I woke up in Clara's apartment, still wearing the stiff leather armor, the hoodie, and the dirty pants from the other side.
Clara was resting on my arm. A sudden wave of shame hit me when I looked down at my clothes. Falling asleep without washing was a terrible habit.
She was still fast asleep, or rather, she had not fallen asleep in her world yet. That gave me some time to charge my phone, take a proper shower, and clean up.
Halfway through my shower, a blur of red hair appeared on the other side of the frosted glass.
"I am in the shower!" I called out, stating the obvious.
"I know," she said, pushing the door open anyway.
"Hey!" I scrambled to cover myself with the shower curtain.
"Sorry," she said, quickly picking up a gold earring from the counter. "I was looking for them."
I frowned, but decided not to push it.
After finishing my shower, I stepped out into the living room with steam rising off my skin, wearing only a white bath towel around my waist.
She stared at the towel.
"What?" I asked.
"That is my towel."
My face turned hot. "Oh… Sorry. I will wash it for you."
"It is fine," she said, looking down with a shy smile. "As long as you do not mind using it."
I sat down on the far end of the sofa, leaving plenty of space between us. A heavy silence settled over the room.
"What did you see in my memories?" I asked, breaking the quiet.
"I saw you drop out of school to join the army," she said softly. "I saw people treat you poorly, and I saw you try to save a group of elderly villagers in a ruined town, only to watch them die when the bombs fell."
"Oh..." I rubbed the back of my neck. I had expected her to see something humiliating from my everyday life, but that memory was just grim.
But I didn't fully believe her. I was more inclined to think she had witnessed those moments of my incompetence and was pleased at how easily I could be manipulated.
She lifted her purple eyes to look at me. "And what did you see in mine?"
I rubbed my tired eyes, unsure of where to begin.
"I saw you slaughter your entire family," I said plainly, looking straight at her. "I saw your brutal rule in the castle, and I saw you pray for an outlander you could control and toy with. Was I summoned just to be your harmless pet?"
"No...!" She looked at me with deep hurt, but her hands were nervously rubbing against her thighs. "That was just Luna's trick."
"Are you trying to tell me those memories were fake?" I challenged her. "Stop lying. You are bad at it. Tell me the truth about what happened back then, and maybe I can learn to trust you again."
"I was not the one who summoned you," she said. "I do not possess that kind of magic. But I was helpless back then. I truly wanted someone trustworthy by my side."
"Someone powerless," I corrected her.
"So, what if you are?" she argued. "Is having power always a good thing?"
Her words caught me off guard. I had never looked at it from that perspective.
"Still, being labeled as useless stings a bit."
"I do not know what you saw in that vision, but I do not think you are useless at all," she said, sliding closer to me. "You are the only person I can rely on."
Her words were sweet enough to melt ice. No wonder she managed to build a massive fanbase even in my world.
I reminded myself to stay grounded and not let her charm fool me.
"By the way, I also saw you summon a giant demon," I said, watching her face closely. "What happened with that? Where is it now?"
Her expression shifted instantly, though she seemed to have anticipated the question.
"I had no other choice..."
Of course. Every villain said the same thing.
"Where is the demon now?"
"Inside my castle," she said, her hands twisting her clothes. It was an obvious lie.
"That is impossible," I said. "Do not treat me like a fool. Give me the truth. Where is it?"
Her eyes turned slightly red as she met my gaze. "I will tell you the truth."
"Go ahead."
"It is inside my body. The creature and I are now… one."
My face stayed flat. To be honest, having a demon sealed inside was a standard fantasy trope.
"You could have just said that from the start," I said with a shrug. "I thought it was something much worse."
She blinked in surprise. "You are not angry with me?"
"Why would I be angry?" I asked. "Does that not mean you can call upon demonic power whenever you need it?"
"It means I am not as pure as I appear to be..."
"I do not care," I cut her off. "This is the twenty-first century in my world. People wear masks every single day; I have seen it all my life. I only care when you lie to me, because we are partners in this."
Before I could say another word, she lunged forward, tackling me onto the cushions and pressing a warm kiss against my neck. "Thank you!"
Her sudden move made my heart race, and a surge of heat rushed through me. "Hey, you are overreacting a bit, aren't you?"
"Not at all," she said, sitting up with a bright flush on her cheeks.
Even though some questions had been answered, one major doubt still lingered in the back of my mind. It was a question Clara could not answer honestly, and perhaps only Luna knew the real truth.
"You still have something on your mind," Clara noted. "Ask me."
I pinched the bridge of my nose, debating whether to bring it up. A direct answer from her might not mean much anyway.
In the end, I decided to ask. "Do you truly want to break this curse?"
"I do," she said without hesitation.
I gave a dry nod. That was expected. A meaningless question, yet the doubt refused to fade.
"I need to take a shower now," she said, slipping off her boots and gathering my dirty clothes from the floor. "Then we can plan our next move."
"Sounds good."
Her shower gave me time to think things through. From where I stood, three possibilities lay before me.
First, this could all be Luna's scheme to plant seeds of doubt and break my trust in Clara.
Second, Luna might be right: Clara had prayed for a harmless pet to control, but the spell backfired and dragged her into my world too, leaving her full of regret.
Third, and most terrifying: Clara did want to alter the bond, but only to remove the parts that hurt her, intending to trap me in her realm forever. If that happened, I would be stuck with zero combat stats and high pain tolerance… fuck, I’ll be a perfect punching bag for her whims.
Whichever version was real, my strategy remained unchanged.
I had to stop her from breaking the link and maintain our current balance.
"Can you come in here for a second?" Clara's voice called out from the bathroom.
I snapped out of my thoughts and walked to the doorway, hesitating with my hand on the frame.
"Do not be shy," she called. "You can look."
"I am not shy," I said, opening the door and pretending to be indifferent.
Still, the sight of her in the steam made me swallow hard.
She rested in the porcelain tub, covering her chest with her hands. "I ran out of clean towels. Could you grab a fresh bedsheet from the closet?"
"Sure. You really know how to make do." I figured a modern cotton sheet was still softer than medieval linen anyway. "Where are they?"
"Under the bed."
I knelt by her bed and pulled open the large wooden storage drawer. Beneath a stack of folded sheets, a hidden compartment caught my eye.
Inside sat a dark dagger carved with glowing runic patterns.
She must have brought it over as a hidden weapon when she first crossed over.
If she doesn't want me carrying a firearm into her world, why should she keep a deadly weapon here? I was her bodyguard now. In this modern world, a magical dagger served little purpose other than being a threat to me.
I slid the runic blade out of the compartment and buried it deep under several heavy blankets at the very back of the drawer, making sure she could not find it quickly.
I am turning into a real schemer, I thought with a faint smirk. Then again, neither of us was an innocent saint. We were a well-matched pair.
I brought the sheet back to the bathroom. "Here."
"What took you so long?" she asked, rolling her eyes.
"My apologies, my Lady," I mocked with a small bow.
She stood up and reached for the sheet, her slender frame visible for a brief moment. I instinctively shut my eyes, then felt foolish and opened them again.
"Why are you so bold all of a sudden?" I asked.
"We share a room across two worlds; what is there to hide?" she said casually. "Now turn around."
Sure, act tough and then tell me to look away, I thought, turning toward the wall.
When she finished drying off and came out into the living room, she sat beside me on the sofa with her wet hair draped over a towel. Steam rose softly from her bare feet as she crossed her legs.
"We need a ground rule," I said, looking at her. "Without normal sleep, we are going to burn out."
"Go on," she replied, drying her hair.
"Whenever a massive fight or major trouble happens in one world, we must use the other world only for rest," I explained. "Otherwise, the mental exhaustion will break us."
"I agree."
"That applies to both sides, not just my world."
"I understand," she said. She lowered the towel and turned her full attention to me, her purple eyes bright and attentive. "So, are we resting today?"
Her intense gaze sent a shiver through my spine.
"Yeah... we are."
"Then what should we do?" she asked, a playful grin tugging at her lips.
"Do you want to play chess here?" I asked deliberately.
"You idiot," she laughed softly, leaning in close until I could feel the warmth of her breath. "If you want me, just say it. This offer does not stay open forever."
"In that case, I definitely do."