Returning home with Xara clinging to my arm, I stepped inside and headed straight for my room.

I greeted one of Sirin’s robots along the way, but other than that, I simply entered my room with Xara before lying down on my bed. I was about ready to pass out.

Xara seemed to wanna do the same. However, right as she tried to get into bed next to me…

“Gah!”

She tripped on the floor and the purse she had on her went flying off her arm. Hitting the nearby wall.

Crack!

Hearing the sound of glass breaking, Xara got to her feet and immediately started shifting through the bag to see what had broken.

“What was that? I asked.”

“Give me a minute. I’m looking right now.”

After about a minute, Xara seemed to find what had broken and she gasped in shock.

“W-What’s wrong!?”

“I don’t know how it happened, but I accidentally packed the aphrodisiac Mom gave me along with all my other things.”

“You packed what!?”

I thought she said she left that thing at home! Crap! We gotta get out of here before-

“-Wah!”

I tried getting off the bed and leaving the room when sI suddenly felt something crash onto my back, I turned around to see Xara looking up at me with a red blush on her cheek.

"Axeeelll...Let's dooo iiiit..."

It seems that thing worked fast!

This wasn’t good at all. I needed to get out of here before it affected me too.

Using wind magic to gently push Xara off, I started dashing toward the door.

“Axel! Wait! Axel!”

Hearing Xara behind me, I knew she wasn’t in her right mind, so I had to wait until it wore off for the time being.

Thus, I burst out the door before sealing it shut with earth magic by using on the ground below to form a barrier in the shape of an X.

Once I was confident she wouldn’t be able to get out easily, I let out a sigh of relief.

“You aren’t gonna do it with her?” asked Nia.

“In that state? Hell no.”

While I may have never done the deed myself, I knew that stuff like first times were important. So all I could do was let her get it out of her system and we could do it when we were both mentally ready, as well as prepared for any of the aftermath, then I’d push forward with getting it on.

“Still, that means she’s in a vulnerable state right now. What’ll you do if she does something crazy like jump out the window or break through the door?”

“...We just have to hope the aphrodisiac doesn’t make her that desperate.”

Still, to be safe, I stuck by the door. Keeping an ear out in case anything happened.

I ended up staying there the whole night. And while I was tired, as long as my girlfriend was okay and didn’t do anything rash, then it was worth it.

Waking up, I let out a loud yawn.

I found myself lying on the floor, naked and dripping with sweat.

Not sure how I got that way, I headed over to the shower and washed myself down before drying off and putting on a new set of clothes.

Once I was done with the shower, I checked to make sure I was all good for the day and after a quick glance at the mirror, I smiled and prepared to leave the room.

“Hm. Is Axel up already?” I thought as I left.

The last thing I remember was how we’d gotten back from our date and were about to head to bed. But for some reason, everything after that I'm drawing a blank. Weird.

Deciding to leave it be for now, I left the room and found a floating cube flying in front of me.

“Ah. You’re awake. How are you feeling Miss Femishito?”

There were pieces of rock lying all around the place for some reason, but I wasn’t in the mood to ask right now so I simply responded to the cube's question.

“I have a slight headache, but other than that, I’m fine.”

“That’s good to hear, that means the aphrodisiac wore off.”

"Huh? Aphrodisiac?”

Ignoring my confused look, the cube floated past me with some weird metal guys in tow.

“I need to dispose of it as soon as possible. So for the time being, please head to the cafeteria. Master should be there right now, so you can enjoy breakfast with him.”

“Uh…Okay.”

So Axel was in the cafeteria? Got it. Guess I should go catch up with him.

Thus, I left the cube thing to do its business while I went to grab some breakfast.

“Ugghhh….”

“Whoa! Are you okay Axel!?”

When I arrived at the cafeteria, I was shocked to Axel staring at his food with an exhausted expression on his face. It was like he hadn’t slept a wink the entire night.

Turning to my voice, Axel gave what I thought was a smile.

“Oh…Morning Xara. How are you feeling?”

As he asked that, he tried fishing some of his breakfast into his mouth, but completely missed the mark. Causing the food to hit his cheek.

“We aren’t talking about me right now! Why do you look like you're on the verge of passing out!?”

“...Well…you see…I…”

Axel tried to speak, but his voice was so quiet that he kept murmuring in between words. Making it impossible to understand what he was saying.

“He was awake all night.”

“Gah!”

Appearing out of nowhere, the cube thing caused me to jump in surprise.

“Can you please not scare me like that?”

“...As I said, he was awake all night.”

“Don’t ignore the question.”

Also, wait a minute. He up all night? Why?

Turning back to him, I watched as he once again tried to eat his food only to completely miss.

“Last night, you were affected by an aphrodisiac. And in order to keep you safe and make sure nothing bad happened to you, he stayed up the entire night and watched over you.”

“I was affected by a…Wait a minute!”

I remember now. Right after we got back I tripped and my Mom’s aphrodisiac which I accidentally packed along with all my other things broke. And I ended up inhaling it directly.

So while I was in that state, Axel locked me up and kept watch until it wore off?

I wasn’t sure how to feel about the locking up part, but what was important to take away from that was Axel was watching over me the entire night. Meaning he didn’t get a wink of sleep.

This leads me to realize that the reason Axel is like this right now is entirely my fault.

When I thought about it that way, I couldn’t help but feel guilty when looking at his state right now.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Well, can’t he get some sleep now? I’m feeling better after all.”

“As nice as that would be, he has several things he needs to take care of involving the island. So while I can’t let him sleep, I can at least offer him some caffeine to wake himself up.”

Turning to look at Axel, I knew there wasn’t much I could do about the situation. Even so, I wanted to help him as best I could.

“In that case, can I take on his duties in his place?”

“You want to take on the island duties? But you’re our guest.”

“Even so, I’m responsible for what happened. So if my help can let Axel get some sleep, then I’ll do everything I can!”

“...I see. Very well then. I’ll have Master put into one of the guest rooms and let him get some sleep. While I do that, please go over this list and make sure you understand what must be done.”

“Got it.”

Being handed a paper, I started to scan it while one of the metal things took Axel off to a guest room to get some rest.

Thus, I ended up spending my entire day working myself to the bone.

From picking up crops to making sure the island's infrastructure was all good to go.

I didn’t understand all of it. But even so, I was helping Axel get some rest. So I was gonna do my best to get things in order.

Letting out a loud yawn, I got up from a bed I’d never seen before. Or rather, a bed I’d never slept in before.

“Is this one of the guest room beds?” I muttered. Confused as to how I got here.

The last thing I remember clearly was breaking down the X blockade in front of my room since it was nearly morning. But everything after that is kind of a blur.

“...I wonder if Xara’s okay,” I muttered. Looking out the guest room window.

“She is perfectly better Master.”

“Gah!?”

Jumping from the sight of Sirin appearing out of nowhere, I turned toward her.

“Could you please not scare me like that?” I asked.

“...I'll try to avoid it in the future.”

I appreciated it. However, that wasn’t the focus right now.

“So you’re saying Xara’s all better?”

“Indeed. She was actually the reason why you were able to get some sleep today. She took on all the days jobs while you slept”

“She did?”

I had no idea. Though now that I thought about it, there was a lot that was supposed to get done today. So that meant she must’ve worked hard.

That makes me feel a bit bad when I think about all the tasks I was supposed to do being handed over to my girlfriend. Still, the fact that she gave me this chance to sleep was something I was grateful for.

Sitting on the bed, I turned to Sirin.

“How are things looking then? Is everything going smoothly?”

In response to my question, Sirin pulled up several screens that seemed to have recorded everything Xara had been doing all day.

From getting a look around the island for any potential threats to cleaning out a section of trees near the mansion.

“Since most of the required tasks are quite menial. She’s had little to no problem. However, there are some tasks that require your personal attention. So when you get the chance, I’d you to take a look at them.”

“Got it. Send me a list and I’ll take care of them after I get something to eat.”

“Understood Master.”

I wasn’t that hungry, but I knew since I hadn’t eaten anything since this morning that it’d be a good idea to get something in my stomach.

Thus, while Xara worked hard on wrapping up all the smaller tasks on the list of things to do, I ended up spending the rest of my day doing things like preparing traps for intruders and patching up some of the infrastructure that hadn’t been taken care of during that one robot incident earlier in the break.

Before I knew it, night had arrived. And sadly, I wasn’t tired at all.

Lying down in bed, I looked up at the ceiling in silence.

Xara had apparently worn herself out completely and said she wanted to head straight to bed, so I let her be and figured I might as well get some sleep too.

But as I said, I wasn’t tired at all. So all I could do was just wait around until my body was ready to get some shut-eye.

“...I can’t sleep at all.”

It had been almost an hour since I decided I would wait till I passed out. However, despite all my waiting, nothing happened. I just continued staring at the ceiling completely bored.

“Hm. Maybe I should try counting sheep?” I suggested to myself.

That was all I could think of to pass the time.

A part of me wanted to try and talk to Nia, but one look at the grimoire and I could tell she was probably out cold in there…I think.

I don’t know if spirits actually slept or not, but it’d probably be rude to disturb her if she was.

Thus, I started counting.

“One sheep…two sheep…three sheep…four sheep…”

I continued this for another ten minutes. Bored out of my mind. And that’s when it happened.

Knock knock!

Hearing a knock on my door, I sat up. Turning to the door with a look of curiosity on my face.

“A-Axel. Are you awake?”

“Xara? Uh. Yeah, I’m awake.”

When I said that, I heard Xara sigh in relief on the other side of the door before opening it up and walking inside.

“Thank goodness. I would’ve felt awkward about this if you were asleep.”

“Is that so?”

Awkward? About what?

Nodding her head at my words, Xara looked into my eyes.

“I heard about what you did for me during that incident last night. And how you stayed up all night watching over me until it was all over. I’m sorry for causing you trouble.”

In response to her words, I shrugged.

“Heh. It’s fine. I just did what I could to make sure you were alright.”

As well as not assaulting me but we didn’t need to bring that up at all.

“Plus, you already made up for everything by helping me out with my schedule today. So it’s no big deal.”

“S-Still. It was my fault everything happened in the first place. And you ended up suffering from it. When I think about how hard it must’ve been for you to stay up all night knowing you had work to do the next day, it made me feel horrible.”

I mean, one night without sleep wasn’t the worst thing ever. All I’d need is some coffee and I could keep moving.

I mean, I would’ve been in a pretty sorry state, but I could manage…probably.

With a small blush on her cheek, Xara looked into my eyes before doing something I hadn’t expected. She’d started to strip.

“Even if you don’t see it as a big deal, I wanna make up for my mistake. That’s why, I want to give you something I hope you’ll enjoy.”

Her face growing redder, Xara took off the rest of her clothes showing herself dressed in some rather revealing lingerie.

“So? What do you think Axel?”

“I..uh..I…”

I could feel my face warming up a bit. Did this mean the effects of the aphrodisiac hadn’t actually worn off? Or was this something else?

“The aphrodisiac is no longer in her system. These are her honest feelings,” Sirin said next to me in a quiet voice while remaining completely invisible.

“Is that so?” I muttered while looking at Xara.

Despite blushing red, she got closer to me. Once she climbed onto the bed, she started reaching toward my pants. Taking my silence as I sign I wanted this.

Thinking things over in my head, I found myself pondering what to do here. And then, in a nervous tone, I grabbed her shoulder.

“A-As long as we don’t go all the way, that’s fine with me…at least until we’re a bit older.”

“...O-Okay.”

Xara seemed a bit relieved when she heard that. Whether it was because I accepted her advances or because she wasn’t ready to go all the way herself I had no idea.

Even so, there was one thing I knew. And that was that I loved Xara. So if she wanted to do this with me, I was more than willing to accept it.

Thus, what followed was a night of bliss between the two of us. Something I’d remember for the rest of my life.

The next day, I woke up staring at Xara’s face.

She was sound asleep next to me. Completely naked.

As I requested, we didn’t go all the way. Even so, we got pretty close. But since I was technically only seventeen in this world, it seemed a bit early for us to take that next step. At least for now.

Leaving that be, I got out of bed and started putting on some clothes.

“You two sure made a ruckus last night,” said Nia. Her voice sounded a bit annoyed.

“Well, there wasn’t much I could’ve done about that. Sorry.”

“Haah. It’s fine. I’ve got other things I need to focus on anyway.”

“You do? Like what?”

“...It’s a secret.”

“...I see.”

Knowing Nia probably wasn’t gonna tell me anything, I decided to move on.

“Hrgn…”

Hearing Xara behind me, I turned around to see her rubbing her eyes while letting out a yawn.

“Morning Axel.”

“Morning. How’d you sleep.”

Xara grinned.

“Pretty good. Heh heh. I just find it hard to believe we went as far as we did.”

“Same here. But we’ll have to leave it be for now. We got other things to do today, remember?”

“Huh? Oh right! We’re meeting up with Riko today!”

That’s right. With our vacation just about to wrap up, I wanted the MC to help me out with a dungeon diving expedition which we were set to do today.

“J-Just give me a second! I’ll get ready right away!”

Getting out of bed, Xara started putting on her clothes.

“There’s no need to rush. We aren’t meeting up for another couple of hours. So you have plenty of time to get ready.”

“R-Really? In that case, do you mind if I grab a shower?”

“Go ahead. I’ll make sure everything's good to go while you’re in there.”

“Understood. See you in a bit then.”

With that, Xara walked into the bathroom.

A few minutes later, I started hearing a shower running and I turned to Sirin who had appeared next to me. Looking between me and the bathroom.

“You’re not going in?”

“Of course not.”

“...I see.”

Why did she sound disappointed when I said that?

“Anyway, make sure she has a towel and a fresh set of clothes. Got it?”

“Of course. I’ll fetch them right away.”

Thus, Sirin flew off toward Xara’s room and I walked over to the giant window in my room.

The sun had risen high in the sky and for some reason, looked really beautiful this morning.

“Something tells me today’s gonna be a good day,” I muttered as I looked up at the sky.

In the end, I considered this to be one of my best summer vacations ever.