After Erica’s lengthy lecture wrapped up, the three of us headed to the dining hall together. Of course, it was mostly a reprimand and a speech from Erica, while Lize had her face buried deep in a pillow, barely hearing anything.

Surprisingly, she didn’t say a word to me, but considering Lize was really in charge of the situation, there probably wasn’t much I could have done about it, so she might as well not have said anything.

That was quite an accurate judgment.

Feeling somewhat disappointed that her interruption had disrupted the moment, Lize whined loudly towards Erica as we made our way to the dining hall.

In contrast, Erica growled about how it was all nonsense from the very first day the newbie arrived. I found myself stuck in the middle, unable to act one way or the other.

Honestly, I didn’t mind the fact that a stunningly beautiful woman with a fantastic figure was on top of me, tempting me. I was a healthy, normal guy—who would say no to that?

But I was terrified of the potential butterfly effect that could follow.

‘I really should avoid poking around the storyline unnecessarily from the start.’

The last thing I wanted was to mess things up early on and have the storyline get tangled, turning all the background knowledge I had into useless trivia. It was better to endure the temptation a little longer.

Besides, this was my first experience with something like this, and I had no idea how to react. After all, situations in games where NPCs flirt with players never really happened, right?

Brightest Darkness 4 wasn’t an adult game, and unless I had a mod installed, the default player character was male, and the vast majority of NPCs were male too.

If there were male NPCs acting that way toward another male, I bet the fans would have been out for the developers’ heads in no time.

Though later updates allowed selecting a gender at character creation, changing it to female wouldn’t alter the story significantly either.

The world of the Brightest Darkness series wasn’t exactly one for romantic entanglements.

“Newbie!”

Slap! A hand came down on my back. It didn’t seem to require much force, but damn it hurt. Gritting my teeth against the pain, I turned around.

Lize was looking at me with her characteristic playful smile.

“What now?”

“Come on, be honest. You enjoyed it too, didn’t you?”

“Are you dragging me into this?”

“Aw, don’t say that. You had to enjoy it, right? A beauty like me on top of you—there’s no way you didn’t like it. Right? You must have hated that Erica with no sense of decency interrupted our good time, didn’t you?”

While Lize said that, she grabbed my wrist and swung it at Erica playfully, yelling “Evil doers, begone!” I tried to wriggle free, but it didn’t work out at all.

“Sibling, are you starting again? Stop bothering the newbie and just walk. And where did you learn to say something as vulgar as ‘on top of’?”

“Hey, I’m legally an adult! What’s wrong with saying adult things?”

Based on her actions, she seemed more like a child throwing a tantrum. I silently muttered that in my head but kept my mouth shut.

“That’s exactly why I’m saying you need to know your time and place! When it’s just us, maybe, but in front of the newbie, is that how you want to come off?”

“Erica, why are you suddenly being so uptight? You should try being like this with the other Knight Commanders. Does it really make sense that the guy who uses fire is nicknamed ‘Ice Princess’? ”

“Nobody called him that but you! Who else would be so cringeworthy to call someone by that nickname?!”

‘Do these two ever get tired?’

The back-and-forth between Lize and Erica went surprisingly long.

Erica seemed to be the type who hated pointless arguments, yet she held her ground against Lize without budging an inch. They didn’t seem like mere sisters for nothing.

Thanks to that, the walk to the dining hall was anything but boring.

At one point, Lize had inched closer to me during the bickering, and then she actually linked her arm with mine. My arm was sunk into the overwhelming softness and size of her curves.

I had to do my best not to react to the mushy sensation in my arm. The feel of it was one thing, but the outfit she was wearing was blatantly revealing, making it even harder.

Strangely enough, the two wearing such outfits didn’t seem to realize just how revealing they were, as if their mod had completely altered their sense of modesty.

Eventually, Erica gave Lize a lengthy lecture about maintaining dignity, further encouraging Lize to cling to me while pouting.

‘This is seriously exhausting.’

My mental fortitude was draining rapidly.

It wasn’t just the conscious effort of trying to ignore the sensation of breasts pressing against my arm; our positions naturally forced Lize and Erica to hover around me while bickering with each other.

To add to this madness, their arguing sometimes had Erica’s body rubbing against my back, and even if her chest was on the smaller side, it certainly wasn’t nonexistent.

She was inherently a charmingly beautiful girl too.

“We’ve arrived, newbie. This is the dining hall.”

It seemed the endless squabble between the sisters finally came to an end as we reached the door of the dining hall, with Erica reluctantly stepping back. Lize looked oddly pleased about something.

As we approached the dining hall, Lize also released my arm. She likely had no intention of conducting herself like this in front of others. Or maybe she simply wanted to tease Erica and me.

Lize whispered playfully into my ear, “If you want more, just say the word. I can give you as much as you like, although you’ll have to pay for it properly.”

“I don’t need it.”

What exactly was she implying?

The door to the dining hall was enormous. It was wide enough that at least three people could stand side by side with my arms stretched out, and it was twice my height.

You could mistake it for a city gate rather than a dining hall door.

Without any struggle, Erica effortlessly pulled it open with one hand. With a creak, the heavy door slowly began to part.

The thickness of the door was more than a good handspan. There was no way I could have opened it alone, even if I put all my strength into it.

Meanwhile, Lize had somehow opened the other side. Watching her effortlessly push the door aside with her delicate arms reminded me of how she had adjusted her strength during our sparring match.

“Why are you staring so hard? Did you fall for me?”

“I was just looking at how thick the door is. You said this was a dining hall, right? Does it really need to be this thick?”

“Oh, this? This was originally the castle of that lord. Apparently, it serves as a shelter for any emergencies due to how solid it is. So the door is like that, but it doesn’t mean much to us, so you can ignore it.”

Her response was surprisingly simple. I stared at Lize, and upon meeting my gaze, she tilted her head curiously.

“Huh… that’s quite surprising.”

“What is?”

“I thought you wouldn’t know about that kind of thing.”

“Look at you?”

Just as I processed her smug, teasing smile, my cheeks were tugged playfully.

Before I could react, a voice suddenly interrupted beside us.

“Stop the nonsense and let’s go in, sis. And why are you fussing over the newbie who has only met you for two hours over me, who’s known you for over twenty years? It’s so pathetic. Are you crazily into men now, or what?”

“Say one more word and I’ll dunk your head in the hearth. Keep your mouth shut.”

As I followed Lize, who was poking fun at Erica, we entered the dining hall. The first thing that caught my eye was a long rectangular table.

There was only one chair placed along the length, but there were more than twenty chairs along the width. Just that one table alone could seat over fifty people.

With four such tables in the dining hall, the size must have been enormous. Frankly, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say it could be used as a training ground instead of just a dining hall.

“Welcome.”

One of the tables had Iris sitting alone, quietly eating, and she greeted us.

“Hey, you were eating ahead?”

“I waited for ten minutes.”

“Oh, right. We were a bit late.”

“Erica wouldn’t have slacked off on her duties… So Lize, I assume you caused some sort of trouble again.”

“You hit the nail on the head, Iris. My sister was being mischievous again.”

Though Lize grumbled about it not being fair, she didn’t seem to deny the statement either.

Leaving the three of them to chat, I took a moment to scan the spacious dining hall.

“…?”

In this vast dining hall, there were only the four of us.