Naoki completely didn't understand what Merlin was thinking.
He remembered just lying down in bed half a minute ago, but he only closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again, he was once again in the middle of this familiar flower field.
This kind of thing had happened frequently over the past month. Usually, as soon as he fell asleep, Merlin would pull him here, and the timing was completely irregular.
"Night~"
A soft voice sounded in his ear, as if someone had leaned close and spoken into Naoki's ear, startling him and making him jump back a few steps. Then he looked behind him—
"Don't scare me like that, Merlin."
"Hmm? Just that and you're scared? Even though you know it's just the two of us here."
With both hands behind her back, Merlin smiled at Naoki.
"It's been a few days since we last met, did you miss me?"
"Hmm... no." Naoki thought for a moment carefully, "Ah, not really, I did think about you once or twice."
"Only once or twice?!"
Merlin's eyes instantly welled up, both hands wiping the corners of her eyes, wiping away tears that weren't actually there.
"Even though you passionately expressed your love for me before, even saying you couldn't live without me, but it turns out you didn't think of me at all, Your Majesty the King, you faithless man!"
"You think acting like this can still fool me?"
Naoki sighed slightly helplessly, then approached Merlin, raised his hand and placed it on her head, stroking it gently—then immediately delivered a karate chop!
*THWACK!*
The unannounced attack instantly made Merlin hold her head and crouch down.
"What the heck! That really hurt!"
"Yesterday I heard something from Add, it seems you spread rumors that I like being stepped on?" Naoki crouched down in front of Merlin, smiling kindly.
The dissatisfied expression on Merlin's face instantly froze: "That... did I really say that? I'm old too, there are many things I don't remember, maybe Add just made it up."
*SMACK!*
Naoki delivered another karate chop to Merlin's head.
"Next time if you talk nonsense again, it won't just be a karate chop, but a punch."
"Yes, yes, really sorry, my beloved King."
Brushing off the flower petals sticking to her body, Merlin pouted and stood up: "Ugh, I rarely come to see you because I miss you and want to enjoy the world together, but as soon as I come, I get two karate chops. Naoki, you've become so rough since leaving me."
"Really? I actually feel this is better for you. For someone whose brain is full of the joy of causing trouble, you need to be a little tough to make you remember."
"Hic~~~ Naoki is mean to me~~~ I'm going to complain to little Gray!"
"How old are you? Still complaining... who do you think Gray will believe?" Naoki sighed, approached the tree in the middle of the flower field, took Merlin's hand and sat down together, then pulled her into his arms.
Since Merlin had played around too much in his dream that time, Naoki had become a little bolder when interacting with her. Things like taking her hand and sitting in an embrace had also become commonplace.
"How are things on your side?"
"Nothing much, just the usual." Merlin laughed, "Riddel came by once two days ago. After looking around your room, she went somewhere else again. The two in Misaki City are still running Garan-no-Dōu. The Clock Tower is also the same as usual, everyone is unchanged. If anything has changed, maybe Waver's overtime hours are increasing, and that little girl named Reines often comes to ask when you'll be back."
It seemed there really weren't any changes.
"How about you and little Gray?"
"Same as your place, no changes, but today some interesting things happened."
"Hmm? Interesting things? Tell me!"
Merlin instantly became excited.
Seeing her interested, Naoki had no choice but to tell her about the events at the shopping mall, and after hearing the story, Merlin couldn't help but smile like an aunt.
"Hmph~~~ so that's how it is, after changing clothes you instantly charmed many people... Naoki, you really have a tendency to resemble Arthur."
"Come on, I'm not suited to be a prince on a white horse."
"That's Gawain, you know. But for you to even go out to buy clothes, that's truly rare."
"Buying clothes was just a side thing, the main thing was to buy swimsuits. The eighth Class Card appeared, by the sea. I was thinking I've never taken Gray to play at the beach before, this time there's an opportunity, so I'm taking her to have a look."
By the sea.
Merlin nodded: "Um, that's right, little kids really should see the beach. But I'm here to remind you, don't get any bad ideas about little Gray wearing a swimsuit."
"Who would? If I have any ideas, they're definitely about you."
The words Naoki said casually made Merlin silent for a moment, then she laughed: "In that case, do you want to see? A swimsuit."
"Eh? Can I?"
"This is my dream realm. Although its existence depends on your soul, within the dream, I can do whatever I want. Changing clothes is just a matter of thought." Saying this, Merlin leaned closer to Naoki's ear, "Want to see? If you want to see, just say so, I'll show you."
Did he need to think about it again?
Of course he wanted to see!
But according to Naoki's understanding of Merlin, this person said she would show him a swimsuit, but in reality, she was definitely thinking of ways to trick him! In this regard, his experience was too much; he had experienced similar situations several times.
It was true that Merlin often gave him bonuses, like accidentally showing her underwear or a glimpse of cleavage, or accidentally intimate contact. Over the past few years, such things had happened frequently, but behind every bonus, Merlin had actually planned how to trick him.
For example, during intimate contact with her, it was one of the few times she 'happened' to have time to pick him up from school, and then the next day in martial arts class, he was attacked by the entire class, forced to defeat the entire class until he was half dead from exhaustion.
This time was also like that.
'Let me think carefully, what kind of trap has Merlin set up? She's definitely trying to bait me into saying I want to see, but she definitely won't really show it to me. This is certain. Then, what are the clues and evidence?'
Naoki carefully recalled Merlin's words.
[Want to see? A swimsuit]
"Merlin."
"Hmm?"
"You said you wanted to show me a swimsuit, right?"
"Yes."
"Where's the subject?" Naoki asked back, "You said you wanted to show me a swimsuit, but you didn't say whose swimsuit you wanted to show me. Although I think it's unlikely, but you shouldn't just conjure up a swimsuit here to trick me."
"..."
Silence.
It was almost the same as admitting it.
Then Merlin sighed helplessly: "Ugh, caught, didn't expect you to become so smart, Naoki. It seems simple tricks like this can't be used anymore."
"So you really didn't plan to show it to me!"
"Yeah, because..."
Merlin gently bit Naoki's ear.
"Dreams are dreams, no matter how real they are, they're still not as good and real as the actual thing. Oh right, Morgan came again yesterday. It seems she found a precious holy relic from India. Since her house was full, she dumped it here..."
After that.
As usual, Merlin and Naoki chatted all night in the dream.