Common Sense (2)

Blare. Blare. Blare.

Shut up.

I turned off the bledgenous alarm as I got up and stretched my body.

Yesterday was fuck.

Quite literally. Liliath had a mental breakdown-- and it ended with a huge misunderstanding. We eventually did return to school, albeit missing half of the class. Teacher Glib gave Liliath a quick counseling session-- which didn't really work out as Liliath was reluctant to say anything. And for recess, Liliath didn't go anywhere and only kept clinging to me like a koala. Luckily she was generous with the degree of her presence concealment spell, turning us quite literally-- invisible-- going to the male bathroom was a pain.

I spent the afternoon accompanying Liliath as she continued to cling to me. She eventually calmed down saying that she wanted to join Prune to buy groceries-- I thought it was alright since she genuinely looked better than the blood-thirsty and clingy expression she had before.

When they were out-- I took a nap.

I was worn out after everything after all.

During the latter evening, Liliath came to my room and asked if I could pet her head-- and so I did without really thinking too much. After a few minutes.. she fell asleep on my shoulders. Very cute.

I actually got to play around with her silky smooth velvet hair. Yeah I know.. I'm being a dick to fool around with a sleeping beauty but I just couldn't help it. And I found that it's a good stress reliever. Liliath is just that cute you know? Plus, I almost lost my chastity that day… Liliath can sure be scary sometimes-- really, really scary. So why not? It's within tolerable limits right?

Then again.. it's mainly because I trust her. I realised that her words-- those words she told me. It wasn't meant for me. It was meant for her. She doesn't trust herself. That's why.

And as for myself? I won't say I'm all good in fact. Learning that I'm the one responsible for bringing Liliath into existence-- and having seen the bloodcurdling past that made her current existence. My comment would be this: It's a freaking nightmare.

I dont think it's right to attribute this as anyone's fault, that includes the likes of me as well. I had no control over Liliath's past despite being the one who brought it to reality. Yes, I was naive, a fool. But what matters is what I do after this. I already know I'm responsible for Liliath, so better buck up and face whatever shit happens in the future head on.

Well, enough of the depressing stuff, I'll have more time to ponder about these things later.

Now I should talk about the system updates. I realized that Liliath wanted head pets not only because she wanted head pats, but because the system was back online. It's a quest-- for the points.

There are 3 new unread mails but-- I thought I should leave it off until Liliath wakes up after a night's rest. I wanted to read the contents with her.

The system had a major overhaul-- everything moved to the convenient UI panel. There wasn't a need to use the phone anymore. There were more items in the store and the new categorization and search function made it a lot more intuitive. I could run multiple panels at once.

The 'unknown-developer' kept the chibi Liliath that was previously walking on the update progress bar like a treadmill on a separate panel I could pull up to check on Liliath's condition. Well-- it's pretty much for stalking. The fuck do you have to do that developer?

The best part about it was the item gacha and discount system. Item gacha-- no need for an explanation there. It's legal gambling. The discount system is-- to put it simply, items in the shop would get a percentage off at random. So I could save cost-- or manipulate to buy useless stuff.

To summarise:

Gacha function. Character gacha, item gacha.

Shop function. Discounted stuff every now and then. Most probably also affected by celebratory events.

Quest function. Special quest, Normal daily quests.

Chibi mirroring function. Allows me to see a chibI Liliath and how's she generally doing-- Liliath's UI probably has a chibi me in it.

Conveniently packaged into a status window-- or UI. Yup, 'user interface' sounds way better than 'status window'. Oh, there's also a function to hide the UI from people so only I can see it. Or I can tag a selected number of people so they would not suspect that I'm developing hysteria as I finger the air-- not so for everyone else though.

Taking a generous mouthful of water from the bottle beside my bed and texting a 'good morning' in the family group chat, I got up and proceeded to the bathroom. There I greeted Nine who was wide awake, up and ready.

Wearing a black uniform with a square blue tie, a legal lolli with a triangle pin holding her shoulder length hair in place. It was a known fact that this girl here is in fact-- a guy, so don't be fooled by her cuteness. He-- she just prefers to be transgender. It's part of her TALENT. She can change her genders at will.

Yes, her private area also changes along with the corresponding sex-- from what she said. How does she live like that? Makes me wonder

"You okay?" She asked without turning to me, still rinsing her mouth.

"Yeah, better."

"How's Liliath?" placing her toothbrush back on the rack and wiping her face, she turned to me.

"Let me check."

I brought up Liliath's chibI in the UI. It's nice how I no longer need to say 'status window' every time I want to view the UI.

And the ultra cute chibi Liliath is-- crying?

"Thanks for the heads up Nine."

"Huh? What?"

"Liliath isn't doing well," I made my way out of the bathroom and proceeded towards Liliath's room.

"Wait? You and Liliath can use psychic abilities?!"

"Well.. no. Look," I toggled the UI display and tagged Nine so that she could see the panel in the air.

"A status screen?! No way! How?!"

"My TALENT."

"Doesn't that mean you could keep tabs on Liliath 24/7?"

"I guess-- Liliath? Are you alright? I'm coming in?" knocking on the door and saying some useless greetings, I pushed open the door.

"Wow, a stalker," I heard Nine's mutter as I took a step into the room.

In the dim room, Liliath's silhouette could be seen on her bed-- rolled up into a ball. A whimper would leak in between her sobs.

Sigh.. I should've known.

I walked up to her and sat on her bed. Placating her by stroking my hand down her back, I spoke.

"You had a nightmare?"

Liliath nodded in response.

"Ah-- that's too bad. How are you feeling Liliath? It's just a nightmare, nothing to worry about right?" Nine came into the room and started petting Liliath's head, consoling Liliath down in her own way-- or that Nine only wanted to mess around with Liliath's hair.

"You can't trust me Noel.."

"Huh? Why not?" to Liliath's soft whisper, Nine looked up at me in surprise. She must be confused why Liliath said that huh?

Liliath only shook NIne's head away and sat up straight.

I could tell, even in this darkness that Liliath had been crying for quite awhile now. Casting an obvious furtive glance at me before averting her gaze again with tear ridden-eyes. She nibbled on her lips as if troubled by something.

And as if she had found an answer to her contemplation, she placed both her hands on my shoulders-- and pushed me down onto bed.

"WOw! What kind of development!" Nine yelled in excitement-- which I ignored.

Liliath's velvet hair cascading down from above, enveloping my vision like a curtain. The weight of her hands caused my shoulders to stiffen up. Tears fell from her eyes as she tried hard to endure something.

"A-aren't' you scared?" She asked, her voice quivering.

"A little?"

Hell. Rather than scared, I'm downright embarrassed. LIKE HELLO? We have a spectator here that's watching our every movement.

"I-if I wanted to kill you.. what would you do?"

"I'll fight.. if not I'll die. That's it."

Eh? WTF. Did Liliath just say that? And did I just say what I said?!

I mean.. she could kill me a long time ago so why now?

Still confused, Liliath finally let go and sat quietly on the bed.

"Awh darn! It was just getting to the good part! You should've initiated the attack Liliath!" Nine puched Liliath with her tiny fists.

"No.. I shouldn't attack Noel.." Liliath shook her head in desperation.

"That's not what I mean.. by attack you should've kissed Noel! It would've become the perfect sugary scene!"

Well… there's someone who doesn't read the mood.

"I-is that so?" Liliath's voice seemed to lighten up a bit-- bad news?

She turned to me with an hesitant but anticipating look on her face, she moistened her lips-- ah yup. Looks like it's true. IF someone wants to kiss you, they would subconsciously lick their lips.

Ah shit. I did the same.

I scowled at Nine who showed me a wonderful smile. This bitch.

Kiss or no kiss.. damn fuck. Why is this so hard? Ah yeah. because of the b.i.t.c.h., that's why. Why did she have to drag me into this situation? Corrupting Liliath with these sorts of knowledge..

Wait a second-- yesterday. Ah right.. Liliath took away my first kiss right? I remember waking up from Bleu's domain feeling an incredibly wet sensation in my mouth… crap.

"Nine, can you go out?"

"Eh? Why? Because your face is red as a tomato? Ah-- I see. No thank you."

Bitch, you..?!

"I-it's alright Noel.. I-I had my fill yesterday already.. I don't mind enduring," Liliath took a few deep breaths to calm herself down.

"What?!" Nine looked at LIliath in utter shock. "And here I thought I would be able to witness a couple's first kiss-- hold up. What else did you do to Noel.. don't tell me that's a hickey?!" Nine who looked as if donned a revelation pointed at my neck.

"Huh? What!?" I pulled back the collar of my pajama to take a look but-- I could see my neck directly. Ah shit.. seriously? On my neck? I need to check it with a mirror later.

"Oh my god Liliath, you're a feisty one alright. Be sure not to let Noel escape," Nine giggled jokingly.

"I'll take heed of your advice."

Yeah fuck. Don't listen to her Liliath-- please..

Crack. Rumble. Boom.

A streak of lighting lit up the room in white before everything fell into darkness once again. Looking out the window, rain drops dotted the glass, water started pouring from the murky orange-purple sky.

It's been awhile since I've last seen it rain so heavily so early in the morning.

"I saw you jump there."

"I did not," Nine turned her head away. After which she promptly left the room.

Hahaha. Very cute-- oh crap. She's a boy, whoops. Anyways--

"Well, that's that. You feelin.."

My words stopped when I felt a soft warm sensation on my cheek. I turned to Liliath who appeared in front of me all of a sudden, blushing. Ah.. she kissed me.

"Well.. I suppose it's alright," I muttered to myself before pulling Liliath close.

"N-Noel?"

I brought her face close to mine and-- kissed her forehead.

"This should do for now right?"

"Thank you Noel.." nodding, Liliath leaned on my chest and whispered.