After all the transfers were completed, Sharon also included Claudia's name in the Glory Mercenary Corps under Gard's instruction.
"Phew~ This matter is finally over. What is your next plan, Captain Gard?" Aurora walked out of the association gate and turned to ask Gard, who looked relieved.
"I'm no longer the captain, Lady Aurora, no, I should call you Leader Aurora at this time." Gard stared at the busy mercenaries below for a long time, "I plan to redecorate the stronghold, open a tavern or something to entertain these boys, maybe it would be a good thing to listen to their interesting stories about adventures at that time."
"It's a very thoughtful retirement plan."
"It's too shabby to call it retirement, more like a helpless layoff." Gard smiled wryly, "But anyway, I hope Leader Aurora takes care of Claudia, she is a good girl."
"Um, I will."
After seeing off Gard and leaving, Aurora took Flamme to a nearby hotel. After such a toss, it was almost dark, and she also wanted to take a good bath and rest.
"Lady Boss, arrange two vacant rooms for us, and get some food." Aurora pushed two silver coins in front of the woman who was keeping accounts.
The innkeeper raised her head and glanced at Aurora, her mouth turned to the side twice. She looked in that direction and found a row of wooden cottages, only one of which was still empty and uninhabited.
"There's only one room left." The innkeeper closed the account book, and her eyes seemed to wander around the two. "So do you want to move in?"
"..."
The corner of Aurora's mouth twitched unconsciously. Was there only one room?
There is such a good thing... no, why is there such a bad thing!
"What do you think, Flamme?"
"Flamme obeys master's orders." As always, she spoke without any emotion.
Alright, since that's the case, what else can Aurora say? Just set the room and take Flamme upstairs.
Anyway, she was just a sword spirit, she comforted herself.
But fortunately, although it was a single room, there were still two beds prepared, which made Aurora's heart settle down a little. After enjoying the delicious food and taking a comfortable bath, she fell down on the bed.
Sure enough, the bed is still comfortable, but...
"Hey Flamme, aren't you going to rest?" Aurora turned her head and looked at Flamme, who was standing in front of her bed and squeezed out a smile.
"Flamme protect master. Can't rest."
"No need, go to rest, this is an order." Aurora held up her forehead. She couldn't bear to be stared at while sleeping, even if the other party was a beautiful girl!
"Understood."
In the end, she obediently obeyed Aurora's order, packed up, and went to bed.
"Urgh, I can't sleep at all..."
Aurora stared straight at the ceiling with her eyes wide open. At this moment, the even and steady breathing of the girl on the other bed stimulated her nerves all the time.
At first, when Flamme fell asleep, she didn't feel anything and just focused on the system's guild options. When the lights go out at night and everything returns to tranquility, something went wrong when her senses became more sensitive.
The faint and pleasant fragrance emitted from Flamme's body lingered on the tip of her nose from time to time, and the moonlight through the window shone on her delicate face, showing a softer beauty.
Who can resist this... Aurora had to admit that her sleeping face is really too lethal.
Huh~ She's just a sword spirit, Aurora! Just a sword spirit... Aurora crazily hinted at herself in her mind.
A few hours later...
Aurora, whose eyes were bloodshot, sat up slowly and opened the system interface. Since she couldn't sleep, she just took this time to process the water bull's fur.
[Do you want to process water bull fur?]
"Yes."
[Ding! There is a defect in the water bull's fur, do you want to repair it with magic power?]
"Yes."
A light blue light lit up in Aurora's inventory, and slowly flowed into the wormholes in the water bull's fur to patch the gap. After the repairs were completed, she operated the processing interface to design a suitable item for Claudia.
"That's it... it should still look pretty good... maybe?"
Aurora bit her nails and looked at the glove she had just designed in the system interface, grumbling, "No, why does this thing look uglier the more you look at it?"
No, it had to be redesigned!
She scratched her hair and deleted the design drawings. "If I knew this before, I should have asked the designer in the old guild to design more drawings. Why didn't I think of designing some beautiful and practical clothes before?"
If the designer knew about what Aurora said, she would probably come over to beat her over the network cable overnight. After all, she mentioned it at the beginning, but it was directly rejected by Aurora when she said that something that looked good wasn't useful.
"It's finally over!"
After Aurora clicked to confirm the processing, the system prompted the processing bar to start counting down. She stretched her body and lay down for a while when she heard a sudden knocking sound coming from the door.
'Bloody hell! Who knocks at the door in the middle of the night?! Sick bastard!'
Aurora cursed in her mind.
But, when she turned her head and looked out the window, it turned out that it was already daylight.
"Sigh… never mind…"
"Hmm... master, awake?" At this time, Flamme also opened her eyes and looked blankly at Aurora, who got up and was about to open the door. Judging by her appearance, she still wasn't fully awake yet.
"A guest is coming, I'll go and have a look."
As Aurora said, she opened the door, and at a glance, she saw Claudia standing at the door with a big bag waiting.
"Miss Claudia?! Is there something so early?"
"Good morning, Lady Aurora, no! Leader! I'm here to report!" Claudia puffed up her chest and said seriously.
After Gard came back last night, he told her the results and the location of the nearby hotels.
Although she was sad, she said goodbye to everyone and went back to the room to pack her luggage. Afterward, she rushed over in a hurry and came immediately after asking for the room from the innkeeper.
'Am I too anxious...? Did I come too early and disturb Leader's rest? Look at her appearance, it seems that she didn't sleep well last night...'
Claudia's heart skipped a beat when she noticed Aurora's tired eyes. She glanced inside from the corner of her eye, and then, as her eyes widened, a blush appeared on her face.
"Huh?" Aurora looked inwardly along her line of sight in doubt.
Fuck!!
At this moment, Flamme just got off the bed and yawned. Her nightdress she was wearing slipped slightly, revealing her flawless white neckline, and her messy appearance made it look like…
"Ahhh! Leader, I didn't mean to disturb you!" Claudia hurriedly covered her eyes and prepared to run away.
At this moment, her mind has already started to be confused, the beautiful girl in disheveled clothes, Aurora who has bloodshot eyes and hasn't slept well, one room, one night...
"Listen to my explanation!!!"
Seeing Claudia's flustered appearance, Aurora knew she must have been thinking crookedly, so Aurora quickly grabbed her and pulled her back into the room to prevent her from making a fuss outside.
"Ah! Leader, don't~! I didn't do it on purpose! Don't!" Claudia wanted to cry without tears, could it be that her leader wanted to...
BONK!
"Hafuu~"
Aurora's hand balled into a fist and knocked some sense into her little head. "What are you thinking?! There are no such things as you think about!"
She rubbed her wrinkled eyebrows and sat down on the edge of the bed, looking at Claudia, who was squatting by the door with her hand covering her head and tears in her eyes.
'Ah… so troublesome…'
She hadn't slept well all night, and now she had to deal with this mess. A feeling of exhaustion swept over her body.
"Really?" Claudia sniffed and looked at Aurora pitifully.
Before Aurora could answer, the girl in the crimson dress, who was the main reason that this farce even started, opened her mouth innocently with an expressionless face.
"Master don't lie."
"Leader, you actually asked her to call you master!!!" Claudia's eyes widened in fright.
Had this beautiful girl been trained by Leader to look like this? Wouldn't she also target her in the future?! Was this what people said "entering a wolf's den"??
Wawawa…
Claudia's face instantly burned red, and her mind turned into a jumbled mess of messy thoughts. Her eyes turned blank as if her brain had short-circuited and stopped working.
Aurora thought that she must be so exhausted that she could see steam coming out of her head like boiling cattle.
"Her name is Flamme, and she is my sword spirit." Aurora rubbed her brows and tried to explain with a tired voice, "She was summoned from Flamberge Waltz, and she is now a member of our mercenary group."
Seeing Claudia's doubtful gaze, Aurora summoned the Flamberge Waltz and let Flamme return to the sword in front of her.
In the end, Aurora sighed deeply when she saw Claudia apologizing in front of her in dogeza pose.
Haaa… She'd only wanted to preserve her magic power by avoiding summoning Flamme back and forth! Why did it develop into this kind of mess??
To be honest, she didn't expect that [Sword Spirit Awakening] would be so different compared to in the game back then. The sword spirits she used to know were simply elemental incorporeal bodies that only knew how to obey orders and attack.
However, Flamme was different. She was an independent entity who had her own thoughts and personality, not much different from a real living being. Moreover, the cost to summon her was way higher than the spirit summoned Aurora used to.
So, she thought that it was more practical to summon her all the time to reduce her magic consumption.
Who knew… It spelled her so much trouble for being a cheapskate.
'Aaah… I don't know anymore… I just want to close my eyes and sleep…'
"Leader?"
Claudia, whose forehead had almost touched the ground, felt that there had been no reaction for a long time, so she looked up as quietly as possible to see that Aurora was lying on the bed and had already fallen asleep.
"Should I get up or not..." Claudia muttered helplessly. She wanted to cry but had no tears.