Elisa's sleepy eyes slowly opened.
'Mmm...'
She was still on Mark's back.
The rocking seemed to have lessened.
Elisa thought it was due to him being considerate.
A considerate Monster.
'You just keep going, huh? Just keep... Walking forward.'
Had it been hours since Elisa had closed her eyes, or only a couple of minutes? She could not tell.
'Whenever we stop, it's because of me or Krista...' Elisa pressed her lips together. 'The same way you advanced through that Dungeon, right? Without sleeping, only resting here and there...'
Her gaze moved towards his round shoulders.
Elisa brought her hands to her forehead.
She hid her eyes from the shining sun while keeping them half closed.
'The sun is...'
Elisa hid both her eyes with her left hand, while her right hand turned into a fist and descended on the Monster's shoulder.
"What is it?"
"Your scales..." Elisa muttered.
"What about them?"
"They're white."
"So?"
"They reflect too much light."
"Mmm... I don't think I can do anything about that."
Slowly but surely, Elisa's index and middle fingers parted, opening the way for her right eye to see through.
'His back sure is wide...' Her gaze slowly went from the right side of that back to its left side. 'As you would expect from a Monster's.'
She stared for a couple of seconds.
'They took from you too, but you just keep going. Without looking back, without...'
Sigh-
ƥandasnovel·ƈom 'It's hard to even tell that they've taken anything from you. You... Handle it well? Or hide it well? Whichever case it is, I can't see it. The anger, the frustration... From getting them taken from you. Right in front of you. Now that I think about it, that's Raven's fetish, isn't it? Then... How about we do the same to him?' Elisa's hands reached for Mark's head, but stopped inches away. 'What would be the point in that? I can't get them back...'
Her hands dropped onto Mark's shoulders.
'But I still want him to suffer.'
Elisa shook her head.
Her gaze fell onto Mark's back once more.
A wide and muscular back covered by white scales.
'You, on the other hand... You should probably take a break or something. How many times have you bled for us already? How many times...' Elisa clenched her teeth in frustration. 'I don't get it. I know you can heal but... Does it not hurt? Do you not feel pain? Did not hurt when...' The hands that held Mark's shoulders trembled slightly. 'My arrow pierced your back that day?'
Her fingers' fidgeting kept going for a while.
'No...' She let out a sigh. 'It did hurt. Just like losing them hurt. Just like... Fighting against Yarnha must have hurt. It was all obvious when you made it here. Pierce, slashed, hit, and whipped. Your body was a mess.
Elisa's right hand slid off Mark's shoulder.
'It must have hurt...'
Slowly but surely, the hand slid towards his back.
The Monster almost shuddered at her touch.
'And now, it's all gone. Wounds, grazes, everything... Not even scars remain. Not even scars...'
Her hand moved towards the left side of that back.
'Not one trace of all that pain remains...'
Mark thought about stopping or saying something, but remembering that Elisa was sleep deprived, he was reminded of how he was when fatigued.
'Just like how it hurts you to have lost your Underlings... Just like how you hide that pain...'
Elisa nodded slowly and silently.
'That Reconstruction Magic Skill... It's a lot like that, isn't it? You can hide your wounds, reattach an arm... But your Health points aren't Regenerated. You seem okay... But you're just as close to death as you were before using the Skill...'
Sigh-
'Though I don't know anything for certain... But still, you are a Monster. And if you are a Monster, then...'
Elisa remained unmoving for a couple of seconds, before reaching forward.
"What are you doing?" The Monster asked as it came to a stop.
"You have been demoted..." Elisa grinned cheekily. "From Knight to horse."
"Let go of my horns."
"Don't wanna."
The Monster could only sigh when faced with the Princess' capriciousness.
Mark started walking again, and Elisa smiled victoriously.
The next second, her hands started slowly going down those horns.
"Stop." The Monster said suddenly.
Elisa obliged.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to get you mad." Elisa admitted.
Mark remained silent, and she stared.
Stop-
Exactly when her hands were about to make it to his cheeks.
"Sorry."
"It's fine. I just..."
'Fine... Always fine, huh?'I think you should take a look at pandasnovel.com
The Monster pressed its lips together for a bit.
"You just?" Elisa asked.
"I just have bad experiences with women creeping up to me?"
"What?"
"What?"
"Pfahahahaha!" Elisa laughed out loud. "You have experiences with women??"
"I mean... Well... Hem." The Monster coughed. "It's uhh..."
"Pfahaha. That is funny..." Elisa yawned. "When did you have such experiences? Before being trapped in that Dungeon I suppose."
"Not really, it's..."
"Huh... Oh... OH. OH NO!" Elisa shouted as if she hadn't been half asleep a minute earlier. "Don't tell me it's..."
The Monster, with its lips pressed, slowly nodded.
"No..."
"Yeah..." Mark admitted.
"Your experiences with women creeping up on you... Are in your head?"
"It's complicated-"
"Pfaahahhaa! It's complicated he says!!" Elisa shouted and laughed out loud as she vigorously swung her legs.
"Yeah, yeah. Have a good laugh." Mark said before chuckling.
Elisa only stopped laughing about a minute later.
"You're weird. Really weird, Mark."
The Monster had been nodding, until it heard that Name.
It still wasn't used to being called by its own Name.
'I'm more used to My Lord, I guess... Now that I think about it, I wonder what Levi would have said about...'
'Weird, weird Monster...'
The two fell silent.
Elisa let out a long and blissful yawn.
The laughter had definitely brought her closer to sleep.
'Stupid, sooo stupid...'
'I have to find a way to switch with Krista. Doesn't look like she can sleep this way...'
'The kind of stupidity that you don't expect from a Monster. Experiences with women, pfha! That's hilarious. I feel like I will laugh out loud again if I don't stop myself. Curious... Curious... Weird... So weird. Why would a Monster act this way? If he wasn't a Monster but rather, from Rift like me, I would understand but... No. I guess that doesn't mean anything since that Vampire is probably from the Rift too...'
Elisa couldn't help but sigh.
'Not Monsters, Not Humans... Dwellers of the Rift, forsaken by both...' Her eyes suddenly widened. 'When did the hell did I remember that? Also... Where did I-'
"There's the Spirit."
"What?" Elisa asked.
"Mmm..." Mark wanted to scratch his cheek, but he felt he couldn't let go of Elisa's thighs, as that would betray his embarrassment. "Yarnha. She... Crept up on me too."
"Mm." Elisa nodded. "I see."
Mark nodded in response.
"This is stupid." She commented as she chuckled.
"I wouldn't say that. It's just that with the Mist and..."
It only took a couple of additional seconds for Elisa to feel incredibly sleepy.
In the middle of Mark's explanation, which seemed important to him, her eyes started closing.
Suddenly, he felt a snake wrap itself around his neck.
Mark's body trembled for a fraction of a second.
That fraction of a second was more than enough for him to realize that it was no snake, but her arms.
'Why did I think of... Oh.' Mark sighed. 'It was that dream... With her and a snake.'
He shook his head.
"Weird Monster." Elisa whispered.
Mark felt like chuckling but didn't.
'What does it mean anyways...' Elisa's head started falling forward. 'To be a Monster?'
Her right cheek landed on his shoulder.
Mark's body froze for a second.
'Tsk.' He clicked his tongue internally. 'If I didn't have scales over my body...'
The sleeping Princess lay with her head on his shoulder, and her breath on his neck.
'I definitely would have shuddered at that.'
Mark started walking again.
'That would have been embarrassing. Incredibly embarrassing. Especially...'
Breath out-
Mark winced
'For a Monster.'
He took another dozen step before,
"Krista, let's switch."
The Moonlit Feline stared at him for a bit.
It looked away.
"Krista."
With its tail and head held high, the Moonlit Feline gracefully led the way.
"Ugh... Alright. Show me the map again." Mark whispered.
