Marlene's mind kept wriggling around, the screen in front of her started to sizzle, and soon, it shut down. This was followed by an exclamation from the dragon.
"Um?... impossible!"
Just as the dragon finished speaking, the eyelids of Austin started to tremble, his gaze slowly focusing as it came upon Marlene. She stared at the hurt eyes of Austin. She could see that his eyes had reddened, and small pools of tears stayed at the edges of his eyes, which he quickly washed away.
Slowly, he raised his head from Marlene's lap as he tried to give her his characteristic smile, but it was off the mark as he spoke with concern.
"How are you?"
Just hearing those words from him was enough to sweeten her heart. But then conflicting emotions passed through her eyes till she spoke with some hesitation.
"I saw your trauma."
Hearing this, Austin's eyes widened, anger flashing in them as he stared toward the ceiling.
"How dare you?"
He asked, but the reply that came from the dragon was different.
"Yo-You are a holy ch-"
"Yes."
Austin spoke, cutting off the dragon. His eyes narrowed as he looked at the ceiling. A stunned silence followed it as Marlene looked at Austin with a questioning gaze. The fact that he is hiding something from her made her feel hurt a bit, but it also added to the allure of the mystery that is Austin.
"I'm sorry...."
Marlene said to Austin, bowing her head a bit. Seeing this, Austin shook his head with a conflicted emotion. He waved his hand at her as he spoke.
"It's nothing, just let it go. As much as I don't like it, this did help me make some decisions."
Hearing his reply, Marlene looked at Austin with a hidden calculating gaze. Austin looked at her as he asked with a wry smile.
"Did you see everything?"
"Yes."
Marlene directly replied, her hand going to hold his hand as she spoke in a low voice of support.
"As your friend, I am here, and whatever you need, I will be there to help."
Hearing so, Austin gave Marlene a happy smile as he held Marlene's hand a bit stronger.
"Thank you. I guess it's time that I deal with some things of the past."
Just as he finished speaking, the atmosphere between the two of them started to get warmer, in which the dragon spoke.
"I gave you enough time. I think it's time for you both to leave with your rewards."
This time when the dragon spoke, there was a layer of control, and Marlene even detected a hint of respect. This gave another indicator that whatever Austin asked the dragon to keep a secret is definitely of something very high, enough to even put a dragon in place.
'Holy... what?'
Marlene's eyes narrowed at this thought, but she wasn't able to focus on it for longer as she slowly started to get drowsy. She could see Austin falling asleep as she fell asleep after him. Just as Marlene fell asleep, Austin woke up from his sleeping position. He stretched his body a bit as he looked at the knocked-out Marlene.
'It took more effort than before to knock her out.'
Just this was enough proof to see how much Marlene's mental abilities have grown. Standing up, he slowly snapped his hand, and one of the walls within the room opened up as a man swaggered in, a cheeky smile on his face as he asked.
"How did I do?"
"Good."
Austin replied with a smile as he walked up to the man, who started to rub his hands in desire.
"So what should I do no-"
He wasn't even able to complete his word as a sword struck through his heart, and with another move, Austin took the man's head, not even giving him a chance to process everything that happened in a second. Austin looked apathetic as he gazed at the dead body on the ground, the blood dyeing the beautiful ground as the horror-struck head fell to the ground.
"Sigh... leaving no proof is tough."
Speaking so, Austin turned around as he lifted Marlene's body, and started to walk out of the underground room. He didn't feel anything from killing the man as he deserved to die. Austin couldn't choose just anyone to be the dragon's voice, for he would have to kill that person, there was no way around it.
Leaving a large variable alive would definitely come to bite him in the ass later. Plus, he couldn't leave a recording or such, as it won't be alive. He needed a powerful fraud that would do what he wanted and wouldn't affect his consciousness too deeply once Austin kills, and it wasn't hard to get such a person after receiving the help of DarkNight.
Soon, Austin reached the top, the snow and coldness hitting again as he closed the door, locking away the place as he placed Marlene on the ground. Arranging everything perfectly, he lay next to Marlene. Soon, this would end, and a new thing for him would begin.
...
Slowly, Marlene's eyes opened again. She saw the dark sky as she turned around, her gaze falling on Austin, who also seemed to be waking up from his slumber. Both of them soon sat up as Austin spoke.
"This dragon seems to have a fetish for knocking us down."
Marlene chuckled at his words as her attention soon changed to the ring in her hand. Feeling her connection to it, she opened up the space ring, and her eyes widened at the treasures she saw in it. Some were enough to make her gulp. Her eyes then went towards Austin, who too was looking at her with the same surprise. A grin spread over his face as he spoke.
"Looks like we hit the jackpot."
"That we did."
Marlene replied, feeling that this journey gave her much more than she can imagine. Soon, just as she was about to speak again, the same arrow that led them here appeared again, pointing back in the same direction they came from.
"Looks like we need to move back to the same spatial point we came from to head back."
Marlene nodded her head at it as the two of them stood up. Without any words, the two of them blasted forward, moving in the direction the arrow was pointing towards. Marlene's body filled with power as she kept moving, her gaze lost for a moment as she thought about how she came here on Austin's back.
Somehow, a small part of her missed being held by Austin, but she held back her desire as the two of them moved, and soon, a blast was heard when they reached some distance from where they were. Both their eyes went toward the direction they came from.
"Looks like that place is done."
Austin said as the two of them kept moving.
"Pity, I was planning on coming back here some other time."
Marlene replied, to which Austin just kept moving forward.
'Yeah, like I'm gonna leave such a loophole open.'
Musing at his thoughts and with Marlene dealing with some beasts that came their way, the two of them soon reached the same spatial point they came from. Just as they landed, the arrow blasted forth with a golden light, and the two of them soon found themselves back at the narrow valley in the Academy.
"We're back... huh."
Marlene spoke in a low voice as she felt the atmosphere around her. Austin nodded his head as the two of them removed their coats. Marlene first turned towards Austin as she gave him a light bow.
"Thank you for everything."
Hearing this, Austin smiled as he replied.
"Isn't this what friends do?"
Marlene smiled at that response as she stood straight. Her gaze focused deep into Austin as she moved forward towards him. He stayed in his position until Marlene placed a small kiss on his cheek.
"Consider this the start of my gratitude."
Finishing this with a flashy grin, Marlene walked away from the stunned Austin, her mind focusing on the feel of Austin's skin as she headed toward her next location.
