Lin says "Was surprising me really worth risking this thing blowing my head off? Are you really insane?!"

"I never would have let that happen. The instant something went wrong I would have absorbed the explosion into my body. I won't ever let you be hurt if I can help it."

Lin says "You don't think I would be hurt if you suddenly exploded right in front of my eyes?!"

"If it came to that, chances are that I could survive it. I am fairly hard to kill and a mana overload wouldn't be too huge of an explosion."

Lin yells "That's not the point you idiot!"

"Please keep your voice down and don't wake the kids. Seeing us fighting would just confuse them. You are right, I should have tested it on an item for myself first. I just wanted to make an item that would protect you."

Lin says "Why are you so obsessed with protecting me?!"

"Because I think I have fallen in love with you and losing you would break me!"

Lin whispers "What?"

Lin and I just stare at each other in silence, she can't believe I said it and neither can I. I got lost in the moment, otherwise I wouldn't have had the guts to say it. She just sits there in my lap staring at me with an odd expression on her face and I am too scared to say anything.

Lin says "Say that again, or I will hit you!"

"I said I think I have fallen in love with you."

Lin says "You think? Do you love me or not? Or are you just trying to avoid the argument?"

"Yes."

Lin says "Yes, what?!"

"Yes, I love you!"

This time it is easier to say and Lin is only stunned for a few seconds before she recovers. For the next few minutes she alternates between kissing me, crying happily, and hitting me. All in all, it just leaves me really confused as to how I am supposed to respond.

"I can handle the kisses and the tears, but can you please stop hitting me."

Lin says "Idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot! Say it again!"

"I love you, Lin."

Lin says "Ash, you idiot! Why didn't you tell me sooner? Why wait till we are fighting?!"

"I was trying to wait to tell you. I was scared of how you would react. I thought it might be too soon and that you wouldn't believe me."

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Lin says "You really are a complete idiot! How could you even think that?!"

"Well, how was I supposed to know? I've never felt this way before! You already know I'm not good at dealing with my feelings!"

Lin says "That's true and I now understand you better after hearing your story. So, I will forgive you for your bad timing. However, I am still mad at you for your recklessness with the enchantments, so I am going to give you two punishments. Do you agree?"

"Alright."

Lin says "First, you are sleeping out here with the kids tonight. Second, there was a store in the mall, Victory something?"

"Victoria's Secret?"

Lin says "Yeah, that one. Were the items in there real, or stuff you made up for a better show?"

"No, they were real. In the real store there would have been a lot more, but it wasn't a place I went so I couldn't duplicate the rest."

Lin says "Well, they were much more comfortable than what we have in this world. So, your second punishment is to make me copies of those items."

"Um, I hate to say that I don't know how they are made. In fact, I don't even know what materials are used."

Lin says "You don't need to know, just make them using mana. I know you can do that."

"Well, I can, but it takes a ton of mana that way."

Lin says "It is a punishment."

"True. Alright, I will do it."

With that Lin gets up, walks into the bedroom, and closes the door behind her. It is only as I hear the lock click that I realize there was a problem with that exchange. I told her that I loved her at least twice, but she never responded with how she feels.

Maybe she doesn't love me, maybe I have just been fooling myself this whole time. After all, I'm not the main character in an anime, why would the beauty fall for me? I mean, she does care for me, at least I am pretty confident that she does, after all she did sleep with me.

However, that doesn't mean she loves me, if she did she should have said something, right? Or maybe in this world, I love you isn't something you are supposed to say. I almost get up to go knock on the door and ask her, but I stop myself.

After all, if the answer is no, that would just make things really awkward for us both. Instead, I turn to try my hand at making underwear and attempt to distract myself. It turns out I can make it from pure mana, it just takes about a thousand mana per piece.

After making just nine pieces, my mana is almost gone and I feel exhausted. So, I put the ones I made into my pouch, return to normal form, shrink down, and climb into the firepit with the kids. Despite being exhausted, I still lay there for hours before I finally fall asleep.

Of course, when the kids wake up and find me sleeping with them, they pounce on me. I wrestle around with them for a bit before I get up and feed them their breakfast. When they finish eating and go to play on the cat trees, things start moving again.

Even though Athena isn't here, she can still move the platforms and pegs around for them. It is a pretty impressive demonstration of control, one I don't think I could duplicate. I might be able to do it when in the room, but not remotely like she is right now.

That should keep the kids busy, so I put the food pouch on the table for Lin and leave the cabin. I am not really feeling hungry and I am not sure I want to face Lin right now. With all the doubts crowding my head, I can't be sure what my face looks like.

As soon as I step out of the cabin, Athena appears beside me and asks for my help. Silverleaf introduced her to the other officers and the bridge crew, but that was all. Athena wants me to introduce her to the rest of the elves and I need a distraction.

I quickly agree to her request, but it doesn't take long before I run into a problem. Other than the few elves that I have dealt with repeatedly, I don't know any of the others by name. Luckily, Athena realizes the problem and starts telling me their names before we reach them.

She saves me from embarrassing myself, but I also feel bad for not taking the time to learn their names. I know that they all introduced themselves to me at one point or another. The fact is, I didn't even bother trying to remember all of those names, it wasn't worth it.