“And what about my relationship with the captain?”
Looking at Gray, who had suddenly become assertive, his eyes burning hot enough to melt someone, the blonde girl blinked, her mind going blank for a moment.
‘Huh?’
‘Wait a second? That’s not how the script goes!’
‘Why are you directly confronting me like this?!’
Katy flipped the table in her mind:
‘This isn’t how light novels work!’
‘You should be like those standard wooden male leads. No matter how much I tease you and throw crazy hints, you should act like an insulator, blush, and say, “Miss Katy, you’re so kind!”‘
‘Then, with your gentle details, you gradually raise my affection, and finally, in some mysterious event where hearts pop out of my head, you unlock my special CG!’
Looking at Gray’s hand tightly gripping her own wrist, Katy was panicking inside because she felt this might be heading toward a Chaos-boosting Ai Cao Incident, but on the surface, she still wore an extremely calm expression.
‘Sigh, no helping it.’
‘It seems that for a Xiao Chunan who has never had a taste of this before, This Seat’s charm value is still overflowing too much, huh?’
‘Since going head-on won’t work, I have no choice but to use that one move!’
“Of course you can~”
“And I know what Mr. Gray wants, you know~”
Gray was stunned.
He had been mentally prepared to hear a panicked refusal or to be called a pervert, but he never expected her to agree so readily.
‘Could it be that Miss Katy also…’
However, before the ecstasy could surge in his heart, the girl gently stepped forward and held his hand in return.
She stood on tiptoe, as if comforting a startled large dog, and gently patted the dumbfounded Gray’s head.
“Mr. Gray wants me to be a ‘mom,’ doesn’t he?”
Gray heard the sound of his own reason evaporating in his brain.
“Ah, aah, aah?!”
Katy gently stroked his black hair while showing an understanding expression that said she understood and didn’t blame him.
“I remember you said you grew up in an orphanage, right, Mr. Gray?”
“And the first time we met, when you were eating the bread I gave you, you were so moved that you whispered ‘mom,’ you know.”
The girl leaned close to his ear, and her originally gentle whisper now sounded like a finishing blow to Gray.
“I’ve always remembered it. Mr. Gray back then was really pitiful.”
Gray felt like dying.
The shame of having his old dark history dug up and publicly executed made him want to find a hole to crawl into, or just use his newly acquired ability to give himself a quick end.
‘Please forget that slip of the tongue, Miss Katy!’
‘I hate you, past me! Why couldn’t I control my mouth?! It was just eating bread, why did I call out “mom”?!’
Looking at Gray’s face, which was red from his neck to his earlobes and even starting to steam, Katy, who had put on a “mom” attitude, nodded in satisfaction inwardly.
‘As expected of This Seat, this quick thinking is a stroke of genius.’
‘Not only did it defuse the confession crisis, but I also turned the tables. As expected of the 13th Calamity Pillar who can always handle this small fry Gray!’
She struck while the iron was hot, exerting a little force to push the mentally short-circuited Gray onto the sofa, then made him lie on his side and placed his head on her thighs.
“Mr. Gray worked hard today too, fighting a Calamity Pillar in the labyrinth and protecting civilians. You must be exhausted, right?”
“Just rest well here. Katy will stay with you.”
After saying the understanding Loli Mama lines, the girl’s peripheral vision caught sight of herself in the floor mirror: a petite blonde beauty holding an adult male’s head in her arms, gently comforting him.
That scene—
‘Cough, it seems my face is a little red.’
‘This is really too good for Gray, this small fry! To actually get a headpat kill and lap pillow from a high-level beauty Loli Mama like this!’
‘If this could be auctioned at the Commerce Guild, the price should be enough for Katy to not worry about food or clothing for the rest of her life, or even her next life, right?’
At this moment, Gray, lying on Katy’s thighs, felt his body as stiff as a board.
But with the faint fragrance lingering at the tip of his nose and the incredible softness and warmth coming from his nape, the tense nerve in his heart actually began to slowly relax.
‘Forget it. Eve said that feelings are not something you can rush.’
‘Even though being taken for a pervert who wants a mom is embarrassing, this treatment…’
Gray adjusted his posture slightly, and his cheek accidentally brushed against the delicate skin of the girl’s inner thigh.
‘So soft.’
‘A lap pillow from Miss Angel. Is this what heaven feels like?’
“Mr. Gray?”
Feeling the touch on her thigh, Katy’s body trembled slightly, but she endured the shame and didn’t push him away.
Instead, she covered his eyes with her hand.
“Sleep. Tonight, I won’t leave.”
“Um, Miss Katy.”
Gray’s voice came muffled from under her hand.
“Your heart is beating so fast. I can hear it from here.”
Katy, whose sore spot had been poked, bristled instantly like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
“Nonsense! Mr. Gray must be too nervous and hearing his own heartbeat!”
‘R-right?’
Gray thought dazedly that maybe he really was too excited.
After all, with his head resting on his own beautiful girl captain’s thighs, it would be abnormal if his heart didn’t race.
In the warmth emanating from the girl and that reassuring scent, the fatigue accumulated in the labyrinth surged like a tide.
Before long, Gray’s breathing became steady and deep.
After confirming that this guy was really asleep, Katy let out a long sigh and removed her hand from his eyes.
‘Jeez, you scared me to death.’
She looked down at Gray, who was sleeping defenseless on her lap.
Asleep, he had shed his usual seriousness and the aggressiveness from earlier, and actually looked a bit like the boy next door.
His thick eyebrows were relaxed, eyelashes—
‘How are this guy’s eyelashes so long?… One, two, three…’
Katy couldn’t help reaching out to count them, and a gentle curve unconsciously tugged at the corner of her mouth.
‘Even though he’s an idiot, a small fry, a hero who almost pushed me into a corner, being trusted like this wholeheartedly doesn’t feel bad.’
‘Yeah, this is the feeling of a Calamity Pillar conquering a human hero! That’s right!’
Knock, knock, knock.
At that moment, an abrupt knock sounded.
Katy jolted, and the smile on her face instantly vanished, replaced by vigilance and killing intent.
‘Who could be coming at this time?’
‘Is it a Military Department agent Ingram mentioned?’
‘Or is it someone from the Church coming to arrest Gray?’
‘Whoever it is, if they dare disturb This Seat’s rest time while handling this small fry, they’re asking for death—’
Before she could finish her thought or make any response, the doorknob turned.
The door, which she had clearly locked, was easily pushed open.
Katy instinctively raised her hand, gathering a high concentration of Light Element in her palm, ready to unleash a Flash Burst at the intruder.
But the moment she made out the figure in the doorway, the light in her hand instantly extinguished, and she froze completely.
It was a tall, alluring woman wearing a mysterious veil that blocked her vision.
Even the slightest hint of pressure that leaked out from the aura she had deliberately suppressed to the extreme was enough to make Katy feel oppressed.
The Demon King.
“Ara ara.”
The woman closed the door behind her and walked gracefully into the room.
Behind her veil, her captivating purple eyes swept over the frozen Katy with interest before finally landing on the hero sleeping soundly on her lap.
“Good morning, Lord Noctiluca. Is my timing off?”
The Demon King’s voice carried a hint of sarcasm and amusement.
“It seems your relationship with the Righteous One is much more harmonious than I expected.”
Katy looked down at the man in her arms, then up at her superior at the door.
‘I’m screwed.’
‘Now I really can’t clear this up even if I jump into the Lethe River!’
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