God Of Crafting

Chapter 50: Waking up next to a Claire-ritto

Waking up, I already knew I couldn't be back at my place.

The cushions... were just too soft, too comfortable, too relaxing.

And the bed back at my home was nowhere near this kind of quality, making my brain scatter for clues long before I actually opened up my eyes.

But the more awake I grew, the worse and worse the situation became.

'This isn't just the bed alone that's so comfortable, is it?' I asked myself, using the slow breaths of my acted-out sleep-breathing pattern to slowly drive my nerves to a fake-out calm.

'Well, whatever it is, I can't really change the reality by ignoring it, can I now?'

This was exactly how I grew up to be, to be a small man who would rather run from responsibilities than face them head-on, despite all of my parents' attempts to set me on the straight path.

As it turned out, it took a whole, full year of being beaten up at the institution - I believe the guys at the institution called it "breaking someone in" - for me to grow up a bit and start facing the world as a man should.

And with this very approach, I breathed out before slowly driving my eyes open.

Nothing jumped on me the moment I revealed I was no longer asleep.

No army of police and layers surrounded me to charge me for an assault, breaking into this unknown place, and then making me rot in the prison for the rest of my days.

Chihiro didn't come out of the shadow the moment I opened my eyes either, nor did any of his cultivator henchmen, ready to punish me for all the things I did to his daughter.

No.

All I had to face as I woke up... Was Claire-ritto, still going strong since I rolled it up, with the sole exception of Claire's face now sinking below the layers of the blanket and leaving only a thin line of her face, right at the level of her eyes, above the cloth she was wrapped in.

Yet, by looking up, Claire's face ended up just an inch away from mine... And what was even worse for her and better for me... Or actually worse for my heart as well, all of the emotions I managed to make out from just the sliver of her face were now in full display, all for my eyes to savor and for my heart to melt down as I did.

"I do not regret it!" Claire stated out loud and clear... Only for her cheeks to then cover in an even more intense hue of red. "I-I... I w-was just... unsure on how to act now that we... y-you know..."

It was a whole new experience for me to watch this confident and bubbly girl suddenly grow so timid and restrained. To hide her face as much as she hid her body, despite how we couldn't bare ourselves any further to each other than how we did it back in the bath...

"And you are not sure how to act?" I asked, leaning my head down only for my heart to melt down when Claire timidly brought her gaze down as well, as to avoid my eyes, before gently nodding her head up and down.

'Just what kind of a cute animal is this?' I thought as my desire to protect this adorable burrito exploded in my heart.

'I'm a simple man, huh?' I thought, gritting my teeth as I realized that if this was all but a honey-trap... then I swallowed the bait, the hook, and the line of it.

Then again, was it wrong for me to quickly grow a soft spot for a girl that cute and, if my memories served me right, that... willing?

'No.'

My mood suddenly worsened... Or should I say, grew more serious?

'Even if she's willing because of her position in this situation, her role... Abusing this sort of convenience will only bring us pain in the long term. Even if she served herself to me on a silver platter, I still need to make sure I'm worthy of every bit of affection she will show me!'

This thought aside... I still ended up hugging Claire-ritto to my chest, struggling to deal with just how precious she was in the moment.

"I mean, I'm the same, am I not?" I muttered after taking my sweet time to react to Claire's worries. "Strip away the brave front, and I'm scared little virg... Well, I guess I'm not one anymore, but that doesn't change I have no idea how to deal with having such a beautiful and nice girl right next to me as I wake up."

Moving my left hand, I snuck it within the warps of Claire-ritto, all for the sake of reaching the back of her head and then brushing my fingers through her hair in a bid to calm her down a bit and fill her soul with a sense of reassurance.

"So, how about we both just... take it slow and try to figure out how to live our new lives one step at a time?"