For Theresia, it was the first time the two had embraced, so intimate.

They hugged each other in the same bed, clinging to their bodies.

It was as if her body was wrapped in some stream of warm water, warming her heart, which was trembling slightly in the cold wind.

"Xia Ming, you...... Why ......"

Her voice became a little hoarse.

Xia Ming smiled slightly and scratched her nose.

"So Theresia, you also have times when you are careless? Since you have the ability to sense good intentions and malice, you should know that I can't be cruel to you no matter what. ”

"Seeing the way you looked just now, do you think I'm really going to leave you alone so indifferently?"

The corners of Xia Ming's mouth were slightly hooked, and he proudly announced his victory.

"This time, you're the one who loses, Theresia."

It's me...... Lost......

Theresia leaned into his arms, listening to the hot, powerful heartbeat in his chest, and her cheeks quickly turned crimson.

"I ...... I didn't lose. How do you know I didn't look like I did it on purpose? Obviously, you fell into my trap in the end. ”

Her fingers tightly grasped the soft flesh on Xia Ming's body, and she used strong words.

"Shhh Pain, pain, pain! Okay, this time it's you who wins, it's you who wins. ”

Xia Ming pretended to be in pain, his eyes fell on the girl's shy eyes, and the girl blushed and buried her head lower.

The ambiguous atmosphere is in the air.

Neither of them spoke, but they felt that the temperature in the bed was getting higher and higher, and even their breathing became like they were carrying affectionate steam.

Long.

Feeling that the atmosphere was almost over, the girl asked shyly in his arms:

"That'...... What I just said, can you help me, Xia Ming? ”

"Nope." Xia Ming still refused.

"Why still not?"

The girl lifted her lovely face from his arms and stretched out her pink fist and gently smacked him in the chest.

Who knew that Xia Ming's words changed and said, "Actually...... It's not impossible to ask me to help you. ”

His fingers caressed her softness, giving the girl the pleasure she had always wanted but never received, but it only lasted for a few seconds, and his hand withdrew mercilessly.

How painful is it to desire so much before you get it, and then lose it when you get it?

"Tell me, Theresia, your past, your past, your true psyche."

Xia Ming took the so-called help as a reward for seducing the girl.

"What are you running away from, what are you afraid of, what are you thinking, tell me and I'll give you the happiest reward?"

Xia Ming's fingers gently teased the girl's earlobe, telling the lingering affection.

Do you want to tell Xia Ming that selfish and ugly self completely and show it to him?

If it had been before, Theresia would have been hesitant.

However, at this moment, Xia Ming's embrace was so greedy and affectionate to her, his affection was so lingering, and the reward he mentioned made her reluctant to let go, and she couldn't bear to lose it like this.

“…… Good. ”

The girl's voice trembled, and under Xia Ming's repeated teasing, she finally couldn't resist the temptation and chose to confess her true self to him.

She talks about her past, the carefree nature of her childhood, and the death of her family when she was six years old, leaving her and her brother to be saved by the firefighters of the Embers.

Those who received rigorous education and training in the embers.

In fact, Uncle Gothrid told Xia Ming about it roughly.

However, it is completely different from saying the same experience from someone else's mouth and choosing to say it to someone in person.

In Theresia's mouth, Xia Ming understood more clearly how much the embers expected her to be.

The education and training that were too cruel and harsh for a child made the originally carefree girl completely suppress her personality, and also buried her in the psychology of rebellion and escape.

Decade.

For a whole decade, I approached another person every day and night, with no time to rest, no room for myself, and even in my sleep, I had to watch the video of Lord Valkyrie, and I wanted to substitute myself into it and completely become her substitute.

Especially after Tried's failure to draw his sword, Theresia became the last hope of the whole village, and those ardent expectations became even more intense, as if they had become arrows stuck in Theresia's heart.

She must draw the Red Flame Greatsword, and she must become a new generation of Valkyries.

She is destined to inherit her name and power, and uphold her will to defeat the evil dragon and the ice king, and bring hope to the people of the Northlands.

But...... Has anyone ever thought that she didn't actually want to be on such a mission, that she didn't want to be a Valkyrie?

She was Theresia, not someone else, not a substitute for Valkyrie.

She...... Occasionally, I want to be my true self.

But the kindness of the embers weighed on her head, the hatred of her parents who took their lives from the mist weighed on her, the expectation of countless pairs of eyes weighed heavily on her head, and the pressure of morality ......

It seems that she is destined to lose herself from the day she was rescued by the Ember Organization, and she is destined to face such a fate.

So when she went on her first mission and came to this town to save Xia Ming, the first person she saved in her life, her performance was so lively and happy.

The fog is a curse, an escape, a prison.

However, the reality of the outside world is that of a much larger prison.

Only in such an unsupervised place can she occasionally return to her former self.

Not the heir of the Valkyries, not a substitute for anyone, but she, Theresia, herself.

So, when it is found that you can't get out.

In her heart, under the panic and fear, there was a faint hint of joy that she could not have imagined.

When it was determined that the root of the inability to get out came from her inner escape.

She said that she would face herself, face reality, and accept her fate.

But......

Why...... Why is it that to be yourself is to escape, and why to meet the fate of doomed tragedy is to face yourself?

She didn't understand, and she didn't want to.

In the next few days after being rejected by Xia Ming for the first time, she seemed to be returning to the trajectory of her past life, playing the role of a Valkyrie, trying to make herself accept that fate, but in fact, her heart became more and more depressed and full of escape.

She...... Don't want to go out.

Doing this to yourself, you don't have to be under those pressures anymore, and you have relatives and lovers around you, how good it is to have such a day.

Is it also a mistake to want to be yourself, a kind of escape?

However, this is a mistake and an escape for her.

Otherwise, everyone wouldn't be stuck here.

Otherwise, she wouldn't be so eager to seek Xia Ming's comfort.

"Xia Ming, I'm sorry that I'm so selfish and willful. I said I was going to work hard to get out, but I kept deceiving you......"

The girl leaned guiltily on Xia Ming's arms.

"I ...... Can you still get your rewards? ”

"Absolutely."

Xia Ming stroked the top of her head with a smile.

"And I'll tell you, Theresia, being yourself is not an escape, you did nothing wrong."

(End of chapter)