The World of Strife

Our group reached the lower floor, while I was looking for Ignacio. Camilla, instead of chasing down Bob, decided to stay by my side, her presence practically radiating frustration and discomfort. Ah, that could have something to do with her bruised eye. Taking another peek at the pinkish orb in my left hand, I shook away the thought of offering to heal her.

Perhaps when I get a few more of those manastones.

"Who are you looking for?" Sounded the apparently sulking voice of Camilla; she couldn't help but notice the way I was checking out the people around us.

I glanced at the redhead, my eyes lingering on her blackened eye.

She smirked. "Yeah, well. One of those fools got me good. Still, you should see the other guy, hah!"

Nodding, I asked. "Are you hurt in any other place?"

Her dark green eyes lingered on my worried expression. There was a moment of hesitation, a flicker of mischief, before she eventually told me, with a sleazy wink. "I mean... There is this cut between my legs, but..."

My eyes widened, mind already recalling the right incantation as I asked. "You, what? Can I see it..." Noticing the shit-eating grin on Camilla's face that could barely contain her laughter made me realize my mistake.

"Oh..." The word parted my lips as I stood there like a fool, cheeks getting redder by the second.

Camilla burst into crude laughter, along with several adventurers who managed to catch our conversation. "Hahaha! Oh, gods, you are so sweet... I meant to say before you interrupted that I would be in big trouble if you sealed that..." She chuckled. "Don't take it to heart, Lora, but I prefer men, even though for you it might be worth considering an exception... I don't really want to paint a target on my back for your overzealous girlfriend there."

I couldn't help but join in with the laughter after the initial surprise of my friend's vulgarity passed.

Camilla, seeing me roll my eyes, put her arm around my neck lazily and gave me an apologetic half-hug. "Sorry, Lora... couldn't help it after all the excitement. Getting into another life-and-death hustle with other adventurers seems to get my blood flowing more than I expected. It's good to be a scout trainee of the Dimhollows, but I honestly missed the chaos that came with adventuring."

"I see," I said, while taking another glance at Camilla's arm that she conveniently left hanging around my neck. Is she... into me as well? I thought for a moment and crushed the ridiculous idea. There is no way... am I getting paranoid here?

"You were an adventurer for a long time. It is normal to miss a lifestyle you are so familiar with," I acknowledged. "I am looking for Ignacio. Starting to get low on mana supply, and perhaps he could help me get some extra mana gems; seeing how the situation looks outside, we might need it soon."

Camilla nodded, tightening her half-hug around my neck and pulling me closer. "I can also help you with that, Lora."

I huffed, "Fine, then." She pulled her arm back and instead grabbed onto my wrist, almost making me drop my red mana gem in the process.

"Hey!" I complained. "I almost dropped that!"

"Stop being a clumsy elf, then!" She smirked over her shoulder as she pulled me to the side, seeing Hilde and Alita kneeling beside Elin as she sat against the wall, nursing her injuries. Alita was presently tightening a fresh bandage around the worst of the girl's cuts.

"What's up with you, gals? Is Elin fine?" Camilla chirped while pulling me along.

Hilde looked up and smiled. "She will be fine after some rest, perhaps a potion. We should be able to get some from the warehouse section if we are lucky."

Elin shivered slightly as Alita kept rolling the bandage around her bleeding thigh. "A potion sounds about right at this moment... arghh!" She took in several calming breaths, her forehead covered in thick layers of sweat. "Careful with that, Alita... It hurts like a b-bitch!"

Alita chuckled nervously. "I would be more worried if it didn't... Still, you will be fine, Elin; you are a big girl anyway!"

"Like that has anything to do with this, but s-sure..." Elin complained, wincing between the words.

Camilla stepped in. "We will get you a potion, or several; we were heading for the warehouse area anyway since Lora here needs some extra mana."

Elin's tight expression softened hearing that. "That... that would be nice." Her brown eyes glanced up to meet ours as she added almost shyly. "Thank you... And sorry that I couldn't defend you properly." That last part was directed at me.

I blinked, hearing the unexpected words. "No-no-no... you did all you could! Don't beat yourself up over that; getting outnumbered was hardly your mistake, Elin. I didn't even notice when they attacked you..."

Some of the tension left her shoulders as she leaned against the wall. "You are too kind, Lora... but if you weren't distracted into a close combat, we might have managed to stand our ground. Now... now the enemy is the one that shoots at our positions, and they might be already on their way to infiltrate the rest of the guild."

"As I said, it was hardly your fault, Elin..."

Several new people joined our conversation. "As the young elf says, don't get yourself hung up on possibilities..." Sounded the familiar voice of Ignacio. A small glass bottle containing several drops of a thick red liquid flew through the air, drawing a soft arc before it landed in Elin's panickingly reaching hands.

"Wait, wh-wh-what! Don't throw that around, stupid!" Elin cried out as she barely managed to catch the small vial.

"Ah, but is that any way to treat your saviors, my lovely ladies?" Sounded the similarly familiar voice of Bob, the man standing right beside Ignacio, who didn't seem particularly amused by his ongoing antics.

"B-Bob?" Camilla echoed in disbelief as she stared at him.

Bob glanced towards Camilla, giving her a confident smile. "Seeing how the battle went on the upper floor, I thought it prudent to ask Ignacio if we might need some healing potions, among other things. So, while you were chatting, we went to get some important stuff."

I looked at the carefully designed and mostly filled potion container held between his arms, containing a variety of colorful liquids.

Elin, finally realizing what she had just caught out of the air, hastily pulled the cork from the miniature bottle and chucked it back in a single move. There was no immediate effect, besides her heavily contorting expression, showcasing that the taste of the liquid probably was memorable but likely in the wrong way.

"Fuuck!" Elin said, finishing the vial and then putting the cork back before throwing it towards Ignacio, who also managed to catch it and then place it back into the large container held by Bob. "I really hate the feel of that thick liquid sliding down my throat. It feels like I am going to choke on it before my wounds could get me first!"

"Ah, so that's why you only drink potions when you don't have any choice," Hilde noted from the side.

"Kind of..." Elin sighed, her expression getting back some of its healthier color. "It's starting to take effect." She sighed with relief as some of the tension cleared from her face.

Alita petted Elin's head as she finished bandaging her thigh. "Thank you for taking care of Selora..." Alita whispered to her friend, which I accidentally managed to overhear, turning the tips of my ears a sharp red.

"No biggie, I like that elf of yours, too..." Elin whispered back while giving me a pointed look.

I didn't know how to feel about this and, for the time being, decided to ignore the fluttering warmth that filled my stomach.

Bob chose that moment to step up to Camilla and me. He put down the potion container on the floor and started to search through his pockets until he managed to pull out several crystals. They were not the rounded and chiseled version of mana gems but the traditional ones. Their structure was larger, and each had a unique crystal shape with a variety of colors. Bob was offering them to me.

"We also thought about you, Miss Mage. These crystals should help your mana issues, but that is not all." I tentatively took the offered crystals from his held-out hand and looked them over.

Camilla sneered from my side. "We were just about to go there ourselves."

Bob snorted at that. "Then, I am twice as happy I got there ahead of you." He glanced up at me and then looked at Elin. "Besides, owing a favor to a noble clan and a mage of Selora's proportions are always handy to have."

Camilla snorted. "If someone owes favors here, that is owed to Selora. She wanted to come here and help the adventurer guild. It's the minimum that you guys support her and the rest of us in that task."

I raised my hand to gather their attention before another argument could blow up in our face. "Bob, may I ask a question?"

The man preened under my attention, giving knowing side glances to Camilla, who was becoming visibly flustered. "For a beauty like you, I'm always ready to answer." He declared, subtly smirking towards Camilla.

I struggled not to roll my eyes as a thick sensation of discomfort took the place of the lingering butterflies in my tummy. This man was impossible. Was Camilla truly into this shameless peacock? I spared a careful peek at my friend, and seeing her stiffened expression that was calculating the immediate consequences of drowning a certain man in a spoonful of water, I decided she perhaps was.

Love was truly blind, as they say... Whatever, before Camilla could make up her mind, I hastily asked my question.

"Were there more mana gems where these came from?" Bob's smile wavered for a second, but the act didn't feel genuine; it was too theatrical for that.

"My sweet lady, I see that your appetite for mana stones holds no bounds, but I am afraid that if there were, I would have brought them for you." He paused, seeing my momentary disappointment, and added hastily. "Ah, but there might be more in other storage rooms. We merely visited the closest of us, and it was a minor one. The main storage cannot be visited by just anyone. It is where the true treasures of the guild are, after all."

"Her appetite?" Camilla questioned in disbelief. "Are you insulting her, you damn fool! She asks for the stones to save lives, and you are trying to make it sound like she is hungry?"

Bob blinked, turning to Camilla with a confused look. "Can you repeat that? I was momentarily distracted by your friend here."

Camilla ground her teeth as she stared holes into the annoying man. I couldn't help but agree with her; this was getting overboard. Whatever the issue is with them, they should put it aside for the time being, no matter how inconvenient it is.

"Besides," Bob continued with newfound energy. "As I have mentioned, those crystals are not all! Look at this, my ladies; we managed to find some useful potions. I think it would be fine to share them amongst ourselves." He pulled out several potions from the container and started to separate them on the floor. Each of the tiny glass containers was made of thick and solid glass so they would not break easily, and the vials held but a few drops of colorful liquids.

"These here are healing potions; they take effect somewhere between one and five minutes after consumption. They work quite well, but the effect is lasting, far from instantaneous, as healing magic is. You should take one each," he recommended before turning to different potions.

"These with the green liquid are antidotes. It works against a variety of poisons and even some diseases, but it is not a miracle worker, so it won't neutralize the poison of a hydra or stuff like that." My eyes widened a bit as I cut in.

"Hydra? Is there a chance we face a hydra here?" Those things were huge pains in the butt. If half of the stories are true regarding their regenerations, then I don't want to face any of them!

Camilla put her hand on my shoulder and said in a tight voice. "Relax, there is literally no reason for a hydra to be involved in any of this..." Her eyes turned cold as she glared at Bob. "He is just showing off!"

Bob coughed, covering up his discomfort. "True, it is unlikely to run into a hydra here, but the chance is never truly zero... anyway! I would recommend that you take one of these as well, and at the end, I have something special for a very special girl."

I tensed, hearing that particular sentence. I felt Camilla's cold fingers grasp my robe's sleeve, and I could feel the girl's intensity.

What was this now? Is he trying to set Camilla against me by acting like an utter moron?

"I-I don't think I need that... you have helped more than enough already." I tried to dismiss the fool before Camilla managed to rip off my sleeve.

"Unfortunately, I can't have that; after all, I..." He gave a hesitant glance towards the stony figure of Ignacio, who had watched the entire facade with a judgmental stare. "I mean, we managed to scrounge up not one, but two vials of mana regeneration." He licked the side of his lips as he offered it to me. "And you, my sweet lady, are the only one who can make proper use of those."

"I see..." I admitted, but before I could reach for them, Camilla already snapped the small vials out of Bob's hands.

"Thanks for that." She hissed at him while starting to stomp away, her other hand still grasping my sleeve and therefore pulling me along as well.

I didn't protest.

After getting a few meters between our groups, Camilla rounded on me. "Lora, please, you can't have that fool of a man lead you astray! He is the worst kind there is. He will make you believe that you are special to him, only to drop you when he has his way with you... Please, promise me you won't fall for his act!" She pleaded, a strange desperation radiating from her body.

My arms were filled with the crystals and potions I just received, along with my staff. My ears twitched hearing her words, which essentially aligned with what I myself suspected based on the man's actions so far.

With some effort and a bit of creativity, I managed to hug all the items to my chest with my right hand and slowly started to pack each of them into one of my pockets individually while telling Camilla that she had no reason to be this anxious.

"I agree, that was what I also suspected based on his antics..." I told her while trying to force one of the pointy crystals into my skirt's pocket. I hope it won't pierce through the material.

Camilla seemed to relax hearing my words, but before she calmed down, her hands grasped my shoulders, forcing me to look at her. "Promise me." She pleaded.

Acknowledging the honest worry mirrored in her dark green eyes, I nodded.

"I promise."

She hugged me tightly, and I could already feel that damn crystal poking my thigh; that pocket was too small for it...

"Smart girl!" Camilla sighed as she kept hugging me tightly for half a minute straight, making me nervously fiddle with the items in my grasp. Camilla's warm embrace was a comforting sensation even through the thick layers of armor, but our momentary respite was broken with the sharp sounds of shattering glass; it came from somewhere down the corridor.

Everybody sprang to their feet, looking down the corridor in the direction of the unexpected sound.

Camilla leaned into my side as both of us pressed against the wall while peering into the corridor. "What the hell was that? Can't we get a break for once?" Complained the redheaded girl.

My ears twitched as I noticed the sound of incoming footsteps. Soon enough, the others could hear them too. As several of them started cursing under their breath.

"Those bastards must have climbed down from the upper floor, finally giving up on removing Lora's ice wall," Alita noted aloud, giving me a warm glance.

Bob also readied his weapon while pressing himself against the wall as he questioned. "Should we, I don't know, retreat towards the others? I don't feel like engaging another wave of those half-breeds."

"You are giving them too much credit, Boby boy," Hilde noted from the side with her trademark smirk plastered across her face. "If those were actual half-breeds, we would be smelling roses from twelve feet under already."

Bob looked at Hilde, inquisitively raising one of his eyebrows. "You must be the charming one of your friend group, aren't you?"

Hilde shrugged. "Someone has to actually fill that role. After your awkward attempts and subsequent failures to do so."

My ears listened eagerly to the growing number of intruders climbing into the building, and my stomach tightened uncomfortably.

"I think Bob might be right regarding this; we should get the hell out of here..." I said, already putting away the rest of my crystals and potions. "Fast!"

For once, everybody seemed to agree with Bob's idea, and we began to retreat towards the main hall on the first floor. It was where the injured were gathered.

Half of our forces had already gone there to defend it against potential intruders, but we girls, along with Ignacio and Bob, stayed behind to take a short break.

Rushing down the corridor, getting close to our goal, we were forced to slow down and assess the ongoing situation.

And damn, if it wasn't a situation.

The main hall was rapidly being filled with more and more injured people brought in from the raging battle.

The sounds of the injured screaming in pain and the amount of movement that happened there as more and more people were brought in, even when there was barely enough space to put them. The chaotic situation looked like a battle of its own kind. It genuinely made us believe that a fight was going on there as we got closer. It was a relief to be wrong about that.

Seeing that we were safe to head there, we quickly stepped into the corridor, the one that led to the main hall, only to be interrupted by the terrifying sounds of released crossbow mechanisms.

I looked back just in time to see both Hilde and Bob getting hit by several crossbow bolts as they cried out in surprise and pain.

My heart skipped a beat as I saw the suddenly limping Bob jumping into our corridor, where he heavily landed on his side. We were right at an intersection. Hilde, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. Her expression was heavily contorted in pain. She fell on the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

My eyes widened, and without thinking, I focused the mana that remained in my red mana gem and created another wall of ice to block the entire corridor before I stepped into it and rushed to Hilde's side.

I winced seeing that there was not one, but two crossbow bolts stuck in her back. They have clearly pierced through the armor, even if it absorbed a large amount of their momentum.

I knelt beside Hilde's shaking body, and I tried to make her lie on her side, but it didn't seem that my elven body possessed half of the strength I needed to properly move the armored woman.

Just when I was starting to panic, Ignacio appeared beside me, and seeing what I was trying to do helped me properly settle Hilde on her side and keep her that way.

"What do you need me to do?" asked Ignacio, and I could kiss the bearded man for his calm demeanor and presence in a situation where I was starting to lose my own.

"Just rip out the bolts!" I said, seeing Hilde's pale face and the sheer amount of pain she was going through.

I have been hit by a fucking bolt like that before. I could still feel the phantom pain in my thigh when I really thought about it. One of the worst pains I ever felt, for fuck's sake!

Ignacio glanced at me, his dark eyes giving me a silent question.

"It is fine; I can heal her injury, but only if the arrows are removed!" I explained quickly, and the man nodded before getting to work.

Ignacio grasped one of the bolts with a solid hold and pulled it out in a straight line. The squirt of blood and the heartbreaking cry from Hilde contorted my stomach, but I was already recalling the incantation, and soon enough, a golden light danced between my fingers, which were pressed over her injury.

By the time the second bolt was removed, Hilde's eyes rolled back, and she was out of it. I didn't blame her and was happy to see the web-like threads of magic finding their way into Hilde's injury through the smallest of cracks in her armor, treating her injury with meticulous precision.

Alita knelt beside us after making sure that my ice wall wasn't about to be taken down. Her usually warm eyes were searching my own for answers that she didn't dare to ask.

"She will be fine, I promise you. In fact, she is already healed, but the pain is not something my healing magic can lessen, unfortunately. Her mind went into shock when the bolts were being removed." I explained while looking over Hilde one last time.

Then my attention was focused on Bob. The man was still lying on his side, clutching his left leg in a stiff posture. He was clearly in pain based on the groaning sounds he was making.

I knelt beside him as the others lifted Hilde by her arms and carried her towards the hall. I didn't have to search for long to find his injury. A bolt was stuck through his flesh, at the lower part of his thigh, its end and tip both visible as it completely pierced through the side of his leg.

"Shit-shit-shit! It h-hurts so fucking much! Please, woman, tell me you have dealt with injuries like this before! Argh!" I looked at the cursing man and gave him a reassuring nod.

"Thank the heavens!" Bob cried out in relief.

I grabbed the tip of the arrow, an action that made him stiffen. He was about to ask something, but I pulled the arrow through with a controlled movement.

As expected, the man screamed, and soon after, he started squirming in pain, which only stopped about ten seconds after I started healing his injury. The body needed time to realize that the damage it suffered was no more, thanks to the rapid healing that happened in the wake of my spell.

Bob looked up at me with a hazy glance, his eyes still clouded with the echoes of pain that traveled through his body just now. "W-what the... why would you pull it out like that!? Crazy elf!"

"Hey!" Shouted Alita from behind me. "That crazy elf just saved your leg, possibly your life, you thankless fool. There are at least a hundred people in that hall who would be happy to have her attention, so cut the crap and get up already."

"S-she ripped out the arrow, like a complete barbarian!" The man complained.

I looked at him. Damn, Camilla got some bad taste, for real. This man was annoying as hell. I thought about telling him just that, but it felt way too unprofessional to start arguing with someone likely still delirious from pain. Instead, I decided to explain my own experiences after healing a similar enough injury in the past. "Your leg is healed, but you will keep sensing phantom pains for the foreseeable future, so try to rest that leg when you can."

"And how am I supposed to do that in the middle of a battle?" He asked, and I could feel a vein pop at the side of my head.

I grabbed him by his collar. "Listen, idiot, I am not here to babysit you. Figure it out and get yourself moving! Understand?"

His eyes seemed to finally focus on my face properly, and then he started nodding. "Of course, Miss!" I let him go, stood up, and turned away, already walking in the opposite direction, only to hear him say to himself, clearly not intending for me to overhear. "Olala, what a fiesty girl." He slowly corrected his collar before finishing with another couple of words. "Makes the challenge much more interesting."

What a disgusting bastard. I gritted my teeth silently as I marched after the others, giving a glance towards the frozen corridor.

Well, they are not going to get through that anytime soon. That's something...

Hearing some grunting and shuffling behind me was enough of a cue to get my legs moving again. Not that I could escape that fool shadowing me already.

"Selora, my dear... Miss Selora? I am terribly sorry if I have come across crudely... but perhaps you can cut me some slack for this once. The pain has clouded my mind... You see..." He struggled to explain himself while still lagging behind me.

I rolled my eyes and quickened my feet, following the others across the chaotic hall. Looking at so many injured people once again made my blood boil. There were women and children here evacuated from the terrors of this war.

My eyes focused on a dwarven mother, hugging two of her children, young boys who leaned into her side, crying, while a third, a little girl, lay on the blanket spread across the floor beside her, breathing heavily, her face covered in sweat.

My feet stopped beside them, eyes widening, as I took in the familiar shape of the injured girl. Several scrapes and bruises covered her thin form, but the most worrying one was the large bruise on the side of her head. Based on the amount of dust and grime on her clothes, I suspected that she was partially trapped in a collapsed building and was rescued later.

My eyes narrowed, taking in the familiar features, that twin-tailed black hair that now felt more gray thanks to all the dust that stubbornly clung to her hairdo.

I stepped closer, ignoring Bob's incoherent babble. behind me.

"Mirra, what happened to you, sweet child?" I spoke to her soothingly, already whispering the familiar incantation under my breath. I raised my arm, a flicker of gold hovering in my palm, seeing the child's eyes parting slightly, a peek of her silver orbs reacting to the light of my spell.

"All will be fine in a minute, dear... You have been a brave girl to keep up with the pain, but your suffering has come to an end." I praised her while gently pressing my palm covered in the healing energies against her injured temple.

Her little body tensed, lips parting in a pitiful groan from the discomfort of rapid healing. "It will be fine, just a little bit more, sweetheart."

Her mother and the two boys in her arms were staring at me with baffled expressions. Along with several of the nearby people, who grow witness to my powers.

Seeing that the worst of Mirra's injuries were healed or partially healed, I cut off the magical supply of the spell, making the light disperse in quick succession.

Mirra's eyelids parted this time properly, and she whispered her words in a thankful gesture. "I-is that you, S-selora?"

"It's me, but you should rest now... your body will need all the energy you can conserve." Her mother, finally waking from her state of disbelief, moved closer to her little girl, hugging her desperately as she asked me in a worried, uncertain voice.

"Will she be alright, Lady Mage?" The woman asked in a pleading, hopeful voice. Her body was shaking from all the emotions she went through in a few moments.

I smiled at them, giving her a reassuring nod. "She needs to eat and rest, if possible. That spell takes a lot from the body to heal it quickly." With a thought, I reached into my magic bag, calling for some of the food I had packed in haste back in the mansion.

"Take this," I offered, while giving her a handful of cookies, wincing slightly at the choice of food. I didn't have a lot of food on hand either... unfortunately. "While that is not the best, it should give her a much-needed dose of sugar."

"Thank you, Lady Mage. I—I will pay back the favor you have given us, I swear on the name of the Silverrock family." She promised, but I silenced her with a look.

"There is no need for that, even if I appreciate the gesture."

"Still..." She kept to it stubbornly, and I decided to let it be, hoping that it would make her feel better regarding this helpless situation.

"I told you, Mama," Mirra struggled to say the words. "Selora is really kind... even for an elf... she let me braid her hair, too."

"Selora?" Her mother's eyes widened comically. "Is she the elf witch you keep speaking about, baby?"

Mirra nodded softly, her eyes glinting with a childlike pride, to be proven right. "Yes, she is really... kind..."

With that said, her eyes softly closed, and her body relaxed into her mother's embrace, falling into a deep sleep.

"When she wakes, let her eat some of the cookies. She will need the energy." I explained while standing up and looking towards the barricaded windows. That earlier fireball had blown them in, and the people barricaded them with nearby furniture.

In the meantime, I will figure out a way to get these people out of here.

I quickened my feet heading towards my companions, almost forgetting about my tagalong.

"You are quite handy with children. A valuable skill for any maiden in bloom... I myself never had that special touch, but nor am I a maiden, haha..." He chuckled to himself as I kept ignoring him. "Are you familiar with that girl before? Mirra, right? A child of the Silverrock family, she is quite a prosperous little goblin, if I say so, myself. You got quite a favor there. Used well, it can get you to live a comfortable life in the capital. Not that you lack anything with the Dimhollows, apparently."

I stopped for a second, sighed, and then started walking again. In the meantime, Bob circled to my other side, continuing his constant chattering.

"I can't help but wonder, as a strong, resolute young woman like you... Do you not crave the presence of a lifelong companion in the cold of night? Isn't it a lonely life for a beautiful woman to focus all her time on magic?" he spoke.

I stopped once again, finding it increasingly harder to ignore this fool. "If you are recommending yourself for the position to warm my bed... I am afraid I will have to disappoint you."

"Oh, no... I would never dare to be so shameless, but now that you brought up the idea, I couldn't help but entertain the thought."

I shook my head... feeling the onset of a headache. "Look, if you want to get off, I can ask Jolga to give you some recommendations for the red light district, but until then keep it in your pants."

"No! Where did you even hear about that... My desire burns forever for you, my mistress. Sometimes I wonder, how could such vulgar thoughts part those innocent lips of yours?" He said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"There is a lot more from where those came from. I suggest you get off my tail before you find yourself in their focus," I added offhandedly.

"Ah, but what a tease you are, sweet maiden... your words might cut deep, but I know that your heart desires." He declared stubbornly.

"Oh, I must agree that it does... and I desire to kick you in the nuts, idiot!" I shouted at him warningly, actually making him step back a few times.

He shook his head in amusement, seemingly enjoying the game he was playing. "You look so refreshing when angry. I can't seem to get enough of it." He purred, actually succeeding in making the small hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

What a fucking freak he is... Camilla, your taste in men is absolutely ruinous!

Locking eyes with the idiot for a second time sent several cold shivers down the length of my spine. This wasn't even funny anymore. I am starting to genuinely get freaked out by this bastard.

I shook my head... I can't let my discomfort show more; otherwise, he will truly not get off my back.

I measured him with a cold glance and told him in a flippant tone. "You like to see me angry? Well, then... why don't you cool down a bit here on your lonesome?"

"What do you mean?" He asked, momentarily conflicted.

I flipped my hair and turned around, leaving him there with a genuine smile on my face for once.

Of course, he wanted to come after me, but for one reason or another, he couldn't lift his feet from the ground. My ice creation magic was still active after all. What a pity...

I could hear the distant voice of Bob calling after me in a frustrated tone. "Really? You froze my feet to the floor... so childish, it's almost cute. " He chuckled, waiting for the ice to melt.

He might find it funny for now... but when he realizes that the ice is not going to melt, he might find it less so... I chuckled to myself while reaching into my bag to pull out a piece of chalk.

It was high time to get out of here, and with three magic-filled magic stones, it should be barely doable to draw a fixed portal to the mansion. After all, Lord Axis has provided me with the blueprint. It would be rude to let his efforts go to waste, te-he!