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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Chaos
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“Yawn~”
Exactly 30 minutes later, Renia woke up.
She emerged from her sleeping bag and stretched languidly, the corners of her eyes glistening like the morning dew.
I watched her with a warm smile and tossed a few more branches onto the fire.
Crackle!
The flames, created with “Mana Flame,” burned longer and more efficiently than ordinary fire, so even thin branches provided warmth for a considerable time.
“You’re up?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
Renia nodded in response to my question and quickly wiped the sleep from her eyes.
She didn’t want me to see her looking disheveled.
Her just-woken face was probably a sight.
Rub-rub-rub-
She quickly smoothed her hair and checked her watch.
Then,
“Huh? It’s 2:30?”
It was 30 minutes past the designated shift change time of 2:00 AM.
She had only asked for five more minutes…
“Ah. You looked tired.”
“S-still, you should have woken me…”
Renia murmured apologetically.
Because of her request for five more minutes, my sleep had been delayed by 30 minutes.
If she could turn back time, she would have splashed cold water on her face to wake herself up.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked for more time… Next time, I’ll take an extra 30 minutes!”
“It’s okay. Hearing you talk in your sleep was kind of entertaining.”
“…What?”
Smirk!
I grinned, as if I had caught her doing something embarrassing, and stood up, dusting off my pants.
“Time for me to sleep~.”
I said nonchalantly as I slipped into my sleeping bag.
Renia hurried over to me with her eyes filled with anxiety.
Why?
She had definitely dreamt about me, but she couldn’t remember the details.
Just as a fortune teller couldn’t read their own fortune, the Queen of Shared Dreams couldn’t control her own dreams.
“T-talking in my sleep? What? What did I say? What did I say in my sleep?”
She bombarded me with questions.
Her anxious face was so cute that I couldn’t help but smile again.
“It was nothing.”
“B-but what was this ‘nothing’?”
She felt a knot of anxiety in her stomach.
She couldn’t remember the dream, and my teasing grin only made her more uneasy.
But I closed my eyes, pretending to sleep.
Renia started shaking my sleeping bag.
“W-what? What did I say? Tell me! I’m going to get angry! You know I’m scary when I’m angry…!”
It was the least threatening threat imaginable.
Like a kitten trying to roar.
I thought so and opened one eye.
“I’d rather keep it a secret.”
“No…! Then just tell me…!”
“Then it wouldn’t be a secret.”
“…!”
Renia froze, as if struck by a sudden epiphany.
For a moment, she thought, ‘He’s got a point…!’ and tried to come up with a rebuttal.
“Hmm…”
“Mumble… Smack.”
But her attempt was thwarted by Na-yeon and Hye-seo, who stirred in their sleep at the commotion.
Ugh!
Renia puffed out her cheeks in frustration.
But she knew that any further disturbance would make them look like childish fools arguing over sleep-talking.
She had no choice but to get up.
It seemed she now had something to occupy her mind during her otherwise boring guard duty.
But then,
“Me too.”
My whisper, carried by the cool night air, reached Renia.
“Huh?”
“That’s my answer to your sleep-talking.”
“…Huh?”
“Now I’m going to sleep. Good luck with your shift.”
“Huh?”
The conversation ended after three “Huhs.”
Renia stood there, frozen like a statue, looking down at me.
‘Me too…?’
What did I mean?
What had she said in her sleep that prompted that response?
A vague answer, without a subject or object.
Figuring out the meaning of that reply would be a task for later.
But for now,
The corners of Renia’s lips curled upwards.
‘Me too.’
That answer certainly wasn’t a rejection.
Renia gazed at my sleeping form for a moment, then turned and walked towards the entrance of the abandoned building, where Roque was sleeping.
It seemed her guard duty would pass by quickly.
Of course,
“Eek!”
After two hours of pondering, faint fragments of her dream resurfaced, and Renia was instantly thrown into chaos, completely losing track of the remaining hour of her shift.
It seemed she had muttered some rather embarrassing things in her sleep.
“I’m crazy, I’m crazy…!”
She didn’t know how high the temperature of her embarrassing words had been, but Renia spent the rest of her shift kicking the air beside Roque, enacting an imaginary blanket kick.
“What did I say that made him say ‘me too’…!”
Lately, her desires had been surging, to the point where she would get aroused(?) just by looking at Tae-jin.
It seemed those desires had manifested in her dreams and turned into embarrassing sleep-talking.
“Aaargh!”
Her lonely lament echoed through the night sky.
The Succubus mating season was fast approaching.
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After Hye-seo, the last one on guard duty, woke us up, we had a simple breakfast and headed towards Urban City around 10 AM.
We spent a day there, resting and recuperating, each taking time for personal errands.
I was busy visiting alchemy workshops and buying materials for my next rune crafting project.
After a day of rest and preparation, we left Urban City early the next morning and started moving southeast.
We should reach our destination by evening.
As a side note, Renia had been avoiding me ever since I gave her the “me too” reply.
She had clearly remembered her sleep-talking, but I didn’t understand why she was being so avoidant.
‘Me too.’
It was just a response to her mumbling, “More… I’m hungry… I want more… Mumble, chomp, chomp.” in her sleep.
‘Hmm…’
I had teased her because I thought her sleep-eating was cute, but maybe she hadn’t been talking about food?
I didn’t know.
It felt awkward to explain the situation now.
And for some reason, she seemed to be looking at me with a rather lustful(?) gaze.
Sometimes, she would even lick her lips(?) while looking at me.
‘Must be my imagination.’
For now, the important thing was the location in the Taebaek Mountains we were about to reach.
I hadn’t properly washed or slept for two weeks for what was left there.
Of course, this journey had also brought many gains.
I had spent a lot of time with Hye-seo and Su-ah, and their affection levels had increased considerably.
Hye-seo’s was currently at 72%.
And Su-ah’s was at 60%.
If I successfully absorbed Han Chang-ho’s inheritance and maxed out Hye-seo and Su-ah’s affection levels, my status window would become truly overpowered, befitting a cheat protagonist.
Even now, it surpassed S-rank.
I was walking with anticipation when,
“Stop.”
Hye-seo, who was leading the way, raised her hand and crouched down.
We were only about 200 meters from our destination.
“Hiss…”
Hye-seo inhaled sharply.
I had a pretty good idea why.
‘It must be Illusion.’
As Han Chang-ho had feared, Illusion hadn’t ignored his suspicious death.
The question was, how much did they know?
But even if Illusion had occupied the location, we wouldn’t back down.
Only I, his blood relative, could access his inheritance.
“It’s Illusion. They’re here sooner than expected.”
Hye-seo whispered, then quickly moved towards the bushes ahead, still crouched low.
We followed her and hid among the foliage.
“What should we do?”
Na-yeon asked.
I wasn’t particularly afraid.
We had a top-tier S-rank Hunter, a diamond-rank Holder, and a versatile Succubus.
And Su-ah seemed to be gradually unlocking her powers.
The skills she was using now were far more powerful and complex than the ones she had shown at the academy.
Her healing abilities had also increased significantly.
She was easily A-rank level, more than capable of supporting our party.
Well, ranking a cosmic being like her was absurd to begin with.
Anyway,
“We’ll break through.”
We weren’t weak enough to let those fools loitering around the entrance stop us from claiming the inheritance.
And their presence here meant that Illusion was actively investigating Han Chang-ho.
Breaking through and eliminating them was the only option.
But,
“Hiss…”
Hye-seo’s sharp intake of breath told me the situation wasn’t simple.
Could it be…?
“…Is there a high-ranking executive?”
There was very little information available about Illusion’s high-ranking executives.
Even the most well-known, the Azure Witch, was only known for her gender, her generally blue appearance, and the fact that she was the strongest among them.
The names of the other executives were rarely even mentioned.
We wouldn’t be able to identify them even if we saw them, unless Hye-seo was there.
There was nothing more foolish than rushing into battle against an unknown enemy.
So, I asked, and her answer made my heart pound.
“Two of them. And… one of them is Lexa.”
“Lexa…?”
“The Azure Witch.”
Oh.
The Azure Witch right off the bat?
This was going to be tough.
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