Basked in the warmth of sunlight, I slowly open my eyes and Celia's beautiful face comes into view.
She is still asleep, isn't she?
We had a good time in the bathtub last night, and when we moved to the bed, we both fell asleep naked and cuddled each other.
We didn't do anything, though, as we had already made a promise to train this morning.
Recalling what happened last night, I can't restrain the happy grin from showing up on my face.
Last night, Celia accepted me.
I study Celia's face for a moment.
Her eyelashes are thick and long, fluttering like butterfly wings. Her long red hair reminds me of the fiery passion she showed me the night before.
Now that I think about it, Celia's sleeping face looks more breathtaking than ever. I think I can spend the whole day watching her face like this, never getting tired of this view.
No, no. I'll turn into a lazy slacker if I continue indulging like this.
I carefully move to the side of the bed, worry that Celia had accidentally woken up.
After changing into my usual clothes, I step into the kitchen to make today's breakfast.
Let's see what we have here.
There are still some ingredients remaining in my inventory, and also some rice.
How about we make Onigiri today?
It's actually quite simple; all I need to do is prepare rice, salt, spice, and some meat, and then let the [cooking] skill do its magic.
Voila!
Onigiri is ready to serve!
Well, this is easy.
Just by spending 1 point of my MP, I can prepare a delicious meal in a matter of seconds. It's a very efficient daily-life skill, considering the MP and time consumption.
Just when I finish preparing breakfast, the three girls that sleep in the room upstairs come down to the dining room.
"Eve-chan, morning~"
"Good morning, Eve-san!"
"… morning."
Hey, hey. It looks like they had a good sleep last night. This means they didn't notice the lewd thing Celia and I did last night, right?
I hope so.
"Yes, good morning, everybody. I've already made onigiri for breakfast, so please go ahead and enjoy it. I'll go wake up Celia."
After pointing at the table, I hurriedly headed over to our bedroom to wake up Celia.
When I enter the room, Celia is still sleeping soundly on the bed.
She is not a morning person, isn't she?
Well, well. What should I do with this sleeping beauty?
"Hey sleepy head, it's morning already, wake up."
I call out to her softly and shake her body lightly, but she still doesn't show any sign of waking up.
In that case, don't blame me for teasing you a little bit.
Smooch… smooch… ah…
I kiss Celia, pressing my lips over hers.
Not stopping there, I stretch my tongue and pry open her closed lips, entwining her tongue with mine.
As I playfully tease her mouth, she immediately shows a reaction.
To my surprise, she goes straight into the offensive, pulling my head closer with her left hand and aggressively dominating me with her tongue while taking a small bite on my lower lip.
It's bad… I cannot be swept away like this.
"Celia, everyone is already awake."
Once again, I call her name as I get away from her, and she opened her sleepy eyes with a slightly regretful expression on her face.
"Good morning, Eve. Can you help me get dressed?"
"It's my pleasure, Celia."
I nod and bring some clothes from the place pointed out by Celia.
There are underwear, a shirt, and pants there folded neatly. Just like mine, Celia's underwear is also poorly designed. Well, I mean, it's just your usual plain white underwear.
I wish I can do something about it.
Celia is sitting quietly on the bed, leaving her body in my charge. It looks like not having one arm is more inconvenient than expected. It's nice to see she relies on me and that she needs me.
After getting her dressed, I go out to the living room with Celia.
It seems that everyone had already had their fill, as there were only four rice balls left on the table.
Only Celia and I haven't had our breakfast yet, so I quickly grab two pieces of onigiri for me and two for Celia, and we start eating.
"Okay then, let me explain today's training."
We all join the table and listen to Celia's explanation as she speaks while enjoying her meal.
"First of all, Eve. Can you tell me what skills you've learned now?"
"Umm… I have six skills. They are [Eyes of Recognition], [Dagger Mastery], [Night Vision], [Stealth], [Dual Wielding], and [Cooking]."
"I see. You've already learned [Night Vision] and [Stealth], so I guess for today's training we'll focus on learning [Presence Detection]."
Celia shares her plan, and we nod in agreement.
From its name, it seems to be a skill to detect the presence of hidden monsters.
By learning this skill, I'm confident that our hunting sessions can be more efficient.
We all head out of the north gate. Today's training will be done outside the wall.
Not long after, we found a suitable spot for training near the City Wall.
But due to its approximate proximity to the city wall, there's rarely a monster roaming around here. This makes me a little bit confused. Aren't we supposed to learn a skill that deals with monsters?
Before I could clarify my confusion, Celia already gave a command to the rest of my Party.
"Well then, everyone takes this."
In Celia's hand, there are several stones, and she distributes it to everyone, except me.
Somehow, I got a bad premonition from this.
"Eve, put this on."
It was a blindfold. No matter how you look at it, it was a blindfold.
My premonition is becoming stronger and stronger.
"We're going to surround Eve and throw this stone at her, and you, Eve, will try your best to dodge it. You can move to avoid getting hit, but don't run around aimlessly."
Wow. Is she taking revenge on me because I woke her up this morning?
Looking at the bright smile on her face, I can see that she enjoys this.
Sigh… this is going to be tougher training than I expected.
Everyone is as taken aback as me when they heard Celia's instructions.
"Don't worry, she won't take much damage from this small stone, so you shouldn't go easy on her. Otherwise, it won't even be training."
Welp! This demon sergeant!
I guess I was fooled by her cute appearance this morning.
Well, let's just start the training so we can finish it faster.
I take the fabric and blindfold myself. My vision has been completely removed from me by this point.
There should be four people standing on my perimeter, surrounding me.
Of course, I don't know that for sure.
The objective of this training is to detect the presence of the stone and avoid it before it is thrown, but I don't think I can do it.
Puchi!
I feel something tap on my right arm.
I can't sense which direction the stone is coming from.
I didn't even realize a stone was thrown at me before I was hit.
It doesn't hurt, so it's okay.
The training continues after that.
Of course, I keep getting hit by the stone.
I focus all of my attention on the surroundings, and I vaguely heard the sound of someone stepping on the grass.
I guess whoever that person is taking a step forward when they throw the stone.
In response to the sound, I moved one step to the side.
This time, I don't feel any kind of impact on my body.
It seems that the stone has been avoided.
"Make as little noise as possible. Be careful when you throw the stone so that it won't make any discernible sound that can be used to avoid your attack."
Celia's stern tone rings in my ears.
Celia, isn't that too spartan?
As I concentrate further, I can hear the sound of the clothes rubbing against each other.
Now I know when the stone will come and can avoid it as I did earlier.
I guess I shouldn't have wondered if I'm doing well at this rate.
"Eve, this time you have to put this on too."
Yes, earplugs.
I guess it means I can't rely on my hearing anymore.
The situation has reverted back to the beginning. I have once again become a helpless throwing target.
It doesn't hurt, but it's frustrating when you can't do anything but get hit.
I can't rely on my sight, nor can I rely on my hearing.
It's so difficult!
I'm getting more and more impatient, but I can't give up here.
Two of my five senses are blocked, but I still have three more senses, right?
My taste sense won't do me good in this situation.
My smelling sense isn't any better. After all, I can't smell a stone, do I?
What's left is touch.
I could feel the stone when it hit me, but it was already too late by then. So, it's pointless.
Isn't this impossible, after all?
Or do I need some kind of sixth sense?
Of course, I don't have such a convenience.
While more and more stones hit me, I rake my brain to find a solution to my current predicament.
The only thing I have is my body, so I try to move in an irregular pattern so that it becomes more difficult to aim at me.
I step back, jump forward, and then hop from side to side.
I do everything I can do while desperately trying to sense my surroundings.
I don't know how much time has passed; fatigue washes over my body and my senses have already started to dull.
Suddenly, I sense someone holding me from behind and pulling the earplugs off.
"Okay, that's the end of the training!"
…Oh? It's end?
I loosen the tie of my blindfold, put it off, and open my eyes to find Celia behind me holding my shoulder.
I look around and notice a little bit of guilt showing on the faces of my party's members.
Well, this is training, so it's nobody's fault really.
The sun has risen since we started, but it looks like less time has passed than I thought.
"Eve, check your status."
I obediently open my status window.