’s mind went blank.
He could not feel the softness of the girl in his arms.
He could not clearly hear her joyful sobs.
He only stared blankly at Kiro in the distance, who was rummaging around Godrick’s corpse while cursing under her breath.
First love?
So this was…
His first love?
With an NPC?
A girl he had known for less than a day?
Just because of a damn Galgame system and a forced choice between three terrible options?
Loran, twenty-one years old, top student in the Computer Science Department of a certain university.
His life trajectory had been a precisely planned straight line.
From a key middle school to a key high school, then to one of the top universities in the country.
Skipping class, failing exams, dating—
All those things regarded as “required courses” of university life had never existed in his world.
It was not as if he had never received signs of interest from girls.
But he had always been able to use an almost cold rationality to strangle any ambiguous feelings that might disrupt his plans before they could sprout.
He had always thought that his first relationship, too, would be a calculable “cooperation” based on shared goals and rational choices.
Not like this.
Absurd.
Utterly absurd.
He felt like an actor who had been shoved onto a stage he had never rehearsed for, holding a script he could not understand.
The director shouted “Action,” and then he could only let his body be manipulated by strings, saying those embarrassing lines and making those intimate gestures.
He did not even know what he truly felt toward the girl in his arms.
Was it pity?
A little.
Was it a sense of responsibility?
Perhaps.
Was it love?
He did not know.
But the system had already made the choice for him.
From the moment he nodded, he, Loran, was Roderika’s boyfriend.
This was his first love.
The first romantic relationship in his twenty-one years of life, a life filled with data and logic.
In the Lands Between, this other world filled with conspiracies and death.
With an NPC.
Loran held Roderika’s hand and walked up to Kiro.
“Wow—”
Kiro stopped her archaeological work on Godrick’s corpse.
She whistled, her gaze sweeping back and forth over their tightly clasped fingers.
That undisguised gossipy look was like a little brush, scraping Roderika’s cheeks until they burned. The girl lowered her head again.
“Congratulations, congratulations.”
Kiro clapped her hands, smiling in an extremely annoying way.
“The iron tree has finally bloomed. The quiet guy is dating now. This is the number one breaking news in the Lands Between.”
She blinked and suggested, “How about we go somewhere to celebrate?”
“I know a place with a really great view. There’s a mausoleum on the Weeping Peninsula. We can go there, watch the sea, and watch that thing walk around. How about it? Super romantic, right?”
Loran did not take the bait.
Roderika was holding his hand tightly.
Her palm was very warm, with a thin layer of sweat.
She seemed to be using this method to confirm that all of this was not a dream.
Loran’s hand, on the other hand, was ice-cold.
“I object,” Loran said. “We should go to Liurnia of the Lakes, or head straight for Raya Lucaria. We need to improve our strength as soon as possible, not go sightseeing.”
“Tch. No sense of romance at all.”
Kiro curled her lips, showing complete disdain for his proposal.
“You just started dating, and you’re already thinking about fighting and killing? Aren’t you afraid the poor girl will think you’re boring?”
As she spoke, she even winked at Roderika.
Roderika only blushed and buried her head even lower.
“I… I’ll listen to Mr. Loran.”
“See? See?”
Kiro immediately found a target to attack.
She pointed at Loran and said to Roderika with a pained expression, “Girl, I’m telling you, you can’t spoil him like this! Men, you see, you can’t be too obedient with them. The more you listen to him, the more he’ll push his luck.”
“You need to have your own opinions, understand?”
“For example, if he wants to go to some magic academy right now, you should tell him, ‘No, this old lady wants to watch the mausoleum walk today. You’re going whether you like it or not!’ That’s how you keep him under control!”
Roderika was completely stunned by this “husband-taming technique.”
All she could do was nod blankly.
[Kiro’s Affection toward Roderika: +30 → +40]
[Status: Teaching Experience / Enjoying the Drama / Gloating]
[Roderika’s Affection toward Kiro: -50 → 0]
[Status: Confused / At a Loss]
Kiro’s Affection somehow increased again while she was one-sidedly exporting her values.
Loran rubbed his temples and decided to ignore this walking disaster who was spreading twisted heresies.
He looked at Roderika and tried to explain his plan in as calm a tone as possible.
“Roderika, I am a sorcerer. At the magic academy, I can learn many spells, which will be very helpful for our future exploration.”
He did not continue.
He was afraid that the more he said, the more mistakes he would make.
His relationship with Roderika was no longer that of simple companions.
Every sentence he spoke could be overinterpreted by her, and could affect her newly stabilized Affection.
This feeling was even more exhausting than facing Margit.
“Mm…”
Roderika pondered for a moment.
“Then… what kind of people are inside the magic academy?”
Her voice was very small.
She looked at Loran, her eyes carrying curiosity as well as a timid sense of exploration.
“Are they… like you?”
Her question made Loran fall silent for a short moment.
Raya Lucaria Academy.
Images of those sorcerers instantly surfaced in his mind.
They were the guardians of the academy, and also the most merciless exclusionists.
Any intruder would be met with endless magical bombardment.
“I am… not like them,” Loran finally answered after weighing his words.
He did not want to use those cold game terms, such as “hostile NPCs” or “monsters,” to frighten Roderika.
“They are more like… puppets bound by certain rules. Or perhaps scholars immersed in their own worlds. They wear all kinds of strange headpieces, which are said to enhance certain aspects of their magical abilities. But I am not certain… whether they would be hostile toward us.”
“The academy gate requires a special key to open. If we enter recklessly, we may be treated as invaders.”
He tried his best to describe it in an objective and neutral tone.
Even so, the hidden danger in those words still made Roderika instinctively tighten her grip on his hand.
“That… sounds dangerous,” she said softly.
“Exactly! It sounds boring too!”
Kiro finally found a chance to cut in.
She leaned over, squeezed herself between the two of them, forcibly separated Roderika’s hand from Loran’s, and then affectionately hooked her arm around Roderika’s.
“Don’t listen to his nonsense! Magic academy, scholars, whatever. It sounds like a boring and dangerous place! I’m telling you, going to watch the mausoleum is way more interesting!”
Roderika was a little overwhelmed by this sudden intimacy and could only let Kiro hold her arm.
“Mau… soleum?” she asked curiously. “What is it like?”
“The mausoleum…”
The moment Kiro brought this up, she immediately became energetic and started gesturing with her hands and feet.
“Just imagine… a super, super huge turtle!”
“A turtle?”
“Yep! A turtle made of stone! As big as a mountain! It has four thick, strong stone legs, and it walks across the plains step by step. Every time it takes a step, boom, the whole ground shakes with it! Super awesome!”
Kiro imitated the walking mausoleum’s movements, stomping in place with heavy steps.
“Boom. Boom.”
“And then! It carries a temple on its back, and on top of that temple, there’s a huge bell! When it walks, the bell swings with it and goes claaang—claaang—over and over! You can hear it from really, really far away! It’s so much fun!”
Kiro’s description was simple, vivid, and full of imagery.
Under the influence of her exaggerated body language and sound effects, that solemn and mysterious Walking Mausoleum from the game had turned into a huge moving toy filled with childlike wonder.
Roderika listened, fascinated.
The fear she had felt toward the magic academy gradually gave way to longing and curiosity.
She could even picture the scene in her mind.
A huge stone turtle wandering across the plains, its bell tolling long and deep, echoing between heaven and earth.
“That sounds… like it really would be interesting,” Roderika murmured.
“Right? Right?”
Seeing that her recommendation had worked, Kiro became even more smug.
“So forget that boring guy! Let’s go together! Just the two of us! Let him go to that dumb academy alone and attend classes with those idiots wearing weird headpieces!”
Just as Loran was about to give up struggling and silently accept Kiro’s romantic Walking Mausoleum sightseeing plan, a name flashed through his mind.
Like a drowning man grabbing a life-saving straw.
“Fine. We do not have to go to the academy.”
He spoke, interrupting Kiro’s lesson on “important things to know when watching a mausoleum walk.”
“Let’s go to Liurnia first. The place is covered in mist, the lake reflects the academy, and the scenery is also quite good—”
“No!”
Kiro interrupted him without even thinking, her face showing undisguised disgust.
“What’s there to see in that awful place? Everything is wet, and there are those smooth, alien-looking Albinaurics everywhere. They’re ugly as hell! Just seeing them makes me sick!”
“Don’t rush.”
Loran’s voice was calm and unhurried.
He looked at Kiro like an experienced fisherman slowly casting out his bait.
“There is someone there you will definitely want to meet.”
“Who?”
Kiro snorted disdainfully.
“Who could it be? That old man in the Albinauric Village? Or that jar guy stuck in the ground? I’m not interested in them.”
Loran smiled and spoke that name.
“Patches.”