Chapter 170: Quiet Beauty. [18+]

"What are you doing?" Damien asked reflexively, but he quickly regretted it. He might have just snapped her out of whatever strange impulse had taken hold of her.

Fortunately, Yuri only smiled. She placed a hand against his bare chest, her touch surprisingly gentle despite how suddenly she had moved toward him.

"What does it look like I’m doing?" she asked softly.

Damien blinked.

"Ahh yes, the good old answering a question with another question. She’s definitely in her right state of mind. Now all that remains is, am I ?"

He didn’t finish the thought.

Damien grabbed her by the waist and pulled her closer until their lips met. For a few seconds, everything else seemed to disappear. The ruined city, the strange creatures and their gods, even the oppressiveness of the Tower itself felt distant. There was only the warmth of the bath and Yuri in his arms.

Damien didn’t let go until Yuri began to lose her breath.

When they separated, he didn’t step back or look down. He already knew that doing either would probably make it much harder to keep his composure, and besides, he was still waiting for her response.

Yuri didn’t keep him waiting for long.

She responded with a passion Damien himself hadn’t expected from the quiet beauty. Her usual calmness seemed to have disappeared entirely as she moved closer, and when he felt her soft body press against him, Damien traced a hand along her back before he stealthily moved below her waistline.

Damien wasn’t thinking about how strange his life had become. He was simply enjoying the moment, and the moment was really good. Then he felt Yuri’s hand suddenly grasp his.

Damien froze.

Yuri pushed him away and immediately dived back beneath the water. The change was so sudden that Damien barely had time to understand what had happened.

The warmth that had filled the bath seemed to disappear with her movement.

Yuri resurfaced a short distance away, her expression completely different from before. The softness in her eyes was gone, replaced by the cold alertness Damien had seen countless times in people preparing for danger.

She turned toward the ruined entrance of the bathhouse.

"Who’s there?" she said coldly.

At first, nothing happened. Damien’s black miasma began to surface around his body, slowly gathering as his emotions stirred. Before it could spread around them, however, space suddenly rippled beside the bathhouse, and Claire emerged from it.

Her back was to them, but she wasn’t fooling anyone. She had definitely witnessed what was happening between them, and judging by the way she stood completely still for a second, she had probably seen enough to make the situation considerably more awkward than it already was.

"Ahem. Ahem."

She coughed twice, almost as if clearing her throat could somehow erase what she had just walked in on. Then, without turning around, she added softly, "Damien, Andrea wants you to join her. Follow me. I will take you to her."

Damien’s brows darkened immediately. He had been having a perfectly peaceful bath before everything had gone wrong, and now Andrea had decided that whatever she wanted was more important than the fact that he was currently standing naked in a bathhouse with Yuri.

"No."

"What?" Claire said sharply, finally turning her head.

The moment her eyes landed on Damien, however, she caught another glimpse of his well-built naked upper body and immediately turned away again, almost as quickly as she had looked at him. Her face began to heat up, and she suddenly seemed far more interested in the ruined wall beside her than in the people standing behind it.

Even Yuri was stunned by Damien’s refusal. She glanced at him, seemingly expecting him to explain himself, but she had no intention of waiting around to hear his reason. Instead, she took the opportunity to leave the bath, quickly making her way toward her clothes and grabbing them in the process.

As she walked out of the bathhouse, Claire couldn’t bring herself to make eye contact with Yuri. Her gaze remained fixed on the ground, and her voice dropped to an embarrassed whisper.

"Sorry."

Yuri didn’t respond. She simply continued walking, leaving Claire standing there with no idea whether the apology had been accepted or even acknowledged.

Damien took the opportunity to get dressed as well. He gathered his clothes and put them on without wasting any time, his mood having fallen considerably since Claire’s arrival. Once he was finally dressed, Claire turned around to face him again, though she still looked visibly nervous.

Her face was bright red, redder than an apple, and she seemed to have no idea where she should look now that Damien was no longer naked.

Damien would have found it adorable on any other day, but today wasn’t one of those days. He was still annoyed, Andrea’s summons had done absolutely nothing for his foul mood.

"You’re a Round Table member," Claire said, trying to regain some composure. "You can’t just refuse Andrea’s orders."

Damien didn’t even stop. He walked straight past her, a dark shade covering his face as he headed toward the exit.

"Watch me," he said dejectedly, before walking out of the bathhouse.

For some reason, Hannah was terrified of the Damien that returned to the house. His eyes were so cold that she briefly wondered if he had just come back from a battle. There was something different about his expression, something that made her instinctively keep quiet rather than ask what had happened.

Damien went straight for the new Eidolon Priest. The Priest was sitting in the corner, enjoying the piece of meat Hannah had grilled for him. He was more or less satisfied with his current situation, unaware that Damien was here to change that.

Seeing Damien’s dark expression, the new Eidolon Priest’s body froze awkwardly. It seemed to realize that something was wrong, but before it could react, Damien’s black miasma surged forward and consumed it.

"Hey". Hannah yelled out, but both Damien and the new Eidolon priest were already behind a thick layer of black miasma.