As dawn broke, the first rays of sunlight pierced through the curtains.
A golden glow spread across the bedroom, beginning from the walls and eventually shining upon the person sleeping soundly on the queen-sized bed. Visibly—the rays disturbed her, causing her eyelids to tremble.
Groaning lightly, the purple-haired woman flipped her body and faced the ceiling.
She took in a deep inhale and rubbed her eyes gently.
"Eughh... I'm so dizzy," Leandra muttered, the hangover was getting to her. "What ti is it?"
Opening her eyes, she forced herself to sit up with a sluggish stretch.
Her bleary eyes wandered around the familiar contours of her own room, confusion knitting her brow, "How did I get here?" She pondered aloud—but the thought barely ford before mories of last night ca flooding back.
Her eyes widened in horror.
And with a mortified gasp, she flung herself face-first into the pillow, muffling her groan.
She was in despair.
Leandra tugged the blanket over her head like a fortress against sha, rembering all the embarrassing things she said to Lucivar. She ca down with the others—without calling for Lucivar because he was probably still unconscious.
Even if he was conscious, he would definitely shoot her invitation down.
Because of that, she ca down to have a drink and celebrate.
Never once crossed her mind that her drunken state would go upstairs and check on Lucivar.
"Do you know how many girls dream about their first kiss being magical?"
"Just... didn't expect it to be stolen by a very, very bad man"
"Co down, and I'll let you make it up to with kiss number two! Heck, if you accompany the entire night I'll let you steal a few more. Third kiss, fourth, fifth, I'm feeling generous!"
"Ah... why did I say that?" Leandra complained, cursing her drunken self to have no restraint.
She really wanted the bed to swallow her whole—so that she would never need to show her face in front of Lucivar again. It was too embarrassing. Despite feeling hungry—she decided to go back to crumpling on her bed.
In the room next door, Lucivar also woke up and was slightly dizzy.
Despite having only awakened from slumber, he didn't seem to be refreshed.
He glanced to the side and saw Sabrina sleeping on the sofa in a sitting position.
"Hey, Sabrina!" Lucivar called, throwing a pillow at her and waking her up. "Go sleep on the bed, I'm done using it. Sleeping like that would only hurt your neck—and without a blanket, you're going to be sick and you being sick would only make it harder on "
Lucivar shut down any response that she could muster in case she wanted to refuse.
But it seed he was wrong as Sabrina instantly leaped onto the bed.
"At least you have a little bit of heart left in that hollow chest of yours" She murmured.
Lucivar sighed, 'Well, she did take care of . I could at least cut her so slack'
Averting his eyes away, Lucivar looked around—and found, that everything was normal, this seed to be real life. Just in case, however, he tried pinching himself and felt a sharp sting—he hadn't been taken away into so weird realm.
Recalling Loki's test, he feared that Sutekh would take the sa approach.
It made him paranoid all night, the anticipation of Sutekh's arrival was killing him ntally.
Because of that, he barely had any sleep.
Shaking his head and putting that thought in the back of his mind—Lucivar decided to go out and go downstairs for breakfast. Along the corridor, he t Nerissa who was also coming out of her room—possibly with the sa intention.
"Good morning," Lucivar greeted.
Upon hearing his voice, Nerissa snapped around and smiled a little, "G- Good morning"
"Are you also going for breakfast?"
"Y- Yes..."
"Should we go together?"
"Ah, right," Nerissa stamred and turned to another door. "Let's call the others too!"
Lucivar shrugged his shoulders, he didn't mind the suggestion.
First, the closest one—Nerissa went to knock on Leandra's room but Leandra said she didn't want to have breakfast but rather wanted to sleep in the rest of the day. Recalling how much she drank last night, this doesn't co as a surprise.
She must've felt like her world was spinning.
Next, it was Mirel's room but once again—they couldn't add another to their small group.
No answer ca from his room no matter how many tis Nerissa knocked.
"Weird. He couldn't possibly still be sleeping. Even if he is, Master Tobias made sure we are alert at all tis so he should've woken up," Nerissa muttered in confusion, she found Mirel not answering very weird.
On the other hand, Lucivar knew that the room was most likely empty.
'He hasn't co back? Where did he go?' He pondered curiously.
Recalling Mirel leaving last night after their exchange, it was clear that he was still out.
Moving onto Ravenna's room, Nerissa reached her hand to knock on the door.
However, for so reason, Lucivar could feel his heart racing.
Maybe because of their conversation last night but he was slightly nervous to et Ravenna.
Unlike the others, Ravenna opened the door before Nerissa even knocked on it.
She poked out her head from behind the door almost as if she was peeking.
"Ravenna, we're wondering if you want to join us for breakfast," Nerissa asked with a smile.
Ravenna's gaze naturally drifted from Nerissa to Lucivar, lingering on him just long enough to convey an unspoken ssage, before settling back on Nerissa. She offered a faint smile, her voice light but deliberate. "I think I'll pass for now, I might've drank too much. Maybe lunch?"
"A- Alright, have a good rest then" Nerissa smiled stiffly.
Along the way to the restaurant, Nerissa was slightly feeling down.
Lucivar could tell as she was slightly slouching and remained silent along the way.
'Did she get scared of or what? No, that shouldn't be the case' He frowned.
Feeling that the awkward air was unwarranted, Lucivar decided to lt the ice, "By the way, thank you for tending to my wounds," He said, and stretched his arms. "I healed much faster thanks to you"
"It's the least I could do, there's no need to thank " Nerissa replied ekly.
Monts later, the two sat down and began to eat.
It was a buffet, Lucivar grabbed as much at as he could while Nerissa ate modestly.
Even when the first plate was devoured, Nerissa was still behaving awkwardly.
Having enough of this, Lucivar decided to confront her before he went to take another plate for himself, "Is there sothing disturbing you, Nerissa?" He asked, clasping his hands. "It is clear that you have sothing in your mind"
Upon hearing this, Nerissa sighed—she knew that Lucivar would eventually ask.
She couldn't hide it from him.
Looking down at her hands like a chipmunk that was caught stealing because of her chubby cheeks, Nerissa paused for a second before eventually deciding to say it straight, "I... I want to apologize for doubting you and us as a whole to take down the dungeon"
"Eh...?" Lucivar was stunned, his words were lost from his tongue.
Seeing this, Nerissa stamred, she knew that Lucivar must bore a grudge for that.
"I- I know you must be feeling angry at , it's understandable," She quickly added, it was as if being late to apologize more would cause Lucivar to burst. "I'm really, really sorry. I was too focused on the blue dungeon, it was our first ti tackling that strong of a dungeon..."
As she said that, Nerissa stole a glance at Lucivar—inspecting his face.
She was prepared to be shouted at by Lucivar.
But instead of being shouted, Lucivar burst into laughter which caught her off guard.
"I thought it was sothing serious but it's only that?" Lucivar cackled, he thought Nerissa had beco afraid of him, but that wasn't the case. "You're worried about my feelings? It's okay, it's not like what I'm asking you to do was reasonable"
"Y- You're not mad?" Nerissa's eyes widened—not expecting this to turn out like this.
Lucivar waved his hand, "It's annoying to be doubted but it's fine, I'm not mad at you"
Almost instantly, Nerissa's face brightened up.
Her expression which was tense and gloomy turned instantly into a brilliant sun.
However, in the next second—Nerissa slumped onto the table as if a huge burden had been lifted off her back. "I can relax now... it's very tiring to be in that position," she complained—being stiff was tiring her.
"Are you seriously hung over my feelings that much?" Lucivar asked.
Nerissa nodded repeatedly, "Of course, we're a family!"
Just like that, the tense atmosphere was lifted.
Both of them stood up for a second round, Lucivar took the exact sa food, as before, and sat back down. But then, Nerissa also ca back and this ti she wasn't modest, her plate was now full of varying food.
Looking at her plate that was mounting higher than himself, Lucivar was taken aback.
"If you have a huge appetite, why didn't you take more earlier?" He asked.
Nerissa smiled, showing rows of her white teeth as she scratched her head.
"I'm afraid you would be more annoyed seeing eating a lot..." She replied. "so I took little"
Upon hearing this, Lucivar shook his head and gestured for her to eat her fill.
He couldn't believe she went to that extent out of fear of annoying him.
'But then again, she's the princess of our group,' Lucivar shrugged, she was kind-hearted.
Now that the atmosphere between them had returned to normal Lucivar could now focus on other things. One that bugged his mind was Ravenna: 'Her eyes earlier... they're still glowing red, and the bags under her eyes, did she even sleep at all?'
Earlier, when Ravenna poked out of the door, Lucivar noticed those things.
Because of her bloodline, she has naturally red eyes but her eyes earlier were glowing.
Nerissa might not noticed it but Lucivar did.
It seed the alcohol was only an excuse for sothing more.
Realizing that sothing was off about her—Lucivar decided to go back to check on her and see what she was truly hiding. If he was lucky he might be able to gain another card to make the playing field between them even.
About an hour later, Lucivar and Nerissa had had their fills.
Both of them had a stomach full of food.
"What are you doing the rest of the day?" Nerissa asked as the two headed to the exit.
Upon hearing this, Lucivar shrugged nonchalantly, "Probably ditate, what about you?"
"I'm going to the market. I heard it was bustling, and I wanted to see it for myself!"
"Have fun, I can't accompany you though. I'm going to stick to my be-"
Swish!
As soon as Lucivar and Nerissa stepped out of the restaurant, a sudden shift happened.
Lucivar halted in his words and looked around, seeing that the entire hotel was now hued by the color crimson. It was as if there was a red mist enveloping the entire hotel—and once he looked back to check, the restaurant was also covered by the sa haze.
Seeing the change, Lucivar smiled wryly, "Guess I'm not making it back to my bed..."
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