However, with such a beautiful girl in his arms, how could a healthy young man like Toma possibly fall asleep that easily?
So, in order to distract himself and hopefully fall asleep sooner, Toma began thinking about other things.
For example...
His relationship with Tohka over the past few days.
Once he started thinking about it, Toma suddenly realized something.
Without him even noticing, Tohka's affection toward him seemed to have already become quite high.
At the very least, she no longer resisted some of Toma's more intimate gestures.
And from beginning to end, what exactly had Toma done?
Feed her.
Cheer her on.
Then feed her some more.
Repeat.
That was basically it.
Yet despite Toma doing nothing more than that, every single time he encountered danger, Tohka would immediately rush toward him in a panic.
It was almost as though she was terrified that he might get hurt.
Sure, Toma had personally told her that he was extremely weak and asked her to protect him.
But the current situation seemed rather different from what Toma had originally imagined.
If Toma had merely asked Tohka to protect him like some kind of mission objective, then her current behavior had already gone far beyond that.
Tohka was protecting Toma as someone genuinely important to her.
Simply put...
She was almost 'too' protective of him.
Naturally, Toma had absolutely no objections to that.
After all, he had an incredibly powerful, unbelievably beautiful girl who listened to him and stayed by his side constantly to protect him.
Only an idiot would complain about something like that!
Still, just because he wasn't complaining didn't mean he wasn't confused.
Tohka was a person too.
More importantly, she was a girl.
Toma knew perfectly well that he was only average-looking and didn't have any particularly impressive qualities.
All he had really done was continuously feed Tohka.
Sometimes he chatted with her.
And occasionally, he took advantage of little things she didn't seem to mind...
Like holding her hand.
That was basically it.
Could something so simple really make a beautiful girl like Tohka care about him this much?
And it wasn't fake concern either.
Her worry for him clearly came straight from the heart.
Toma honestly felt a little overwhelmed by it.
In all his years of life, he had never had a girl as beautiful as Tohka care so deeply about him.
Truthfully...
He wasn't used to it at all.
Toma thought about the question again and again, but no matter how much he racked his brain, he couldn't find a satisfactory explanation.
Eventually, he could only blame it on the original story.
After all, Tohka had been incredibly innocent in the original series as well.
And compared to most girls, she had been surprisingly easy to win over.
Even the original protagonist, Shido Itsuka, was basically just an ordinary boy.
Aside from his ability to seal the powers of Spirits, Shido didn't possess anything particularly extraordinary when he first won Tohka's heart.
Kindness?
Well...
Maybe other people had trouble with that.
But for most otaku, kindness was basically one of the few things they had left!
Toma was no exception.
And in this forest, there wasn't anyone else around besides Tohka.
So when Toma wasn't trying to become closer to her, he was either caring for her, strengthening his mentality, or letting his imagination run wild.
Perhaps it was precisely that closeness and concern...
Along with the little bit of kindness that even a hopeless otaku like him possessed...
That had allowed Toma to achieve something similar to what Shido had accomplished in the original story.
In fact, compared to Shido's situation, Toma had an enormous advantage.
There had been misunderstandings and interference from outsiders in the original story.
But here?
The first person Tohka saw after arriving in this world was Toma.
There was absolutely no outside interference.
And Toma treated her extremely well.
So...
Had Tohka simply fallen for him naturally?
'Seriously?'
'A beautiful girl like Tohka...'
'Such a powerful Spirit...'
'Did I really win her over that easily?!'
Honestly, the more Toma thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed.
Yet at the same time...
He almost felt like he was dreaming.
It simply didn't feel real.
Even though he had already transmigrated...
Even though a beautiful girl from the two-dimensional world like Tohka was already beside him...
Even though she seemingly already had feelings for him...
Toma still struggled to fully believe any of it.
Instead, an uneasy feeling gradually appeared in his heart.
'What if all of this is just my imagination?'
'What if I completely misunderstood her feelings?'
Toma suddenly became nervous.
As an otaku who could count the number of women he had interacted with outside his own relatives on two hands, Toma had surprisingly little confidence when it came to things like romance.
With all sorts of chaotic thoughts swirling through his head, Toma gradually drifted into dreamland without even realizing it.
However...
After Toma had already fallen asleep, Tohka, who was still being held in his arms, unexpectedly opened her eyes.
She didn't react to the fact that Toma was embracing her.
Within Tohka's beautiful, dreamlike eyes, there was only vigilance toward their surroundings...
And a deep exhaustion that she could no longer completely conceal.
'This is bad...'
'My energy recovery can't keep up with how much I'm using.'
'But I can't tell Toma-kun.'
'He'll only worry about me...'
'I wonder when we'll finally get out of this place.'
'If this keeps going... I might not be able to keep protecting Toma-kun...'
A trace of melancholy appeared in Tohka's eyes.
But only for a moment.
She lightly shook her head, and determination quickly returned to her gaze.
'No!'
'If I can't protect Toma-kun, then who will?'
'I can definitely keep going.'
'I should hurry up and sleep.'
'Hopefully, my energy will recover a little faster...'
'There'll be more fighting tomorrow.'
'Then...'
'I'll ask Toma-kun for some extra food tomorrow.'
'Maybe eating more will help me recover faster...'
At this point, the Spirit Power inside Tohka's body was already struggling to keep up with her daily consumption.
And Toma...
Knew absolutely nothing about it.