(Heartfelt thanks to 'Nan Yunxia', 'Leiming233', 'Ice Beacon Moonrise', 'Long Lian Qingxue', 'Crimson Nightmare', 'Q Yongjiang Yiku Q', 'qweshashen', and 'World's End Ballad' for their rewards!)
"Tap... tap... tap... tap..."
In the dim passageway, clear footsteps echoed all around, rising and falling rhythmically like a melody.
As the guide, Est walked at the very front, holding up a piece of Spirit Ore to light the way.
Noah carried Leora in his arms and followed behind Est, continuing onward as well.
Leora seemed to have stopped making a fuss, but her pretty face was flushed crimson as she shrank into Noah's arms, muttering as though she felt both humiliated and incredulous.
"I never thought that one day, I would be looked after by the opponent I recognized... and a man at that..."
"There's something wrong with that statement, isn't there?" Noah said helplessly.
"Isn't it precisely because I'm a man that I should be taking care of a woman at a time like this? Are there no gentlemen in the Dragunia Dragon Principality?"
"H-How would I know?" Leora glared at Noah in embarrassment, her pretty face still burning red.
"I've never been this close to a man before."
"...Well, I can understand, considering you're a Shrine Maiden who has to keep both body and mind pure." Noah spoke with some difficulty.
"But that makes me wonder what you Shrine Maidens will do when you get married in the future."
"T-That sort of thing..." Leora seemed never to have considered the question. After falling silent for a while, she said this.
"Of course the country would arrange it, wouldn't it?"
"I see." Noah narrowed his eyes slightly.
"So if I really defected to the Dragunia Dragon Principality, you'd really marry me?"
"M-Marry?!" Leora's imagination immediately ran wild, and her face turned so