Slap the Piranhas!

Sepphira had left Unsui's study for quite awhile and the three men had resumed their discussion. Satoshi was still suspicious toward Sepphira's sudden change in both look and treatment toward him, but Tellrog didn't seem to want to dwell on the topic.

Unsui on the other hand, had become almost incorrigible in his explanation. Tellrog could only watch helplessly from the side while Unsui went in a circle with his explanation. Unsui was saying a lot of things without actually saying anything.

"Alright stop for a bit, I honestly have no idea whatsoever where you are going with this conversation, and I'm pretty sure it's not because I am stupid."

Satoshi could no longer hold it in and decided to speak his mind.

Unsui stopped his explanation and calmly looked at Satoshi. Surprisingly, he didn't seem to mind the interruption. On the side, Tellrog was somehow just watching all of it unfold in front of him.

"So…you and Sepphira, an item?"

Satoshi was caught off guard by Unsui's out of the blue and absurd question. He had no idea what could have given him such an impression.

Tellrog was just facepalming on the side, as if he knew this was coming sooner or later.

"What, no! What makes you think that??" Satoshi was somehow nervous.

"Well…she does treat you quite nicely, doesn't she?"

"Wel-look, I also noticed the change but I honestly have no idea what caused it."

"You don't need to hide it, you know…it's just us, three guys…"

"I'm not hiding anything! I swear! If anything, I'm actually quite scared of what might cause her to change like that, I think I might have done something wrong!"

"Hm…sureeeee…"

"You don't believe me! I genuinely have no idea what is going on!"

"Ahem ahem"

Tellrog's face coughs drew Satoshi's attention from Unsui and toward him. Satoshi instantly saw Tellrog as a savior that could save him from the absurd accusation.

"I might have an idea about what happened and caused her to change." Tellrog said.

"What? You do?"

"Yes. You must not have realized it though, because you were unconscious at the time, but something indeed did happen."

"Quit beating around the bush and just tell me!"

"Alright alright…so basically, you kind of…called her name in your sleep."

Satoshi was more confused than surprised when he heard what Tellrog just said. He was calling whose name?

"You called Sepphira while you were unconscious. Repeatedly."

Satoshi's face quickly went from confused to surprised and then to disturbed in quick succession. It then finally settled on being scared when he fully understood what Tellrog just said.

"I did????"

"Oh yeah, multiple times, very sweetly too…" Unsui jumped on the question.

Satoshi looked at Tellrog for confirmation and his face went aghast when he saw Tellrog's expression confirmed Unsui's answer.

"No…"

"Yes. Was you mayhaps having a good dream…involving Sepphira specifically?"

"Did I really call her, did I really say 'Sepphira' out loud?" Satoshi ignored Unsui's question and asked Tellrog instead.

"Well, not really but also kind of..? You were unconscious so your words were hard to catch, but you indeed said it repeatedly."

"What? What did I say?! How did I say it??"

"It was kind of like 'se…ph..phira..s…phira…' or something. I am not an impressionist but that's the gist of it."

"No-no way… Then, then did she hear it too??"

"Oh she heard it alright, in fact we all did." Tellrog answered

"Yea and then she grabbed your hands and looked at your sleeping face with a very gentle gaze." Unsui added.

Satoshi was at a total loss for words. This was the first time she had heard about this and his mind was flooded with horrific scenarios on what Sepphira would later do to him for his audacity. Satoshi froze in place with blank eyes and mouth agape.

"Ahem…so, were you having a dream back there?" Tellrog could no longer curb his curiosity.

"...I did." Satoshi took a long time to answer.

"I knew it! You atomic pervert!" Unsui gleefully jumped at Satoshi.

"It wasn't that kind of dream, it wasn't even about her at all!"

"Huh? What do you mean? What were you dreaming about then?" Tellrog asked

Satoshi took a few seconds to recollect his memory about his dream. Luckily, Satoshi had somehow always been able to recall his dreams, even after a long time.

"I had a dream that I was transferred to another world after I was hit by a fast moving cargo vehicle."

"You mean you got Isekai'd?" Unsui interjected.

"What's 'isekai'd'?"

"Oh I know that! That's one of the genres from your reading hobby right?" Tellrog asked Unsui.

"Yes, it is basically an umbrella term to explain a genre where the character is somehow migrated into another world."

"Right! That's the one! See Satoshi, Unsui is actually well-versed in Second Era literatures…he is someone you would call a Weep. Huh? Or was it a Weed?"

"Ahem! That's not important, we should get back to the story." Unsui looked kind of shy after Tellrog's explanation.

"Okay, I guess I was isekai'd? And I was adventuring with a group of people in some kind of rainforest. It was a very dense forest full of dangers, and most of it was unexplored, mind you…so it was really really dangerous.

Then to get to our journey we need to cross this wide river. The river wasn't deep and it was also quite calm so we thought it should be save to cross. But then my party was suddenly attacked by these weird looking fishes with sharp teeth! And there were tons of them!"

Unsui and Tellrog looked confused as they both speculated in their mind how all of this would tie up into him calling Sepphira's name.

"You ever heard about that kind of fish right? The extinct one? They were supposed to live in the Ancient Forest in Andea Territory back in the day. They were small, but have rows of small and very sharp teeth…"

"You mean the piranhas?" Tellrog said.

"Right! The piranhas! There were many of them bastards and they jumped at us from everywhere trying to have a bite!

Naturally I was panicked, so while defending myself I shouted to my party to SLAP those PIRANHAS as they came!"

Satoshi stopped for a bit to see the expression in Unsui's and Tellrog's faces, they were both indescribable.

Satoshi repeated what he just said.

"I said, I repeatedly shouted to my party: Slap the piranhas! Slap the piranhas!"

—

Later in the evening.

Tellrog and Satoshi decided to end the session not long after Satoshi finished telling them about his dream. Tellrog couldn't believe that something so absurd could be the source of such misunderstanding.

Unsui on the other hand, wouldn't stop laughing and rolling while holding his stomach. It took him a lot of effort to calm himself to stand back up. After which, he quickly left the study while cackling all the way, presumably to tell people of what he just heard.

Satoshi felt hopeless, he didn't know what would happen to him if Sepphira ever find out about the misunderstanding. He didn't even know why Sepphira acted the way she did.

Satoshi sat on his bed, surrounded by multiple books with varied titles and thickness. There were even more books laid on the floor of his bedroom. Some of them were as thin as a single page of paper or a scroll, while some of them were inches thick.

All of these books had two topics in common: Inscriptions & enchantment.

Satoshi had spent almost the last nine hours with these books, reading through them using his predictive learning technique. After he covered the most basic understanding, Satoshi mixed the books in each group to have varying degrees of complexity. This way, Satoshi could better understand the bigger picture, without neglecting the specific details.

Once he was done with several books, he would put them down and re-read them again later, once he gained more insights. As such, Satoshi's understanding toward inscriptions and enchantment slowly grew.

It had been almost nine hours in a state of perpetual premonition, but strangely Satoshi didn't feel fatigued at all. In the past, while he could do nine hours of constant reading, he would feel very tired and worn out. But right now, Satoshi didn't even feel the slightest bit of discomfort. He found this both strange and pleasant.

Just as Satoshi was choosing the books for his next batch of reading, a knock could be heard from his door.

Satoshi didn't answer the door directly but instead waited to see if the person outside would knock again or not. He really didn't want to leave his reading if he could.

Despite his wish, the knock on the door came again, this time it was accompanied with a voice.

"Excuse me, Mr. Satoshi, there is someone by the name of Oda Junichiro asking to meet you. Said he has something important to talk about."

Satoshi abruptly got up from his bed, he didn't expect the guest to be Oda. For him to come looking for Satoshi despite his busy schedule, there must be something really important.

"Yes, I will see him in a bit." Satoshi said to the knocking person while he prepared to meet Oda.

___