My wife believes me; how could I be a cuckold?

Before today, Makoto Asano, who was happy to live a carefree and ordinary life, would have preferred to continue living like this for the rest of his life.

But now, looking at Eriko Miyajima's worried face, he suddenly changed his mind.

After thinking for a moment, he said to Eriko Miyajima in a somewhat embarrassed tone, "Ms. Miyajima, thank you, I'm much better now, but... um, could you please get me a glass of hot water?"

Upon hearing this, Eriko Miyajima immediately nodded and left the room, taking a water glass from the bedside table to boil water for Makoto Asano.

Actually, there was water in that cup, but she poured it when Makoto Asano fainted, so it should be a bit cold now.

Seeing Eriko Miyajima leave the room and close the door, Makoto Asano quickly opened the system and took out a bottle of beverage.

This is a single-use stamina potion that the system gave him after he completed Yuna Kanno's mission last time. It looks like an ordinary soda can.

Stamina potions, as the name suggests, are used to restore stamina.

The system's description is more detailed; this thing can restore the body to its best condition after overexertion, so that it can fight another round without any problem.

Although Makoto Asano felt that this thing should be used for other critical moments, since it can restore physical condition, it's not impossible to use it now.

Without hesitation, Makoto Asano opened the can and drank it all in one gulp. The medicine had little taste, somewhat like plain water, but with a slight sweetness.

After finishing the drink, he threw the can into the trash can. Before he could even fully feel the changes in his body, the tightly closed door opened again—it was Eriko Miyajima who had returned after pouring the water.

Chapter 26 Eriko Miyajima's Water

Makoto Asano took the water glass and tasted it; it was warm.

Eriko Miyajima was very thoughtful; to prevent him from getting burned, she specially diluted the boiling water with cold water to make it lukewarm.

After testing the water temperature, Makoto Asano completely abandoned any reservations and began to drink it in large gulps.

Although he had just taken some health supplements, he still finished the water in his glass in one go, because he hadn't had any water since evening and was really thirsty.

"Mr. Asano, drink slowly, don't choke."

Hearing Eriko Miyajima's worried voice, Makoto Asano put down his empty water glass, let out a long sigh, and said, "It's okay, I'm much better now. Eriko-san's water is really amazing."

"How could that be? Mr. Asano is exaggerating... Huh? Really, your complexion is much better."

Seeing Asano Makoto's originally pale face turn rosy at a visible speed, Miyajima Eriko was also surprised. She did not expect that her water would be so effective.

However, seeing that Asano Makoto was indeed much better, her tense heart relaxed.

At this moment, Makoto Asano scratched his head awkwardly and asked, "Um, Ms. Miyajima, may I ask what happened? Why did I faint? Why is Ms. Miyajima in my house? I still don't understand anything."

Eriko Miyajima nodded upon hearing this, and began to explain with a look of lingering fear.

After the explanation, Asano Seiya roughly understood what was going on.

In fact, Eriko Miyajima didn't know why Makoto Asano fainted. It was just that Makoto Asano had asked her to come and do housework today, so she came as promised at 9:30 in the morning.

When she knocked on the door, she found it wasn't closed and opened with a gentle knock. That's when she noticed Asano Makoto, who was lying pale and slumped in the entryway.

Although she was startled, she quickly recovered and immediately bent down to briefly check on Makoto Asano's condition.

Thankfully, he's still breathing and not completely dead, but his body and forehead are very hot, so he probably has a fever.

Seeing that he was alright, Eriko Miyajima breathed a sigh of relief, and then struggled to drag him back to the bedroom and put him on the bed.

During the following period, Eriko Miyajima took care of him while also tidying up the kitchen so that she could prepare some food for him after he woke up.

As Makoto Asano listened to Rieko Miyajima's explanation, his expression became increasingly awkward, and he felt more and more guilty.

Because he had always lived alone, Makoto Asano never bothered anyone and always shouldered everything on his own. Even when he was sick, he would just lie in bed and tough it out by himself.

He never expected that he would be taken care of to this extent this time, especially by the person he was trying to woo.

The thought of exposing his weakness to Eriko Miyajima made him feel ashamed, and he even wished he could lie down immediately and bury his head in the blankets.

But Makoto Asano didn't forget basic politeness. He blushed, scratched his head, and sincerely thanked Eriko Miyajima: "Ms. Miyajima, thank you so much. If it weren't for you, I might already be..."

"Mr. Asano, please don't say such things!"

Eriko Miyajima interrupted Makoto Asano in a very serious tone.

But perhaps feeling that this was too harsh, she then gave a very gentle smile and said, "As neighbors, isn't it only right that we help each other?"

Upon hearing this, Makoto Asano nodded somewhat awkwardly and remained silent.

The room fell into an odd silence.

Makoto Asano was too embarrassed to say anything at the moment, while Eriko Miyajima had basically no social life since coming to Tokyo, and her social skills had seriously deteriorated, so she didn't know what to say in the first place.

After a while, Eriko Miyajima finally seemed to have found a topic to talk about and said loudly, "Ah! I'll go make you something to eat. It's already afternoon, and you must be very hungry since you haven't eaten anything after sleeping all this time."

Makoto Asano originally wanted to refuse, as he really didn't want to trouble her to take care of him anymore. Moreover, he knew that he didn't have any ingredients at home, and if Eriko Miyajima wanted to cook, she would have to go home first.

However, before he could say anything, the other person had already left the room.

Inside the room, Makoto Asano stared blankly at Eriko Miyajima's departing figure for a moment.

For a fleeting moment, a strange thought crossed his mind: he wanted to possess this woman, not because of the mission's requirements, but because he wanted to do so voluntarily.

But he quickly shook his head, pulling himself out of this absolutely abnormal state, and began to examine the changes in his body.

After drinking the stamina potion, his body returned to its original state, and he felt no discomfort at all.

Moreover, he was pleasantly surprised to find that his physical attribute value had actually increased from 4.3 to 5.5, which meant that he had jumped from a weakling to a slightly stronger ordinary person.

Therefore, he finally understood why he had suddenly fainted after returning home last night.

After the 8 points of stamina attribute awarded by the system expired, the heavy weight training done with the body that had 8 points of stamina attribute did not disappear, but was actually reflected back to the original body.

These training sessions might not seem like much to someone who already has 8 points of stamina, but for Makoto Asano, whose stamina was originally only 4.3, they are an enormous experience boost.

This is similar to playing a game where your account is only level 1, so you can only farm low-level monsters to slowly accumulate experience.

However, by sheer chance, you suddenly obtain a one-day trial card that allows your account to reach level 100, and then use the level 100 account to farm a wave of high-level monsters.

After the trial card expires, even though you're back to level 1, the experience you gained before is still there, instantly leveling you up to level 30.

However, unlike playing games, account leveling up does not bring any negative effects, but the growth of physical attributes is a real and tangible feedback to the body.

It's important to understand that the basic mechanism of muscle growth can be simply summarized as a process of "destruction-repair-supercompensation".

During strength training, muscles suffer minor damage, which stimulates muscle growth.

After training, the body will begin to repair the damaged muscle fibers automatically, a process that requires sufficient nutrition and rest.

During the final supercompensation phase, the body not only repairs damaged muscle fibers but also makes muscles stronger than before to adapt to potential future injuries.

This is known as "supercompensation," and it's key to muscle growth.

The reason Asano Makoto fainted was because his body had damaged a lot of muscle fibers during the previous training. So when the trial card expired, his body was unable to adapt to the feeling and he fainted instantly. Even after he woke up, his body was still extremely sore.

However, he later drank a stamina potion, which restored his body to its best condition and allowed all the damaged muscle fibers to recover, directly entering the supercompensation phase.

This is the fundamental reason why his physical attribute value has increased.

Chapter 27 The punishment for failure is turning into a minotaur.

Upon seeing the changes on his attribute panel, Makoto Asano immediately climbed off the bed and jumped around a few times.

He wondered if it was just psychological, but he felt lighter and lighter, and some areas that used to feel sore and swollen no longer did.

In short, this experience made Asano Makoto truly appreciate the benefits of self-improvement, which made him even more proactive in this endeavor.

The existence of the attribute panel means that his growth will be quantified. He can clearly know the results of his efforts and then get positive feedback from his growth, maximizing his enthusiasm.

Just as Makoto Asano was feeling completely happy, he suddenly heard the sound of a door closing.

Realizing that Eriko Miyajima had already gone home to get the ingredients, he quickly came out of his room.

Seeing him walk out of the room, Eriko Miyajima, who was changing her shoes in the entryway, was startled and quickly said, "Mr. Asano, why did you come down? Hurry back, you haven't recovered yet."

But Makoto Asano didn't reply, because he suddenly noticed Eriko Miyajima's little foot that had just taken off her shoe.

At this moment, she was bending down to take off her white flat shoes, her bare, fair feet gently stepping on the floor, creating a strong contrast with the natural wood floor.

Eriko Miyajima was initially puzzled as to why Makoto Asano wasn't speaking, but she immediately noticed his blatant gaze fixed on her bare feet, and her face flushed slightly.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Asano. Since we were right next door, I didn't wear socks, and the indoor shoes I brought were from my own home. I didn't know which pair of shoes you had for your guests... I hope you don't mind, Mr. Asano?"

"No, it's okay, I don't mind at all. As for indoor shoes... how about this, I'll buy you a new pair next time you come."

Asano Makoto said this, he even hoped that the other person would not wear socks every time they came.

After all, it would be such a waste to wrap those beautiful little feet in socks.

Oh right, some socks are not included.

For example, stockings, and garter stockings, those two aren't bad either. Hmm, over-the-knee stockings seem pretty good too, and calf stockings seem okay as well... It's hard to choose.

Just as Makoto Asano was busy mentally choosing a suitable pair of socks for the other person's delicate feet, a system notification suddenly sounded in his mind.

[Detected that a minor host has awakened foot fetish attributes, triggering a side quest related to Eriko Miyajima!]

[Task Requirements: Touch Eriko Miyajima at least twice, once at her feet, within two hours.]

[Quest completion reward: One random item.]

[Punishment for mission failure: Become a minotaur for three days.]

Upon hearing the notification sound, Makoto Asano almost vomited up all the stamina potion he had just drunk.

"What the hell? What do you mean by 'awakening foot fetish attributes'? And what's the difference between this punishment and sending me to my death!?"

Although he really wanted to retort, "I'm not a foot fetishist at all, don't make false accusations," Makoto Asano couldn't bring himself to say it halfway through.

Because the system doesn't lie, he had indeed mentally picked out socks for the other person's jade-like feet just now.

So, this task was indeed issued because of this, otherwise it wouldn't have specifically required touching the feet once.

It can only be said that Makoto Asano's current predicament proves the old saying—trying to do anything will only end up harming you.

Left with no other choice, Makoto Asano had to accept his fate and start thinking of ways to complete the mission.

However, looking at the requirements and punishments of the task, he still sighed inwardly.

Although the punishment for the mission doesn't seem as severe as the previous ones, only turning you into a minotaur, it's actually about the same.