72: Return
[All conditions met]
[Current conquest mission ended]
[Obtained mission reward identity: [Conqueror]]
[Checking for system errors… 100%!]
[Performing self-repair… 100%!]
[Detecting sample integrity… 100%!]
[Transferring to last recorded point]
[Countdown: 10 seconds]
As if thrown into a chaotic vortex, consciousness was extracted.
Only familiar system interface flashing bytes remained before her eyes.
Yvonne didn’t care about the system anymore; now she just wanted to quickly return to the important person, not willing to waste even a second.
Consciousness refocused on this body.
The characteristic humid heat of summer, the restless air currents and thick moisture transmitted through the nostrils,
Beneath was a somewhat hard bed board.
Opening her eyes, the peeling ceiling board with mold stains presented another familiar scene.
“…Finally awake?”
A long-missed voice sounded by her ear,
Opening her eyes, a familiar face was staring at her with some anger from an extremely close distance,
Strange, her head hurt…
Yvonne struggled to sit up, and immediately a splitting headache came
“Really…! Who told you to drink so much last night.”
Seeing her grimacing and holding her head, Elsa sat on the edge of the bed, though feeling sympathetic,
She still needed to give her a good lecture.
“You actually snuck out to such a dangerous place again behind my back! And drank so much this time, Evie, you’re really getting more and more excessive—Mmph!!”
Wanting to confirm if the scene before her was real, Yvonne simply hugged her and kissed her.
“Wh-what are you doing?? So suddenly??”
Caught off guard by this sudden action, Elsa pushed her away with a red face, flustered.
Yvonne licked her lips,
Mm, this sensation, authentic.
“Really… Could it be your alcohol hasn’t worn off yet?”
Trying hard to stay calm, Elsa wiped her mouth full of alcohol smell with her sleeve, blushing. She stood up to pour a cup of sobering tea, but was pulled back onto the bed by Yvonne.
“I’m very sober now.”
“Don’t think this can offset—Mmph…!”
She had originally wanted to give Yvonne a good lesson about the dangers of going out to drink at bars late at night, but her mouth was mercilessly blocked again.
Wh-what’s going on…
She… was being actively kissed by Yvonne,
Elsa was a bit confused,
In her impression, Yvonne wasn’t such an aggressive person, so these consecutive actions were somewhat shocking to Elsa,
But…
This seemed nice once in a while.
After enjoying the friction between their lips and teeth for a while, Yvonne finally released her.
“Suddenly… what’s gotten into you?”
Elsa was already dazed from the kisses, completely forgetting what she had wanted to lecture about.
“I remembered.”
Seeing her serious expression, Elsa looked bewildered
“…What did you remember?”
“The first kiss.”
“…!”
This was an unexpected answer.
So that’s how it was…
Not knowing what expression to make, Elsa used the pillow to cover her face that was about to cry from being too happy.
She remembered—she finally remembered.
“Elsa, I have a question, when did you recognize me?”
“Well…”
Elsa recognized her in the first semester of her enrollment at Hartwell Magic Academy—that is, after the Smollett family was falsely accused and convicted. Because she was somewhat concerned about Yvonne’s situation after saving her, she went along with some other nosy classmates to watch the spectacle at the duke’s mansion that had been ordered to be confiscated.
“…So you were touched by the familiar scene and realized you had lived there as a child, right?”
Yvonne was somewhat disappointed by this answer,
“But you didn’t recognize me at first sight either, did you?”
“Th-that’s because you changed too much, Evie!!”
The Elsa trying hard to explain something in front of her overlapped with the little maid in her memory.
Although there were changes, there were also parts that were as cute as before.
“Although I imagined that ‘Young Miss’ would become very cute… I never thought she would turn into such a tall and beautiful person like Evie… so at first I didn’t think in that direction at all…”
Elsa became increasingly troubled as she spoke, and finally simply used the pillow to cover her face.
…So that’s how she saw her?
She had thought everyone found her fierce appearance frightening and didn’t dare approach her, but Elsa actually called her like this a ‘beauty’… it made Yvonne feel somewhat embarrassed.
Elsa considered herself somewhat famous at school, so seeing this name she had given her at the same school, she should have remembered no matter what. But Yvonne had no reaction at all at that time, which made her think ‘perhaps it’s not this person’.
“Then why didn’t you tell me after you knew?”
“The ‘promise’… doesn’t it only take effect when both people recognize each other?”
The promise they made with a pinky swear, ‘to be together forever’
Hugging the pillow, she sat on the other side of the bed with her back against the wall, looking at Yvonne with a red face, muttering softly:
“If we broke the promise, wouldn’t it not count anymore…”
Yvonne felt somewhat dazed, about to be overwhelmed by an immense sense of happiness.
She actually remembered so clearly, and even carried it out so seriously.
“And… I didn’t expect Evie to forget me completely, so I was very upset when I first made up my mind to pursue you! —Even His Highness Michel still recognized me!!”
She looked quite aggrieved, and Yvonne finally understood why she had been so persistent in wanting to bully her back then.
“Well… I’ll explain it to you properly when I have time…”
It wasn’t that she had forgotten,
After all, for her, this was something she had just experienced.
But how to explain it specifically was another troublesome matter.
“I had a strange dream…”
“…Dream?”
“Mm, you could say that.”
Like a large golden retriever, she lay with her hair spread out, crawling on all fours in front of Yvonne.
“But let’s not talk about that for now, um… can I kiss you again?”
Lying on top of her, she showed an expression like a pet dog begging for food.
“This is the third time today! Isn’t it too much? It’s not like someone else will steal me away… Mmph!”
Perhaps seeing the compromise in her expression, without further ado, soft lips pressed against hers again,
Just like that, they connected, then separated with misty eyes, only to continue immediately,
Repeating the kissing motion, while murmuring:
“Elsa’s lips… are mine.”
Knowing that the ownership of the first kiss belonged to her, her passion rose accordingly.
“Whether it’s the first time, or the 100th time, 1000th time, all of it… all of it, is mine.”
“Alright… kiss to your heart’s content… then.”
Though saying words that seemed like giving up resistance, her hands rested on Yvonne’s shoulders, and when Yvonne leaned down again, she actively met her halfway.