Chapter 79: …By the way, did something happen with Lumia-san?

After getting through the crowd, Kazui and Yuri stepped onto a street lined with madder-red buildings.

It was a street of brick buildings standing side by side.

It was a street with many apartments for residents without much money, not just adventurers, and the apartment Kazui and Yuri lived in was on this street as well.

It was still quite a way ahead, though.

As they kept walking, the number of people gradually decreased.

Yuri asked Kazui about something he had been curious about but had thought would be hard to bring up in a crowded place.

"...By the way, did something happen with Lumia-san?"

The sudden question startled Kazui and made him panic.

But he tried to keep his reaction natural so the surprise and panic would not show, and answered.

"Nothing happened. Why?"

"The way you and Lumia-san were earlier was different from usual."

"Different how?"

"You both looked weirdly embarrassed, like a couple right after they did it for the first time."

(Come to think of it, this guy... was always sharp about that kind of thing.)

Kazui remembered middle school and high school.

Yuri had been quicker than him to notice changes in relationships, like which classmates had started dating or become involved.

Overall, Kazui’s intuition was sharper than Yuri’s.

But when it came to relationships between men and women, Yuri was sharper, partly because he had more romantic experience and more female friends.

"No way."

Panicking inside, Kazui denied it with a calm face.

"Lumia-san wouldn’t give someone like me the time of day!"

"Is that so? I just... got that kind of feeling."

"You’re imagining it."

"If I’m wrong, that’s too bad."

"Why would you be disappointed?"

"If you... did it with Lumia-san, you might have been able to narrow down Replication’s activation condition, or copy a new skill."

Yuri continued answering Kazui with a serious face.

"You mastering Replication, increasing your skills, and getting stronger is a good thing for me too, since we’re in a party. If that didn’t happen, of course I’d be disappointed."

"...I see."

"From now on you’ll have to keep doing it with women who have skills. If you don’t, you won’t be able to get stronger."

"That’s true, but I don’t have anyone."

"What about Lumia-san?"

"I told you, nothing happened with Lumia-san!"

"No, I mean as someone to do it with from now on."

Even though the street had few people, others still passed nearby now and then, so they continued the conversation without using the word sex.

Even so, the meaning got through between them.

"Even as a future thing, why Lumia-san?"

"I get the feeling Lumia-san likes you and looks after you in a lot of ways, so I think if you asked her she wouldn’t refuse."

(This guy really... is sharper than me only when it comes to this kind of thing.)

While admiring Yuri’s intuition, Kazui also felt awkward.

Until yesterday, Kazui had not noticed at all that Lumia thought well of him.

But Yuri had noticed.

On this point, it was obvious to Kazui that Yuri was sharper than he was.

"No, I... I’m not popular. I don’t think that’s it."

Kazui played dumb.

"You were supposed to be unpopular, but honestly... since we came to this world, I don’t think that’s been the case."

Back in Japan, Yuri had also thought Kazui really was unpopular.

His thought was that the cause was less his height and more his sharp tongue.

"Besides Lumia-san, there are a few other women who seem to like you."

"Eh? Who?"

Having no idea who that could be, Kazui asked in surprise.

"The Fallon sisters, for example."

Hearing Yuri’s answer, Kazui burst out laughing.

"Those two? No way that’s true! Far from liking me, they hate my guts!"

"Do they? If they really hated you, I don’t think they’d call out to you and try to get involved so much."

Just as Yuri said, the Fallon sisters had a tendency to call out to Kazui and try to get involved with him for one reason or another.

"A woman with no interest in you wouldn’t get involved. The Fallon sisters seem interested in you, so there’s more possibility with them than with a woman who doesn’t care, right?"

"Even if they have an interest in me, it’s only a negative one. They’re way too harsh with me!"

"There are clumsy women who can’t treat the guy they like honestly and end up being harsh with him."

Yuri added shortly.

"To put it simply, the so-called tsundere type."

"Those two are only tsun! There’s zero dere!"

"Well, that’s obvious, since you haven’t done anything that would make them go dere. If you change how you treat them, they might."

"I can’t imagine those two going dere for me. No matter how I look at it, they hate me."

"Why not try asking them, even if it’s a long shot?"

"You’ve got to be kidding! The only ending would be me getting beaten up, then having it spread around and becoming a laughingstock!"

After that, Yuri named a few other women Kazui knew.

But to Kazui, even if they were not on the level of the Fallon sisters, none of them seemed like women who liked him.

(Looks like I overestimated how sharp this guy is about relationships.)

While sharply lowering his evaluation of Yuri’s intuition about relationships, Kazui kept walking down the street lit by the morning sun.

It was the time they should have been eating breakfast, so he felt hungry as he walked.