For the next two days, Geno was a model patient — he stayed in the hospital and went absolutely nowhere.
And honestly, could anyone blame him? The paparazzi had already dug up most of what happened over the past few days. Going outside now would basically be volunteering for more exposure. He'd gotten to the point where he had to check for hidden cameras before using the bathroom. There was not a shred of privacy left in his life.
"I genuinely cannot survive another day of this," Geno thought.
And then, at last, today brought good news: Old Master Timefield would be taking Geno and Alice back into New Eridu tomorrow.
"Finally going back, huh? Now that I think about it... it's been nearly a month since we got to Weifeidi."
Geno shook his head in quiet amazement. He'd come to Weifeidi to sort out the Lumiceramic problem — and somehow, in the middle of all that, an absolutely absurd amount of other things had happened.
Though on the bright side, he'd made a lot of new friends.
And, most critically — he'd somehow acquired a fiancée.
Please, Twiggy, leave something left of me when I get back.
That was Geno's dying wish.
"Hey, Geno — there's something I need to tell you."
Lucia stepped up in front of him and said what was on her mind.
"I want to stay in Weifeidi a little longer. Part of it is that Hali still hasn't fully recovered — but I also want to keep investigating everything related to Cili."
Lucia's expression was serious. Finding the Night Demon had always been the core purpose of her life, and now that she'd finally caught the faintest thread of a lead, there was no way she was letting it go.
"You already know everything about her?"
"Mm. After I absorbed the crystal, the little one told me everything."
Lucia, who had previously only been able to catch the rough meaning of what little Cili was trying to say, had — after merging with the Night Demon's Ether crystal — gained the genuine ability to understand Cili's words.
"Got it. In that case, stay here for now."
Geno nodded. It wasn't some tearful farewell — the trip between here and the city was only a few hours each way. No need to make it dramatic.
"Mm. And since I'm staying — there's one more thing I need to do."
Hm? One more thing? Something about this felt familiar.
"Mm~"
The thought had barely surfaced in his mind before a soft warmth pressed against him once more.
It was different from the ambush in the mindscape — the one little Cili had pulled on him. The real Lucia was softer. And faintly, something drifted into Geno's senses — a subtle, clean scent of green grass, like a fresh breeze sweeping across an open meadow, filling him with a strange, weightless calm.
Lucia was like a gentle, sweet little lamb — white as a cloud, sweet as sugar — the kind of thing that made your heart ache with tenderness.
The contact was brief. But it was enough to make Geno's pupils shrink and his mind go completely, utterly blank.
"Mm~ Mm~"
"Mm?! Mm— mm— mm!!!"
Lucia kept her eyes closed, cheeks burning red, but she didn't pull back. About a minute passed before she finally, reluctantly, ended it.
When she let go of Geno, there was something in her eyes — a trace of longing, a trace of aftertaste — and she was breathing in long, slow, deliberate breaths.
Still, she managed to hold on to just enough composure to offer an explanation — one that was extremely unconvincing.
"Because... I don't know when we'll see each other again, so... I left you some of my Ether. That's — that's all. Nothing else."
As she said it, Lucia's guilty conscience was written all over her face. Her ears and tail were flicking restlessly, and her eyes kept drifting anywhere that wasn't Geno.
Geno, still coming back to earth from what had just happened, heard her words and closed his eyes to check — focusing inward, sensing the flow of Ether inside his body.
Sure enough, there it was: a dense mass of Ether energy, unmistakably marked with a single strong personal signature.
In Geno's inner vision, that Ether glowed blue — the exact same shade as Lucia's hair.
"Thank you, Lucia. And... I'm really sorry."
Even Geno, thick-skinned as he was, couldn't quite hold it together at that. His face went red as he tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling.
Twiggy's probably going to leave something of me. Probably.
The thought only deepened his guilt toward Twiggy — and at the same time, something else stirred inside him, some feeling toward Lucia that he couldn't quite name.
Could he really keep treating Lucia as just a friend?
"What are you two... doing."
Only after the two of them had finished their very intimate Ether-sharing did they notice that there was, in fact, an audience.
Alice was staring at Geno and Lucia with empty, hollow eyes. She had just witnessed something she very much could not un-witness.
And yet Alice couldn't do anything about it. After all, she and Geno were only engaged in name — there had been no real emotional intimacy between them.
But even Alice herself couldn't quite explain what she felt about Geno.
Her grandfather had been nudging the two of them together from the very beginning, in ways both obvious and subtle — and Alice had mostly just felt vaguely flustered, nothing more.
But as the days with Geno had gone by, Alice had felt, slowly and unmistakably, that the distance between them was closing.
Not some absurd romance conjured by a betrothal — just the quiet, ordinary kind of closeness, the kind built one conversation at a time, one shared moment at a time, until two people started to actually know each other, actually trust each other.
There were happy things she wanted to tell him. Unhappy things she wanted to confide. When she didn't know what to wear going out, she'd find herself wanting to ask his opinion. She'd learned what he didn't like and quietly avoided those things. When they were together, a gentle warmth would spread through her chest.
Alice had always told herself they were just good friends. A little closer than most, but friends.
As it turned out, that had been the wishful thinking of a little rabbit who'd never had many friends to begin with.
When she watched Geno kiss Lucia, something inside Alice's head — a string that had been humming along in quiet harmony — snapped.
Like a piece of music suddenly interrupted by a jarring, discordant note. Abrupt. Wrong.
Shock. Anger. Disbelief. And beneath all of it, a feeling she could barely identify — jealousy — crashed through her all at once.
And in that moment, she finally understood: what she and Geno had was not friendship.
She — Alice Timefield, heir to the distinguished Timefield family — had feelings for Geno.
She wanted to hold him. She wanted to kiss him. She wanted to spend more beautiful moments with him.
She wanted to be with Geno.
Not love at first sight — just two souls who had quietly recognised each other.
Not sudden at all — just two hearts that had, little by little, drawn close.
She — Alice Timefield — had to do something.
"Wait — Alice, it's not what you think!"
Seeing Alice standing there frozen, Geno rushed to explain himself and Lucia's... behaviour.
But before he could get a word out, Alice walked toward him without a sound.
Her head was lowered, and Geno couldn't make out her expression. He was still scrambling to piece together something to say.
Then Alice looked up — and he went still.
A familiar feeling. A familiar warmth. Only this time, the scent of grass had become the scent of carrots, and the lamb had become a little rabbit.
As for Geno — there was only one thought left in his mind.
There is absolutely no way Twiggy is leaving me in one piece.
____
👻🔥Read More: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Samsara Game: Starting in The Long Dark with My Waifus
Help us hit our community goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone