Demon Refining Pot, Pot World.
"...What's wrong with him?"
After glancing at someone drinking tea in the distant gazebo, the pink-haired girl turned back and asked Ke Nai beside her with a rather puzzled expression.
She wouldn't say she knew that guy inside and out, but she did know him fairly well. Yet she had never seen him in a state like this before.
Given his personality, after wrapping things up outside and returning to the Pot World, he would either come to discuss future money-making plans and related matters with her, or go rekindle things with an old flame. How could he possibly be sitting in a gazebo with a book, reading while drinking tea?
He was clearly still the same person as before, but he felt utterly different. Not only had what was once familiar become strange, but he also gave her an inexplicable sense of déjà vu.
...Though she had no idea where that strange feeling of déjà vu came from.
"Oh, he said it was an aftereffect. He'll be fine in a few days."
Plucking a blade of grass from the lawn beside him and placing it between his lips, Ke Nai lay on the hillside sunbathing with one hand behind his head, then curled his lips.
The guy in the gazebo always gave off an unapproachable air. Being around him felt like sharing a room with some highly respected elder. The atmosphere was incredibly weird. Ke Nai had stayed in the gazebo for less than ten minutes earlier before he couldn't stand it anymore.
"...An aftereffect?"
Hearing Ke Nai's words, the pink-haired girl frowned slightly.
"That's right, an aftereffect."
Turning to look at the pink-haired girl, Ke Nai wore a grave expression.
"To be honest, I seriously suspect he used some kind of cheat. You