It's Time to be a Sad Boy

What was wrong?

Did she use her intuition and know that I just wanted to get hard? No love, but just lust like a bastard?

She said I wasn’t that ugly, so didn’t it mean I was hot?

So why??

Kousuke was dejected and bent his body.

“So. You can only get hurt by your tools and martial art techniques,” Arabella commented. “Do you have any other weakness?”

Just like my combat knife, martial art techniques never appeared in any story cut scenes or were implemented as the game mechanics. Therefore, martial arts could hurt me.

“I think those are my only weaknesses, my lady,” Kousuke replied. “And I’m sure monsters can’t hurt me. Don’t worry about me.”

“Who says I ever worry about you? I worry about my travel ahead.”

OOF!

“My lady, can you do your duty as a wife? Like, be nice to your husband?” Kousuke retorted.

“We are just betrothed.”

I KNOW, RIGHT?

Arabella looked at frustrated Kousuke. She still held her cheek with her hand and smiled. “I love these dishes. But you have to control yourself, my fiance. Remember. Let’s save the kiss and whatever for our wedding.”

“Not even a kiss?” Kousuke sharpened his lips and looked disgusting.

“Not even a kiss,” Arabella said without a second thought. She sighed. “Holding hands or hugging each other is fine. We should look like a couple anyway.”

Kousuke spread his arms, opened his mouth, and overall looked like a happy idiot.

“We don’t need to do that now.” But Kousuke got rejected again. “My fiance. Is your mind only filled with carnal desires? You wanted to survive, so you accepted my proposal. You made a fuss to prepare this dinner, so you could do something funny with me.”

“Arf!” Mochita got closer to their table and held the edge of the table.

“Are you a dog?” Arabella resumed.

I’M NOT.

“Even dogs know what loyalty is. They aren’t horny creatures like you.”

Am I a creature now?!

She spoonfed Mochita with Oshiruko. “My fiance. Do not disappoint me further,” Arabella warned. “I respect you. But it doesn’t mean I like you. At least for now.”

She patted Mochita and smiled at Kousuke. “You should try to be romantic. Not horny.”

But isn’t this a romantic dinner??

“Ay! Ay!” Scolastica waved to her sea friends and finished her performance. She then turned around and jumped to the main deck.

“It was a great performance, Saintess Scolastica!” Adelina clapped her hands and shouted. “I couldn’t believe I could witness your performance!”

Scolastica put her hands on her waist and raised her small boobs. “Ay! Ay! Me, love praises!”

Arabella stood up. When she was about to walk down to the upper deck, she glanced at Kousuke, smiled, and said, “You won’t come?”

Kousuke waved his hand horizontally and said, “Don’t tease me, my lady. Although we sleep in one cabin, we promised we wouldn’t touch each other, right?”

She snickered. Then she disappeared from Kousuke’s sight.

“Hah...” Kousuke slumped and sat on the floor.

I’m really a dumbass.

Probably I will be a bishop or monk in this world. Traveling around the world to bring enlightenment. That doesn’t sound bad, right?

Mochita sat beside Kousuke and didn’t stick out his tongue. Mochita seemed to sympathize with Kousuke and looked sad.

Yeah. It’s not like there is no chance anyway.

This isn’t that situation when your secret crush drops a bomb in Discard and says she likes someone in real life. You feel something poke your chest and your chest seems to be lightly burned by something. You are shocked and sad.

You sometimes dream about her. “This can’t be true,” you say, so you reread her message. Couple times. Then you might start agonizing about your self-worth. Am I ugly? Am I boring?

You also realize, “That’s why she looks happy these days. Something changes.”

And depending on your character, you might decide to support her and be a sad boy. Like, “Yeah, she can be happy. That’s what’s important.” And you drop some tears despite smiling. Probably you also start to distract yourself by writing a stupid book and laughing like an idiot. Although you drop tears.

Like a sad jester.

Kousuke sat like a dog: he squatted and put his hands on the floor. He raised his chin and gazed at the Moon.

Mochita seemed to understand what Kousuke felt at that time, and thus Mochita also raised his chin and looked at the Moon.

Then Kousuke and Mochita made sad noises together.

“Awoooooooooooo.”

***

In the next morning, Kousuke sat on the main deck and gazed at Zaracas, Scolastica, and Mochita who were going to do martial art training.

“Young man. Do you want to join us?” Zaracas asked Kousuke, grinned, and crossed his arms as usual. Zaracas always had that master-like pose.

“I don’t even have inner energy like qi, Master,” Kousuke answered lazily. He just wanted to feel the nice breeze outside.

“I can circulate my qi into your body and stimulate your own qi!” Zaracas took out a book from his hanfu and threw that book at Kousuke. “That’s a good manual of martial art even for a beginner! It’s also strong!

I stuck on advancing and becoming the strongest martial artist with my Earth Dragon Fist Technique. But God must have dropped that book at my door that day, it fell from the sky!”

Kousuke caught a surprisingly colorful book. It seemed like a translated book because there was a big Japanese title and a hand-written English translation below the title. The English translation was “Martial Art for a Dumbass. By the Weeb Sect Master.”

But when Kousuke read the Japanese title, he was shocked. Hm? Wait a minute.

He looked at the book cover again and saw a pink-haired VTuber wearing a swimsuit. “My VTuber Sister and I Are Actually Not Blood-related??”

“Let me demonstrate the qi transfer! It’s safe!” Zaracas sat on the floor and Scolastica got closer to him.

“Ay! Ay! Let me demonstrate!” Then Scolastica sat in front of Zaracas and faced her back to Zaracas.

Wait a minute. I don’t think this is a martial art manual!!

“Arf!” Mochita looked excited and observed Zaracas and Scolastica.

Zaracas put his hands on Scolastica’s shoulder. Then they closed their eyes.

“Feel the qi, and follow what I say, so you can concentrate on the qi that’s circulating into your body,” Zaracas said, solemnly.

“Ay! Ay! Uncle Zaracas!”

Master, STOP. Stop whatever you do, Master!! This is a degenerate book!!

“Ah... Hayato-kun...” Zaracas said.

Scolastica followed, “Ah... Hayato-kun...!”

Who the fuck is Hayato-kun??!

“No... cin... cin...” Zaracas resumed, solemnly as well.

“No... cin... cin...!” Scolastica looked happy and smiled. She felt the qi!

What the heck is “cincin”?! An Indonesian ring??

“Oishii...!” Zaracas exclaimed!

“Oishi...!!!”

WHAT THE FUCK AM I WATCHING??

“Do you feel it?!” Zaracas asked. “Prepare for the surge of qi! Follow me!!”

“Ay! Ay!”

“Iku, iku, iku...!” Zaracas spoke faster.

And Scolastica just imitated him, “Iku, iku, iku...!!”

“Here is the qi! Together!!” Zaracas shouted, seriously signaling Scolastica so she wouldn’t have a qi deviation!

“I-KUUUUUUUUUUUU!” Zaracas and Scolastica shouted at the same time!

Splash! Splash!

Kousuke heard some dolphins make ripples beside the ship. The splashes weren’t related to whatever Zaracas did at all.

Kousuke’s mouth was wide open. He couldn’t believe a shitty translation could turn a degenerate book into a proper martial art book! What a genius!

“Did you see?” Zaracas opened his eyes and looked at Kousuke. “It’s safe if you follow what I say!”

“Master, do you know who she is?” Kousuke pointed at the pink-haired VTuber on the cover.

“She must be a martial artist saintess who watched me since I was a beginner martial artist! HA HA HA!”

No, Master. You got it all WRONG!!

But Kousuke didn’t want to make Zaracas disgusted at himself. Kousuke wanted to keep Zaracas’ honor, and no one could read Japanese in that world anyway. So Kousuke shut his mouth and sat in front of Zaracas, replacing Scolastica.

If I can use the Qing Gong technique, I can leap a tremendous distance, as Zaracas did in our single charge duel. So it’s not a bad idea.

Ah, yeah, the raid boss is probably coming too.

Then Zaracas began to circulate his qi into Kousuke’s body.

“I-KUUUUUUUUUUUU!”