Midnight

Alessia already started smirking inside her mind, pleased with the look on Ramero's expression.

With his eyes fixated on Alessia, Ramero is standing on his spot unmoving.

Inside her mind, there's no way that Ramero can deny her when she's being this seductive. Serving a weird and narcissistic Gladiator like Ramero is way better than being punished, even the thought of the punishment makes her body shivers in terror.

But it seems she's not going to be punished, Ramero would definitely ask her to serve him.

"Can I serve you now, Sir Ramero...?" Alessia asked with her soft tone.

Upon hearing this Ramero snapped out of his daze before his eyes refocuses on the seductive temptation that is lying on the bed, but he soon shrugs his shoulders before he went down to the wooden floor in a push-up position, "Nope, I need to exercise so my body would be warmed up for tomorrow" he replied.

"Eh...?" Alessia's expression froze when she heard this, she completely read him wrong!

Looking at Ramero who is already starting to do his push-ups, Alessia was flabbergasted, her pride as a woman was hurt from that rejection, 'I'm already exposing this much but he's still unfazed? Am I really that unattractive for him?'

For a moment there Alessia feels awkward, she doesn't know what she should do in this situation.

Puffing her cheeks in annoyance as Ramero doesn't seem to be tempted by her at all, Alessia gets up from the bed before sitting on the sofa with her arms crossed under her chest. It's clear that she's quite annoyed.

About ten minutes have passed, and Ramero is still doing his exercises.

Ramero did his push-ups repeatedly before stopping when he feel the fatigue and numbness in his chest and arm, he takes a quick break before he went back into doing push-ups again. It's going to be a long night since he needs to do many physical exercises.

If he didn't finish the Side-Quest then he would be given a penalty.

Although there's no explanation of what the penalty is going to be, Ramero doesn't want to try the penalty knowing that it would probably be very bad for him. It must be a penalty worthy to be given by the Indomitable Spartan System.

With that in mind, he's going to finish the Side Quest this night no matter what.

Times went on as Ramero completely ignored his surroundings and indulge in his exercises, it was also enough time for Alessia to turn from being annoyed to bore fairly quickly. She's now leaning back on the sofa to wait for Ramero.

It's a rule for a personal attendant to not fall asleep until the Gladiator sleeps first.

Due to that Alessia is trying her hardest to keep her eyes open, but it's hard to maintain as she was told to do nothing by Ramero. Just then her eyes wander to Ramero's sweaty body, she blushes when she realized that she's trying to check Ramero out.

Wanting to ease her boredom, Alessia opens her mouth, "Sir, aren't you interested in the city?"

"Stop calling me sir, call me by my name, I feel old if you call me by that. And for your question, I'm interested but compared to a bed, peace, and bathroom I think I prefer to be here" Ramero replied while still doing his push-ups.

Upon hearing this, Alessia slumped back down into the sofa.

Taking the Gladiator she was assigned to serve around the city is not apart from her duty as a personal attendant, it would be way better for her to bring Ramero around the city which would also help her do her duty.

But it seems that is only hopeful thinking, Ramero is an introvert from what he seems.

With that, the room turns silent again.

Ramero keeps on doing his necessary exercises while Alessia tries to talk to him regarding anything from the gladiator match tomorrow, his background, and even his personal stuff such as if he has someone inside her heart.

It's clear that she was trying to make a conversation, but Ramero doesn't know why she did this.

About a couple of hours later, the chattering from Alessia never came for about half an hour now. Ramero stands up after finishing his exercises, he needs to do some pull-ups to finish the night but he can't use anything inside the room.

Knowing that he needs to find a spot to do pull-ups, he intends to ask Alessia for a spot.

Just as he glanced at the sofa he finds Alessia is already sleeping soundly, her expression looks peaceful right now and it almost makes Ramero feels bad to wake her up. But it's necessary, he needs to finish the exercises.

Stepping toward Alessia, Ramero leans down and shakes her shoulder a bit.

"Alessia, Alessia, wake up" he tries to wake her up.

Alessia's eyelids trembled a bit before they opened slowly, and her deep grey eyes dilated for a bit before she blinks her eyes to adjust her vision. Slowly she realized that Ramero is standing in front of her, but soon her eyes widened completely.

"Hahh! Did I fall asleep?!" Alessia exclaimed which surprised Ramero greatly.

Upon hearing this, Ramero tilts his head in confusion as this is quite a reaction from her, "Yes...?"

Immediately after she heard Ramero's answer, she went on her knees before she prostrate on the wooden ground in front of Ramero's feet. "Please don't tell the Officer that I fell asleep! I beg you! I'll do anything!" she pleaded desperately.

Ramero becomes even more confused, "What are you doing? Quickly get up"

But no matter how much he makes her get up, Alessia refuses and keeps prostrating on the ground.

"Don't prostrate to me, I'm also a slave to the school. We're basically in the same social hierarchy, so quickly get up before I get mad" Ramero added again with a serious tone, he was uncomfortable with someone prostrating to him.

Living in his home world, this kind of thing is new and uncomfortable for him.

'I'm not a God, I don't deserve to be prostrated' Ramero thought while sweating profusely.

Kneeling on the ground to force Alessia to get up, Ramero grabbed her by her shoulders and forcefully make her stand up. Instead of making her stand up, he was surprised when Alessia suddenly pushed him back.

Due to the edge of the bed, he tripped and fell onto the bed with Alessia on top of him.

"What the heck are you doing? Get up, you're heavy" Ramero quickly said wanting to push her off of him, but Alessia held his collar and buried her face in his chest. 'Come on, I need to exercise! It's going to be midnight soon!'

Just as he was about to push Alessia, Ramero stopped when he heard a light sobbing sound.

Looking down at Alessia burying her face in his chest, he was surprised to see that she was sobbing lightly. Not only that but he can also feel her tears seeping into his nightshirt, indicating clearly that she's crying.

Ramero slowly relaxed his tensed body, he really can't see a woman cry like this.

Waiting for a moment and letting Alessia let her emotions out, she suddenly pushes herself off of Ramero's chest before she looks at him with her deep grey eyes that are decorated with tears right now.

"Please... they're going to kill me if you report me" Alessia said while sobbing profusely.

Upon hearing this Ramero can't help but sigh, he never intended to report her for being asleep in the first place. For him, falling asleep is not a big deal but it seems falling asleep before the Gladiator she's assigned to is not allowed.

Alessia is the one that jumps to a conclusion, and she's really scared.

It annoyed Ramero at first since she was jumping to conclusions and even freaking out like this, but now he started to pity her. Since she's on top of him, Ramero can feel her entire body shaking uncontrollably.

Saying that she's scared is an understatement, she's really terrified of him reporting to the Officer.

Ramero clicked his tongue as he needs to work on resisting a woman's cry, he just instantly feels bad when he saw or heard a woman crying. "You misunderstand me, I'm not going to report you to the Officer. Why would I do that? I have zero intention of reporting you"

"R-Really...?" Alessia replied with her round eyes fixed on Ramero.

Turning his face to the other side, Ramero nodded his head showing that he really has no intention of doing that. But this makes a smile bloom on Alessia's face as she quickly hugs Ramero in gladness.

'Why death is always the punishment for the women I met...' Ramero thought wryly.

First, he met Leandra that mistakenly gives him the wrong potion, and she was punished with a humiliating death but thankfully Ramero prevent her from getting that fate. Now, Alessia is also going to be punished with death for falling asleep.

It's unnecessary in Ramero's opinion, but he was not the one making the rules.

Shaking his head as this world is contrast heavily with his home world, Ramero looks at Alessia who is still hugging him without any intention of stopping, "Can you get off me now...? I think you're being a little bit comfortable sitting on top of me"

"W-What?" Alessia sits up and yelps, she looks down and realized that she's sitting on Ramero.

Blushing slightly she quickly gets off of Ramero while her expression keeps reddening, almost making her face look like a ripe tomato. Ramero sits up on the bed while tidying his nightshirt and also clearing his throat.

After clearing the misunderstanding, Alessia then realized that Ramero has woken her up.

"Oh, yeah... why did you wake me up if you're not going to report me?" She asked in confusion.

Upon hearing this Ramero just realized that he was about to ask if there was a place he can do pull-ups, "Is there any training place here that I can use? It doesn't have to be for Gladiators, public training places will also do"

"Of course, there is. Come with me" Alessia replied cheerfully.

Walking to a circle engraved on the wooden floor, Alessia stepped inside of it and signals for Ramero to also stepped into the circle. Ramero stood up and does as she says, it seems the way out of this room is only through this circle engraving.

Ramero stood beside Alessia inside the circle engraving, he then closes his eyes.

It feels weird for him to be teleported like before, and he's still not used to it so he feels way better just closing his eyes. One of the hurdles of a person that came from a world of technology, not a world of magic.

But who could blame him? Magic is still a foreign concept.

Although his eyes are closed he can feel Alessia doing something beside him, probably activating the circle engraving to teleport them out. But then a weird ringing voice can be heard echoing inside the room.

"What was that?" Ramero asked in reflex.

Alessia waves her hand nonchalantly, "Oh, it's the bell signing that it's already midnight. Don't worry about it" she said while tapping something on the wall beside the circle engraving.

But upon hearing this, Ramero's eyes jolted wide open, "Midnight?!"

Upon hearing Ramero exclaiming beside her ears, Alessia was surprised as she was not ready for that. Wanting to complain, she glanced at Ramero to only find a pale expression decorating his face. A face of panic, and it subconsciously made Alessia panic too.

"What's wrong...?" She asked, demanding to know what made Ramero like this.

Not even given a chance to reply, a message from the system appeared in front of his vision.

[The host has failed the Strong Mind Strong Body Side-Quest!]

[Transferring the host to the penalty zone...]

Ramero reads the messages from the system before he cursed aloud, "Fuck..." he mutters before his eyes roll to the back, his mind went completely blank as he got knocked out cold in less than a second.

Brak!

"Sir Ramero!!"