"Woah, woah," Ellis sprung from his chair. "What are you talking about?"
Stefan frowned. "What do you mean? The kid is okay with it, I'm okay with it, then we're going to quest at Alaris."
"It's two-to-two. You're not even drunk yet, how did you forget how to count?"
"Two-to-two?" Stefan turned to Evelyn. "Aren't you forgetting someone?"
Ellis tilted his head. "You can't be serious…"
Evelyn noticed everybody's attention on her.
Stefan smirked. "So, what do you say, sword girl?"
"What the hell did you just call me?"
Michael suddenly cleared his throat. "If Ellis and Mave aren't willing to go, then we don't have to take the quest—"
"Look at this!" Stefan gestured to Michael. "How could you let a fourteen year old kid be more ambitious than you?"
"I'm fifteen—"
"You would rather sit comfortably at home, and leave the innocent lives of Alaris in peril?"
"Yes." Mave said as she walked back upstairs.
Ellis sighed again. "Whatever is going on in Alaris is none of our concern. Just let the other guilds deal with it. If we're going to take that quest, then we're only going to be scrambling ourselves into that problem."
Stefan frowned. "You're just doing it for the money."
"And you're not?"
"I'm doing it so our guild can prosper. Of course, money can be the issue but we're just going to be wasting our skills by being holed up in this house. Wait for assigned quests? What are we, a bunch of mercenaries?"
"It's a collective quest, Stefan, don't you understand? Don't you think what happened at Almore with you and Rowe would happen again?"
"Oh, so I'm the problem here?"
Evelyn nudged Michael's arm.
Michael turned to her, breaking his eyes away from the persisting argument between Stefan and Ellis.
"Attic."
"Okay."
He followed her hand as the voices drowned under him. Whatever the two were arguing about, he felt like it was irrelevant for him to listen. It was still in the morning, a few hours until they would embark on another quest. But seeing their hand has been run dry of lately, he would just take the chores of the house and run errands.
Evelyn pulled him back to his bedding and laid them beside each other. She wrapped her arms around his body and pressed her face into his chest. It even felt like she was trying to inhale his scent.
Michael laid quietly in her warm embrace. Though the pain on his back subsided, there were still some discomfort when she held him tighter. But there was no kissing involved, unfortunately because of Michael's self-proclaimed challenge.
She exhaled, breathing soundly on his chest. Was she trying to fall asleep after having that big of a meal? Michael wondered if any other ego sword had the same appetite as her.
He shivered, feeling a warm hand slip under his shirt. He peeled away her arm before she could escalate any ideas.
Evelyn pouted and moaned in protest. "You never let me do anything…"
"I…" Michael felt his heartbeat spiraling out of control. He wondered if she could feel it too, judging how close she was to his chest.
"We kissed before, why are you so scared of me touching you? That's not breaking your rule, right?"
"It's—still breaking the rule."
"But it isn't the same as kissing. I don't like it when you make up new rules, Michael."
"No, Evelyn, I mean like…"
"Like what? Oh, you mean like that?"
Michael tried to hide his flustered face.
She softly giggled. "That's still unfair."
"I know, and I'm sorry. But I can't just let myself go. It would look embarrassing for me to give up that early."
"Embarrassing to who, Michael?" she faced him with her golden eyes. "Just let that stupid challenge go already. What's the point in it anyways? You're just pissing me off every day and night."
Michael forced himself to look away from her alluring face. No matter how tempting, no matter how beautiful, and no matter how desperate he was going to become, he wouldn't submit himself too easily.
This challenge was specifically made for him. If he was going to throw it all away, then he might as well call his entire journey as an adventurer a joke.
He turned over to the ceiling, successfully resisting her trap.
She lazily groaned. "You're not giving this up, are you?"
"I'll make it, Evelyn, I'm going to win."
"You sound stupid."
"I promise you can do anything with me when I win."
She raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
"Really."
She turned over and sat over him, weighing him down with her weight.
He didn't know what she was trying to pull here.
"You said anything? That means literally anything that I want? With your body?"
Michael gulped. Was this a bad idea? Did he just sign himself up for something terrible? But he still nodded.
Evelyn pressed his cheeks together. "Then, it's a promise! I'll hold myself back for you until you win. But when you do, you don't get to object to anything I say!"
"Umm," he moved her hands away. "Okay."
She grinned, an expression that looked too suggestive for a girl like her.
He thought he should at least feel relieved. Recalling from all the other days she's tried to sneakily kiss him or force herself onto him, it would have been a great breather if she stopped. Though that tension between them could only grow in silence if she really did stop.
Like a dam trying to hold back a fearsome wave, waiting to crash into an unaware town. That town was going to be Michael's nature.
Ellis opened the attic hatch. "Hey, Michael, we're going to—"
They both turned, frozen in the position the two were in. Whatever they looked like was nothing more than the unordinary.
Ellis didn't say anything. He just lowered himself and averted his eyes away, then closed the attic hatch after.
Michael quickly pushed Evelyn off of him and flung open the hatch and ran downstairs. How did people always find themselves in between him and Evelyn at the most wrong moments? More importantly, why didn't anyone knock and let him know they were coming up? His privacy was just as valid as theirs, they shouldn't barge into his business unannounced.
He's alone with a sword that can transform into a girl, what else could they possibly expect?
His reputation was already being ruined within the party. He didn't want Ellis to be awkard around him. He was already tired of Stefan cracking inappropriate jokes with him and Evelyn. Being seen as some indecent couple was too much to handle.
Ellis stood in the living room, obviously shocked like he had seen someone die in front of him. He didn't even manage to look in Michael's direction.
"We weren't—" Michael hesitated, his face and ears turning red. "It's not what you think!"
Stefan and Mave turned to his sudden voice. His vision had tunneled out so much, he didn't even notice the two standing at the other side of the room.
Stefan finished strapping on his armor. "Go ahead and get ready, kid, we're about to move out."
Michael nervously nodded. He walked back up to the attic and hoped that this embarrassing memory could be forgotten. Maybe he should take some of that money he earned from the root giant and invest in a lock for the attic hatch, then he wouldn't have this problem again.
Evelyn was sitting over his bedding, waiting for him to climb up. Michael wished he also had the power to read thoughts because he wanted to know what that smile could mean.
He rummaged through his chest, ignoring her expression, and pulled out the new armor Stefan had bought him. The leather was darker than what he had before, along the lining of the straps and the texture felt more refined. He never knew how much this would have cost but it was made custom for him.
Michael wore sturdy leather cuirass that latched to his back, keeping the sheath behind him still, and tight bracers for each arm and shoulder. Everything else looked ordinary from his old armor but was able to last longer. Michael felt like he was a whole different person.
Evelyn popped behind him, poking her finger through the gaps in his back. She didn't look as impressed as him. Knowing their bad experiences with quests, Michael was probably going to get himself in some unnecessary action.
He turned around and held her hand. "You okay?"
"I should be asking you that."
She was right. Figuring out that they were riding away from home, she was most likely going to spend the entirety of the quest as a sword. It was basically the same situation back at Almore. Though she said the experience didn't really bother her at all since spending every night in his room made up for it.
The difference is, they couldn't get intimate no matter how much she wanted. It was safe to say that both of them were definitely not okay.
He felt around her hand. "I'm going to do whatever I can for the quest, for the party, and for me."
"Does that include you hauling around horse poop?"
"Uhh…I guess?"
"You make it sound like you enjoy that."
"No—Evelyn," he shook around her hand. "A quest is a quest, it's what all the adventurers do. You…do you not like it when we go on quests?"
"I don't like it when you find new ways to kill yourself. What if you never finish your stupid challenge by then? Am I supposed to play with your dead body?"
"You're still worried about me?"
She held his hand tighter. "I'm always worried about you. It's unfair, you never prioritize yourself over me. And I can't change your mind about that either."
"But I am prioritizing myself. My stupid challenge was for me, so that I can finally win a fight—"
"For you?" she poked his chest. "It was never for you, Michael, do you really think I would believe that? Everything you've done was for me. In order to protect Evelyn, right?"
He felt a lump in his throat. She was right, she's always been right about him. Why was she trying to mix around his emotions before a quest? Didn't they have this conversation before?
"We're waiting, kid!" Stefan's voice shouted from below. "Trying on your new armor with a few extra steps, are we?"
Evelyn flashed back into a sword before he could muster a response. He couldn't tell if she was mad at him now even if their argument sprouted from nowhere. Maybe this was the drawback of not having a kiss for a week.