The time I feared finally came.

With the last of the sun hiding behind the distant line of the horizon, there simply wasn't enough light present for my men to keep working.

Sure, we could light torches and try to push through for a little longer, to do just one more thing…

But this project, as it turned out, was simply too big. And even if we pushed a little bit further, it would still be far from finished.

Which is why, rather than telling everyone to grit their teeth, keep going and then risk injury when handling tools and heavy objects with hardly any light, I made the reasonable choice to just put it off for tomorrow.

Still, this decision meant that for the very first time since the start of this expedition, everyone would end up sleeping directly under the night's sky. A situation I desperately hoped to avoid out of fear for the group's morale, yet one that still happened nonetheless.

Yet, as it often can be with things people worry about to the point where their worry ends up far greater than what they actually worry about, this night out…

It wasn't all that bad.

First, the men didn't complain.

Everyone had long since realized that it would be impossible to finish the building before the night. And so, as I later came to learn, they didn't even bother trying, opting to focus on working with precision rather than haste.

When the time came to sleep, not a single word of complaint could be heard throughout our makeshift camp. Instead, people scrambled to get whatever clothes they brought along, added up any sort of blankets they could find and then simply bunched those together, making nest-like structures where they then laid down.

That was pretty much it.

In the absence of walls to keep the cold out, they simply used whatever pieces of cloth they could find to keep themselves warm. And while initially I was worried this wouldn't be enough, when Selia did exactly the same and then invited me to join her…

I came to realize that spending a night outside like that, every once in a while, wasn't all that bad.

The air wasn't stuffy.

Without everyone crammed into a single, small building, we didn't need to worry about anyone making noise that would keep others up, someone farting or someone else shifting around, waking those near him in the process.

No.

When outside, we had the entirety of the world all for ourselves. And after several days of cramming with the entire group inside of a small, hastily constructed hut, spending the night out was surprisingly liberating.

And pleasant, given how we instinctively wrapped into each other with Selia, seeking to share our heat with the other while using the blankets and clothes to keep said warmth from escaping with the air.

Snuggled up like that, with Selia's head pressed against my chest and her breath tickling my shoulder while my hands wrapped up against her back?

Yeah, it wasn't all that bad.

The surprise, however, came much later in the night, pretty much by the time some people were already starting to wake up anyway.

Because for the very first time, rather than being one of the last few to wake up, I actually woke up with those early birds.

There was nothing magical about it.

I was simply that damn comfortable when sleeping cuddled up with Selia like that, I only needed two-thirds of my usual sleep time to get rid of all the exhaustion from yesterday's travel.

'Still…'

I didn't even dare to look around, knowing full well that right now, even the smallest of my movements would be enough to wake the Saintess up. And for once, I hoped she could sleep until she was so well-rested, she would wake up herself.

Today was a big day, after all. A day when we would go out to challenge the jungle's protector, have Selia slay it while the high-ranking adventurer of the group observed the combat before sending in everyone to turn the whole edge of the jungle into an impossibly efficient coffee plantation.

There was no rush, though.

Now that we were here, we hardly had any time constraints. If anything, it would be the guys that would stay behind to work on the construction that would have to hurry, with everyone hoping they could finish at least the first part of the building before tomorrow's night would come.

"It's nice to sleep outside every now and then," I heard one of the men speak softly with, who I assumed, to be their friend.

"I get what you are trying to say," the other guy replied, standing right where I couldn't see while locked in a loving snuggle with sleeping Selia. "It's nice every once in a while, but I really would much rather sleep inside tonight," he added before chuckling softly. "I'm counting on you to work hard today, man!"

"Mhmmm…"

My attention instantly shot back to Selia when I felt her moving around.

'Were they too loud?!'

In an instant, my mind exploded with rage.

I was trying so damn hard to let Selia sleep for just a little longer… And she was now going to wake up because those two just couldn't keep themselves silent?!

The very moment those thoughts, those feelings exploded in my heart, Selia shifted again, much harder this time.

'Wait, isn't it… my fault?'

This realization came as a shock, as if someone dropped a bucket of cold water directly on my head.

What if it weren't the fault of those guys talking… but my emotions flaring up and getting transmitted through our bond instead?

What if it wasn't the noise, small as it was, that nearly woke her up, but my unjustified, mental crashout?

I took in a deep breath, accepting the risk of my body shifting a little as I did so.

Then, two rounds of my usual breathing exercise later, I managed to rein my emotions in. And so, rather than focusing on the things happening as the camp was slowly waking up to life, I focused on the moment instead.

Selia's softness was something that her clothes simply couldn't cover.

The way her body pressed so ideally against mine, as if we were created to be together and our whole lives up until the point of our meeting were merely a struggle designed to let us reconnect and better understand the greatness of coming back together.

Or maybe there was a God's hand at play, pushing us closer because of how well of a fit we were? That sort of theory had the backing in how Selia's system apparently pushed her right into my arms.

Then again, if the systems were all that important then how could I, a mere nobody that was forcibly summoned to this world, somehow obtain the power to tell my supposedly dead system what it was supposed to do and then reward me with for doing what I myself decided to?

I squinted my eyes before losing to my own desires and gently raising my hand to caress Selia's cheek.

It was so soft, so warm, so squishy, I had to stop myself from just pinching it.

Knowing I wouldn't last long against my own temptations if I continued to touch her face, I moved my hand a bit higher, to the top of her head instead, where I could now caress those silky, silver-like hair of hers.

"Mhmm…"

Once again, Selia made a small, lovely voice, only to shift around while rubbing her face against my chest as she settled in the new most comfortable position she could instinctively find while asleep.

A position that made it all the easier for me to keep on caressing her hair.

"You are not asleep, are you?" I asked once the truth finally struck me.

Selia opened up her eyes and pushed her chin up so that she could look into my eyes while a small, cheeky smile lingered on her lips, "neither are you. But that didn't stop you from playing with my hair to your content."

There was no accusation in her voice. Playful banter at most.

And that small, lazy smile?

When coupled with her sleepy, unusually low and gritty voice…

Lost for words, I looked away before tightening my hug, pressing her even harder into my chest.

Earlier, we were snuggling for warmth and comfort. But now?

Now I was outright hugging her like the most precious thing in the world, one that was too precious to ever assume a corporeal form and would thus vanish if I ever dared to stop hugging her with all my might.

This moment lasted for quite a while.

Selia allowed me to hug her like that for long enough that other people started to slowly wake up in the camp, making it more and more lively by the minute.

"Okay, okay, I think that should be enough," she then giggled, once there was simply too much movement all around for us to be comfortable with our public display of affection.

Having no other choice, I gently relaxed my hold and then stood back within our bundle of cloth, watching how Selia rose up and then stretched her arms up while pushing her chest up.

A sight I sorely wished I could record and then keep for posterity's sake… Or, at the very least, record and engrave directly into the very fabric of my brain.

Then, however, came the somber moment of realization.

For when Selia rose up to her feet, her hand instantly grabbed at the handle of her sword as her eyes turned over to the line of the trees out in the distance.

A reminder that we were not here to have fun.

A reminder that for my plan to work, she would once again have to put herself on the line and fight against a monster so damn powerful, it singlehandedly nearly wiped the adventuring industry in the town we were trying to now save.

And yet?

Rather than fear, I could see sparks of excitement in her eyes.

"Now then, shall we?" Selia asked as she reached out to help me get out of our bundle.

"Shall we what?" I asked even though I already knew the answer.

"Isn't it obvious?" Selia raised her eyebrows as she made a surprised face before pulling out her sword and then raising it to point its tip towards the line of the trees in the distance. "To kill the beast. And if we will have enough time, to maybe figure out if it isn't evolving a little bit too fast."

I shrugged.

To watch Selia get excited over the idea of combat... Idea of a fight with enemy powerful enough to force her to get serious, was worrying.

But what could I do?

That was what Selia was at her very core.

Not a saintess.

But a saint of the sword.

And yet, in the moment, I could only think of one thing to say as I rose up with the help of her hand.

"And here I was we were here to make coffee."

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