"I''m saving this one for when I get a ''yes'' and not a ''maybe''."
Right after kissing her cheek and circling his thumb around her lips, Evan spoke in a slow sultry voice, his words causing Eliza''s entire body to freeze as he lightly patted her hair and continued normally.
"Go to sleep. Don''t forget that we''re leaving for Osto tomorrow."
After saying this, Evan turned around and walked away, leaving behind the stunned blonder and entering his room.
The moment he closed the door, he dropped down to the ground and heaved a sigh of relief with his hand over his chest as he calmed his slightly erratic breathing.
''Why am I acting like a teenager who just went on a first date with his crush?''
"...Oh, shit. That''s exactly what I am right now.
Except that this isn''t my first date."
The young hero briefly remembered the former rtionship that he had with one of his ssmates in his first year of senior high school.
Although said rtionship sadly came to an end halfway through his sophomore year, Evan was thankful for the experience as he would have been at a loss on how to move forward with Eliza if not for it.
Meanwhile, on Eliza''s side, the blonde teenager had somehow made her way into her room and locked the door before changing out of her clothes andying down on her bed.
She stared at the ceiling in silence as she reyed all the day''s events in her head before silently muttering to herself.
"To think I actually wanted to take the initiative to ask him out on another date.
Could it be that I actually like him a lot more than I thought?"
She yawned right after, with her eyelids slowly closing as she silently fell asleep for the night.
◇ ◇ ◇
North Gate
City State of Magic, Kasteblum
January 30th
Year 1052
It was a bright and sunny day, when the Adventurer trio who now went by the name of ''The Anomalies'', decided to set off from the city-state of Magic towards another country that was situated North of Kasteblum.
The Great Western Empire was arge country, that when looking at a map, upied more than 60% of the western Half of the Map.
To its right, were three other countries that shared borders with it, the city State of Magic Kasteblum, with another fairlyrge country spanning over half a million kilometre-squares called Uswil, and finally, their destination, Hobha, which was north of Uswil and could be reached after passing some freends in between the two countries.
"We''d stop over at Uswil''s capital, Shad Glua, first and do a little dungeon diving and artifact farming before continuing towards Hobha.
I would like to head to Troca, Hobha''s capital first, but that''s a bit too far we''d just go straight to Dungeon City Osto."<sub> </sub>
Evan ended their travel n briefing with that as they stepped onto the custom-made carriage that the young hero had gotten from the chief Grand magus earlier that morning.
He had gone over to finalize a few things with the man, getting his word to send over a Grand Mage and a few senior mags to help out with the iing Duhan attack.
Before he left, the old magus offered to lend Evan one of his carriages to take the group to Uswil''s capital, an offer which the teenager hurriedly epted.
And this led to the current situation where Pride, Eliza and their spiritpanions were staring at the in-looking carriage in front of them.
Although its outer appearance left nothing to be desired, the same could not be said about the inside as the interior of the carriage was no less luxurious whenpared to the carriages ridden by the Royal Family of the Great Western Empire.
Its in outer appearance was just so that it did not draw much attention from outsiders while still providingfort to whoever was riding it.
"As expected of the Chief Grand Magus'' carriage."
Evan remarked as he studied the interior of the carriage, before jumping down and walking over to the carriage ''driver'' who was assigned them by Gavin.
Said ''driver'' was actually a C-Ranked adventurer who was a member of one of the adventurer parties that the Magic towers usually did business with.
With him was another member of his party, a female swordsman who like him, was also hired for the job because they knew how to control the horses and drive carriages efficently6.
It was a low-work, high-pay job for them so they had no qualms about epting it.
After a short discussion with them, Evan turned around to go back to his party members, only to lock eyes with Eliza who hurriedly looked away with a red face.
The teenage girl was a bit unsettled seeing how casually Evan acted after pulling that little stunt the previous night, something that repeated itself in her dreams.
''Am I the only one who''s feeling awkward here?!''
Her peach-like light pink lips twisted into a small frown as she thought that, snorting lightly as she turned away from the young hero and went to pick up the cat spirit who wasying down on the nearby bench.
''And here I was agonizing about things ever since I woke up this morning, only to see him acting as normal as ever.''
Seeing her sour expression, Evan just heaved a sigh and spoke to Pride concerning the schedules he had discussed with the ''drivers'' before moving over to the sulking blonde teenager.
He stopped right beside her and leaned forward before whispering to her.
"If you act like that, you''d make things awkward for me too, you know?"
After saying that, he walked away, heading back to the inn they stayed in to conclude their checking-out processes, leaving the stunned battle priestess behind.
It was then that she realised she wasn''t the only one who was feeling a bit awkward after the events of the previous night.
◇ ◇ ◇
Putting trivial matters aside, the young hero concluded the checkout processes at the inn, went to the adventurer''s guild and epted a single long-term quest on behalf of the party and returned to the carriage just a few minutes before nine o''clock.
They all got on the carriage which began moving as they bade Kasteblum goodbye and began their journey towards Hobha.