Chapter 180: Nothing has to change *

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"How long do you think before the entire class is flooded?"

Caius asked.

A good few minutes had passed since he and Delia stopped sucking each other’s faces and now they lay on the ground, Delia’s head on his chest as rain continued to fall on them from the dark cloud that still occasionally crackled with Lightning.

"An hour," Delia said. The estimate was likely wrong—seeing as Caius was not yet in danger of being submerged underwater—but she said it with a confidence that, if given enough time, she would successfully flood the Mage-Knight Classroom.

"We should probably try to avoid that, right?" Caius said.

"Probably," Delia responded.

She had regained control of her emotions and her magic for a good while now. She had no actual idea why she had let the rain continue and she also didn’t really quite understand why she felt sad when she shut it down.

As the Dark cloud above dissipated, and the final drops of rain fell on her and Caius’s bodies, she finally understood why she had felt as she felt;

The Rain had added something about this moment they shared. Turned it from something she couldn’t stop herself from doing—even though her brain kept trying to call her to order—and into something... magical. Pun intended.

With the rain gone, she felt they had reached the end of this moment. They had reached the end of her lack of sensibilities and now she had to come to terms with what she just did; A backslide into temptation.

There wasn’t any shame really. There was just... confusion.

What did this make them?

She couldn’t even bring herself to think of the ’official’ term? Especially since she occasionally used that term to refer to the two girls—her friends—who had accepted the feelings she was currently trying to avoid and she had always used the term as some sort of backhanded insult. Mostly intended for Caius.

"I-I should go," she eventually said and rose off Caius’s body to sit up on the wet floor. Even as she said that, she didn’t actually get on her feet to walk away and her eyes never left Caius’s face.

Caius pulled up off the ground then with a light smile.

"You know this doesn’t have to change anything, right?" He said gently.

"What do you mean?" Delia asked.

Caius searched her eyes for a minute. He knew how she was feeling. He knew she was very confused at the moment and didn’t know how to deal with the emotions she was feeling or the realization that was setting in about her feelings toward him. To top that all off, she also didn’t know how

this

would impact her ’relationship’ with him going forward.

If the first time could be shrugged off as a moment of weakness she didn’t even let herself really enjoy and run away from, and the days following that with all her spontaneous attacks could be termed as her dealing with that in an effort to not let that weakness take over and do it again, THIS was on the opposite end.

This moment—and she couldn’t deny it—had shown her that she at the very least, liked that moment of weakness. That she wanted more ’moments of weakness’ going forward. But what would that mean...?

Caius found he could read her quite well. This was in part due to [To Kill A Demon Lord...] dedicating quite a bit of character study to who Delia Kragsten was. Her fears, her insecurities. Even matters of love hadn’t been left out although they were happening differently now due to Caius’s active involvement.

In any case, Caius was confident that he could tell Delia exactly how she was feeling. He also knew he shouldn’t do that.

She might be confused now but she was going to work through that confusion eventually. In her own way. He had to allow that to happen. He had to let her work things out on her own pace.

The most he could do was offer just a little bit of help and not try to act like he knew her better than she knew herself.

He let out a sigh.

’Matters of the heart can be so complicated,’ he thought.

Delia still had her eyes on him, patiently awaiting an explanation for what he meant by what he said.

"Do you still want to beat me up?" Caius asked.

Delia paused and then a smile stretched across her face.

"Almost as much as I want to kiss you," she said.

"And that’s what I meant. So long as previous motivations are maintained, who cares if we smack lips a couple of times?" Caius said with a shrug.

Delia looked to take that seriously. She was sitting cross-legged now and nodded.

"I suppose you’re right. Your face is good to look at but I still want to pommel it..." She said slowly.

"You’re quite the sadist, aren’t you?" Caius said, "Trying to get off on my pain."

"Well, the sounds of your grunts do hit my ears nicely," Delia said with a smile playing at her lips. And then the smile slumped a bit as a thought came to mind.

"But then, what happens after I beat you?" She asked.

"Hmm?" Caius asked looking like he had gotten a bit lost in the thoughts of why a potential lover talking about hurting him was getting him going.

"What happens after I beat you?" Delia repeated.

Caius laughed a little then.

"Is beating me up really all that you have lined up for the future?"

"Well, of course, not. I have goals. Some of which are; Leading an Army to multiple victorious battles and shoving it in my family’s face that a Kragsten

can

be a Mage-Knight and not that pathetic thing they tout as the true way to practice magic," Delia said and for a moment, she seemed lost in those desires of hers and then she was seeing Caius again and shrugged,

"But when it comes to you and that face of yours, yeah. Beating you up is really all I used to think about." Delia said.

Caius laughed even more.

"Interesting," he said, "But what if it never happens? Would you consider it a forever goal? Something to chase for as long as we both might live?"

"Hmmm," Delia said like someone going into deep thought but the smile on her lips and the look in her grey eyes told Caius that she had an answer ready for him.

Sure enough,

"Oh, but I think it will. You currently have an edge but it’s a tiny one. I’ll surpass that soon enough. And when—not if, but WHEN—I beat you, I’ll just do it again."

Delia paused here and her eyes widened like she had stumbled upon an epiphany as her voice gained an almost righteous zeal.

"Yeah," she said, "Once just won’t cut it. I’ll challenge you to duels for the rest of our lives, defeating you every time..."

Caius chuckled and shook his head but didn’t argue with Delia on her goals.

"Sounds like an eternal commitment," he said, "Are you sure you’re up for it?"

"Absolutely," Delia said firmly while slamming her fist into her palm.

And then her eyes widened as Caius grabbed her chin with his thumb and index fingers and leaned in close.

"Want to hear what I’ll be spending all that time doing instead? Besides never losing to you, of course," Caius said gently as his sweet breath blew over Delia’s face.

She closed her eyes and breathed it in before pulling her lips apart to ask in a wispy voice that was almost too low to hear.

"What?"

"I’ll be showing you that there are far more fun things for us to do besides duel," Caius said.

His tone sounded quite normal but was alluring still. It carried a suggestive energy that caused Delia to gulp at the insinuations. When he began to draw closer to her and their lips came together in what was clearly a parting kiss so they could both now go their separate ways for the day, her confusion returned and her heart beat with uncertainty.

But then she heard Caius’s voice in her head repeating what he had told her earlier;

"You know this doesn’t have to change anything, right?"

’That’s right,’ she said in her head, ’Nothing has to change.’

Her mental contemplation had very little effect on her actions really. Her body, by instinct, was already very into the kiss whether she was confused about what it meant for the future or not. Her body rocked against Caius the same. The wetness of her shirt caused her hard nipples to graze against his chest so intensely that they might as well have been naked. Or at least that was what Delia thought seeing as she didn’t know how it would feel if she and Caius were actually naked.

Anyway, she did become a bit more aggressive with the kiss. She brought in some of that competitive flair of hers to turn this into a duel of sorts. One she was far too inexperienced with to win even though she certainly gave it a fair shot.

All in all, believing ’nothing has to change’ helped Delia’s mentality in really getting into the moment more than she already had so far.