‘What in all hell was that? A Bene Gesserit speech from The Dune series?’

Putting up an amiable look, Leo continued to freak the hell out.

‘How? What was that feeling? Why I couldn’t even bear to resist it?!’

Camila lifted her spell, or whatever it was, as soon as she raised it. And to a degree, judging from how her face openly changed, this was likely some sort of mistake.

An outcome the girl didn’t account for.

‘None of that matters,’ Leo’s thoughts rushed to calculate the best way out of the mess he found himself in.

After encountering those adorable yet certainly lethal doggos, Leo ended up lowering his guard a bit.

‘The big event is here, so it was best to focus on it, right?’

So now that he was dealing with those dangerous yet marvelous beasts, Leo assumed he dealt with the prescribed dose of either great or tragic luck that plagued his fate ever since he dove into his first rift.

That’s why when the weight of the world itself suddenly pressed him to follow this girl’s soft yet decisive voice as she ordered her subordinates to stop…

Leo felt like a bird with clipped fingers, now bound to gravity just like everyone else.

‘Shit, I didn’t account for that at all!’

The rules of the world relaxing and morphing away from what Leo knew also meant that there would be new and unknown rules for him to try to follow. And just like he couldn’t fly back to earth due to gravity, the structure of his body, and all the physics that ruled how everything worked.

Here, in a rift world, the gravity could be weaker either because the planet was smaller or because the physics of the rift world were just… different.

And hearing Camila’s power-etched words, Leo had no other choice but to give in to the pressure when the very rules of the world came bearing upon his head.

It was all likely a mistake, a stupid and undesired miscalculation.

But it still forced the young man to instantly recalculate the situation he was in.

‘This girl…’

He managed to play it out nicely. And as genuinely awkward as he was when Camila tried to chew the hard plastic, his further comments on the matter were nothing but a cold attempt at buying more time.

But…

Leo sighed.

‘There has to exist some sort of irritating deity orchestrating all of it,’ Leo thought grimly.

It was hard to believe otherwise, for how could his time in both of the rifts be so constantly eventful… As in, heralding the looming threat of imminent and brutal death.

But even if such an entity actually existed… Then in its plans to push Leo off the edge with the constant upsets, it failed to account for one thing.

The three fluffy doggos that, following the example of the fluffiest one of their small pack, stepped in as if to dissolve and de-escalate any potential issue.

The youngest, an actual pup, was digging some hole just slightly to the side. The leader of the pack lay down in the back, gracefully and patiently devouring the food stick one small bite at a time.

Finally, there was the fluffy one, currently casting the greatest restraining spell that could exist in any possible world.

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It lay down on Leo’s feet.

Putting utmost effort not to move his legs, Leo reached out with his right hand to his chest before resting it down just above his heart.

‘Just fucking how!’

Clutching down at his heart, Leo gritted his teeth as he struggled to contain the fluff in his brain.

‘How can it be so damn adorable!’

As much as Leo wanted to be wary of the girl capable of restraining him so easily and literally at a command…

How could he do so with such a soothing warmth locking his feet where he stood?

And how could he look away from its two adorable, black eyes tracking changes on Leo’s face while the fluffy tail continued to sweep against the floor.

“Hmph!” the pup of the pack coughed, raising up on its rear legs and then stomping his front paws down at the hole it just covered up. Once it beat the freshly moved earth even, it jogged back and sat down right in front of Leo, raising its happy snout as it looked at the young man with innocently naive anticipation.

Glancing up to the hole the pup just sealed, Leo then looked back only to notice a drop of saliva about to fall out of the pup’s smiling snout.

‘Does it want more?’

Battling his own rationality for a moment, Leo ultimately gulped down his saliva… and decided to try his broken luck for once.

Keeping his feet as they were, Leo lowered himself to his knees, squatting with his knees just high enough not to bother the fluffiest of the pack. Then, he reached out, slowly raising his arm towards the sitting pup’s nose while letting his hand hang loose on the wrist.

Stopping three inches away from the pup’s nose and while feeling its mom’s vigilant glare, Leo slightly straightened his wrist and brought the outer side of his hand an inch closer.

The last two inches, though, were up to the pup to cross, not the young man.

For a moment, Leo felt as if the time had stopped.

The pup looked at his hand and then up to his face, then at his hand… and back up to his face.

The fluffy mom-doggo tensed up a tiny little bit, shifting her weight atop Leo’s feet.

Standing still and daring not to move a muscle, Leo couldn’t afford to look behind to see how the dad of the small pack reacted.

Then, the pup brought its snout closer and sniffed Leo’s palm…

Only to open its mouth and lightly chop down on it with its teeth.

‘Huh?’

Forcing a pained smile on his lips, Leo gritted his teeth, more than just feeling the bite.

The pup didn’t aim to tear Leo limb by limb. It appeared to be stunned, as if it realized its mistake and now stood embarassed, not sure how to proceed.

A short, low growl rang in the air right as the fluff relaxing on Leo’s feet vibrated a bit.

“Pah!”

Pushing its jaws open, the pup moved its mouth away before slowly closing it, its eyes peeking toward its mom with uncertainty.

‘…’

Gathering all of his courage, Leo pushed his hand closer a tiny little bit while curling his fingers up… before reaching out even further, and gently bruising just the tips of his fingers through the pup’s fluffy head.

Leo's face melted down, his fingers habitually reaching out for the pup’s ear on the right, quickly moving in to scratch what was Leo’s Puppers favorite scratching spot.

And from all the many instances of momentary silences that came to be during the recent succession of events, the one that Leo brought forth with just a slight pet, was most definitely the longest.

“You didn’t just…”

Camila had her mouth slightly open, and her eyes widened so much they looked like they would pop out at any moment.

Both of her masked friends appeared to be equally as stunned, something Leo noticed even with how they didn’t dare to move a muscle even after the girl lifted her spell.

The fluffy doggo appeared to be merely taken aback while the pup seemed surprised…

But it soon angled its head, urging Leo to keep moving those lazy, frozen fingers of his.

Unable to make a single conscious move, Leo could only rely on muscle memory. And once it kicked it, his fingers soon moved from just scratching behind its ear to brushing the top of its head and even, dear heavens, gently patting it!

A small smile started to form on Leo’s lips, this single action of petting the dog bringing him the comfort he long thought he permanently lost.

“Oh right,” Leo awkwardly spoke out as he pulled his hand back to the pup’s visible disappointment. “You wanted more food, right?”

Leo looked down at them into the black eyes of the fluffy doggo on his feet.

“I’m sorry, but could you move a little? I have more food just nearby.”

The fluffy dog looked back into Leo’s face and kept still for a moment…

Before rising up like the good girl she was and freeing Leo’s feet.

‘Now then, not to lose momentum,’ Leo hurried himself down as he moved just a few steps away, to one of the many bushes around, three steps from where he hid previously.

He then grabbed a bunch of sticks and leaves… And pulled away a masking mesh covering a massive crate filled with all sorts of factory-sealed boxes.

Grabbing two of them, Leo hastily brought them back to where everyone ended up gathering, dropping both of the boxes down on the ground before swiftly tearing off their covers.

One of the boxes was filled with a total of forty ration sticks, sorted into ten of each of the four basic flavors. The other box was more interesting thought, as it contained everything one would need to quickly prepare two sets of ten, perfectly uniform hot meals.

Which was arguably the greatest wonder of modern civilization that those with access to ample food never learned to truly appreciate.

Conveniently, it was an observation that Leo read before even dropping into the rift, on one of the standard pamphlets issued by the Sava megacorp.