Incredibly, Rin's body was getting worse.

The numbness had spread from her left leg to her right. Now, she couldn't feel her lower half entirely.

[Well, crap... I guess I'm done fighting for the day. Doesn't look like this poison, or whatever, is going away anytime soon.]

"Not too much farther, I think," Elisa said, bringing Rin's attention back to her. "We should be at the top in about half an hour, maybe."

Rin buried her face in the other student's back.

"I'm sorry..."

"Huh? For what?" Elisa asked, confused.

"For being a burden."

"Heh," Elisa scoffed. "Rin, you're not a burden. You got caught by an attack you didn't see coming. It happens."

[Yeah? Well, if that happened to me on a real job, alone, I'd probably just be dead.]

"Besides," Elisa continued. "You took down those ghosts. I couldn't do that. You carried me through that whole dark forest part of the mountain. Now, I'm doing the same here. Just... in a more literal sense, you know?"

Rin sighed.

[I only managed to do that because I had my Spirit Flame. It's not like I worked really hard for that ability, it was literally just given to me,] Rin countered in her thoughts. [No matter what way I look at it, the answer's the same. I still have a long way to go.]

"Oh, by the way," Elisa said, and, again, Rin was taken out of this train of thought.

"Yeah?"

"Did I tell you about my visit to Dren?" Elisa asked.

Elisa couldn't see it, but as Rin held onto her from behind, her eyes widened.

[... What?]

"Yeah, I went there once," Elisa stated as she noticed how silent Rin was being. "I never told you?"

"Um... I-I can't..."

Suddenly, Rin's heart was pounding against her chest, like it was begging to be let out.

"I went with some friends a few years ago," Elisa began to explain. "It was someone's birthday and we wanted to do something a little bit wild. You know, noblewomen who never really did much breaking free for a bit. That sort of thing."

"I-Is that right?" Rin asked. She really hoped she didn't sound as nervous as she felt. If Elisa noticed, she didn't show it at all.

"Mhm. So, we tried to think of stuff that we could do there, and, well, it didn't take long to think of something. We had heard that prostitution was actually legal in Dren. Not just legal, actually, but that there were legitimate businesses for that sort of thing. And, one of them, the Silver Rose, even had workers meant to appeal to women. Straight or otherwise."

Again, Rin buried her face in her partner's back. This time, because she was starting to feel dizzy.

"Really?" Rin asked, her voice pretty much squeaking.

"Yep. So, we went to that one, the Silver Rose, to see what kind of people we could find. And... I ended up with someone. A girl with moonlight-silver hair and these beautiful gold eyes. Oh, and her rack was fucking incredible," Elisa added with a laugh.

"..." At this point, Rin chose to simply remain silent.

She had decided that, with Elisa bringing this up so suddenly, it was probably certain that she'd put two and two together.

Which, of course, meant that Rin was screwed.

[So, this is it?] Rin asked herself. [She's just gonna tell me 'oh, by the way, I know you're a whore so I'm going to drop you here now that I have the chance. Bye.' Is that what's happening right now?]

"That was, probably, some of the best sex I've ever had. I don't know where I'd rank it if I had to do a list or whatever, but, to this day, that experience was probably top 3."

[Well, at least I'm a whore who's good at her job. That's something.]

"But, obviously, because that was just her job, I didn't ask her out or anything. I left the brothel and... That was the last I ever saw of her. Or, I thought that would be the last I saw of her."

Rin adjusted her arms to make her hold on Elisa's body just a little bit stronger.

"Then, years passed. I got engaged thanks to my family and... Well, I felt like I was having my whole life taken away from me so I could be someone's housewife, so, I joined the Adventurer's Academy to try to have one last taste of freedom. And, at the academy, I ended up running into someone who had the same golden eyes and the same incredible rack. Her hair was different though, but... In the back of my mind, I always felt like I had seen her before. And, whenever she looked at me... I could tell there was something about it, you know?"

"... Is that so?" Rin asked, hating how her voice shook.

"Mhm. I didn't really make much of it, though," Elisa said, bouncing Rin's head as she shrugged. "I mean... You know me. I sleep around a lot, so, meeting men or women who are vaguely familiar isn't really a rare thing for me. Anyway," Elisa waved a hand, "at first, I just thought at most, she'd be some acquaintance that maybe I'd try to hit on later. But, then, we got set up as roommates. I was going to be seeing a lot of this girl. So, I talked to her, tried to make a friend, as I usually do, but... Immediately, I noticed something about her."

[... Okay, can you just get to the part where you drop me on my butt and leave me here? I hate that I know where this is going and we're just prolonging this.]

"She was determined," Elisa continued. "She was really putting her all into every class. Not just that, but, she was nice and... actually kinda cute. Hell, she didn't even judge Eve for being a fairy, or Varyn for being beastborn when I did. And, she didn't seem to care too much that I'm rich. You know what happened, Rin?"

Rin didn't respond, as she was just trying her best not to tear up.

"Rin?"

"Y-Yeah?"

"You know what happened?"

"Um... No."

"Well, I'll tell you," Elisa happily replied. "Things started feeling... different."

[Huh?]

"I don't know if you can call it a crush, but... All I know is, at some point, I really wanted to take this girl out on a date or something. I mean, I wanted to fuck her too, but, I kinda want to fuck most hot girls so, that's not really important. And, teasing her was some of the most fun I'd have on a daily basis."

At that moment, Rin's heart nearly stopped.

[What?]

"I don't know what was happening with me, but... All of a sudden, I really wanted to talk to her as much as I could. I would even ditch my family to spend some time with her. It was worth getting chewed out later, you know? Because I was having fun. And, then, something else happened..."

Elisa paused. Her feet dragged through the snow throughout all of this.

"I met that woman with the white hair again."

Rin took a deep breath.

"And... I realized both of these girls were the same person. Ain't that some shit?" Elisa asked with a giggle.

"... That was it?" Rin asked. "That's when you figured it out?"

"Nah," Elisa answered, taking on a much softer tone. "I feel like I always kinda knew, from the start. It just... Took a while for my conscious mind to catch up to the subconscious, you know?"

"I... I see," Rin stated. Then, naturally, she asked: "what are you going to do about it?"

"Hm?"

"A-Are you going to report me or something?" Rin asked.

[I'd rather you do that than leave me here or whatever.]

"Nah."

As Rin heard that, she arched a brow.

"So... Why are you telling me this?" Rin asked. "You... You've known for a while and you've just let it be. Why are you bringing it up now?"

Elisa's answer came quickly.

"Because I want you to know two things. First, that I respect the hell out of you," Elisa declared. "That hasn't changed because of anything that happened here. I really think you're amazing, Rin."

The raven-haired girl's eyes shimmered with tears. It got harder to breathe.

"Second," Elisa kept going, "that, once this is done, I'd really like to take you out on a date when we get back to Libera. Though, I don't know if you like me like that, but... I wanted to throw it out there. What do you say?"

What could she say?

This being thrust upon her so randomly made Rin's mind all but shut down. It simply didn't make sense that this was happening. Especially after she'd messed up so badly out here.

Thankfully, it seemed as though Rin was going to get some time to formulate a response.

"Aaaaargh!" A monster screeched from up ahead. There was a spider-like figure with four legs and four beady black eyes, covered in snow.

"Hm... Shit," Elisa muttered. "Well, that's bad timing. Rin, I've gotta take care of this. I'm gonna put you down for a second."

"Y-Yeah..."

Elisa did just that, dropping Rin gently on her butt as she then reached for her blades.

"Finally," Elisa said. "I get to show off a little. Been waiting for this, you know. Hopefully," she turned toward Rin with a smirk, "it'll make coming up with an answer for my question a little bit easier."

And, with that, the adventurer dashed forward with both her greatswords stretched out, as Rin watched from behind.

Rin, though, only cared about the fact that she could finally wipe the tears from her eyes. As soon as she reached up to do that, however, she realized something.

[Oh, crap. I'm smiling. When did that start?]