With you here, I feel more at ease

"Ah, that felt so good! Finally let it all out!"

After beating off the suitors and marriage brokers, Ellin put away the Skyward Blade, a satisfied smile on her face.

Some might have thought she had gone too far, but put yourself in her shoes. For seven straight days, people had lined up outside her door from morning to night to propose or arrange marriages. How would that feel?

Never mind anything else-when someone visited your home, you had to entertain them, didn't you? At the very least, you had to exchange a few words with them, right?

Restaurant greeters only had to say, "Hello, welcome!" and "Take care, please come again!" from morning to night, yet they were still exhausted by the end of the day.

How much worse would it be to deal with proposals and marriage offers?

At first, Hermann had been delighted to see so many people take a liking to his daughter. But after entertaining visitors for an entire day, he had been so tired he could barely stand.

And the Mora spent on tea and snacks for just one day's worth of visitors had been enough to cover half a month of living expenses for Ellin's family.

Some might ask, hadn't all those people brought gifts?

That was true, but they had come to propose or arrange marriages. Accepting their gifts without agreeing to their offers clearly wouldn't have been appropriate.

So, by the end of that day, the expenses had nearly made the exhausted Hermann faint with anger...

After that day, Hermann had stopped being so polite. He wouldn't even let anyone through the door, simply exchanging a few words with them outside before turning them down and sending them straight away.

But even so, dealing with those people nonstop for seven days had left Ellin's whole family utterly exhausted...

For seven days, Ellin's family had done nothing but deal with those visitors.

And Ellin had realized that if things continued like this, those people might never stop coming.

Her family had simply been too polite!

With that thought, Ellin, who had endured it for seven days, finally snapped. She charged outside and gave those people a beating.

If someone deserved a beating, she would beat them. If they deserved a scolding, she would scold them!

She didn't care what anyone thought of her. This was simply who she was. If people liked her, fine. If they didn't, too bad. She had never lived her life to please others.

"Well done, Ellin!"

Hermann patted Ellin's shoulder with relief. "My sweet daughter, you did what your dad wanted to do but didn't dare! You really understand me! You're such a comfort to your old man!"

"Hehehe!" Ellin scratched her head with a sheepish grin. "I can finally go out for a walk!"

"Dad, I'm going out to have some fun!"

Ellin waved to Hermann, then ran off to enjoy herself.

This time, Ellin was heading to Sucrose's home.

In the past, Ellin wouldn't have gone to Sucrose's home uninvited, because she thought she might interrupt her research.

But a few days earlier, Ellin had visited Sucrose. It had been her only outing in those seven days.

Even now, remembering what had happened brought a smile to Ellin's face.

A few days earlier, she had knocked on Sucrose's door.

"Oh? Ellin, it's you."

Sucrose welcomed Ellin inside.

"Ellin, did you need something?"

"Hehe, of course!" Ellin chuckled. "I've brought you some things. I think you're going to love them!"

As she spoke, Ellin beckoned with one hand, and several items appeared in it out of thin air.

"Ta-da! Look what I've got!"

Beaming, Ellin held the items out in front of Sucrose.

"Th-these are..." The moment Sucrose saw the three items, her eyes widened!

Ellin held three things: a teal scale, a fist-sized lump of frozen blood, and a frozen chunk of flesh the size of a soccer ball.

Yes, these were the things Ellin had picked up from the ground after jumping down from the Statue of The Seven a few days earlier.

"I knocked all these off the Eastern Wind Dragon. See? This is his scale, this is his Dragon Blood, and this is a piece of flesh from his wing."

"The Dragon Blood and flesh were frozen when my Frostflake Arrow hit them. To keep them from spoiling, I've had Feng'er keep them frozen these past few days."

"I thought you'd really like them, so I picked them up to give to you."

"Do you like them?"

"Yes!!"

Sucrose's eyes went wide, sparkling with countless little stars, and her face lit up with sheer delight!

Getting a single intact Hilichurl leg bone was already a source of immense happiness, let alone a dragon's scale, blood, and flesh!

To her, the things in Ellin's hands were the most precious treasures in the world!

So she nodded furiously, gazing eagerly at the items in Ellin's hands, afraid Ellin might take them back.

"Hehe, I'm glad you like them! Here, they're yours!"

Ellin pushed everything toward Sucrose.

But faced with what she considered the most precious treasures of all, Sucrose didn't immediately reach out to take them. Instead, she stepped forward and threw her arms around Ellin!

Holding Ellin tight, she bounced up and down with joy. "Thank you, thank you! Ellin, you're the best!"

"I'm so excited, so happy! I... I absolutely love these! Thank you so much!"

Listening to the girl's incoherent cheers beside her ear and feeling their four Slimes bump together in the tight embrace, Ellin gently patted Sucrose's back.

"All right, put these things away first!"

"Mm-hmm!"

Sucrose carefully put away the dragon scale, Dragon Blood, and Dragon Meat, then asked a question.

"Ellin, why haven't you come to see me lately?"

"Uh..."

The question left Ellin at a loss for words.

After thinking for a moment, she said, "I was worried I'd interrupt your research, so I didn't dare come over."

"Oh, I see..."

Sucrose breathed a sigh of relief, then looked at Ellin and spoke softly.

"Actually, it's not like you think."

"To outsiders, researchers like us seem as though we don't enjoy interacting with people."

"But actually... it's not that we don't want to interact with people. We just don't have the time, and we don't know how."

"We're used to being alone, but that doesn't mean we like it. It's precisely because we're used to being alone that we long for company..."

"We're good friends now, right? So, if you have time, you can come over often and talk with me. Or you can just watch from the side."

"Don't worry about interrupting me. Actually... I'd really love for you to come. With you beside me, I always feel much more at ease, and my experiments go more smoothly too."

Sucrose held her hands over her stomach, lowering her head and blushing as she fidgeted shyly.

"It's a little embarrassing to admit... but all these days you haven't visited, I've been worrying that I did something wrong and made you dislike me."

Seeing Sucrose's embarrassed face, Ellin couldn't help smiling.

"You're my good friend, Sucrose. How could I ever dislike you?"

"In that case, I'll come over often from now on!"

"Mm-hmm! Great! Then sit here and watch me experiment now. I can't wait to try using the Dragon Blood and Dragon Meat!"

With that, Sucrose brought over a cushioned stool for Ellin to sit on, then threw herself into her experiments.

Ellin didn't say anything either. She simply sat to one side with her chin propped on her hand, smiling as she watched Sucrose work.

Honestly, Sucrose was so focused and serious when conducting experiments. There really was a special charm to her like this.

That day, Ellin stayed with Sucrose at her home the entire day. It wasn't until dusk that Sucrose finished her experiments.

Using the Dragon Blood and Dragon Meat together with other alchemical solutions, she developed dozens of vials of potions.

"I've made a major breakthrough in my research! Having you here must have helped me do better than ever! Ellin, I feel like my dream is about to come true!"

"Please come back in a few days and see the results with me!"

That was what Sucrose told Ellin as they parted that evening.