"Ok! Our first official mission as a team will be.. This one!" He pointed at one of the listed commissions in the paper.
"R-really? T-this on- Ejem, Very well, we shalt take on this very task with glee, and triumph over it with our almighty alliance!"
"You want to go to Dragonspine again, Bennett? Last time didn't go so well for you.." Katheryne always looks worried when taking the boy's commissions lately, after that day, he has been taking medium or higher ranked ones.
"Yes! Don't worry, last time was just a bad luck moment, and also, I've gotten better than before!" His proud expression seemed like it was shining.
Katheryne smiled at him and let him choose whatever he wanted, there was no way of convincing him not to anyway. "Very well, it's still a fairly simple one so both of you will probably not have that many problems."
"Thanks, Katheryne! We'll be going now, see you!" The boy, without waiting a single moment, went off to the entrance, with a skeptical Fischl following right behind him.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Mein Fraülen? We should tell hi-"
"Oz!" The girl closed the raven's beak with her hand, shaking her head and then continuing on as if nothing happened, the familiar couldn't help but sigh, he knew he couldn't convince her at this point.
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As they were approaching Dragonspine, Fischl stopped dead in her tracks.
Bennett quickly noticed and turned around to see her. "What happened? Are you feeling alright?" He hurriedly approached her.
"Huh? Oh, o-of course I am! This deadly mountain is no feat for the Prinzessin der Verurteilung!" She did an extravagant pose, putting her hand over her eyepatch.
Her partner scratched his neck. "If you say so.. Though, if you need something, tell me."
They continued their path, but once again they stopped, but both of them in this case.
"Uhm.. Did you bring something for the snow? I.. Kinda forgot." Bennett laughed it up.
"I'm afraid you walked out so eagerly that both you and Mein Fraülen forgot to prepare for the trip." Oz was standing on Fischl's shoulder with a worried expression. "May I suggest you go back for the time being and come again once you're ready?"
"No! A true adventurer must be ready for any trouble that comes in their way, even if they're not prepared for it!" The boy completely misunderstood the meaning of the phrase 'A true adventurer is prepared for everything.'
Fischl, not wanting to ruin Bennett's excitement, nodded, though not completely convinced. "I.. I must agree! if the Prinzessin cannot overcome this petty challenge that fate gave us, I would be a disgrace to mine own name!"
Oz let out another sigh, these two were going to give him a headache sooner or later. "If Mein Fraülen is so convinced, then I cannot do anything."
Bennett, with a determination that came out of nowhere, did the first step into the mountain, with Fischl following him closely from behind.
After approximately an hour of walking, Bennet was looking at his map. "O-ok, so.. T-the slimes s-should be.. over t-there." Bennett pointed at a small cliff which was kind of far. "S-seems we have to endure the cold a b-bit more.. A-are you holding alright, Fischl?"
The girl was shivering from the cold, and was trying to warm herself up by putting her hands in her armpits. "'Tis n-no match f-for me! It's n-nothing t-that the Prinzessin can't h-handle.." She did her best to make her signature and smug laugh, but it ended up poorly.
Bennett noticed that, obviously she wasn't alright, and started to look around. "There a-are some branches o-over there, we can make a b-bonfire and wait f-for a while i-if you're that c-cold." He hoped she was because he was also freezing to death.
Fischl, not trying anymore to protect her persona pride, quickly nodded. "I-I'll g-give you the honor o-of accepting your o-offering for the P-prinzessin!" Bennett widely smiled and went off to gather the branches. Fischl, wanting to help, went off to find some rocks to put around it.
After they both returned, they started to build the bonfire, after a couple of failed tries, they finally made a somewhat decent one. "Stand back." The girl did as the boy said. Bennett started to channel his pyro vision's power in his sword, and, with a quick slash, he lit the bonfire. "Yes!"
Both of the adventurers quickly sat around it, facing each other. "Ahh, this feels better than I remembered, it's still kind of cold but at least it's bearable." Fischl nodded.
They kept silent for a couple of minutes, enjoying the warmth coming from the fire.
After a while, Bennett stood up. "Are you going to keep going already?" Said oz.
"No, not yet.. I-I just thought that.. Maybe if.."
"Is something troubling you, my serv-atchoo!" The girl couldn't finish her sentence.
"Bless you.... Wait, what are you allergic to?"
"Allergies? A Prinzessin doesn- a-atchoo!"
"I'm impressed you managed to hold on for that long, Mein Fraülen." Oz said with a smug look. Bennett was still confused. "Mein Fraülen starts to sneeze while on snow."
"Huh? Then why didn't you tell me? I could've chosen another one if you told me.." The boy looked troubled.
"This is a mere setback, my dear ser- atchoo!... My dear servant, fear not for me, for I have handled this more times than your mortal mind can imagine!"
"Mein Fraülen's pride wouldn't let her tell you."
"Oz! Ahh-atchoo!"
Bennett started thinking, was it the snow or was it that she was still cold? Thinking about the latter, he realized that now he has an excuse for what he wanted to do before. "W-well.. I-I may have an idea."
He started to approach the still sneezing Fischl, and then sat right beside her. "M-maybe.. Maybe this'll help!" With a blush on his face, he hugged the girl with one arm, and pulled her closer to him.
Fischl uttered a yelp, and her face was flaming red. "B-Bennett?" She couldn't make herself look at him.
"Yes?" The boy said, also with a blush on his face and not wanting to look at her directly.
"The sneezing is gone.. T-thank you." She couldn't manage to maintain her Prinzessin personality.
They kept hugging in silence for some minutes, this time enjoying a different type of warmth.
"This feels nice, doesn't it?" Bennett tried to make a conversation to break the ice, but Fischl only nodded in silence.
Another couple of minutes passed in complete silence, with just the sound of the fire and the occasional cold breeze.
The girl started to cuddle him too, and the boy started to play a little bit with her hair in response. "Your hair is really pretty, you know?"
"Heh, amazed? The Prinzessin needs to keep up her appearance after all." She returned to her normal self after a while.
"Hah, I guess.. It feels nice too."
"Thanks.. Maybe I could give you some tips." They laughed.
"It's not my fault.. It always ends up dirty after my adventures."
"I know, that's why you should take better care of it." She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder, still blushing.
"After we get back you should teach me then."
"I'm going to." She broke her persona yet again, but didn't mind this time, also, Bennett didn't notice it at that moment.
After a while, they lost track of time and lost themselves in each other's arms.
There was no mistaking it for Fischl, she quickly realized after the warm feeling she had when Bennett hugged her, after all, she read a lot of romantic novels when she was younger.
She loved him.
...
Probably.
She wasn't sure yet, after all, it was the first time her heart raced like that, and it was also the first time she had felt this warm inside. It also didn't help that even if she knew about it due to her novels, she didn't have any actual experience on it.
But.. She didn't like it. What if that would ruin their relationship?
..No, she didn't have to think like that, even if they stayed as friends forever, she made a promise to herself.. As long as she had the power to protect him, nothing else mattered.
"As much as I don't want to, we should be going already, it's going to get dark if we don't."
"Hmph.. I guess so.." She reluctantly separated herself from him, but not before she enjoyed the warmth a bit more.
They stood up and started walking to the place where the slimes should be, this time standing closer to each other than they were before.
After another hour of walking, they arrived. They found a couple of seelies in the way which gave them warmth, so they didn't have to worry about that for the road.
The fight went without a problem, they were ice slimes so they used their elemental abilities to quickly neutralize them.
"It took more time to get here.. Kind of a dissapointment." Bennett said, after finishing the last one.
Fischl laughed. "That is just another evidence that no being in this world can withstand our mighty powe- atchoo!"
"Haha, maybe we should get back now, I don't want you getting sick." He looked down the cliff. "Maybe.. Maybe we could take a shortcut, we can glide from here to arrive sooner to the camp outside the mountain."
"I expected no less from my loyal companion, we shalt do just that."
Wasting no time, they both jumped down the cliff, and quickly took out their gliders, going in the direction of the camp.
Yet again, they went without a problem and arrived safely. They said their goodbyes to the people residing there and went to Monstadt.
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"You took longer than expected, did something happen? You don't seem wounded this time.. Well that's rare in itself!" Katheryne said happily, seeing Bennett without a scratch was more rare than seeing Dvalin.
"Hehe, I told you I've gotten better! The only problem was the cold, but nothing else." He posed proudly.
"You should've prepared before going off, I didn't even have time to tell you that." The assistant scolded him.
"Yeah.. Sorry about that." His pride quickly shifted to embarrassment. "But we finished it! The slimes weren't much of a fight."
They signed the commission and were free for the rest of the day.
After walking around for a while, Bennett spoke up.
"So.. Are you going to give me the tips now?"
"Of course, my dear companion, You shalt look better than ever before with the help of the almighty Fischl!"
"Well, are we going to your house then?"
"Huh..? Wait, my house?!"