Chapter 403: Chapter 337: Something’s Not Right

Ash felt that things had been increasingly off lately.

Although Vatican Mura was always a bit off, or rather Ash had never been to a decent place, coming to the Void Realm meant encountering amnesia-inducing fun houses, and living in Meiwa’s place also meant worrying about being attacked and drained at night.

But the recent oddness was the “waking up to find your roommate has turned into a girl” kind of oddness.

Firstly, getting out of bed. Because he had recently been unable to enter the Void Realm, Ash could only sleep soundly. However, each time he woke up, he found an additional cake in his room, a different style every day–red velvet, black forest, white forest, mousse taking turns. Ash even wondered if Senheiser intended to fatten him up before eating him.

But it seemed no one else received this treatment–only his room sprouted a cake every day.

Very strange.

Then there was Liss. Ash discovered that the consumption rate of his high-class Substitute was getting faster and faster. Every time, Liss claimed she hadn’t done anything, but she was nearly using up three Substitutes a day, making Ash even suspect her of using Substitutes for forbidden human experiments.

Quite off.

The young lady had issues too. Ash would occasionally encounter Hanna in the cafeteria, and she’d always gladly slap Ash’s shoulder, head, buttocks, and so on, as if they were very familiar with each other, although their relationship should have been more like streetlights to a temporary worker.

Extremely odd.

Furthermore, Ash always felt that every woman he came across seemed to like him a lot. At the restaurant, when buying a drink, the Sea Demon lady would deliberately scratch the palm of his hand. While in the gaming pod, the staff lady would come by every hour to remind Ash to rest, drink water, eat snacks, and sometimes, when Ash was too busy gaming, she would feed him directly.

Besides these, there were many other things that made Ash toss and turn, checking his Status info repeatedly to confirm that his Profession was “Eternal Damnation Walker/Society’s Loafing Individual” and not something like ‘Walking Hormone’, ‘Muddy Legendary Level Worker’, or ‘Humanoid Hypnotic Spritz’.

Even though Ash thought he looked okay, compared to Igula, who could charm men and women of all ages, there was still some distance. Yet, his popularity was nearly catching up to that of Gold Coins.

Could Senheiser really fancy this kind of worn-out, downtrodden corporate-slave look?

However, being the center of everyone’s attention really felt awesome, Ash occasionally even laughed in his sleep. He had never thought before that being handsome could be so useful, and sometimes he even regretted not having the Crow Medical Practitioner give him a complete facial transformation package.

But it still felt very wrong.

Finally, last night Ash saw Igula in the restaurant and took his tray to sit opposite him, then something utterly incredible happened–

Igula ran away!

Swindler hadn’t even finished his fatty meal yet, and as soon as Ash sat down, Igula hurriedly left, reluctant even to call him “Bro Ash”!

After pondering thoroughly, Ash suddenly realized that Swindler seemed to have been avoiding him these past few days. There were several times they were about to meet in the corridor, and every time Igula would take another path to leave. Ash had initially thought Igula was in a hurry, but now it seemed, Igula clearly avoided him upon sight!

This was definitely something very off.

“So, I just wanted to ask if you guys have any clue.”

Inside Ash’s room, Ash, Harvey, and Liss were gathered around a table, sharing a freshly emerged strawberry cheesecake.

Perhaps due to the aftereffects of Blood Moon sweets, Harvey quite liked sweets. But he didn’t like eating the cake directly; instead, he dipped it in cat grass smoke, eating it like fries.

The Necromancer casually remarked, “Igula never called you ‘Bro Ash’ before, did he?”

“Although he never said it, I know he definitely respected me,” Ash replied. “Now that he doesn’t even talk to me, I knew there was a serious problem.”

Liss picked out all the strawberries, popping one into her mouth after another, and spoke unclearly, “Dad, did you upset Aunt Bokin somehow?”

“I didn’t…” Ash suddenly remembered how he had barged in while Igula was taking a bath a few days ago and had a deep conversation, “…do something like that (very quietly).”

“If you offended Aunt Bokin, why not just pick a time to apologize to him?” Liss said, “For example, rush in while he is taking a bath, he will definitely forgive you.”

Ash looked at Liss surprisingly and gave her a thumbs up, “You even thought of the same thing, indeed I didn’t name you for nothing!”

“Right!”

“But…” Ash pondered, “I think it’s not quite appropriate.”

“Why isn’t it appropriate?” Liss asked, “Is apologizing inappropriate? Surely it can’t be that bursting in on Aunt Bokin while bathing is inappropriate, Dad, you’re not exactly the good guy.”

Ash punched Liss gently on the head, saying, “Well, it just feels… a bit dangerous.”

“What’s dangerous?” Harvey, eating cake, making a popping sound, asked, “You’re not afraid of clothed Igula, but you’re afraid of unclothed Igula?”

“But I still feel that Igula in the bath is very dangerous.” Ash crossed his arms and closed his eyes, as if trying to predict something, “Mainly because I feel like Igula is holding back on something, I have a strong premonition that if I provoke him…”

He thought for a while, “Something bad might happen.”

Harvey and Liss exchanged glances, unable to think of anything particularly bad that Igula could do to Ash.

After all, Igula wasn’t a combat-oriented mage, the most likely thing he would do is hypnotize Ash.

And his tricks for fooling Ash were just the same few things, either “running naked in the restaurant,” “calling Qinna wife,” or “calling Hanna daughter.”

At worst, all three at the same time.

Not to mention the consequences, but Ash didn’t seem like someone who would care about such things.

Surely Igula wouldn’t beat up Ash, would he?

“Let’s move on to the next topic.” Harvey said, “Concerning Ash suddenly having female attention, I propose three possibilities: Ash’s illusion, an illusion Igula hypnotized out of Ash, an illusion from Beauty Mist poisoning, an illusion from a damaged soul.”

Since a damaged soul requires a full eight hours of sleep, it wouldn’t be possible to have two hours of quality sleep. Out of habit and a bit of self-pity, Ash had shared the news of his downfall in the Void Realm with everyone.

Liss raised her hand, seriously correcting, “Uncle Harvey, you clearly proposed four points!”

Ash looked grim, “Actually, it’s just one point… and this really isn’t my illusion! At least not just it!”

Harvey thought for a second, “I’m not the right person to judge this since I’m the same gender as you and have quite sophisticated tastes, you definitely wouldn’t accept my judgment. Let Liss speak, surely you’ll believe your daughter, right?”

Ash turned to Liss, who calmly swallowed her cake and let out a small burp.

She wiped her hands with a napkin, then grabbed onto Ash’s sleeve, her nose twitching, eyes brimming with tears, her face full of sympathy and pity.

“I’m sorry, Dad, I shouldn’t have pushed you so hard. Let’s not have a stepmother, okay? I’ll never mention a stepmother in front of you again, don’t torture yourself like this, it really hurts Liss’s heart…”

Ash undid his belt outright, “Harvey, can you heal a miracle? Can you fix a spanked butt?”