Besides, he didn’t know when Edner might come to this room again. Allen usually woke up early to train. Edner would definitely find it strange that he was sleeping in so late. No, knowing Edner, he might have already noticed Lea’s presence and could be waiting for him across the room.

Allen called Lea in a low voice.

“Vice Commander, wake up.”

“Mmm……”

Lea clutched the blanket and tossed and turned for a while. Her body felt heavy. For Lea, who normally woke up automatically at dawn, this was unusual. She struggled to lift her eyelids. When she did, her unusually handsome superior’s face came into view.

“Ahem, Commander, it’s you.”

Lea placed her hand on her throat and coughed. Her voice was severely cracked from how much she had screamed during the night. Allen handed her water and shifted his gaze to the side. Perhaps his lost conscience had returned, making him feel sorry.

Moreover, facing Lea’s n*ked body in the bright room made it difficult to find a place to look.

“Vice Commander… put on some clothes first.”

“Yes.”

Lea raised her upper body, drank the water, and looked around for her clothes. Soon she discovered her underwear spread out a little distance from the bed. It was too far to simply reach out and grab. Lea tried to move her body to get up. But…

“Oh.”

“What’s wrong?”

“My legs won’t move.”

“……”

A moment of silence passed.

Lea repeatedly lifted and lowered both legs alternately. Allen’s head drooped as he watched. His face turned red and wouldn’t return to its original color. He felt guilt and embarrassment at the fact that he had made Lea unable to even leave the bed.

“……I’ll bring them to you.”

“Ah, thank you.”

Allen picked up the clothes scattered here and there. Of course, this included underwear. Allen had to take several deep breaths to overcome his embarrassment. He had the absurd thought that someone else might have borrowed his body last night. He couldn’t believe he had personally removed those things from Lea. It was something the usual him couldn’t even imagine.

Allen handed the clothes to Lea, then sat on the edge of the bed and turned his body away. From behind, he could hear Lea putting on each piece of clothing. Those rustling sounds reminded him of last night. Allen deliberately focused on the noise outside the window.

At that moment, Lea bent her waist and let out a moan while putting on her pants.

“Ughh……”

“What, what’s wrong?”

“It stings too much.”

“Stings?”

Allen flinched. Turning only his head to look at Lea, he saw her pointing to her lower region with her finger.

“……Does it hurt a lot?”

“Don’t even ask. It really feels like it’s torn.”

Allen bit his lower lip and held his forehead. He shouldn’t have held down someone who was in pain and continued having s*x with her; he wasn’t a beast. He completely turned his body toward her, knelt down, and bowed his head deeply.

“I… did something unforgivable as a commander.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“I’m really sorry. How should I take responsibility for this……”

“It was fine except for the pain.”

“You can be honest. Anyway, I can hear your thoughts… wait.”

Allen, repeatedly apologizing, narrowed his brow.

What should normally be visible wasn’t. Allen swallowed nervously, wondering if it could be true, and opened his mouth again.

“Vice Commander, what are you thinking right now?”

Lea opened her eyes drowsily and stared blankly at the ceiling.

“Huh? Um……”

Nothing particular came to mind. Perhaps her body was so drained that her brain wasn’t functioning. She tried to visualize something, but the scene remained colorless, failing to progress and quickly disappearing. Lea struggled to force an imagination but soon gave up and shook her head.

“I don’t know.”

Allen’s eyes widened at Lea’s answer. It was the first time he hadn’t seen any of her imagination. The idea that his ability had disappeared felt strange—he could still hear the sound of Lea’s thoughts.

“It’s strange. My head feels completely empty.”

Lea kept tilting her head, sensing something different about herself from usual.

Was last night more exhausting than training, leaving her without energy to imagine? Or perhaps fulfilling her fantasies in reality made her feel no need to imagine anymore? Though the exact reason remained unclear, Lea was currently only ‘thinking.’ This couldn’t simply be dismissed as coincidence. Lea had never stopped fantasizing since becoming a knight. Nothing had ever brought her back to reality.

Lea blinked and straightened her head. Her mind felt clean for the first time in a long while. The world, once blurry, now appeared clear.

“Is not having a single fantasy such a big deal?”

“Yes! My body feels tired, but my mind feels clear!”

Her eyes, drowsy until moments ago, now sparkled brightly.

Allen felt strange. This was essentially what he had wished for most since coming to the North, yet now that Lea had erased him from her mind, he felt oddly empty.

‘Wait, this makes me look like I enjoyed her fantasies, just like she said.’

Allen struggled with his contradictory emotions.

“Somehow you look especially handsome today, Commander.”

“What? Cough.”

“I can see your face so clearly, Commander.”

When Lea leaned in closer, Allen leaned back. Lea showed rare signs of liveliness. Unaccustomed to seeing her this way, he turned his gaze elsewhere.

Unaware of this, Lea kept leaning toward Allen.

“Now that we’ve done it, is it nothing special? Anyway, this is so amazing!”

“Nothing special? Aren’t you still in pain……”

Allen stammered, supporting himself with his hand on the bed while being pushed by Lea. He felt strangely deflated when Lea dismissed what had happened between them as nothing special.

“That’s true. But pain can be endured, can’t it?”

“Then was it……”

“Pardon? I can’t hear you well.”

When Lea moved even closer, Allen bent his arm and almost lay down on the bed.

“I asked if it was bad.”

“Well, let me see. It just hurt a lot.”

She had finally done in reality what she had only fantasized about. Unfortunately, the pain prevented her from properly feeling it. Being held in Allen’s broad embrace felt good and secure, but when asked how it felt having Allen’s thing inside her, she found it difficult to answer.

Feeling somewhat disappointed, Lea continued grumpily.

“Come to think of it, only you felt good, didn’t you?”

“Wh-what are you saying!”

“I saw everything yesterday. Your face looked like you’d visited heaven, didn’t i—mmph.”

She might have stopped fantasizing, but she still spoke her mind. Allen quickly covered her mouth out of embarrassment, then removed his hand.

“I’m… sorry.”

“You can stop apologizing. Won’t it be fine once I get used to it?”

“I understand, next time I’ll be careful to—wait, what?”

Allen paused, sensing something odd, and met Lea’s eyes.

“Used to it? You mean doing it until you get used to it?”

“Yes.”

“With whom? With me?”

“Who else would it be?”

Allen stammered, at a loss for words. He felt strangely relieved that Lea didn’t mention doing it with anyone else, yet he couldn’t believe his ears.

“Vice Commander, you want to do it with me again?”

“Don’t you, Commander?”

Allen’s face turned even redder at her unhesitating response.

“Wh-why?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“Yes. That’s why I want to do it again.”

Lea hadn’t been particularly drawn to reality before. Though she liked erotic things and wondered what it would be like to mate with someone someday, she never had an actual partner in mind. All the men who pressed against her body with suggestive looks failed to appeal to her. Thinking about it, even in her fantasies, Allen was her first partner.

Why did she want to do it with the Commander? Why did she feel expectant when he touched her body in reality? These questions now puzzled her. Perhaps she had simply been caught up in the moment. Either way, without fantasies and unwanted memories from the past surfacing, it didn’t seem so bad.

And honestly, putting everything else aside, since things had already gone this far…

“I want to feel that org*sm thing too.”

“……Why does the conversation suddenly jump like that?”

Allen flinched while quietly listening to Lea’s thoughts. Was this also a habit of hers? He felt bewildered by how Lea would suddenly change direction in the middle of a serious conversation. Lea scratched the back of her head and said,

“But you know. I can vaguely imagine everything else, but that climax thing has always been difficult to imagine. Help me transcend the limits of my imagination.”

“Didn’t you want to stop fantasizing?”

“Fantasizing is my hobby… but that doesn’t mean I want to force imagining things I can’t visualize.”

“Then……”

Allen exhaled deeply. Lea seemed to say that while she enjoyed fantasizing, she was also fine without it. It seemed she didn’t care either way, as long as those “unwanted memories from the past” didn’t surface.

So if sleeping with him would stop Lea’s fantasies…

Two concerns troubled him: ‘I can’t sleep with someone I’m not dating, especially a subordinate’ versus ‘We’ve already slept together once, so what’s wrong with two or three more times, let’s eliminate Lea’s fantasies!’ He didn’t even consider finding another suitable partner for Lea.

Allen’s lips moved slightly. In truth, he was already leaning toward one option.

‘The vice commander wants to sleep with me again.’