Renelle’s eyes opened just in time to witness her butler appearing inside her tent, seemingly a bit surprised.

Adrian had forgotten that he basically left his shadow within her tent, hence the reason why he reappeared there.

"Adrian?" She called out before noticing his state and her expression immediately turned cold, "what happened?"

"I might’ve bitten a bit more than I could chew," he said with a chuckle as he signalled to his broken arm.

Renelle looked at him for a while before sighing and patting beside, "come here."

Without question, he walked...well, limped, towards her before lowering himself beside her.

Her gaze rested on his broken arm before she muttered, "you’re an idiot."

Adrian chuckled at her words as he said, "didn’t help that I have a cat who actively wants to see me dead."

«You could’ve just teleported back here from the start,» Noctis defended as it reappeared from the [Shadow Vault].

She just glared at the two, and in response they immediately went silent.

"Show me your hand," she ordered, glancing towards it.

He immediately obliged, dismissing the make shift shadow cast holding his broken arm, rolled up his sleeve and presented it to her.

Renelle gently placed her palm on it, careful not to hurt him as the temperature at the point of contact suddenly started dropping until it was freezing cold.

Though it was supposed to hurt quite a bit, Adrian didn’t notice a single thing as his attention was completely focused on her face.

He silently continued staring at her for a while before she let go and looked up at him.

"This should numb the pain until it fully heals," she said.

"Thank you, my lady," Adrian responded with a smile.

"Hmm," Renelle nodded before slightly pulling back, her blue eyes locking with his grey one as she asked, "now tell me what happened." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Noctis wanted a special core, so I had to fight a herd of C-rank elemental bulls and their leader which turned out to be an A-Rank instead of B, as I initially thought."

He said all that in one breath, pushing all the blame on Noctis, after all, it truly was the damn cat’s fault.

«I think I’ll just return to the vault,» Noctis muttered as Renelle glared at it before disappearing.

She then directed the glare at her butler who was staring as if he was a child guilty of doing something he shouldn’t have.

She could try scolding him for putting himself in danger but in the end she just gave up and muttered, "I’ll save the scolding for later, for now, you’re not allowed to leave my side."

"As you wish, my lady," he responded, more than happy to oblige.

Satisfied with the answer, Renelle slightly made room before giving another order, "lie down."

Adrian was a bit surprised, but he still obliged, resting his head on her lap as he looked towards her face.

She was a bit caught off guard by her actions, after all, she meant he should lay beside her.

She quickly recovered and looked down at him as she said, "now sleep."

He gladly closed his eyes with a smile on his face, maybe almost dying to an A-Rank wasn’t such a bad thing if this was the reward.

Renelle moved her hand to his hair, her expression seemingly a bit blank as she looked at his satisfied smile.

"Adrian?" She gently called out.

"My Lady," he opened his eyes, looking directly into hers.

"Please don’t put yourself in unnecessary danger," she muttered and the expression on his face told him exactly what she was thinking.

The memory of his ’death’ was still clear in her mind, so seeing him like this only worked to make her worry.

"I promise," he reassured, lifting his good hand and moving a hair off her face.

Satisfied with the answer, Renelle nodded and went silent, watching him slowly close his eyes.

She continued gently playing with his hair and before she knew it, his breathing had evened out, a sign that he was asleep.

But that much was to be expected.

Unlike her, he had refused to rest from the moment they arrived at the frontier and just moments after, they were sent to the corrupted lands, before he had to stay up for the large majority of the night keeping watch.

And finally, he went out and fought a herd of beasts and an A-Rank one.

So that exhaustion had quickly accumulated, and the moment he was comfortable, it hit him like a freight train.

Renelle continued her actions, looking at his peaceful resting face for the first time since they met.

He looked so disconnected from their world right now, that it was somehow.... pleasing?

Her hand moved towards his face, gently tracing his features and she couldn’t help but smile.

Moving the magic tool off his face, she muttered, without realizing, "now that I’m getting a good look, my butler truly is handsome."

It took a couple of seconds, but Renelle soon realized what she just said and her face immediately turned red.

Fortunately for her, Adrian truly was asleep, so neither he nor anyone else heard her words.

Well....

«Humans truly are weird.»

Well, it wasn’t as if the cat was interested in whatever the two had going on. As long as it was provided a special core, treasure or kept entertained, then it was more than satisfied.

Realizing that no one had heard her words, Renelle continued staring at her butler’s face calmly.

"You also won’t leave my side, will you?" She asked, but she already knew the answer to that.

And even if she doubted it for a single second, a single peek inside his mind using the bracelets was all she would need to get reassured.

Still,

"I hope you don’t," she continued, keeping her voice low so he wouldn’t wake up, "because even if you try to, I won’t let you."

She lowered her head towards his, her hair dropping on his face as she paused, getting a closer look of his face.

Renelle reconsidered what she was about to do, but a moment was all it took before deciding to go ahead.

Her lips gently pressed on his forehead, planting a kiss on it, though that wasn’t quite her original target.

This should be enough for now.

Renelle pulled back after a short while, only to observe a small smile appearing on her butler’s face.

She then let out a sigh the moment she realized that he wasn’t waking up, though whether that was relief or disappointment... even she didn’t know.

"Goodnight, my dear butler."

***

"Yes master," A cloaked figure was within the main base of the frontier prostrated before a figure in what seemed to be a throne, "the kids arrived here this morning."

"Is that so?" The master said as he leaned on his folded fist, "and the butler?"

"H-he was with the Ardent young mistress," the prostrating figure said still keeping his head on the floor.

"I see," the master said.

At first, he considered the butler as nothing but an ill prepared anomaly, one that was put here to disrupt the timeline.

Turns out, he was a lot more than that.

In a single day, that anomaly had been able to do more damage to his cult than the kingdom has in almost a decade.

He had watched the kid come back from death and with a single word, he erased more than half of his followers.

But even more terrifying was the fact that whatever the kid did, almost reached him, even thought he was essentially disconnected from Avera.

He watched as most of his space crumbled, ceasing to exist and threatening to do the same to him.

"M-master, should we eliminate him?" the prostrating figure interrupted his thoughts, though he didn’t mind.

"Eliminate him?" the master let out a soft chuckle, "no, that would be wasteful."

He had realized that now after being presented with what that child was capable of.

And now, he was certain that he wasn’t responsible for this anomaly’s presence, which meant that he wouldn’t interfere in what the Master was about to do.

Instead of the failure his self from the previous timeline stood to face, he was now presented with a chance to change that.

The butler would be the perfect puppet for his plans, all he needed was the right incentive.

And he knew exactly what would be convincing enough.

"For now," he spoke up again, "proceeded with the other plans, let’s see if that child is truly worthy of being a puppet."