Back at the inn, Chuan Wenwu asked the innkeeper for three rooms.
He and Bruce took the rooms on either side, with Raphtalia's in the middle, so they could notice and react quickly if anything happened.
Nothing else happened after that. After a busy day, both Chuan Wenwu and Bruce were a little tired, so they got Raphtalia washed up early, then returned to their respective rooms to rest.
Knock, knock, knock!
In the dead of night, Chuan Wenwu, already half-asleep, suddenly heard a soft series of knocks outside his door and slowly opened his eyes.
Who was it this time?
Honestly, since coming to this world, he had stayed at inns in town only a handful of times. Once he had properly settled into life in another world, he had spent most of his time living like a wild man in the forest, grinding monsters and leveling up. He had only returned to town today, so who would come knocking in the middle of the night?
The last person to launch a "night raid" on him had been that scheming, ridiculous "First Princess."
He had gone to bed fully dressed, so he wasted no time getting up and walking to the door. He looked through the peephole-and saw nothing.
Chuan Wenwu: ?
Just as he was wondering whether some idiot with too much time on their hands was knocking on random doors as a midnight prank, another knock came from outside. He was looking right through the peephole! How could he not see whoever was knocking?
Could it be... a ghost!!! (At maximum volume.)
Chuan Wenwu fell silent for a moment, then opened the door. Just as he had expected, Raphtalia stood outside, not even as tall as his legs were long. She was so short that he couldn't see her through the peephole.
"Haaah..." Chuan Wenwu yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Talia, why are you coming to see me so late? Is something wrong?"
"I... I can't sleep," Raphtalia said softly, clutching the hem of her clothes with both hands.
"Can't sleep?"
Chuan Wenwu paused, but quickly remembered that after he had brought Raphtalia back from the slave trader today, she had slept until the afternoon. It was perfectly normal not to feel sleepy at night after sleeping so long during the day.
"Haaah..."
Still yawning, he rubbed his face to try to wake himself up a little. "If you can't sleep, lie in bed and count the stars. Calm your mind, and you'll fall asleep before you know it."
The air in this other world was remarkably clean, with no air pollution to speak of. At night, a brilliant starry sky was visible through the window, so beautiful it almost felt unreal.
"I want to sleep with you," Raphtalia said in a clear little voice, her face flushed.
"!!!"
Hearing that out of nowhere certainly woke Chuan Wenwu up.
He stepped back, a bead of sweat sliding down his temple, and firmly refused. "Stop, stop, stop. Hold it right there. I may have been kind enough to rescue you from that slave trader, but none of that backward nonsense about repaying a life-saving debt with your body is happening here. How old are you, anyway? Are all kids in this world this precocious?"
"Talia, be good and go back to your own room to sleep. Don't repay my kindness by getting me into trouble! If I did anything to you, never mind whether my conscience could take it or whether everyone would condemn me-I'd get enough bullets to make a full meal!"
Chuan Wenwu rambled on, refusing her in every possible way, and Raphtalia's face grew even redder.
"I... I didn't mean it like that!" she interrupted in a high little voice. Clenching her fists against her chest, she spoke as though using every ounce of strength she had. "When I'm alone, I'm scared... scared of the dark. I don't want to stay in the room by myself. My chest feels tight, and it hurts..."
Scared of the dark?
What a tired old excuse.
Chuan Wenwu reflexively scoffed inwardly, but quickly remembered the negative status Raphtalia had shown no signs of so far-panic disorder.
Or rather, when he had first met Raphtalia, she had been in the middle of an episode.
If he remembered correctly, the slave trader had said that Raphtalia's panic disorder usually flared up at night...
"All right, come in. It's cold standing out there." Chuan Wenwu sighed and stepped aside to let Raphtalia into the room.
"Okay." Raphtalia's reply was barely audible.
Once Raphtalia entered, he closed the door again.
"If anyone saw this, I'd probably be stuck with the lolicon label forever!"
Chuan Wenwu sighed softly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Raphtalia climb straight onto the bed as though she belonged there. "Seriously, if you're scared of the dark, you can turn on the light. We've already paid for the rooms, so it won't cost extra no matter how much you use it. If you're afraid of being alone, Bruce would actually be the best person to keep you company. No one would gossip, either. He's only seven, after all."
Although Bruce had now become a two-and-a-half-meter-tall desert god of death, an absolute mountain of muscle, his true form was still very much that of a seven-year-old dog.
Raphtalia's voice turned shrill. "No!"
"What?" Chuan Wenwu asked, puzzled.
"Not Bruce..."
"Why?"
Chuan Wenwu blinked and decided to get to the bottom of it. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he asked, "Talia, you seem... very afraid of Bruce. Can you tell me why? This should be your first time meeting him, right?"
"...My dad and mom... were killed by a dog-like monster with three heads. I'm scared..." The answer Chuan Wenwu wanted touched on the most painful memory buried in her heart, leaving her unsure how to put it into words. Her face was deathly pale, and her voice was a little hoarse.
So that was it.
Chuan Wenwu understood. Having seen the monster that killed her parents with her own eyes, she had come to fear and hate anything resembling it-hatred spilling over onto everything associated with its target.
But for Bruce, this was an entirely undeserved misfortune. He had genuinely wanted to get closer to little Raphtalia.
"You poor child. I'm sorry for bringing up what happened to you." He gently stroked Raphtalia's head and comforted her. "What happened to that monster? If it's still alive, I can avenge you."
Raphtalia shook her head. "The adventurers who arrived later already killed it..."
The culprit behind her trauma was already dead?
That made things difficult.
So Chuan Wenwu thought.
If the monster responsible for the tragedy had still been alive, he could have helped Raphtalia confront and defeat her enemy to overcome her trauma. But it had already died, practically becoming an untargetable enemy, and the wounds it had left in Raphtalia's heart would be difficult to heal.
"But Bruce isn't that monster, Talia. You know that."
Chuan Wenwu spoke slowly. "Bruce is my companion and my most trusted friend. He's a good person-a good dog. He's loyal and kind. He really likes children, and he wants to get close to you, too. You shouldn't project your fear of that monster onto Bruce. It's unfair to him, and it's bad for you, too."
"I'm sorry..." Raphtalia sobbed.
"You shouldn't be saying that to me. You should say it to Bruce."
Chuan Wenwu gently pinched her cheek and suggested, "Go apologize to Bruce tomorrow. He'll be happy. Then... try spending more time with him! Don't let the nightmare you fear keep haunting your mind. Try to overcome it, Talia. You're a strong girl. You can do it."
"I... I'll try..."
"Good. You can do it!"
That night, Chuan Wenwu and Raphtalia lay in the same bed-a high school student transported from another world and a demi-human slave girl who had endured a life of hardship-and talked about many things.
Through her sobs, Raphtalia told Chuan Wenwu about the tragedy that had befallen her before she became a slave, stirring his sympathy and filling him with blazing fury at the villains' deeds.
With fond nostalgia, Chuan Wenwu told Raphtalia how happy modern life had been in his original world. A light seemed to shine in Raphtalia's eyes as she sincerely longed for the happy future he described.
They lost track of time as they talked, and neither knew exactly when they finally drifted off to sleep, one after the other...
Before you continue