After making sure that there were no more Oren Beasts hidden around them, Alnea withdrew his Aspect to its Aspect Well, while Yuri walked up to the body of the snake, prodding it with her fingers.

“A Dark Devouring Snake,” she said. “Its ability, coupled with the camouflage of the Devouring Grass makes it a perfect killer… I should have guessed it earlier.”

“What would have that changed?” Alnea said, as his eyes adjusted back to the darkness of the canyon. “We still would have had to use my Aspect to find it, and the plan would have still remained the same.”

“The plan may have remained the same, but we could have made more preparations for the snake…”

“It’s alright,” Cecilia said, storing away the skin pouch of water that she used to wash her hands back into her storage bag, before picking up the snake’s body, and tossing it over to him. “Keep it. Dark Devouring Snakes are delicious.”

“…Not if you make them,” Alnea mumbled, just loud enough that only he could hear, as he slipped off the leather bag on his bag, stuffing the entire body of the Dark Devouring Snake, some five, or six feet long, into the bag, before slinging it over his back once again, only to curse at the snake for overeating, as he felt his back hunch a little from the weight.

He could, of course, store the snake in the storage bag on his waist. The Glyph Arrays engraved on the bag would take care of the weight. But the contents of the bag were too precious to let them get tainted by the snake. Scrolls of Martial Styles, spare change of clothes that his master had prepared for him, and his daily necessities. While it would not matter much if his daily necessities would get ruined from the blood of the Beast, to let the robes, and the scrolls that his master had prepared for him be in the same space as some dead bodies would be akin to blasphemy.

Thankfully, the leather bag, a present from big sis Serena, acted as quite a good alterative to storing the things that could not be put away in his storage bags. Things like parts of Oren Beasts which were rumoured to be delicious, or the parts which were good for the growth of Wanderers.

Sure, it did make him feel as if he was carrying a bag full of rocks, but he just treated it as a part of his training. Kind of like how he Forged his Spirit, except it was forging his body, with no mysteries involved in it. Only natural rest, and recovery. And of course, the Martial Styles he practised. They were supposed to help him train his body. Especially his Oathkeeper Style…

Maybe, he had been neglecting his other Martial Styles a little too much lately. Should he start practising them again? Or use them more in his fights? But then, he also had to practise his sword oriented Martial Styles. Especially the new ones he had been learning. At the moment, he had learned just a few Martial Styles of the Weapon type, but as had been the case with the Martial Styles of the Auxiliary type, the rate at which he was learning Martial Styles was much faster than the rate at which he was gaining proficiency in them.

Fortunately, this time he did not have to start from the very basics. At the very least he knew how to fight, and had proper opponents to practise his Martial Styles against. He even had Aspects that he could use with his Martial Styles. Maybe that was why he had been practising less of the Martial Styles of the Auxiliary type. His Aspects were not too suited for them, after all.

But was that not kind of restricting himself? He had already gained quite a bit of proficiency in the thousands of Martial Styles of the Auxiliary type that he had learned, many of which were of the Intermediate Grade. By not having Aspects to complement those Martial Styles, was he not limiting himself? Should he then look for an Aspect that would allow him to use those Martial Style next? Or should let things continue as they were going? Maybe even—

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“What are you spacing out for?”

Cecilia’s voice cut into his thoughts abruptly, and brought his attention to her. It was hard to see with the darkness around them, but the robe she was wearing was different from her usual green robe. In the aftermath of the little fallout that they had a few days ago, she had decided to change from her normal, bright green robe into one that was in a darker shade of green. Dark enough to be mistaken as a black robe in the darkness of the canyon.

And that was not all. There was also a crest of the Serpia clan inscribed on the chest of her new robe. Something that her old robe did not have. Though, beside the crest, there was also the bulge on her chest. It was definitely larger than what he recalled. Had it grown in the past few months? Or was it the robe that was making it look a little larger? Just to be sure, Alnea turned towards Yuri to check out her chest. There was indeed a slight increase from before, but not as much as the increase Cecilia’s chest had. Was it because of the robe? Or…

That was a question that would have to remain unanswered. Although Alnea was not sure about what the bulges were for, he instinctively knew that it was not something that could be talked about casually. At least, he had never heard anyone talk about it. Yet, even then, whenever he looked at the bulge on Cecilia’s chest, he felt his face heat up, and his heart start racing. This was despite the fact that his Heart was already in the state of its Serenity. Maybe Cecilia being a part of his Heart had to do something with it…

Afraid that he would be seen through, especially by Yuri—for some reason, she always seemed to know what he was thinking about— Alnea gripped the strap of the bag on his back, and followed along behind Cecilia.

“Nothing. Just something that I recalled from the past. Anyways, I just released all that light, so we should not stay here for long. Come on, let’s get going.”

“We were already ready to go,” Cecilia said. “You were the one who was spacing out.”

“Alright, it’s my fault. Now, can we go?”

“…Something does not seem right, but fine. You are right. We should get going.”

Saying so, Cecilia turned around, and began leading them into the darkness of the canyon once again. Yuri, however, was not convinced by his words. So, while Cecilia led the path ahead, Yuri reached out to him through the rings, and said, “You really do seem a little suspicious. Tell me, what were you thinking?”

“…I was thinking about a ‘Mystery’,” Alnea said, as he took a quick glance at Yuri’s chest. “But this is not the right time, or place to think about it.”

“…I do not believe you.”

“I am telling the truth!”

“Really? Then tell me, what Mystery were you thinking about?”

“…How many Mysteries have I encountered?”

“Using such childish tricks… even kids are better at lying than you are.”

“…I am really not lying! It really is a mystery to me!”

“What is?”

“How can your—

Alnea immediately stopped himself from speaking any further, not daring to look towards Yuri. He was not confident if he could stop himself from looking at her chest. And once he did that, she would definitely figure out what he was thinking.

“How can my what?”

He definitely could not look towards her. And neither could he let her approach him. So, before Yuri could pester him anymore, and force the truth out of him, Alnea rushed towards Cecilia, and said, “I think it is time we should change shifts. You have been leading the way for quite a while now.”

“What are you talking about? We have barely been walking for half an hour. I still have to lead the way for another half an hour.”

“…Is that so?” Alnea said, laughing awkwardly, trying to not let his nervousness show on his face. “Time surely is passing really slowly today, is it not?”

“Indeed,” Yuri said, catching up to him, while looking at him with an amused smile. “Time surely is going slowly today. But that also means that we will have a lot of time today.” Just to him, she added, “Enough for me to find out what you were thinking about.”