"Remind me, Liz. Why are you wearing my shirt again?"
"Cus you pulled me into the bathroom before I could pick up a change of clothes."
An hour later, Evan was sipping on one of his juice packs as he asked Eliza that question, receiving a reply from the blonde girl right before she dashed back into the toilet for a few moments.
Upon coming back out, she shot Evan a death glare before asking him for one of her bags that were in his inventory.
"Why did you…?"
"…some of your cum was still in my mouth."
"…Oh."
The atmosphere suddenly turned awkward for some reason as Eliza grabbed her bag and searched through it for a new outfit which she laid on the bed before tossing it back to him.
"I gave you a spatial pouch, right? Why don't you keep it there?"
"Cus I might drop the pouch by accident and I really don't wanna think about what would happen then."
She gave such a reply as she tossed on a black turtleneck shirt and a grey-coloured skirt, before moving her hands towards her hair to tie it up in a ponytail.
As for the rest of the outfit, she somehow got Evan to help her put on her black pantyhose for her while enjoying the feeling of treating him like a servant.
"Aren't you supposed to wear this before the skirt? And why do you even wear these in the first place, so hard to put on."
"Well…let's say that I tend to move around a lot in battles, and sometimes I jump or flip and stuff so without those, I'd pretty much end up giving the whole world a view of what's under my skirt; something I would very much like to refrain from doing."
"Fair point.
That's something I wouldn't like. After all…"
Evan fastened the clip on her skirt's waistline before leaning towards her ear and whispering.
"…everything under there is for me alone."
And in return, he got a forehead flick from the girl who went on to pick up her bracelet and put it on. It was a black coloured arm bracelet with a single gem bearing the same colour as her eyes embedded in it.
While she was doing this, Evan untied her ponytail before proceeding to begin tying it into a single loose French braid.
"You've really gotten used to this…"
"You've made me do it for months, it'd be weirder if I didn't."
After tying her hair and nodding in satisfaction to himself upon seeing his masterpiece, Evan went on to toss on a grey hoodie and pick up the long black overcoat from the chair.
"You're going with the overcoat again?"
"The thing is…I like the style with the simple black trousers and a collared shirt with a grey hoodie and sneakers.
However, putting the overcoat atop it all also makes it look cool, so I'm a bit torn on which one to go with."
Seeing her boyfriend fuss over his appearance even more so than she did made Eliza heave a sigh. She then walked up to him and pointed at the overcoat from his hand before saying.
"The overcoat is going to get in the way of your movements, drop it."
"Yes, ma'am."
Evan tossed the poor overcoat back into his inventory, while Eliza held up a few strands of his hair and spoke.
"Are you getting old or something? Why do you have a few grey streaks of hair?"
"Oh…that.
Let's just say it's a result of the little upgrade I went through last December."
Without letting her have a chance to comment, Evan took her hand off his head and interlocked his fingers with hers before saying.
"Now then, my dear Liz.
Shall we?"
"You make it seem like we're going for a date or something when in reality we're putting ourselves out as bait for undead monsters."
Eliza rolled her eyes as she spoke, however, she showed no signs of removing her hand from his. Evan on the other hand, only laughed lightly before replying.
"Sure, but we do have to make ourselves look like we're having a little bit of a…tryst? Makes us look like suitable targets, don't you think?"
Such was the conversation the two had as they left the room and went down to the great hall on the second floor where parties and balls were usually held, slipping out into the balcony where they sat to admire the night sky.
They cuddled with each other while chatting about pointless things, ranging from their thoughts on dinner to stories from their childhoods.
Evan unexpectedly received a bit of information that was going to help him 'deal' with Eliza's younger siblings when he eventually met them.
However, as the conversation progressed, Evan slowly realized that Eliza's description of her family just so happened to fit the same description of a certain Clan patriarch's family from the game.
'It's way too similar to be a coinci-!'
"Huh?"
He was broken out of his thoughts when he sensed something, with Eliza reacting a beat later as she turned her gaze away from Evan.
"Tsk…It's almost midnight so it's about time they acted.
Still…I really did want to spend a bit more alone time with you."
"I feel the same way but we can have our alone times when we're done with this okay?
Now, Rock Paper Scissors."
Eliza replied to Evan's words before randomly initiating a game of rock paper scissors which Evan lost two times out of three.
With a defeated sigh, the young hero activated his mystic eyes and looked up at the sky before calling out.
"Elemental Shield."
And right after he did-
**BOOOOOMM!!!!!
-the balcony exploded.
◇ ◇ ◇
A few minutes before the abrupt explosion, the Brigade Captain of the Knights of Cheverton was giving his direct subordinates a final briefing on how their operation was supposed to go.
"…and that's how we'd deal with the slum areas."
"…"
"Are you sure that this is really going to work? It seems unlikely to me."
One of the other knights asked him with a skeptical tone, with the other knights and nearby A rankers nodding in affirmation at his words.
"Well, to be honest, Lord Eris said that there's only a sixty percent chance of this working."
"So, there's a whole forty percent chance of failure?"
"Basically.
That's why he gave us multiple plans to follow in the event that they don't take the bait and-"
**BOOOOOMM!!!!!
The sudden explosion of the balcony of the city lord's manor caught their attention, causing them to all turn around reflexively.
Immediately afterwards, a bright red flare shot into the sky and exploded like fireworks, with the Brigade captain's eyes widening as she shouted out.
"That's Lord Eris's signal!!! Everyone in position!!!"
The knights and adventurers instantly sprung into action, with the officer-rank military personnel on the other side of the encampment also issuing out orders to the soldiers who grabbed rose up and grabbed their weapons.
The large floodlights that they brought along with them were all turned on simultaneously, lighting up the night sky and allowing the combatants to see clearly.
And just like expected, a ball of black light shot into the air, serving as the centre of a huge dome that began manifesting around it and spreading towards the edges of the entire city.
Without hesitation, the Brigade Captain and the senior mages who had expected this, instantly reacted, launching projectile aura-based attacks at the expanding dome.
As for the ball of black light, one of the grandmaster-level paladins that served directly under Heinr unleashed a beam of pure white holy magic at it, resulting in a bright explosion upon collision.
**BOOOMM!!!
"The dome has been neutralized. All units, move out!
First targets are the servants, get them out of the way of the fighting.
Kill everything else you see on sight!"
Orders were given and the knights and soldiers immediately began executing said orders. As for the Brigade Captain, he raced towards the scene of the initial explosion, arriving there mere seconds after to meet the sight of a certain blonde battle priestess whacking a ghoul's head with a life energy-infused staff.
The poor undead's head was uprooted from its neck, with her staff spinning around to pierce the chest of a Dullahans that attacked her from behind.
The creature still moved to cleave her in two but a thin translucent layer of light appeared in between the two, blocking its sword and buying her enough time to activate her flower cannon.
**BOOM!!!
As the Dullahan was sent flying by the skill, the Brigade Captain moved in with speed faster than the girl could even perceive and stabbed his sword into the Dullahan's head, infusing it with magic power and causing it to explode.
It was only after the creature had perished; did she finally manage to catch sight of the man's figure.
"Lady Lane.
Might I ask where Lord Eris is?"