Chapter 53: A Team, A Plan, and A Quiet Bedroom
Camilla walked over to Malakai and Nyquella, giving a courteous bow as she introduced herself. She had fully expected Nyquella to say something normal—the kind of questions everyone kept asking, like "Are you and Malakai together?" or perhaps, "Wow, nice catch. How did a beautiful woman like her fall for you?" followed by a quick insult directed at Malakai.
Instead, the newcomer said something Camilla wasn’t expecting at all.
"Wow, nice rack," Nyquella said, walking over while still wrapped tightly in her towel.
"Look at the size of those bad boys," she added, turning to Malakai with the most deadpan, calm expression on her face. "I’m impressed. You actually found someone who is both good-looking and nice."
"Of course I did," Malakai replied, his gaze slowly trailing over to Camilla. "Why would I choose someone simple and random as my master?"
Camilla sighed in sheer frustration and simply shook her head. "You two are something else. Are we keeping her or not?"
"Keeping me?!" Nyquella spat, glaring at her while folding her arms and puffing out her chest. "I am not an item to be kept!"
"Yes, we are," Malakai responded smoothly. "She will be very useful to us. Besides, despite how she acts, she is a total scaredy-cat. The fact that she has survived this long is a miracle in itself."
"Wha—hey! Not cool!"
"Alright," Camilla interjected, turning her focus back to the guest. "What are your abilities?"
"I can create bows out of light and holy magic, and I can also summon a holy knight."
"Very versatile," Camilla noted, nodding in approval. "A sniper with a dedicated guard. She will make a great addition to the team."
"Why, thank you," Nyquella said, instantly beaming.
"So, Nyquella, about the rest of our enemies... tell me everything you know," Malakai requested, his demeanor shifting to a much more serious tone.
Nyquella once again explained everything she knew about Asterion and his forces. After digesting the new information, Malakai chuckled sheepishly. "Asterion is the least of our problems. Frankly, he isn’t even a threat."
"....So we aren’t going after him?" Nyquella asked nervously.
"No. Not unless he actively wants to fight or gets in our way. Also..." Malakai pointed a warning finger at her. "...please do not do any dangerous experiments with Yuki. And do not try to ’seduce’ him. You will fail miserably."
"What?!" Nyquella scoffed, highly offended. "No, I won’t! I am a total catch. There is no way I’d fail."
"Nyquella, I know exactly how you are. Yuki was making jokes while I was literally interrogating him. His entire personality is that of a pure ball of joy. If you get too close to him, you will be the one who falls for him."
"You can take Vee as an example," Camilla chimed in. "She explicitly said he has absolutely no seduction skills, yet look at her—she is completely head over heels for him."
"Oh..." Nyquella’s confidence wavered, her voice growing more nervous. "Are his skills really that good?"
"No," Camilla and Malakai answered in unison.
"Really?"
"Yes," Malakai explained. "He does it completely subconsciously 90% of the time. If he actually tried to do it consciously, you would fail to resist."
"Also, don’t ask Vee how big her breasts are, if you could cup a feel, or anything of that nature," Malakai added, chuckling softly. "And don’t try saying ’it’s for research purposes’ right before asking a perverse question."
"... I will try."
"Nyquella."
"Okay, fine! I won’t ask!" she pouted, rolling her eyes. "Tsk. I’m going to bed." With a heavy huff, she stormed off mumbling under her breath.
The next morning, the group gathered around the breakfast table to discuss their plans for food collection and hunting. They decided to dedicate two days a week to food gathering, the first and last days of the week, while the remaining days would be strictly used for hunting.
The quicker they got stronger, the better. They needed to defeat the city core as fast as possible so they could finally leave this place. Once that was accomplished, they would have to make their way through the treacherous mountains to reach civilization. But first, they had to face the upcoming Ascension Trial.
The following days were an absolute nightmare. The group spent day after day fighting for their lives, pushing themselves to the limit to grind for essence scores. Slowly but surely, they were clawing their way closer to the threshold of Rank 1.
After one particularly grueling battle, Camilla stormed into the house. She marched right past Vee, who was lounging comfortably on the couch, eating cream pudding and cuddling with Yuki. Camilla didn’t even bother to greet them as she headed straight for her room upstairs. Malakai followed close behind her, a smug, teasing smile plastered on his face.
"Fucking ass!" she yelled, continuing to curse him out as she slammed her door.
Passing by the living room, Malakai glanced at the couple. "Yuki, did you finish the installation of the shower and bath?"
"Yep, it’s all done!" Yuki chirped happily. "I also added a few extra items for you and Camilla to use. Hope you enjoy it! Also, good luck with Camilla. She looks absolutely pissed."
"That she is," Malakai chuckled, his eyes narrowing mischievously as a wicked smirk spread across his face before he headed upstairs.
Once they were alone again, Vee looked down at the boy resting against her. "Yuki."
"Hmm?"
"What did you do with the extra master bathroom? Didn’t you install individual ones in all the bedrooms?"
"Oh, I turned that one into a walk-in freezer," Yuki said casually, wrapping his arms around her waist and snuggling deeper into her lap.
"I thought you would have turned it into another storage room for your clothes and crafting materials," she said, gently running her fingers through his hair.
"I tried to! But the room’s walls kept rebuilding themselves too fast whenever I tried to knock them down, so I just gave up and made it a cold storage for food instead."
Vee chuckled, shaking her head. "Just don’t fill it up to the very brim, okay?"
"..."
Vee’s eyebrows raised. "Did you already fill it up completely?"
"No... there’s still space left. Well, some space."
"You do know that once we leave this place, you’ll have to leave all of that food behind, right?"
"..."
"Yuki?"
Lick.
"Mmm..." she let out a soft moan, shivering slightly. "Yuki... stop that. Don’t lick my stomach."
"Can I go higher or lower?" Yuki asked with pure innocence.
Vee’s head snapped down, her face instantly flushing a bright, furious red. "Sometimes you really need to think before you speak! Up is my breasts, and down is... my privates."
"Oh...?"
"What do you mean, ’oh’?! We are definitely not doing this on the living room couch. Dose the bedrooms have noise suppression like our tents did?"
"Uh-huh."
"...Well... let’s go then," she said, pulling him up as she stood. "That is very good to know. And a massage actually sounds really nice right now."
"Can I lick your breasts after?" Yuki asked happily as they made their way toward the stairs.
"Yes... but absolutely no nibbling on my nipples. I get way too sensitive, and I don’t want to pass out from a pleasure overload again."
"Can I suck on them instead?" Yuki asked, a blissful smile on his face as he held her hand, finally reaching their bedroom door.
"Yes, literally anything else is fine, just no nibbling. I don’t want the system interface to start making fun of me—"
[I will either way, so you might as well just go all out,] the glowing blue system screen suddenly popped up, interrupting her.
"...I really can’t stand you," Vee muttered to the glowing screen, swiftly pulling Yuki into the room and slamming the door behind them.