After Leila left, satisfied with her harvest.
Yujin sat alone on the bed, clutching his head in his hands.
"Ugh…. What on earth did I just…!"
What kept circling through his mind was the blunder from moments ago.
A simple stumble — there was no reason it should have affected Leila in any meaningful way.
And yet he'd reflexively reached out for her and ended up toppling to the floor with her.
Was there anything more undignified in the world?
The problem was that he'd inadvertently groped her.
He'd had absolutely no intention of treating her carelessly.
And yet he'd pinned her down and let his hands wander all over her.
What followed was Leila's gaze — colder than ice.
A look of disappointment, as though she hadn't expected this of him.
She'd left without meeting his eyes even once, right until the very end.
For Yujin, that was harder to bear than anything else.
*I'll apologize again tomorrow. Properly.*
It didn't matter what his original intention had been.
The result was that she looked disappointed. That was what counted.
He wanted to convey, somehow, that he hadn't meant it that way.
Especially after being saved by Leila in the previous loop.
He'd resolved to be genuine in every single moment from then on.
He didn't want to ruin things between them any further.
"Leila……"
Yujin murmured her name before he even realized it.
Then it struck him — she had been sitting right here, on this very spot.
The moment he became aware of it, he could almost feel a lingering warmth.
Her soft thighs had been pressing against this sheet, and——
*No. What am I even thinking.*
He shook his head vigorously.
The situation was this serious, and here he was, letting his mind wander.
Yujin felt a wave of self-loathing wash over him.
But perhaps it was because he had so little experience with women.
The memory surfaced unbidden — the moment he'd inadvertently pulled her into his arms.
When he'd fallen sideways with her held against him.
His hands had ended up touching her in all sorts of places, entirely without intent.
One hand on the soft curve of her thigh, the other at her slender waist.
And now that he thought about it — her chest had pressed firmly against him.
Soft, warm, and delicate in the way only a girl could be.
Her face, eyes wide with surprise, had been unbearably captivating.
The scent of her, close enough that her breath nearly reached him, had made his head swim——
"Hgh——!"
*Thud.*
Yujin shot to his feet and slammed his head against the wall.
He didn't want to look at his benefactor that way.
He tried desperately to scrub the useless thoughts from his mind.
Eventually, he lay back down on the bed, closed his eyes, and attempted to sleep.
But with every breath, he caught a faint, familiar scent.
That sweet fragrance he sometimes noticed when she was near.
An addictive, intoxicating smell that made him want to keep breathing it in.
"Ugh……"
He threw himself upright and wrenched the window open.
Then lay back down and closed his eyes again.
This time, Leila's cold, distant gaze came to him instead.
The drowsiness evaporated instantly, leaving behind a suffocating, miserable feeling.
Then the memory of her softness in his arms returned.
Then the image of her biting her lip, barely containing her hurt——
Hot and cold, back and forth, without a moment's rest.
It was nearly the small hours of the morning before Yujin finally managed to fall asleep.
Naturally, the state he woke up in was abysmal.
"……I'm dying."
His face was haggard from the sleepless night.
But with the battle against the Erosion Species nearly upon them, there was no choice.
He dragged his exhausted body toward the Commander's office.
He wanted to see Leila. He didn't want to see Leila.
That contradictory feeling made every step feel like his shoes were filled with lead.
He was trudging down the corridor in that state when a familiar voice called out to him from not far away.
"Oh! Commander!"
"Ah, Yubina."
*Swish, swish, swish.*
A girl came bounding toward him, her spiral curls bouncing with every step.
There was only one young woman in Lumia with ringlets like that.
Yujin recognized her without even needing to see her face.
In the previous loop, she'd despised him thoroughly.
But time had rewound, and that had been erased along with everything else.
This time around, they'd somehow managed to build a reasonably friendly relationship.
*The memory of fighting her in the last loop keeps coming back……*
Was this how Leila felt, too?
The thought settled heavily in his chest.
But Yubina seemed entirely oblivious to his mood.
She looked up at him with a vaguely reproachful expression.
"Commander…. I still think that sort of thing isn't right."
"Pardon?"
"Y-you called Leila unnie to your room last night! I think that kind of relationship is improper!"
"No, that's not what——"
*Thwap. Thwap.*
Yubina shook her head back and forth with vigor.
Her ringlets swatted against Yujin's forearm in rapid succession.
It didn't hurt, but it was somehow deeply irritating.
Still, he couldn't explain the real reason here.
He'd called Leila to his room because he suspected this place was compromised.
If he said that, the one pulling the strings might catch wind of his intentions.
So Yujin reached for the excuse he'd prepared in advance.
"There was something I needed to consult her about."
"A consultation? Did it really need to be in your room?"
"That's……"
*There were things I needed to ask about the previous Commander.*
He was about to fumble through that deflection when a calm voice answered in his place.
"Yubina. The Commander is entitled to some privacy, isn't he? Please don't pry."
"Leila unnie!"
"Leila……"
*Quietly.*
Leila stepped naturally into place beside Yujin.
After the way they'd parted last night, with that expression on her face——
She was looking at Yubina with her usual smile, as though nothing had happened.
……No. For Yujin, it was an expression he hadn't seen in days.
Was it because the memories of the previous loop had carried over to her?
He hadn't seen this look from Leila once this time around.
Which meant this warm expression was for Yubina alone.
The moment that thought formed, a cold ache bloomed in Yujin's chest.
"And there was nothing of the sort that you're worried about, Yubina. The Commander isn't the type to lay a hand on a Valkyrie carelessly, is he?"
"That's… true."
"Don't you owe him an apology for suspecting him?"
"Commander. I'm sorry……"
"Ah, yes. Don't worry about it."
Leila smoothed the situation over with quiet ease.
Yujin wasn't much of a talker, and misunderstandings weren't uncommon for him.
He didn't particularly mind Yubina's suspicion.
After Yubina apologized and took her leave, the corridor fell quiet.
Only Yujin and Leila remained.
Without looking at him, she spoke in an indifferent tone.
"Let's go, Commander."
"……Yes."
Yujin had hoped, for a moment, that Leila's feelings had settled.
After all, she'd spoken up for him in front of Yubina.
But her retreating figure still carried the weight of something unresolved.
Was this going to continue?
Yujin's expression darkened as he fell into step behind her.
They walked the rest of the way to the Commander's office without exchanging a single word.
The moment Yujin stepped inside and closed the door behind him, Leila turned and stepped toward him, bowing her head.
"I'm sorry, Commander. About last night…… I think I misunderstood."
"What?"
The last thing he'd expected was an apology from her.
As far as Yujin was concerned, he was the one who had done wrong.
He'd never imagined Leila would be the first to apologize.
He was just gathering himself to stop her when she continued, head still bowed.
"When I thought about it slowly, I understood. You were trying to catch me when I was about to fall, weren't you? But the way I acted after that…… I don't think it was how I should have behaved toward you."
But Yujin couldn't simply accept that apology.
No matter how good his intentions had been, the fact remained that he'd hurt her.
And on top of that, he'd spent the entire early morning tormented by thoughts of her.
His conscience was far too raw to receive her apology.
"No. I'm the one who should apologize. Truly. I never meant for it to happen."
"Heh heh, you really don't need to apologize."
Leila laughed softly, the top of her head still facing him.
And in that laugh, he found a thread of hope.
If she could say that, maybe it hadn't wounded her as deeply as he'd feared.
Maybe they could put the mistake behind them and return to how things had been.
Slowly, Leila lifted her head.
When Yujin saw her face, his heart dropped.
Standing before him was a girl with one arm wrapped around the opposite elbow, her spirit dimmed.
A girl who had been hurt.
"Still…… I hope it never happens again……"
Yujin felt as though he'd been struck in the back of the head with a hammer.
To him, Leila was a sun — one that never bent, only pressed forward.
Seeing her show weakness was a shock of exactly that magnitude.
But then, belatedly, a memory surfaced.
The very first moment he'd found himself drawn to Leila.
It had been the look on her face as she grieved over a fallen Valkyrie.
*I see. She is……*
Leila was someone who couldn't bear to watch others get hurt.
For a Valkyrie she'd known less than a week, she had been desperate enough to run headlong into danger herself.
He'd received so much help from her all this time.
Yujin had assumed it came from a place of strength.
That an overflowing gentleness and resilience were what pushed her to reach out to others.
That it was why she could extend her hand so freely.
But what if that wasn't it at all?
What if every reckless act of self-sacrifice——
Was simply the fruit of a fear of losing anyone at all?
What had he even been seeing in Leila, all this time?
Yujin felt as though someone had wrapped their hands around his throat.
Swept up in a crushing guilt, he forced out an answer.
"I'll be more careful. So that nothing like this ever happens again."
Instead of a reply, Leila turned away with a faint, weary smile.
She walked toward her desk.
Then she paused mid-step, standing still for a moment.
Without turning around, she spoke to him.
"About what we discussed yesterday — I'll cooperate…… So please don't worry."
"……Thank you."
Ah. How could anyone be this kind.
Yujin sat down at his own desk, barely holding his consciousness together against the sensation of his insides being wrung out.
Amid a tide of emotion strong enough to make him dizzy, something shifted and flickered in his eyes as he breathed in shallow, careful breaths.
*
A secluded restroom, tucked away where few people passed.
I'd propped a cleaning-in-progress sign outside to keep anyone from walking in.
I stepped into a spotless stall, sat down on the closed lid of the toilet, and yanked out my terminal in a hurry.
*Crackle.*
Electricity sparked from my fingertips and seeped into the charging port.
The screen lit up, replaying the scene from just a few minutes ago.
"Hnngh…… Commander…… if you make a face like that, what am I supposed to do…… This is a workplace, you know……? Do you want me to get hauled in front of the Inspector for public indecency……"
Honestly, I hadn't expected it to work this well.
I'd just planned to poke at him a little, mixing in what happened yesterday.
But the expression the Commander made was nothing short of a masterpiece.
He'd been so shaken he hadn't said a single word all morning.
That had made it rather difficult to time my exit properly.
Right. This one…… I should definitely save it to my collection.
"Commander's office situation…… saving as A…… complete."
I deployed the Memory Corridor and archived the footage.
Hehehe. I'm going to pull this out and savor it until I'm sick of it.
The hand gripping the terminal trembled. Ah. This is the best.
Once the mission was accomplished, I tidied up after myself.
Wiped away every last trace, then slipped out of the restroom with a light step.
The fog that had been clouding my mind cleared away.
Sage Mode Leila, operating at approximately thirty percent increased cognitive capacity.
And then, all at once, a wonderful idea surfaced in my mind.
"Oh, wait. Since a conflict like this has conveniently come up……"
It would be a shame not to make use of it, wouldn't it?
I smiled to myself and looked up at the sky.
A vast, cloudless blue, stretching high above.
I had a feeling that this time, too, everything would go exactly as I wanted.