It wasn’t until they entered the room and sat down on the hard bed that Ilyas belatedly felt a massive wave of doubt regarding everything that had just happened.
“Celia,” she began hesitantly, “why… why did those people look at you with those kinds of eyes?”
The gazes they encountered along the way had made her very uncomfortable.
Although the focus was almost entirely on Celia — filled with surprise, scrutiny, and a certain kind of fervor she didn’t quite understand — Ilyas could clearly catch a hint of… envy whenever they occasionally glanced at her.
This only added to her confusion.
Celia paused while checking the door latch.
Without turning around, she merely let out a “tsk” sound.
“Children don’t need to know so much.”
“I’m not a child!”
Ilyas retorted subconsciously, her pale gold eyes looking at Celia earnestly.
“I’ll be an adult in a few days.”
Celia finally turned around, looking down at her from her height.
“Then that means you’re still a minor.”
Ilyas was choked up by the response, her cheeks warming slightly, yet she didn’t know how to continue the argument.
Seeing Celia’s expression of being too lazy to explain, she pursed her lips and suppressed more questions for the time being.
‘Since Celia won’t say, maybe… someone else will?’
“Alright, we’ll rest here tonight.”
Celia dropped the subject, pointing toward another room.
“Go take a bath. We’ll be traveling continuously after this, and the conditions won’t be as good as they are now.”
Ilyas nodded vigorously.
“Okay.”
After the two took turns washing away the fatigue and dust from their bodies and shared a simple meal of dry rations, they lay in each other’s arms on the narrow bed to sleep.
Ilyas drifted off into a deep slumber, surrounded by Celia’s cold yet reassuring scent.
Late at night, everything was silent.
In her sleep, Ilyas unconsciously rolled over.
Her arm habitually draped across Celia’s waist, and her calf lightly brushed against the elf’s ankle.
Almost instantly, she felt the body opposite her go rigid.
‘Was Celia having a nightmare?’
Ilyas wondered fuzzily.
In her half-asleep state, she reached out, instinctively wanting to pat Celia’s back to comfort her.
Her palm had just pressed against the thin shirt.
“Ugh!”
A very soft, yet clearly suppressed gasp came from above her head.
Ilyas’s sleepiness was instantly dispelled by that abnormal muffled groan.
She woke up, but she didn’t withdraw her hand.
Instead, she gave a tentative, gentle stroke.
She could clearly feel the muscles under her palm tighten like stone, even twitching slightly.
Celia’s breathing was obviously erratic, becoming short and careful.
An incredible thought flashed through Ilyas’s mind.
She lifted her head, looking at Celia’s face by the faint moonlight filtering through the window.
The elf’s eyes were still tightly shut, but her cheeks and the tips of her ears were flushed with a crimson that was clearly discernible even in the dim light.
‘She’s faking sleep.’
And… her reaction to being touched was a bit strange.
The images from earlier in the day suddenly connected — the stiffness whenever Celia held her…
‘Could it be that Celia is very sensitive?’
Ilyas’s heart raced for some unknown reason.
She reached out and directly grabbed Celia’s ample chest, giving it a squeeze.
“!”
Celia’s body jerked as if she had been hit by an electric shock, and a broken gasp escaped her throat.
She couldn’t take it anymore; she finally couldn’t keep up the act.
Her eyes snapped open, looking at Ilyas in a panic within the darkness, her gaze filled with embarrassment and pleading.
“I-Ilyas… don’t…”
Her voice was incredibly hoarse, carrying a tremor.
[**Title “Secrets Exposed” obtained**]
‘Damn, this shitty System has no sense of timing.’
As their eyes met, the air seemed to freeze.
Ilyas looked at Celia’s beet-red face and ear tips that looked like they were about to bleed.
Seeing the rare look of helplessness in her eyes, the suspicion in her heart turned into certainty.
“Celia,” she whispered, “are you… especially ticklish? Or…”
She paused intentionally, squeezing again and feeling the body beneath her stiffen once more.
“…Are you especially sensitive?”
Celia’s face turned completely red with a “whoosh.”
She abruptly turned her face away, wishing she could bury her entire self into the pillow.
Her voice came out muffled, filled with desperate shame.
“…Stop asking!”
This reaction was more powerful than any verbal admission.
Ilyas’s eyes widened, filled with wonder.
So that was it…
That powerful Dark Elf warrior who had saved her from danger actually had such a weakness in private?
Rather than feeling afraid or strange, a peculiar feeling rose within her.
“I’m sorry,” Ilyas apologized with her words, but her fingers were honest and gentle, stroking Celia’s back.
Like soothing a frightened little animal, she rubbed gently, over and over.
“I won’t move anymore, really. Go to sleep.”
She could feel that under her comforting touch, Celia’s body remained tense, but within that tension, there was strangely a sign of gradual relaxation.
A long time passed before Celia let out a soft “mm.”
She still didn’t dare turn her head back, merely curling herself up tighter, though she didn’t push away Ilyas’s hand resting on her back.
In the darkness, Ilyas quietly curled the corners of her mouth and buried her face back into the crook of Celia’s shoulder.
This time, she deliberately kept a little distance, only lightly touching her.
‘It’s really… great, Celia.’
Then, she fell into a deep sleep.
While the culprit Ilyas had fallen asleep, Celia didn’t feel the slightest bit sleepy now.
The places that had been touched were still faintly burning.
She lay there stiffly, constrained by Ilyas’s body and unable to move.
‘Right, the System! The title!’
She almost impatiently sank her consciousness into her mind, deliberately ignoring the various signals coming from her body.
On the panel, the number representing the quantity of titles had quietly jumped to “10” at some point.
‘I’ve collected enough?’
She didn’t even have the heart to think about which ten titles she had.
Her gaze swept quickly across the attribute panel.
Without any hesitation, she dumped all twenty free attribute points she had accumulated from her Hex Talent into Constitution.
**[Constitution: 120 → 140]**
A warm current emerged from deep within her body, instantly sweeping through her limbs and bones.
Aside from a clear increase in the feeling of strength, Celia suddenly noticed something different — that excessive sensitivity of her body seemed to have lessened accordingly.
‘I see. Increasing Constitution can offset the effects of High Sensitivity to a certain extent.’
Her heart settled, and she was immediately replaced by an even stronger sense of anticipation.
Having saved up ten titles, she could finally start her first Ten-fold Summons.
‘It’s my turn now. Start the draw.’
Celia growled in the depths of her consciousness, her will abruptly triggering the long-awaited option.
In an instant, her perception seemed to be sucked into a void of flowing light and vibrant colors.
Brilliance swirled before her eyes as a massive roulette wheel emerged, followed by it spinning wildly at an incredible speed.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.