"Little Auntie! Things are going much better with Yuuka now!" Kars ran into Remilia, eager to share the news, believing that telling her this would make her happy, since he was finally making some progress.
"Is that so? It seems you have been putting in effort." Remilia felt a certain happiness for Kars's success, but there was a subtle mix of other emotions involved, a feeling Remilia found slightly unsettling. Especially when Kars mentioned Yuuka Kazami, she frowned slightly.
"Little Auntie, do you think there's a problem?" Kars noticed Remilia frowning and asked, feeling confused by her reaction.
"It's nothing, just a minor issue." Remilia shook her head. She wasn't overly concerned about her own reaction; she simply thought she had some reservations about Yuuka. After all, she worried that if Kars really got together with her, Yuuka's personality might cause problems or struggle to get along with everyone in the Scarlet Devil Mansion.
"Let's sleep together again tonight."
"Oh, I understand." Kars didn't object to Remilia's decision, simply nodding in acceptance. He had grown somewhat accustomed to the back-and-forth sleeping arrangements anyway, so it wasn't a problem.
Meanwhile, Patchouli's expression was noticeably unsettled when she heard the news.
"You… you said you've made progress with that Yuuka Kazami?"
"Yeah! But Patchouli, why do you look so strange?" Kars didn't understand the expression on Patchouli's face, which seemed to show a certain degree of disapproval. He couldn't figure out what was going on.
"She's a little unwilling to share, that's all," Koakuma muttered under her breath, criticizing Patchouli. This is more than just 'a little unwilling'! She could hear the emotion in Patchouli's voice, clearly showing she didn't want Kars to make progress in this matter, especially when it was the result of the lessons Patchouli herself had given him, now being applied to someone else.
"I see. Are you worried, Patchouli, that if I'm with Yuuka, I won't have time to see you?" Kars guessed this was the case. He understood that when a person gets something they deeply desire, they often spend all their time with it, forgetting things they already had. He thought Patchouli was worried that he would be constantly attached to Yuuka and stop coming to see her.
"Patchouli, you really think the strangest things. Even if I'm with Yuuka, it doesn't mean I won't come to see you. You are one of my important family members. Just like my favorite Little Auntie—I don't spend every single day with her. So, even if I really make Yuuka my wife, I will still come to see you because you are one of the most important people to me." Kars explained this fact. As one of the most important people in his life, he would never ignore them just because he had found someone he loved. That would be repulsive. In fact, in terms of importance, Patchouli was slightly more important to him than Yuuka Kazami.
"If you hadn't added 'one of,' I might have been even happier." Patchouli smiled slightly at Kars's words. She could tell how important she was in Kars's heart, so she teased him gently.
"That's because there are other important people, too! Everyone in the Scarlet Devil Mansion is important." Kars replied with a cheerful grin.
"I know that, of course. If you had said only I was important, I would have suspected you were lying." Patchouli looked at Kars's face calmly. Her complex feelings improved significantly during this conversation. At least she was completely comparable, and even had an advantage, over that Yuuka Kazami. With this thought, her mood wasn't so distressed anymore. When Kars saw Patchouli's mood lighten, no longer dwelling on the previous issue, he smiled happily.
Patchouli cupped Kars's face and kissed him directly, which stunned Koakuma nearby. It was the first time she had seen Patchouli do something like this outside of a private room, doing it so openly right there. Koakuma just stared blankly as Patchouli deeply kissed Kars, then released him. A strand of saliva connected their mouths before breaking, which made Koakuma feel an urge to try it herself. But remembering her current predicament, she immediately cooled down, slumping her head in a sickly manner.
As for Patchouli's action, Kars was surprised by her sudden move and felt his face flush a little. He also sensed that Patchouli's eyes held a different look than usual.
"I still have many things to slowly teach you in the future, Kars."
"It feels like I'll never finish learning everything you teach, Patchouli." Kars had always felt this way, and Patchouli smiled in response.
"Yes, you might genuinely never finish learning my things. It might even take an entire lifetime, and only then would you have a slight chance of learning everything."
"An entire lifetime, huh." Kars didn't show much reaction to this result, as if it wasn't strange at all.
"Well, it doesn't seem like there's much of a difference anyway, right? After all, we're going to be together for a lifetime, aren't we?" In his understanding, they were all meant to be together for a lifetime, so learning things for an entire lifetime wasn't surprising, just a little overwhelming.
"If I'm still learning from you when I'm hundreds or thousands of years old, won't people think I'm really dense?" Kars's expression looked complicated at that prospect.
"Not at all. Because others wouldn't even be able to learn, or even get the chance to learn. The reason is that you are the only one in this world who can learn these things from me. No one else can. So, you are not dense at all."
"Is that so? Then I must be really amazing! Hahahahaha!!" At Patchouli's words, Kars immediately laughed triumphantly. After all, he was the only one in the world who could learn from Patchouli. By any measure, that was something to be immensely proud of.