Chapter 177: Where’s Your Key?

As Letia’s consciousness gradually cleared, she felt a vague sensation that someone was carrying her on their back, walking forward.

She tried to open her eyes, but due to her drunkenness, her vision was quite blurry, and she could see almost nothing.

The familiar scent at the tip of her nose also made her dimly understand what was happening.

It was Red.

At this thought, she closed her eyes again in peace.

Since it was Red, there was nothing to be afraid of.

Even if this guy really wanted to do something to her, at most he would just stroke her White Stockings.

However, before she could drift off to sleep again, Red spoke.

“You’re awake, right?”

“Yeah…”

Letia said mumble-mised, “But I don’t want to be awake. Let me sleep a bit longer…”

Although she hadn’t directly drunk the Water of Life, she had eaten many dishes drizzled with it.

Even though Letia’s alcohol tolerance was decent, it was more than she could handle.

So her head felt heavy and dizzy, and she truly didn’t want to wake up.

But her desire to stay asleep didn’t mean Red would let her continue slumbering.

“Hey, hey, hey… at least give me the key first. Otherwise, how am I supposed to move you inside?”

Red wiped the sweat from his forehead and sighed helplessly.

His good brothers, upon discovering that Letia was drunk, had all coincidentally pretended they had “something important to do” and left one by one.

Leaving Letia at the Pub was naturally impossible, so Red had no choice but to carry her all the way from the Riverside Tavern to the Dawnblade Stronghold.

It was worth mentioning that the straight-line distance between the two was three kilometers.

It was lucky that Letia was light enough and that he had a good physique; otherwise, carrying her this whole way would have exhausted him.

After all, anyone who has carried a person knows that carrying someone conscious and carrying someone unconscious are completely different things.

“Key?”

“Right. Even though it’s night, there are still plenty of people on the street. Think about it—a man fumbling all over a drunk girl… that scene would definitely have someone calling the guards, right?”

Red looked back out of the corner of his eye.

The girl’s eyes were hazy and misty, which was quite cute.

When she wasn’t being mischievous, Letia was indeed quite beautiful; there was no doubt about that.

So when their eyes met, Red awkwardly shifted his gaze elsewhere.

“Hurry up. Once I get you back to your Room, I need to go back and eat.”

Having said that, Litt seemed very busy lately and couldn’t return from the Church.

Perhaps she was working on the handover with the Substitute?

Letia rubbed her head.

Because of the drunkenness, she was a bit confused about the situation, and combined with the recent recurring Nightmares, she subconsciously thought she was Litt:

“Red, don’t you have a Key?”

“What nonsense are you talking?”

Red didn’t think much of it and merely sighed slightly.

“When I left the team, I already gave the Key back to Liz, alright?”

“Ah… Liz?”

Upon hearing that name, Letia opened her eyes slightly, and the hands wrapped around Red’s neck seemed to tighten a bit.

“Speaking of which, Red… if Liz apologized to you, would you come back?”

“No.”

Red’s answer was categorical, without a hint of hesitation, as if he were stating a conclusion long since decided.

“Man is never young twice, and a Broken Mirror is hard to Patch-up. Furthermore…”

He paused, his voice dropping lower, carrying a sort of weary clarity.

“I didn’t leave because I thought she did something wrong. It’s just… I’m tired. That’s all.”

“Is that so?”

Letia’s voice was still soft, but Red keenly noticed that her body pressed against his back seemed to relax ever so slightly, as if a hanging heart had quietly settled.

“Why are you suddenly asking that?”

Red tilted his head, trying to catch the expression on her face.

“After all… Liz specifically asked me to get close to you so you’d come back. She even said something like, ‘Ah~ even if the two of you become a married couple, as long as I can see you, I’ll be satisfied.'”

At this point, she seemed to be amused by the thought.

“In the end, you couldn’t possibly have any feelings for me, right, Red? This is just Liz’s wishful thinking.”

“…”

To her surprise, however, Red fell silent.

Looking back again, Letia’s face was still flushed red, ridiculously drunk.

From the bottom of his heart, to say he had absolutely no feelings at all… that was impossible.

Especially when he remembered her nearly confession-like words in the dim corridor of the Second Floor Twenty-Seven, and those eyes that remained bright in danger, filled with trust and a certain emotion he didn’t dare delve into.

Mason was right.

Compared to the illusory status of a married couple, perhaps being Heroic Companions who fought side-by-side and entrusted their lives to one another was the most solid and comfortable bond.

He couldn’t help but tilt his head again, looking at the flushed profile of her face resting right next to his shoulder.

Her eyes were tightly closed, and her breathing was steady and long, as if the words just now were truly just mutterings in a drunken dream.

Seeing this, Red secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

If it were normal, Letia, being as sharp as she was, would definitely have noticed something during his silence.

She would have worn that playful, annoying smile and leaned in to tease:

“Huh? Silent? You don’t actually have feelings for me, do you? No way, right? No way!”

“Stop focusing on that for now,” Red forced his drifting thoughts back, his voice sounding a few degrees stiffer than usual.

“Where is the Key? Where did you put your Key?”

By this time, the two of them had been standing at the entrance of the Dawnblade Stronghold for a long, long time.

Hearing Red’s repeated prompting, Letia seemed to be reminded.

She lazily reached out her hand and began fumbling in the pocket of her Priestess Robe.

She searched the left side; it was empty.

She made a confused “Hmm?” and then struggled to reach into the right pocket.

“Huh?” Her fumbling stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

A bad premonition rose in Red’s heart.

Letia’s voice carried the full weight of post-alcohol confusion and a bit of daze:

“The Key… it seems… I forgot it inside the house…”

“…What?”

Red was stunned where he stood.

“Normally, Liz and the others are here, so I naturally don’t bring the Key when I go out… but as it turns out, they’ve gone to the Dungeon now.”

“So that means the two of us can’t get in right now?”

After saying that, as if accepting her fate, the young girl slumped her face against Red’s back again and said gloomily:

“That’s what it means…”

“Don’t go back to sleep! Think of a way!”

Red tried to shake Letia awake, but Letia remained motionless, looking as though she were entirely at his mercy.

Looking at the high walls and iron gate in front of him, Red knew that while carrying someone, he wouldn’t be able to climb over unless he used Magic.

But in Nightbright Town, there were clear regulations prohibiting the use of Magic in the central area.

“Tsk… what do we do now?”