alwaysunqualified

  Chapter 43 - Confiding in Cire.

  Opting to think about it ter, I rise from bed, throwing the covers aside. My shirt, already in tatters, slips off as I stand. I inspect the damage: my shirt is cleanly split in two and my pants, with the crotch sliced clean off, are barely clinging to my hips. The room is in disarray, with purple-like stains spttered across the walls.

  "Brother, your bath is ready," Angelica calls out just as my feet touch the floor. I try my best to hold up my ruined pants as I leave the room, meeting Angelica just outside. Her eyes immediately fall on my disheveled state. I scramble for an expnation, but 'hey, I just fucked one of our mothers' doesn't seem like it will cut it. However, she speaks before I can.

  "Really, Mama Miki should have just taken them off normally, although..." she trails off, her eyes sparkling at the sight of the torn clothing, likely stained with remnants from my encounter with Miki. Her intrigued look convinces me these clothes are destined for a fire.

  ‘Wait, what did she just say?’ I repy her words in my mind, realizing she might have overheard Miki and me st night. The embarrassment sinks in. I hadn't been thinking about keeping quiet, and Miki certainly wouldn't have cared.

  "Um, about st night," I begin, still unsure of how to broach the subject.

  "Don't worry, brother, I'll clean up while you're in the bath. I know Mama Miki tends to make a mess," she replies, intensifying my embarrassment. If she knew, the others likely did too—well, perhaps not Alice and Sakura since they're heavy sleepers, but Mom definitely heard.

  "I will do it," I insisted. I really didn't want my sister cleaning up after—well, that—and I certainly couldn't count on Miki to handle it. She always leaves her liquor bottles around, expecting us to clean up, and her b is perpetually a mess. Even if you can remember every pce you've left something, you should still tidy up after yourself.

  "We have a lot to do, and only a few days until your parties," she insisted, walking behind me and gently pushing me forward toward the stairs.

  "So about," I began, then stopped myself. You know what, I decided I'd rather not know, so I headed to the bath. I pced my ruined clothing in my inventory before jumping in. It also occurred to me that I could have swapped them with clean ones from my inventory if I had thought about it earlier, and the same goes for the covers and sheets.

  Letting go of that thought, I quickly scrubbed down with the stone-like object beside the tub. I had considered buying soap before, but after seeing Angelica's horrified reaction when she learned what it was made for, I never did. Apparently, it was one of those things considered as trying to mask what the goddesses gave you, rather than enhancing it—or at least, I hoped that was the concern.

  I could kind of understand why. Everyone here had a unique scent; none were unpleasant, and most were quite nice. Some were difficult to identify, like Mom, who smelled like wind and feathers, or Angelica, whose scent reminded me of warm air.

  As I sat in the bath, taking some time to rex and ensuring I was thoroughly cleaned, I realized I felt significantly less horny than usual. Perhaps, getting id had been exactly what I needed. It had been eighteen years since I arrived here, and if I counted the dry spell following my breakup with my ex, it had been almost twenty years since I'd been with someone.

  Not wanting to linger too long in the bath, I decided it was time to get out. Just as I stepped out, a half-asleep Sakura and Alice, both rubbing their eyes, barged into the bathroom.

  She was naked, which was not an uncommon occurrence, but this time I found it difficult to resist letting my eyes wander over her lean, toned body. Despite her slender frame, the subtle definition of muscles was evident. Her breasts were petite, adorned with just a faint patch of hair above her vulva.

  As I watched her, I couldn't help but notice her eyes wandering down to my quickly growing erection. I guess I was not as good as I thought I was. I felt a mix of arousal and embarrassment, but she quickly regained eye contact and gave me a smile of relief.

  "I thought it was a dream, but you really are back, brother," she said, hugging me again and pressing close, letting her body meld into mine.

  "Yeah, I'm back. Sorry," I replied, detecting the sadness in her voice. I should have called them just to say hi. Contact was technically forbidden, but it seemed more of a flexible rule. I don't remember the exact terms of the contract after all these years, but as I recall, it was mostly about not disrupting normal operations. I probably could have reached out. "As you can see, I'm right here."

  "I know, it's just that I’ve been having dreams where you never come back," she said, finally stepping back. It dawned on me that my absence might have worried them more than I had realized. What if I had really just left without saying anything?

  "Has it always been like that?" I asked, concerned that my departure might have affected them more deeply than I thought, or that they were genuinely feeling the effects of my loss in affection points with them. I hadn't given it much thought after seeing how normal everyone seemed, but the words of the Amazon princess echoed back to me.

  "No, it has been worse tely," she admitted. It seemed to be simir to a hollowing, though on a much smaller scale.

  Once again, I consider not trying to gain any more affection from those around me but quickly dismiss the thought. I had already made up my mind; I just needed to ensure that it wasn’t lost again, and if it was, I wouldn't waste any time getting it back.

  Sakura seemed okay overall, just a little sad and worried, but I knew it wouldn’t affect her for long. It’s comforting to know that people here remain mentally resilient regardless of what happens, though it does make it all the more tragic when someone does take their own life. That means they made a rational decision that life was no longer worth living.

  I gnced at Alice, trying to gauge if she felt the same, but her attention was fixed on my crotch. I caught her just as she tried to move closer, quickly putting on a set of clothes. "You are not sitting on my dick."

  Leaving a slightly miffed Alice with Sakura, I returned to my room to check on things. It was as it had been on my first night, only the old sheets had been repced with new ones. I wouldn't have noticed without my Observe. The walls were clean, though some smudges of purple were still visible, smudges that Mom could probably remove in less than a second.

  Once everyone was ready, I made my way to the door where an excited Alice nded on my head, with Sakura and Angelica all set to go. I scanned for Yuno but didn't see her. Noticing my look, Angelica expined, “She went to sister Seraphina's temporary housing. She'll meet up with us in a bit.”

  It felt strange not having Yuno constantly by my side, but I was gd she was doing her own thing now. Perhaps some good had come from my extended absence.

  As we left the house, we followed a familiar path we hadn't walked together in years. The city bustled around us, unchanged as ever. The only real difference was that having Angelica and Sakura clinging to me was now quite stimuting. After hearing Sakura’s earlier words and seeing that Angelica felt simirly, I didn’t have the heart to ask them to stop.

  I was relieved that Alice was still a few levels shy of becoming an adult, and without love points to spend, she would remain so for a little while longer.

  [Name: Alice EkkerAffection: 0 [500]Level 27Goddess: The Goddess of Love.Trait: Fairy,Primary blessing: Love System Integration tier 2Minor blessings: N/ASkills: Look Adorable tier 3. Love Compass tier 1, Fated Encounter tier 1, Love Trail tier 1, Wing fairy tier 1]

  [Love Trail: Create a path that leads directly to your intended target.]

  [Wing Fairy: Discover the steps necessary to advance a retionship.]

  We finally arrive at a familiar shop, which is just beginning to open, too early for customers. The street is still cloaked in the early twilight of morning, with minimal foot traffic, unlike the main street that remains bustling as long as there's the slightest hint of light.

  As I move to enter, Angelica and Sakura unexpectedly stop short. Turning back, puzzled by their hesitation, I see them intending to remain outside.

  "I may not be first wife anymore, but I still know when to give you some alone time," Sakura says with a smile. "We'll wait here."

  Angelica straightens my shirt, smoothing out the wrinkles they caused. "That's right, brother, we will wait out here. Go on, she missed you."

  Alice tapped my hand and then pounded her chest to reassure them. Apparently, Alice was coming along, not considering herself a third wheel.

  When I walked in, I spotted a girl who was now the spitting image of the one from her card, head down on the desk, her purple hair sprawled out over a book that was even rger than the ones she used to read during our past visits.

  “Recollection date starto!”

  Looking at her, she didn't seem to notice my entrance. Alice flew over, gently tapping her on the side of the head, which caused her to jolt awake, a trail of drool connecting her to her book.

  After a few blinks to regain her focus, she asked, “Just to make sure, this isn’t a dream where you come to sweep me off my feet, is it?”

  “Nope, I just got back yesterday,” I said, shaking my head.

  “Just to make sure, this isn’t a reality where you came to sweep me off my feet, is it?” she asked again.

  "Actually I came to talk," I said, cutting to the point. It is not what my sisters would advise doing, but I really did not want to put it off. My father always said if you're going to say something important, do it with purpose and don't dance around the subject.

  "Serious, huh? I like the idea of you sweeping me off my feet better," she remarked, gncing behind me before resting her chin on her hand. "You're as bad at talking to girls as ever, lucky for you, we all find you so charming."

  Thinking about my achievements, I added, "That's actually on the bucket list of things I need to talk to you about." She looked confused, likely because my turn of phrase didn't transte well.

  "Here, let me just show you," I said, shifting us into Love Land, where Alice, perched back on my head, stood up, making a sweeping motion as if presenting a grand dispy.

  Cire slowly looked around for a few seconds and then muttered, "Neat."

  I was expecting a more enthusiastic reaction than just 'neat,' given the responses I had received in the past. Perhaps it wasn't as impressive as everyone else had made it out to be.

  "This is Love Land, my dominion," I expined, hoping that would crify.

  "Yep, neat," she repeated, looking around again, her expression going bnk this time.

  I ughed at the peculiar look on her face. "What's with that face?"

  "I just stopped trying to make sense of it; it's way above my tier. I'll let my sisters worry about it and just help where I can," she said with a shrug.

  "Here, I'll show you around." I guided her through the area, pointing out the buildings. The monster ranch had some rather unusual creatures. After all these years, the strongest was a tier six ghost-like red goblin, whose strength I wasn't sure of. He was currently at a bench press, lifting with eight giant weights on each side, a protein drink sitting on the grass beside him.

  I showed her the training grounds, the arena, and the small collection of homes. However, what truly captured her attention was the Alchemy Lab, particurly the variety of ingredients growing out in front.

  "Wow, these usually can't be grown in the same area. The mana of the Thornheart kills off the more delicate Silkpetal Fern," she observed. I knew nothing about pnts, and neither did my sisters, so this was new information to me. I should also mention, the names were about fifty times longer.

  After exploring the garden, she was eager to see the inside. As we entered the shop, a pop-up appeared:

  [Would you like to assign Cire as the attendant of your alchemy b?]

  [Attendants cannot be reassigned until the next year.]

  [Attendant: Can control one building and utilize its features. The higher the affection, the more effective their bonus to the building will be.]

  I decided to dismiss it for now; we needed to talk first. After she had thoroughly explored the pce and commented on how even her mother didn't have such fine equipment, we sat down at a table den with alchemy tools.

  Once she settled in, we began to talk. I told her everything from my childhood to many of the things I had discovered about my system, and she listened intently. Well, almost everything—I left out the part about coming from Earth and glossed over some of the more embarrassing details. My family might not have made a big deal about them, but I still did.

  "So does that mean you can marry any girl you have the card of?" she asked. I gave an unsure nod, "Well, my sister will be happy."

  "That's it?" I asked, surprised that was the aspect she chose to focus on after everything I had told her. I would have thought the implications of the goddesses or the fact that her life would be in my hands if her affection surpassed one thousand would be more important.

  "She has been bugging me about you for the st year," she compined.

  "She seemed pretty uninterested in me when I visited," I responded, recalling the visit to her sister who was the spitting image of her, only with light purple eyes. She had barely spoken more than two words to me.

  "That was before you started killing hydras and spping nobles around," she expined, miming a sword ssh through the air and giving me a look that suggested this was somehow my fault.

  "Okay, what?" I asked, puzzled. I knew that girls were talking about it, but I thought those were just the fangirls from the tournament. As far as I knew, her sister wasn't one of them.

  "Did you not read volume three of The Smiling Angel, Bane of the Gentry?" she asked, sending a shiver down my spine; my title was becoming longer.

  "I have a book?" I excimed, bewildered. This was the first I'd heard of it. Why would someone write a book about me?

  "I guess they started after you left. It's really too flowery for my taste and they've got your personality all wrong, but the fight scenes are cool. My sister is hooked and can't wait for your next volume," she said, letting out a small ugh at me.

  "Ugh," I groaned. Why did I have books written about me? I had a sneaking suspicion this was somehow Angelica’s doing.

  "Anyway, if this is what you've been so worried about, your sisters are right, and you're too worried," Cire continued, still giving me a look as if this was my fault.

  "Don't you find it weird? It's like some kind of mind control, and one of your—ah, goddesses—comes to bug me all the time," I said, struggling to not insult the so-called goddess.

  "When you love someone, you share their burdens. Well, it may not be love but it is—love, or maybe love? Does it really matter? It's love, so it will be love," she said in a confusing flurry, fidgeting slightly.

  "What?" I asked, completely baffled by her expnation.

  “What I’m trying to say is, I want to marry you... um, but you have to include my sisters, so it has to wait until you get their cards first and—” She tried to expin, but I cut her off.

  “No, not that. I mean, yes, that too, but we can worry about that ter.” I still didn’t want to marry anyone. “You just kept repeating 'love'.”

  “No, I said love, love, love, and love,” she replied, looking just as confused.

  “You just said the same word four times,” I crified.

  She looked puzzled. “Oh, is this one of those transtion things? It's nice being able to speak and understand any nguage patiently, but how can it not distinguish between different types of love?”

  After pondering for a moment, she expined, “Love is like the love for your mother, while love is like the love for our city. Love is like the love for your husband and sisters. Oh, and love is like the love for your enemy, like that noble girl you were telling me about.”

  “Isn’t that st one hatred?” I asked, unable to see how that could be considered love.

  "Yeah, you could say it like that, but at the end of the day, it's still love," she said, which only added to my confusion.

  I had her slowly expin all the types of love she could think of, and there were as many as there were names for mothers, millions. At least with mothers, there was a difference that was transted, but with love, they all sounded the same. This made me wonder what else I was missing and whether the problem was with English. In English, all these types of love would also be referred to simply as "love," but the context would crify the meaning. I had been treating it simirly here, but that approach breaks down in situations like this.

  This also made me question how my system defined love and whether it aligned with my understanding.

  “So, are you pnning on telling all the other girls whose cards you have?” Cire asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

  "Well, some," I answered. I intended to confide in those I thought I could trust. If I was on the fence about someone, I would just wait and see.

  "Are you pnning on telling Selen?" she asked more pointedly.

  "Yes, she may seem a bit sadistic, but she has proven to be trustworthy and tries to be helpful in her own way," I responded.

  "And what about that princess who came to our shop? Also, you should never let Mom find out you were flirting with our princess in our shop," she said, looking nervous about her mom discovering this.

  I wanted to defend myself and insist that I wasn't hitting on the princess, but my actions at the end made that hard to cim, so I continued, "The princess? I really don’t want to get more involved than I already am. Why do you ask?"

  "I just think you have it backwards," she replied with a shrug, fiddling with a small beaker in front of her.

  "Those numbers mean nothing, and even if they did—" I started, but she cut me off.

  "You really shouldn't let your dislike for the nobility or the G-Goddess of Love color your perception of what those numbers mean; you have a clear indication of how much love someone has for you," she said, hesitating slightly as she mentioned the goddess. The idea of questioning her must have seemed extremely foreign. "Selen’s love is selfish, and she is shortsighted, while that noble girl seemed like... I don’t know, she was trying to do what was best for you, even if she didn’t like it."

  I disagreed; my family's affections all stopped at five hundred, and I didn't feel like some princess I met twice could possibly love me twice as much as them. "I really—"

  She tossed the beaker at me, hitting my shoulder. "Ow."

  "You really are hard-headed. Just remove everything else and treat it like one of those games you said you like to py," she said, giving me a scowl.

  Letting go of everything else, how do I feel about the princess? I’ve never really thought ill of her, and the only negative feelings I have are due to the people around her and my general disdain for the nobility. My sisters are still upset about their st meeting, but Alice likes her.

  I also think that I can trust Selen. Despite her penchant for causing me pain, she seems trustworthy. She has gone out of her way to help me when she can, even if she can't help but mock me while doing it.

  "Just think about it. Worst case scenario, you could threaten her or get a contract or something. It’s not like the nobles can do anything extreme to you now that you're a citizen of our city," she said. I think she's being naive about what someone with power can achieve if they really wanted to, but I also have options.

  After pondering it for a while as she idly pyed with another beaker in her hand, I finally decided to take the risk. With her ninja following me around all the time, it's only a matter of time until she figures it out anyway.

  “I guess you’re right,” I finally conceded. If I don’t do it now, who knows how long I'll have to wait to get a chance to meet her outside of Love Land.

  “Okay, send me back. I will wait,” she said, standing up as if she had won.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to meet her?” I asked. She was the one who suggested this.

  “A girl has got to know when to let her man spend time with other girls,” she said, shaking her head. Is this some kind of advice that every mother gives her daughter here?