A Drink?
After a long debate over whose personal training room to visit first, we decided to start with Christina's. Knock knock.
"Tina, can we come in?" Adel asked as he rapped on the door.
Since his mana was registered, we could have just walked in, but knocking was basic courtesy. From inside the room, Christina's voice drifted out.
"Adel? Is that you, Adel?"
"Yeah. It's me. I came."
Creak. The door opened from within, and her face peeked out. Christina's expression brightened instantly.
"You came? Adel." The door swung open wider, and her gaze shifted to Shane standing beside him. "Shane's here too? Did you two meet up?"
"We were sparring in my personal training room until just now."
"I see."
Adel felt relieved at Christina's calm reaction. But despite her casual tone, her inner thoughts were in complete turmoil.
'...Why am I like this?'
Her heart felt squeezed by some unknown force. It was uncomfortable, almost painful. A subtle sensation she'd never experienced before. As Christina pondered what this feeling could be, her eyes deepened with thought.
'Could it be because of Shane?'
Even as the thought crossed her mind, she immediately dismissed it. 'No way.' It couldn't be because of Shane. She was one of the friends who had often visited her during the days when she couldn't leave the mansion. They'd played together and even slept over many times. They'd grown so close that just being together brought her comfort and joy. There was no way these feelings could stem from Shane.
She glanced at Adel for a moment. 'Good...' Strangely, looking at him instantly calmed the turbulence in her chest. '...I don't understand.'
These were emotions you couldn't truly grasp without experiencing them firsthand. For Christina, they were all strangely novel.
"Tina, can we come in?" Adel asked, gesturing inside the training room.
"Sorry. I kept you standing too long. Both of you, come in."
Still unable to fully understand her own heart, Christina ushered them inside.
Step. "A demonic realm...?" Adel tilted his head and muttered after taking a single step in. 'It's a bit different.'
The demonic realm he'd visited before had been a gloomy place filled with blizzards and thick fog. This one looked similar, but there was no fog.
"That's right." Christina, who had approached at some point, spoke up. "This is a demonic realm. An environment where demons are continuously generated."
"Are those demons over there?" Shane, who had leaned his head close to Adel's shoulder, pointed at the distant black dots and asked Christina.
"Yes. They're all the demons that appear in the early stages."
As expected. If she wanted to become a beacon of hope for those sacrificed by demons, it made sense that she'd train by exterminating them.
Swoosh. Christina raised one hand.
A brilliant, sacred radiance burst from her raised hand, condensing into the form of a spear.
The spear of pure, serene holy light moved according to Christina's will. She made a throwing motion with her hand, and the spear of light sliced through the air toward the demons.
The spear struck the center of the demon horde. Even from this distance, the sound of the explosion reached them, along with the screams of several demons.
It was an illusion, yet it felt utterly real. Elena's illusion magic possessed that kind of power.
Tap tap. Christina lightly dusted off her hands and walked over to stand beside Adel.
"This is the kind of training I do here." She smiled brightly as their eyes met. Unknowingly, she was being incredibly alluring.
Watching the scene, Shane thought to himself, 'Does Tina like Adel too?'
She might not realize it herself, but from a third-person perspective, it was glaringly obvious that Christina had feelings for Adel.
'What should I do...'
Fighting with a friend over the same man wasn't exactly ideal. Still, Shane had no intention of backing down. 'It's fine if he becomes a polygamist.'
It was okay if other people liked Adel. It was okay if he accepted them. Even if one of those people was her friend. As long as Adel kept loving her, nothing else mattered.
'If it's Tina...' It might actually be a good thing. Adel and Christina both looked genuinely happy when they were together. They didn't seem to realize it themselves, but if it was someone as talented and beautiful as her, it would be better than some stranger. Of course, that only worked if he accepted her too.
"Shane? Shane?"
Adel had been calling his name repeatedly, probably because he'd been lost in thought for so long.
"...I'm fine." Aside from feeling a little embarrassed.
Adel clapped his hands together. "Shall we head to Circe's personal training room now?"
"Huh? Already?"
"Yeah. We didn't come here just to train. We've already been at it for quite a while, haven't we?"
"True enough."
Before coming here, they'd only been sparring. That had taken at least several hours. It wouldn't hurt to take a break.
"Then let's go." Christina from the opposite side urged them along. It seemed they'd decided to go together while he was thinking.
"Let's go."
The three of us headed toward Circe's personal training room.
Knock knock.
"Circe." Adel knocked on the door. It was a similar situation to before. But things would unfold a little differently this time.
'She's probably sleeping.'
Circe spent most of her time asleep except for extremely important moments. She was likely sleeping while waiting for us right now.
"..."
As if to prove his thought correct, no answer came from inside. When he looked back, Christina and Shane were both gesturing for him to go in. They both knew Circe well.
"I'm coming in?" With those words, Adel channeled fire energy only into his hand and turned the doorknob.
Creak. The door opened, revealing a pure white space.
Step. Adel sent Christina and Shane in first before following them inside. His first impression was simply how white everything was. 'A white space?'
It was like a kind of lounge. The entire area felt exactly like that place.
Thud. The sudden silence as someone stopped walking made Adel curious.
"What are you doing?"
"...Here." The place Christina pointed to was right below them.
Soft breathing... There was Circe, curled up and fast asleep.
Shane, who had been at the front, crouched down and gently shook her awake.
"Circe. Wake up."
"Mmm..." She let out a small groan and slowly rolled over. When he shook her again, Circe's eyes fluttered open.
"..."
Her disheveled silver hair and the way she kept blinking to shake off sleep. Rubbing her eyes with her slender hands while pursing her lips, she looked like a sleepy little princess.
Circe sat up. "...Shane? Tina? Adel...?"
The way she tilted her head in confusion while calling their names was adorable.
"Personal training room. We said we'd come, remember?"
"...Ah." She nodded as if it had finally come back to her.
Snap! Circe flicked her fingers, and four chairs along with a round table appeared behind us.
"Shall we sit and talk?"
"...Yeah."
Following her suggestion, we sat down at the table. Her head kept nodding forward; she still seemed sleepy.
"...Yawn." After a short yawn, Circe continued. "How did all three of you end up coming together?"
Her speech wasn't as slow as before. It seemed her curse had been completely lifted. The others found it strange and asked about it, but Circe simply said the curse had weakened a bit and brushed it off. She had a feeling she shouldn't mention it.
Adel focused on the energy inside his body. '...What is it?'
The energy of the Ice Snow Dragon. He'd been thinking about it quite a bit over the past few days.
'For now, I can't use it.'
He'd tried operating it the same way he did with fire energy, but it hadn't budged. He'd wondered if there might be another method, but every book said there was only one way to operate energy. With the exception of certain martial arts.
But this energy wasn't from any martial art. '...And there wasn't even any mention of absorption.'
He'd searched through the Sage's knowledge and every book he could find, but there wasn't a single word about absorbing energy.
'Then what am I?'
What did that make him, after absorbing the power of Circe's curse?
Before his unanswered questions could deepen any further, Adel shook his head and looked forward.
"So this is basically an enhanced version of the lounge?"
"Yes. It's a white space where you don't feel any pain at all."
Shane and Circe were chatting.
"...Now that I think about it, doesn't that mean there's nothing to do here?" Christina said after pondering for a moment.
"...I guess so?" Circe blinked as if she hadn't considered that.
"..."
"..."
All three of them turned their gazes toward Adel.
"...What?"
"What do you want to do?" Christina asked.
'...I didn't expect this.'
In truth, they hadn't set any specific plans. The only thing they'd decided was to visit both of their personal training rooms.
"..."
As Adel remained silent, Shane smiled slyly and said,
"Tomorrow's the weekend, and we don't have any plans, right? In that case, how about we grab a drink?"