They decided to hold the test of courage that very night. Laladie and Master left to stroll through the woods surrounding the guild. It was past midnight when they left, and due to the depth of the canopy above them, many of the paths were cut off from the moonlight and left pitch black. It was completely different from the warm greenery that filled the woods during the daytime. As for Laladie and Master themselves…
“Gnngh! Why is the path so stupidly hard to walk?!”
Master watched her stumble down the dark, root-laden path, a soft smile on his lips. It felt more like a casual picnic than anything else.
That wasn’t to say the forest was safe. They were far more likely to encounter monsters than wandering spirits, and at night, powerful undead knights went on patrol. Realistically speaking, however, the monsters were more scared of them than anything. Between a powerful alraune and the kingpin of a powerful evil syndicate, only the most foolish of ghosts would dare approach them.
Are tests of courage supposed to be this boring?
They hadn’t seen the hide or hair of any monsters, and the very thought of ghosts made her scoff. If they tried to scare her, she’d kill them, plain and simple. She doubted anything in those woods could scare her, but that wasn’t what brought them into the woods. There had to be some way to use the experience to get touchy-feely with Master.
Suddenly, a rustling broke out from the trees above them.
“Hm? A bird?” She looked up at the canopy unaffectedly before finally remembering what she was doing there. Shit, not like that! Ham it up! “Eeek. Lala’s so scared.”
With acting skills that would make a tree cringe, she glomped onto Master’s arm. She didn’t believe she had fooled him for a second, but since he didn’t even try to shake her off, it crossed her mind that he might be genuinely scared.
“S-Sorry, Master… Lala’s so scared…”
He smiled warmly at her, saying it was no trouble at all. He couldn’t have been more reassuring to a poor, sweet, defenseless little thing like her if he tried.
Hehehe… Master’s arms look so thin and frail, but he has so much muscle! Just holding something so girthy makes Lala happy!
He seemed none the wiser about her dirty thoughts, however. The only thought that crossed his mind was that she was holding on awfully tight, but he didn’t bother mentioning it.
“M-Master?” She hugged herself even closer to him. “L-Lala’s heart won’t stop racing.”
She was small and slender, but her chest had little lady lumps of womanhood, and her skin was remarkably soft. He got to feel it all a little too well, in fact, as she had started rubbing her chest into his arm.
Laladie smirked to herself in the darkness. She knew he had to be enjoying her supple breasts. He was a man, after all. Any man would be thrilled by her nuzzling, surely.
Go on, Master! Drag Lala into the bushes over there and push her down!
Seconds, then minutes, dragged on without any hint of him being even the slightest bit aroused.
Master could feel her body, certainly, but she was a daughter to him more than anything else, and he couldn’t even imagine acting untoward with her. He assumed her constant shifting was simply because the path was hard in the dark, and she was clearly terrified.
Gnnnnnnnnngh…! Fine, it’s time for Lala’s trump card! She’ll have to break out her special pollen!
Laladie extended her hand surreptitiously to summon a flower. Its pollen served as a powerful aphrodisiac, and even one small whiff could make anyone uncontrollably horny and unable to think of anything except sex. It was an incredibly powerful weapon. She had long avoided using it on him, but a little bit would surely just nudge him in the right direction. In fact, she had a hard time believing it would have any effect on him at all.
She leaned down at the side of the path to grow the flower but stopped.
Hm? Wait… What’s that over there?
There was something lucking there in the darkness. It couldn’t be human since nobody was foolish enough to wander near their guild. They had built it remotely for a reason. Whatever it was, it had fixed her and her alone with a murderous look.
“Wh-What? That’s…!”
She had just barely realized the danger she was in before the mystery fluid gushed down from the branches above her head.
“Waaaaaaaaaaah?!”
In a panic, she grew a tall plant with broad, strong leaves to deflect the substance. As it slid off the leaves and splattered to the ground, she could hear the ground sizzle as it began to dissolve.
“S-Soulgros, that bitch! How did she even get something so corrosive?!”
The violence of the attack came as a shock, even if she was enemies with the ninja in all but name.
Beside her, Master chuckled at something about the test of courage being unexpectedly intense.
“Nonono, this isn’t how it’s supposed to go at all!”
Laladie broke out in a cold sweat. Soulgros had likely taken measures to ensure Master would remain safe no matter what, but the acid could’ve killed her. They were always careful to avoid infighting where Master could see them, but she must have crossed the line by taking him into the woods at night. She could sympathize with that—if she discovered any of her guildmates sneaking off with Master, she’d try to kill the bitch without hesitation.
But this was different. It was downright evil of them to try to kill her.
“Whaaaaaa?!”
As soon as it was clear Soulgros’s trap had failed, a razor-sharp blade of wind flew out of the forest in front of her, slicing down trees as it went. Just like the acid, it was aimed for her alone, so it was likely more Yerkchira interference. She summoned a plant in front of her to act as a shield.
“Ah?!”
Not even its hard stem could block the attack, however, and it fell apart in hefty chunks. She was unharmed, but the whipping winds tore at her, cleaving away her clothes entirely.
Master’s smile froze awkwardly at the sight, confusion filling his eyes. Laladie looked right past him, however, and could faintly spot Ritter in the darkness ahead, her hands on her drawn blade.
“It was just the wind,” she muttered.
“This is ridiculous! This isn’t a test of courage; you’re really trying to kill Lala, aren’t you?! She’s just trying to stay alive!”
That was no breeze. If Laladie had been hit head-on, she likely would’ve died on the spot. Having her clothes slashed clean off her body was embarrassing, but oddly enough, it only strengthened her desire to survive.
“Gnnngh! L-Lala won’t die so easily! Not until Master’s had his way with her at least once!”
Sweat pouring from her brow, she began to root through her options with newfound fervor. She could drag him off into the bushes easily enough and force him to take her virginity—but no, she wanted something a tad more romantic than that.
The odd sensation of fabric snapped her out of her thoughts, and she realized that Master must have given her his coat, though she frankly would’ve preferred if the sight of her bare skin turned him on and he tried to take her right there on the path. Still, it was enough that he drew her slight form closer to his side just in case another “breeze” tried to hit her.
“Master…”
Cheeks flushing, she pulled his coat tight around her naked body as she looked up at him. Her heart was pounding inside her chest. She had already loved him so much that she thought she was going insane at times, but that simple action only made her worse. The lingering warmth of the coat, not to mention his intoxicating musk, made her head spin. It almost felt like she was floating, not unlike a head cold. Any thought of forcing herself on him instantly left her head.
“M-Master?”
She stared at him for a long moment, and her eyes began to water as her emotions swelled to overwhelm her. Her lips trembled, then pursed slightly as she leaned in and arched up toward him. Even if she didn’t have the willpower to push him down, she could at least kiss him. Yes, that would be enough.
Before she could reach him, however, a ball of ghostly flame plumed a short way ahead of them.
“Huh…?”
She stopped in her tracks to look at the fire. That must be one of the so-called wisps the book said they would encounter. There was nothing at all scary about it, she thought, but maybe tests of courage were just like that. After she squinted at it for a moment, however, she realized something about it that wasn’t in the book.
“Why is it so big?!”
It was large enough to envelop her whole, in fact, and would do far worse than scare her if it got too close. Even Master’s smile strained at the sight. He’d heard of ghostly fire, he told her confusedly, but he didn’t know they got quite that big. Even he had to know it wasn’t normal at that point.
Laladie heard a faint cry from up ahead—”This is what you get for takin’ Master out at night!” or something similar in Leiss’s voice—before the orb of flame started barreling out of the darkness toward her.
“Haha… Lala’s never doing a test of courage again,” she muttered to herself with a dry smile.
According to rumor, Master stepped in to block the fireball for Laladie, and her love and devotion for him only increased—but the repercussions of that are a story for another day.