First Move, Checkmate: How Will You Respond?

Gwen and Victor stood at the door looking inside.

“Why did you agree to this? We should have asked more questions, or waited a bit longer…”

Victor glanced at her, then said:

“Remember your purpose for coming here.”

“You didn’t come here for a vacation or to sleep.”

Hearing Victor’s words, Gwen shook her head, calming herself down.

But clearly, a man and a woman spending the night alone in a room was rather…

And there was only one bed, a large one at that.

Gwen furrowed her brows, conflicted for a moment, then took the initiative to say:

“I’ll sleep on the floor.”

Victor nodded, agreeing.

“Okay.”

Gwen was taken aback for a moment.

Although as a knight, she could sleep anywhere with her armor on.

But Victor’s reaction…

Made her feel a little upset.

Gwen didn’t even understand why, in her impression there was no concept of declining modestly or not.

Victor was a mage, more fragile than her, so he should take the bed.

However, after a long day of traveling, Gwen could feel the stickiness inside her armor.

To be honest.

Gwen wanted to take a bath.

She had endured through long missions before, but this time with a man in the room, she actually started caring whether she smelled or not.

She slapped her cheeks, trying to shake those random thoughts out of her head.

Gwen would not impose unreasonable demands.

Given the scale of this inn, and the time now, clearly they could not provide her a hot bath.

But with so much sweat on her, what if she really smelled?

She was conflicted, even forgetting that she was still in armor that clanked with every slight movement.

Victor inspected their surroundings with magic, while setting up a sound-proofing spell formation at the door.

Sensing nothing out of the ordinary, Victor frowned at the sound of armor scraping, and turned to see the extremely conflicted Gwen.

She was biting her finger, full of worry.

“Why haven’t you taken off your armor yet?”

Hearing his words, Gwen became bashful, lowering her head with her cheeks slightly flushed.

…

“You mean, you want to take a bath? In a place like this?”

Victor sat in the chair, holding his forehead.

There were no separate rooms here, much less a ready bathroom.

The entire room merely had a large bed, two chairs, and a table.

Too simple.

Given these conditions, Gwen actually said she wanted to take a bath…

“An unreasonable demand.”

Hearing Victor’s words, Gwen became even more embarrassed, though she had just casually mentioned it. She was even prepared to just sleep in her armor.

But it would be very uncomfortable to sleep in it.

She was a knight – even if she smelled a bit, she could endure and clean up once back home.

She missed the warm bathroom and comfortable big bed at her home.

A bright green glow suddenly lit up before her, and Gwen looked up to see Victor’s hovering hand constructing mystical spell circles on the floor.

The green halos overlapped and the carved paths gradually combined.

[First Order Magic: Wood Carving]

The moment the spell formation took shape, vines sprouted one by one from the floor’s circles, with strips of wood materializing.

They automatically bound together, assembling into the shape of a wooden bathtub.

The spell also polished the tub’s exterior smooth, giving it a glossy black finish.

Gwen watched as a bathtub she had been longing for suddenly sprouted from the floor, blinking her eyes.

Victor had not stopped his actions.

Blue and red spell circles spun and combined between his left and right hands, flashing alternately as the room’s air gradually grew hotter.

Victor brought his hands together, merging the two spell circles into one new formation.

A dual spell circle?

This was Gwen’s first time seeing such an advanced technique of simultaneous spellcasting, since she was no mage.

But what was Victor trying to do?

It was obvious.

The air became somewhat humid as water materialized out of thin air within the magical circle, coming into contact with the heat of the red magical circle.

Almost instantly, the temperature of the water rose sharply.

Scalding hot water seemed to be squeezed out from an air sponge, pouring down into the bathtub.

Gwen stared blankly at the scene before her, blinking her eyes, feeling extremely shocked in her heart.

“Is this…done by magic?”

She had seen some mages before, but never a mage who could do things as effortlessly as Victor did.

For the first time, she felt that magic was such a convenient ability.

“If you believe me, then please go ahead.”

Victor said while snapping his fingers.

A small black magical circle also appeared on his ring, and black misty curtains gushed out from the magical circle, isolating the space where the two were.

This side could not see the other side, nor could the other side see clearly here.

Seeing Victor finish all this, Gwen suddenly felt emotional in her heart.

Having a mage by your side during missions…

Perhaps it was quite nice after all?

She was naturally not an overly sentimental person. Victor had already done things to this extent, and she had always kept a righteous heart open.

So Gwen took off her armor and clothes, and soaked in the bathtub.

At this moment, she only felt happiness throughout her body.

Veega raised her eyelids and looked at Victor, who was sitting in a chair reading a book, with some disdain in her eyes.

“I can hardly imagine you wasting your mental energy just to do these little things.”

Victor took out a blue potion and drank it in one gulp.

The little bit of mana consumed just now had been replenished.

Being out and about now, he had to stay vigilant at all times and keep himself in optimal condition.

Putting down the empty bottle, he replied to Veega:

“You don’t understand.”

“Alright, I don’t understand.”

Veega imitated him and made a deadpan retort.

“This is the first time I’ve seen you care so much about a woman.”

Victor shook his head, recalling Gwen the Goddess of War from the game.

That stance of blocking and killing gods and buddhas, even now, was still deeply imprinted in his mind.

The most difficult boss he had ever encountered, no one but her.

Who would want to become her opponent if they could avoid being hostile with her?

Thinking this to himself, the rustling sounds from next door reached Victor’s ears.

Victor: “…….”

To a certain extent, he was a normal man.

The sounds from next door disturbed his thoughts, and the contents of the book seemed to be completely unremembered. At the moment, he only felt restless in his mind.

Was it too late now to set up a soundproofing spell?

Gwen would notice it.

But… He lowered his head slightly.

[First Order Magic: Self Hypnosis]

His eyes lit up slightly, and he eventually extinguished the fire.

Gwen, after washing up, poked her head out from the other side of the curtain:

“Um, I also washed my clothes, could you…..”

Before she could finish, Victor had activated the magic circle in his hand again.

[First Order Magic, Hot Wind]

A bright red magical circle lit up on Gwen’s side. She looked back and only felt warm behind her.

“Thanks, I can dry my clothes now….”

Gwen awkwardly pulled her head back in.

“Phew.”

Victor looked coldly, maintaining the last shred of sanity in his mind.

“Oh right, don’t you need to take a bath too?”

Gwen asked Victor from the other side.

With one hand on his forehead, he showed an annoyed expression.

“……I have a windproof spell on me, I won’t get dusty.”

“Also, if you want me to use the hot water you soaked in, then I’ll come over right now.”

Victor said coldly to Gwen. He just wanted Gwen to hurry up and get dressed.

“I’m sorry…..I got too carried away.”

Calm down, calm down.

These words kept echoing in Victor’s mind.

“I was thinking, maybe I need a bed, or else my just washed clothes will get dirty.”

As if suddenly recalling something, Gwen made another request to Victor.

“Gwen! I’m not your parent! Listen carefully! I can’t cater to your every need!”

…..

Gwen was sleeping soundly on the only big bed, dressed. As for Victor.

He sat silently in the chair, expressionless.

He did it after all…

First he hypnotized Gwen with magic, then used magic to move her onto the bed.

“That Gwen should be cold and ruthless.”

The Gwen he knew always carried out the royal family’s orders coldly, like a merciless killing machine.

But the current her had not reached that level yet.

Although equally cold to others, she still harbored unnecessary emotions like an ordinary person.

She would keep questioning the boss just because there was only one room left.

And even after he had helped her, she cautiously kept asking him for things, not daring to overstep his bottom line.

When she made mistakes, she would apologize, and her attitude was not as tough as the impression in his mind. Admittedly, she was indeed very strong, but…

“She’s not the Gwen I know.”

He turned to look at the sleeping Gwen and shook his head.

But this thought kept lingering in Victor’s mind, and could no longer be erased.

…..

Gwen stood at the front of the queue, commanding the knights on how to act.

“Today we are going up the volcano to investigate. If you notice anything unusual, don’t act rashly and report back in time!”

The knights looked at Gwen, feeling that her spirit and energy after waking up were very good.

And she seemed cleaner too?

The knights didn’t know what had happened last night, but Gwen was already looking at Victor next to her.

The knights seemed to have an “oh~” expression.

Victor saw that Gwen had organized the troops and turned to leave.

“Victor, where are you going?”

“We can escort you to your destination, or you can just follow along with the knights.”

“No need.”

Victor raised his eyebrows and looked towards the dormant volcano in the distance.

He knew a huge monster lay dormant there, with mixed feelings of heaviness and excitement.

“I will temporarily act separately from you for now.”