Night passed, and morning ca.
The gentle rays of sunlight filtered through the leaves and urged my eyes to open gradually.
I squinted against the sudden brightness and gradually adjusted to the vibrant world around .
In a bizarre sense of déjà vu, I once again found my arms encircling Nancy’s slender neck and my legs wrapped around her waist.
Fortunately, this ti we were moving slowly and peacefully through the bright forest instead of running for our lives, unlike yesterday night.
Nonetheless, not wanting to get off of her, I rested my head on her shoulder and greeted her softly.
"Good morning."
"Oh, you’re awake. Good morning. Feeling better?"
Her response was warm, with a bit of concern.
"Mmm... so comfortable."
I murmured contentedly, tightened my embrace around her, and leaned my head on her shoulder even further.
For , it was a rare luxury to be carried by soone else, because usually it was I who carried others, not the other way around.
Even the few instances when Charlotte carried were during monts of unconsciousness brought on by exhaustion, and along with my stubborn pride, it was impossible for to enjoy the comfort.
So this ti, I decided to fully embrace the situation and relish the experience for all it was worth.
Of course, I couldn’t resist teasing my dear Nancy.
Pretending to be concerned, I playfully asked:
"How’s your body now? You collapsed from exhaustion yesterday. I was so worried."
"... Don’t worry, I am all fine now."
Nancy, though, reassured , as if nothing happened, but I could easily see her ears turning red due to embarrassnt. Clearly, she rembered her ’impressive’ actions from last night.
However, I refrained from further embarrassing her on this subject because I had another matter to tease her about.
"Speaking of which do you believe now that I can remove Chaos energy?"
"Absolutely!"
Nancy shouted imdiately, jumping in shock and excitent, rembering this most important thing she almost forgot about.
"It’s still so unbelievable that you can do that."
"Is it?"
Yet I responded casually, downplaying her shock.
This caused Nancy to stop in her tracks as her expressions turned serious, and she cast a sidelong glance.
"Adrian, you mustn’t take this lightly. If word got out that you can control or extract Chaos energy without repercussions, you can’t even imagine the blood bath it would unleash and the chaos it would cause."
She warned solemnly, and I assured her.
"I understand."
"No, you don’t! Even I want to forget about your skills in case I put you at risk in the future. So don’t tell even anything about your class or skill, and promise that no matter what happens, you will never ever show anything Chaos related to anyone outside?! Promise !"
"Okay okay!"
I chuckled, realizing that my teasing had taken a serious turn. I was simply trying to tease her for so fun about how she didn’t believe earlier, but looking at her being so serious, I had to give up.
"I promise, and though I don’t understand much, even I know that this thing is beyond usual."
Saying that, I sealed the deal with a quick kiss on her cheek, which made her relax considerably.
"It’s good that you understand," Nancy sighed with relief, and she resud moving, prompting to inquire about our destination.
"Umm... By the way, where are we going now?"
"To a hideout of mine to lay low for a while. Ho isn’t safe anymore, considering we don’t know who attacked us."
"That guy who attacked us didn’t say sothing during the fight."
"Not a word."
Nancy shook her head. She didn’t know, and while I did know about the real culprits, I had no intention of telling her anything yet.
"I see..."
So I simply responded softly in agreent and closed my eyes, resting my head on Nancy’s shoulders as she took through the forest.
.....
It took us a few hours, and it was already late in the afternoon by the ti we reached the hideout—a secret wood cottage built near a clear, running stream of water.
Typically, most Awakened kept such secret hiding places scattered in various locations for ergencies, equipped with better facilities.
However, our shelter consisted simply of this modest wooden cabin furnished with only the essentials—a makeshift bed with a surprisingly comfortable mattress, basic utensils, clothes, and other necessities.
To be honest, even having this was a blessing considering our financial situation, and even this was made possible only because this cabin was an abandoned one, coincidentally found by Nancy on one of her hunting missions.
Despite this, I had to say that Nancy had prepared well.
She had stocked the cabin with enough food supplies to last us for a few weeks, along with so dical supplies and tools for survival.
It was clear that she had put a lot of thought and effort into ergencies that included in the calculation, considering how she took out exactly two smartphones from a tal box buried underground and gave one to .
"Use this smartphone for now; it has a new SIM card under fake ID. I’ve disposed of our old ones to avoid tracking."
"Alright."
Since Nancy died in the storyline, there wasn’t any information about her, but looking at all these thoughtful actions from her, I could see that she truly loved .
For a mont, my heart swelled with warmth as we settled on the bed, and I wanted to push Nancy down then and there to show my appreciation, but I didn’t.
Despite my raging emotions, my heart was calm, and I focused more on the matter at hand.
"Do you have any plans for what to do next?"
"No idea to be honest." Nancy admitted it with a shake of her head.
She then reclined on the bed before turning to .
"We’re completely in the dark about who attacked us. It could be simply the Chaos Worshipper acting alone for sacrifices, or..."
"Or it could be soone plotting against us."
I finished her thought, and she nodded in agreent.
"Yes, and since we don’t have any feuds with anyone, I have a hunch that it’s most likely the people who killed our parents. Even though I don’t know why they decided to take action now after all these years,"
"And we still don’t know who killed our parents," I added.
"Indeed, that’s the biggest problem."
Nancy sighed regretfully.
She genuinely had no knowledge about the culprits.
When our families were killed, we were too young, and the matter was buried deeply.
Not a single news story or case was filed.
People snatched our inheritances like hungry wolves, leaving us two orphans with nothing but the mories of the incident and the rumors we heard.
We were exposed to the light, while the real culprits remained hidden in the shadows.
Of course I knew everything, but I didn’t tell Nancy about it—there was no benefit in doing so, only useless complications.
Besides, I had my own plans. So I asked again and shifted the conversation towards the topic I wanted to bring forward.
"Then should we simply sit here and do nothing?"
"Do you have any other plans?"
"I do... I want to go to the Lumina Magic Sword Academy!"
"What?!"
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