Inside one of the rooms on the highest floor of the Villa, which was also one of the most luxurious rooms in the entire Rosaria Household, Seraphiel sat on the large bed with her arms crossed and a slight pout on her lips as she looked at the person lying comfortably in front of her.
The room itself was large enough to resemble one of the grand chambers of a palace, with several pieces of carefully arranged furniture, a large bed covered with soft sheets, polished tables, and various decorations placed around the walls. Yet despite the elegance of the room, the person currently occupying most of the bed seemed completely unconcerned about any of it.
Solaris was lying across the bed with her entire body relaxed against the sheets, holding one of Seraphiel’s pillows close to herself while occasionally bringing it closer to her face as if she had completely forgotten that this was not her room.
"Why are you looking at me with a pout? I congratulated you for reaching S-rank at your age, you should thank me instead of showing me that expression. Hmph!" Solaris said before burying her face into the pillow again, apparently satisfied with herself.
Seraphiel remained speechless for several seconds as she looked at her friend behaving like this despite being the Queen of an entire continent. She eventually sighed internally and thought, ’Hah, what kind of friend do I even have?...I will never be able to tell her about Atlas if she is like this, sigh.’ She already knew Solaris well enough to understand that once she became interested in something, getting her to stop asking questions would be almost impossible.
Just as Seraphiel was thinking about that, a knock came from the door on the left side of the room, followed by Kaelion’s voice from outside. "Lady Seraphiel, Atlas Crosswood has arrived to meet you. He is waiting in the guest room. Should I inform him to leave and return later?"
Seraphiel immediately recognized Kaelion’s voice, but it was the first part of his statement that caught her attention. Her eyes brightened for a brief moment before she could stop herself, and although the change lasted for barely an instant, Solaris noticed it from where she was lying on the bed. A small smile appeared on Solaris’s face as she silently connected that reaction with the person Kaelion had just mentioned.
Seraphiel quickly returned to her normal expression and replied, "Tell him to wait two minutes. I will come there in a moment."
"Alright, I will inform him," Kaelion replied from outside.
His footsteps soon disappeared from the other side of the door, and Seraphiel turned toward Solaris. "Solaris, you are my friend, right? Can you wait here for some time? I will come back after a few minutes. That person I told you about has arrived, the one who will be going into the Ruins of Eclipse."
Solaris raised her head from the pillow and looked at Seraphiel for a moment before nodding. "Alright, I will wait here. I also have something important to talk to you about, and it will probably take some time, so go and finish your business with that person first."
Seraphiel nodded immediately, relieved that Solaris hadn’t asked anything further. As she turned toward the door, she thought, ’Heh, this way she won’t have any suspicion, and I can progress my one-sided relationship with Atlas...’
Her expression became slightly more serious as another thought followed.
’...I seriously need to pick up the pace, or he is just going to keep going around in dangerous Ruin Explorations like the previous one.’
She knew Atlas had already entered a Divine-rank Ruin once despite only recently reaching the Special S-rank level. Even after everything that had happened there, he had still come back alive, which somehow made her even more worried about what he would do next.
Seraphiel opened the door and walked out, leaving Solaris alone inside the room. The moment the door closed, Solaris’s earlier childish expression disappeared for a moment as she looked toward it with a knowing smile.
’I see, so she has fallen in love with this person who will be going into that mysterious Ruin, and what was his name? Atlas Crosswood, hmm...’
Solaris had already noticed the brief change in Seraphiel’s eyes when Atlas’s name was mentioned. More importantly, she had noticed how quickly Seraphiel had tried to hide that reaction from her by giving her a reason to stay behind. To Solaris, who had known Seraphiel for a long time, that was enough to understand what was happening.
’But why does she want to keep him secret from me? Hmph! It’s not fair!’
The childish complaint returned to her mind almost immediately, and she grabbed Seraphiel’s pillow again before burying her face into it. Despite being the Queen of Celestara, Solaris continued lying there as if the room belonged to her, completely satisfied with her decision to wait.
- - -
Two minutes later...
Atlas had spent the last two minutes going through the things he had missed in the Codex, especially the Bloodline page. He had not checked it again after the Codex absorbed the blood or whatever had remained inside the spherical object dropped by the SSS-rank Boss, and he was curious to see how much the Bloodline had unlocked after absorbing something from a monster of that level.
He wondered if it had gone beyond five percent. An SSS-rank Boss should have contained far more than anything the Codex had absorbed before, so it would make sense if the percentage had increased considerably.
Just as he was thinking about it, the door opened and Seraphiel entered the room. Atlas looked up as she walked toward him, having already expected her arrival since Kaelion had informed him that she would be there in two minutes. She walked over and sat on the couch beside him, and the moment she did, Atlas noticed the sudden increase in her Spirit Energy.
He also noticed something different about her eyes.
Atlas looked at them for a moment, but he couldn’t quite identify what had changed. Their clarity seemed different from before, almost as if something within them had become more defined. He couldn’t explain what exactly gave him that impression, but there was something about her eyes that now made him instinctively feel a sense of awe.
It had to be remembered that the special eyes she had awakened that day had gone dormant afterward. Even though Seraphiel could now consciously feel and use their power, they would not normally appear unless she deliberately activated them. That meant the change Atlas was noticing was likely related to her recent advancement to S-rank.
"Congratulations on becoming an S-rank, Seraphiel." Atlas spoke calmly before looking away from her eyes, deciding there was no reason to think about it any further.
Seraphiel, however, had already become slightly flustered from the attention Atlas had given her eyes. Her heart had been beating faster ever since she noticed him looking at them, and his sudden congratulations only made the feeling stronger.
’H-How long was he going to keep looking at my eyes? My eyes did change after I awakened to S-rank, but they normally remain dormant...does that mean he can somehow sense them?’ She quickly pushed the thought aside and smiled.
"Thanks, I appreciate it." Her expression remained gentle as she continued, "Are you alright now? I heard what happened. All of them died except you, Alberion and Captain Himalton..."
Her voice gradually became quieter as she lowered her head slightly, "...I was worried."
Atlas couldn’t clearly hear the last part and looked at her with a slight frown, "Hmm? I am alright as you can see, but what did you say after that?"
"N-Nothing." Seraphiel immediately raised her head and changed the subject, not wanting to repeat what she had just said, "Anyways, what did you need for you to come to me? Is it about the Ruins of Eclipse?"
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