When I woke up, although I felt tired, I felt fulfilled. Beside me, Ember was hugging me tightly with a smile on her face. I spent a few moments watching her cute face, which made me smile, before leaving a kiss on her forehead.
I covered Ember's body with a blanket before I went and wore my scattered clothes. As I was getting dressed, I noticed something that wasn't there before—a piece of paper lying in the middle of the white floor. It was yellowish paper, like a scrap from an old notebook's page.
"Who left this here?"
I picked it up and inspected it. The cut was jagged all over, as if it had been roughly torn off. I looked at it all throughout but only found one word written on it: "Sorry."
"... What?"
There's neither the name of the sender nor who this message was for.
"[Sorry]?"
"Uwah!"
I was surprised as Ember suddenly appeared over my shoulder, peeking at the note I was holding.
"Ember?! W-, tell me if you're awake!"
"I don't really need much sleep, so I was watching Master's face the whole time~, hehe."
'So you were awake when I kissed your forehead?!' I thought in my head, slightly embarrassed.
"A-Anyway, since you've been awake the whole time, did you see when this note got here?"
I quickly tried changing the topic. But to my question, Ember shook her head.
"No, I don't think so... It shouldn't have been there before Master woke up..."
"Hmm..."
Well, whoever this note was from or however it was sent here, I can't even begin to guess why it wanted to tell me that it was "sorry" about something. For now, I just stored it inside my storage ring, keeping it for later.
"So, Ember, can you teleport us out of here now?"
After we both finished dressing up, I asked however, once more, Ember shook her head.
"I've been trying since earlier, but this place seems to be separated from the normal space. Even with my clones outside, I can feel their location but not tell the distance or direction towards them."
"Eh? You mean we can't get out of here?"
I was suddenly attacked by a wave of uneasiness. To that, Ember added right away, "We can use a clone as an anchor," clearing my unease.
"Then please do it. Is there some adverse effect or something stopping you, then?"
Ember tilted her head as she thought.
"Other than not being able to return to this place, then nothing."
With that out of the way, Ember quickly selected one clone as a space anchor. Since she didn't have a grasp of the specific coordinates, it took her longer than usual to create the portal.
"Master, be ready! T-This one uses too much energy!"
Ember shouted as a small black dot quickly expanded into a full-size portal. I quickly jumped in, with her following closely behind me. As soon as we did, the surrounding scenery started warping in a dizzying manner.
After a few seconds in that uncomfortable state, we were thrown to the other side, landing on solid ground.
"Ember? Leader?!"
As soon as we landed, we were greeted by Fang and Igni fighting large spiders. I quickly analyzed the situation and mentally commanded Ember to block the entrance with a clone.
Ember quickly followed and used the clone that she used as an anchor as a barricade, transforming it into a metallic gate covering the whole cave entrance.
After Fang and Igni cleared the remaining spiders inside the cave, they finally sat down on the hot floor, sighing in relief.
"Just in time, Leader. We were just about to run out of energy then."
Fang smiled as she reported. It seems like even though their enemies were just a swarm of weak demons, their almost infinite number got the two of them cornered.
"Ember, give them potions and refreshments."
When we split off the contents of the storage rings, the snacks and drinks were all left under her care. To soothe the two fighters at least, Ember passed a healing potion and some honey water to them.
"Here."
As Ember approached the two to pass the items, their noses suddenly twitched. The two of them looked at each other in wonder before looking back at Ember, then toward me.
"Master is unfair..."
Fang grumbled as she pouted cutely.
"Well, the order should be respected. I'd have my time with My Lord in the future, surely."
Igni just shrugged her shoulders as she sent me a sidelong, yearning gaze.
From their words, I quickly realized that they knew I and Ember did the deed. I scratched the back of my head awkwardly, not knowing what to say.
"W-Well, we should return soon. We had been separated from the squad for quite a while; we'd get marked as KIA soon."
I stood up and announced, trying to change the topic. However, the two didn't entirely agree to the plan.
"Let us rest first, My Lord. I have already used up all my energy, and my armor is about to fade."
As she spoke, I could see the armor covering her body start turning into glowing particles of light as it slowly vanished. Of course, Igni covered her important parts using her impeccable arm guard, so I didn't see much.
Ember quickly passed her some clothes to wear. As a gentleman, I turned around and let her change clothes in peace. It's rude to stare at her while dressing up, right?
After that, we decided to set up camp for a few hours inside the cave. We ate and drank our fill as we waited for the two to completely recover their energies. It didn't take long, fortunately, as only about 2 hours later, the two were already back to full health.
Ember recovered all but one of her clones using her portal. The one she left was the one that was closest to the camp right now. She then used one of her clones again to generate another set of masks for all of us other than Fang, who still had her mask intact.
As we finished our rest time, Ember opened another portal, and we dashed into it as quickly as possible.
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