Chapter 16: Being Both a Father and a Mother
Gwen and Viktor stood at the doorway of the room, looking inside.
"Why did you agree to this? We should ask again, or wait a little longer……"
Viktor glanced at her, then said.
"Rember why you ca here."
"You didn't co here to vacation and sleep."
Hearing Viktor's words, Gwen shook her head and finally cald down.
But it was rather obvious that a man and a woman spending the night in the sa room was, well……
And there was only 1 bed. A large one.
Gwen furrowed her brow, deliberating for a mont, then volunteered.
"I'll sleep on the floor."
Viktor gave a nod and accepted without hesitation.
"Fine."
Gwen paused.
Even as a Knight who could sleep anywhere in full armor, Viktor's reaction…left her feeling a little put out.
Gwen couldn't quite work out why. In her mind, there was no concept of yielding or not yielding out of courtesy.
Viktor was a Mage—he was more fragile than her, so naturally he should have the bed.
Still, after a full day of travel, Gwen could feel the sticky discomfort building inside her armor.
To be completely honest.
Gwen wanted a bath.
There had been long missions before, and she had always pushed through them.
But perhaps because there was a man in the room this ti, she had started caring about whether she slled of anything.
She patted her own cheeks, doing her best to chase those wandering thoughts out of her head.
Gwen wasn't the type to make unreasonable demands.
Given the scale of this Inn and the hour it was, there was clearly no way they could offer her a hot bath.
But with this much sweat on her, what if she really did have so kind of sll?
She was so caught up in her dilemma that she had even forgotten she was still wearing full armor, and every little movent she made produced a clinking sound.
Viktor was using magic to scan the surrounding area, while also laying down a Soundproofing Formation at the door as he went.
Finding nothing unusual in the vicinity, Viktor heard the clinking of armor and furrowed his brow. He turned to see Gwen standing there, utterly consud by her inner turmoil.
She was chewing on her finger, her face a picture of distress.
"Why haven't you taken your armor off yet?"
Hearing his words, Gwen squird a little, lowered her head, and her cheeks flushed—just barely noticeably.
"You an you want to take a bath? Here, in a place like this?"
Viktor sat in the chair, propping his forehead with one hand.
There was no partition of any kind here, let alone a ready-made bathroom.
The entire room contained only 1 large bed, 2 chairs, and 1 table.
Far too sparse.
Under these conditions, Gwen was actually saying she wanted a bath…..
"What an unreasonable request."
Gwen heard Viktor's words and felt even more embarrassed—though she had only said it offhandedly. She had already been prepared to just sleep in her armor.
Even if it would be uncomfortable to wake up in.
She was a Knight. Even if she slled a little, she could endure it and wash up once she got ho.
She found herself missing the warm bathroom back at her own house, and the comfortable large bed.
A luminous green light suddenly flared to life before him. Gwen raised her head and watched as Viktor's outstretched hand, hovering over the floor, began weaving a wondrous Magic Formation.
Rings of pale green light layered upon each other, the carved pathways gradually rging together.
【1st-Tier Magic: Wood Carving】
The instant the Magic Formation took shape, vines extended one by one from the formation on the floor, and wooden planks rose up in succession.
They bound themselves together automatically, taking on the shape of a Bathtub.
The magic simultaneously polished the exterior of the Bathtub smooth, giving it a deep, lustrous sheen.
Gwen stared at the Bathtub that had just materialized out of the floor—the very thing she had been longing for—and blinked.
Viktor still hadn't stopped what he was doing.
Blue and red Magic Formations swirled and combined between his left and right hands respectively, lighting up in alternation, and the air inside the room gradually began to grow hot.
Viktor brought both hands together, and the 2 formations rged toward each other, giving rise to an entirely new formation.
A Dual Formation?
Gwen had never witnessed Multiple Casting—that high-level technique—with her own eyes before. She wasn't a Mage, after all.
But what was Viktor trying to do?
It was obvious enough.
The air grew slightly moist. Water materialized from nothing within the formation, and then t the heat of the red formation.
Almost instantaneously, the water temperature surged.
Scalding hot water poured out as if being wrung from a sponge made of air, cascading entirely into the Bathtub.
Gwen was completely stunned by what she was witnessing. She blinked repeatedly, her heart filled with a staggering sense of awe.
"This……this was done with magic?"
She had encountered Mages before, but none of them had ever been able to do what Viktor did with such effortless ease.
For the first ti, she felt that magic was a genuinely convenient ability to have.
"If you trust , go ahead."
As Viktor spoke, he snapped his fingers.
A small black formation appeared on the ring on his hand, and a curtain of black mist poured out from the formation, partitioning the space the 2 of them occupied.
Neither side could see through to the other.
Watching Viktor complete all of this, Gwen felt sothing stir inside her.
Being out on a mission with a Mage by your side……perhaps it really wasn't so bad?
She wasn't a fussy person by nature. Viktor had already gone this far, and she had kept her Heart of Justice active throughout.
And so Gwen removed her armor and her undergarnts, and sank into the Bathtub.
In that mont, all she felt was a sense of bliss radiating through her entire body.
Weija raised its eyelids and looked at Viktor—who was sitting in the chair, flipping through a book—with undisguised exasperation.
"I find it hard to imagine you wasting your ntal Energy on sothing as trivial as this."
Viktor produced a blue potion and downed it in one go.
The small amount of mana that had just been consud was already replenished.
Out in the field like this, he had to stay vigilant at all tis and keep himself in peak condition.
He set the empty bottle down and shot back at Weija.
"You wouldn't understand."
"Alright, alright, I don't understand."
Weija mimicked his expression—blank-faced—and fired off a remark.
"I really have never seen you care this much about a woman before."
Viktor shook his head, and his thoughts drifted to the Gwen he knew from the ga—the Valkyrie.
That image of her, unstoppable and rciless, had remained vividly imprinted on his mind even now.
The hardest Boss he had ever faced was undoubtedly her.
If there were any way to avoid being her enemy, who would ever want to be?
While these thoughts turned in his mind, a faint rustling sound from the other side of the curtain reached Viktor's ears.
Viktor: "……"
In a certain sense, he was a perfectly normal man.
The sounds from the other side stirred his thoughts, and the content of the book in front of him might as well have stopped entering his mind entirely. All he felt right now was an acute irritation in his head.
Would it be too late to set up a Soundproofing Formation now?
Gwen would notice.
But……he lowered his head slightly.
【1st-Tier Magic: Self-Suggestion】
His eyes flickered faintly, then gradually went still.
A freshly-bathed Gwen poked her head out from the other side of the curtain.
"Um, I also washed my clothes while I was at it. Could you……"
Before she could finish, Viktor's hand activated another Magic Formation.
【1st-Tier Magic: Hot Wind】
A bright red Magic Formation lit up on Gwen's side of the curtain. She glanced back over her shoulder and felt a warm, gentle heat at her back.
"Thank you, I can dry them now……"
Gwen pulled her head back in, a little embarrassed.
"Phew."
Viktor stared coolly ahead, holding onto the last thin thread of his composure.
"Oh, don't you need to wash up too?"
Gwen asked from the other side.
He pressed one hand to his forehead, and a look of barely-veiled irritation crossed his face.
"……I have a Wind-Repelling Spell on . Dust and gri don't stick."
"And if you'd like to use the hot water you've already soaked in, I'll head over there right now."
Viktor said coldly. All he wanted at this point was for Gwen to get dressed and co back out as quickly as possible.
"Sorry……I got a little carried away."
Calm down. Calm down.
Those words echoed again and again in Viktor's mind.
"I was just thinking—perhaps I need the bed after all. Otherwise the clothes I just washed will get dirty again."
As if sothing had suddenly co to her, Gwen put forward yet another request.
"Gwen! I am not your parent! Listen carefully! I cannot take care of your every need!"
***
Gwen was dressed and sleeping soundly in the 1 large bed. As for Viktor—
He sat motionless in his chair, expressionless.
He had gone and done it anyway……
First he had used magic to put Gwen to sleep, then used magic to move her onto the bed.
"The Gwen I knew should have been cold and ruthless."
The Gwen he had seen was always impassively carrying out orders issued by the royal family, like a rciless killing machine.
But the Gwen here now hadn't reached that point yet.
Even if she was similarly cold toward others, she still existed like an ordinary person, with feelings that served no practical purpose.
She would pester the Innkeeper endlessly over a single room.
Even after he had helped her, she would cautiously continue making small requests of him, careful never to cross a line she felt was his.
When she made a mistake, she apologized. Her manner wasn't as rigidly unyielding as the impression he'd carried of her. She was certainly strong, but……
"She's not the Gwen I know."
He turned to look at the sleeping Gwen and shook his head.
Yet that thought had lodged itself in Viktor's mind, and would not be erased.
***
Gwen stood before the formation, directing the Knights on how to proceed.
"Today we are ascending the volcano to conduct an investigation. If you notice anything unusual, do not act rashly—report it imdiately!"
The Knights looked at Gwen, and all of them had a feeling that she had woken up that morning looking remarkably sharp and refreshed.
And……sowhat cleaner than before?
The Knights had no idea what had happened the night before, and Gwen had already turned to look at Viktor, who was standing beside her.
The Knights' faces seed to take on an expression that said, "Ohhhh~."
Viktor saw that Gwen had finished organizing the unit, and turned to head off.
"Viktor, where are you going?"
"We can escort you to a designated position, or you're welco to travel with the Knight Company."
"No need."
Viktor raised his eyes and looked out toward the dormant volcano in the distance.
He knew that deep within its silence, an enormous creature lay waiting. His feelings were a tangle of weight and excitent.
"I'll be splitting off from you for now."
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