After several hours of recreational activities, Kamila fell asleep as soon as they started cuddling. By checking his watch, Lith noticed there was not enough time to reset Invigoration"s effects. Besides, he had already slept the night before, so he was still at his peak condition.

He used Acc.u.mulation to further refine his core while staring at Kamila"s sleeping face. Somehow, she kept grinning even while unconscious. Lith chuckled at the sight. Just like air magic allowed him to cheat at singing, light magic had done its part during the night.

Thanks to Invigoration and some custom made spells, he had an easy time discovering his partner"s most sensitive zones, when to stimulate them, and how delicate or not he had to be to achieve the maximum effect.

He kept caressing her head while checking the room with Life Vision. Lith didn"t feel comfortable in an alien environment and his paranoia demanded its due. Aside from the lights and Kamila"s communication amulet, there was nothing magical in the whole room.

A couple of hours later, he felt her moving.

"Good morning, gorgeous." Lith said while leaning forward for a kiss.

"Good morning, handsome." She replied with a soft, sleepy kiss as she pulled him closer.

"I hope I didn"t wake you up." He said while checking at the clock still floating at the corner of his eye.

"Nah, it"s because for some reason my face hurts."

"Seems someone had too much fun and smiled even in her sleep." Lith used light magic to give her muscles relief from the stress and injected her a bit of life force.

At those words, Kamila blushed violently.

"Did I?" she pulled the sheets to cover her chest and revealed Lith"s in doing so.

"Indeed. I was wondering, since we have the time, may I ask for an encore?" After his performance in the restaurant, the musical reference made her giggle.

"How could I say no to such romantic words?" She was already enjoying the scenery and her body felt oddly full of energy despite the lack of sleep.

"Wait." Lith said before things got too heated and words had no place anymore in the room.

"Just for academic purposes, I"d like to know what was the turning point that led to our current situation. Was it the flowers? The suit? The song? My speech about magic?" The events had escalated quickly.

Lith was both curious and confused about what he had done to hit the jackpot.

"All the above was very cute, but nothing more." She said with a ravenous smile.

"Just cute? All that effort for a frigging cute?" Lith thought but didn"t dare to say, afraid to ruin the mood.

"It was the part about starting a relations.h.i.+p with a lie." She was tired of talking and started kissing him with a quick gradation of intensity.

"Honesty, then?" It didn"t make much sense, but at least he could understand it.

"No, silly." She giggled so hard that she was forced to stop. "You calling what we had "starting a relations.h.i.+p". It made me understand how seriously you are taking our story."

"That"s it?" Lith blurted out. "Seriously, what the actual f…" Lith never got to finish the phrase as Kamila pushed him down the bed and shut him up for good.

***

After that, there was barely enough time for a quick shower and breakfast. Lith employed magic to prepare the hot water for the tea in an instant and heated the pastries to make them regain a part of their fragrance.

Out of habit, he even cleaned and washed the whole place.

Kamila came out of the still steaming bathroom fully dressed while dabbing her long black hair with a bath towel. It had taken her less than five minutes, so she remained dumbstruck in seeing the pristine room and the steaming breakfast.

"How did you…"

"Magic." He cut her short while removing the excess water from her hair with a flick of his wrist.

"I could definitely get used to it." She mumbled out loud.

They ate in silence, until Lith took a deep breath and then another one.

"Please, don"t take this the wrong way, but there"s something I have to tell you."

Kamila felt the ground splitting below her feet. Her mother"s words echoed again in her mind. She could almost hear Kima laughing at her stupidity.

"I knew it was too good to be true. Maybe he has already a wife or a fiancée waiting for him at home. Or maybe he just wants to dump me now that he has got what he wanted."

"Yes?" She said while forcing herself to smile while fighting an insistent tear that wanted to be shed at all costs.

"I don"t know when I"ll get the next leave and I still don"t know you or what you really like." Lith took out the green stem from the middle of the bouquet.

"So, instead of buying something that would just be a waste of s.p.a.ce, I made this for you. You know, to share a part of me with you and give you something to remember me by until our next date."

Kamila took it from his hands, her smile turned sincere. It was the cheapest, ugliest present she had ever seen, but it was much better than what she had feared.

"It"s beautiful." She said with a dazzling smile that left Lith flabbergasted.

"No, not yet." He blurted out in a stupor. "I was saying, don"t take it the wrong way. I"m not trying to be clingy or to show off. It"s just something I made for you. No strings attached."

Now it was Kamila"s turn to be confused. That twisted, badly hammered green piece of metal could hardly be considered showing off.

"Imprint it, please." He said with a chuckle as he watched her dumbfounded expression.

Kamila put a bit of her mana into the stem and a red camellia made of flickering flames bloomed from its tip.

"It"s beautiful." She repeated. This time it wasn"t just the relief talking.

"Yes, now it is." He explained to Kamila how it worked and how to keep it alive before putting it back into the vase. Much to her surprise, the small flames didn"t affect the other flowers.

"How is it called?" She asked while clinging tight to him, wis.h.i.+ng for that moment to never end.

"It"s still a work in progress." He hastily replied.

"I"m not so dumb to tell her that it"s named after her. It"s too early for that. I already feel we"re rus.h.i.+ng things a bit." Lith thought and Solus approved.

"It"s the best way to downplay it. Still, you suck with words." She sighed.

"You almost made her cry, just like you did with Phloria every time you pulled out your "we need to talk" speech."

Lith had many objections to raise in the matter, but Kamila interrupted them by hugging him tightly while burying her head in his chest.

"Thank you. It"s a wonderful present." This time she was fighting to hold back tears of joy. Kamila didn"t want to turn their goodbye into a sad memory.

"I- I don"t know what to say besides that it makes me happy."

Lith returned her embrace and they remained like that until the tyrannical nature of time turned two people who were sharing a moment together into two soldiers with a duty to uphold.