Book 4: Chapter 85: Patch 14.0: An Explosive Date

“Hey, Azawaza,” Fenrir calls out to Azalabulia.

“A-ah… he-hello,” Azalabulia stutters out in response, her face somehow already red as she taps the tips of her fingers together.

Her reaction makes it clear to Fenrir that she definitely remembers what they’re supposed to be doing tonight. If that didn’t make it obvious enough, she starts fidgeting with her hair and struggles to make any eye contact with him – well, struggles more than usual.

“I guess things are still kind of awkward even though I tried to fix that,” Fenrir thinks to Saya.

“Not to stroke your ego or anything, you perverted baka onii-wan, but I think she’s just excited,” Saya replies.

“S-so… the other day, you said that – that tonight you would, right?” Azalabulia asks.

“I think you’re right,” Fenrir thinks.

“Of course I am!” Saya thinks back.

“Yeah. We’ve got a date tonight,” Fenrir confirms.

Azalabulia tries to hold back the smile wishing to force its way onto her face, but she fails which results in a sort of twitching, awkward smile.

Fenrir resists the urge to tease her about it despite how much he wants to. The last thing that he needs to do right now is to make her even more flustered.

“Just let me take the lead, alright?” Fenrir says.

While she might still feel flustered around him, he’s gotten over that phase.

At least, he likes to think that he has. Seeing Azalabulia still getting so flustered and nervous makes him just a tiny bit like that, too.

Fortunately, he was able to come up with a plan for the night after talking with his girlfriends in the morning and during his time romping around with Rock and Shogun.

Though, truth be told, very little planning was actually put into this plan of his.

Fenrir is a simple man, and he is hoping that Azalabulia turns out to be just as simple as he’s planning on her being.

“Let’s go,” he says, taking Azalabulia’s hand into his own.

Together, the two head to the forest.

Meanwhile, Tabitha and Rao look at the two lovebirds heading off and sigh.

“Darn dog. Goin’ off and leavin’ all the work to us,” Tabitha groans.

“I wish I had a girl to go off with to get out of work,” Rao admits.

“Oi, you’re the only one I can rely on around here to be single and not run off.”

“It’s not because I’m trying to be reliable.”

“Still, at least there’s somebody who’s reliable even if they aren’t tryin’ to be.”

“I guess, but it’s not like he’s not reliable. I don’t want to stroke his ego behind his back or anything since he gets that enough from his girls, but he’s there for us when we need him. Well, I guess everybody is, honestly.”

Tabitha looks the rest of the group over.

Nell is teasing Cassiel about being teased by Serra, Rock and Shogun are lying down and cuddling with each other, and Oleander and Corwin are taking turns giving each other shoulder massages.

“You’re right,” Tabitha admits. “I like to give them all some crap every now and then, but they’re all reliable when they need to be.”

“They’re usually pretty reliable even when they don’t need to be,” Rao says.

“I think that’s just because they have nothin’ else to be doin’ most of the time.”

“Probably.”

“Speakin’ of doin’, did ya finish investigatin’ what I wanted?”

“Oh, yeah. About that…”

As Rao goes over his findings with Tabitha, Fenrir and Azalabulia reach the same forest that the kissing incident and fight took place in.

“Why are – we here?” Azalabulia asks and gulps, taking a step closer to Fenrir.

They can hardly see anything due to how dark it is. The density of the trees combined with the sun descending on the other side of the mountains to the west, little light reaches into the forest.

“You alright?” Fenrir asks.

“Of – of course I am! There is no way that I, Azalabulia, Wi-Wielder of the Cursed Flame of Bahamut, would ever be afraid of the – the dark!” Azalabulia declares and fails to convince anything or anybody within hearing range.

A nearby branch snaps.

Azalabulia jumps, wraps her arms around Fenrir’s chest, and doesn’t realize that her entire body is shaking.

Fenrir is surprised to see just how truly terrified she is of the dark, but he’s also happy that she’s so terrified. Why? Because now her breasts are wrapped around his arm.

Though, this complicates his plan.

“I really didn’t think you’d be afraid of the dark considering that we found you in a pretty dark dungeon,” Fenrir says. “Plus, you’re all about darkness and destruction.”

“I – I like dark… fire!” Azalabulia explains.

“So, what you’re trying to say is that you like fire because it lights things up so that you can see and not be afraid in the dark?”

“I’m not trying to say that! I’m just… I—”

A bush rustles.

Azalabulia clings even tighter to Fenrir.

“You know you’re stronger than me and could blow up this whole forest if you wanted to, right?” Fenrir asks.

“I – I might!” Azalabulia says.

“Please don’t.”

“Then don’t complain!”

“Trust me, I’m not.”

Azalabulia looks up at him with a tilted head, unsure of what he means as his arm sinks between her breasts.

“I guess I’ll be skipping straight to the final phase of my plan,” Fenrir thinks to Saya. “I wasn’t expecting her to be afraid, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to have another play battle with her. Besides… I think I can work with this.”

“Onii-wan, why are you running your plan by me? I know I’m amazing and better than you in every way imaginable, so it makes sense that you would want my input, but you should know that I’m not going to help you after what you put me through earlier,” Saya replies.

“You should be thanking me if anything.”

“I’m going to kick you out of the game while you’re in the middle of lewding her.”

“Please don’t.”

“Fe-Fen?” Azalabulia asks.

“Sorry, was thinking,” Fenrir answers. “Anyways, it should be just up ahead.”

“What is?”

“You’ll see.”

A little bit later and Fenrir leads Azalabulia into a clearing in the forest large enough for the sky to brighten it some.

Glowing, blue and purple flowers surround the clearing, it is covered in soft grass, and there’s even a deer grazing on the far end of it!

Though, the deer runs away as soon as it sees them.

“What do you think?” Fenrir asks.

“It’s… it’s really pretty,” Azalabulia answers, unfortunately loosening her grip on his arm.

“Not as pretty as you, but it is pretty nice.”

Azalabulia giggles and raises a hand to curl her hair around one of her fingers. “This – this would be the perfect place for a duel. All that’s missing is a red moon hanging in the sky.”

Fenrir now understands that Azalabulia’s chuuni-ness extends to romance.

But, he can work with this.