It is almost midday and that girl still wasn't up. I was done with the processing of the prey and the cooking was done with some condiments that I found inside the inventory which I almost never used. Thankfully, time is frozen still and if it does flow it is very unnoticeable, therefore, even if I got them a long time ago, so they should be fine. Thus, here I was, repeating history, waiting in the dining room until Yukiria wakes up with some warm lunch inside the inventory.

'I wish that she would wake up about now since I wanted to clean the bedroom of our… bodily fluids… I need a better description. Still, she is taking her time… Should I go wake her up…? It should be fine, right…? I mean, she has been sleeping for a long time, so… Yeah, let's do it.'

I got up from my seat, made my way to her room and knocked on the door when I arrived while announcing "Yukiria, it's Craven. Are you up?"

I waited for a bit but no answer was received, therefore I allowed myself to her room only to find her tucked inside the covers with her back turned against me. Thus, I approached her and lightly shook her shoulder "Hey wake up, sleepyhead."

I continue to shake her shoulder while calling her, gradually increasing the strength, until her body shifted to be facing upward. Her eyes here tight shut, and she seemed to make no endeavor to stop me from disturbing her beauty's sleep which meant- "There is no way that you are still asleep. It is already past midday. How long do you plan to continue to mop around?" I switched my tactics and started to lightly flick her face, but she completely tanked it and kept going with her act.

I smirked to myself "Fine. If that is what you want." I bent over and kissed her. However, unlike last time, I had learned a lot in between. Therefore, my tongue completely went past her defenses, invaded her mouth, grabbed her own and kept attacking it.

Yukiria "woke up" completely and tried to push me back, however, I was unrelenting and continue to give her critical hits and with each one, her strength faltered, giving me more space to strike. Once I felt her breath turn faint, I finally backed away and give her room for breathing while blatantly licking my lips before freezing over at Yukiria's appearance.

Her hair was disheveled with locks of them stuck to her face which was a given after our… exercise. Because of my most recent attack, she was out of breath, her chest going up and down with each pant. Her face possessed a rose tinge added to her earthen skin tone, tears filled her eyes threatening to fall at any moment yet not willing. She was sat up with her body, which was not as glamourous as mine was deceitful for I who tasted it not too long ago, knew how sensual it could be in reality, was wrapped in white sheets only held by a single hand. 'In other words: she is incredibly sexy.'

I bit my lip and used every ounce of my willpower to avert my eyes from temptation lest I jump straight back in the hole named lust and never come out for a good while. Thus, time passed in that awkward silence of me trying my best of not pushing Yukiria back down and she regaining her composure.

I heard her breathing becoming more regulated, therefore I tried to break the ice: "So, are you going to get up, or not?" and while I talked, I berated myself 'No! Don't let your eyes wander on her body! Focus on her eyes and only them!'

She cleared her throat and addressed me without facing me "What are you still doing here?" she asked me with a rather stiff voice 'It is just like that time. Like she is purposely trying to put a barrier between us'

"I am doing the formalities after our act." I came up with some stupid nonsense

"The what?" it seemed that my answer was outside of her expectations as she finally looked at me

I wasn't going to overlook this chance of her brain not being able to compute my nonsense. Therefore, I put up an act and sighed with mock vex "It doesn't really matter if you don't really get it. Get up."

I grabbed her hand an pulled her away from the bed "Go take a shower. You are disgusting right now 'maybe a bit too much with that sentence'." I pushed her back towards the door not leaving a chance of her refuting

"Also, give me that." I took back the bedsheet that she was still dragging with her because of her confusion. Her naked body was revealed 'Demon! Don't tempt me!' but I hardened my heart to my utmost and gave her the final push to get her beyond the door frame.

"After you are done with your bath, meet me at the dining room. I have some food with me." And closed the door behind her.

I sighed as the tension left me. Seeing Yukiria's act, the probability of she wanting some kind of amorous relationship with me was close to nil. On the contrary, she seemed to even want to destroy our current ambiguous relation which was, frankly, not okay with me. Yukiria was the first time I actually had something more than just friendship and just letting it all fall into a one-night deal felt really bad.

I shook my head of that depressing thought process and switched it with a new, more pragmatic, one: 'If Yukiria wishes for something more, we'll see. If not, then I'll move on. I can't let myself become the type of person who chases after the impossible and ruin themselves along the way.'

I walked close to the bed and started collecting the sheets. Once I was done with that, I felt the mattress to see if it also needed to be cleaned but it seemed fine with me. Thus, I temporarily put the sheets in the inventory and went to the kitchen.

Since there were no appliances in this place, I had to make do by opening the faucet and as the water flows out it, infuse it with my own water energy and gather it in the air to construct the makeshift washing machine. With that done, I threw the sheets inside the rotating [Water ball] and just waited for a bit.

While I was absentmindedly watching the sheets being washed, Yukiria appeared, thankfully dressed. Her skin was flushed, indicating that she complied to my earlier order and took a shower. She was standing by the door frame without saying anything, just watching me doing my own thing.

"Did you take your time?" I asked her

"Hum." She nodded in assent. Unlike in the morning, she seemed more awkward. Perhaps, the time she spent in the shower made her reflect on the situation yet she appeared to not know what words should come out of mouth.

"If so, I think it is almost time for these to be ready. Do you have some place where we can hang these to dry? I could always artificially dry them with fire energy if you want. However, since they are made from delicate fibers, I believe best not."

After some hesitation, she finally answered "There is the veranda on the second floor… But there is no clothes line, so…"

"I have some thin rope with me. Therefore, we can make do if you have something that can hold the rope plus the wet sheets."

She pondered for a second "Maybe, I have something. Wait a bit." And she went in the direction of her workshop

While she was procuring the items that we needed, I started doing the finishing touches: I stopped the [Water ball] from rotating, used [Puppetry] to hold the sheets, guided the water to the sink until I reached a limit of how much water I could take of them and saved them in the inventory.

Coincidentally, Yukiria also appeared as I was done, empty-handed but she could have the items inside her inventory like I did. Therefore, I asked her: "Are you done?"

"Yes." She gave me a curt answer

"Then let's go."

I waited for her to start walking and then followed her to the second-floor veranda which was empty and had enough space for setting the clothes line. Yukiria went to one corner and took out a triangle-based bar with a hook attached to it, the kind that seemed to be used to hold rather heavy objects, she went the other opposite end and did the same and then she looked at me. Grasping that as a cue, I took out a roll of rope and used it to link together both bars and once I was done with that, I cut the rope with a [Soul edged] dagger to separate it from the roll and put the latter back inside the inventory. Afterwards, I took out the drenched sheets and spread them on the clothes line.

I took a step back and smiled with satisfaction witnessing a work well-done "I don't know if they'll be dry by tonight since we are already in the afternoon. I can't help but wonder if someone had woken up sooner, maybe you they would have dried by now." I stressed on the "woken up" part since I sternly believed that she had actually waken up some time ago but chose to stay in bed for some reason. 'More importantly, I wouldn't have to wait for that long in total boredom. Granted that the whole boar processing and selling took until a bit after dawn, but after that-!'

I guessed my light outburst was a bit unexpected on Yukiria's part since she seemed to want to refute what I just said but not knowing what to say exactly as her mouth opened and closed with no coherent word exciting it with success. If I gave her enough time, perhaps some form of rebut would come out. However, I wasn't willing to wait that long so- "Anyway, it doesn't really matter right now. Come, I have something for us to eat. Don't expect much as it is something that I put together but I will hear no complains." I ranted a bit with the last sentence and turned back, making my way to the dining room before Yukiria could even react.

I took out a towel from my inventory and put it on the table because, frankly, this store/house didn't have anything apart from some basic furniture. Therefore, instead of a steak with bread at the side, it would be a steak sandwich since there was no cutlery. I put down the sandwiches on the table and sat on, thankfully, one of the two chairs. Yukiria sat on the one opposite of me and cautiously probed the sandwich.

"The meat is from an armored boar species that I hunted this morning while the bread is something I brought from Obsidian. I can certify that they are edible… not so much for their taste since I am not really a cook and I haven't tasted it yet. Anything else…?" I pondered for a moment "Oh right! The condiments that I used are also from Obsidian and they should be safe." I glossed over the fact that I don't remember when I bought them exactly but there was no need for her know that, was there?

I turned my attention to my sandwich and took a bite. How was the taste? I was never a gourmet so to me, it was okay, nothing too crazy but tasty enough to appease my hunger 'perhaps the first time being as hungry since coming to this world'. The meat was perhaps on the tough side meaning that I should have done something to soften it a little, but it was not unmanageable.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Hm?" I hummed and tilted my head in confusion

"I asked why are you doing this?" Yukiria who did not a single bite out of the sandwich seemed resolute into knowing my answer.

Thus, I raised my finger to indicate her to wait a moment while I chewed because I did not like to talk with my mouth full and after I swallowed, I said: "Let's leave the heavy talk after eating, lest us lose our appetite, okay?" I calmly said or at least appeared to 'Wow… How tense am I to use the word lest? Who in the world uses lest? …To think my speech was changed because of this situation.'

"… Fine." After giving her answer, Yukiria finally tentatively bit into her meal and although I had made that proposition, the mood was so awkward to the point of creating the opposite solution.

Thus, I had to use my ignore skill to its best of abilities. "Do you want some juice?"

"No." Her response was curt and to the point

"…More for me then." I took out a bottle of juice and had a sip. As I felt its fresh and sweet taste, I could not help smile in satisfaction and completely forget the situation I was in while I enjoyed the food.

The meal was not much in quantity, thus it ended quickly, meaning it was time to talk. Although, it seemed that Yukiria was not able to get the words out of her mouth as I waited so I took it up to myself.

"You asked why I was doing this before. I am guessing that you were talking about the food and the sheets that I washed, right? Well, it is simple because I don't want to be a total self-centered jackass that leaves after the act and the other party to deal with the aftermath. That is about it. Any other question?"

"… Yesterday… Why did you… kiss me?" she squeezed those words out

"Hmmm…" I hummed to myself while in contemplation because the answer that would justify my course of action at the time was not going to be pretty. However, it was the closest to the truth and Yukiria deserved nothing less. "Long story short, I guess I was taking advantage of you while you were in a weakened state."

"Hah?" the voice that Yukiria let out was not something I ever imagined coming from her 'If glares could kill…'

"I guess you are not satisfied with that, huh… Basically, I had a talk with my daughter earlier about doing a trip and I wanted to start planning it as soon as possible since I was really excited for it. Therefore, I came here in the morning in hopes of ending our project as soon as possible, 'let's skip the part of me knocking on the door' then  I found you almost falling over asleep so I tried multiple things to force you awake and one thing led to another and you know the rest."

After hearing my answer, Yukiria grabbed her head and let a huge sigh "So, it was because of some stupid childish excitement…" and ended with another sigh comparable to the previous one. Since what she said was the complete truth, I did not refute it.

"Well, my brain was not working properly and for some reason it thought that the best solution was to startle you enough with a kiss which kind of worked 'just for something totally unexpected'. However, I did not expect you to be bisexual."

She mumbled something but it was a bit too quiet for me to hear it even with my strong hearing so-"What?" I questioned her

"So, be it." I heard her this time

"What exactly?" I asked for more clarification

She raised her head and looked at me straight in the eyes "We will finish the project today and after that we are done." She demanded of me with no shred of willingness of taking no as a response

'So, it came to that after all' I smiled in satisfaction of her proposal "Okay. Lead the way." I got up from my seat and waited for her to do the same 'Sometimes, I cannot hide my emotions. However, other times, I am such a good actor that I can even deceive myself'

Yukiria got up and quickly headed to the workshop section of the building and I followed her. Once inside, I was able to witness the changes that happened since I last saw it. Honestly, it looked like a work of art, not in the sense of being pretty but in the sense of knowing what it was in reality and what it portrayed. Unlike last time, if I overlooked some glaring peculiarities such as the paper white skin or the crystals coming out in the place where ears are normally located, it would be a pretty convincing gender neutral living person sleeping on the table 'except it's not living'.

"It looks pretty much done to me. What else do you need?"

"The soul."

I looked at her confused and seeing that, she sighed probably fed up with me.

"Don't you remember what you told me about necromancy needing an artificial soul on the body to be raised?"

"Yes, but what does that have to do with me?"

She snapped "I'm telling you for you to do it!"

I shook my head "Although I know the principle behind it, I've never done it. It would be best to contact a necromancer to do it."

"There is none in this town."

"None?"

"Not a single one." It was surprising yet at the same time not that there was no necromancer in Dawn Breaker. After all, this town was not that important in its time as Greenwood. Thus, only people who enjoyed peace and quiet, like myself, chose to have Greenwood as their base of operation whereas the others either chose the capital or the cities near it. Furthermore, necromancy is a very specialized system that not many wishes to delve into.

"Frankly, from what I heard it is not that hard to make an artificial soul. It is basically pathways branching out from the power source like blood vessels connected to a heart. That's it. You wouldn't even need my help by using wires and crystals like last time."

"Yeah, about that. I am an engineer, not an enchanter." 'Ahh, I see. In other words, she does not want to do it for some reason. Either she is bad at it or simply lazy. Thus, it falls onto me.'

"Alright. Pass me the wire and I'll get started."

"Actually, I don't there is a need for wire and anything else other than the inscribing pen."

I did not really understand her reasoning for it and decided to inspect the body with my energy. The result was unexpected as I could clearly tell that the main material used for its frame had a high energy conductivity. There were metals with natural energy conductivity back in Obsidian and the higher the conductivity was, the rarer and pricier the metals were and the metal used for this automaton would be categorized as one of the highest but not impossible to obtain.

In this world, however, this automaton was priceless. Nobody would be able to pay for it but at the same time, just obtaining a piece of it and selling through some shadowy ways would guarantee a fortune for a long time. That or obtaining for themselves for their equipment. 'I first thought that this project was just something to kill time but there is something else underneath, huh. However, I can at least tell that this project was not an experiment at all. Why did she include me in this project, then? Just because I am an enchanter or is there something else that I am not catching?'

"Well, I can see that you are right about that. Then, do any specific requests or am I free to do as I see fit?"

Yukiria seemed to carefully observe my reaction "…Yes, make the soul as humanly as possible." 'Girl, I am not interested in stealing your stuff. Rather, I prefer to use my own body specs than being reliant over an object. Wait, I think it is better to tell her straight.'

"What do you mean by as… humanly as possible?" The word humanly seemed wrong to use in describing us because we are not humans "By the way, I'm not interested in your stuff."

My declaration only seemed to have made her warier but she nonetheless responded to my question "I want to test a theory."

I inclined my head as I pondered: 'I could do that. However, not only that seems much more complicated than just an artificial soul but I can only use my own soul as reference and it feels wrong leaving something derived from my soul in the hands of somebody else.'

"Are you the one who's going to test it?"

My question seemed to be outside of her expectations and she hesitantly answered "…Yes."

"Then, how about taking it a step further?" I proposed

"…Go on."

I decided to come clean with my intentions since mind games just wasn't for me "You see, I need a reference to create what you asked and I don't really want to utilize my soul. If we use yours, we could also test if the control over the body increases because of the similarities of the soul."

Yukiria furrowed her brows and appeared to think really hard. What I had asked was basically for her to willingly lower her defenses and let me inspect her soul, one of the most vital parts of her body. Sure, the soul can be broken or cut by external factors but they can heal with time. However, directly tempering with a soul can lead unforeseeable consequences to it. In other words, it was a very risky decision if she accepted. 'However, either it was hers or mine and I don't want to leave mine in the hands or others for it to be analyzed. I do not know what people would find out about it and I do not care but I am not taking unnecessary risks.'

Yukiria was still lost in her thoughts and, honestly, it was taking too long. "If you aren't comfortable with this idea, there is always other options such as finding someone who is willing to have their soul inspected or bring an enchanter you trust do it by themselves since it does not have to be me."

"I'll do it." Yukiria interjected

It seemed that my whole speech went into a deaf ear, thus I was a bit sullen because of that but I wasn't going to complain since she made her decision. Therefore, I took out the inscribing pen and "Come beside me." Directed her.

She complied, I put my hand on her shoulder as I focused where to start drawing and stated sending ener- "Mhm!" I was frozen by that familiar sound

I rigidly turned my head to be facing Yukiria. From her posture alone, I could tell that it originated from her since she had a hand covering her mouth and that glare that incriminated me.

"Hey! I did not do anything bad." I justified myself "I just sent soul ener…gy…" Then it came back to me that I had sexualized soul energy last night and perhaps Yukiria was reflectively reacting to it because it reminded her of the act.

But now that she was aware of it, thus she wouldn't be caught off guard "Let's try it again." I slowly and careful sent my energy with only the intention of inspecting her soul structure and while I was doing it, I could clearly feel her body shivering and a few gasps escaped her mouth.

"M-Maybe it is because you are sensitive there. How about holding hands, that seems to be the safer choice." I immediately held her hand and tried again but, in the end, her fingers were twitching 'Come on! I am trying my best here!'

I let go of her hand "Yeeeah… Maybe you should ask someone else to do this after all."

She instantly grabbed it back "I can take it." She declared with a resolute expression. However, that rosy tinge was not really helping in convincing me.

"But-"

"Just shup up and do it!" she yelled

I sighed "You're the boss."

I turned back to the automaton, I tuned everything out with the exception of me, the automaton and Yukiria's soul. I put the tip of the inscribing pen against the right hand, the same as Yukiria's hand, without using any force and as the soul was drawn, I would gradually move up while inspecting Yukiria's soul structure at the same speed.

Although it was visually simple, in action, it was not as souls are complex. The pen, in this case, was just creating the "tubes" for the pathways. The thing that was actually putting them together to form the pathways was a spell called [Spider's handiwork] which are like a spider's needle like legs made out of soul energy that could grab, adjust, separate, cut or simply destroy. A spell of utmost importance for super complex enchantments that are two dimensional or higher. 'Normally one would use the hand opposite of the one holding the pen. Me, however, I cannot do it at this time'

I was at the shoulder part and the difficulty would scale higher as the soul was incredibly more complex near the areas of the energy cores which are normally located in the chest and the head. I hesitated a bit before starting to make [Spider's handiwork] go overtime. I started by going up the shoulder to the head at a snail's crawl and then-

"Mhm!" Another embarrassing sound resounded through the workshop but this time it did not came from Yukiria.

I faced her "Yukiria, what in the world are you doing?" She was sending her own soul energy up my arm through our linked hands with a different intention than myself

"Why did you stop? Keep working." She calmly said but her eyes held resentment 'What did I do to earn this?'

"I can't-."

"Keep working." She repeated herself

She was clearly not right in the mind at the moment. However, getting back at her would be counterproductive and could possibly set back my work up until now. Therefore, I gritted my teeth, vowing to ignore everything she did to me and kept going.

I was done with the head after what seemed an eternity. Then, I moved to the remaining arm which was must faster. Afterwards the torso, slowly once again, but with hope of seeing the end as the legs would be the last things to do and they weren't as complex. However, as soon as I reached the calf, my arm was suddenly pulled downwards and I barely kept my connection with the on-progress enchantment and evading the possibility of it collapsing with no energy to keep it together.

I turned back to see Yukiria sat on the floor, panting while holding my hand with both of hers.

"H-Yu-!" my voice cracked so I cleared my throat and tried once more "Hey, Yukiria! Are you alright?"

I waited for her answer but she did not even turn her head to face mine. I did not think that she could not hear me for a second as I could clearly feel her energy rampaging inside of me clearly indicating she was conscious and that just did not bother answering me.

"Just a little further…" Those words were not even convincing me even if they came out of my mouth

I moved the pen downwards to the feet, then upwards to reach the other leg where I did the same and "Finally." I was done.

I quickly put my pen back in the inventory and retracted the energy from Yukiria and collapsed on the ground as my legs gave out. I hadn't noticed the state I was in before, but now I could clearly state that I was drenched in every sense of the word.

I let out a sigh of satisfaction for a work well done, or so I wished as Yukiria had yet to stop.

"Yukiria, let go of my hand. It is done."

"… fuck!" she responded to me this time. However, I did not expect her to cuss at this time rather, it was the first time she actually cussed in my presence 'that I can remember'.

"What?" and, as expected, I was taken back

She got up from the floor and pulled me up. Then, she started dragging me.

"Wait! Where are we going?"

"We're going to fuck!"

My brain went blank for a moment "Wait a second! The bedsheets are not dry yet!"

"I do not care!"

In all honesty, after all that ordeal, I also wanted some action as the rampaging energy only scratched the itch but it did not get rid of it at its source. Thus, as soon as that got caught up with my brain, I put strength on my legs and ran beside Yukiria. Our hands were never parted.

.

.

We finally calmed the fire down which allowed me to regulate my breathing. Thankfully, we had a sliver of reason on our brains and chose to enter the guest bedroom which was small in width for two people but that never did bother us as we were mostly glued together.

Once I calmed down, I looked at my partner only to find her looking at me.

.

.

"Hey. I've got a question?"

"Hmm. What is it?"

"Do you prefer the naïve and cheerful me or the more down to earth version?"

Her question was weird, but she seemed to want an answer so first "Do you want an honest answer?"

"Yes."

I got on top of her and gave her a lovingly kiss while bombarding her with energy which resulted in her face to melt "I prefer the one who is in front of me right now."

She quickly regained her composure after my attack "Damn pervert!"

"I'm not a pervert." I defended myself

"Yes, you are."

"I'm not."

"You are a pervert."

I licked my lips "Call me pervert one more time and I'll…"

"…"

"…"

"… Pervert."

.

.