This subtle admiration didn't linger in his mind for long. Soon, Fay's soft, melodious sighs captured all of his attention.
When unprecedented ecstasy exploded and spread throughout his entire body, Klein's consciousness briefly went blank from the intensity of the sensation. In this fleeting moment, he vaguely heard that voice again.
"Please... don't... abandon me... I am... waiting... always... waiting for you..."
But like all other distracting thoughts, it was immediately drowned in the intoxicating flood of joy.
A moment later, Fay rested tiredly in his embrace, her sweat-dampened body still flushed a light pink. She apologetically stroked the purple-red bite marks she had left, saying with concern: "Klein, I... I'm... so sorry, I didn't realize I was biting so hard..."
"It's nothing, doesn't hurt at all," Klein chuckled while stroking her back and kissing the tip of her long ear. Compared to what he had experienced, this small pain was truly insignificant.
"By the way, did you use some kind of fragrance?" Fay asked, looking at him curiously, as if she had been holding back this question for a while.
"Fragrance?" Klein lifted his arm from behind her neck and sniffed it. "How could that be? After training this afternoon, I just rinsed off with water, and before coming up here I only wiped myself with some leaves to avoid smelling of sweat. I don't smell anything fragrant... I can't smell anything at all."
Fay curiously buried her face against his chest and sniffed, then looked up with a blushed face saying: "But... but there's this pleasant scent on you. I can't describe what kind of scent it is, but when I'm very close to you, it makes my heart feel warm and comfortable. It's like my whole body relaxes."
Klein lowered his head to smell himself, but could only detect the complex mixture of slightly sour sweat after their intense activity. "Is this the first time you've noticed this smell?"
"Yes," Fay nodded against his chest, "It's the first time I've smelled it, but... it really is pleasant. Now it seems to have become very faint, I can barely smell it unless I'm right against you."
"Maybe I was too... uh, emotionally heightened earlier and had a hallucination," Fay sniffed again and smiled shyly. "Now I can't smell anything at all."
"Oh, right," Fay remembered something and said, "Adding the thirty copper coins you brought back today, we can almost exchange for another silver coin. Let me go with you tomorrow, we can look for anything valuable, then go to town in the afternoon to exchange some money."
The common currency circulating among the continental merchant guilds was the gold and silver coins that had remained largely unchanged since the Dark Star Empire era. Therefore, Fay deeply distrusted copper coins, whose value varied by region. In her heart, she would rather choose paper notes issued by the Merchant Alliance than keep copper coins as part of their savings.
Thanks to the historically neglected minting technology, copper coins in the Elfas Federation weren't worth much, with exchange rates against silver coins fluctuating between 290 and 320. Thinking about how a heavy pocketful of copper coins could barely buy anything, Klein naturally supported Fay's decision.
Conveniently, the day after tomorrow was the Holy Day, the last day of the week, when most shops would stop selling and begin preparing materials for the next week after closing tomorrow evening. When those ancient mages established the seven descending days of Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, Darkness, Light, and Holy based on magical element fluctuation patterns, they probably never imagined in their wildest dreams that these would become the basis for everyone's daily scheduling. If they could hear today's magic academy apprentices confidently saying things like "tomorrow is Holy Day so we should rest and find somewhere to have fun," they might be so angry they'd crawl out from under the twin angels' wings in the afterlife.
Looking at it this way, it's no wonder that mages specializing in Holy elements are extremely rare throughout the Holy Realm.
As their passion gradually subsided, so did their body heat, and the night breeze began to feel a bit too cool. Fay curled up her body and got up to retrieve the clothes placed at the edge of the wooden platform. "It's getting a bit cold, let's go back and rest."
Klein watched Fay's rounded bottom naturally lifting up as she bent over, and couldn't help but swallow, thinking that they definitely needed to go back since it was getting cold up here, but as for resting... heh heh.
"Ah!" Before she could get dressed, Klein had swept Fay up into his arms. She reached back to touch beneath her waist and laughed helplessly, "Klein... you've recovered your spirit way too quickly."
Klein carried her down toward their treehouse, grinning as he said: "Quick recovery has always been my strong point. Besides, what if Lord Raniel happened to miss watching us just now? We should definitely try a few more times, then we'll surely receive the blessing."
"Hey hey, only the first time counts, you know," Fay laughed, hooking her arms around his neck, letting him take her wherever he wanted. "If you try to cheat like this, Lord Raniel won't pay any attention to you."
As they fell laughing onto their hard and rough but comforting bed, Fay sighed contentedly and held Klein's body tight. She furrowed her brow in confusion, but quickly, that trivial doubt was swept away to some unknown corner of the forest by their sweet intimacy.
Strange, it seems... she could smell that pleasant scent again...