Part 76

As I left the twins to do their own thing, I walked to the residential area of the castle in search of Hazel and Icarus. Both of them had left Aros and I when we teleported back, so I hadn't had the chance to talk to Hazel yet.

As I wandered the halls of the castle to find Hazel, I found myself exploring. I had only seen some of the rooms through my map, so I wasn't aware of what they looked like in person. I first went to the cafeteria, which was right next to the training room. It was just as large as the training room, though the floor was built out of dark brown flooring and held several dozen rectangular tables. A kitchen was on the other side of the cafeteria but was empty and silent. The workers I planned to create weren't yet walking the halls or tending to the dust that had gathered on the ground.

When I went into some of the rooms, I was surprised by the lack of space that the entire bedroom allowed. Although the dresser and bed were large, there wasn't much room for a walkway. However, I wasn't too surprised by this, as I had focused most of my DP on quality rather than size. The sheets were soft silk and the pillows were well fluffed. The dresser was made from high-quality mahogany and the floors were covered by a dark red rug.

There were almost two hundred rooms on the first floor, mainly because they were small enough to fit lots of them next to each other. Although the castle wasn't meant to hold warriors or beasts, it was nearly as large as a fourth of the first floor. On the second floor sat the main bedrooms, where the guardians and myself would sleep, though the guardians might not need them, as well as the main throne room. Behind the throne room was the core, which would hopefully be guarded by all of the workers that I placed in the castle.

By the time I was satisfied with my mini exploration, Hazel and Icarus had already found the main bedrooms and were beginning to relax in them. After I found them on the map, I quickly changed my course and made my way to the second floor. After a few minutes of walking, I arrived at the room where Hazel had started to relax.

"Hazel?" I asked calmly as I knocked against the door. After a moment of silence, I heard Hazel's voice call out to me.

"Come in," She said, her voice muffled through the dark mahogany door. Once I got her permission, I turned the door handle and swung the door open. The main bedrooms were much larger than the staff bedrooms on the floor below. Each of the main bedrooms was nearly five times larger than the staff bedrooms. The bed was twice as large and had softer sheets. Unlike the staff bedrooms, the bed was also surrounded by a draped bedframe, one that dropped translucent curtains around the mattress like a cage. Just outside of the bed were two dressers, each double the width of the staff's dressers, as well as a mirror that sat on the adjacent wall. Just next to the mirror was a door that led to a walk-in closet, one that was empty but hopefully would be filled. The ground was covered in a dark wooden hard floor, though a dark red rug sat atop it.

"Hello," I said as I looked at Hazel. I found her on the bed, swinging her feet off the sides while she kept one of the pillows underneath her head. Hazel looked up at me as I spoke, then smiled.

"It's been a hell of a week, huh?" She playfully asked, her voice filled with light laughter. I nodded, then took a few steps into the room before closing the door behind me.

"It has," I nodded. I turned to Icarus, who was napping on the floor, his body curled up into a ball, "I'm glad you found the rooms without any trouble."

"Yes," Hazel said. She rolled her body to the side, dragging the pillow with her before setting it up just below her chin. She then rested her head on the pillow and stared at me with open eyes, "How was Aros?"

"He's been well," I smiled as I walked to Hazel. I sat down on the bed and took my helm off before looking back at her. Hazel smiled once again as she saw my eyes, "He's already reported the week's news to me. I'll be dealing with that business in a few minutes, but I wanted to check on you first. How are you doing?"

Hazel's smile disappeared, replaced with a frown. She turned her gaze away from mine as she looked up into the ceiling. She took the pillow from underneath her head and began to cast it into the air before catching it again, then repeating the process.

"I'm bored," She said as she caught the pillow. She held it still, then looked at me.

"I've been thinking," I muttered. I looked away from Hazel, my face warming as my heart rate spiked. I suddenly found it hard to look Hazel in the face as butterflies fluttered within my stomach. I found myself perplexed by my body's reaction. I hadn't even started talking, yet I was already nervous. As the wave of nerves crashed over me, I forced myself to push through them. I leaned closer to Hazel, then said, "We've been so busy over the last few days so we haven't had much time to ourselves."

Hazel nodded, her face slowly warming as she stared at me with wide eyes.

"I think it's time we start this relationship for real," I told Hazel. I leaned forward again, this time almost on top of Hazel. I supported myself by pushing my fists into the mattress below me, surrounding Hazel. Although her face was red, either through nervousness or embarrassment, she wasn't flinching or looking away, "What do you say?"

"Yes," Hazel said with a quiet whisper. The corners of her lips twitched as she spoke, unable to contain her excitement. She quickly leaned forward, pushing against the bed as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders. I smiled, then did the same as I lifted her away from the bed and onto my lap. Then, without any moment of pause, I leaned forward and pressed my lips against hers.

Within a second, I felt my body freeze. All I could focus on was Hazel's lips. They were soft, far softer than anything I had ever felt before, but they were also warm. With every movement I made, Hazel seemed to respond by moving closer to me. I closed my eyes to focus on the feeling, memorizing it for the fleeting moment that I was granted.

Then, only a few seconds later, Hazel moved away, playfully laughing as she calmly put her hands on my shoulders.

"I've been waiting weeks to do that," She whispered quietly. I opened my eyes, then smiled.

"Me, too," I whispered back as I leaned forward for another kiss. Hazel giggled as our lips touched once again, even moving closer to my body as she used her knees to gain a few inches on me. Eventually, she was leaning over me as she pressed into me to deepen our kiss.

I let myself fall back onto the mattress before wrapping my hands around her back. Unfortunately, I couldn't feel the surface of her skin from her armor, but I wasn't in the mood to 'explore' her body. Instead, I wanted to take things a little slower. Kisses and cuddling would have to work for now.

After a few more minutes, we seemed to both agree that we had enough kissing for now. We both parted ways, though with a smile on each of our faces. Hazel leaned against my chest plate and began to run her fingers over the surface of my armor. Although I couldn't feel her on my own body, I was still able to feel the pressure

"Can I say a few things real quick?" I asked Hazel, who nodded slowly. I smiled, then looked up at the ceiling before saying, "You came into my life without any warning and turned my entire world upside down, and for that I'm thankful. You brighten up my life every day, even if you don't know it. I'm glad that you came into my life, and I think everybody else is too. Thank you, truly."

"All I did was get defensive over a little dragon," Hazel whispered as she looked up at me. I smiled and nodded before turning my gaze toward the ceiling again.

"Well, I should get back to Aros," I sighed. Hazel groaned in disappointment but quickly moved away from me before smiling as I shuffled out of the bed. I quickly put on my helm again, then looked back at Hazel, "I'll be back in a few hours. I just need to figure out what to do with a mysterious adventurer that got lost along the way."

"An adventurer? Why don't you just kill him?" Hazel asked. I shrugged.

"I could. It wouldn't really make a difference regardless," I said without hesitation. Killing humans truly didn't bother me. It was similar to killing bugs, but perhaps that was only because I didn't know them, "It's just that I want to experiment a little. If there's a way to increase DP that I haven't discovered yet, I want to take advantage of it. I've been adventuring for too long. It's time to focus on the dungeon again."

After parting with Hazel, I walked back to Aros's throne room and met up with him. As I walked into the throne room, which by my new standards looked like a dumpster, I sighed.

"I'll have to upgrade this soon," I muttered as I looked around at the crumbled rock around me. My eyes fell upon the fallen pillar which was about halfway across the room. Aros turned to me and bowed his head, "Aros! How is the prisoner?"

"Hello, My Lord! The kobolds have just captured her," Aros said, "She's strong. Killed two of them on her own, unfortunately."

"It's a her? Do you know what role she plays?" I asked. Aros shook his head.

"Silfang is questioning her now. Would you like to join me? I was just about to head up there, myself," Aros asked. I nodded, which caused Aros to straighten his posture. I looked away from him, then created a flaming portal to Silfang's boss room. Once the portal was open, Aros and I walked through it.

"Hello," I muttered loudly as I walked through the portal. Aros emerged a moment later, which allowed me to close the portal. I looked around the circular boss room for a moment as I searched for Silfang, then nodded in relief as I spotted her on the opposite side of the room, "Silfang!"

"Oh, My Lord!" Silfang shouted with shock. She turned around, then bowed her head. Her three salamander minions all bowed as well, "My apologies, you just took me by surprise. I haven't seen you in a while, My Lord. How have you been?"

"I've been good," I answered as my mind drifted to the moment with Hazel just minutes ago. I looked away from Silfang as I turned my attention to the ground. A dwarf adventurer was tied on the ground, her arms restrained behind her back as her legs were bound together. She also had a gag across her mouth, but I quickly bent down and removed it, "Now then, who is this?"

"Curse you, monster!" The dwarf woman immediately yelled.

"Cut off her leg, just below the knee," I muttered quietely. A moment later, a quick blur of purple flashed in the corner of my eye. Silfang obeyed my order without question as she stabbed the tip of her spear into the woman's knee. The dwarf woman screamed in pain, though Silfang's attack wasn't done yet. She quickly twisted the spear, then tugged it away from her body.

I watched as the entire lower portion of her leg flew off, creating a trail of blood with it as it sailed across the ground.

"Now you know how serious I am," I said angrily as I crouched down. I looked into the dwarf woman's eyes, then pushed my fingers against her jaws before turning her face toward mine, "Watch your tone when you're in my presence, got that?"

The dwarf woman quickly nodded.

"Good," I said as I let go of the woman's jaw, "Why don't we start from the top?"