Max was relieved and happy for Anna. It's been more than a year since she joined the academy; when she joined, she was already a one-star mage.
Although Max didn't know specifics, from his memories, he knew that Anna had encountered an Elder of the Cloud academy who helped her join the academy without any requirement.
However, even though the Elder had opened the back door for her to enter the Academy, he didn't provide any more help.
Moreover, Because she was just an outer sector disciple and her talent was just average, she couldn't improve much in terms of Mana. Therefore, she was focused on her fighting skills.
Max sat on the bed and waited. Because she had just formed her Mana core and broke through, her Mana was still chaotic, which she needed to stabilize.
After one hour, her Mana had become calm, and she opened her eyes. They were sparkling with joy.
"Congratulations, Anna, for successfully becoming a two-star Mage." Max smiled at her.
Shua!
Anna didn't respond and ran toward him before throwing herself in his arms. "Thank you, Max. I could break through because of you. Thank you!" Her voice was full of emotions, and her eyes were teary as she thanked him.
If it weren't because he provided her with more than 200 hundred Mana stones, she would have taken at least half, if not a year more, to break through.
As an outer sector disciple, she could only receive ten low-grade Mana stones monthly, which wasn't enough to make any improvement. Even with the missions she did, her monthly Mana stones weren't more than twenty.
"You silly girl. This is what family is for." Max pinched her nose lovingly and laughed.
"Un, you are right." Anna nodded and then giggled. "Hehe, How about you give me some more Mana stones to consolidate my newly formed Mana core?"
"Okay. Here you go." Max nodded and took out another two hundred Mana stones.
"Wah! I was joking. I still have around fifty Mana stones left. Take these back." Anna cried out in surprise and showed that she still had some left.
"It's okay. I still have some left for me to use, and you indeed need these to fully consolidate your core so that there won't be any problem when you increase your Mana count." Max shook his head and put them into her spatial bag.
Anna felt a surge of warmth seeing this, and a beautiful smile appeared on her face before she tightly hugged him, her bosom pressing onto Max's chest.
"Thank you, Max. You are the best." She murmured.
Max also hugged her soft body and gently caressed her hair and back. However, soon he realized that his mind was focused on the soft feeling on his chest and his little dragon also showed signs of waking up.
"Cough, Okay, Anna. Let's sleep now." He coughed and let go of her.
"No, I want to stay like this for a while." Anna pouted like a little girl and hugged him even tighter, making her body press onto his even more.
'Fuck!' Max cursed in his mind as his little dragon woke up and poked into her belly.
"Mm?" Anna felt something hard pressing into her belly and unconsciously reached out her hand and grabbed it.
After grabbing it, she felt it throb and suddenly realized something and looked at Max before suddenly jumping away like a frightened rabbit.
Max awkwardly scratched his forehead and said, "Sorry, it's something I can't control."
"N-No, it's my m-mistake that touched it." Anna shook her head and waved her hands in panic, her face completely red while her mind repeated the same words 'He likes me as a woman. He likes me as a woman. He likes…'
Before this, she had already thought Max liked her as a woman and was attracted to her, but she still hadn't believed it. However, now seeing him having such a reaction from hugging her, she knew her previous guess was on the spot.
Sigh!
"Let's sleep now," Max said and lay on the bed before closing his eyes. He didn't want to make things more awkward between them.
After calming down, Anna came over and lay on the other side of the bed. She didn't dare hug him to sleep like usual.
After a while, both of them fell asleep.
…
Early in the morning…
"Mm?" Anna slowly woke up and opened her sleepy eyes. She suddenly felt herself curled into Max's chest, and one of his hands rested over her.
Instinctively, she snuggled closer into his embrace and closed her eyes with a happy expression. However, in the next moment, she remembered what had happened last night and panicked. She wanted to move away due to her embarrassment.
However, due to the position she was in, if she suddenly moved, Max would wake up, and she didn't want to disturb his sleep.
She looked at his peaceful sleeping face and thought to herself, 'I shouldn't panic like this. After all, it is normal to have those kinds of feelings for someone of the opposite gender. Moreover, it would be best if we could….'
As her thoughts wandered around, her heart rate sped up. She wanted to stop having these thoughts, but she could do nothing about it, and her imagination went wild, which caused her heart to beat like drums, and her face turned completely red.
As if noticing this, Max slowly opened his eyes and looked at Anna. Her face looked enchanting in his sleepy eyes, and he unconsciously moved his mouth closer to hers and kissed her lips lightly.
After kissing her, his expression became more relaxed. He hugged her tightly and fell asleep once again.
On the other hand, Anna's body became frozen due to this. She didn't know how to respond. When she saw him closing his eyes once again, she felt somewhat relieved and touched her lips with a dazed look in her eyes.
Although the kiss was only momentary like the other time, she felt it more and also realized that she didn't dislike it.
