"What do you mean wearing your clothes? Those are his own clothes!"
I was confused. What was she talking about? But then I noticed a burned corner on Adrian's adventurer outfit. I suddenly understood what Nicola meant. I quickly pulled Adrian into the room to ask what happened.
"What's going on? Didn't you go buy breakfast? How did your clothes get burned?"
"Well, when I went out, I passed by the Adventurers Guild. Two teams were fighting about cutting in line. A fire mage got angry and secretly threw a high-level explosion scroll. It just happened to catch me as I was walking by."
Adrian explained. Worried I'd be concerned, he quickly added:
"Don't worry! That little fire can't hurt me. A few people were slightly injured, but they've been sent for treatment. The troublemaker was taken away by the city guard."
"That's good. Be more careful in the future. What if something serious happened?"
I felt relieved. Adrian is almost a 7th-rank expert now. I shouldn't worry too much.
"Why don't you eat something? You've never had this before! They say this 'Star Chicken Roll' is the most famous in all of Crescent City. I barely managed to get some."
Adrian opened the food box for me, busy fussing over everything. But I had no appetite. I felt more and more uneasy. I quickly took a sip of water and said quietly:
"No... I'm not that hungry right now..."
"But I bought so much. It's a pity if you don't try it. Just one bite? It's really good!"
Adrian scratched his head and picked up a 'Star Chicken Roll', trying to feed me.
"Wait! What's going on with you two?"
Unfortunately, this move was too obvious. Nicola at the door finally noticed something odd and shouted to stop us.
"What... what do you mean?"
My scalp tingled. I forced an awkward smile, pretending not to understand.
"What else could it be? No point hiding it anymore. Might as well just say it straight—"
Cyra had a cold expression, not helping cover for me at all. She just laid out the truth:
"They've been together for a while now. I guess they're boyfriend and girlfriend?"
"You bastard!"
This was too much. Nicola exploded in anger. She couldn't take it anymore. She spread her wings, rushed over, grabbed Adrian's collar, and slammed him against the wall.
"How dare you! You took advantage while I was gone and stole my woman behind my back!"
"What do you mean your woman!"
I almost choked on my water, totally shocked. I didn't expect Nicola to react so strongly. I quickly stood up to stop her, but then I noticed she had eight wings now. How did she rank up so fast?
"What... what do you mean? You and Feliciana aren't... aren't you just friends?"
Adrian was completely confused. His neck was being squeezed hard. He wanted to struggle but didn't want to fight back too much because of my relationship with Nicola.
"Nicola, let him go! Let me explain!"
Seeing this, I felt awful. I didn't have time to blame Cyra for stirring up this hornet's nest. I quickly spread my wings too, trying to pull them apart. But the strength difference between six and eight wings was too big. My effort was useless. All I could do was keep trying to persuade her.
For some reason, this scene felt so... dramatic! How did things end up like this?
"Explain what? Didn't you promise me before that you wouldn't like men?"
So she still remembered that! Sadly, Nicola wouldn't listen at all. She kept holding Adrian and shouting angrily. I got caught in it too.
"This... this has a reason. Let me explain!"
I could only repeat this, feeling completely overwhelmed. Only now did I realize how much I had underestimated Nicola's feelings for me.
Actually, I'm not stupid. Back when we were trapped in the Dark Continent, I vaguely sensed her attitude towards me wasn't normal. It went way beyond regular friendship. Even Cyra, an outsider, noticed it later.
But I didn't have the same feelings for Nicola. Plus, she always used to be careless about relationships. So I only saw her as a brother.
Since we all came to this world together and Nicola had always taken care of me since high school, I couldn't directly point this out to her. All I could do was hint that I used to be a man, indirectly rejecting her.
Who knew, her attitude towards me really did become less obvious later. So I naively thought maybe she had given up. I figured if I just didn't provoke her, it would be fine. But now it seems that wasn't true at all. The situation is even worse than I imagined...
"Don't forget, this isn't Edenmere. Acting crazy like this could cause big trouble!"
Finally, Cyra the bystander spoke up again. After all, she had agreed to help me deal with Nicola before. She thought for a moment, then tried to persuade her:
"Why don't I explain the situation as a neutral third party? I've been with Feliciana almost the whole time. There are reasons things developed this way. You can't blame them entirely!"
"Can you really handle this?"
I was really worried. I couldn't help whispering to check. It's not that I don't trust her. The key is Nicola seems truly furious this time, and Cyra's abilities aren't always reliable.
"Let's try and see!"
Cyra didn't seem very confident either. She could only give me a bitter smile.
"What reasons? Don't tell me they're just pretending to be a couple? Or they were forced to date for some urgent reason?"
Surprisingly, Cyra's words seemed to have a small effect. Nicola's anger eased a bit. She turned back, willing to listen.
"Well, it all started after you left, when we went with the Pope to that cave in Mount Sulide..."
After listening for a while, I finally understood Cyra's idea. Basically, she wanted to tell Nicola that Adrian and I went through many big and small hardships together in that time-looping cave. We were "forced" to live together for a whole year. The feelings that built up between us during that time would melt even a stone. So it's understandable that I accepted Adrian.
"...From everything I saw, Adrian is really good to Feliciana. Plus, we all have to keep living with these identities for thousands of years. You can't stay upset forever. So why make things hard for another woman?"
Cyra concluded by saying Nicola should let go and face her future life.
To normal people, this explanation covers everything and makes sense. I found it quite convincing. But Nicola seemed lost in thought after hearing it, with no reaction. After a few seconds of silence, she finally asked:
"You said that time-looping cave they were trapped in was actually built by Liana from 10,000 years ago?"
This question seemed oddly specific, completely off-topic! Nicola wasn't following the script at all. Cyra and I looked at each other, really unsure what she meant. In the end, we could only answer honestly:
"That's right. To be precise, it was led jointly by the Wind Angel Liana and Earth Angel Galadra. I guess Galadra did the space loop part, while Liana handled the time loop... maybe?"
As I said this, I suddenly had a very bad feeling. It felt like I'd said something wrong, mentioned something bad.
"Hahaha, so you're saying this guy was in a time loop I built, hooking up with my girl, wearing my clothes!"
Sure enough, what Nicola cared about was completely different from us. Her anger exploded again. She looked furious.
"Do you think I'm stupid? You're ganging up to trick me about the fire... Who do you think I am? You think I can't see through this?"
"P-Pinru?"
Scared by her intensity, Cyra's head jerked back. But surprisingly, she still managed to stammer out an answer.