CHAPTER 59: LILI’S SUBTLE FEEDBACK.

After listening to Seraphina spend five minutes ranting, Killa finally gave in.

Scratching the side of his head, he spoke with a rather calm voice as opposed to his earlier assassination attempt.

"Honestly, why do I even bother..." he grabbed the mask on his face and slowly pulled it down.

Seraphina was pleasantly surprised to see the face behind the mask this whole time.

Even from a distance, his lips appeared soft, his lashes were longer than most women’s, and his golden hair danced behind him, simulating the sun’s rays.

Most men were known to have sharper jawlines; however, Killa’s face was slightly round, resembling that of a girl.

A bit disturbed, Seraphina leaned back a bit, her face purple with repulsion. "No way, are you even a dude?" she asked.

"Eh? Of course I am," Killa replied, using his hand to sweep his hair back. "Anyway, I have made up my mind not to kill Lord Aurelian, so please, stop looking at me like that. I am well aware I stand no chance if you were to come at me." His eyes focused on Maria, who was indeed giving him the death stare.

"If you knew this, then why did you still carry on your attack?" Seraphina placed herself in his line of sight.

"That’s pretty obvious, no? As a knight, I did what I must to make sure my lady comes out on top. Since that attempt failed, there is nothing more I could do."

Seraphina was about to argue when Maria called out tensely.

"Sera!"

Seraphina froze up before she turned around to look at Maria. After seeing the worried look on her face and seeing how tightly she was holding Dorian, she understood the message, without Maria having to say anything else.

Though, before she walked away, she glared at Killa for a while, and then uttered—

"Stay 50ft away from him. Or next time I won’t be so merciful."

To which Killa replied with a smile while walking towards his own master.

"Yes, yes, you have nothing to worry about."

With that, both groups attended to their leaders, carrying them into the room for assessment.

...

{Master? Master, can you hear me? Don’t tell me it happened again?}

{Did I take too much? I am sorry; this egg is really something. It keeps zapping, making it hard for me to pull away when I want to. Master? Mooo~ say something...}

The voice repeated in his head.

Slowly, Dorian could feel his consciousness slipping back into his body as he slowly opened his eyes.

Even before he took the time to understand what could have happened to him, he immediately responded to the voice.

’Lili... what happened?’

{Ah, good, you’re awake. The mana link stopped. So I’m guessing you fell unconscious again...}

Dorian’s gaze began to clear; he could see the single lantern dangling on the ceiling.

’Seems like it. What’s the update over there?’

{Well, it seems to like your mana a lot, that’s for sure. It’s growing rapidly; it has gotten bigger. At this rate, I doubt the water can keep it hidden for long.}

’I see. Are you getting any feedback on whether it would hatch? We don’t want it hatching just yet.’

{Umm, not really; while it is maturing, it’s going to take at least a few days before it hatches. Actually, we are quite lucky; the egg was well past mature. It would have hatched by itself if we didn’t step in.}

’Luck uhn...’ Dorian managed to sit upright. ’Once you notice my mana has been recharged, continue with the process.’

There was silence for a while.

{Master. I know your mana is what keeps the egg growing faster, but if you keep doing this, at some point, it’s going to damage you. Please allow me to use my mana.}

’You heard the crawler, no, any other mana will only be slowing down the inevitable. I am the only one that can fix this. I’ll be damned if I let a giant lizard ruin my hard work.’

{But...}

’And I am not dumb enough to do something that will kill me. You have nothing to worry about.’

Before he could hear what Lili still had to say, the connection was cut when Seraphina suddenly showed up from nowhere and hugged him.

"Lord Dorian!"

That was all he heard before her arms wrapped around him in a tight embrace.

He looked around the room and noticed at the other side of the bed was Maria, who was now slowly waking up from her sleep. Seraphina’s abrupt voice was most likely the cause of that.

’I didn’t even know they were sleeping next to me. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised we are sharing the same room after all.’

As Seraphina pulled away from the hug, she grabbed Dorian by the cheek, squeezing it tight with worry etched on her face.

"Are you alright? Do you feel pain anywhere? I wasn’t able to complete the mana transfer because my body gave out on me, so I was scared it didn’t work at all."

"I don’t know, but if you keep crushing my head like this, I am sure to die from it instead," Dorian uttered, his voice barely audible.

"Oh, sorry..."

Seraphina quickly moved her hand away, moving it behind her with a nervous look on her face.

Now able to catch his breath, Dorian placed his hand on Maria’s head, who was just waking, as a way to calm her down since he assumed the noise must have woken her up.

From his angle, he could not see that Maria’s eyes were open; as such, he was unable to tell that she was awake as well.

Seraphina, on the other hand, could fully see how red Maria’s cheeks were as Dorian was gently patting her head.

Even though she was awake, she refused to wake up and instead closed her eyes back to fake sleeping.

Watching with a deadpan look, Seraphina stayed silent for a while, clearly jealous but also in shock to see that a woman so strong in character could be so childlike when next to Dorian.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

Bang! Bang!