Chapter 56: An Accidental Kiss!

Aurelia first joined this team due to Evan. She was curious how, despite having the same class as her, he managed to kill the monster with absolute momentum.

She wanted to know what other power he had and wanted to compete with him.

This was her nature.

As for the other team members, she didn’t really take them seriously.

However, she never thought someone with the lowest class rank in their team could be so powerful.

That sun that decimated the battlefield, killing one of the bosses in an instant, was something she would never forget.

’Aurelia, don’t take too much pride in your rank. Remember, this world is too big, and there are all kinds of people with hidden talent that we cannot fathom.’

She couldn’t help remembering one of the lessons her mother taught her during her childhood.

At first, she thought her mother was just warning her to keep her pride in check.

But now that she saw the skill used by Soren, which was clearly of a higher rank than her own, she realized her mother was right.

’Sigh...and I thought he wasn’t worthy enough to have a crush on me. Hah...how laughable.’

Aurelia used her AOE skill, Inferno, before incinerating the last Orc standing before her.

With this one, she already cleared the area she was in charge of, and that too within a few minutes.

But her face couldn’t contain the pride she always felt before.

Instead, she felt like a frog in a well, unaware of the vast sky beyond her little pond.

For someone who was so competitive and proud, today she suffered her first setback.

And this setback pushed her even more when she realized that even if she used all her mana to cast her best hidden skill, which was SS-rank, she might not be able to replicate what Soren did.

Looking at it now, maybe she wasn’t worthy enough for him instead.

"Miss Aurelia... it seems you cleared this area already."

Just as Aurelia’s mood sank, she saw someone dropping from the sky rapidly, right in front of her.

"Great, then let’s go to another location immediately. We need to be quick and head to the boss monster’s base after this without pause."

According to the ’Voice of the World’, this was just a small platoon of the monster army. That meant there were still a few more armies they had to kill.

So they had to hurry before the boss monster got wind of Soren’s move.

They had to push through each of their individual camps and burn down everything according to the plan.

Soren thought he might reach level 35 at the end if the plan went smoothly as he wanted, even though the experience gained from these monsters was too small.

"So... let’s go?"

Soren asked, while extending his arm towards Aurelia, intending to take her with him.

After all, unlike Sylvia and Aria, he couldn’t just hug her waist as they weren’t that close enough yet.

"Umm... okay!"

Fortunately, Aurelia readily agreed.

"Hmm?"

But to the surprise of Soren, instead of grabbing his hand, her long arm naturally curled around his waist while her face landed right on his shoulder, similar to how Sylvia and Aria were on him before, leaving him frozen for a moment.

Soren could already feel her intoxicating scent, the warmth of her skin, and the gentle rhythm of her breath.

"Miss Aurelia?"

For a moment, Soren was caught off guard and asked her lightly in confusion.

After all, there was no need for him to hug someone just to let them fly with him. He hugged Aria and Sylvia before only to take advantage of the situation.

He planned to simply grab Aurelia’s hand and guide her.

"Hmm? Isn’t this how you take them up before?"

But Aurelia seemed to think differently, her curious gaze so near that Soren could clearly see the fiery beauty of her ember-like pupils.

"Cough... Yeah, that’s how I need to take you up; otherwise, you might fall midway."

Soren felt a bit embarrassed to deceive her innocent eyes, but it wasn’t him who hugged her first, was it?

"Then... we’re flying up."

Since she came to him on her own, why waste the chance?

Soren’s expression returned to the same seriousness as his arm curled around Aurelia’s waist, and his wings fluttered from behind.

Swoosh!

In an instant, Soren left a beautiful crimson trail behind him, flying high in the sky with a stunning lady in his arms.

It looked like a scene straight out of a movie, utterly breathtaking.

Not to mention the faint blush on Aurelia’s cheeks, which she couldn’t hide even if she wanted to.

She had no idea what came over her, hugging a boy on her own initiative.

Although she tried to convince herself it was necessary, who was she kidding?

Especially since she already owned a flying-type artifact and didn’t actually need his help.

After the incident at the E-rank dungeon, she purchased one to compensate for her shortcomings before she learned flying-type skills.

"S-Soren... are you really... B-rank?"

As they soared above the battlefield, Aurelia slowly lowered her gaze, peeking down below while trying to distract herself from her racing thoughts.

Besides, she was genuinely curious.

"Hmm? Oh... not anymore. I just recently got upgraded to A-rank. I was quite lucky, you see."

Soren felt a bit surprised by her question, but he answered readily. He wasn’t about to hide his class ascension as he couldn’t even if he wanted to.

They would know one way or the other anyway.

"What? Upgrade? How?"

Sure enough, Aurelia’s eyes went wide after hearing him.

After all, class ascension was too rare an event. It wasn’t something you could stumble upon just because you wanted to. One needed to be incredibly lucky to receive such a reward.

Feeling shocked, she couldn’t help but raise her head abruptly, intending to see whether Soren was lying to her.

However, in her surprise, Aurelia forgot that she was still in Soren’s embrace, her face right beside his.

So, the moment she lifted her head, she unexpectedly bumped into Soren, her nose colliding with his.

"Ouch..."

But that wasn’t even the worst part, as Aurelia suddenly felt warm breath against her lips, carrying an unfamiliar moisture.

"W-What?"

How could Aurelia not understand where that warmth came from? Not only did she feel it, but Soren also realized it, his lips already brushing lightly against hers.

Although they weren’t kissing, the soft touch they both experienced felt startlingly similar.

’So soft...’

Soren unconsciously savored the faint brush of Aurelia’s lips while looking at her flushed face.

Now that he looked at her so closely, he realized just how beautiful she was. Those amber eyes against her red hair suited her perfectly, and she might be what people called fiery and captivating.

To be honest, Soren felt a strong urge to turn this peck into a real kiss.

Kissing a girl while flying high above the ground with her soft body in his arms seemed incredibly romantic when he thought about it.

"N-no... d-don’t..."

Unfortunately, Aurelia quickly came back to her senses, jerking her head away from his and nearly throwing herself out of his arms in the process.

By now, she was so flustered that her eyes couldn’t focus on Soren anymore, and she practically stuttered as she spoke.

"S-Soren... take me down."

Well, it seemed even for someone as proud as Aurelia, today’s incident was too much. She wanted nothing more than to leave his embrace immediately.