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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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I think I had many thoughts before falling asleep.
In fact, if I became just a little more brazen and thought about it more simply, it might be a problem that could be easily solved.
Just as there were high school students somewhere who confidently wrote “househusband” as their future dream, if I just gave up and accepted that this world originally had this structure, it would be an easily solvable problem.
If it were my previous life, not just one, but five women who would naturally steal my gaze when passing by were chasing after me, saying they liked me, even though I didn’t know the reason because I didn’t regress, it would be like a meal served on a silver platter.
No, to be honest, wasn’t that right?
Whether this was a gender-reversed world or not, it was a situation that any man would dream of at least once.
If I just said I couldn’t choose, maybe an ending where I had all five of them… I was not confident, but wouldn’t it work…?
“It’s not easy.”
There were curtains on the windows that someone insisted on keeping dark until the end.
So judging by the fact that my eyes were open, the time period must have been morning, but not a single ray of light leaked into the room.
Thanks to that, I muttered with my dry lips while keeping my eyes closed.
I don’t know.
Arwen and Lassiel said that worrying is unlike me, but in fact, that “me like myself” also refers to the “me before the regression.”
In the end, judging from what they’re saying, that’s also how I behaved while time passed, so I guess I can say it’s me.
…What am I thinking?
Anyway, this matter was on hold, just like how it had been so far.
My conclusion was that it was still too early to choose right now.
Since there’s still plenty of time, I can wait a little longer, grant a time extension, observe, and then decide without being late.
It seems that the me before the regression hesitated like that and ended up not being able to choose and received a terminal diagnosis.
No matter how clumsy I am, I won’t repeat the same mistake twice.
Probably…?
Anyway, after roughly finishing organizing my thoughts, I tried to get up slowly, but my chest felt strangely heavy.
“…Could it be?”
I couldn’t breathe well because it was stuffy.
For a moment, I flinched, wondering if the symptoms had already started to worsen, as if something heavy was placed on my chest.
But soon I realized the reason.
“…”
The sound of soft breathing could be heard right next to me.
Of course, it goes without saying that cats don’t make such loud breathing sounds like humans when they sleep.
Moreover, what was on my chest was undoubtedly a human arm, and if I turned my body slightly and something soft touched my arm, anyone who wasn’t a fool could notice.
“…The magic wore off.”
Before going to sleep, she was definitely in cat form due to transformation magic, but it seemed the magic was dispelled as the arrangement of mana loosened while she was sleeping.
When I slightly turned my gaze to the side, I could see Arwen’s face, who was fast asleep without knowing that.
Then, the identity of the soft something I touched earlier…
I didn’t really want to think about it anymore.
Because when I became aware of it, my face felt hot for some reason.
Now that it had come to this, rather than waking Arwen up, I decided to quietly observe her face until she woke up.
Come to think of it, it was true that I didn’t have many opportunities to take a close look at Arwen’s face because she usually spent more time in cat form.
No, in the first place, we’re not even in a relationship, so is it even weirder to scrutinize someone else’s face like this?
Anyway, thanks to the lights being off and the curtains drawn, the surroundings were pitch dark, but my eyes, which had already adapted to the darkness during sleep, could easily distinguish the surroundings.
Her silver hair that seemed to shine faintly even in the darkness and her delicate eyelashes.
Her overall egg-shaped, sharp face and the pale skin unique to vampires added to it, making her look sickly yet exuding an aura that couldn’t be carelessly approached.
As for me… I just looked like the son of a backwater noble, but people like Arwen, Elena, and Eileen had that unique something.
A unique dignity that anyone could intuitively recognize as a noble person.
It made me wonder anew what kind of thing happened in the world before the regression that such a woman, even in a gender-reversed world, liked me to the point of even regressing and being so devoted.
“Mmm…”
As they say, the longer the tail, the more likely it gets stepped on.
As I was scrutinizing her like that for a long time, Arwen tossed and turned.
The arm that was already placed on my chest hugged me as if hugging a pillow while sleeping, and now she was even putting her leg on top of me like a mountain.
I didn’t want to suddenly be treated as a hugging pillow.
I didn’t know about other things, but it was heavy.
“…Light.”
With a low voice as the trigger word, mana gathered to form a sphere of light.
Perhaps as an aftermath of the various experiments with Sylphia yesterday, my mana wasn’t fully recovered yet, so the luminous intensity was noticeably weaker compared to usual.
But it was enough to wake up a vampire who was fast asleep.
“…The light is dazzling. Is it morning?”
“Probably. I can’t say for sure since I didn’t pull the curtains.”
“Then I would have appreciated it if you had checked first before waking me up. As you know, originally at this time, I’m about to go to sleep… go to… go to sleep…”
It certainly started as a nap, but somehow the fatigue of the past few days piled up, and we ended up sleeping for more than twelve hours straight.
Even though I was the type to sleep for twelve hours whenever I was tired, now even if I was beaten to death, I couldn’t sleep anymore.
For some reason, Arwen, who was responding in a voice heavy with fatigue, hesitated.
In the surroundings brightened by the Light magic, Arwen’s expression, which had stiffened like a stone statue in the middle of speaking, was revealed without any filter.
In fact, even when I didn’t have any particular thoughts, seeing her like this made me want to tease her.
“I’d appreciate it if you refrained from arbitrarily using others as a hugging pillow, Arwen.”
“Th-th-that’s… No, why did the magic wear off…”
“I don’t know how deeply you slept to the point where even the mana arrangement loosened, but did you sleep well, Arwen?”
“I-i-if you ask if I slept well… For now, I did sleep well, but…”
“You should sleep well.”
A voice that anyone could hear was mischievous.
“Not only did you sleep in the same bed with a man who’s not your husband, but now you even hugged him like a pillow. Wouldn’t it be disappointing if you said you didn’t sleep well?”
“Kyaaaaa!”
As soon as my mischievous answer ended, Arwen’s scream echoed.
And then Arwen transformed into darkness and instantly disappeared.
Oops, did I tease her too much?
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No matter how tight the security of the Imperial Palace was, there were bound to be blind spots where human eyes didn’t reach.
And in the darkness of such a blind spot.
A vampire was crouching.
“Aah…”
Repeating a groan that sounded like a broken record, it was unclear whether she was crying or laughing.
Thinking about what had just happened, Arwen was certain.
Every time she thought about it before going to sleep, she wouldn’t be able to bear it without kicking the blanket.
“…I’ve finally gone crazy. I must have lived too long.”
She pondered in a seemingly calm manner with her unique archaic way of speaking, but her voice was trembling.
It was definitely fine until she went to bed much earlier than usual under the pretext of a nap.
She even gave advice to Rudrick, who was worrying unlike his usual self, and as far as she could remember, the atmosphere seemed quite friendly.
But that atmosphere was shattered as soon as she woke up.
“He’ll hate me. He’ll definitely end up hating me…”
Arwen quietly recalled the past.
At least as far as she could remember, she had never made such a huge mistake, both before and after the regression.
Rather, the role of making mistakes and troubling others before the regression was mainly played by Sylphia or Princess Elena, while Arwen was the most well-behaved among the five, wasn’t she?
It was fine when she was in cat form.
She was treated as a pet.
That was a kind of agreement between Arwen and Rudrick, so when Arwen was in cat form, she faithfully played the role of a pet cat raised under the pretext of avoiding the gazes of others.
But no matter how unfortunate the accident was, sleeping in the same bed in cat form and sleeping in the same bed in her usual human form were completely different stories.
The person involved, Rudrick, might say, “What kind of nonsense is that?” and not hide his absurd feelings if he heard it, but at least that’s how Arwen felt.
“Ugh…”
Arwen sobbed.
Without any impure intentions, not only did she sleep in the same bed in the literal sense, but she even hugged Rudrick while sleeping.
It was a huge accident.
An unprecedented scale of a huge accident.
Even Elena and Sylphia, who caused accidents shamelessly all the time, wouldn’t have caused an accident of this scale.
“…When we’re not even married yet.”
It was a deep sigh.
“…Isn’t this the kind of behavior that a married couple would do?”
Although she was worried about the thought of causing an accident, at the same time, there was a contradictory feeling of embarrassment at the thought that she had done such a thing while sleeping.
Especially considering that even stealing a kiss last time was an action that required a lot of courage for Arwen, even though she tried to act calm on the outside.
Arwen, who muttered, let out a small sigh.
“How am I supposed to face Rudrick from now on…?”
For now, that was the biggest problem.
Rudrick simply intended to tease her since things had turned out this way, but it was a mistake on his part that he didn’t think Arwen would take it seriously, even due to the peculiarities of this world.
Moreover, if Rudrick actually realized Arwen’s thoughts, he would think absurdly, “What are you saying after arbitrarily kissing me?”
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