Chapter 176: Juicy Details.

After Damien and Camila returned to camp, they immediately separated. They could both clearly sense that they didn’t have much affinity with one another.

Damien passed by his destroyed home and decided to go pay a friend a visit. Hannah wouldn’t mind. They were as tight as a wet knot, and despite the strange relationship they had developed over the past few weeks, she was probably the closest thing Damien had to a normal friend in the entire camp.

"What do you want? You damn Sorcerer... Are you back to use me as a ritual as well? Wasn’t the poor Eidolon Priest enough for you? Your depravity truly has no limits, does it?"

Damien didn’t know whether to be stunned or ashamed. Hannah was hiding behind the open door of her home, despite the fact that half her body was still visible. If she wanted him to come in, she simply had to move aside and let him walk through, so there was no reason for this theoretical display of caution.

His eyes wandered into the house, and he spotted two skinned horned rabbits lying beside the fireplace. She must have gone hunting after he left. Damien smiled lightly when he noticed the problem immediately. The wood was still wet, and she clearly couldn’t get it to light. Not to mention, she had hunted two rabbits instead of one, which meant she had probably been planning to have company anyway. She was just messing with him to begin with.

"I can help you light a fire faster."

"Please make yourself at home, comrade."

Damien stepped inside without another word and crouched beside the fireplace. He placed one hand over the damp wood, and a controlled flame slowly emerged from his miasma. Unlike the wild sorcery that could summon storms or create overwhelming destruction, this required almost no effort from the undead lich. He simply adjusted the heat until the wood caught properly, then kept the flame at a steady temperature.

Damien and Hannah spent the next few hours grilling the horned rabbits. The simple meal was surprisingly enjoyable, especially after the chaos of the day. Hannah excitedly bit into hers and moaned delightfully, immediately taking another bite before Damien had even finished checking his own.

She didn’t know why, but the fire from Damien’s sorcery somehow made the game taste better. Damien hadn’t done anything special. All he had done was control the heat so the meat would cook evenly.

"By the way, where were you all day? I went looking for you everywhere. It was really hard catching these horned rabbits on my own."

Damien was hoping she wouldn’t ask, but after disappearing for so long, he knew he was just wishful thinking. Hannah wasn’t the type to overlook something simply because nobody volunteered an explanation.

He didn’t want to tell her, though. Not because he was afraid of Andrea or anyone else finding out. He simply didn’t want Hannah to escape the delusional world she’d created for herself, the same delusional world every survivor had made in one way or another. Everyone needed something to believe in. For some, it was the hope that they would eventually leave this place. For others, it was the belief that their friends would survive the next battle.

Hannah still had her books, her research, and whatever little sense of normalcy remained in the ruins. Damien didn’t feel like being the person who reminded her how fragile all of that really was.

He raised his head.

"I made out with Yuri," he suddenly spat out.

Hannah spat out the meat in her mouth.

"What, already?"

Damien had a questioning expression. "What do you mean by already? I don’t think we had much of a relationship beforehand."

Hannah quickly composed herself, wiping the pieces of meat from her mouth before narrowing her eyes at him.

"No, I meant... Mmm. When? Where? Give me all the juicy details."

Damien sighed lightly. He should have known better than to tell her. The moment he gave her something interesting, Hannah’s curiosity would become impossible to contain.

"There isn’t much to say. It all just kinda happened, really. We were taking a bath together, and she came onto me. Must be my devastating good looks. She couldn’t resist."

Damien had a helpless expression that made it seem like he was a tragic hero who had been cursed with unbearable beauty and was simply suffering the consequences.

"Wait, wait... Wait."

Hannah nearly flung away the horned rabbit. "What do you mean you were taking a bath together? You were gone for barely a single day. Your efficiency is something else, my friend."

Damien raised a brow.

"Effi what now?"

"Don’t think deeply about it."

She pointed at Damien’s nose, her eyes narrowing as though she had discovered the greatest mystery of the age.

"How the hell do you go from being friends to bathing together? How does that even work? What sorcery did you use on our sweetheart, you evil villain?"

Damien shrugged.

"No sorcery. Just charm, and oh... We shared a bed once."

Hannah’s expression became completely blank.

Damien watched her carefully, already suspecting that he had made a mistake. Then Hannah finally raised her rabbit and pointed it at him.

"DIEeeeeeeeee!"

"Already did that, wasn’t worth all the hype". Damien said with a shrug.

The night was colder than expected, Damien glanced outside, whatever it was that was controlling the storms in the ruins of humanity was definitely starting to regain control after his little display the other day.

"Did you feel that". Hannah pouted. "The dastardly snow is coming back again, hey. Why don’t you use that spell of yours again?".

Damien considered it for a moment, but he remembered what Andrea said to him, if his spell truly sped up the storm blizzard gods awakening, then it was best he avoided using such large scale sorcery close to the city.

"No can’t do, still out of juice over here, small spells are no problem, but it’s gonna take some time before I can cast something like that again".

Hannah found it suspicious but didn’t pry deeper into his sorcery limitations.