[The Next Day]
[Your head is swimming. The hangover leaves your body feeling extremely unwell.]
[Perform an Endurance Check.}
[Check Failed.]
[You have acquired the "Hangover" status. You will spend the entire day with a pounding headache, frequent dizziness, and nausea. Your overall attributes are temporarily reduced.]
"..."
Vaguely, Ei smelled a scent of perfume.
He groggily opened his eyes.
What greeted him was the ceiling of a luxury hotel room. The curtains were drawn tightly, but he could see the bright daylight through the cracks.
Ei stared blankly for half a minute, as if his soul had left his body, before his mind finally cleared up, and he let out a yawn.
Phew... It seems to be the morning of the second day.
He vaguely remembered attending the mixer last night, drinking three or four glasses of Water of Life in the game, and finally accidentally drinking a cup of "Waking Water," which was the final straw that broke the camel's back.
That was a crazy night. I completely blacked out.
So, I guess Gawain and the others carried me back to the room to sleep, right?
He rubbed his sleepy eyes, then felt for his phone on the nightstand and checked the time.
It was still early; he could sleep for another half hour.
But just as Ei pulled the blanket over his head, ready to catch a second snooze, he suddenly felt that something was wrong.
There seemed to be someone else in the bed with him!
He bolted his head out of the blanket. Sure enough, there was a lump next to him, indicating someone was also lying there.
And it couldn't be Gawain or Tristan because he smelled a woman's perfume. Whoever was under the covers had to be a woman.
Holy cow, don't tell me it's Morgan?
Did Morgan bring me back to the room in the end?
It seems the Holy Lance I meticulously preserved for years has finally been anchored in her "Ideal Land that can no longer be reached"...
Well, it can't be helped. The Queen's assault was so fierce and tender. It's inevitable that I would fall, isn't it?
And I absolutely will not turn pale at the mention of sex, unlike those sexually inept male protagonists in harem anime!
Stepping onto the ladder of adulthood is a major life event that deserves celebration and commendation. How could I shrink back and hesitate, especially when the object is such a gorgeous and exceptional beauty?
I'm sorry, Gawain. From now on, we'll be family in a different way. I'll call you 'brother,' and you'll call me 'step-dad.'
Speaking of which, safety precautions should have been properly taken last night, right? Our family group already has enough members; let's not add any new child users for now.
I'm sure Morgan is an adult and wouldn't make such a rookie mistake.
Then again... maybe not.
He cautiously grabbed the blanket, preparing to lift it and see what was inside.
"Cough, cough..."
Damn it, I'm actually a little nervous.
After all, the person curled up under the blanket might very well be the one he was going to spend the rest of his life with.
"But it doesn't matter! I, Watsuki Ei, am never a man who flees in the face of battle!"
If the deed is done, he'll be mentally prepared to welcome the next stage of his life!
Shwaa.
He pulled back the blanket and looked at the woman inside.
She was indeed a stunning beauty, her snowy-white hair spread messily across the sheets.
Her appearance was elegant yet seductive, her fair, delicate skin clearly well-maintained. She wore a thrilling deep-red bodysuit, the low V-neck design proudly displaying her mature, full bosom, creating a deep, captivating cleavage.
The scent of her high-end perfume seemed to be faintly mixed with the smell of alcohol.
"..."
Ei silently covered her back up with the blanket.
Then, he pulled back the blanket again.
Just to double-check.
Holy smokes, who the hell are you???
I was not mentally prepared to welcome the next stage of my life with you!
The shock instantly sobered him up.
"But it doesn't matter... I, Jason, am never a man who flees in the face of battle!"
Ei was so terrified he was starting to talk nonsense.
"What exactly happened last night after I got drunk? How did a strange woman end up in my bed? Damn it, aren't we supposed to be in a high school romantic comedy? Why did it suddenly turn into the 'mistakenly slept with the wrong person' romance drama trope from a decade ago? I don't want such a heavy and serious style of romance! Who even is she?!"
Calling her a stranger wasn't entirely accurate. He could tell it was Carmilla, the Vampire Countess of Csejte, but prior to this, his school life should have had absolutely no intersection with hers. Theoretically, the two of them didn't know each other at all.
Moreover, her outfit was incredibly bold and revealing; it wasn't the kind of sexy bodysuit one would wear out in public.
"Don't tell me I not only brought a strange woman back to the room but also played cosplay with her? Damn it, 'Little Ei' got way too kinky while I was drunk!"
"But looking at her uniform, it looks more like a Sadistic Queen...?"
Ei considered a possibility.
"Could it be that we played some forbidden games while we were drunk, and I might already belong to 'that side' now?!"
With that, he started looking around, trying to find any suspicious toys scattered around the room.
The room seemed surprisingly normal and quite tidy. He couldn't find any record of him having soloed the Sadistic Queen dungeon.
Could it be that I'm overthinking this, and nothing happened at all...?
He mentally sighed with relief, then quickly rushed to the mirror in the bathroom to check himself for any bruises or candle wax marks.
There were no terrible scars, but he found an even more terrifying mark.
A woman's hickey on his collarbone.
He couldn't lie to himself anymore. Something definitely happened with her!
He kept telling himself to take a man's responsibility...
But was it still possible to leave Tristan's business card here and make a run for it before she woke up?
"Calm down, Ei."
He spoke to his reflection in the mirror:
"It's highly possible that this woman unilaterally picked my lock, perhaps impulsively gave me a hickey on my collarbone, and then accidentally passed out in my room. I didn't do anything wrong, and we are completely innocent..."
"Yeah, right! As if something like that would ever happen!"
Knock! Knock!
A sudden knock on the door startled him.
Immediately after, the voice Ei feared the most rang out: "Mr. Ei, are you in there?"
That sounded like Morgan's voice.
"No, no, it only sounds like her... The person looking for me is actually Yui Ishikawa!"