Chapter 152: Seriously?

Erik was still carrying Elowen along the path the translucent girl had shown them. The trees around them appeared only as pale gray shadows, sometimes near and sometimes far, as though the entire forest were being crumpled by a giant hand.

Monster cries echoed from behind, but Erik did not look back. He focused on every step and on Elowen’s soft breaths against his neck.

"Your shoulder hurts again, doesn’t it?" He tilted his head.

"Only a little." She answered, but when she tried to shift her body to put less weight on his back, the claw wound on her shoulder stung again. The arms around Erik’s neck unconsciously tightened.

"Your ’little’ seems different from mine."

"I don’t want to trouble you any more."

Erik sighed without arguing right away. After walking for a while, he spotted an abandoned guard post against the cliffside. One corner of its roof had collapsed, but three walls remained intact, and the entrance was narrow enough to prevent monsters from suddenly rushing inside. He checked the ground, found no fresh claw marks, then carefully carried Elowen inside.

"We’ll rest here for a while."

"But everyone at the outpost..."

"Meira is there." As Erik spoke, he brushed dust from a stone slab against the wall and spread his coat over it. "I trust that she is strong enough to hold the line while I take care of you. If we keep going until you pass out, then we will truly be in trouble."

He crouched down so she could get off his back. The moment Elowen’s feet touched the ground, her legs went weak, forcing Erik to wrap an arm around her waist to support her.

He helped her sit down, then took bandages and medicine from his storage ring, carefully moving her silver hair away from the wound.

Beneath the old bandage, the edges of the claw mark were slightly red from too much movement, but there were no signs of Dark Mist. Erik cleaned away the dried blood, applied fresh medicine, and wrapped the wound again. Every movement was so gentle that Elowen felt her throat tighten.

After a long while, she spoke softly. "I’m sorry."

Erik looked up. "For what?"

"I promised that I would protect you. But in the end, you were the one holding the spear and clearing the path, and you were the one who had to carry me."

Elowen looked down at her hands in her lap, silver hair hiding half her face. "I am a Succubus, the fiancée of a man. If someone saw you bending your back to carry me, they would think I did not know how to preserve your dignity."

He sat down beside her. "Do you think being carried is something shameful?"

Elowen shook her head, then hesitated. "I know that in Silver Moon, Succubi are supposed to take care of men. Everyone taught me that from childhood. But while I was on your back, I felt so warm. I even... wanted you to carry me a little longer."

Her pointed ears reddened. "Am I being too selfish? You were already exhausted from fighting too."

"No." Erik reached out and adjusted the lock of hair caught on the knot of the bandage over her shoulder. "What I do not want is for you to keep using those rules to force yourself to endure pain."

"But why are you so stubborn about this?" Elowen looked at him, worry flickering in her emerald eyes. "You could have stayed in the shelter. My mother, the female soldiers, even I would fight to protect you. No one would have the right to blame you."

"I know." He was silent for a moment before replying. "When I stepped out holding that spear, I was afraid too. I know I am only Black Iron Rank 10. I am not a match for everything crawling through those cracks. And I especially do not want you or Meira to have to rush out and save me again."

Elowen was slightly surprised. In the plaza, Erik had not spoken of his fear. She had thought he was overly confident in his physical strength, but looking into his eyes now, she realized he had considered the worst outcome too.

"Then why did you still choose to fight?"

"Because I love all of you."

Erik said it so normally, as if he were not declaring anything grand. Yet Elowen immediately looked up.

"I love you, Meira, and the people waiting for us at home. I also value the female soldiers protecting this city. They have families, people waiting for them to return. They are not meaningless names on a deployment list."

He looked toward the guard post entrance, where black mist slowly crawled over the stones. "If I have the strength to fight, I want to help them. I do not want to stand there and watch everyone risk their lives for me, then tell myself that it is natural simply because I am a man."

Elowen stared at him without blinking. His explanation was not flowery, nor was he claiming that he had to become a hero. But she could hear what she had wanted most to hear: he wanted everyone to be safe, including her.

"I am not saying that other men must go to war," Erik continued. "They have the right to be afraid, the right to want protection. But I also have the right to choose how I live. If being born a man means I have to fold my arms and watch the people I love get hurt, then what is the point of that privilege?"

"Erik..."

"I will not be like them." He gently took her uninjured hand. "Not because I am nobler, but because I do not want love to become one person giving everything while the other only receives. Today, you save me. Tomorrow, if I am strong enough, I will protect you. We take care of each other. What is shameful about that?"

Elowen pressed her lips together. A tear slipped down her cheek, yet the corners of her lips curved upward. "You really know how to spoil someone."

"What did I do?"

"You said I can rely on you, let you spoil me, and that I do not even need to ask for permission. If a Succubus gets used to that, who else will be able to handle her?"

"I can." Erik wiped away the tear at the corner of her eye and smiled. "But next time you get hurt, tell me immediately. Do not hide it just because you want to seem strong."

She nodded, then raised her uninjured hand to touch his cheek. Most of the dried blood on Erik’s face had been wiped clean. Only a thin scratch remained along his jaw. Elowen gently stroked it, her gaze softening like the surface of a lake after the ripples fade.

"Erik, kiss me?"

He glanced toward the door. "Right now?"

"We just found a place to rest." She tried to sound perfectly serious, but her ears had already turned bright red. "I’m only asking for one kiss."

"Only one?"

"...Maybe... two."

Erik laughed softly and leaned closer. The first kiss was only a gentle brush of their lips. Elowen closed her eyes, lightly clutching his collar as if afraid he would pull away too soon.

The moment Erik leaned back, she took the initiative to pull him toward her again, her soft lips finding his once more.

Their breaths mingled as she wrapped her uninjured arm around his shoulder, holding him close as if they were the only two people left in the abandoned room.

Erik supported her back so the injury would not be strained. His other hand gently brushed over the front of her clothes before settling at her soft waist, drawing her closer against him. Elowen trembled slightly, but not from pain.

She tilted her head to welcome a deeper kiss. Their tongues briefly touched, clumsy at first, then entwining for a moment that made them both forget what they had meant to say.

Her soft breaths dissolved between the moments their lips separated and found each other again, while her fingers gripping Erik’s clothes tightened further.

"You said only two kisses," he whispered once they had caught their breath.

"I... never said exactly two."

"I heard you very clearly."

"Then consider me changing my mind."

Elowen did not wait for him to tease her further. She took the initiative to press her lips against his. Erik chuckled softly into the kiss, tightening his arms slightly so she could lean against him more securely.

Her silver hair spilled over the back of his hand like cool strands of silk, contrasting with the warmth spreading between them. She felt both embarrassed and happy, so much so that she forgot all about maintaining the composure of a proper female warrior.

"Ahem."

A sudden cough sounded right outside the door.

Erik and Elowen did not notice. She was still holding around his neck, while Erik had just raised a hand to brush a lock of silver hair away from her cheek.

"Ahem! AHEM!"

"..."

Both of them froze.

"I’m sorry for interrupting," a female voice said, slowly enough to sound even stranger than the cough. "But... how long do you two intend to keep kissing?"

Erik snapped his head around. At the entrance of the guard post, a black-haired Succubus in military uniform stood perfectly still. She had passed through the mist without making a sound, half her face still hidden in shadow.

The woman looked at Elowen’s arm around Erik’s neck, then at his hand still holding her waist, and finally at their lips, which had only just hurriedly separated. Her mouth opened slightly, her eyes going wide.

If that expression could be written as words, it would probably be: (⊙_⊙)

Elowen went rigid, her pointed ears red enough to look ready to smoke. At that moment, there was only one expression left in her mind: (??>?▽?<??)

Erik looked at the female soldier, unsure whether he should ask who she was first or explain that they had only been resting.

The black-haired Succubus looked back at him as though waiting for someone to confirm that she had not accidentally walked into a honeymoon suite.

Elowen glanced at the uninvited guest, then immediately buried her face in Erik’s chest. The silence stretched so long that even the monster noises outside now felt incredibly inappropriate.

At last, the woman slowly blinked. The mocking smile she had prepared beforehand seemed to have forgotten how to return to her face.

"Seriously?" She paused. "I thought you were running for your life, Sir Erik. But you two are kissing in here..."