In a room you could only describe as normal, two people sat on a bed, discussing. The two looked a bit awkward by the situation but tried to endure it. The boy seemed like he was daydreaming as the girl spoke to distract herself from the surroundings.

The two were Vel and Tia, talking about something inside Tia's room. Earlier, the two were going on with their daily lives with the new friend of theirs, Kazuki. But after their daily quota had been met without Tia helping since she left, they went back to their homes, with Vel being called by Tia to her own home.

"..el, Vel!"

The boy snapped out of his daze and immediately focused himself on Tia. He was too distracted by the fact that he was in the room of the girl he likes and was unable to control his perverted fantasies.

"Y-yes?"

"You weren't even listening!" She pouted, placing her hands on her waist as she sat.

"S-sorry…"

"No worries!" She smiled. "Now tell me!"

"Tell you what?" Vel asked in confusion as he was still not used to understanding verbal cues due to him not receiving any in the past.

"Tell me what happened!" Tia's eyes shined in curiosity, and she unconsciously neared her face with Vel's.

The two noticed, especially Vel, and both felt embarrassed and looked away from each other to hide their reddened faces.

That was so close!

Ahh!! What am I doing?!?!

They both had their own monologues in their brains and the room fell silent immediately. Both felt more awkward than ever, with Vel thinking about things totally appropriate for their age and Tia thinking about things she should only think about when she's of legal age, to be exact, marriage.

"I'm so sorry about that…"

"D-don't worry about it…"

The silence returned once more, but for an unusual amount of time. Eventually, Tia had enough of the awkward silence and yelled.

"Just tell me what happened earlier!"

Vel, who was deep in thought was startled as the girl exclaimed.

"O-okay!"

So, Vel narrated what happened a few hours ago to Tia. She looked quite interested and wore a cheerful grin while she heard Vel speak for an extended period of time.

The things that happened earlier wasn't much, but Tia felt like it's a big step in Vel's goal(which was imposed by Tia herself) to acquire friends and get over his slight fear of other people.

"...and that's basically it." Vel shyly looked at Tia as she stared at him with a smile on her face.

"This is great!!" She loudly announced, excited by the new things starting to happen in Vel's life. "If we both work hard enough, you'll surely get over your fears!!!"

Tia squealed in excitement, then spoke quicker than she usually would. The newly discovered behavior of Tia surprised Vel for a bit but he then smiled while Tia spoke about many things. Until a jaw dropping statement was dropped…

"...and when you have a lot of friends, we'd be able to invite them to our wedd-" Tia abruptly stopped before she could speak of her fantasies.

The two processed what was about to be said, and had their faces painted red. The tension in the room skyrocketed along with the awkwardness and embarrassment the two felt.

Vel was frozen, yet still overheated due to his thoughts, which were now oddly innocent and cute. And as for Tia, she quickly pulled her blanket and curled herself into a ball, covering her whole body with the blanket.

"...Vel...please go back home now…" She pleaded, with a voice so soft.

Vel, still as red as a strawberry, replied. "S-sure…"

He stood up, walked to the door and twisted its knob. "Bye, goodnight." He whispered.

"Bye, rest well." She replied.

Vel opened the door, gently walked out, and closed the door. He left Tia's house in embarrassment, giving no response to Tia's grandfather when he asked what had happened. He probably has a misunderstanding right now.

Tia on the other hand was in the same state as Vel, but a lot more embarrassed. She had just indirectly yet obviously confesses to Vel. Of course she would be in such a state. Her excitement took over her, and she said something overly detrimental to her plan to make Vel actually love her.

But unknown to her(unsurprisingly…), Vel was so happy he could literally die by cardiac arrest at any moment. He was literally enlightened at that single moment, that he chose the perfect girl to fall in love with. And he even promised himself to think of anything perverted as little as he possibly can.

At the moment he came back to his house, he immediately went straight to his own room to lay face down on his bed. He yelled into his pillow in embarrassment. He was now a little bit closer to Tia's state, but still a little far.

For the whole entirety of the evening, the two thought of only that moment. Whether they were eating dinner, practicing their skills, taking a bath, or talking to family. It stayed within their minds constantly without even a single sign of going away.

That night, the two barely had the recommended amount of sleep. They were awake most of the night and continued thinking of each other and what had happened. They only had about five hours of sleep.

So, as the following day arrived, the two needed to take care of the shop until it was the afternoon. But as soon as the two met each other's eyes at the shop, they blushed at the reminder of what happened. And the two grandfathers were exceptionally expectant of some development between the two.

Vel and Tia haven't been briefed on the deal that both their grandparents had agreed on. It was basically something about the two being engaged because of some dumb decision made by two drunk men on New year. The engagement was unusually blessed by a high rank spirit and was an unbreakable pact made by the two.

Originally, the two grandfathers were worried that the two would have no chance of getting along due to their contradicting personalities. But little did they know, the two would start to like each other since their first meeting with each other.

As the afternoon drifted closer, there was little to no chance of the two getting over such an event. But as the time came, the chimes from above the door made a sound. It wasn't the regular customers that entered but it was the boy named Kazuki.

"Good afternoon." The two said to him, still trying to avoid gazing into each other's eyes.

Kazuki noticed the awkward air around the two and immediately understood the situation at hand.

It's this type of thing! Development! He yelled within his mind. Though he wondered what things he should do to help the two talk with each other. He didn't have much to work with, but he resolved himself to help as best he could.

"I just came here to tell you guys that I have something to do and I won't be able to join the party in going into the dungeon." He scratched the back of his head lightly. He looked lively, but sometimes felt wrong. "Also, Vel, is your Blacksmith skill high enough to make the sword in the blueprints?"

"Actually, it's a tad bit low. I was also planning on not going to the dungeon and just raise my skill." He replied.

"Ahh I see…I guess you didn't want to ask your grandpa to make the sword?" Kazuki chuckled.

"Of course not. I wanted to make the sword myself."

"As expected of you." He smiled.

Then looking at Tia, who was too embarrassed to even look at Vel, he asked. "Tia, can I talk to your grandpa and ask him something?"

"Ah...he's at the back…" She fidgeted, momentarily glancing at Vel then looking away immediately.

Kazuki thanked her and walked to the back of the shop, only to be seen again after a few minutes and walking out of the shop, saying bye to his two friends.

The two went quiet once again, without any sign of the two speaking to each other. The awkward silence between the two continued until night. They haven't even spoken a word to each other since the beginning of the day, which was unusual. They both had things they did separately; Tia practiced some of her magic, while Vel trained his smithing skills.

Before two hours until dinner, Vel was still busy with smithing and Tia was about to go back to her room to rest for an hour. But while she walked to her room, her grandfather gave her something, specifically a book with a note on it.

After laying down in bed, she quickly read the note. Basically, what was written down was a message from Kazuki. One line stood out from the rest. "...also, I heard from Vel that he really loves your cooking and would want it everyday(he already does)..." She felt really embarrassed that it was written. She was so happy to know that Vel really liked the food she cooked for him and was also about to explode from embarrassment. Also, the book was just a simple book of mostly food recipes that Kazuki bought last night.

"...this might also help you in making him fall for you *wink wink nudge nudge*..."

"Hm?" She confusedly let out, then noticed a small vial fall from the book(don't ask where it was placed). "What's this?"

She held the vial and stared at the slightly transparent pink substance in it. It looked oddly familiar to her and it immediately came to her when she remembered what was written on the note.

"Aphrodisiac?!" She yelled out. "Why does he have this?! And even give it to me?!"

The thought of putting aphrodisiac in Vel's food was something she hadn't thought of doing since the beginning. And because she thought that using those were basically cheating, and immoral(most of the time…).

She then composed herself and put the vial inside her drawer. "Let's...not think of using that…not yet, or probably never…"

Then, looking at the recipe book on her lap, she thought of something. What if I cook something that would help him recover his energy…? The thought was later then turned into a product of her hard work.

For the few hours she had left before dinner, she skimmed through the book and found a dish perfect for what she needed, she also went to the market to find the ingredients she needed.

Luck was on her side and she was able to buy all that she needed and went home safely. Then, looking into the book once more, she prepared all the ingredients and followed all the steps printed out on the pages of the book.

And after about an hour, she finished preparing the food. She was now reluctant to call Vel for dinner since she just now noticed that it would seem like she was a wife calling on her husband to eat dinner. Even though no one would care, SHE WOULD, and Vel too. But she built up the courage to go to Vel right now and invite him to dinner.

Slam! The door to the forge roared as Tia opened it forcibly. Vel jolted up while he was still busy hitting the heated metal with the hammer he held on top of the anvil.

Just the expression on both their faces showed that they were still embarrassed of what happened. Tia ran up to him and had her face redden after she quickly held Vel's wrist to pull him out of the forge and into her house.

Vel was absolutely frozen from embarrassment and only followed what the red-faced Tia ordered him to do.

"Now sit!" She yelled, and he sat down on a chair at the dining table.

On the table he saw a number of dishes, most of which he noticed was made using ingredients for recovering energy. Some ingredients he noticed were some Donner Salmon, Vitalis Tuna, Vigere Chicken breast and some eggs. There were even some fruits such as cherries and blueberries.

He looked at Tia for a quick second and she spoke. "This is um…I'm sorry for what I was about to say yesterday." She continued to blush and fidget with her hands.

Vel was absolutely intoxicated, drunk with the cuteness Tia was showing. So, he only followed what she wanted of him and began to eat the food prepared for him.

Swallowing one mouthful of food, he whispered. "I really do love eating the food you make…" Embarrassed by his own remark, he continued eating.

Tia heard him clearly, and was more embarrassment than she was earlier. She continued to stand, and only watch Vel enjoy eating by himself. But…

"Here," Vel raised a spoonful of food to Tia. She seemed confused, but only followed his nice gesture and took the food into her mouth, chewed slowly then swallowed. "Just sit down and eat with me."

"O-okay…"

And so, the two went back to their normal life, always together and talking about something. But the two of them still haven't forgotten about that event yesterday. They only kept an unspoken promise to not talk about it and only keep that memory as something that helped the both of them.

I really do love him/her… The two thought to themselves.

While the two had their sweet crisis, Kazuki was in the dungeon, defeating a large number of monsters on the fourth floor. He was completely covered in the blood that came from the large amount of wolf demon beasts that he had slain while on the fourth floor.

On the ground, was hundreds of purple crystals sprawled out, yet to be picked up. And even the wolves that have respawned were absolutely fearful of his presence and only ran away from his vicinity.

Kazuki breathed deeply multiple times, as if using a new breathing technique. He saw the dozen of wolves that came close to him, baring their fangs at the boy holding both a dagger and a very chipped longsword.

"This isn't enough…" He slashed the head of one wolf, splashing blood onto the already painted floor.

His eyes began to glow a radiance of crimson. Slashing through the wolves in a swift and effective manner, mostly through decapitation.

"I need to get stronger!!!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.

After the slaughter of hundreds of wolves, they stopped coming after him and stayed away as far as they could. He only stood there, looking down and thinking about something.

"I can't let that happen…" He whispered. "Even if it was only a nightmare, I won't rest until I can be able to prevent anything bad from happening…"

Then, he seemed to finally notice the fatigue that built up. He was slowly losing his consciousness, but he tried opening his status to see how much MP and HP he had used up.

-----

HP: 563/1650

MP: -372/1966

-----

Wait...what?

He then immediately lost consciousness after he caught a glimpse of his status, laying on the rock hard floor of the dungeon.

<To be continued…>