Quickly moving closer, Nikolas caught Clarisse within his arms and hoisted Clarisse upright, carrying her to the grass with surprising ease considering she was also wearing her backpack and carrying her gear. Pulling the backpack off, he let her lay down in the grass and knelt down next to her. Contrasting the panic from his partner, his eyes showed perfect composure as he supported the back of her neck with his hand and brought her other hand to his neck, the only bare skin showing across his attire.

  Clarisse was in utter panic even after Nikolas caught her, unaware of what his next move was going to be. Whatever he decided, she could do very little about it in her present disposition. Her vision had just begun to turn hazy when she felt the cold sensation of Nikolas’s skin, and then it began to clear up. “What’s happening?” she could hear her own voice at a very low volume now.

  “Automatic mana transfer,” Nikolas thought aloud, though he figured he didn’t have to explain what she was already feeling to her. He could tell from his own mana pool taking a dent that it was working, and that hers was recovering quickly.

  Another half minute passed, Clarisse could hear her own breathing and had control of her limbs again. “Woah…” she squeaked, realizing that his mana was compensating for the drastic drop-off she had been incapacitated by. It was an exhilarating feeling, taking in that much mana all at once, and it made her body process everything at a higher pace for a few moments. “That’s all your mana?” she asked, still laid down in the grass. It all felt strangely familiar to her.

  “Uhh…. sure. We’ve been doing this unconsciously before…” Nikolas nodded, finding this a good time to explain more on what their mana bond implied. “Every time we trained, and even when you were sick. Being close enough counts, but I was hoping skin contact would make it faster.”

  “It does… getting mana this fast is amazing!” the redhead smiled, piecing together how she recovered from her illness faster than usual and lasted way longer during training. Her strength returned soon after, and she pushed herself to sit upright. “What kind of potion was that?” she asked, looking over at the empty vial she had dropped on the ground before she fell.

  “I call it mana drain,” Nikolas answered succinctly, helping her sit up before sitting down beside her himself. “I made it by modifying a superior mana restore potion that I bought a while back.”

  Clarisse opened her mouth to question why he would ever prefer to have a mana drain potion over a full restore, but decided to leave it be in favor of a better question first. “Do you have any more of those? I’ll have to be careful about drinking your potions from now on…”

  “I carry a few on me for… reasons,” The kitsune let out a playful laugh, “Don’t worry, I won’t feed you anything actually harmful.”

  “Seems strange to have as an adventurer… Is it useful against many monsters?” Clarisse asked, wondering how he intended to make a monster drink it if that was his plan. A mana replenishing tool just seemed far more useful in almost any circumstance.

  Nikolas shook his head, letting out a sigh as he contemplated how to respond. It was better to rip off the band-aid, he decided. “No, that’s not what it’s for. It’s not good for adventuring at all, actually…”

  Clarisse remained silent, her eyes growing slightly wider in anticipation as she realized he was finally opening up.

  “Adventuring is just a side gig,” Nikolas admitted, his usually aloof character cracking and his ears lying flat on his head as he spoke. “My main job… I work with Sera and her associates. It would be better if you don’t ask exactly what I do…” He looked at Clarisse, concerned at how she would take his request. “All my skills are attuned to that line of work… though I’m not always busy with it. The work and pay with adventuring is just good enough to ward off curious minds like the people at the guild.”

  Clarisse’s smile remained as she pondered on his secret for a few seconds before grinning. “It’s Okay! You’ll trust me enough to open up about it one day, I’m sure of it. I won’t tell anyone about it either.”

  Nikolas tilted his head, looking at her with a lopsided smile from behind the mask and let out a sigh. “You trust people way too easily, you know that?”

  “What do you mean??” the redhead countered, giving him a playful push but finding that he was entirely immovable by her strength.

  “I just brought you out into an empty field, far outside the city and then drugged you with something which would be lethal if we didn’t have a mana bond,” Nikolas elaborated, gesturing towards the empty vial sitting in the dirt in front of them before slowly breaking into laughter. Her infectiously positive naivety was something which certainly got to him when all else didn’t. “I was expecting you to be terrified!”

  “Excuse me, but you have also saved my life more than once and nursed me back to health in the past week or so!” Clarisse replied, laughing with him. “Besides, I know you won’t do anything like that with bad intentions. Sera told me stories about you while you were gone – you’re kind of a local hero in this part of the country, tackling so many monsters and whatnot!”

  “Wait, how much did she tell you?” Nikolas shot back immediately, both slightly panicked and intrigued at what Sera may have let slip in the name of authentic storytelling.

  “Just your past quests. She told me you’ve killed cave trolls, gargoyles, and even hollows!” Clarisse smiled smugly as she recalled how entranced she had been back then, listening to Sera fly around the room narrating his tales. “I didn’t think too much of them until today… guess she wasn’t exaggerating at all if you really were holding back against Kaara.”

  “Ah, she told you that too… I have to remind her to stop doing that,” Nikolas was concerned, his ears lying flat on his head once more. “She can oversell me quite easily… she wasn’t lying, but I had my reasons to hold back in that fight. Even just the bit I did show caused so much suspicion.”

  “How are you still a bronze rank if you’re actually so strong, though? If you can beat a gold mage by holding back, shouldn’t you be a platinum or sapphire ranked adventurer?” Clarisse asked again, folding her legs into a more comfortable sitting position and turning towards him so she was leaning on the grass with just one elbow.

  “I fibbed the entrance exam to keep a low profile,” he admitted with a shrug. “It’s just a side job that gives me a place to stay during the day and heal from injuries if I need to. Silver is the ideal rank to coast at, but I wanted to play it safe and accidentally got put into bronze instead.”

  “Huh…” Clarisse reflected on his decision, thinking about what it meant for her as an adventurer, and if she was just a drag on his actual work. “If I decide to keep working as an adventurer full-time, what would you do?”

  “I’d rank up with you so we could go on adventures together!” Nikolas replied, the intonation of his voice and his ears sticking upright both betraying an unusual enthusiasm. “Ranking up quickly by myself would have looked suspicious so I avoided any chance of it, but if we’re going to do it together then I think I’ll take it seriously.”

  “That’s great! I like that plan,” Clarisse beamed, her smile as radiant as the sun, which had begun making its descent down to the horizon right as she was contesting its shine. “Is there anything else to our mana bond thingy or is it just mana sharing?”

  “Uhh… I don’t know yet,” Nikolas shrugged, which came as a surprise to his companion that there were things he didn’t know. “Right now the theory is that it’ll let you get better at your magic much faster than usual since you’ll have access to our shared mana pool, but we should probably find out more about it.”

  “Oh, right!” Clarisse was excited about that prospect, it would mean she would be able to rank up faster to go on cooler quests. “We could go to the city’s library and check if it has anything on mana bonds.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “I doubt the local library has anything relevant, but it wouldn’t hurt to try,” Nikolas agreed despite remembering how all of Atraxia itself had very little to say on the topic according to Sera. “We’re out here already, though. How about we go tomorrow?”

  “Sounds good!” She affirmed with a thumbs up, getting up from the grass as the Veil began to grow ever so slightly reddish above them. “How about some training today then? We still have some time before nightfall.”

  “Sure, if you’re up for it. Let’s begin with some ranged practice first?” Nikolas smirked, getting up and flexing his fingers into a ready state.

  By the time they were done, a noticeable number of patches in the plains outside the city had been burnt dry of their short grass, and Clarisse lay in the midst of one such patch, her hair gradually simmering from a blaze of glory to its normal form as she gazed up into the dark evening sky. Her sight was soon obstructed by a familiar mask, who stood above her offering a hand for her to take and get up. “Done for the day?” he asked, unfazed by it all.

  “Ugh- yeah,” Clarisse replied, taking his hand and helping herself up with a groan. “That felt like good progress. I need food…” she complained, and her stomach backed her up with a grumble.

  “Shirev’s?” Nikolas asked, grabbing his backpack from the safety of the sidelines. “I’d love some of that signature curry he makes right about now.”

  “Me too! Let’s get there before he closes for the day,” Clarisse replied, slinging her backpack on and picking up the vial she had dropped before. “Here, if you want to make another mana drain potion for some reason.”

  “It’s more useful in a pinch than you think.” Nikolas laughed as he pocketed the vial, and began walking alongside her back to the city.

  Once they had eaten their fill, the duo made their way back to Clarisse’s humble abode, where she had once more brought out a mattress for Nikolas to make his bed on before sneaking away to take a hot shower.

  She exited the bathroom in her nightgown – a sleeveless, frilly, white dress with flowery patterns embroidered into it in many layers all the way down to her ankles, and her hair wrapped in the shape of a bun by a towel to keep it from sticking to everything before she dried it properly. She heard Nikolas in the kitchen before she turned around to see him, this time sharpening his daggers with a small whetstone next to the sink. “Hey, are those the same daggers from your fight today?” she asked, leaning against the kitchen door to watch him.

  “Mhm,” Nikolas replied, his ears twitching to pick up her footsteps as she came in and spoke. “Gotta keep them sharp.” he commented, glancing back once at her before returning focus to his task. He had left a second whetstone to soak in water in one of her unused bowls, and picked it up to place on the sink before beginning to sharpen the blade.

  Each time the blades were slid across the whetstone’s sedimented surface, there was a distinctive sound which Clarisse found quite satisfying, enough that she chose to stand by and watch him go about his routine for a few minutes.

  Once he was satisfied with the dagger he was working with, Nikolas made a quick hand gesture and the contraption on his wrist responded by retracting the wire attached at the end of the blade into itself with a quick hiss, and soon the blade had disappeared completely as if it was never there.

  “Whoa – that was cool…” Clarisse commented, getting closer to take a peek at the contraption. “I’ve never seen anything like that. It looks like something I’d expect to see from the Salamandrake engineers.”

  “You like that? I built the original model with some help from a friend, but this is a newer version remade with better materials.” Nikolas let out a laugh as he raised his other arm and made a gesture to pop out the dagger hidden inside its contraption. “It responds to certain muscles in the forearm, and the string around my index too. The wire is compressed around my wrist so I can recall and extend it however much I like.”

  “Coming up with that… I know I’d be caught off guard if a dagger just appeared like that,” the redhead replied as she continued to watch him closely. “Does it ever misfire and just drop out when you don’t want to?” she inquired, undoing the towel holding her hair so she could dry it properly.

  “Not usually… there are very specific muscles…” Nikolas explained, looking up from the sharpening to notice her letting her hair down and drying it. For just a moment too long he found his eyes betraying him and lingering on her, before shifting back at the first sign of her noticing. “ –It only responds to certain gestures.”

  Clarisse did notice him looking, and smiled to herself about it as she continued to dry her hair. “Anything else you’d like to say?” she asked, hoping he wouldn’t continue acting as dense as he had the last time she had asked him what he thought of her.

  “. . .” Nikolas silently took in a deep breath while sliding his dagger’s edge over the whetstone, before glancing up to look at her. There was a moment of contemplation, and the words weren’t as natural as he would have liked, but he delivered a verdict nonetheless. “You look cute in that gown. The white is a good contrast with your long hair.”

  “Thanks! It’s my favorite nightdress.” Clarisse winked with a smug grin at finally getting him to compliment her attire in any way. “You should buy something to wear casually too – don’t you just have sets of the same outfit?”

  “Maybe someday… for now, I think it’s better if I stick to the functional theme.” Nikolas both agreed and put down her idea in the same stroke with a shrug.

  “Let me know whenever you’re interested, then. I’ll help you pick something prim and proper.” Clarisse replied, before climbing to sit on the kitchen counter next to him and smoothen out her hair. “How are your hands doing, by the way? It looked like you got seriously burnt by Kaara… I hope I didn’t make it worse with our training today.”

  “They’re fine,” Nikolas completed sharpening the second dagger, examining the tip and then flicking it back into the sheath with a deft gesture. “Kitsune have some degree of resistance to fire. The bandages are just there to protect them from dust and dirt while they heal.”

  “They look really tight despite being tied way back in the morning… you’re really meticulous with everything you do, Nik.” Clarisse complimented him, noticing how well the bandages clung to him while still allowing proper dexterity.

  “Thank you. I… I like to keep everything neat,” Nikolas replied with a pause, not expecting her observations or commendation. “Anyhow, I’m done with weapon maintenance. Wanna head back to your room?”

  Clarisse sat atop her bed, updating her sketches of Nikolas with the new features she had managed to spot during the day, adding in arrows to notes about how the contraptions on his arms worked. Occasionally she looked over the top of her diary to try and peek at him sitting below, organizing his backpack, for reference, and that’s when she noticed something off about one of his ears. “Nik, your ear is still injured!” she exclaimed softly, dropping the diary shut before quickly getting up.

  “Hmm?” Nikolas asked, caught off guard by her sudden concern. He raised his hands up to feel both his ears, and she was indeed right, much to his well-hidden frustration. A small singed cut remained near the tip of his left ear, something he had presumed would have healed itself. “Don’t worry about it!” He called out, but Clarisse had already pulled out first aid supplies from her bag.

  “I’ll patch it up, sit tight.” Clarisse told him, kneeling on the mattress next to him with a medical swab and a bandage despite his refusal.

  “It’ll be fine…” Nikolas tried to defend himself against her help by making his wounded ear fall flat against his head. “Just leave it be. It’ll heal by itself.”

  “But what if it gets infected…” Clarisse protested, already ripping the covering on the alcohol swab open so it was exposed to air. “Didn’t you tell me kitsunes had sensitive ears? Let me help you!”

  Seeing that she had already opened the swab and was quite resolute in her attempt to help him, Nikolas gave in and lowered his hands, slowly letting his ear rise up to show the triangular cut near its tip. “Alright, have at it.” he sighed, leaning forward so she could see it clearly.

  “Good,” The redhead leaned closer to inspect the wound. It still seemed like a fresh wound, yet somehow there wasn’t any active bleeding from the cut. She carefully dabbed it with the swab to clean it, chastising him when his ear moved involuntarily as she touched it. “Hey – Keep it still for me…”

  “Yes ma’am…” Nikolas sighed, surrendering himself to her until she was done with the swab. It all seemed irrelevant to him, but he understood that it wasn’t the same from her perspective.

  “Woe upon ye. Your daggers are too sharp and your coffers overflowing…”

  “Oh, shush, you. I’m just as surprised as you about this.”

  “So naive, both of you.”

  Clarisse carefully held the bandage over the wound, taking in a deep breath before sticking it in place all at once, and then sealing it in place by gently applying pressure. “There… done.” She leaned back, satisfied with her work.

  “Thanks,” Nikolas tried wiggling his ears to check if the bandage had stuck properly, and it seemed like it had. “You don’t need to worry about me like that, though.” he part-complained, part-reassured her.

  “It’s alright, you can lean on me sometimes too.” Clarisse refuted, extending her arm to pat his head for a few seconds before getting up to throw the used swab away.

  “H-hey!” Nikolas retracted his head from her once he realized what she was doing, “I guess that’s fine… but don’t just start patting me out of the blue!”

  “I’ll take my chances when I see them,” Clarisse giggled as she returned, walking over to the lamp lighting up the room. “I’m ready to sleep now… Goodnight?”

  “Yeah, goodnight.” Nikolas replied, shaking his head with a sigh as he slid downwards on the mattress to lie down. As the lamp dimmed and the curtains were drawn, soon the only sources of faint illumination in the room were the clock and his eyes.

  Thank you for reading!

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