'How the hell did this happen?'

This one thought prevailed in my head as I dragged my bike along while making sure to match Claire's step.

It was an extremely weird feeling, to walk through town beside a fairy like her…

But somehow, this impossible event came to be regardless of the close-to-null chances of it ever happening.

And somehow, I was bringing this beautiful girl home!

'Let's not get ahead of myself,' I thought, desperately striving to calm myself down while trying not to let the awkward silence between the two of us get to me. 'She's not coming to my place, she's coming to check the device up and then help me out with my cultivation. That's all there is to it!'

Still.

It was one thing to be aware of something but a completely different thing to live through it.

"Why are you so silent?" Claire asked while leaning her head slightly off to the side and giving me a bit weirded-out look. Then, her lips twitched a little as she formed a small, slightly mischievous smile, "could it be, are you…"

"I'm not good at talking to women, alright?" I cut the chatter before this tease of a clerk could gain any momentum with her playful teasing. "I've spent five years training with all the passion I could find in hopes of achieving a meditative state, so forgive me if I failed to develop this kind of rudimentary social skill," I added, rolling my eyes only to turn them away, hoping that if I didn't have Claire in my sights, she wouldn't affect my mind all that much.

"Oho?"

Just hearing how she held back her laugh made me realize that my attempt at being straightforward and laying the situation flat out… was likely a mistake.

I saw, just from the corner of my eyes, that Claire sped up a bit… Only to jump, pull her legs over the frame of my bike, and then land her shapely bottom directly on its seat. A move so perfect the bike didn't even twitch, making it seem as if something she extensively practiced.

'What the…'

"Is this another thing you want me to teach you about?" Claire giggled, dangling her feet off to the side of my bike only to then raise her left foot and place it against my stomach. "How to deal with girls?" she asked, rubbing her feet up and down while letting out a lovely giggle.

"I believe you were to teach me cultivation, didn't you?" I spoke out while giving her a side-eye… not really sure how to deal with her playful, flirtatious behavior.

"Yeah, what about it?" she replied while leaning back on the bike's seat, forcing me to counter by pulling it a bit harder in my direction. In this position, if only she was wearing a skirt rather than a set of pants, my unobstructed view would be to kill for.

"Right now, you make it seem as if you were to teach me dual cultivation instead," I pointed out, drawing a direct parallel to what she was wary about before.

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"Oh, calm down," Claire laughed out again, finally pulling her leg down and allowing it to freely dangle while she continued to fill my ears with her bright, charming giggling. "I'm only playing a bit!"

I heaved a long, heavy sigh.

"Didn't I just say that I'm not really used to women?" I forced myself to look over at the girl with a disapproving look in my eyes. "What are you doing all of that for? Just to have some fun at my expense?" I protested.

"Do you really think so little of me?" Claire asked, pushing her lips out as she pretended to pout. This pout then turned into a small smirk that further transformed into a relaxed smile. "What if I said I'm trying to get you addicted to me so that you won't bail the moment you get a better offer than what I can put on the table?"

Once again, I leaned my head over to the side to give the girl a stinky side-eye.

"Let me use your own words, do you really think so little of me?" I countered before turning my head back to its natural position as I focused on the road ahead rather than the playful girl.

Rather than keeping up with the conversation, though, I turned silent instead, hoping that this trip could come to an end as soon as possible.

'If this is the ordeal I have to go through to become a proper cultivator…' I thought, only to grit my teeth as I steeled my resolve, 'then so be it!'

For the next few moments, the peace returned as Claire seemingly lost all interest in teasing me.

"Actually, you will have to get used to this kind of touch," she blurted out, only to lean back while stretching her hands over her head, only to kick up with her legs, do a handstand, and then flip back to her legs. She then ran around the back of the bike only to slam herself against my open left side and wrap her arms around my arm. "While dual cultivation is an entirely different topic, a bit of touch is necessary for me to get a proper look at your inner state," she muttered while rubbing her cheek against my shoulder, all the while holding on to that mischievous smirk of hers.

"So, why shouldn't I start getting you used to it a bit?" she asked, her voice growing slightly more serious than before. "It would do us no good if you were to get hard whenever I put my hands on you, would it?"

I took a deep breath, trying to hold my emotions back… just like I held myself from shaking her off my shoulder.

"Don't flatter yourself," I tried to counter… All the while trying to manipulate my step so that the creasing of my jeans wouldn't twist in a way unfortunate enough to prove the point Claire was making.

Thankfully, before she could notice, we finally took the last turn before arriving at the entrance to my apartment building. And that alone was enough for her face to first sour and then turn serious.

"Yes, I really live in this place," I admitted while rolling my eyes, well aware that this place was more of a jail than a proper apartment building, something that the architect didn't even bother to try to hide from an outside view.

"No… That's not it…" Claire muttered as she let go of my arm and squinted her legs, her smirk finally replaced by a properly serious expression. "It's the mana…" she spoke out, only to cut her sentence short and then shake her head to the side, followed by grabbing my arm again only to pull me into the building.

"Lead the way," Clarie shortly ordered… all the while pulling me along, making the task of leading the way quite impossible.

Still, after recollecting my thoughts, I sped up my steps and first matched and then overtook the girl, guiding her up the stairs and then along the corridor, all the way to the doors leading to my closet of an apartment. The closer we got, though, the slower Claire's steps became, as if she suddenly started to struggle to push ahead, long before I felt the mana in the air grow any thicker.

By the time we arrived at the doors, Claire's knees were already shaking, making it seem as if I just brought home some drunk and terrified girl. Yet, when I opened the doors…

"I'm sorry, but give me just a moment," she pleaded, only to rush inside, sit down on the bed, pull her legs up before crossing them, and then close her eyes.

As weird as it was, I just shrugged my shoulders and closed the doors. Yet, as I turned around to face her again, she was already in a state of deep meditation, with her chest slowly moving to the rhythm of her long, deep breaths.

And as I stood there, in the narrow open space of my room with a beautiful fairy of a girl meditating on my bed, only one thought occupied my mind.

'What the hell do I do now?'