"Eh?"

Rey had a lot of Skills and Class Privileges that allowed him to think rather quickly, react very fast, and generally process information faster than most people.

Even with all that, Lucielle's words were lost to him.

He looked at the slightly reddening face of the girl who sat on her bed, nearly covered enitely with her cute and thick white sheets. Her crimson eyes were on him, almost as if they were expecting something that he didn't understand.

"Don't 'Eh' me. A girl just told you that she has feelings for you, and this is how you respond? What are you, some sort of idiot?"

'What's with her and her sudden harshness?' Rey wondered, even more confused as he took a step back in recoil from the venemous words that Lucielle spat out.

In the end, though, he still had to reply.

"I mean... this is unexpected. I didn't expect you to... how long did it start? Was it when-?"

"Don't flatter yourself, Rey. Perhaps I should make it clearer so you can properly understand what I'm saying here." Once again, Lucielle resorted to being mean. "I have somehow developed feelings for you due to a side effect of my Spell that turned me young."

"...."

Rey didn't know how to respond to that.

"I think it's because we talked nearly all the time for an extended period. My immature brain must have misconstrued it as something else, releasing some hormones within me that caused some chemical imbalance in my body... which results in physiological reactions any time I encounter you."

"Physiological reactions...?"

"Let's just say that I somehow always want to talk to you, but anytime I talk to you... my body seems to like it too much."

'A-ah...!' Rey felt his cheeks getting hot as he heard all of these from Lucielle.

Nothing she described was foreign to him, considering he had crushed on a few girls in his life -one of them being the one he loved, Alicia.

He also had feelings for Esme, though thinking about it made his head hurt and his heart ache, so he constantly shoved it aside. As for Lucielle, he never really looked at her in such a way, especially when she was still in her original form.

It was easy to fall for her in her current form, or consider the possibilities of them being together, but Rey had already placed her at such a pedestal that he wouldn't dare to think of anything romantic with her.

Plus, he still somewhat felt like Adonis had something for her.

But now?

'When you tell me stuff like this, in such a way, it sort of makes it harder for me not to see you in such a light.' He wanted to say, but held it in.

Who knew what harsh words Lucielle would give him in return?

"In any case, Rey, these feelings are a nuisance. They get in the way of our interactions, and they also taint my perceptions of and interactions with the others." She sighed as she continued.

"We need to get rid of them."

Rey stared blankly at her and muttered the only thing he could think of. "How?"

"I'm not sure yet. It's why I brought it up with you. M-maybe you also have some feelings... perhaps about me... t-that you want to get rid of. Let's hear it."

"I mean... there was this one time when I kissed you in class, and then reversed time so everyone—including you-forgot about it. The problem is that I still remember everything, and it bothers me sometimes... especially now that you're saying all of this, and-"

"What?"

"H-huh? What?" Rey repeated her reaction, pretending to be innocent.

"What did you just say, Rey?"

"A-about what?"

He had a feeling that he was cooked, which made him instantly regret deciding to finally

reveal the thing that had been biting him for so long.

Perhaps it would have been better not to say anything.

"L-look, Lucielle... it wasn't intentional, okay? I slipped and-"

"You're saying kissing me bothers you? Wow... I didn't think I was such a horrible kisser that it would trouble you so much! I'm sorry that I've never had any real experience with men, since I've been so focused on Magic and trying my best to save the world."

"... What?" It was Rey's turn to be confused now.

"What?" Lucielle responded, now acting clueless about everything she had just said.

Rey was speechless.

He had expected her to complain about him kissing her, to begin with. He even feared her overreacting, even though it was a genuine accident.

But... from how she was sounding... it seemed the kiss didn't bother her.

It was the fact that he didn't enjoy it.

'And what's this about her not having experience with men? She can't be serious, right?!'

Lucielle was one of the most attractive women he had ever met. Of course, it would be unfair to compare humans to Elves, so if he didn't put them in the equation, then she would easily be

the prettiest.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, she was far prettier than Alicia.

'How is it that she never had any experience with men? Don't tell me... I stole her first kiss? Ah...' He gulped as soon as he came to this realization and watched her frustrated, but

embarrassed face.

'... She's really cute.'

Everything was becoming a mess, and he could feel it all crumbling.

"Maybe I should just use [Tempora] to reverse everything again. That way, you won't have

any memory of-"

"Shut up, idiot. That skill doesn't work on me."

"... Eh?"

"Y-yeah... it doesn't. I already made myself exempt from Time Magic, or any application of time on my body-reversal included." She sighed. "I did it so I could maintain my disguise, since without keeping myself in a fixed state of time, my body would rapidly age the same way I accelerated my de-aging."

"W-what? But that means..." Rey's eyes widened as he looked at Lucielle's slightly nervous

gaze.

He felt an itch at the back of his throat, but he spoke anyway.

"... You never forgot about the kiss?"

*

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Thanks for reading!

Well, haven't things gotten even more interesting? How cute...