Summer Break

Chapter 24

"So let me get this straight. Arthur, our Arthur, the leader of our party Arthur, told you that he loved you while you two were alone in the dungeon?" Claire asked.

"That's right," Tess replied happily as she looked at quest posters to pass the time while Arthur and Curtis restocked the party's food supplies.

It has been three days since they left the dungeon "Frozen Hell", and were now at an Adventurers Guild outpost to take a brief break and restock their supplies. Since exiting the dungeon Arthur and Tess were noticeably closer, and the rest of the party had taken notice. They had always been very close, so no one really wanted to ask what was going on between them. However today they were seen sharing a kiss before splitting up at the outpost, so Claire had decided to get to the bottom of this.

"I can't believe he said it first," Claire commented, sounding a little surprised. "He always seemed like the kind of guy that would be very careful throwing that word around."

"Well, technically I said it first," Tess admitted. "But that was at the beginning of the school year, after he recovered from saving me."

"Wait, you said it first almost a year ago and he just said it back now?" Claire questioned sounding a bit annoyed.

"He told me he wasn't sure how he felt, and he wasn't ready to be in a relationship. He asked me to wait for him to be ready, so I waited," Tess replied casually while looking over another quest poster.

"If it was any other guy that told you that, no even Arthur. If I had known I would have told you not to wait, or I would have tried to beat some sense into him," Claire replied, sounding more aggressive than usual.

"Hahaha," Tess laughed. "Do you really think you could have beat any sense into him?"

"Pffft," Claire tried to contain her laugh at the thought of how that probably would have gone. "Probably not. He's lucky you did wait, or that some other guy didn't swoop you off your feet."

"I've loved Arthur for so long, no one could ever take me from him," Tess replied with a blissful smile.

"You make it sound like you two have known each other for years," Claire commented.

"They have," Feyrith added as he walked over. "Arthur became Elder Virion's disciple about seven or eight years ago."

"What?! That doesn't make sense, Arthur would have been about five," Claire questioned.

Tess sighed. She hated that Arthur's secrets were being revealed, but it didn't look like there was any stopping this one.

"Arthur awoke as a mage at age three, we met when he was five and rescued me from slave traders, then escorted me back home. My grandfather was impressed with his skills at such a young age, as well as sensed his beast will, and decided to make him his disciple," Tess explained.

"So no wonder he's such a monster. To be trained at such a young age, how could you not be a monster by now," Claire said as everything started to make sense with Arthur.

"Oh no, he was a monster even before Elder Virion trained him," Fayrith commented.

"So you knew him back then too. So since you've known him for so long, I take it you would support it if he and Tess were to start dating?" Claire asked.

Tess blushed a little and looked to Fayrith. Ultimately his opinion didn't matter to her, but she was curious considering a lot of elves might have a problem with their former princess being in love with a human.

"I'm fine with it because Arthur is being respectful to our ways," Fayrith replied.

"What do you mean by that? Did Arthur tell you he and I are dating now?" Tess asked.