"Hey."

Elion was still brooding over his thoughts when the soothing voice entered his ears.

He looked toward the source absentmindedly, and just as he had heard, Zenovia was standing there, her expression blank.

Elion didn’t answer her. For a moment, his gaze drifted over her voluptuous frame out of habit, but for once, there was no lust in his gaze.

He looked away a second later and returned his gaze to the dark skies. He heard boots crunch softly against the ground as Zenovia approached him.

Then he felt a pair of soft, warm hands wrapping around his left fist, gently prying it open. He didn’t resist.

In fact, only then did he realise what he had been doing.

His nails had been digging into his own palm so deeply that he had broken the skin and drawn blood.

Even now, he barely felt the pain; there was just a faint sting that he thought didn’t matter. His body was already tired and sore, though he felt much better now; what was a little sting in the palms going to do?

Zenovia’s fingers moved slowly over the wounds, her touch gentle as she caressed the punctures he had made in his own hand.

"What are you thinking about?" she suddenly asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Elion didn’t feel like responding, but his lips moved of their own accord.

"Life is so fragile," he said simply.

He had spoken so unexpectedly that even he was a bit surprised by his own words. He looked back at Zenovia’s beautiful face to see her reaction.

She looked slightly surprised...

But then she smiled.

"I see," she said softly.

Before he could react, she pulled him down.

"What are you doing?" Elion asked with a frown.

She ignored him and sat down first, then beckoned to the ground beside her with the palm of her hand.

"Lie down," she said.

He paused for a moment, his eyes lingering on her features, her lightly tanned skin, her golden eyes, her two-toned purple hair, and the fluffy ears atop her head.

He sighed lightly and did as she said, lying down on the grassy forest floor. She brought her legs together, then gently pulled his head onto her thighs for a lap pillow.

Elion raised a brow.

’Why is she doing this...?’

He tried to look up, but his vision was immediately blocked by her hands.

"Don’t look!" she said quickly.

However, through the small gap between her fingers, he caught a glimpse of her blushing face, as well as a generous view of her mounds from below.

A smile tugged at his lips.

"Cute," he said softly.

"S-shut up!" she snapped. "Or I’ll smack your head."

Elion chuckled.

"Yes, ma’am."

He closed his eyes and relaxed into the softness of her thighs beneath his head.

’What a heavenly sensation...’ he thought.

Words didn’t do justice to just how soft and plush her thighs felt beneath his head.

This was easily the best pillow he could have ever asked for.

In any other situation, he might have been tempted to lift his hands and feel them up, but he knew better. She would probably snap both his arms in half without hesitation... and honestly, he didn’t feel up to it anyway.

So he settled for this much. And it was more than enough. The fact that she had chosen to do something like this of her own accord, even though he didn’t understand why...

That alone was enough.

He didn’t think too much about it.

Instead, he let his mind drift and let his heart settle. It was also odd that she didn’t seem to be disgusted by the blood or the sweat covering his body. Maybe after spending so much time in war, she had grown used to it. The sight and stench of blood.

"Hey, Elion... how old are you?" she suddenly asked.

"Hm?"

Elion opened one eye, a brow raised.

"I’m nineteen... if my memory serves me right."

Now it was Zenovia’s turn to raise an eyebrow.

"Really? You look and act older than you are... except for the part where you act like a pervert."

Elion chuckled.

"How about you? How old are you, Zenovia?" he asked in return.

She snorted.

"Hasn’t anyone ever told you? Never ask a lady her age."

"So I’ve been told... but why is that?" he replied lazily. "I told you mine. It’s only fair that you state yours in return."

"No, I’m not going to tell you."

She shifted slightly.

"Just rest quietly... or I’ll make you rest your head on a rock instead."

Elion laughed softly.

’Why am I frequently being threatened?’

"Yes, ma’am."

At some point, he felt her hand move again, softly and gently caressing his hair, patting his head slowly and rhythmically.

The steady motion pulled him deeper into relaxation, his thoughts fading, his body finally giving in to the exhaustion he had been suppressing.

His mind drifted into that hazy space between waking and sleep, until eventually, his breathing grew slow and even.

"He’s asleep," Zenovia murmured softly.

Even she seemed a little surprised by her own actions. She had only been walking through the camp when she spotted Elion walking around, looking... off and dejected.

Without really thinking, she had followed him.

For some reason...

Seeing him like that had flipped a switch inside her. Before she knew it, she had approached him and sat down, pulled him close.

She couldn’t understand it. She knew exactly what kind of person he was.

Perverted, annoying, infuriating, even.

And yet, she found herself drawn to him anyway.

’It must be his strength...’ she thought.

After everything she had seen...

After watching him tear through the battlefield again and again...

After watching him defeat that four-armed demon right in front of her, her perspective had changed.

Her eyes had been opened.

He was powerful, unbelievably so, and he was also younger than her. It didn’t make sense, after all, she prided herself on her talent as well. Despite the disparity in their skills and professions, in her field, she was a force to be reckoned with.

And yet what stayed with her the most wasn’t just his strength.

It was what came after.

The look in his eyes, the quiet heaviness. He seemed to be carrying an invisible, but impossibly heavy weight on his shoulders.

Even though he had barely known those people and had barely spent time around them. He had still been affected by their sudden passing in some way.

She found herself respecting that, because she couldn’t do the same, not truly.

Her entire life had been different.

She had been abandoned as a child and raised within an organisation that shaped her into an assassin, where she was taught that life was nothing more than a tool.

Something to be used and to be discarded as long as the proper benefits were presented to you. Those were the values she had grown up with, so she couldn’t feel the same weight.

Not like them. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Not like Maya.

She had been saddened, briefly, but it had passed just as quickly. Now, she felt normal again. She had thought that maybe after finding a dear friend in Maya, she would have been transformed a bit; now she knew she was unchanged.

And that was why she couldn’t completely understand Maya. Maya, who had grown into someone kind and compassionate. Someone, Zenovia had come to consider a friend over the past few months.

And yet...

Seeing her break down over people who had died inside a trial - It felt... illogical and foreign to her, though she would never say that out loud, that was simply how she saw it.

But now, after seeing even Elion like this... Someone she considered strong, it felt like a switch had been flipped inside of her.

She looked down at him.

At his peaceful expression as he slept against her.

’He’s only human, after all...’ she thought quietly.

He seemed like the type blessed with overwhelming talent. The kind of person who stood at the top simply because he could.

Unlike her, who had been forged into what she was.

Broken down and rebuilt, before being turned into a living weapon.

In her mind, entitled people like him would eventually break. But just as quickly, they recovered and went on with their path of conquest.

That was how geniuses were.

Her lips curved into a faint smile as she looked at him.

Strong, talented, handsome beyond imagination, and far beyond her in power despite being her junior.

She shifted slightly, pulling off her cloak and draping it gently over his body to keep him warm.

He stirred faintly, nestling more comfortably into her thighs.

"Rest Well." She whispered faintly into his ear.

She watched him for a while longer in the quiet of the night.

The cold air bit gently against her skin, her body clad in nothing but her tight suit, but she didn’t move.

She simply stayed there until eventually her eyes grew heavy, and without even realising it, she drifted off to sleep as well.