Otherworld Adventure

Moments later, Cecil woke up inside the infirmary. He sat up and shook his head groggily.

"Wh-what happened?"

Cecil tried to recall what happened before he fainted. His recollection caused his face to blush.

"...was that a dream?"

He looked around the room and saw that it was empty. Looks like there were no other people inside except for him, he smiled depreciatingly.

"Never thought I'd ever come here as a patient."

Cecil turned his attention towards the door. He heard a commotion approaching and he tilted his head in confusion.

"Is there some kinda problem?"

He was just about to spread his mana sense out, but then then the infirmary's door suddenly flew open.

"Hmph! He doesn't need your help!"

"Oh~ are you scared that I might take him away?"

"Hah~? Why would I, be scared of YOU?!"

"Oh! So since you're not scared, then doesn't that mean you shouldn't be worried about me being close to Cecil?"

"This and that are two different things! I don't like seeing you near him!"

"Well too late, we're here already~"

"Tsk, stay out of the room!"

"Hmhm~ do remember that I'm part of the Student Council. I can have any uninjured person prohibited from entering the infirmary~"

"Kuh..."

"Ah! Cecil~! You're awake, here's some porridge~"

After the two finished quarreling with Serilla coming out on top, she was the first to notice that Cecil was already awake. The girl approached him and presented the dumbfounded Cecil a bowl of delicious smelling porridge.

"Uhhh...?"

"Cel! Here, eat mine! It's your favorite!" Lucia said while pushing a bowl of chicken porridge in front of Cecil.

"W-wait!" Cecil started massaging his forward with his hand. 'So...it wasn't a dream?'

Cecil turned to look at the two girls in front of him. These two had performed an intimate act with him. It was incomprehensible to him. Why? Why did these two girls do that? They weren't even his wife!

'Wait...aren't I too young to get married?'

Cecil learned about these kinds of things from his mother. So to him, kissing was something only done by two people who were married and in love with each other.

The fact that the two girls in front of him had done something that accentuated the fact that they were, supposedly married to him was odd, like, when did he ever get married?

'Hmm...Lucia's my friend and the other girl...this is the first time we're meeting face to face...so how could–'

Cecil groaned in thought.

"Cel? Is something wrong?" Lucia asked worriedly.

"Do you want me to feed you?" Serilla asked. She took a spoonful of the porridge she cooked and blew on it. "Here, ahhhnn~"

"Ah! No fair!" Lucia exclaimed as she also did the same thing. "Ahhn~"

Cecil could only look back at these two girls and with a puzzled look, question what they were doing.

"What're you two doing?"

"Feeding you obviously~"

"Yeah, Cel! So here, open your mouth!"

"...I can eat by myself. Also, I'm not hungry."

"..."

"..."

"By the way, I honestly don't get the connection between sick people and porridge. Like, if I was actually sick, I'd prefer eating meat the moment I wake up IF I was hungry."

Serilla smiled, but it looked a little strained. "I can feel your hardship now, Lucia..."

"...you have no idea."

"?"

Cecil only had a puzzled look seeing the two's exchange. He got up from the bed and stretched a little. Cecil circulated his mana and found nothing wrong with his body. He was about to exit the room, but then saw the two girls looking very dejected.

"Hrrmm..." Cecil groaned. He walked towards the two and grabbed the two bowls of porridge in their hands. He poured one of them into the other bowl and began gulping it down. He quickly finished it and this earned him two cute smiles.

"...crap."

Cecil blushed seeing them. He turned tail and exited the room like he was escaping.

"...maybe I should have kissed him a long time ago." Lucia said after seeing Cecil's fl.u.s.tered expression.

"Then shouldn't you be thanking me Lucia~?"

"...thanks..."

"Hihi~ does this mean we can be friends?"

"Don't push your luck..."

"Aww~ come on. Pursuing a guy as dense as him, it'd be better if you had more allies, no?"

"...do whatever you want, but know this: I'm not yielding him to you or anyone!"

"Hm? You don't have to y'know~ I mean, if you want, I can settle being the second wife~"

"P-p-polygamy?!"

"Is that a problem?"

"Of course it is!"

"Really? I see no problem if we both can have him~ it's not like it's against the law." Serilla said with a smile.

"B-but..."

"As girls who like the same guy, shouldn't we be helping each other~?"

"...?"

"Ohohoho~ you're so cute Lucia~ pure and innocent!" Serilla teased.

"S-so what?!"

"Just think, with me here, we can constantly try and corner him so that he'll finally realize the feelings we have towards him. From what I see, you're too shy to do that yourself~"

"Kuh..."

"So how about it? Why not we help each other? I love him and so do you, I see this as a win~"

Lucia began to ponder Serilla's proposition. It's true; she would be way too shy to directly display her affection towards Cecil alone. If it wasn't because Serilla had kissed Cecil earlier, there was no way she would have found the courage to do the same.

As strongly as Lucia wanted to deny it, Serilla did have a point. Instead of having an extra enemy, it would be better to gain an ally who had the same objective as her. She's been at it for almost a year, but the dense idiot still hadn't realized anything.

With their earlier kiss, she finally saw some progress considering that Cecil couldn't even meet her eye and immediately began to blush by just staring at her face. He had even escaped in a fl.u.s.ter earlier!

Just like Serilla said, this would only lead to a win-win situation if they teamed up.

"F-fine...but...only between us! I won't tolerate another person joining us!"

"Yes~yes~ so just us two, yes~? Huhu~ I look forward to the future with you, Lucia~"

"Y-yeah..."

"So I guess it's time for a proper introduction, no?" Serilla said with a smile. "My name is Serilla Del Lunarts, please to make your acquaintance."

After her introduction, Serilla waited for Lucia to do the same.

"My name's Lucia Yukihime...nice to meet you..."

"Hmhm~ well Lulu, it's okay if I call you that right? You can call me Seri in return~" Serilla said while excitedly taking her hand. Despite her obvious excitement, Serilla still had that same exhausted expression on her face.

"O-okay...Seri..." Lucia called out, a little reluctantly.

"Hihi~ well, Lulu, please take care of me~ also, let's work hard together okay~"

"...yeah..."

A somewhat odd pair of friends had formed with a mutual objective of prying open Cecil's heart. The dense idiot in question had arrived back inside the Kings' Waiting room.

He felt the odd gazes his friends were giving. He could only sigh in response. Cecil was normally busy with training and never had any thoughts related to the heart, but with Lucia and Serilla's earlier act of intimacy, he could no longer ignore or remain oblivious to it.

"...does this mean those two like me?" He thought aloud.

"FINALLY!"

"Oh my gosh..."

"You realize this now?"

"I feel bad for Lucia..."

Everyone in the room had heard Cecil who had voiced his thoughts. This caused the older Kings to laugh in amus.e.m.e.nt while the Little Kings all gathered around Cecil and gave him an earful.

"W-wait, you mean this has been going on for a while?!" Cecil asked in a fl.u.s.ter.

"Lucia's so pitiful~" Anixio snickered.

"Pitiful~ pitiful!!" Anixia echoed while laughing.

"...i-it's not my fault!" Cecil replied in defense.

"Dude, take it from a friend, it's totally your fault here." Ainz sympathetically said as he placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"...kuh..."

"This is because you're a training freak!" Velicia said.

"Yeah, Cecil, you practically have nothing else on your mind except for training, training and training!" Eli nodded in agreement to Veli's statement.

"...it actually took a kiss from Lulu for you to realize this...I feel really bad for her..." Fina exasperatedly said.

"H-hey! I'm not psychic! How am I supposed to know about something if she's doesn't tell me!"

"Can't you infer it from her actions?!"

"W-well...she's always been like this after we left the village..."

"You mean she's been like this for almost a year and you still hadn't realized it?!" Fina shouted back incredulously.

Her outburst put Cecil in an awkward position. "S-sorry..."

"You shouldn't be saying this to me! Say it to Lulu!"

"O-okay! J-just stop shouting at me," Cecil said, his ears were practically ringing at Fina's consecutive shouts.

"Jeez...so now you at least know! She's been working hard to earn your affection for a year now! So you better not make her cry!" Fina said with her hands on her hip.

"Y-yeah..." Cecil replied while blushing a little. He honestly had no idea how he should respond. He had to give an answer not only to Lucia, but also to the other girl that kissed him, Serilla Lunarts.

"Actually...how am I supposed to respond to this?" He asked.

"...what?"

"Well, I mean... y'know... A kiss is only performed by two people who are married right? Since those two kissed me... how am I supposed to respond to them?"

"Wait, hold up...married? What're talking about brat?" Fina asked a little speechless.

"Huh? Well...a kiss is something that's only done between married couples, right?"

"..." Fina groaned in pain. What has this guy learned?

"Where did you hear this from?"

"My mother!"

'Cecil's mother...what did you teach him?' Now it wasn't only Fina who was groaning, Eli and Velicia had joined in as well.

Now they understood why Cecil had never shown any interest to someone of the opposite gender. If the most basic form of intimacy between a couple was portrayed as something sacred that was done by only married couples, then the concept of boyfriend and girlfriend was something far gone from Cecil's understanding.

"...Now, you listen here Cecil. A kis–"

Fina was interrupted by the door that suddenly opened. Lucia and a beaming Serilla walked in together.

They turned to look at Cecil who was surrounded by the rest of Little Kings. Yuna who was by the door turned to look at her master and she raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Uhm...Cel..."

Cecil once again grew fl.u.s.tered when Lucia called out to him. Luckily he was saved by the tournament's announcer. When Cecil had fainted earlier, the matches had continued and now it was the last match of the top 32.

"Next match! Combat King Cecil vs. Royal Fox Faction Leader Friedrich Nabi!"

"Th-that's me guys! Gotta go!" Cecil loudly said while dodging Serilla and Lucia's eyes.

"...Cel?"

"Cecil~?"

At the two girls call, Cecil blushed even further. He quickly activated Mana Burst and used Blink. He quickly disappeared from the waiting room and abruptly reappeared on top of the stage.

"Woah?!"

"!"

The people left behind in the waiting room exclaimed in surprise when Cecil had disappeared and suddenly reappeared on the stage.

"What technique was that?!"

"Shukuchi? No...It's much faster than that..."

While they were busy discussing, the audience were also shocked when they suddenly saw Cecil appear, but far from the cheers and excitement that everyone else had, Lucia and Serilla were left standing there in silence.

"..."

"..."

"...if he does this one more time...I'm gonna smash him."

"L-Lulu, remember this is progress! Didn't you see his fl.u.s.tered expression when he was escaping~?"

"..."

"It's not like he can keep running away~"

"Mhm." Lucia nodded and went to take her seat. Serilla did the same and naturally sat down with a smile next to her. With her exhausted expression, it looked like she might even just fall asleep where she sat.

Seeing the two who were at each other's throats earlier suddenly act all friendly with each other caused many brows to rise in the room.

"FIGHT!"

With the starting word from the referee, Cecil's fight against Friedrich immediately began...and it immediately ended...?