“Are you sure?” I asked, knowing her awkwardness from last time couldn’t have fully disappeared in such a short time.

“It’s okay,” She said softly. “I want to be comfortable around you.”

“Are you not already?”

Cellestra nodded. “I am.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

“Besides,” She continued with a warm smile. “I think I may need your help to get the silk off.”

“It’s quite strong, isn’t it?” I replied with a hint of a giggle.

“It’s nice and soft too, but having it on this long is probably a bit too much.”

“I can confirm.”

Before Cellestra took off her clothes, she took off her amulet that was hidden beneath and looked at it in the palm of her hand.

“You think she’s happy?” I asked with a whisper.

“If she can look down at me from where she is, I’m sure she is, and I have her to thank for a lot of it.”

“If you’re happy, I’m sure she is, too.”

Cellestra nodded as she took off her shirt and put it down with the jewelry on top of it. She then reached into her backpack to get the bottle of shampoo, a comb and handed those to me.

“If you want,” She said, to which I nodded.

She took off the rest of her clothes and showed me her back for me to remove the silk. After that was done, she slowly submerged herself in the water, while I created a new sponge, my face as red as the tomatoes in the fields at the farm.

Cellestra noticed it and blushed slightly too before she seemed to relax and giggle at the sight.

“It’s cute to see the ever-so-confident knightly spider like that,” She whispered as she started scrubbing off the dirt.

“There’s not much left of my confidence ever since I got reincarnated,” I said. “There’s too much for me to lose to live the same way I did before.”

“Your determination is nonetheless admirable,” She replied. “Perhaps even more so because you have things to lose.”

“Makes sense,” I said as I positioned myself at the head end of the tub.

I proceeded to carefully scrub Cellestra’s hair with my fingers while summoning new, warm water to rinse them.

“That feels nice,” She said happily.

“I know,” I replied with a smile. “Let’s hope you won’t have to spend too much time in armor tomorrow.”

“You don’t feel like doing this every day?”

“I mean, I don’t mind doing this, but I was referring to your obvious exhaustion. I think it would be better if we could practice and slowly build up your experience with it. How are you feeling after wearing it for so long?”

“Sore,” She said. “But it’s getting better now.”

“Nothing like a warm bath to soothe the muscles.”

“And you doing my hair while I’m at it.”

I chuckled at her response and continued to comb her hair.

“I’m just glad you’re feeling more at ease.”

“It helps that we’re completely closed off from the outside world,” The purple-eyed elf admitted. “Honestly, how you could just clean yourself out in the open, knowing that there are people in this forest, is testament to your bravery.”

I grinned but didn’t say a word as I took the bottle and applied the shampoo. I tried to focus on her hair, but I found my eyes trailing off to the rest of her body while she scrubbed it.

By the goddess was she beautiful…

“Enjoying the view?”

Cellestra’s words made me refocus. She’d turned her head and was staring into my eyes, a shy smile on her face. I’d completely lost myself and apologized.

“No need to be sorry,” She said. “It kind of makes me happy.”

“It does?”

“To know you’re happy and attracted to me when looking at me, yes, why wouldn’t that make me feel joy?”

“I’m happy you feel that way,” I said as I rubbed the roots of her hair, making her close her eyes and smile contently.

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Time passed us by as Cellestra simply relaxed in the tub. The world outside our shelter was starting to go dark when she finally decided that it had been enough. She stepped out after removing the silk stopper and allowed the water to fall down from her unblemished, perfect body, smiling.

At the same time, I used my warm air spell to dry her quickly. She thanked me and put on some underwear and was about to reach into her backpack for her clothes when she stopped her arm, seemingly in hesitation.

“Kealyna?” She asked with a whisper.

“Yes?”

She slowly turned her head to look me in the eyes.

“You wanna go to sleep?”

“If you want to call it a day,” I said. “I’m ready whenever.”

“Alright,” She said with a nod, retracting her arm.

In the meantime, I placed myself in the divot and stretched my legs while I watched Cellestra lie down next to me, closing the gap between us until she was right next to me, and take hold of my arm with hers, pressing my hand against her bare belly.

We didn’t say a word and simply stared, enjoying each other’s presence in the last light that was there before the world went dark,

“Cellestra,” I was the first to speak, softly as to not break the serenity that surrounded us. “I’m so happy when I’m with you. I can feel my love growing each passing day.”

“I feel the same. I’m so thankful for you showing me all this. It’s wonderful beyond words.”

Cellestra reached for the silk pillow and placed it under both our heads before she moved just a bit closer, hugging my arm. I turned to my side as much as I could and placed my arm around her back, properly hugging her as I added two legs to it as well.

“You won’t get cold like this, right?” I asked. She was lacking a shirt, and while I didn’t think it was cold in here at all, I couldn’t gauge it properly thanks to my cold resistance skill.

“It’s nice and warm in here. I doubt it,” She replied.

I cast my healing light spell, causing a satisfied purr to escape her lips, which in turn, made me giggle. I then ran a hand through her clean, silky hair, accidentally touching her ears in the process, but she didn’t seem to mind.

“I could do this for hours,” I whispered.

“And I can enjoy it for just as long,” Cellestra replied.

“I know. Good night, Cellestra.”

“Good night, Kealyna.”

----------------------------------------

It was a long night, but I enjoyed every moment of it. Cellestra’s quiet snoring would never bore me. Now that we’d gone to bed early more than once, which did allow me to stay asleep with my elven head relatively long, did seem to cause less strain on my mind as a whole. If the nights continued like this, I felt I could delay having to sleep fully for a good while.

The nest was slowly illuminated by the rising sun, and an hour or two after dawn, Cellestra stirred. It was good she did, as I was about to wake her up.

She had two apples for breakfast, and after that, we quickly found out it took a while for her to get dressed with all that armor.

“You know,” I said as I helped her tighten the last straps. “The fun part about armor is that you hope you don’t need it.”

“That may be,” She replied. “But I do feel a lot safer with it.”

She put on her helmet and backpack and we set out to see Selleron and his squad. I hoped we weren’t late.

We found him and the other soldiers already waiting at the guild hall. It would seem we were tardy as he was tapping his foot as we approached. When we did, he opened the door to the guild and shouted Felmar’s name.

“Was wondering when you’d show up,” He said in a friendly, yet serious manner.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “As you can see, we bought some armor for Cellestra, and let’s just say that she isn’t used to it… or putting it on for that matter.”

Selleron let out a slight chuckle. “I see it’s wolf iron so for someone new to it like her, I can imagine the struggles. Happy to see you going for quality, though.”

“Pricey, but I’m sure you know its value far outweighs the cost.”

He nodded, just as Felmar, in armor, exited the building, his eyes immediately drawn to Cellestra on my back.

“Well, then,” Selleron said, excitement surfacing in his voice. “Ready to continue where we left off?”