Predicament

Gawain slowly opened his eyes, but this time, Amber's face was not leaning into his line of sight.

Soft snoring came from beside him.

Following the sound and looking down, he saw the pointy-eared half-elf lady sprawled across the desk, her head resting on her hand, fast asleep.

This girl was much quieter when she was asleep.

Gawain could not help but smile. The moment he shifted, Amber, who had been sleeping at the desk, jolted awake and stared wide-eyed in his direction. "Hey, you're finally back!"

Gawain opened his mouth, just about to speak, when Amber immediately started yammering loudly. "Hey, listen, I wasn't slacking off, okay? I was just taking a nap. You can't dock my pay over this. My senses are sharp—I stay alert even when I'm asleep..."

Gawain said, "...I haven't said anything yet."

Sure enough, the only time this girl was quiet was when she was asleep—whenever her eyes were open, one Amber could make more noise than two thousand ducks.

"I was just getting my excuses ready in advance, in case you said something," Amber muttered as she wiped drool from the corner of her mouth. She then looked Gawain over and frowned in puzzlement. "Still, you were gone for a long time this time—what happened over there?"

"I went with Daniel to investigate something." Gawain nodded. At the same time, his mind replayed the exploration deep within the Mind Network. The more he thought about it, the more tightly his brow furrowed, and a sense of heaviness welled up within him.

This expedition... had yielded far too much information, and much of it was enough to leave even him dumbfounded.

"Looks like you got quite a haul this time?" Amber keenly noticed the subtle change in Gawain's expression. "And some of it is