But what kind of reward should she give him?
Liyami pondered. Actually, this wasn’t a sudden thought that just came to her—it was something she had been considering for a while now.
After all, on their recent walks with Colin, he had always been the one paying, planning the routes, while Liyami merely enjoyed the benefits. This didn’t feel quite right. She wanted to return the favor somehow.
But what exactly did Colin want as a reward? Liyami recalled his hobbies: finely crafted weapons and armor? But Colin was wearing the Sanctuary Armor and wielding the Sanctuary Sword—gear once forged for a certain hero. Where could she possibly find anything comparable? That was definitely out of the question.
Having ruled that out, Liyami considered other options: an accessory with a powerful magical effect? Something like the ring Colin had given her? But did Colin really need such an item?
She remembered how Colin had taken a high-level demon’s self-destruction attack head-on, only ending up with a bit of soot on his face. That idea was quickly dismissed as well.
Hmm, what’s next… After running through all the ideas she could come up with, Liyami realized she had no idea what Colin truly needed.
After all, Colin had money, power, status, influence, equipment, and—most importantly—the strength to match it all! What could someone like him possibly want?!
After much deep thought, Liyami finally decided it would be better to just ask Colin directly. It was more practical than racking her brain alone and ending up with ideas he didn’t need at all.
Nodding to herself, Liyami looked up to meet Colin’s eyes. He had looked puzzled at her from earlier, and now, locking eyes with her, he finally voiced his curiosity: “What’s wrong? Is there something you want?”
“Is there anything you want lately?”
“What?”
Colin was momentarily stunned by her question and instinctively asked back, but then noticed the serious look in her eyes.
So, he put away his confusion and shared what he had been wanting recently.
“What I want lately… is your smile.”
Hearing this, Liyami froze. She looked at Colin in disbelief, about to ask what he meant. But his next words left her speechless.
“Of course, not just your smile. I want Sifni’s smile, Lora’s smile, Ryan and Rant’s smiles, Eirene and Lavinia’s smiles, even the smiles of the whole world. I want them all. But unfortunately, that’s impossible, right?”
Liyami didn’t know what to say because she felt Colin was genuinely thinking that way. She wondered what had happened to him recently to make him desire something so absurd.
But no matter whether Colin truly wanted it or not, Liyami couldn’t deliver the smiles of the whole world to him. All she could do now was… show him her own smile.
Thinking this, a flicker of doubt crossed Liyami’s eyes. She narrowed them slightly and looked at Colin, trying to find something off about him.
She suspected the long list of smiles might just be a way to hide his shyness. But she really couldn’t detect anything unusual from him. Whether Colin was hiding it well or really had no such thought, she couldn’t tell.
In any case, Liyami gave up on watching him further and instead began wondering how she could make her smile look even better.
Just then, Sifni walked over. She had calmed down and was ready to continue playing “The Great Adventurer.”
Seeing this, Liyami decided to put the matter of smiles aside for now and focused on starting the sixth round of “The Great Adventurer.” As before, she intended to maintain her winning streak!
But before they began, Sifni suddenly spoke up: “Wait, you two. Let me set this up first.”
With that, Sifni started drawing lines along the edges of the game map. At first, Liyami didn’t understand what she was doing, but as Sifni finished, she finally realized—Sifni was drawing a magic circle!
Colin looked puzzled and asked, “Why draw a magic circle? Is there something wrong with the game?”
It was unclear which word in Colin’s sentence triggered Sifni’s reaction, but she suddenly became excited and shouted, “There is a problem! Of course there’s a problem! Not just any problem, a big one!”
Hearing that, Colin immediately tensed. He stared at the game map on the table and asked Sifni what the problem was. But her answer left him a bit speechless.
“What problem? The problem is the winner! Why is Liyami always the one winning?! There must be something wrong! You must have done something to cheat all this time! But if you let me use this magic circle, all your tricks will be useless!”
Saying that, Sifni drew the final stroke of the magic circle. As soon as she finished, it glowed faintly, clearly activating.
Liyami wanted to say, “Is that really necessary?” but decided against it. After all, saying that aloud wouldn’t just be a simple question in Sifni’s ears. Liyami didn’t want to waste more time on pointless matters. She just wanted to start the game!
Colin was about to object, but seeing Liyami didn’t mind, he held back. And honestly, with the magic circle’s faint glow, the game looked cooler. That was something positive, at least.
With no objections, Sifni rubbed her hands together, full of anticipation as the round began.
Two hours later, Liyami’s laughter broke the surrounding silence.
“Hahaha! Eight wins in a row! I’m just too strong!”
She cheered happily, her smile making Colin pause in surprise. When he came back to his senses, he smiled too. That smile from Liyami was exactly what he had been wanting lately.
Just as Colin was feeling glad for her, he heard some rustling beside him. He turned to see Sifni, looking utterly perplexed.
“This… how is this possible? How can this be? This shouldn’t happen! A newbie player winning eight times in a row without cheating! How can this be real? This can’t be real…”
Looking at Sifni’s incredulous expression, then back to Liyami celebrating nearby, Colin recalled what he had told Liyami about the thing he wanted most recently. Didn’t that include Sifni’s smile too?
And seeing Sifni like this now… well, at least she still looked lively… right?