Lian'er tilted her head, visibly puzzled. "Junior Brother Mikael, Junior Sister Amelia… why do you both look exhausted again? Earlier you seemed tired, then it faded, and now it's back? Was whatever Junior Brother did outside the sect that intense, to still be affecting you now? And if that's the case, why doesn't it seem to be affecting Junior Sister Kiara and Lyra?"
Mikael and Amelia exchanged a small, wry smile—speechless.
After all, they couldn't exactly explain that the reason they were tired wasn't because Mikael had done anything grand outside the sect… but simply because they'd had intense sex for hours on end—could they?
And that the real reason the two of them were still exhausted—while Lyra and Kiara seemed fine—was because Mikael had taken them in a full '1 vs 3' battle in bed.
As for Amelia's exhaustion, it was simply due to her steel-like willpower, she had pushed herself past her limit, determined to drain her beloved dry before falling asleep. Unfortunately, she'd failed… but even then, the aftereffects of that intense night left her thoroughly spent.
Unlike Lyra, who had fallen asleep sooner and thus slept longer, or Kiara, whose AI mind processed mental fatigue differently… Amelia had burned through everything she had.
"Cough," Mikael cleared his throat, offering the most diplomatic lie he could muster. "Me, Amelia, Kiara, and Lyra had a long, exhilarating, but exhausting reunion with each other… which is why we're all a little out of it."
"A reunion!" Hua Lianyu pouted as she placed her hands on both sides of her waist, looking at him with a disapproving expression. "Why didn't you invite me then!"
"Invite you…" murmured Mikael, his lips twitching as a flash of last night drifted across his mind—their beautiful naked bodies and the long rounds that followed—"...maybe another time. I don't think you would've liked this kind of 'reunion'."
Lian'er once again pouted, gaining a rather adorable expression on her beautiful face. "Of course I would have liked to participate in this reunion! It was, after all, to celebrate my Junior Brother's return to the Sect after months of being away."
Mikael's gaze lingered on her visage, and a thought quietly surfaced in his mind, 'I think that Lian'er and Yulan would get along wonderfully…'
His attention remained on the pouting Lian'er, who was still speaking, continuously trying to convince him to invite her the next time, 'Yeah… wonderfully. In truth, I think they'd become best friends instantly…' he mused as he observed Hua Lianyu's airheadedness, so similar to Bai Yulan's own.
"We'll see what I can do for the next time," finally exclaimed Mikael under Lian'er's barrage of 'pleading' words.
"Yeah!" joyfully exclaimed Lian'er as she jumped in place, and caught in the height of her 'victory,' she suddenly leaped in and gave Mikael a quick, impulsive hug.
It didn't last long—no more than a second—it was a brief hug, but in that fleeting instant, her arms wrapped around him and her face brushed against his toned chest.
At the same time, his scent—a blend of sandalwood, earthy tones, and something distinctly natural—hit her all at once, evoking the serene presence of mother nature itself, gentle and calming, without the slightest hint of heaviness or aggression.
Instinctively, she took a deep breath, finding it pleasant, but the moment she realized what she had just done, a startled "A-Ahem!" escaped her as she jumped out of his embrace like a startled rabbit, her cheeks tinted pink as her usually confident and playful gaze darted everywhere except toward her Junior Brother.
"T-T… that was—" she looked at him somewhat timidly, and seeing him giving her a knowing smile, her cheeks reddened even more, 'He saw me, he saw me breathing his scent! Ahhhhhhhhhhh, I want to die—how could I do something like that?'
At that moment, even the usually playful and mischievous Lian'er seemed momentarily struck speechless by her own boldness, unable to gather the courage to even look into her Junior Brother's eyes.
Seeing how Lian'er stood frozen, searching for words but finding none, Mikael inwardly smiled, finding her over-the-top reaction unexpectedly cute, 'No need to make her further freak out,' he thought to himself before opening his mouth, a teasing smirk on the corner of his lips.
"No need to panic, it was just a hug between a Senior Sister and her Junior Brother, right Lian'er~?"
Instantly, Hua Lianyu nodded at inhuman speed. "Y-yeah, exactly, nothing weird there, hehe." She let out her usual laugh, but within it was a clear note of relief as she patted her rather ample chest, 'My Junior Brother is an angel.'
As she had this thought, she even had the impression that Mikael looked more radiant than before, as if rays of sacred light were surrounding him—but the moment she blinked, the illusion disappeared entirely.
While the 'angel illusion' vanished, her relief didn't, as fortunately her Junior Brother hadn't exposed her extremely embarrassing behavior to her Junior Sisters—otherwise, she wouldn't have dared to look them in the eyes; it would've been far too mortifying!
'Fortunately he didn't say it and the Junior Sisters didn't remark,' she thought, lost in her own world and entirely missing the rather obvious glances the girls were giving her…
"Let's return to the Heart Demon Hunt card game, what do you say?"
"Yes, yes, yes!" Lian'er nodded like a pecking hen before rapidly retaking her earlier position in the circle, the others following suit with amused smiles—smiles that the brown-haired beauty failed to notice.
Just as no one was looking her way, Lian'er sneakily threw a glance at Mikael's side profile, and she instinctively gulped as the memory of his scent and the feeling of her face pressed against his toned chest resurfaced in vivid clarity; in that instant, a blush reappeared on her fair cheeks—and this time, it wasn't from embarrassment…
It was on this note that the card game continued and soon came to an end, with Amelia emerging victorious as the first to reach 5 points—her win sealed by successfully executing a Path of Madness card that required her to 'act' like a bow, and when that particular challenge was performed by the usually calm and composed Amelia, it drew laughter from everyone.
So it could be said that her win was well deserved… though honestly, no one really cared about who won or lost, as the true purpose of the game had always been to have fun—except perhaps for Kiara, whose objective was always to gather more precious data about her Darling…
"Well done, Junior Sister, for your win! You were awesome and did every single Trial of the Heart and Path of Madness you received," Lian'er exclaimed, her liveliness fully back.
Amelia's answer to her spirited energy was a simple smile—it was clear she didn't care much about winning, and truthfully, that sentiment extended to everyone present, as they all understood the outcome wasn't important. All except maybe… Lian'er, whose overflowing cheer was on full display as she continued showering her Junior Sister with praise.
This cheerful moment unfolded under the watchful eyes of the girls and Mikael, who observed the scene with a faint smile, 'This was an unexpected and strange idea we came up with but…' his gaze slowly wandered from one woman to the next, '...it was a good idea.'
It was on that note that the Heart Demon Hunt card game came to an end, but that didn't mean everyone parted ways to return to their respective cultivation or daily routines.
In truth, what happened was quite the opposite, all the girls, even Lian'er, stayed with Mikael, having missed him after months of separation and now simply happy to spend time with their beloved/darling/Junior Brother.
Mikael felt the same, and when those two feelings converged, the natural result was that Mikael, the girls, and Lian'er ended up spending a great deal of time together, simply reconnecting.
They did so through various activities, though the main one, undoubtedly, was just talking.
Like at this particular moment, they were once again positioned just like in the morning, lounging in the living room—only this time, instead of being lazily sprawled alone on a couch, they were gathered together, speaking with one another, sharing what had happened during their time apart…
All was well, with Kiara talking about her progress along the musical path and how she had also made some progress with Threading the Veil, which she promised to show him later, until—
"I think that would be it for me, I don't have much more to say. Now it's darling~'s turn to tell us what he did during the last months," she said, her dark blue eyes shining obsessively as she leaned forward, unnervingly attentive.
Mikael leaned backward to comfortably position his head against the headrest of the couch he was currently seated on, and then, wearing a casual expression, he explained,
"As you probably know, I left the Sect with five missions—one Bandit Extermination, another that was a Demonic Cultivator Extermination, and three others that were related to the Savagefang Mountain Range. Since both extermination missions were time-limited, I decided to handle the Bandit one first as it was closer."
His gaze met Amelia's calm green eyes, which were fixed on him with attentive focus. "To do this, I ran some investigations—I'll skip the finer details since most of them are too long and not particularly interesting, but essentially, I gathered intel on the bandits' habits, how they operated, where they were most active, and other useful information."
"It took me some time, but after a relatively long period spent searching and digging, I eventually found what I believed to be a caravan that would become their next target. From there, things were fairly simple—I got myself hired as a guard for this caravan, and then I only had to wait until they showed up and then...."
Mikael continued to narrate his story starting from this point, explaining how he acted as a guard for a while until the bandits finally showed up and how he limited himself to train, discovering this 'wonderful' way of getting stronger that consisted of purposely restraining himself while engaging in 'life and death' battles.
As he reached the part where he admitted to having allowed himself to be critically injured by weaker opponents all for the sake of tempering himself, the expressions of all the girls darkened visibly, especially Kiara, whose fingers twitched slightly as if she were struggling to suppress something far more intense, her face a complex mixture of disbelief, tension, and rapidly rising fury.
The others weren't doing much better; Lyra had gone quiet—unusually quiet, even for someone as silent as her—her eyes slightly lowered, gaze hazy, as if lost in the image of Mikael's dangerous struggle, while Lian'er's usually vibrant expression had stilled into a heavy silence that made it clear she too wasn't at ease.
The only one whose expression was 'somewhat' different was Amelia, who, after a moment of silence, gave him a side glance that was half disapproving and half appreciative.
Torn between the part of her that loved Mikael and couldn't accept him consciously throwing himself into danger, and the warrior part of her that couldn't help but find his tenacity, boldness, and willingness to temper himself through real trial both admirable and deeply attractive.
Mikael wasn't stupid, so as he narrated what happened, he could clearly feel the atmosphere that had turned heavy and somber. At that moment, the logical choice would have been to stop telling his 'adventures'—after all, the worst was still to come, and it was clear that revealing the full extent of what he had done would only further anger the girls, so continuing to recount everything would be extremely stupid, no?
Logically, it may have seemed so, but… 'I don't lie to my girls!'
An Unrestrained aura, unbound by anything and everything, exploded outward from Mikael.
Mikael knew he wasn't a saint—in traditional terms, he could even be called a 'villain'—but lying to his girls wouldn't make him a villain, it would make him a scum on earth, so no matter the consequences, he wouldn't lie or try to deceive them; he would tell the entire truth without omitting anything.
Author Note:
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The slice of life chapters continue with the reunion that I earlier skipped happening in this chapter, as after having written the last chapter I remarked that actually it would be nice and make sense to have a chapter on this and it will be…amusing.
At the same time, we're witnessing Mikael walking straight into the abyss with courage and determination… so let's take a moment to lift our hats to the fallen soldier.
After all, I am sure that the girls will be really happy to continue to hear about how not dangerous at all it was…
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