Chapter 69: Gift
The next morning, way too fucking early for any normal person, Emma slowly woke up.
Her whole body ached in the best way possible. A deep, glorious kind of sore she didn’t even get after carving through enemy lines all day.
’Wait... what time is it?’ Her military instincts suddenly kicked in.
She bolted upright on the mattress, the bedsheets instantly falling down to reveal the fact that she had spent the entire night sleeping in her natural, naked state.
Eren was nowhere to be found on the bed.
Emma looked around the dim room, instantly locating him over in the kitchenette area. He was standing by the counter, stirring a steaming mug.
"Good morning, Captain," Eren called out smoothly, without even bothering to turn his head.
Emma’s jaw dropped slightly in sheer disbelief. This lazy idiot was notoriously incapable of waking up before noon, yet here he was, fully functional at four in the morning!
Swinging her toned legs over the edge of the bed, the sexy knight scooped her discarded clothes off the floor and rapidly hid her devastatingly hot brown body behind those fabrics. "How in the world are you awake right now?" she asked, pulling her shirt over her torso.
Eren turned around with that annoyingly charming smile and held up the steaming mug. "I am well aware of your daily routine. You wake up at four every single morning for your private training drills. I figured your energy reserves would be severely depleted after last night’s penalty session, so I woke up early to prepare your preferred morning drink."
He stepped forward, setting the steaming mug onto the small dining table.
Emma walked toward him, not for the drink. Instead, she reached out to him and grabbed his collar with both hands, leaning her head down until their faces were mere inches apart. Her grey eyes burned with embarrassment and fiery pride.
"How dare you..." Emma growled softly, her breath fanning against his lips. "How dare you turn me into a shameless, begging mess on your bed last night?!"
Eren didn’t flinch at his angry tomboy knight, just enjoying in amusement. "If my memory serve me correctly, Captain, you were the one who explicitly begged me to flood your insides with my seeds."
Boom!
Emma’s face instantly flustered red. She shoved him back, abruptly letting go of his collar as her gaze darted wildly across the room, completely incapable of maintaining eye contact. "Ugh! Shut up! You absolute pervert!"
’Ah, this contrast is fucking priceless, Eren thought with pure delight. The same captain who can split wooden blades with raw aura is blushing like a schoolgirl over bedroom talk. Adorable.’
Suddenly, Eren remembered a critical item in his inventory. "Ah, right before you run off to your morning drills, give me your hand."
Emma paused, her brows furrowing in deep suspicion. "Why?"
"Just give me your hand, Captain."
Reluctantly, Emma extended her right hand toward him. Eren pulled a small, beautifully crafted ring from his pocket and smoothly slid it onto her finger.
Emma’s breath hitched. She pulled her hand back to her face, staring at her finger in wide-eyed bewilderment. "W-What is this? What are you doing?"
Eren casually pulled out a chair and sat down, resting his cheek against his palm. He held up his own left hand, displaying a slightly different, master ring.
"Consider it a gift from your lazy boyfriend," Eren explained. "These rings are linked through a localized resonance loop. If either of us ever encounters a high-tier threat or finds ourselves in critical danger, the other ring will instantly vibrate and pinpoint the exact geographical location of the user. Think of it as an emergency signal system."
Emma stood frozen, her grey eyes glued to the simple ring adorning her hand. A soft, undeniable warmth bloomed deep within her chest. This was the first real gift she’d ever gotten from him... and it was actually pretty sweet.
"Wait a minute...what about the other two? Did you have rings for Mira and Norelia as well?"
Eren let out a long, utterly exhausted sigh, rubbing his temples. "Yes, I have them in my pocket. I still have to deliver them today, which means running another full social interaction..."
Instead of getting jealous, Emma wrapped her athletic arms tightly around his neck, giving him a deep, aggressive hug.
"Thank you for the gift, Eren," Emma murmured into his neck, smiling heartfully. "Now I can make sure to keep your reckless self completely safe whenever you decide to pull another stupid stunt on campus."
Eren wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him as he inhaled her natural musk, thoroughly enjoying the affection.
***
Hours later, Eren found himself strolling casually down the corridors of the academy.
He hadn’t been able to deliver Mira’s ring yet, she had skipped breakfast, likely assumed Emma was still occupying his room and decided to grant them some privacy. A thoughtful gesture that entirely unnecessary now.
What truly amused him, however, was the sudden, dramatic shift in the ambient atmosphere around campus. Groups of students were casting admiring glances at him, whispering about his feet during Captain Emma’s combat class yesterday.
’Do these NPCs have zero actual study schedules? Their entire behavioral loop seems to consist strictly of spreading academy gossip.’
Eventually, he reached the grand auditorium for his morning history lecture. Sliding into his usual, highly coveted spot in the very last row against the corner, he slouched back and let out a long, satisfying stretch.
The night out had left him drained, making a nap in a boring history class sound like a divine proposition.
Prickle.
That familiar, electric buzzing current suddenly flowed beneath his skin again.
"Why again?" Eren muttered inwardly.
"Um... excuse me..." a remarkably soft, beautiful, yet intensely hesitant voice called him. "May I... sit here?"
Eren slowly turned his head to find a purple-haired beauty who had nearly caused a scene during Norelia’s engineering class days ago: Violet Lavenza. Her eyes darted around in anxious terror.
She was the best friend and emotional anchor of Alice. And the most important thing was, one of the two catastrophic bosses destined to completely level the capital during the upcoming Carnival Carnage Arc. She had an unknown curse that made it impossible for anyone other than Alice to stand within a three-foot radius without suffering severe nausea or passing out.
But he never felt any of them even when he sat right beside for an hour four days ago.