Huh? Oh… I think… it’s about time to wake Miss Salroze up, but… Narias was just barely keeping himself awake.
He was counting numbers in his head all this time to try and track the two hours mark. In all honesty, he wasn’t sure how much time had passed exactly. As it turned out, simply counting numbers was much more difficult than he thought it would be. His mind would drift to some thought, or some memory of the past, and he’d forget he was counting numbers for a brief moment. Then he’d try to remember what was the last number he had stopped at and continue onward. More often than not, he’d go back to much earlier number than he thought it was. As a result, he kept the watch for much longer than two hours.
Narias was tired himself, so it took him much more effort to stay awake, or to keep track of the numbers he was counting. Still, he wanted to make sure the teacher would have enough rest too. She was the person who would have to protect them if something was to go wrong, so Narias wanted her to be in the best shape possible.
Having said that, Emilia was still leaning at Narias fully asleep. She had her arms wrapped around his for a more comfortable nap. If he was to go wake Miss Salroze up, there was a good chance he’d wake the sleeping beauty next to him too. Narias wanted to avoid that, because it was difficult for Emilia to fall asleep in the first place.
Sigh… What to do? Narias was trying to think of something. Oh, maybe I could wake up Growly instead and let Miss Salroze sleep for a while longer.
“Hey, Growly,” he called out to the furry beast-boy who was laying on the ground only a short distance away.
“Hmph?” surprisingly, it was enough to wake his friend up. “Yes?”
“Sorry to wake you up, Growly,” Narias said in a quiet voice. “Could you keep watch for a while? I had to wake Miss Salroze up, but… I didn’t want to shout, so I wouldn’t wake everyone else. Emilia had trouble falling asleep and if I were to move…”
“I understand. It’s ok. You sleep too,” Growly didn’t object.
“By the way, would you mind… covering Miss Salroze with my blanket as well? I left it over there. She doesn’t have one it seems. Yaaawn…” Narias asked his friend, but then yawned from being overly tired.
“Ok,” the chubby bear boy didn’t mind. “But what about you?”
Narias didn’t answer. His body was fighting to force him to fall asleep for a while now. So, when someone else was finally up, Narias could relax. As a result, his body took the opportunity to knock him out cold, so it could get so much needed rest. Narias was sound asleep in an instant.
{after a few more hours}
Huh? I think Growly asked me something. What was it again? Narias tried to remember what was the last thing that Growly tried to say to him. Huh? My body feels stiff for some reason.
He opened his eyes and saw Miss Salroze, Growly and Lilna awake, quietly talk about something at the other end of the room.
“Good… morning?” Narias greeted them, not knowing what time of the day it was.
Lilna, his classmate, gave him a smile, but didn’t say anything. Miss Salroze threw him a mild glance, but then averted her gaze away for some reason.
“Hi,” Growly was the only one who greeted him back in his usual manner.
Right, there’s no way to know whether it is morning or evening. My greeting must’ve sounded strange. Narias thought their reaction was related to his greeting. Well, it’s time to… Huh?
Narias thought he’ll get up and stretch, but for some reason, he felt like he was clamped in one spot on the ground. At first, Narias thought his body was still stiff due to it not being fully awake yet, but after another tug, it was evident he was actually being held by something or someone from both sides. He couldn’t get up.
Wha… Flavia? After looking to the side, Narias saw the charming bunny girl sitting next to him, hugging his arm. Wait, what about E… Emilia?
He saw Emilia still sitting next to him on the opposite side, cuddling to him just like she was before Narias fell asleep. He looked at the other party members after looking in front of him and instantly realized that it wasn’t his greeting that made Miss Salroze and Lilna give him those ‘strange’ looks.
Right… this is… He was trapped so to say. Are they… still asleep?
“Flavia? Emilia?” Narias called out to them quietly, thinking they could still be sleeping.
But with each girl’s name pronounced out loud, Flavia’s ears flickered just lightly and Emilia reacted by gently adjusting her head position. Both girls kept their eyes closed, though.
“Sigh… You aren’t asleep, are you?” he said in a normal, loud voice.
“Ah… good… morning,” Emilia straightened up, acting like she had just woken up.
“Oh, is it… morning already?” Flavia tried to put on an act of her own, but was yet to release Narias from her clutches.
What are they… Oh, man… He wasn’t entirely surprised about it.
The embarrassing part was that everyone else in the group, including the party’s guide, was awake and saw Narias being hugged by the two girls from the opposite sides.
“Do you mind… letting go of me, please?” Narias asked politely, yet had an embarrassed, awkward smile on his face.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Emilia exclaimed, after realizing she was still holding onto Narias’ arm.
“I…” Flavia on the other hand, was unwilling to let go of her boyfriend just yet.
“Flavia?” he turned his head to face her.
“Well… Growly said… Emilia was holding on to you for much longer, so…” the charming bunny girl rolled her eyes while pouting her lips at the same time. She looked adorably cute.
“Growly?” Narias looked up to face the chubby bear boy.
“Flavia woke up some time after you fell asleep. She wanted to be closer to you,” Growly explained.
So that’s what happened. Narias realized his bunny girlfriend was probably feeling a bit jealous.
“I think… I think you misunderstood, Flavia. Emilia was afraid of falling asleep. I simply kept her company, so she would feel safe,” Narias explained.
“Ok, but then… I was scared too,” said Flavia, but they both knew there was a completely different reason why she cuddled close to Narias.
“But you’re fine now, right? How about we eat something before moving out?” Narias suggested.
“Food,” Growly was already munching on his snacks.
The rest of the group were eager to have something to eat as well. Flavia, remembering that she was hungry too, finally let go of Narias and rushed to dig inside her backpack for something tasty to put in her mouth. Narias went to get his own bag, but was stopped by Miss Salroze before he was about to reach it.
“Hey, why didn’t you wake me up just how I asked you to?” the teacher asked him with a hint of anger in her voice.
“Oh, I apologize for that, Miss Salroze. You looked tired and so, I wanted you to get more rest,” Narias explained with a smile.
“That’s not a problem. I’m… tougher than I look,” she said, but at the same time, tried to hide the fact she was feeling grateful. “What about you? You ended up short on sleep yourself.”
“Ah… I feel fine. I had… enough rest, really,” he rubbed the back of his head, remembering how comfortable his sleep actually was.
“Did you now? Sigh… Here,” the teacher extended his blanket to him. “Growly said it belongs to you.”
“Yeah, thank you, Miss Salroze,” Narias took the blanket from the violet-haired teacher who wasn’t willing to look directly at him for some reason.
The whole group had a few hours of good sleep. The students and the teacher were rested enough to continue their dungeon exploration. Nobody knew exactly how long they had been inside the Magic Dungeon till now. Including the sleep time. That didn’t matter much, though. The party was eager to keep going.
Unfortunately, the Supply Point they have found was a dead end. So, the group had to backtrack to the cave room which had more than one entrance. No monsters were in sight while on the way back. No creatures have respawned yet, even with the boss monster still being alive.
“Hey, I think this is the room where we took the turn from the other side,” Flavia pointed out after they have reached a cave with several intersections to choose from.
“Yeah, I think this is the one,” Narias agreed with her.
“So, which path do we take? There are three of them,” the bunny girl wanted to know.
“Let me see. We’ve come out of this one, so the first path on the left must be the one we came from to reach this room. That means, we should take one of the paths to our right,” Narias made a deduction.
“Alright, let’s go,” Flavia was itching to keep going.
They hadn’t encountered any monsters, but everyone was being careful. As before, Growly and Flavia were walking at the front with Narias walking right behind them. Emilia and Lilna stayed a few steps behind and Miss Salroze was all the way at the back. Narias slowed down his steps momentarily, so Emilia could catch up to him.
“Hey Emilia, how are you doing?” he was worried about her.
“Huh? Oh, Narias?” it almost looked like she didn’t expect to see him appear next to her all of a sudden. “I’m… fine. Thank you for asking.”
“Sorry, did I startle you?” it wasn’t his intention to do so.
“No… I mean… I’m sorry I… I was thinking about something and… didn’t notice you near me,” Emilia apologized, after stroking her hair to the side.
“Thinking about something?” Narias repeated her words as a question.
“It’s nothing,” she answered so fast, the answer sounded like it was ready beforehand. But then Emilia became embarrassed about how rude it might’ve sounded. “Oops, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so rude.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he wasn’t offended or anything. “Did you have a good rest? I’m sorry, I fell asleep after a while, so…”
“Yes, I did. Thank you… for asking and… letting me sleep… next to you,” Emilia’s cheeks sparkled with an icy flush.
“Anytime… Huh? Sorry… I’m glad to hear that,” this time it was Narias who became embarrassed.
Part of the reason was because he caught Belinda staring at him for some reason. The teacher quickly averted her gaze as soon as their eyes have met. Narias tried to smile at the athletic, short haired female teacher, but she wasn’t looking at him anymore.
“Hey, I hear something,” Flavia suddenly announced.
There was no more time for small talk. The group was back in business again. Or back at fighting monsters again, to be more exact. A few level two Fanged Wolves showed up in front of the students. Flavia and Growly charged forward, with Narias rushing to assist them.
━━━━━━━━━
Thank you for reading. Leave a comment and favorite the chapter if you enjoyed it.
Read 10+ extra chapters on my Patreon – Extra Chapters on Patreon
━━━━━━━━━
Extra thanks to nonomo4 and Lynderyn for their support and help.
Huh? Oh… I think… it’s about time to wake Miss Salroze up, but… Narias was just barely keeping himself awake.
He was counting numbers in his head all this time to try and track the two hours mark. In all honesty, he wasn’t sure how much time had passed exactly. As it turned out, simply counting numbers was much more difficult than he thought it would be. His mind would drift to some thought, or some memory of the past, and he’d forget he was counting numbers for a brief moment. Then he’d try to remember what was the last number he had stopped at and continue onward. More often than not, he’d go back to much earlier number than he thought it was. As a result, he kept the watch for much longer than two hours.
Narias was tired himself, so it took him much more effort to stay awake, or to keep track of the numbers he was counting. Still, he wanted to make sure the teacher would have enough rest too. She was the person who would have to protect them if something was to go wrong, so Narias wanted her to be in the best shape possible.
Having said that, Emilia was still leaning at Narias fully asleep. She had her arms wrapped around his for a more comfortable nap. If he was to go wake Miss Salroze up, there was a good chance he’d wake the sleeping beauty next to him too. Narias wanted to avoid that, because it was difficult for Emilia to fall asleep in the first place.
Sigh… What to do? Narias was trying to think of something. Oh, maybe I could wake up Growly instead and let Miss Salroze sleep for a while longer.
“Hey, Growly,” he called out to the furry beast-boy who was laying on the ground only a short distance away.
“Hmph?” surprisingly, it was enough to wake his friend up. “Yes?”
“Sorry to wake you up, Growly,” Narias said in a quiet voice. “Could you keep watch for a while? I had to wake Miss Salroze up, but… I didn’t want to shout, so I wouldn’t wake everyone else. Emilia had trouble falling asleep and if I were to move…”
“I understand. It’s ok. You sleep too,” Growly didn’t object.
“By the way, would you mind… covering Miss Salroze with my blanket as well? I left it over there. She doesn’t have one it seems. Yaaawn…” Narias asked his friend, but then yawned from being overly tired.
“Ok,” the chubby bear boy didn’t mind. “But what about you?”
Narias didn’t answer. His body was fighting to force him to fall asleep for a while now. So, when someone else was finally up, Narias could relax. As a result, his body took the opportunity to knock him out cold, so it could get so much needed rest. Narias was sound asleep in an instant.
{after a few more hours}
Huh? I think Growly asked me something. What was it again? Narias tried to remember what was the last thing that Growly tried to say to him. Huh? My body feels stiff for some reason.
He opened his eyes and saw Miss Salroze, Growly and Lilna awake, quietly talk about something at the other end of the room.
“Good… morning?” Narias greeted them, not knowing what time of the day it was.
Lilna, his classmate, gave him a smile, but didn’t say anything. Miss Salroze threw him a mild glance, but then averted her gaze away for some reason.
“Hi,” Growly was the only one who greeted him back in his usual manner.
Right, there’s no way to know whether it is morning or evening. My greeting must’ve sounded strange. Narias thought their reaction was related to his greeting. Well, it’s time to… Huh?
Narias thought he’ll get up and stretch, but for some reason, he felt like he was clamped in one spot on the ground. At first, Narias thought his body was still stiff due to it not being fully awake yet, but after another tug, it was evident he was actually being held by something or someone from both sides. He couldn’t get up.
Wha… Flavia? After looking to the side, Narias saw the charming bunny girl sitting next to him, hugging his arm. Wait, what about E… Emilia?
He saw Emilia still sitting next to him on the opposite side, cuddling to him just like she was before Narias fell asleep. He looked at the other party members after looking in front of him and instantly realized that it wasn’t his greeting that made Miss Salroze and Lilna give him those ‘strange’ looks.
Right… this is… He was trapped so to say. Are they… still asleep?
“Flavia? Emilia?” Narias called out to them quietly, thinking they could still be sleeping.
But with each girl’s name pronounced out loud, Flavia’s ears flickered just lightly and Emilia reacted by gently adjusting her head position. Both girls kept their eyes closed, though.
“Sigh… You aren’t asleep, are you?” he said in a normal, loud voice.
“Ah… good… morning,” Emilia straightened up, acting like she had just woken up.
“Oh, is it… morning already?” Flavia tried to put on an act of her own, but was yet to release Narias from her clutches.
What are they… Oh, man… He wasn’t entirely surprised about it.
The embarrassing part was that everyone else in the group, including the party’s guide, was awake and saw Narias being hugged by the two girls from the opposite sides.
“Do you mind… letting go of me, please?” Narias asked politely, yet had an embarrassed, awkward smile on his face.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Emilia exclaimed, after realizing she was still holding onto Narias’ arm.
“I…” Flavia on the other hand, was unwilling to let go of her boyfriend just yet.
“Flavia?” he turned his head to face her.
“Well… Growly said… Emilia was holding on to you for much longer, so…” the charming bunny girl rolled her eyes while pouting her lips at the same time. She looked adorably cute.
“Growly?” Narias looked up to face the chubby bear boy.
“Flavia woke up some time after you fell asleep. She wanted to be closer to you,” Growly explained.
So that’s what happened. Narias realized his bunny girlfriend was probably feeling a bit jealous.
“I think… I think you misunderstood, Flavia. Emilia was afraid of falling asleep. I simply kept her company, so she would feel safe,” Narias explained.
“Ok, but then… I was scared too,” said Flavia, but they both knew there was a completely different reason why she cuddled close to Narias.
“But you’re fine now, right? How about we eat something before moving out?” Narias suggested.
“Food,” Growly was already munching on his snacks.
The rest of the group were eager to have something to eat as well. Flavia, remembering that she was hungry too, finally let go of Narias and rushed to dig inside her backpack for something tasty to put in her mouth. Narias went to get his own bag, but was stopped by Miss Salroze before he was about to reach it.
“Hey, why didn’t you wake me up just how I asked you to?” the teacher asked him with a hint of anger in her voice.
“Oh, I apologize for that, Miss Salroze. You looked tired and so, I wanted you to get more rest,” Narias explained with a smile.
“That’s not a problem. I’m… tougher than I look,” she said, but at the same time, tried to hide the fact she was feeling grateful. “What about you? You ended up short on sleep yourself.”
“Ah… I feel fine. I had… enough rest, really,” he rubbed the back of his head, remembering how comfortable his sleep actually was.
“Did you now? Sigh… Here,” the teacher extended his blanket to him. “Growly said it belongs to you.”
“Yeah, thank you, Miss Salroze,” Narias took the blanket from the violet-haired teacher who wasn’t willing to look directly at him for some reason.
The whole group had a few hours of good sleep. The students and the teacher were rested enough to continue their dungeon exploration. Nobody knew exactly how long they had been inside the Magic Dungeon till now. Including the sleep time. That didn’t matter much, though. The party was eager to keep going.
Unfortunately, the Supply Point they have found was a dead end. So, the group had to backtrack to the cave room which had more than one entrance. No monsters were in sight while on the way back. No creatures have respawned yet, even with the boss monster still being alive.
“Hey, I think this is the room where we took the turn from the other side,” Flavia pointed out after they have reached a cave with several intersections to choose from.
“Yeah, I think this is the one,” Narias agreed with her.
“So, which path do we take? There are three of them,” the bunny girl wanted to know.
“Let me see. We’ve come out of this one, so the first path on the left must be the one we came from to reach this room. That means, we should take one of the paths to our right,” Narias made a deduction.
“Alright, let’s go,” Flavia was itching to keep going.
They hadn’t encountered any monsters, but everyone was being careful. As before, Growly and Flavia were walking at the front with Narias walking right behind them. Emilia and Lilna stayed a few steps behind and Miss Salroze was all the way at the back. Narias slowed down his steps momentarily, so Emilia could catch up to him.
“Hey Emilia, how are you doing?” he was worried about her.
“Huh? Oh, Narias?” it almost looked like she didn’t expect to see him appear next to her all of a sudden. “I’m… fine. Thank you for asking.”
“Sorry, did I startle you?” it wasn’t his intention to do so.
“No… I mean… I’m sorry I… I was thinking about something and… didn’t notice you near me,” Emilia apologized, after stroking her hair to the side.
“Thinking about something?” Narias repeated her words as a question.
“It’s nothing,” she answered so fast, the answer sounded like it was ready beforehand. But then Emilia became embarrassed about how rude it might’ve sounded. “Oops, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so rude.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he wasn’t offended or anything. “Did you have a good rest? I’m sorry, I fell asleep after a while, so…”
“Yes, I did. Thank you… for asking and… letting me sleep… next to you,” Emilia’s cheeks sparkled with an icy flush.
“Anytime… Huh? Sorry… I’m glad to hear that,” this time it was Narias who became embarrassed.
Part of the reason was because he caught Belinda staring at him for some reason. The teacher quickly averted her gaze as soon as their eyes have met. Narias tried to smile at the athletic, short haired female teacher, but she wasn’t looking at him anymore.
“Hey, I hear something,” Flavia suddenly announced.
There was no more time for small talk. The group was back in business again. Or back at fighting monsters again, to be more exact. A few level two Fanged Wolves showed up in front of the students. Flavia and Growly charged forward, with Narias rushing to assist them.
━━━━━━━━━
Thank you for reading. Leave a comment and favorite the chapter if you enjoyed it.
Read 10+ extra chapters on my Patreon – Extra Chapters on Patreon
━━━━━━━━━
Extra thanks to nonomo4 and Lynderyn for their support and help.
