Was I embarrassed by my over-immersion? Lydia remained frozen with her eyes closed.
Well… just moments ago, I was just as immersed in my freshly created character, so I couldn’t really blame her.
I decided to wait patiently until her shame subsided. But then…
“Um, Lydia? How long are you planning to stay like that?”
“……”
No matter how much time passed, Lydia didn’t open her eyes.
I wondered if she might have fallen asleep, so I shook her arm. But I squeezed it so hard that she didn’t budge, which meant she was definitely awake.
“Lydia?”
“……”
“Lydia? Lydia? Lydia?”
“……”
It felt like summoning a demon as I nervously circled around her, calling her name three times in a row, but still, Lydia didn’t move an inch.
Oh? Could this be my chance?
Seizing the moment, I decided to observe Lydia closely.
The first thing that caught my eye was, of course, her ample chest. The absolute mass was astonishing, but that alone didn’t quite fully captivate my attention.
To put it plainly, women with large breasts are surprisingly common on the Pan Continent. You can see this level of exposure everywhere come summer.
In fact, the larger the breasts, the more they seem to proudly flaunt them, enjoying even more exposure.
Of course, I had never seen anyone with a chest quite as large as Lydia’s, but that doesn’t mean I was so starved for attention that I would obsess over it.
So, what was it that made me so excited? I decided to analyze the reasons one by one.
Aside from her chest, the first thing I noticed about Lydia was her petite size.
Sure, she was bigger than me when I was underdeveloped, but she was short, and her build was small. Yes, objectively speaking, she was quite petite.
Perhaps this is why I once blabbed about how I could compensate for my lacking stats with my weapons, my eyes shining brightly.
Lydia in her rookie adventurer days must have been significantly weaker than other women.
But that doesn’t mean she looks weak now.
Anyone who awakens their aura has their body optimized for combat. What this means is that they end up with a fit physique, devoid of any excess fat.
From a distance, Lydia boasts a delicate figure, but up close, you can see the muscles neatly placed.
Of course, those muscles aren’t prominent enough to stand out dramatically. I don’t know if that’s a limitation of her natural build or if it simply suits her style, but…
Aside from my perfectly sculpted abs, unless you really looked closely or touched, you wouldn’t describe her as muscular.
The next thing that caught my attention was her long, flowing red hair cascading down past her waist.
In a petite frame, the sheer length of her hair was eye-catching on its own, but the vibrant red color drew my gaze even more.
Given our fantasy world’s diverse hair colors, it’s not surprising that my own hair is pink. Naturally, there are many others like it.
However… there’s no hair with a saturation as high as Lydia’s.
That striking red would stand out anywhere, giving off the impression that it was painted over the world itself.
Having hair that flowed this way and fluttered around as she moved… yeah, it could only remind me of flickering flames.
Though her eyes were closed now, Lydia’s pupils were just as striking.
After admiring all that, I finally approached Lydia’s face.
Overall, she looked quite youthful with a gentle, innocent impression. It felt like a blend of beauty and cuteness in a 7:3 ratio.
It was regrettable that she always maintained a blank expression, but nowadays, as I started to read her emotions, that became part of her charm.
Thinking back, I seemed to have avoided looking closely at her face because I kept getting distracted by her chest.
Nodding to myself, I stood on tiptoe to get a closer look at her features from below.
Lydia’s tightly sealed crimson lips. Her cheeks still held a bit of baby fat, with a nose that wasn’t particularly high, but definitely enough to be called cute.
Lastly, my gaze landed on her still-closed eyes.
Those softly warmed eyelids and the long eyelashes extending from them. Naturally, her lashes were the same red as her hair.
Humans are generally born with single-toned hair. In simpler terms, it means that all body hair must match the color of their head hair.
So, it’s not odd that her eyelashes are red, but… that leads me to imagine other body hair, and therein lies the problem.
Maybe because she wore Bikini Armor, I’m not sure if it was something she managed regularly, but her underarms were smooth.
For a moment, I tried to keep my wandering gaze in check.
“Ugh…”
Of all times, that’s when Lydia decided to move again.
Her eyelids slowly opened. Those crimson eyes stared right at me.
…So close that my face was reflected in her gaze.
“Kyaaaah!”
“Whoaah!”
With a shout triggered by a sudden jab, me screaming and Lydia startled in surprise.
Reflexively, I jumped back and turned away, but my heart still hammered away like it was malfunctioning.
“Why did you suddenly open your eyes?!”
“And what were you trying to do, Jonah?! Don’t tell me….”
Facing opposite directions, we both screamed in shock.
Saying it out loud seems quite innocent and charming, but in reality, it felt so awkward and embarrassing that I wanted to die.
I let out a deep sigh and said, “Well, I guess I’m all but married now.”
“I didn’t do anything?!”
“I was just quietly looking at you, thinking how pretty your red eyelashes were, wondering if other hair was the same color… and you caught me in that moment!”
“You were thinking that…?!”
Lydia, having retreated about five steps away, shot me a horrified look. Honestly, her reaction felt like those annoyed by a pesky guy, which kinda hurt.
After a while of just hanging in an awkward atmosphere, I realized we couldn’t stay like this in the labyrinth forever, so I decided to reach out first.
“Ahem. I mean, we’re both young, so stuff like that could happen, right?”
“…Shouldn’t I be the one saying that? I finally understand why Ellie calls you a clueless brat.”
“Hey! Details don’t matter! The important thing is, it’s your turn to keep the promise, Lydia!”
“Promise? Oh, the leather.”
Nodding her head, Lydia looked back and forth between the greatsword in her hands and me.
“I’m just saying, that vow we made earlier… ”
“Oh, that? It was just a joke. I got caught up in the moment and blurted it out, but I’m not thinking of holding it against you!”
Even so, shouldn’t we separate roleplay from reality? It’s not different from not being able to tell a novel from real life.
Oh wait? What does that make me, who’s been sucked into my own story?
While I pondered that, Lydia shivered with an expression of complete shock.
“A joke…? My first time… a joke… a mistake made in the moment… something that never happened…”
“Lydia? What’s with that reaction as if you thought it was destined love but then found out it was a one-night stand?”
“How could that be…!”
“Did I really do something so bad?!”
Lydia glared at me with her eyes ablaze, but all I saw in return was her expression filled with loss.
“Okay, I understand. I can’t take it back…”
“Wait, Lydia? Are you really okay? Right?”
In response to my cautious question, Lydia shook her head with an expression that screamed ‘fake’.
“…It’s nothing. I was just thinking about something else for a moment.”
“But that’s not the face of someone who’s completely fine.”
“More importantly, it’s time for the leather. Didn’t I tell you to cut it with your aura?”
“Ah! Right! Are you going to do it?”
“Promises are promises.”
Nodding, Lydia positioned herself in front of the abandoned Iron Wolf’s carcass, aiming with her sword.
Vwomp—
With a brief sound of the sword, red mist spiraled up around the silver blade. Simultaneously, the aura emanating from it intensified.
When you look at it this way, aura is truly fascinating. Somehow it fuels the aura blade, but seeing it sharpen just by wrapping it in mist makes zero sense.
It’s a notion that makes perfect sense in novels but feels like strange power when viewed in reality.
Despite being so commonplace now, it’s undeniably a miracle of God.
“Huff!”
After taking a breath, Lydia swung her sword. The red trail cut across the world toward the Iron Wolf’s corpse.
It was merely a grazing strike, yet that alone was enough.
Slash!
That thick hide was cleanly cut away, spilling its insides.
After burning away a few drops of blood on her sword with her aura, Lydia calmly put the sword away.
“Alright. Now you take care of the rest.”
“Thank you, Lydia! You know I really love you, right?!”
“Confession. Problematic.”
Finally returning to her usual self, Lydia leaned back against a nearby tree and started to relax.
As if cradling a precious treasure, she held onto her greatsword.
