Chapter 223: Favorability Increasing...

Chapter 223: Chapter 223: Favorability Increasing...

Following this line of thought, she naturally thought of the "despicable Foreigner" who had recently gained as much renown as she had across the continent.

Once she confirmed they were both from the Material Realm,

Elvira became intensely curious about Lance.

So, during the day, she went to the village that was rumored to have been ravaged by the Foreigner.

Unexpectedly, the villagers there had a much better attitude than the people she’d met before.

This was true even after the villagers learned she was the Pure White Knight who enjoyed helping others for free.

After she helped them clear out the beasts around their village, the villagers actually offered her the fattest wild boar leg on their own initiative.

At the time, following the Knight’s code as was her habit, she reflexively tried to refuse it.

But this act unexpectedly terrified the villagers. They thought she was angry that the offering was too small and was about to fly into a rage, so they forcefully shoved the boar leg into her arms.

Carrying this trophy back to Golden Ears City, the first thing she did was run to Lance to show it off.

Meanwhile, Lance had yet to realize that she wasn’t a local of the Star Realm at all.

Still, his life had been rather dull lately, with him practicing his spear every day.

Elvira’s proactive visit added a splash of bright color to his otherwise Ordinary routine.

He didn’t mind this kind of interaction.

"Come in. I was just about to start making dinner."

Lance stepped aside to let her into the house.

At the dinner table, Elvira discovered that this man was actually very meticulous in his daily life.

When he cooked the roast boar leg, he would carefully use a small knife to trim off the burnt, bitter parts from the surface before placing the most tender pieces onto her plate.

"You have some sauce on the corner of your mouth."

Lance couldn’t help but point it out as he watched her devour the food with gusto.

He realized this young woman had a real passion for food.

Hearing this, Elvira’s cheeks instantly flushed red. She tried to lick it off with her tongue but licked the wrong way.

Seeing her flustered and adorable appearance,

Lance couldn’t help but burst into a hearty laugh.

「On the evening of the third day.」

Elvira showed up at his door right on time again.

Lance had just finished training his Ice Chisel Strike Spear Skill to Level 3 and was taking a break.

Coincidentally, she had single-handedly eaten all the food stored in Lance’s house the previous night.

So, the two of them simply decided to go out together to the market to buy new ingredients.

On a street on their way back, Lance was surprised to see a food he didn’t expect to find. It looked very much like the sugar-roasted chestnuts he used to eat in his past life.

It was similar, but not exactly the same, likely with some local Star Realm influence.

He had never seen anything like it in the Material Realm outside, so he was surprised that a world within the Star Realm had something similar.

Driven by curiosity, Lance walked over and bought a large paper bag of them.

Elvira had never eaten this kind of food either.

But the aroma of syrup mixed with dried nuts was indeed quite fragrant.

She carefully peeled open a brown, hard shell, and the golden flesh inside immediately released a tempting, sweet fragrance.

She turned her head and glanced at Lance walking beside her.

The man’s hands were full carrying their food, leaving him no free hand to eat.

The girl hesitated for a moment, but ultimately extended her fair fingers, holding the peeled chestnut, and gently brought it close to Lance’s lips.

Lance had been feeding her all sorts of delicious food for the past two days.

’I want to see what it feels like to be the one feeding someone else,’ a thought suddenly popped into her head.

Looking at the food brought to his lips, Lance joked, "What’s this? Using me to test for poison?"

But his body moved quite naturally, lowering his head, opening his mouth, and eating the warm chestnut in one bite.

The sweet, soft texture melted on his tongue.

’Looks like after a few days of feeding, the character’s affection level has increased,’ Lance mused to himself. ’Now we’re even getting interactive scenes with bonus content.’

’Classic King’s Way plot! Nice!’

Chewing the chestnut, Lance failed to notice anything unusual about the girl beside him.

Elvira had already lowered her head.

She felt her heart pounding wildly in her chest, as if it were about to leap out at any moment.

Her once-clear green eyes were now uncontrollably flickering back and forth between emerald green and Dark Gold.

A scorching heat surged up her spine.

The Red Dragon’s Blood hidden within her body seemed to have been brought to a boil by that intimate gesture.

On the fourth day, a light rain began to fall from the sky.

The rain fell continuously on the streets of Golden Ears City, kicking up fine splashes of water.

Elvira didn’t go out for her trials today. Instead, she threw on a rain poncho and ran to Lance’s place.

She pushed open the back door from the living room and found Lance standing in the yard, shirtless, brandishing a long spear.

Rainwater flowed down the solid contours of his muscles, and the tip of his spear let out a sharp whistle as it cut through the air.

Only then did she realize that this man spent nearly his entire day on tedious Martial Arts practice.

Watching that focused figure from behind, a novel idea suddenly popped into the girl’s mind.

She wanted to cook a meal for Lance.

While Lance was completely absorbed in his spear practice, she quietly slipped into the kitchen.

「Half an hour later.」

With a massive BOOM, a thick plume of black smoke billowed out from the kitchen window.

Startled by the commotion, Lance dropped his long spear right onto the muddy ground.

He bounded up the steps in a few strides and charged into the smoke-filled kitchen.

Through the choking smoke, he precisely grabbed the back of Elvira’s collar and, like lifting a mischievous kitten, yanked her straight out of the fire scene.

After safely depositing her under the eaves, he turned and rushed back in, grabbing a basin of water to extinguish the open flames on the stove.

After the whole ordeal, both of them were covered in soot and grime.

They sat side by side on the wooden floor of the veranda, watching the rain fall in a continuous sheet from the eaves above.

On the floor between them sat a porcelain bowl with a scorched rim, containing a lump of "mushroom stew" that was completely unrecognizable.

Lance turned his head to look at the girl’s face, which was smeared with soot from the bottom of the pot.

Elvira also turned her head, looking at Lance’s smoke-blackened nose.

Their eyes met, and then, in perfect unison, they burst into laughter.

The sound of their laughter pierced the curtain of rain, echoing in the quiet courtyard.

Elvira clutched her stomach, laughing so hard that tears almost came to her eyes.

In her memory, this was the first time in her entire life she had laughed so freely, without any need to worry about her composure or her image.

「On the evening of the fifth day.」

Waiting in the courtyard for Elvira to come over for dinner seemed to have become a tacit habit for the two of them.

Since the kitchen had been wrecked in yesterday’s accident,

Lance simply built a bonfire in an open space in the yard today. He had a Blacksmith forge some iron skewers, which he used to string up thick chunks of meat, preparing to grill them directly.

Fat dripped onto the red-hot charcoal, making a tantalizing SIZZLE.

The flickering firelight cast shifting shadows on their faces.

Lance held an apple in his hand and took a big bite. CRUNCH. The crisp sound was sharp in the night air.

Chewing, he turned to the girl sitting beside him and casually started a conversation.

"These days you’ve been on your trials, do you feel tired?"

"Very tired."

Elvira answered bluntly, hugging her knees. "It’s much more tiring than swinging my sword ten thousand times a day on the training grounds."

The girl stared at the leaping flames, softly voicing her inner feelings.

"But I think I’m starting to understand the meaning of this trial."

"It feels like it’s constantly testing me, to see if I truly have the mettle to be a king."

Hearing the words "the mettle to be a king,"

Lance bit off a piece of the apple.

’So Elvira’s role in this Star Realm dungeon-world is that of a Knight Princess? Does she have to go back and become a Queen after the trial ends? That would completely explain why this world has so many strange demands specifically for her.’

"It’s teaching me to endure, to accept all injustice, to tolerate the foolish."

Elvira’s voice grew a little somber.

"It seems that if I just grit my teeth and get through this, I can transform into someone incredible."

Lance listened quietly to the girl’s confession without interrupting.

"But..."

A trace of confusion crept into Elvira’s tone.

"I feel like I’m becoming less and less like myself."

Lance swallowed the piece of apple in his mouth and tossed the core into the fire.

"Elvira, that’s not your problem. The problem is with the trial itself."

"It isn’t broadening your capacity. It’s just taming you."

Lance turned his head, his gaze fixed on the girl.

"Someone who can’t even cry out when they’re wronged, who can’t even fill their own stomach... how can they possibly be a king?"

Seeing the somewhat dazed look on the girl’s face, Lance sighed.

"Let me tell you a story from my homeland."

"A long, long time ago, there was a girl who, in order to save her war-torn country, resolutely pulled the Holy Sword from the stone."

"From the moment she drew the sword, she told herself that she could have no selfish desires, that she couldn’t cry freely, that she had to abandon every wish that was her own."

"She forced herself to become a perfect king."

Elvira listened intently, her eyes shining with curiosity.

"She gave so much for the common people. She must have been beloved by everyone in the end, right?"

"No."

Lance shook his head.

"She was betrayed by everyone."

"Her country eventually fell to ruin, and the Knight Order she personally established fell apart."

"At the end of the story, those people left her with only one final judgment."

"They said, ’The king does not understand the human heart.’"

That king, in her struggle to ensure her country’s survival, sacrificed the few to save the many. But to the Ordinary person, it was all just too cold-blooded.