"Umh, mhhhm!" At first, Irea didn't offer any resistance. Happily accepting Layn's lips, she immersed herself in the pleasure. But after just a short moment, her face suddenly tensed up.
"Umph. Oph. Stop!" Freeing herself from Layn's arms, Irea leaned backwards before lowering her head and stabilising her breath.
"You didn't like it?" As soon as the first sign of resistance appeared, Layn backed off. Relaxing his hold on the girl's arms, he allowed her to escape from his direct reach.
In the end, if he wanted a whore, there were bound to be some whorehouses around. If the girl was resisting him, Layn had no wish to push her any further.
"It's not like that…" Turning her head to the side, Irea avoided Layn's curious stare. "It's not the time for it." Pushing her hands forward, Irea forced Layn a single step back.
"I had to enlist Sitra's help to get you to the registration." The girl's aura slightly changed. With her shyness replaced by annoyance, she stared daggers at the man in front of her. "You are not going to waste this opportunity by being late!"
Grabbing the man's hand, Irea swiftly pulled him outside. Not giving Layn any time to analyze the situation, she brought him back to the outside before forcing her way towards the fortress of the academy.
"Wait, so does that mean…" Unable to catch up with the events, Layn got confused. And in this confusion, those words managed to slip out.
"If it's past the sunset and we are alone, back in my place…" Despite pushing forward at a breakneck pace, Irea still managed to somehow clearly communicate this message.
"Great, let's focus on the registration first, then." Rather than nailing down the point, Layn decided to give the girl some breathing room. In the end, when compared to his previous, naive self, Irea would have to basically throw herself at him for his dense former self to notice her advances.
But even if the archmage changed past Ortensia's betrayal, it didn't mean he knew the ropes of acting forward. That's why, as much as he wanted to press the topic, his less proactive self made him wary of just scaring the girl away.
Thanks to this mindset, the duo managed to reach the academy grounds in a relatively short time. Yet due to the pace ordained by the girl, by the time they were only passing the outer gate to the compound, Layn was already soaking wet from his own sweat.
'So much for improved body condition thanks to the ancient's magic…' Complaining inwardly, Layn didn't waste the chance to look around even before they moved past the inner set of the proper walls.
'As magnificent as it looks… How would they defend against long-range attacks?' As much as Layn wanted to shake his head over the naivete of the ancients, he couldn't afford to act spoiled like that.
Because judging from the situation yesterday, this place had a chance to be filled with freaks, willing to curse one's entire family line just because of a small, meaningless insult.
"Welcome to the academy." Speaking up for the first time since her intimate confession, Irea opened up her arms as if she wanted to embrace the whole place. Even though this was obviously not the first nor the second time she entered the place, a gleam of excitement in her eyes had yet to die out.
"Seems… nice?" Staring at a huge patch of open land surrounded by the high walls, Layn refused to be honest for once.
'Paradise.'
On the outside, the walls loomed over the city menacingly, giving testimony to the capabilities of the power hidden behind them. But on the inside, they only seemed to protect the happy locals from the constant noise of the city.
'It's like a city within a city…' Staring in awe at the cute roads connecting various gazebos sprawling around the place, Layn felt that any attempt at voicing his amazement would end up stuck in his throat.
"Yeah, yeah, pretend all you want. There is only one way to react when seeing this place for the first time." Despite how hurried she was before, Irea still found the time to just stop and let the archmage have his fill of the sight.
"Okay, I'm okay now. Shall we go?" Lying through his teeth, Layn looked a the cheerful girl beside him.
Once again putting his legs to work, Layn continued to curse his own naivety. 'How could I be so arrogant! It's not even the first time for this world to do me dirty like that!' Internally screaming at his own lack of foresight, Layn could only make sure that the state of his spirit wasn't reflected on his face.
'First that barrier, now this place… I greatly underestimated the ancients!' For the second time ever since he moved in time, Layn noticed the discrepancy between his expectations and reality.
With the arrogance of someone coming from a more enlightened society, he disregarded the fact that the people around him were not powerless either. And looking at this miracle of an architecture that didn't appear to obey the natural laws that Layn knew off, he had no other choice but to admit to the sad truth.
The feat of the ancients didn't fall short even when compared to what modern technology and knowledge could create!
"Stop dozing off! We are almost there!" Noticing how this strange man beside her sunk into his own thoughts, Irea nudged him in the side. Forced awake by the sudden burst of light pain, Layn turned his eyes towards the girl.
As little as this action mattered in the grand scheme of thing, Layn took it for the best sign possible. Back in his original time, whenever he wanted to be intimate with Ortensia, the princess would make a great deal about it. On the other hand, there was this girl on his side.
Even though they didn't reach the stage that Layn did with the future princess, Irea was already far more open to an actual show of gentle friendship, even if only in form of a gentle nudge.
"Okay, okay, I'm all focused now." Lying once again, Layn didn't even attempt to push the thoughts about the girl from his head.
Taking Layn's words for a good note, Irea nodded her head before pushing the doors of what seemed like a random building open.
"This is where the registration takes place. Just please…" Stopping for a moment, Irea turned her head around with worry. "Don't make a mess."