Free Web NovelChapter 31: Home Sweet Home
Valeria’s day felt unusual. She didn’t have to work, she didn’t have to focus on recovering, nor did she have to spend the day wallowing in sadness.
Mana swirled in her core, somehow contained inside of the fractured organ. It was only after the injuries that she realized how much she took her mana for granted. When Luke told her that he could fix her, she was skeptical, but feeling the effects she couldn’t deny them.
Although his explanation raised a few red flags in her mind, she was willing to go along with a lie if it meant she could use magic again.
When she entered the kitchen, she found Luke’s note and his prepared food. She happily ate the meal. Valeria couldn’t deny the taste of his cooking.
After finishing the meal, she placed the dishes in the sink, before heading to the living room.
It was already 12 p.m., and she knew Luke had at least an hour before he would come back. There was no way that he would have bad luck with rifts back to back. Right?
Even she had only had a few close calls in her early days as an explorer. It wasn’t until C-Rank where she even felt her life on the line, but that was after years of intense training. Luke was just a low noble who had recently graduated, she knew the death percentage for that group and it wasn’t great.
She glanced at the door, hoping to find him walking through it.
The hinges didn’t move.
Valeria shook off the thoughts and picked up the ASL book on the table. She scanned through it, marking the most important signs in preparation for their next lesson.
When she finished, she couldn’t help but notice just how much she thought about him, while eating his cooking, when she took time to optimize his ASL learning, even when she would fall asleep.
’Is this how couples actually feel?’
Recently, when she was with him, there was a space in her mind that focused on him over any task at hand. Something that she had never felt before.
Instinctually, Valeria checked the door once more.
Its state hadn’t changed.
On her ring finger was the ring he had given her. At first she didn’t think much of it, just another piece of jewelry, the idea wasn’t anything new to her, but when she looked at the ring it was more than just its golden exterior. She saw his face.
’Stop. I am an SSS-Rank explorer that people look up to. This is just an arranged marriage, and I am performing my duty.’
Yet, she still snuck a peek at the door. Even if her mind could fight the feelings, her body couldn’t.
Instead of letting herself be consumed by the issue, she focused on anything else she could. Eventually, she pulled out the F-Rank spellbook from her spatial ring. Her fingers ran across the familiar leather-bound book. She had used hundreds during her prime, but the feeling from a spellbook never wore off.
She wasn’t planning to use it, just figure out what spell it contained and determine if it was worth learning or not.
The spellbook would be consumed if she flipped to the very last page, but she knew better and only read the first few.
Quickly, her genius showed and she could decipher which spell it was.
F-Rank Utility Spell, Cleanse
Honestly, she couldn’t believe his luck. If there was any F-Rank spell that even the pinnacle of explorers would use, it was Cleanse.
Not because it had some amazing effect, but because it was a portable washing machine that even worked on skin. There were times when she spent days in rifts and the only way to stay clean was this very spell, which was coincidentally the most expensive F-Rank spell.
Valeria got excited, just like she always did when it came to spells. When Luke came back, she would make sure he learned it, to save him from tracking any debris from a rift back into the house.
For what must have been the tenth time since she entered the living room, Valeria checked the door once more.
Expecting nothing, she got something.
A brown-haired man stood in the doorway, sand covering his uniform. Before anything else, she scanned his body looking for any injuries but found none. In one hand he carried a paper bag and the other started signing before realizing he needed two hands. Luke gently set the bag down on the shelf nearby and continued signing.
I’m home.
Welcome home. What’s that?
Luke smiled before lifting the bag off the shelf and giving it to Valeria. When she opened it, there were bread pastries inside. The fragrance almost made her stomach growl, if not overpowered by Luke’s sweaty clothes.
Lunch. I use bathroom.
Valeria watched as he walked towards the bedroom. Before entering, he took a whiff of his clothes and was revolted. He disappeared into the bedroom, leaving Valeria sitting alone in the living room.
She couldn’t help but notice his smaller actions now, the way he walked and moved.
’Stop.’
She thought to herself and turned her attention to the bag of pastries. Valeria stuck her hand into the bag and pulled out a croissant. The buttery smell filled her nose and whispered for her to take a bite.
It was one of the few battles she couldn’t win.
By the time Luke came back from the shower, she had already finished two pastries. Luke picked up the notepad from the bedroom before he came back.
Should I buy more next time I go out?
Valeria blushed slightly, realizing that she had once again showed her appetite. She hesitated before signing back.
Yes.
Then she thought for a second. He had told her he didn’t have any money, yet he was able to buy pastries, even if they weren’t expensive. Valeria grabbed the notepad from Luke.
Where did you get the money from?
Oh, we found a mana crystal during the rift and my partner paid me five platinum coins so he could keep it. Also, I have another present for you.
Before she had fully processed the words, Luke had already doubled the mana in her core.
Warmth spread through the fractured organ once more.
He had gone into a rift.
Risked his life.
And the first thing he did after returning was continue healing her.
