Who Says I’m Not a Legitimate Adventurer?

“Cecilia!”

Yuna suddenly raised her voice and called out.

That shout startled the absent-minded Cecilia so badly that her shoulders jolted violently.

“W-What is it?!”

The girl looked around in panic, glancing left and right at the familiar buildings around her, as though only at this very moment did she finally realize she was walking back to the dormitory.

“Where have we even walked to?!”

Cecilia asked with a slight stutter.

Yuna stopped walking and sized up the distracted girl in front of her with a resentful gaze.

“So after I spent all that time talking to you just now, you didn’t hear a single word, right?”

“I-I obviously heard you!”

She subconsciously tried to refute it, but a good girl like her was simply far too bad at lying.

Her shifting eyes and stammering tone instantly betrayed her completely.

“Hmph hmph!”

Yuna crossed her arms over her chest and let out a smug snort.

She deliberately stepped closer, bringing her face near Cecilia’s, then widened her eyes as she examined her from left to right.

That intensely oppressive scrutiny made Cecilia completely unable to meet her gaze, so she could only guiltily shift her eyes toward the streetlamp by the roadside.

“W-What is it? Is something wrong with me?”

“Something wrong? There’s absolutely something wrong!”

Yuna stepped back half a pace, the corners of her lips curling into a strange grin full of gossip-fueled amusement.

“Don’t tell me you turned into this lovestruck mess just because you thought about spending the night alone outdoors with Lance?”

Since they had just finished a barbecue gathering earlier today, Yuna had officially become acquainted with Lance and could already call him by name directly.

“That’s not it!”

Having her thoughts exposed, Cecilia reacted like she had stepped on burning charcoal and immediately denied it loudly.

“It totally is!”

Yuna pressed forward relentlessly and poked her roommate’s shoulder with a finger.

“You can’t even make excuses properly. Touch your own ears—they’re already completely red.”

“T-That’s… that’s because tonight’s weather is way too hot!”

After throwing out that utterly unconvincing excuse, Cecilia could no longer endure her roommate’s teasing gaze.

She turned around, lifted the hem of her skirt, and dashed back toward the dormitory building where their room was located as if fleeing for her life.

Watching her roommate’s panicked retreating figure, Yuna let out mischievous giggles behind her.

Sure enough, things were becoming more and more interesting.

Still, Yuna knew when to stop. She did not continue chasing after her shy roommate to tease her further, lest she really make her angry.

Cecilia ran all the way back to the second-floor room in one breath.

After her heartbeat calmed slightly, she walked over and sat down in front of her desk.

Originally, she had planned to follow the habit she had maintained over the past few days and take out parchment to properly write today’s internship review diary so she could summarize the day’s combat experience.

But after hearing that announcement about staying overnight tonight, she simply could not maintain a calm state of mind anymore.

The moment she closed her eyes, all she could picture was the scene of setting up tents in the wilderness.

She simply could not focus.

So she decisively gave up on the review and stuffed the diary back into the deepest part of the drawer.

The girl turned around and walked toward the bookshelf, beginning to rummage through everything.

Very quickly, she pulled out several thick and heavy books.

《Forest Terrain Survival Guide》, 《Analysis of Nocturnal Habits of Low-Rank Monsters》, 《Rapid Construction of Wilderness Survival Spells》...

As long as the title had anything to do with wilderness survival, she pulled every single one of them out without exception.

At that moment, Yuna happened to push the door open and walk in.

She comfortably sprawled onto the soft sofa in the living room, stuffing crispy snacks into her mouth while watching Cecilia busily moving around over there.

That usually elegant Half-Elf girl was currently hugging all kinds of thick academic books while pacing back and forth through the room.

One moment she stacked one onto a chair, and the next she added another to the corner of the desk.

She looked exactly like a busy little squirrel preparing food for winter.

“Whatever, I’ll just leave her alone.”

Yuna happily chewed on her snacks and casually picked up a book resting beside the sofa.

In order to prevent Cecilia from discovering that she was reading that kind of unhealthy material—

Yuna had long ago cleverly replaced the cover of 《The Libertine Count and His Elven Maid》 with the respectable-looking cover of 《Principles of Beginner Water-Type Spells》.

With that perfect disguise in place, she could openly enjoy those heart-racing and blush-inducing plotlines right there in the dormitory.

Meanwhile, Cecilia, seated at the desk, had already become surrounded by towering piles of books.

She held a quill pen in her hand and slowly wrote things down onto a blank sheet of draft paper bit by bit.

She attempted to use this method of listing problems to ease the intense nervousness in her heart.

“I absolutely cannot let Senior see me looking ugly!”

The girl heavily wrote down the first absolute priority on the paper.

But immediately afterward, a second problem surfaced.

“What if I drool while sleeping at night?”

She bit on her finger while her brows knitted tightly together.

“It feels like my sleeping posture in bed usually isn’t very good either. Sometimes I even have the bad habit of kicking off the blanket…”

At this point, Cecilia suddenly seemed to think of something extremely embarrassing and hurriedly shook her head hard.

“Cecilia, what exactly are you even thinking about?!”

She fiercely scolded herself inwardly.

“If you and Senior go into the wilderness together, you’ll definitely be sleeping in two completely separate tents anyway. How could he possibly see you kicking off the blanket?!”

Although she managed to convince herself logically, brand-new worries soon followed one after another.

“When I first wake up in the morning, will my face look awful because of swelling?”

“Are there any special spell models in the books that can perfectly deal with sweat smell on clothes and all these hygiene issues?”

The endless little worries were like bubble-blowing fish, continuously filling the originally intelligent mind of the young girl.

Time quietly flowed by amidst the rustling sound of the pen tip scratching across paper.

The moon slowly drifted through the pitch-black sky before gradually sinking westward.

Yet the magical crystal lamp on the desk continued radiating bright light throughout the entire night.

Inside the quiet room, aside from the faint sounds of Cecilia flipping pages and writing, only the noises coming from the sofa remained.

Because Yuna had become too immersed in reading, she had unknowingly fallen asleep leaning against a cushion.

Even in her dreams, the girl mumbled lines from the novel incoherently.

“Count… I’m so cold… hurry and hold me…”

And so the entire night passed rapidly amidst chaotic thoughts.

By the time Cecilia—who had unknowingly fallen asleep from exhaustion at some point—lifted her head from the cluttered desk—

Bright and dazzling sunlight had already streamed mercilessly into the room through the glass windows.