房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

It was indeed the right choice because the dark-haired girl has barely made it to the window sill and her body tilted back almost immediately, threatening to fall at any given moment.

"Urghhh...!"

"Zoemi...?!"

...and it was the wrong choice at the same time, which was signified by the gasp of pain that thundered through the black-haired boy's body the moment he touched the girl.

He didn't let her go, and instead pulled her inside the room to safety – but he let her go and stepped back immediately, as prolonging the physical contact felt as if he was being repeatedly hit with a sledgehammer by a transcended earth magician.

Miriette's face turned completely white from terror once she realized that she was the cause of the boy's sudden aliment, and just as Zoemi moved back, she also stepped away.

The dark-haired girl backed herself against the wall and nervously put her hands together as if to keep them in check in order to not hurt the black-haired boy any further.

"I see... even if you are fine with entering this room that was emptied of all mana, it doesn't mean that it's okay for me to be so close to you... I should have figured that out..."

Zoemi backed off so much that he ended up tripping and falling onto his bed, from where he lifted his head and nodded it apologetically towards the very upset Miriette.

"I guess that really means that the two of us will have to just talk, and nothing else. Sorry."

He added, making an apologetic expression.

"Don't be sorry! It is me who should be apologizing! I thought that stopping my mana would be enough..."

Miriette gasped and widely shook her hands and arms, losing whatever was left of her cool.

The two of them became silent and looked at each other with equally bothered expressions.

It was obvious to them that they wanted to be much, much closer, but Zoemi's health taking a turn to so much worse there was nothing that they could do...

"(Dad?! Where did that massive amount of mana come from?!)"

"(Mana attracts more mana! Dad, whatever it is, it needs to go away or else your bedroom will be filled with mana and you will not feel any better!)"

Zoemi basically already figured out what was going on and what should be done to prevent the situation from escalating any further, so the voices of his extremely worried sentinels were not surprising to him, at all.

"My sentinels didn't even recognize you and didn't know you were here until we came in contact. You had no reason to think it was not okay to show up."

"..."

The black-haired boy smiled gratefully towards the dark-haired girl who lowered her hands but was now grabbing the sides of her dress with two fingers so hard that it wouldn't be weird for the fabric to start wearing off from the pressure.

Miriette glanced at the open window, and reached out her hand to it – but instead of trying to exit the same way she entered, she simply closed it and walked to the door.

"...I'm sorry for always acting so selfish..."

Once the dark-haired girl was in the hallway, she muttered, lowering her head while keeping a safe distance even from the door itself, even though Zoemi was still on the bed, feeling nowhere near well enough to move around.

"And I don't mean just today – I mean, I'm sorry for the whole thing..."

She added, raising one hand and gesturing at herself.

Zoemi was already opening his mouth to say something about that but ended up closing in and waiting to see whether the dark-haired girl would see it fit to say something more.

"As you apparently know, I am just a copy of the second princess that was murdered three hundred years ago. Not even that, I literally exist only for two purposes – as the princess's, or the presence's, however you wish to address her, an attempt at reincarnating herself back into the world. And to be a distraction for the reincarnated Cherro... Do you know about the timelines and stuff too?"

Miriette indeed began explaining stuff, affirming Zoemi's judgment of the situation.

"A bit. I know that the original Zoemi, – the toy, I mean – the presence herself, and Cherro to some extent too, are single beings that do not have different versions of themselves."

The black-haired boy dragged himself to the side of the bed so that he could have a clear view of the dark-haired girl and nodded his head in confirmation.

"Well, I'm not like them. I do have the knowledge about the existence of other versions of me and whatnot, but I am meant to live as myself just in this timeline."

Miriette breathed out with some extent of relief before her gaze became sharper and her expression hardened.

"Makes sense. The other version of you that I saw was using the time attribute to pass it off as wind attribute, plus it was using her real attribute to make her hair and eyes look almost black. But you do possess and use wind attributes, that's for certain. Although... I do have questions."

While she was bracing herself to say something more, Zoemi shrugged his shoulders and motioned at the platinum strip of hair in the girl's fringe.

"Pffft...! It's amazing how perceptive of me you always are, but only when it is not about my affection towards you."

The dark-haired girl looked at the black-haired boy for a moment before snorting and shaking her head with a short laugh, while playing around with the platinum stripe in her fringe.

"I got nothing to defend myself from that. Dense as a platinum slab, as Horeo would say."

Zoemi merely shrugged his shoulders again and smiled while resting his head on the mattress.

"As for the attributes that I can use... I do not possess dual attributes. I, in particular, was supposed to be a wind magician, but since the second princess is absurdly fearful of the Cherro going for her again, she implanted the time attribute in me to use too."

Miriette breathed out and looked at Zoemi with a soft expression.

"That does sound like a dual attribute."

Zoemi pointed out, raising his brow slightly at the revelation.