AHEIAID Chapter 23: This Favorability Score is Fooling Me!
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Joey, after acting spoiled with his (not actually) old father from his imagination, patted his belly.
“Daddy, I’m hungry!”
Over time, even a novice pet owner starts to understand what their little pet wants.
Hearing this, Garius rubbed Joey’s small belly. Under the meticulous care of the butler, Lucian, the little human was no longer as frail and pale as when he was first adopted. His round belly even had a tiny bit of chubby flesh now. But perhaps due to hunger, his small tummy looked a little deflated.
“You’re hungry?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“What do you want to eat?”
Joey grinned mischievously, clinging to Garius’ hand, and loudly exclaimed in his broken Ottoman's language: “Meat! Big chunks!”
“Alright.” Garius’ face showed a faint smile. He picked Joey up and headed out, waking up the estate’s AI system to instruct the kitchen to prepare dinner and some human-edible meat.
Lord Heine never concerned himself with his pet’s weight.
As long as Joey wanted to eat, he would provide. As long as Joey was happy, that was all that mattered.
So, under the butler’s barely suppressed laughter, Joey abandoned his usual habit of waiting for his pet owner to feed him. Instead, he sat on a chair, wearing a bib bought by the butler, holding a fork in each hand. Each fork had a big chunk of meat! Left bite, right bite—he devoured the food, his mouth glistening with oil.
The meat was cooked to perfection—the skin was bouncy, and the flesh was tender. With just a gentle bite, the salty, fragrant meat juices gushed out, filling his entire mouth with satisfaction!
He had no idea what kind of meat this was, but it wasn’t greasy at all. In fact, upon careful tasting, it even had a faint bamboo fragrance. Joey went all in—holy crap, this was amazing!
After finishing his meal, he tilted his head back for his pet owner to wipe his mouth, then took a big gulp of sweet and sour juice—ah, sheer bliss!
The system mocked him, saying he ate like a reincarnated starving ghost. Joey refuted, “Hey, System, humans are legendary food lovers. Especially us from the Flower Kingdom! We might not have much, but we definitely have appetites!”
The system refused to admit that it was jealous and simply huffed, ignoring him.
Even the butler commented, “Watching little Joey eat is a delight. It may not be elegant, but it’s so satisfying to watch that it even makes others hungrier. Master, you ate more than usual tonight.”
Garius’ expression softened.
He gazed at the little human, whose ears were round and skin was a milky white unlike the Osman people. He placed a hand on the back of Joey’s neck, fingers gently threading through the curls at the nape of his neck in a lingering motion.
Joey felt ticklish and glanced up at him.
Garius then bent down, his cool lips leaving a kiss on Joey’s forehead—then another, on his lips.
The butler, Lucian, was shocked.
“Master, you…”
“He’s just very cute.”
But, Master… you shouldn’t be kissing him in such an intimate spot…
Lucian was speechless.
He observed his master’s increasing smiles and the little human’s utter nonchalance. Blinking in doubt, he wondered:
Perhaps, because humans and Ottomans look quite similar, I can’t help but see their master-pet relationship through tinted glasses?
…Still, maybe I should remind Master not to do that in front of outsiders…
Lucian thought about it. But soon, dinner ended, and as he got busy arranging for the servants to clean up, he quickly forgot all about it.
Ironically, it was Joey—the one directly involved—who started feeling that something was off.
Back when Garius’ favorability score was at 29, Joey already thought the man treated him well enough.
But he never expected that once it hit 59, their relationship would skyrocket—to the point where there was barely any distance between them!
Even things like bathing and using the toilet had become major issues!
For example, Joey had made it clear before that he could handle washing up on his own. He had been brushing his teeth, washing his face, and bathing by himself.
But now…
As he lay in the bathtub, happily splashing water and humming a tune, a completely naked Garius suddenly walked in.
With one long stride, he stepped into the large bathtub.
At that moment, Joey just happened to glance in the wrong direction and saw something he definitely should not have seen.
His mind went blank for a second before he snapped back to reality and shouted, “Holy shit!”
Flushing red, he quickly covered his eyes.
Stammering, he asked Garius—“W-why are you bathing with me?!”
Garius' expression remained calm. "There are no parasites, so why can't we bathe together?"
Joey: "……"
Uh.
Logically speaking, that made sense… but—why did something about it feel off???
Oh well, Joey thought. There was an unbridgeable gap between humans and pets anyway, and besides, they were both male. Following the belief that "a small man hides his eggs, but a gentleman stands tall and proud"—if they were gonna bathe together, then so be it.
I mean, who hasn't soaked in a big public bath before?
But what he absolutely never expected—
Garius… seemed to have developed an addiction to kissing?!
Every morning, he demanded a kiss from Joey's soft, chubby lips upon waking. After meals, he insisted on another kiss, flavored with the lingering scent of food.
While working, Joey had to sit on his lap—one of Garius’ hands would be busy with work, while the other would rest just under Joey’s chin. All he had to do was lower his head, and Joey's chin would automatically get tilted up—without Joey even needing to move, a surprise smooch would land right on his lips!
And it happened several times—in front of Amon and Saxis.
Whenever Joey recalled their wide-eyed, horrified expressions, he just wanted to bury his face in his hands and die of shame.
Utterly fed up, Joey finally asked his system, “Hey, System… Are you SURE this is just ‘pet favorability’? Because I swear my owner is getting kinda… gay.”
The system answered firmly: 【It’s pet favorability, trust me!】
Joey believed it.
But a few days later—
With his chest pinned against the wall, a god-tier handsome man leaning down to kiss him over and over, Joey clutched his heart and shakily stretched out his hand.
"System… Be honest with me… If this keeps up… Even knowing we’re just a pet-owner pair, I swear I’m gonna start thinking about man-and-beast stuff—HOLY SHIT!"
He was terrified that one day, their ‘zero distance’ would turn into ‘negative distance’—and considering his owner's size… Yikes. That would be a tragic disaster!
The system’s gaze drifted guiltily. 【Y-yup, just pet favorability.】
"Really?"
【Really! Aiya, just keep increasing it, everything will be fine.】
"……Alright, I’ll trust you one more time."
【Mhm mhm.】
…If Joey ever found out that the system didn’t actually have a favorability feature—that it had borrowed a plugin from another system—he would definitely report it!
But as long as it was still technically called "favorability," it should be fine… right…?
Afraid of being scolded, the system bit its lip and stayed silent.
Meanwhile, Joey had no choice but to keep hypnotizing himself—this is just pet affection, this is just pet affection, this is just pet affection…
And so, he reluctantly accepted Garius' constant displays of affection.
The only thing he failed to notice—was that the pair of golden-green eyes staring at him seemed to grow darker by the day.
It was as if something deep inside them was awakening—unclear, but lurking just beneath the surface. All it would take was a slight push to disperse the mist, revealing a stunningly beautiful, forbidden abyss beyond.
And so, in this sticky-sweet journey of increasing favorability, Joey finally raised the score to 69.
And then—it wouldn't go up anymore.
It felt like it had hit a wooden board, a thin barrier, or an invisible, untouchable boundary.
His instincts screamed at him—
DO NOT CROSS IT. DO NOT CROSS IT.
Something big would happen the moment he did.
Joey had always trusted his instincts—especially since bad omens tended to be far more accurate than good ones.
So, gulping nervously, he stopped his increasingly concerning favorability farming journey. He even started rejecting Garius' kisses and hugs, refusing to let him tug at his curly hair while sleeping.
Okay, that should keep the favorability score from rising any further… right?
But two days later…
T/N: Please give support on my ko-fi page, thank you🍊🍊🍊
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