Coming out of Rika's room, Arthur sighed.

Saeko was on the terrace, training, right now.

Arthur walked down the stairs to get the fill for the morning. Breakfast was being made in the kitchen. Saya was there too, helping out the girls in cutting the veggies and all.

He turned to the living space to find Takashi sleeping on the couch.

Kohta was also there, sitting on the floor, near the couch, performing routine maintenance of his upgraded rifle and other guns as well.

"Ah, Arthur!" Kohta raised his head to look up.

"Kohta, can you help me in the maintenance of my guns too?" Arthur asked sitting on the floor, cross-legged, beside Kohta.

"Of course, I'll help, is that even a question." The chubby beamed and his belly jiggled as he shifted a bit to make space for the otherworlder.

Arthur chuckled as he took out a Tesseract-Powered rifle, he dismantled the gun part by part and stored the power source back in his inventory, it was a hazardous and explosive piece of shit.

He passed a couple of tubes shaped parts of the gun to Kohta.

"What's up with him," Arthur asked pointing his brow to the sleeping Takashi.

"Oh, Takashi-Kun, always chooses to keep watch of the surroundings during late nights and sleeps for the whole morning. Nothing unusual."

Arthur hummed and continued to wipe the barrel jacket.

'There was no food shortage, yet Takashi looks thinner.'

And the reason for that was not just his messed up routine...

From talking with Saya, Kazu, and Kohta, Arthur concluded that Takashi may act fine with others but depression was creeping up in his heart.

'I have to assess his mental state properly.'

Takashi was sliding to his lower point faster than Arthur had assumed.

The reason...?

Simple really — Rei.

These are tough times.

Extremely tough times.

The iron will either break or becomes a lustrous sword.

But Takashi is still the main character of this world, and this world would try to invoke the later outcome.

At this point, the thing with Takashi was that any action on him could lead to three outcomes — one which is beneficial for Arthur and the other which is beneficial for Takashi, one which is beneficial for none.

'Also, someone needs to uplift him a bit. A breather of sorts... Just enough so that when I—'

Saya could've been a good choice for this as she is childhood friends with Takashi.

But he wouldn't listen to her.

Rei is someone who he might listen to, whose words might impact him... but she wouldn't do it, at this point, she doesn't even care about her childhood friend, as this morning Kazu told him that she and Miku had been overly friendly with him for the past couple of days for some reason.

Arthur took that information as a positive sign.

Rei's objective might not be what they appear to be but for Miku it was obvious, she was trying to get Kazu's favor because she thinks he's important and has power.

As for Rei's objective, it might be similar to Miku's but well... more well thought out. Rei's a smart person, she might have picked up from Arthur's interactions with everyone and Kazu's actions that he might be the next main character.

Kazu was at being recognised... A good point indeed.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

But... from Takashi's point of view, his childhood crush whose boyfriend recently died, (well kind of died as 'someone' might be able to bring him back from the dead) instead of coming back to him, is fawning over some other guy.

Just when he thought that his childhood friend would finally see him...

His expectations were trashed.

Depressing...

Depressing indeed.

'Anyway, I guess I have to be the one who gives him a nice spirit lifting talk...'

Give him hope and then pummel him deeper.

"Hey fatty, call up everyone. The lunch's ready!" Saya's voice came from the kitchen.

Arthur's musing got interrupted by a voice. Both boys looked up and Takashi also woke up.

Takashi groggily rubbed the back of his head as he sat up, he glanced at Kohta and Arthur and gave them a nod with a small smile.

Arthur also nodded back, while Kohta greeted him the afternoon.

"Takashi-Kun, freshen up, lunch is ready," Kohta said as he stood up from the ground along with Arthur.

"Yes," Takashi replied, "I'll be there in a minute," He smiled.

Arthur noticed it, Takashi's smile was a bit strained... his mind wasn't in the present.

Arthur went to the dinner table while Kohta went downstairs to accomplish the task that Saya had given, calling out the guys downstrairs to get their food.

"Miku Onee-san, who's this Oni-san?" A short pink-haired girl tugged on Miku's skirt.

"Grrr!!!!"

A small puppy with a white coat and black ear flaps, wearing a red collar around his neck, growled at Arthur, standing in front of the pink-haired girl like a knight in shining armor.

Arthur tilted his head with a smile.

"Hey, big guy, I won't be hurting your princess, don't worry." Arthur slouched and patted the pup, he neatly hid his slight disgust toward the wretched creature, but maybe the object of his disgust sensed it as it tried to bite his hand.

"Hey Zeke, bad boy! No biting!" Saya glared, the pup backed off, stilling looking at Arthur as if he wanted to kill him.

"Arthur!" Miku beamed, "Welcome back! I didn't see you last night but Saya told me you were back... did you miss me?"

The little girl hid behind Miku and hugged her legs as Arthur walked closer.

"Ah," Miku picked up the small girl, "Alice, this is Arthur, he's the savior of the world! He'll protect you and everyone from all those monsters! And Arthur, ahem," She dramatically cleared her throat, "this's Alice, OUR daughter."

Arthur twisted his brows and snorted at her joke. Finding it a bit amusing that this girl was switching her 'targets' as quickly as breathing.

"Sit at the table Arthur, we'll give the food to the guys and then I'll serve you well~ in all sorts of ways~" She arched her eyes in ecstasy. "Ack!!!"

But a hand chopped her head from behind, it was Saya's. "I told you didn't I, that he's dating Saeko now! Don't flirt with other's boyfriends. I'm fed up, why don't you settle for just one guy but no you have to flirt with all the guys in existence!"

"Sigh, don't mind her, she's always cranky. I have only eyes for just a 'couple of guys', don't worry~." Miku looked at Arthur and giggled.

Arthur shook his head with a smile. "You both get along well, I see."

Saya tch'ed.

Miku sighed.

He exchanged a few more words with Saya and also talked with Alice a bit before he went to the dinner table and took out a book to pass the time.

Soon Kohta came with the guys and the girls in the kitchen handed them their fill. Miku and Alice then went to give food to Alice's father. A while later, Shizuka, Saeko, and Rika also came and sat at the dinner table with Arthur.

Saeko pulled the chair next to Arthur before pleating her skirt and elegantly sitting on his right.

Kohta chose the seat on Arthur's left, and Shizuka was in the middle seat opposite him. Saya and Rika took both sides of Shizuka.

Kazu, Takashi, and others decided to eat later and Alice was eating with her dad.

Arthur looked at the tanned woman, her hair was damp. She just got out of a bath, he observed.

"Did Shizuka explain everything to you?" He asked.

"Yeah, she did." She tucked the rice clutched between her chopsticks into her mouth. "Found him yet?"

Rika was obviously referring to the main character, that Arthur was 'trying to find'.

"Not yet," He answered, and brought the spoonful of rice mixed with curry into his mouth.

"You don't know how to use chopsticks?" She smirked.

"He's such a baby, right?" Saeko giggled, "Ahn!" but a sensual yelp escaped her mouth.

Arthur had pinched her thigh from below the table, Saeko furrowed her brows and pouted as she glared at him.

Arthur just continued eating with a small victorious smirk on his face.

Everyone understood what happened, even Shizuka. She switched her glance between Arthur and then Saeko, they seemed... awfully close... and for some reason... she was not liking.

For some reason... she was feeling irked...

Rika was surprised a bit too when she saw her bestie's crush 'actions', then she looked at Shizuka.

'This airhead's feelings are written all over her face.' Rika sighed.

"Anyway, since you have returned, we'll do what we had planned," Saya spoke. "Look for our families, starting from nearest to farthest."

"Sure, whose house do you think is nearest to us then," Arthur asked.

Saya sighed at his response, "You talk as if you don't already know, it's my house, of course."

"There are some 'extras' with us, that's why I wasn't sure..." He replied in a low tone.

The next couple of hours were spent packing all the stuff and readying the guys to leave the house.

After the house was devoid of all the stuff, they settled on the bus and departed for their next destination.

The Takagi Estate.

=============

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