I Wanted a Cute Girl to Cast Healing Magic on Me, So I Kept Protecting My Allies—and Ended Up with an Overprotective Party - 28

Chapter 28: A Happy-Looking Beautiful Girl (Reason Unknown)

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When I woke up, I was in bed. That much was obvious—so obvious I almost made a sarcastic comment to myself. But something about it still felt strange. My memory from before I fell asleep was hazy.

Um, let’s see. I think last night, as usual, I ate Miyu’s delicious cooking, then we all chatted for a bit and went back to our rooms, right? Yeah. The fried chicken last night was crispy, juicy, and ridiculously good. 

The side salad was fresh and paired perfectly with the dressing. Come to think of it, we also had consommé soup. Miyu handed it out to each of us personally. That was great, too. Now I understand why Karinka-san added “must be able to cook” as a requirement for new members.

Honestly, I was surprised Emil couldn’t cook, though. Hmm, I couldn’t really remember what happened after that. I vaguely remember feeling really sleepy…

What time is it, anyway?

I looked at the clock from my bed and saw that it was just past 1 PM. I took a few seconds to organize my thoughts—and then I shot up.

Crap, I overslept!

If I remembered right, we’d talked yesterday about going to an E-rank dungeon today—the one with the highest difficulty.

Didn’t Karinka-san say that if we didn’t head out in the morning, we wouldn’t be able to make it back the same day!?

Without even changing into my adventurer gear, I threw open the door.

“Kyaa!”

Standing there was a beautiful girl with shimmering long silver hair and emerald eyes.

“Emil!”

“You startled me…”

“Sorry, I didn’t expect anyone to be there. Were you checking in on me?”

“Yes. I got worried since you weren’t waking up, Rikuto-san.”

“I see. Thanks. Of all days to oversleep…”

Then Emil and I headed to the living room.

“Sorry for oversleeping!”

I said that the moment I stepped into the living room.

“This might be the first time Rikuto has overslept, huh? You’re probably still tired from the joint expedition.”

“Yeah, I thought I’d fully recovered, but I was hit with an overwhelming wave of sleepiness as soon as I got into my room.”

“I see. But you didn’t seem tired at all when we were all chatting. Anyway, why don’t you two have a seat?”

We gathered around the table in our usual spots.

“We’d planned to go to the highest-difficulty E-rank dungeon today, right? Did we cancel it?”

“Yeah. At this point, if we went now, we wouldn’t be back until midnight.”

“I’m really sorry, everyone. This is my fault.”

“Everyone oversleeps once in a while. And besides, Rikuto, you apologized properly. I don’t think anyone here is going to blame you.”

“That’s right! I’m actually glad you got to rest, Rikuto-san. You always push yourself too hard.”

“Yeah, seriously! Don’t worry about it!”

“Miyu, you seem kind of happy about all this.”

“Do I? Must be your imagination~”

I still couldn’t figure Miyu out…

“So, what should we do now? Want to go to the guild and pick up another job? I know it sounds weird, but I feel completely recharged after that sleep.”

“I’m fine with that. I’m sure there are still some requests we can take even now. What about you two?”

“Yeah, I’m okay with that too.”

“I’d like to take the day off~!”

“Do you have something you want to do, Miyu?”

“Yep! There’s something I really, really want to do!”

“That’s a very Miyu-like answer. If that’s the case, I’d like to respect her wishes. Rikuto, Emil, are you both okay with that?”

“Yeah. If Miyu feels that strongly about it.”

“I’m fine with it too!”

“Then I guess we’re taking today off as well.”

“Yay~!”

“Miyu, you really do seem happy.”

“Do I? Must be your imagination~”

“You can’t say ‘must be your imagination’ when you literally just threw your hands up and shouted ‘Yay~!’”

And just like that, I unintentionally ended up with a surprise break.

So now what do I do with it?

After returning to my room, I found myself wondering just that. There wasn’t much I could do here—in fact, basically nothing. No games, no TV. This world seriously lacked in entertainment.

I mean, there were things to do, but most of them required going out, like going to a theater. There were books, but they weren’t manga—they were dense novels packed with text. And considering I’d gotten through most of my school reading assignments by just summarizing the plot of the book, reading wasn’t exactly my strong suit.

While I was stressing about that, there was a knock on the door.

“Hey, Rikuto, can I come in?”

“Miyu? Do you need something? Well, come in.”

As soon as I said that, Miyu came in, cheerfully shouting.

“Yaaay!”

Yaaay…?

“Hey hey, Rikuto, have you decided what to do today?”

“Not yet. Now that I really think about it, there’s not much to do.”

“Then how about going out with me?”

“With you? Why?”

“Does it matter? I want to go out with you!”

“O-oh… okay.”

Her energy was almost overwhelming. But that was when it hit me: this was the first time a girl had ever asked me out.

The first woman I ever shared a room with was Karinka-san. The first time someone said “I like you,” it was also Karinka-san. (Of course, she meant it in a platonic way…) So I always kind of figured the first girl I’d go out somewhere with, just the two of us, would be Karinka-san too.

But… Was it really going to be Miyu after all?

“So? What’s your answer!?”

“Don’t shout! Okay, okay, I’ll get ready now.”

“When you’re done, come to my room!”

“It’s just right next door though…”

And just like that, I ended up spending my day off with Miyu.

【Shortly after, in Miyu’s room (Miyu’s perspective)】

Hehe, that went perfectly~! Looks like that amount was just right. Gotta make a note of it. Now I’m going to make Rikuto fall for me today! Honestly! Rikuto pushes himself way too hard… That’s why I—I—have to manage him properly!

“Alright, time to have some fun…!”

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