The next morning was a strange one.

When the three of them, Fran, Marianne, and Rina, woke up, they just sat there and stared at each other in silence, looking as if they had not slept at all.

While the elf couldn't sleep well because she was busy doubting herself, Marianne and Rina trouble had sleeping because they had exaggerated their skin-ship... well, Marianne had, since she was the active one whereas Rina was only the receiving one.

But despite this, Rina had the most energy of the three. After all, she was the one who needed the least rest to replenish her energy. Because of that, she knew that she had to be the one to lead the group forward today.

So, when all three had finished preparing themselves for the busy day ahead, Rina spoke up. “Um... what's the plan for today?”

Fran was already used to sleep deprivation. After all, before teaching Rina and Clara magic, she had been accustomed to staying up for several days straight for her research. This was especially true when she had tried to learn the Hero-Summoning-Ritual more than ten years ago. So, unlike Marianne, who was still wobbling, it didn't take Fran long to recover.

Therefore, after considering Rina's question for a few moments, Fran replied, “Unfortunately, all I have been told is that a Demon-Spawning-Cloud has been sighted near this village. I was initially hoping that we could ask some of the villagers if they had seen it... but...”

When Rina noticed Fran looking at her with uncertain eyes, she understood what her magic teacher was trying to say. So, to reassure her, Rina smiled. “Thank you, Fran... but you don't have to worry about me... they can insult me all they want, it won't hurt me...”

Once again impressed by the red-haired girl's growth, Fran nodded. “Alright. Still, even with me here, they might not want to talk to us, so we might have to find the cloud ourselves.”

“What if we looked separately? I still know my way around here, so I can go into the forest and look while you two go around asking people?”

Surprisingly, it was the still visibly tired Marianne, who answered Rina's question. “*yawn* No, that's forbidden, we will stay together at all costs.“ Marianne looked at Fran. ”And when I say all, I mean all, including you, Lady Fran.“ She turned back to Rina. ”We don't know what those villagers will do to you, Rina”

“I agree with her, it's best if we stay together. With me by your side, they probably won't do anything stupid. And I know that you can defend yourself, but I can imagine that you don't want to hurt them unnecessarily, right?”

Hearing that they were both visibly worried about her, Rina couldn't help but blush slightly. So, as if to get out of this heartwarming, but still embarrassing situation, she changed the subject to something, that she had noticed from Marianne earlier, the yawn. “By the way, Marianne? Why the hell are you tired, when you were the one who kept harassing me like that last night?”

“Ahaha...” The brunette scratched the back of her head, trying to laugh off the younger girl's glare.

But Rina wasn't going to let Marianne get away with that. After all, sitting through the brunette's shenanigans last night had been literal hell, and it had been hard for her not to show that she had started to get hot inside. So she wanted to give Marianne at least a little payback.

Unfortunately, before she could retort to the older girl, she was interrupted by the third person present in the room.

“Rina... W-what has she d-done to you?”

At first, Rina was more than confused as to whom this stuttering sentence was coming from. After all, she was the only one who occasionally stuttered while speaking like this. But that was a problem, as she knew, that she wasn't the one who had just said that sentence.

Marianne, whom Rina was looking at, didn't open her mouth, so she was also out of the question.

And Fran, the last one in the room, wasn't known to stammer like that. In fact, Rina had never heard a broken sentence from the elf's mouth before, so she couldn't be the culprit either.

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So, curious as to who had just said that Rina slowly turned in the direction the voice had come from... well, not exactly curious, since she already knew who it was, of course.

“...” Rina's mouth opened so wide, that her lower jaw metaphorically touched the floor when she saw the state of the usually calm, sometimes mischievous, but mostly serious former High Priestess.

Fran was bright red, almost resembling a tomato, with her eyes roaming all over the room while avoiding eye contact with Rina. Furthermore, the mature elf was poking her right and left index fingers at each other, giving Rina an image she wouldn't forget any time soon.

Naturally, Rina had absolutely no idea what to make of whatever she was currently witnessing, so she just stood there and looked at the elf in silence.

Unfortunately, this situation wouldn't progress if she didn't do anything. After all, Marianne was seemingly in the same state of mind as her and showed no signs of breaking out of the confusion any time soon, while Fran was seemingly too embarrassed to do anything for some reason. So, once again, for the second time in this still very young day, it was up to Rina to get them out of this.

“Um... Fran? I-Is something wrong with you? Are you ill? You seem kind of strange today.” Of course, Rina could see, that Fran was embarrassed rather than sick. Still, she had thought that the possibility of Fran being unwell was higher than the other one. After all, she had never seen the elf in such a state before.

“N-no... I'm fine and perfectly normal!”

“... No matter how I look at you, you're not behaving normally at all. You're extremely red... don't tell me... you're embarrassed or something, ahaha...” Not knowing how to deal with the strange Fran anymore, Rina just gave up and decided to joke around, a wrong move as it turned out, as Fran became loud at this.

“Okay! Yes, I'm embarrassed, okay? My whole life has been dedicated to researching magic and demons, okay? I never got to experience anything romantic, so having the two of you...” Fran, now that her colour had returned to normal, glared at Marianne next to Rina before turning back to the redhead. “... blatantly flirting and making out in the same room where I sleep would obviously irk me!”

“...” This time, it was Rina's turn to blush, as she had not expected Fran to be awake when Marianne hugged her last night. And when she turned to the girl who was the cause of this mess, she saw that the brunette was equally embarrassed. So she exchanged a few glances with her only to avert her eyes in awkwardness shortly afterwards.

It was only a few seconds later, that Rina realised the inconsistency of Fran's behaviour and words. “W-wait a minute! W-we didn't make out or anything like that! In fact, she was doing what you have been doing to me for years, ever since you started teaching me magic!”

“... Ahaha... I used to do that before I left a year ago-...” Fran began, scratching awkwardly at the back of her head and remembering that Rina was right. But before she could finish her sentence, she stopped herself, closed her eyes, and fell into deep thought for a few moments.

Seeing that, Rina tilted her head in confusion and looked at Marianne, who just shrugged her shoulders, signalling that they had no choice but to wait for Fran to turn her attention to them and continue. Luckily, they didn't have to wait long as the elf opened her eyes soon after.

“Heee~Hee~~ R~i~n~a~, how about a hug from me too? Like we used to? It's been a long time since our last time~.”

Rina reflexively took a step back and felt how cold sweat started to form on her back after seeing Fran's sudden change of demeanour. “...”

Noticing that the red-haired girl was distancing herself from her, Fran took a step forward. “What's the problem, Rina~~? It's just normal skin-ship like you said, we've done it before, so give in to me now.”

At these words, Rina shook her head frantically, as if her life depended on it. “Nonono, what you seem to be trying to do is not the same as the 'normal skin-ship', or whatever you call it, we've done in the past.”

“Ehh? Why, Rina? It's the same!”

“No, it's not! Your eyes are bloodshot, your finger movements are obscene, and your wording is more than questioning!”

Just as Rina was about to despair, feeling that there was no way out of this, she noticed someone stepping between her and the closing Fran. It was her saviour, Marianne!

When Fran saw that Marianne intended to interrupt, she sighed out in disappointment and straightened up. “Marianne, you took advantage of her overprotective mistress being absent yesterday. Don't you think it's hypocritical of you to stand in my way?”

“Sorry, Lady Clara saw through you... that you would run amok. So she allowed me to get touchy with her if I in return stop you.”

At Marianne's statement, Fran and Rina both looked exasperated. But since it was about herself this time, it took Rina a while to recover from it. This meant that Fran was the first to regain her composure after hearing about Marianne's absurd deal with Clara.

“... You're joking, aren't you?”

“No, I'm not.”

“...” After glaring at Marianne for a while and realising that the brunette was telling the truth, Fran exhaled again. “... Well, I was just joking to lighten the mood anyway... After all, we have hard days ahead of us... with the cloud and all... Let's go, Rina, you too.”

Rina nodded after hearing her name called out. She followed Fran and Marianne to the door and prepared herself so that she would be mentally ready when the time to fight the demons for the first time in her life came.

Still, she couldn't help but think about what had just happened. Even though Fran herself had said, that she was only joking, Rina couldn't help but remember her mistress's words about Fran looking at her with lecherous eyes in the past. She didn't believe Clara back then, because she still couldn't accept the idea that a beautiful woman like Fran would actually desire her. But watching Fran this morning, Rina felt that Clara's caution might be justified after all.

“...”

After thinking considering that possibility for a bit longer, she shook her head and chuckled inwardly.

'It can't be true,... can it?'