Finn now had a choice.
He could tell Lusha that there was something dripping down from under her dress, which would make the situation really awkward, but Lusha could at least hide it before Fae could notice anything.
Or he could remain silent and act like he was as clueless as Fae was.
'I have already alerted them of Fae, so my job here is done.'
He decided to take the clueless approach because he didn't want to make the situation even weirder than it already was.
"Mom! I heard you screaming. Are you okay?"
Fae looked at Lusha with a worried look.
"Yes darling. I was just testing the soundproofing of our room."
Lusha embarrassedly smiled, and Finn tried his best to keep a straight face when he heard such a dumb excuse.
"Oh… And what's that liquid that is dripping from you?"
Fae pointed at the carpet that was starting to be more and more stained.
At that moment, Finn really wanted to change into a bird and quickly fly away just so he wouldn't have to hear what Lusha would say.
Unfortunately for him, Lusha had already opened her mouth.
"I was taking a bath, and I forgot to dry myself."
She smiled, thinking that she was a genius for thinking of something like that.
But because her hair was dry, that excuse sounded really stupid, and both Finn and Erelith tried their best not to make their stonelike expressions crack.
As long as Fae forgot about this and left, then Erelith wouldn't mind Finn noticing that Lusha and he were having sex.
Finn was almost twenty, so Erelith didn't really care if he knew, but Fae was too young to know.
"How about you go show Finn around the palace, Fae, while we go back to our room and finish bathing."
Erelith smiled at Fae while winking at Finn, trying to signal to him that he should help him out.
Finn, who was keeping his poker face, slightly raised his eyebrows in disbelief, but he still decided to help, and with a sigh, he turned to look at Fae.
"Let's go, Fae. Now that you know that your mom is fine, you can finally lead me through the palace."
He smiled at her and patted her head.
Fae thought about it first and then nodded because she also wanted to finally walk with Finn around the palace.
"Okay! Let's go!"
She quickly forgot about everything else and started leading Finn away while holding his hand.
Her parents sighed in relief and quickly went back inside the room.
Finn didn't know if they were going to continue what they were doing, but he just hoped that they wouldn't be so loud this time.
---
Walking around the castle, Fae showed Finn a lot of different rooms.
There were even empty rooms because the palace was so big that Fae's family didn't know what to use some of the rooms for.
The sun soon hid beyond the horizon, and their tour came to an end.
Finn entered a guest room that he would be using in the palace and decided to log off.
Before he did, though, he told Fae that he would be training his sword technique to not make her suspicious that he wouldn't be leaving his room.
He wanted to tell Sophie about the Elvish continent and the upcoming festival, but he thought that it would be better if he were to tell her personally.
So, he logged off and woke up in his room back in the real world.
Getting up from his capsule, Finn put his clothes on and went downstairs.
There was nobody there, so he quickly assumed that his parents were currently playing Second Life.
Finn then grabbed an apple, and while biting into it, he contacted Sophie.
[Finn]: Hey Sophie. I have something to talk to you about. Can I come to your house so we can talk in person?
He thought that Sophie might be playing and wouldn't notice his message, but she immediately responded.
[Sophie is typing…]
Well, she did immediately respond. It's just that her response took a few minutes to write.
[Sophie]: Sure. I have sent a helicopter to pick you up.
'…I will never get used to how rich Sophie's parents actually are.'
Before Finn could write Sophie a thank you, he heard helicopter rotors getting louder, and when he walked outside his house, he saw that the helicopter was landing.
"Sir Finn."
The butler, Klaus, whom Finn already knew, came to greet him, and Finn got into the helicopter.
Finn was confused as to why Klaus was there, though.
He expected some bodyguards to pick him up like before, but Sophie's butler came instead.
"Can I ask why you are here, Klaus?"
So he decided to ask.
"Master had heard that you were coming, and he wanted to talk to you."
Klaus responded with a nod.
"Jonathan did? What did I do this time…"
Finn was planning on talking to Sophie and then going back home, but sitting in the helicopter, he realized that meeting her at her home was the worst idea he could have had because he would have to deal with her family too.
'I should have gone with a café…'
Klaus shook his head because he was also unsure of his master's intentions, and they soon arrived on the mansion's rooftop.
Instead of Jonathan, Sophie was there to pick him up, so Finn quickly got off the helicopter and ran to hug her because he hadn't seen her for quite a while now.
She was wearing grey sweatpants with a black hoodie, and because her parents weren't forcing her to wear a dress this time, she opted for a more comfortable outfit.
But with her curvy body and gorgeous face, she still looked out of this world.
"Sophie! I missed you so mu-"
But she didn't share Finn's joy and grabbed his face with her hand, blocking him from approaching her.
She then looked at Klaus and told him that she would take care of leading Finn around.
"I understand, young miss, but master wants to talk with Sir Finn after you are done talking to him."
"…Fine."
Sophie wasn't fond of her strict father, but she couldn't go against him, so she nodded her head and started leading the way, with Finn following behind her.
"Did you not miss me, Sophie?"
While they were walking, Finn kept looking at Sophie with his puppy eyes, and soon her stoic expression cracked a little.
"…I did…"
She whispered something, and Finn leaned in closer to her.
"What? I didn't hear you. Can you say that a little louder?"
But Sophie was too embarrassed to talk about her feelings, so she punched Finn in the gut and continued walking.
"OOF!"
Finn held his stomach, as his body slowly remembered the risks behind teasing Sophie.
But he quickly got over the pain and caught up to Sophie because he didn't want her to leave him behind.
---
After they got to Sophie's room, Finn told her about the Elvish continent and how beautiful it was.
He also told her that there would be a festival, and he wanted her to come with him.
Sophie felt a little jealous when Finn talked about how all the female elves were gorgeous to look at, so she accepted, looking forward to spending time with him while keeping an eye on him.
Finn also told Sophie about Fae, and she agreed to go to the Elvish continent because she wanted to meet this cute elf girl that Finn kept describing as the most lovable being.
"I also have something to show you."
Sophie said, before standing up and going to her desk.
She then took something from her drawer and brought it to the table where Finn was sitting.
"A book?"
It was a book that had a brown leather cover with no writing on it, so Finn tilted his head in confusion.
"This is my diary, where I write about everything that I have experienced with you so far."
She opened the brown diary, and there was always a date and some text under it.
Reading some of it, Finn noticed that she recorded how he would always tease her or how happy she felt around him.
Instead of teasing her for it, he lovingly smiled and looked at Sophie.
"I think that this is a great idea. Thank you for showing me this."
"Mmm…"
Sophie nodded her head, and she was a little embarrassed, but she wanted to show Finn that even though she acted cold around him most of the time, she still cared about him.
"I have an idea!"
Suddenly, Finn stood up and went to Sophie's table.
He grabbed a tube of blue paint and smeared it all over his hand.
Sophie was confused because she didn't know what Finn was trying to accomplish.
After the paint covered Finn's hand completely, he went back to the table and grabbed the diary with his clean hand.
Flipping the pages, he quickly got to the last page of the diary, which was completely empty because they had started dating only recently and Sophie didn't have enough things to write about.
He then pressed his hand on the page, and it left his blue handprint there.
After he was done, he blew on it and let it dry so that the pages wouldn't get stuck together after he closed the diary.
When it was dry, he handed the diary back to Sophie, who took it but was still really confused.
"Now, whenever you feel lonely, you can open the diary and touch the handprint of my hand. It will be like I am there holding your hand."
Finn smiled and looked at Sophie, waiting to see her reaction to his great idea.
Sophie was really happy that Finn thought of such a romantic idea, and with a slight blush, she touched the handprint that was a lot bigger than her hand.
Finn looked at Sophie, who kept caressing his handprint with a small smile, and even though he was happy that he made his girlfriend smile, he was starting to feel jealous of the paper.
"You can touch my hand when I am here…"
He held out his hand and looked to the side, too embarrassed to maintain eye contact.
Sophie hesitated for a moment because she was still not completely comfortable with touching other people, but seeing how shy Finn was acting when he was normally really brave made her want to be the brave one this time.
So she grabbed his hand, which was much bigger than hers.
The hand was also sweaty, but she didn't know if that was her sweat or Finn's because after she grabbed his hand, her courage flew out the window.
Meanwhile, Finn was smiling like an idiot.
When he felt Sophie grab his hand, he noticed that her hand was pretty cold, but it was extremely soft.
Finn had already held Sophie's hand once, and it was when they were shaking hands in Second Life so that they could become friends, but that was for only a very brief moment.
This time she was holding his hand because she liked him, not because she wanted to add him as a friend, and so her grip was a lot softer and gentler.
They held each other's hands for only a minute, but to them it felt like a long moment, and Finn wished it would never end.
Alas, Sophie, who was starting to feel her heartbeat speed up, let go of Finn's hand, and he unwillingly let her go.
"Your hands are cold."
Finn looked at Sophie with a smile, and her cheeks turned redder.
"I am sorry…"
"No, I don't mean it as a bad thing. Mine are warm, so I just need to warm your hands up with mine."
He chuckled, and Sophie blushed even harder when she heard that.
After a few seconds, she was swept up by the romantic atmosphere, so she began looking at Finn's lips.
All kinds of thoughts kept running through her head, and being alone with Finn inside one room, she started to feel like her curiosity was slowly winning over her fear of touching other people.
So she decided to take a big step forward in their relationship, and while looking at Finn's smiling lips, she opened her mouth.
"Do you-"
Knock Knock
But before she could tell Finn what she wanted to say, someone knocked on the door.
The door was then opened, and Klaus stood in the doorway.
"Young miss. Master had told me to bring Finn to him now, because he is afraid that you might give him grandchildren if he were to leave you alone with Finn any longer."
"…"
Sophie's blush immediately disappeared, and she started glaring at Klaus with a frown.
Her stupid father's orders broke up their conversation just as she was about to say something important to Finn.
"I am sorry. Did I interrupt something?"
Klaus was only there to relay a message, so he awkwardly bowed his head as Sophie kept glaring at him.
Finn, who was already used to being met with misfortune in his most important moments, just smiled and looked at Klaus.
"Yeah, you did. But I will go meet Jonathan if he can't wait any longer, I guess."
But before Finn left the room, he leaned in to whisper something in Sophie's ear.
"Yes, I do."
He then got up from his seat and winked at Sophie, who was blushing again.
"See you at the festival."
Finn chuckled to himself while turning around and following Klaus out of the room.
When Finn left and the door closed, Sophie quickly picked up her pen and started scribbling everything that had just happened into her diary.
She then remembered what Finn had whispered into her ear, and while touching her lips with her fingers, her cheeks became bright red.
And as she sat there, feeling butterflies in her stomach from the fact that Finn noticed how she was acting and immediately knew what she wanted to ask, she suddenly started to really look forward to the upcoming Elvish festival.