Chapter 44 : It Must Have Been a Fierce Battle
My waist aches.
That was the first thought Nia had upon waking.
She kept quiet and rustled softly as she dressed in the room.
While putting on her clothes, Nia glanced at El, who was still sound asleep.
After confirming he showed no signs of waking, she dispelled the disguise magic she’d been wearing.
Because of last night’s frenzy, the runes on her body had dulled and lost their glow.
It seemed the amount she used last night would last quite a long time.
While Nia was lost in thought, a noise came from behind her — El shifting.
Snapping back to attention, she quickly finished dressing.
Just as she was about to reapply the disguise magic, a hand reached out from behind and touched her ear.
A chill ran down Nia’s spine, and she shivered involuntarily.
She quickly put some distance between herself and El, watching him warily.
“What are you suddenly touching my ear for?”
“Why so tense?” El lay on the bed, lazily watching her. “I’m just curious. You know, I’ve never seen an elf before and wanted to see how your ears differ from ours.”
“They’re made of flesh, no difference at all.”
“Then why won’t you let me touch them?”
“Because it’s not allowed.” Nia shook her head, refusing firmly. “If you want to touch something, touch your own.”
Seeing how nervous El looked, Nia’s intuition told her he was already scheming something mischievous.
Not letting you touch them, huh? Next time we study together, I’m definitely going to get a good feel.
You’ll be begging me to touch then.
El’s ill-intentioned expression made Nia shudder; she instinctively knew he was thinking of something improper.
“If you dare do anything disrespectful to me, I swear I will—”
“You’ll make me not see the sun tomorrow, right?” El interrupted. “I won’t bring this up again, but after all the fun last night, why are you still so shy?”
Hearing that made Nia involuntarily recall last night’s scenes.
She could almost feel steam rising from her face.
“That was your fault for forcing me.” Nia glared at him. “Doing that in front of the lady—if we got caught…”
“Don’t slander a good man,” El cut in before she could finish. “When Myra came, I didn’t do anything. I was going to wait until she left to continue, but then a certain knight lady dragged me into it.”
El’s eyes roamed over her, as if searching for something, then suddenly he seemed to understand.
“Looks like a certain knight lady really likes that kind of thrill. But you know what? It is pretty thrilling. You’ve almost corrupted me.”
“You!”
Now not only was her face steaming, her pointed ears flushed an unnatural red, almost bleeding.
“All right, I won’t tease you anymore.”
Seeing her like that, El didn’t press further.
“It’s all my fault anyway. I shouldn’t have kept you here to punish you.”
El offered a way out, and Nia quickly took it.
“You—you know that’s enough.”
…
“Good morning, you two.”
Watching Nia and El come down the stairs together, Felt greeted them cheerfully.
“Hello, Mr. Felt.”
“You’re just in time for the last round of breakfast.”
“But I didn’t expect you two to be up so early.” Felt looked at them with a smile that was hard to read. “After fighting so late last night, I thought you’d sleep until afternoon.”
He patted El’s shoulder, sighing, “Youth is wonderful—endless energy. After all that drinking, you’re still so lively, just like I was in my younger days.”
El immediately caught his meaning. “Felt, you old man, sneaking around at night instead of sleeping, huh?”
“Hey, I’m not sneaking around. It’s just you two made too much noise.” Felt said helplessly. “Our room’s right under yours; the bed shaking was too loud.”
“…”
El slapped his forehead, finally realizing this was a low-tech other world with poor soundproofing.
“Sorry about that, Felt.”
“No worries. Young folks have lots of energy—I understand.”
Felt waved his hand, teasing him. “Enough talk, let’s eat. After all that exercise last night, you must have burned a lot.”
Ignoring Nia and El’s awkward expressions, Felt laughed heartily and brought over breakfast.
Having grown used to El’s cooking, Nia found this meal hard to adjust to.
The human breakfast she remembered was steaming hot oatmeal and soft bread, but here Felt served long loaves and rice porridge.
Setting aside the taste of the porridge, the hardness of the bread far exceeded Nia’s expectations.
El clearly didn’t like it either; he asked for two extra bowls of porridge, sipping on it intermittently while chatting with Felt.
“Felt, any news about the ‘Ball’ recently?”
El suddenly mentioned a term Nia had never heard before.
“Why the sudden interest in that place?” Felt asked. “Anything you want to buy?”
“Well, I’m planning to take Nia and Myra traveling in early spring,” El replied. “Wanted to see if we could get some travel supplies.”
“I see…”
Felt nodded. “There hasn’t been much news about the ‘Ball’ lately, but as usual, there should be one at the end of next month. You can come check it out then?”
“Okay, I’ll come then.”
Their conversation left Nia confused.
“What’s the ‘Ball’?” she asked.
“It’s like a trade fair, but they sell a lot of forbidden items there,” El explained. “Because it’s secretive, it’s usually held in lawless areas.”
Nia’s expression hardened. “What kind of shady things are you planning to buy?”
“It’s not just shady stuff! There are some rare goods too,” El said. “This isn’t my hometown, so when you’re away from home, you have to be prepared.”
“I’ve saved up quite a bit, so I’ll splurge a little then.”