Trapped as an NPC in a Dating Sim

Chapter 127: Elara is Caught Off Guard!

“Look, there is no doubt that the C-rank dungeon was an accident, something you and I were both swept into beyond our control.”

“It is also true that without my help, you would have died inside.”

Soren strengthened his hold on the slipping hand of Elise and got close to her blushing figure, his face right in front of hers.

Since her emotions were bare naked in his eyes, and she was also longing for him, Soren felt that there was no need to hesitate anymore.

After thinking for a whole day, Soren had realized that even if Elise’s feelings were because of the Twin Ring of Lust, so what?

All he had to do was change that feeling into her real feelings, wasn’t it?

As long as he could do that, his guilt would disappear into smoke on its own.

“But it is also true that I took your first kiss. I kissed you when you were extremely vulnerable, a bit forcefully.”

Soren softly spoke while lowering his gaze, his face looking a bit bitter.

“However, another truth that nobody knows is that if I hadn’t kissed you at that time, you might have fallen into a coma. Even if I had saved your life, there was a high chance you would have lost your mental balance.”

Soren showed the right amount of worry on his face and confessed,

“At that time, the ’Voice of the World’ said that you were affected by the aura of those monsters and had already lost 50% of your mental power, and it was rapidly declining.”

“I didn’t know what to do at all. I couldn’t just run away from the back of that monster with you. There was a high chance we both would have died then.”

Soren paused and then once again looked at the girl with a raw emotion,

“To be honest, the right thing to do at that time was to abandon you and save my own life. But…it seems I am not selfish enough.”

He let out an exasperated sigh, making Elara a bit uncomfortable.

To be honest, she already felt that she had made a glaring mistake in concealing her real identity.

Looking at Soren, he seemed a very nice guy with no extra motive.

In fact, it was they, the sisters, who, in a way, had a motive against him.

Rather than being grateful that he had saved her sister, she was instead thinking of getting back at him if he hurt her sister’s heart, when in fact he owed them nothing at all.

’Sigh…how stupid.’

Elara thought she should have let Elise have this conversation with Soren instead. She had every right to be here with Soren.

Unfortunately, it was already too late.

“So, I had to quickly search for another solution to save you.”

Soren didn’t see Elara’s conflicting emotions as he was busy narrating things, trying to make Elise as sympathetic as possible.

“Then I remembered that Mental Resonance thing. To be honest, I was very hesitant to use it as it required as close a contact as possible to work.”

Soren showed an embarrassed smile,

“But in the end, when there was no solution, I could only use the one that was available at hand.”

’Ah…so it is indeed a skill? Mental Resonance. So, he used his own mental power to shield Elise’s mind from harm.’

Elara suddenly realized.

Considering his level, being able to remain unaffected by such a high-level monster’s aura, his mental power seemed quite high, abnormally so.

’But…isn’t he an archer?’

Elara thought, a bit confused, when suddenly she felt a warm touch on her face, gently caressing it.

“Wha-”

Startled, she tried to reflexively jerk back, only to feel Soren tightening his hold on her arm, refusing to let her budge.

“S-Soren?”

Elara was so flustered that her entire face flushed from her neck to the tips of her ears in an instant.

She was already on edge with Soren standing so close and holding her hand, and now he was gently caressing her cheek all of a sudden.

If not for the fear that her disguise would be exposed, she would have pulled away immediately.

“To be honest, kissing you was incidental. But…that didn’t mean that our kiss meant nothing.”

Soren paused, looked at Elara tenderly, and whispered softly,

“Hey, Elise…you felt that too, right? That connection?”

He asked while lightly caressing her smooth cheek, his finger getting closer and closer to her red lips.

“You felt how we synced, too, right? How, even when you knew we might die, you gave everything to me in that moment. How you let me kiss you with such abandon while actively responding the whole time.”

Soren’s finger finally brushed against Elara’s reddened lips, tracing them lightly. His heavy breathing fell against her skin.

For a moment, Elara felt herself slipping into a trance, overwhelmed by an unfamiliar emotion and their closeness.

She knew Soren was doing this because he thought she was Elise. As a sister, she should stop him immediately.

But she was afraid that Soren would take it the wrong way. From how things were going, it was clear that Soren had the same feelings for her sister.

If she messed this up, she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself for life.

’Well…h-he is just touching my lips anyway. I-It is really nothing.’

Elara tried hard to control her racing heart and unfamiliar emotions while continuing to listen to Soren as his finger lightly traced her soft lips.

As long as she went through this and later confessed everything he said to her sister, everyone would be happy.

Soren didn’t need to know the reality of today.

’All for my sister.’

Elara clenched her fist and tried hard not to let anything show on the outside, her beautiful eyebrows trembling slightly.

“Honestly, the main reason I didn’t come to meet you immediately was also because of this.”

Soren, of course, noticed her trembling eyelashes, smiled, and finally stopped caressing her lips, his hand still on her cheek.

“I was afraid you might forget what happened back then or get angry with me.”

“But hiding all the time isn’t a solution either, is it? In fact, I was planning on meeting you tonight. I just never thought we would meet in the market.”

As it happened, he had been buying a gift for Elise just now in the market just now. He had seen its effect on Sylvia and Aria, so it didn’t cost him much to give her one either.

But now, Soren changed his mind.

“Hey, Elise…so…what do you think we should do?”

He couldn’t help but ask. According to the panel, he knew that she was deeply in love with him.

However, the emotion he was getting from her right now was really underwhelming. He thought that during the confession, she would get shy, flustered, or even…pounce on him outright.

Considering what happened in the dungeon, it wasn’t too far-fetched.

But besides trembling eyelashes, she was kind of passive the whole time. Instead, she even seemed a bit afraid.

’Am I really that bad at emotional things or what?’

Soren couldn’t help but doubt himself.

’Maybe I should have directly kissed her rather than going long-winded?’

Soren was thinking when he suddenly felt Elise distance herself from him, slipping out of his hold smoothly.

’Hmm?’

When he looked at her, he saw the complex look on her face that confused him even more before she faintly whispered,

“Soren…I need some time to think about it. Let’s talk about this tomorrow, okay?”

Then, the words she said next were so absurd that Soren was left a bit speechless. Things got even weirder when he saw Elise turning around and quickly trying to leave as if afraid of him.

’This…doesn’t make sense.’