Objectively speaking, what Sora did was exactly the kind of "classic move" you see in old-school romance novels.
She didn't even bother to hide it. She said it plainly: she wanted to get closer.
A girl gets drawn to a boy—or the other way around—so she decides to use some reckless, even stupid "operation" to forcibly create a shared secret.
Because of curiosity, or embarrassment, or simply because they don't know how to communicate as equals, the earliest stage of the story often begins with mutual harm and a cold war.
Countless stories started that way.
That's how galgames did it too.
If it were the old Li Lin—if he hadn't already realized how many things could go wrong, how many "possibilities" lurked under the surface—he might have fallen right in.
He might even be thinking about when he and Sora would get married, how many people to invite, who to send the invitations to.
So could you really blame Sora for having "bad moves"?
She learned how to meet and talk to men from romance novels, after all. For all he knew, she might have learned it from the very books he'd left around Penguin Logistics.
The real issue was probably his own heart.
Because he didn't believe any of this could end well, he felt disgusted and terrified by it.
What a mess.
Already this repressed—and now he had to worry about this too.
The future was pitch-black, my friend.
Walking up the stairs, Li Lin could clearly feel his body changing along with his thoughts.
Anxiety. Tension. His stomach churning. The urge to vomit.
…Should he just run early?
In the middle of panic and despair, a very clear path suddenly formed in his mind.
Jump from Penguin Logistics to the L.G.D., or just bolt to another city altogether. Starting over would be difficult, but it might still be possible.
Terra was huge—anywhere could be home.
Londinium was dangerous, but it still had a certain order.
Kazimierz—he could gamble with foreknowledge and maybe win something.
And there was Columbia too.
Looking at it that way, the whole world was open. Why cling to Lungmen?
With those heavy thoughts, Li Lin's face still didn't change—but inside, he'd already decided to run.
A new environment meant new risks, sure, but he didn't want to face this kind of terrifying risk anymore.
It was too frightening.
He slowly pushed open the door.
The room was still full of that sweet "girls' scent," and everyone was still dressed in that soft, suggestive way.
But Li Lin had no mind to appraise anything anymore. He only smiled at them, signaling that he'd finished what he needed to do.
Croissant, with a strip of paper stuck to her face, looked up curiously.
"Why did you two come back together?"
"We ran into each other on the way," Li Lin answered naturally. He took off his coat and sat down in a corner.
Texas sniffed faintly, said nothing, and only watched in silence as the two of them walked in and blended into the room.
On the table, The Liberi Great Detective was clearly already well underway.
Croissant immediately and deftly gathered all the cards, shuffled them, and re-dealt with a loud laugh, saying that with more people, the distribution should be fairer.
Exusiai grumbled in protest—she was practically about to win.
Sora bounced over to Croissant's side, picked up the rulebook and cards, and started studying the rules seriously.
But it all felt like a dream.
Everything was wrapped in a hazy border.
He couldn't even remember what had happened, or what he was supposed to do.
Li Lin sat in the corner like a sleepwalker, moving on muscle memory—holding cards, looking at the numbers in his hand—yet unable to make out the patterns or the words at all.
It was as if an unimaginably thick barrier lay between him and reality.
"Nice! We're a team!" Exusiai cheered.
She threaded through the cramped room and, with a hop, dropped right beside Li Lin.
But that sudden warmth and fragrance startled him so badly that he sprang to his feet on instinct.
The room fell silent at once.
Exusiai, who'd just squeezed over, paused, blinked in surprise, and stared at him.
"Li Lin… what's wrong? Why'd you react so strongly all of a sudden?"
"Huh? Ah…"
Li Lin blinked at the suddenly quiet room, then smiled naturally.
"Sorry. My leg fell asleep…"
"Your leg fell asleep from that? You really are weak," Exusiai teased with a grin.
She didn't suspect anything. As his roommate, she knew his stamina and his "performance" far too well. Sitting too long and going numb—nearly toppling over—was something he'd done more than once.
So she just casually pressed into the seat beside him.
The blurred, twisted dream continued.
Shouting, dice clattering, the rhythm of teamwork and back-and-forth banter—everything sounded like it was underwater.
Even people's faces had become indistinct.
Time passed—how long, he couldn't tell.
It just flowed on, endlessly.
Then, in the middle of that chaos, a voice suddenly pierced the barrier around Li Lin.
"Li Lin. Come out for a second."
"Okay."
It was like waking from a dream.
Li Lin shook his head, looked toward Texas, and smiled naturally.
"What is it?"
"The Emperor says he's got new information. About you."
"The Emperor?"
"This way."
"Okay."
Why did they have to talk where nobody else could hear?
…Whatever.
He didn't want to think anymore.
Mumbling a few apologies to the indistinct figures beside him, Li Lin stepped out in his undershirt.
But all he saw was a blurred silhouette heading toward the fire stairs.
He climbed several floors.
Each time, he could only just catch a glimpse of that vague back—never close enough to reach.
Until the last level.
Numbly stepping onto the final stair, Li Lin reached the rooftop.
And his soul nearly jumped out of his body.
"Wh—"
A shadow—clearly a female figure—came rushing straight at him.
Oh hell. Another honey trap?!
There was no time to think!
Almost purely by instinct, Li Lin saw the fragrant shadow lunging into his arms—and he dodged aside.
But he forgot where he was.
Fire stairs.
His foot stepped into empty air.
He pitched backward—falling—and for a split second he saw the night sky lift up in a dizzying sweep.
No—!
His mind went ice-cold.
But at the instant he was about to drop, a hand snapped out and grabbed him, yanking him back from the edge.
"…Got you."
Under the moonlight, Texas held him steady.
On her refined face was an expression of quiet, satisfied certainty—like she'd confirmed something she already knew.
....
My Patreon : patreon/RuneA
If you want to read the novel in advance, you can subscribe for early access. I also have many more novels in my collection that you might be interested in
I upload ten novels a day, with 3 to 4 chapters per title depending on the length. If you're following a particular series, please wait your turn a little
If there's a particular novel you're enjoying on Patron, please give it a 'like' so I know to focus on it