Kaname slept peacefully and quietly as always, while Avur snored loudly and breathed through his open mouth.
Yuka lay with her left leg draped over Avur’s torso, her head on Kaname’s shoulder, her right hand on his stomach and her left on Avur’s head, her right leg on the middle side of the bed where it should be.
She slept as if she were having a dream for the first time.
Thank goodness she wasn’t snoring, otherwise it would certainly have been deafeningly loud.
Avur couldn’t believe Kaname had survived this.
Now he knew why he didn’t like sleeping with Yuka, even though she was very nice.
It was like sleeping with a stretched-out gorilla; after all, she weighed considerably more than someone of her build should.
That was because she wasn’t human.
Her race belongs to the heavy blood; they have 4.5 liters of blood in their bodies, which can expand up to 45 liters.
This means that she weighs 7 to 9 kg more than a woman of her build should weigh.
Avur tried to push her lay away from him, but this only made it worse…
She pushed her right leg under his back and squeezed him tightly together with both legs, the poor guy being crushed by her legs.
Then he stopped resisting when he realized that she would only grip him tighter.
When he stopped resisting, Yuka’s legs stopped squeezing him, but now it was poor Kaname’s turn; she placed her right leg on top of his.
Kaname was so busy dreaming of a perfect, lazy life that he didn’t feel the touch of Yuka’s leg.
The night passed and Avur was finally able to sleep again.
In the morning, around 7 o’clock, Avur woke up and went into the kitchen to see if they had any cold water; he was thirsty.
Then he saw Kaname already there, lazily drinking a glass of milk as usual.
Kaname just nodded at him; he really had nothing to say to him.
His body didn’t look tired, but his mind was.
He saw clouds in his own head because when he sees clouds too often, he always feels tired.
“Morning, Kaname,” Avur said sleepily, his hair blowing in his face.
He blinked for several minutes.
“Wait a minute…
Kaname?
What the hell are you doing here?
I thought the one I was holding was you…
oh crap, I think I grabbed Yuka while she was sleeping.”
Kaname shrugged: “I saw you hug her.
It’s not so bad to hold her; you’re not going to burn your hand.
Just think of her as a friend, or a sister.
I don’t understand why you always overcomplicate it.
People are just people, after all.
If you hurt them, they bleed—just like you—and blood is red.
So just think of her as your friend, not some stranger you happened to hug.”
“…Dude, I don’t know why you’re telling me this, but thanks anyway.
I’ll try to see her as a friend and not a stranger.” Avur nodded gratefully at him.
Kaname nodded back, in his inner monologue he thought only something like “At least he understands now,” accompanied by trumpet-like sounds and applause because he felt he had done a good job by helping Avur not to always see all people as strangers.
Out of curiosity, Avur asked: “What do you like, Kaname?
I already know you like lo-fi music, but is there anything else you like?”
“I like cookies,” he said, before adding: “I also like to go for walks at night, like to stay in quiet places, take a nap and solve problems.”
Avur was somewhat confused by his last words: “So you like solving problems?
But I thought you were lazy?”
Kaname said, “Laziness doesn’t mean just sitting around doing nothing.
You can be lazy and exercise, or lazy and just brood—it just manifests differently.
True inertia means you’re so paralyzed you actually do nothing.
I’m not there yet; my flavor of laziness still allows me to move around.
I like solving problems, but don’t mistake that for drive. Find the original chapter at g.com.
I’m still incredibly lazy.”
He flopped down on the couch and started watching television.
Avur was fascinated: “You really are a genius, aren’t you?
You always know what to say, it’s hard to argue with you, so just speak normally so I don’t have to rack my brains to understand what you’re saying.”
Kaname shrugged lazily; he had talked so much that he would have preferred to fall asleep again immediately, but he didn’t want to go back to Yuka, who might accidentally throw him out of bed.
Avur drank a glass of cold water, sat down on the couch, and wanted to talk about yesterday, but he couldn’t get a word out.
He didn’t know how to feel in the presence of someone who was a good observer and probably knew he wanted to talk to him.
Avur finally mustered up the courage and said: “Hey Kaname…” He looked at Kaname and to his surprise, Kaname was fast asleep.
Avur narrowed his eyes: “…is he ignoring me or does he actually fall asleep that quickly?”
Avur sat silently, wondering what to do.
He opened his book to see if there was anything in it he could learn from.
He realized that he could either learn summoning magic or gain a spiritual protector, but to achieve this, he would have to pass a trial in a place he knew nothing about.
He sighed, not knowing what else to do.
He didn’t even possess many abilities; he only knew save state, shadow-eating, poison, flash step, and physical enhancement.
“I could try exercising, it’s better than becoming lazy.” Avur went outside, jogged a few kilometers, and then did push-ups.
He noticed that they were easy, which meant that his former self had done these exercises before, perhaps just more intensely.
Around 10 a.m., Yuka woke up and saw Avur training.
“Wow, someone’s an early bird,” she said.
Avur stopped doing push-ups and pretended he’d just checked the floor.
His face was red from being caught exercising; he was embarrassed to exercise in front of others.
“You’re finally awake, so let’s have breakfast.
I’m really hungry myself and won’t be here forever.”
Yuka gasped in horror: “What?
You’re not staying here forever?
But I thought we’d become friends by now…?”
Avur thought for a moment before saying, “Just because we are friends doesn’t mean I’ll stay here forever, and I do have a place to return to, but I think for now I’ll stay here and enjoy my time before deciding to go back to where I came from.”
Yuka went into the kitchen, and Avur followed her.
“Just be careful not to die out there if you decide to leave earlier than planned.
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we have five continents, and each one is completely different.
We have Zukunis, Kyklos, Vivarium, Reishin and Ginnunga as the five continents.”
Avur nodded.
“Which one would be the most dangerous?” he asked.
“Definitely Ginnunga, and the second worst would be Vivarium,” she said immediately, knowing that was what he would ask.
She began preparing breakfast while Kaname stayed awake the whole time watching television; he pretended to be asleep when Avur wanted to speak to him at 7 o’clock in the morning, but he simply didn’t feel like talking.
Avur didn’t even ask Kaname why he pretended to be asleep when he was there.
He knew it would be pointless to ask, since Kaname obviously didn’t want to talk.
While Yuka prepares breakfast, she has a radiant smile on her face and even hums cheerful melodies.
Avur sighed and sat down on a chair.
“I don’t understand how you can be happy, Yuka.
You and Kaname barely spoke to each other today.
Shouldn’t you be sad about that?”
Yuka looked at him and tilted her head to consider whether she should be sad about it.
“I don’t know why I should be sad about it.
If Kaname doesn’t want to talk, I’ll just let him be silent.
I don’t want to force him to talk.”
“Simply being there is perfectly sufficient.”
Avur was surprised that Kaname spoke up; he rarely speaks, but when he does, his words are simply perfect.
“My mistake, I didn’t mean to provoke anyone, it was just a question.”
“Breakfast is ready!” Yuka called out.
She had made sandwiches for everyone, but these sandwiches were different from those in Avur’s world.
Since Avur didn’t know his old world, he considered these sandwiches normal.
After all, he had already eaten a few shadows and seen them in someone’s memories.
He sat down and ate, while Yuka had to carry lazy Kaname off the couch.
“Come on, Kaname, don’t eat on the sofa, or you’ll make a crumb mess!”
“This is a couch, do you understand the difference?” Kaname said drawn out, as he was dragged to the dining table and forcibly seated in a chair to eat.
Yuka thought for a moment before saying, “Whatever it is, in my opinion it’s still a sofa.”
Yuka then takes a chair herself, sits down, and says, “Enjoy your meal, you two,” before she also starts eating.
Avur began to eat, and as he took his last bite, he heard Kaname say, “It’s almost time for me to go to work.” At that, Avur almost choked on his own food.
Yuka immediately handed Avur a glass of water, which he drank in one go before loudly putting it down and pointing at Kaname: “You already have a job?
Aren’t you only 17?”
“I am 17, but my birthday is coming up soon, on July 16, 6521,” said Kaname, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
Avur was completely beside himself: “What?!
Shouldn’t you finish school at 19?”
“Yes, but they enrolled me in school earlier because I could do everything.” He paused, sighed, and then continued: “As a child, I learned every day and then acquired the ability of the ‘zero-line’.”
Avur raised an eyebrow.
“But I thought you didn’t have any magic or special abilities?”
“I have to go now.” Kaname stood up and left, leaving the confused Avur alone with Yuka.
Avur couldn’t believe how quickly Kaname had ended the conversation.
He looked at Yuka and asked, “Do you know what The zero-line is?”
She nodded, her eyes sparkling at the question: “The zero-line is basically his term for his intelligence.
It’s not a special ability or magic, but rather he’s given his own intelligence the name physics or mathematics.
The ‘zero line’ is the point of perfect equilibrium where there is no friction, no movement, and no wasted energy.
So it represents how he tries to find the path of least resistance when solving a problem.”
“…This is the first time I’ve seen you so clever, Yuka,” Avur whispered.
He didn’t mean to sound rude, but he had never thought Yuka knew so much about math and physics.
Yuka squealed with delight: “I take that as a compliment, and of course I know that, after all, I graduated.”
Avur’s mouth was open.
“You…
you graduated too?
Aren’t you only 18…?”
She shook her head.
“I’m 19, so it’s normal to graduate at my age.
But Kaname is a special case.
He was intelligent from birth, but he kept learning because his parents wanted him to be perfect.” She momentarily forgot what she wanted to say next, but now she remembered.
“So he kept learning until he finally became the best.
I don’t know much about his family history, but that’s all I know.
I grew up with him, but we only met when I was six and he was four.
He was called a child prodigy, even though he had worked hard for it.”
“And what do you do for a living?” Avur asked, changing the subject, because Kaname’s past didn’t sound very pleasant.
If his parents wanted him to be perfect, then he must have been hurt by them as well.