According to Shinji's expectations, there should have been a calm and clear response, like "Okay" or "Come in." Even if there were some inconvenience, it would have been said with a slight apology, like "Wait for X minutes." It was hard to imagine someone like Fiore giving such a somewhat incoherent and panicked response unless something unexpected had happened.
"Fiore, what's wrong?" Shinji placed his hand on the doorknob, ready to open the door.
"No, it's nothing, ah—" followed by a "thud," like the sound of something heavy falling to the floor.
"Fiore!" Without further hesitation, Shinji turned the doorknob and forcefully pushed the door open.
Then, he was stunned.
He had thought something had happened to Fiore, something regarding her safety. He hadn't expected to see such a shocking scene.
In the room, Fiore was lying face down on the floor, with her upper body sprawled out, her back up, and her lower legs resting on the bed.
Well, this wasn't a big deal; Shinji had done even more peculiar things himself. After all, when resting, beds and blankets could become quite a formidable barrier.
But the problem was, Fiore was only wearing pajamas.
Everyone knows that pajamas are loose and not as form-fitting as other clothes. Fiore wasn't wearing any underwear and given this posture...
Ahem, in short, all Shinji could see was white, so much white.
Whether it was the white of her bare back, the smooth white of her neck, or the white exposed through the loose neckline, pressed by the floor...
In short, Shinji now felt like reciting poetry—clouds in the sky, frost on the ground, a girl's smooth sli... Ahem, fortunately, before he could finish, some of the white started turning red.
Seeing Shinji standing at the door, Fiore's face immediately turned red. The blush quickly spread from her cheeks to her entire face and then down her neck, visibly spreading across her whole body, showing she was extremely embarrassed and angry.
"Ah, no, don't look!"
This was the first time Shinji had heard Fiore speak in such a tone—flustered, shy, angry, pleading, and a bit hysterical. It was like a bucket of cold water, dousing the miscellaneous thoughts in Shinji's mind.
"Alright, I won't look." Shinji immediately turned around, moving so quickly that some of the medicinal soup spilled out.
"You being here makes it inconvenient for me. Could you please leave for a moment?"
"But you..." Shinji was worried that Fiore might have trouble getting up using just her hands.
"Get out!"
"Okay, I'll go out."
Hearing Fiore's emotions becoming unstable again, Shinji said no more. He placed the tray with the medicine pot on the floor and quickly left the room, remembering to close the door behind him.
Standing in the hallway for a while, Shinji finally muttered, "Did I just get a benefit?"
Then, inexplicably, he slapped himself.
"What the hell, that's your Master. Stop having inappropriate thoughts! Wait, isn't it usually the girl who slaps the guy in these situations? Why am I slapping myself?"
Rubbing his temples and trying to gather his scattered thoughts, Shinji leaned against the door and asked, "Fiore, are you okay? Can you get up?"
"No problem, I can get up. I have some auxiliary Mystic Code."
Perhaps due to the door between them, Fiore's voice sounded much more normal. Upon careful listening, one could sense the operation of a special spell.
"I see, then I'm relieved. About earlier, I'm sorry, I..."
"It's okay. I know you were worried about me. It was my carelessness."
Both inside and outside the door, silence fell once more.
After a few seconds, Shinji felt they couldn't stay stuck like this and broke the silence.
"The medicine—"
"Yes, I'll drink it..."
"..."
"..."
"It's getting late." They spoke almost simultaneously.
"..."
"You go first." Again, in unison.
"..."
"Let me speak first."
"Looks like there's no need to say anything now."
This time, they finally didn't speak in unison.
"Yes."
"I'm right across the hall. Call me if you need anything."
"Alright."
"Good night, Fiore."
"Good night, Assassin."
The awkward conversation through the door ended, and Shinji sighed, walking into his room.
As the hallway returned to silence, another door quietly opened a crack, revealing the freckled face of a young boy. The boy looked at the door diagonally across the hall and then at the door at an angle, which couldn't be seen. He sighed heavily.
"Two idiots, hopeless. But such things do happen in real life. I thought it only happened in anime. As they say, art imitates life. I should continue watching anime; maybe I'll find a solution there."
Caules sat back down in front of his computer, expertly opened a CD case, and pulled out a disc. The cover of the disc was of a recently popular anime series.
Seeing his enthusiasm, it seemed he wouldn't be sleeping for the first half of the night.
◇◇◇
Shinji suddenly felt a bit out of place.
Unlike yesterday, neither Sieg, who had occupied the bed nor Astolfo, who had taken over the sofa, would come tonight, leaving the room empty.
"When they were here, I thought it was noisy. Now that they're gone, it feels lonely. I am fickle. And with Fiore, I got the benefit but still feel guilty."
Shinji reached out to open the window and stared blankly outside. The night breeze ruffled his hair and scattered his thoughts.
"Justeaze, do you think I'm a despicable person?"
"Why do you say that?" Justeaze, who had always maintained contact with Shinji, responded immediately.
"I chose Fiore as my Master intending to exploit her naivety and innocence. But the longer we spend together, the guiltier I feel. Is it right to deceive and use a girl like her to achieve my goals? If she finds out the truth, will she be hurt? Will she hate me? Although it has nothing to do with me, I still don't want things to turn out that way—isn't that contradictory?"
"Yes, very contradictory."
"This kind of contradiction and struggle falls into the category of being fickle. Hehe, I don't know if you've heard this saying—' A despicable person is always fickle,' so I call myself despicable."
"No, you got it wrong." Justeaze's voice had a warmth similar to yet different from Fiore's. "A despicable person is fickle, but that doesn't mean all fickle people are despicable. This reasoning doesn't hold."
"You're fixating on that, huh." Shinji felt like laughing.
Justeaze asked seriously, "Isn't that a form of fickleness too?"
"I suppose so."
"Then we're both fickle."
Though his thoughts were calm, Shinji felt a different kind of meaning.
"Thank you, Justeaze, for comforting me in this way."
"No need to thank me. If anyone should be thankful, it's me. You've done much more for me than I have for you."
"That's not how it works. Without you, there wouldn't be me."
"Then let's not say thank you to each other anymore."
"Yes, let's keep it this way. This is good."
Shinji closed his eyes and stopped talking.
Debts of gratitude are the hardest to repay. When two people's fates are intertwined with mutual gratitude, it becomes impossible to calculate clearly, and they share their destinies.
PS: Shinji encountered the legendary lucky perv incident.