Chapter 106: Celes goes mad over an item
Celes woke up alone, yet she felt too warm, as though someone had been tightly cuddling her for a whole night, not letting her turn around. Since Leon's smell filled her little nose, Celes knew that her master's warmth still embraced her, not giving her any chance to properly open her eyes.
With heavy eyelids, Celes languorously rolled to the side to lay on her back and hovered her eyes on the blue sky, which wasn't so gentle to her race. But because of brimming love within her heart, Celes didn't mind facing the sun in the morning. At that time, she always argued with Leon, which could be amusing or annoying.
After all, Celes likes to laze around after waking up and then do her nails and other girls' stuff. Her master is the opposite, but she once managed to stop him and paint his nails again. Other than that time, Celes usually had arguments with him and leveraged her soft assets to deal with him or gain an advantage over their quarrel.
In their current relationship, teasing was their greatest weapon! And because of that relationship, Celes also could move forward, occasionally losing herself in thoughts about people dear to her heart.
'Only three are in Irene's hands…' Celes prayed that the girls with the strongest heart landed up in The Human Emperor's hands so they could be themselves should the catastrophe fall onto their heads. Even if those girls changed and became different, Celes would have more hopes of reverting them back to their real selves.
As for those with less experience and weaker hearts, Celes decided to simply believe in their fate.
And that was all… The vampiress understood her position, comfortably rolled onto her other side, and closed her eyes to think of much nicer things instead. That was best for both her psyche and her master's.
"Morning, Celes. How long have you been up?" Leon came to his vampiress' side and noticed through her body movements that she had been awake for some time.
With her eyes still closed, Celes parted her red lips and brushed them with slow whispers. "Around thirty minutes…"
"So you can slowly eat the breakfast now." Leon smirked, knowing that it always took some time for Celes to eat breakfast because of her laziness, and he showed his vampiress today's breakfast.
Celes glanced at the scrambled eggs her master had prepared for him, then lifted her upper body. She took the plate into her hands, and before digging in, the vampiress thanked her master for breakfast.
Leon laughed and told her he had made it together with his dragon maid. Alexandra didn't know how to cook, and she often ate raw meat and fruits like a barbarian, which made her blush and apologize beneath her little nose. Leon heard her voice and casually offered some of his help before Louise's return.
That last sentence left the dragon maid quite tense, but she nodded and was ready to face the inevitable meeting.
"How long have you been up, Master?" Celes asked while casually eating the breakfast, which in her case was noble-like and graceful.
Those noble vibes often accompanied her, and because of her current lifestyle, it was highly mismatched. But now, Leon couldn't help but smile wider than usual and gently stare at his vampiress eating breakfast with the wooden pork in a cheap sleeping bag and in the woods.
Perhaps, he had been unconsciously looking out for that contrast ever since waking up. "It's been like three hours now."
Celes' red eyes became dead and disappointed, for her master had left her for way too long. Of course, it didn't affect her night, but that was quite disappointing nonetheless, right? She wheeled to him like a robot and hovered her eyes on him.
Leon noticed her stare and began his counterattack. "You want me to laze around with you and waste the precious morning hours?"
Celes nodded and cast her usual smile. "Yes."
"It takes more than you drooling on my chest to keep me in the bed." Leon sneered and continued while his vampiress contorted her gorgeous face and glared at him. "And it takes a lot for me to not cross the line."
After a few deep seconds of staring contest, Celes retracted her eyes and returned to eating her breakfast. She still wore some anger on her face, but it was much different, as though she was angry at something else within her master. But a sudden image of her master holding back from kissing her helped her cope with that emotion.
For some reason, she could imagine a kiss pretty well — even though she had never kissed anyone!
"I'm not drooling while asleep… Louise does that."
"Alright, if that's what you believe… Remember my request to you, Celes?" Leon fished out the black skull and grinned, drawing the attention of both girls to his hand hefting it.
Celes took a peek at it and looked away. "Which request?"
"Ah, the one to make a potion." Leon made his vampiress remember one of his requests, then passed her the black skull.
Holding that item, Celes read the description and what her master had achieved. But to Leon's surprise, Celes widened her eyes, and a vein popped on her temple. She knitted her eyebrows, creased her forehead, and glared at the item as though it was her mortal enemy — The Human Emperor!
Before Leon reacted, Celes let her wings free and flew to the skies. "This piece of shit of an item wants to take over my duties in the master's party! It wants to steal away my presence!"
She chucked the black skull, the legendary item, far away into the forest and looked at its flight with her heavy chest heaving up and down.
Leon screamed as though his parents had taken away his toy. "What is this girl talking about?! Alexandra, catch that skull and bring it back to me!"
"Yes, Master!" Alexandra's dragon's wings came out from her back, and she flew straight after the item, her sense tightly trained on it.
But her mistress barred her way! That was when Leon came in between them and stopped the vampiress' madness with a tight hug, bringing her down to the ground.
Alexandra safely secured the legendary item.
"I'm back, master! I have got it!"
"Give it to me! I must destroy this shit!" Celes howled like a mad woman. She had already kicked away all wild animals from their surroundings, and now it seemed like even the forests wanted to run away as all those trees bent away from her.
Leon felt so conflicted. On the other hand, Celes looked so cute he didn't know what to do. There was something adorable in her trying to destroy that item. But that was the legendary item — a miracle that had saved him! He couldn't waste it just because she wanted to.
Of course, Leon imagined that the black skeleton brought bad memories back to her, so he swore to never use it in Celes' presence.
But the reality was different. Celes had been requested by her master to make a potion. And that item was basically the final product of that request. He had achieved that without her help, which irked her.
Celes wasn't just an alchemist. In fact, she had used that proficiency the least in Leon's party… Still, she felt threatened and disliked that item from the bottom of her heart…
It'd take some time for Leon to realize that.
"You're right, Celes! It's such a shit item because it has a weakness!"
"Weakness?" Celes no longer thrashed in her master's arms and glanced at the item with scrutinizing eyes.
Leon nodded and explained. "It sucks too much mana."
Because Leon's mana was tripled courtesy to Louise within him, the black skull really was too ravenous item. He couldn't easily use it, at least not every day and in a battle, so that item was severely limited.
It didn't take anything away from Celes' significance, Leon thought...
She already should understand that Leon, at most, can make a few precious potions out of it and nothing more! He can't start a proper business with it and still requires her help!
"Like, you know, I'll make a potion out of it, then your job will be to make many normal potions out of it… Something like that… I thought you would like it since it might even help you with your skills and hobby…." Leon slowly and gently spoke, but Celes didn't seem to like it.
"How could I like this?! All master needs is a vast mana pool. No need for my knowledge or help, nothing! It feels like a part of me becomes insignificant!" Celes shook her head madly, her eyes muddled by the fear of turning insignificant. It was mainly caused by the fact that Louise and Alexandra were legendary existences, and she was just an epic vampire — a grade less.
But on such a high level, one grade was like a grand step that not everyone could simply take.
Leon didn't think this way. He knew that Celes was a strong woman and believed she would finish her quest in the future and even go beyond the legendary grade. He even learned that she probably had more to her bloodline and a lot to explore in her veins… And yet…
It turns out that every strong woman has a weak spot in her heart… So simple, yet surprising at times.
"You'll never be insignificant-"
"Shut up!"
"I'll make a potion out of it, and you'll study-"
"Shut up and don't talk about it! Leave me alone!" Celes snatched the black skull, turned around, and went away from her master, stomping angrily on the ground.
With his shoulders low, Leon hopelessly stood and gawked at Celes' back, becoming smaller as she distanced herself. At this point, only time could fix that issue, right?
Leon rubbed his eyes and shook his head… "Man… What the fuck just happened?" He wanted to stir and kindle Celes' alchemist side since she had given him good drinking water purified through her alchemy skills yesterday. It was clear she liked that, so Leon simply wanted the best.
A pity that his brain didn't work well in this case… "Women…" Leon sighed and turned around, drawing Alexandra's attention to himself… "How in the world is harem so popular in this world? Alexandra, just answer me this, how many harem members do people usually have?"
Alexandra instantly felt his weary stare and exhausted tone hitting her. "Um… It depends on the status, Master… In your case, I reckon you'll leave a heavy impact everywhere you go, so it wouldn't be weird for you to have at least one harem member in every guild, kingdom, tribe, empire, and more… Around one hundred harem members for you, then?"
Leon stared at her with dead eyes, troubling his dragon maid. He then pointed at Celes with his thumb. "You want my already weak mental to crumble and turn into a fuck boy?"
Alexandra's cheeks flared, and she shook her head. "No! Of course not, Master! You'll pick up exquisite flowers and show the world how the harem's done right!"
Leon asked a rhetorical question. "Won't those exquisite flowers scream the loudest?"
"…"
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