Deep into the night, everything was silent.
In Leon's room, Kureha lay with one pale, slender arm draped over the blanket, her shoulder bare to the air, her delicate, alluring face flushed with a trace of exhaustion and lingering afterglow, already deep in dreamland.
A glistening trace lingered at the corner of her mouth, and for some reason she furrowed her brow in her sleep, murmuring through her dreams...
"I'm sorry, Lord Leon, I couldn't satisfy you..."
"This is my atonement..."
"N-no! Stop it!"
"Guh! Let me off!"
"Hngh ohh..."
"I'm going to break!"
Leon: "..."
The man sat bare-chested in his shorts at the desk, a warm-yellow lamp lit, head bent over the three sheets of parchment laid out in front of him.
What they recorded was the updated Falna info for Jeanne, Rose, and Kureha.
In the middle of his concentration, his attention got pulled away by Kureha's fragmented sleep-talking.
"Tch..."
Leon clicked his tongue, feeling his heart stir restlessly again, drawn in by Kureha's unique aura. He glanced at the Magic Stone clock on the wall, its hour hand pointing to one in the morning, then switched off the lamp and slipped neatly back under the covers.
Before long, Kureha's stifled gasps and broken pleas for mercy filled the bedroom once more...
The commotion lasted until four in the morning, the streetlamps in the alley outside flickering on one by one, before the whole house finally settled back into quiet.
Next door.
Jeanne flipped over hard, burying her flushed face deep into the blanket, cursing low and muffled:
"Scumbag!"
"Bastard!"
"Shameless!!"
"Ngh..."
...
...
The next day, the sky was stained gray with overcast cloud, fat snowflakes still drifting past the window.
The next day came around.
The sky was wrapped in heavy gray cloud, fat snowflakes still drifting down outside the window.
After a full day and night of snowfall, the winter snow had dyed the entire city a pure silver-white.
Looking down on the whole city from above, the warm-yellow lamplight and the plain white earth wove together in a mirrored glow, the warm light of every household's hearth and the curls of smoke rising from the chimneys lending the winter Orario an extra touch of poetry.
People on the streets pulled their scarves tight and bundled up in winter clothes, their white breath hanging briefly in the air. The crunch, crunch of feet on snow rose and fell, ceaseless.
In front of the shops lining the streets, you could occasionally spot clerks in distinctive uniforms huffing and puffing as they shoveled away the piled snow.
As the time drew near a mealtime, the faint aroma of all kinds of food began to drift through the streets, nearly making the hungry passersby' eyes glow green.
Adventurers in thick padded cloaks crossed the plaza in front of Babel in twos and threes. Clearly, for this group, a snowstorm that had lasted a day and a night had done little to disrupt their work.
And when a stray ray of sunlight happened to pierce the clouds and fall on Orario's time-worn walls, the whole city seemed to wake up in that instant.
Leon's house, the sitting room.
Everyone sat gathered around the hearth, enjoying the warmth of the fire while taking in the quiet snowscape outside the window, the days passing leisurely and at ease.
"Ahh~~~~~"
"So nice~~~~~~"
On a snowy day like this, never mind Leon, who with his cheat actually had it in him to grind for Excelia, even Jeanne, Rose, and Kureha, all of them steeled by countless battles and firm in will, were now curled lazily into the sofa, either flipping through magazines, mulling over recipes, or studying the Dungeon Monster Compendium. In short, each of them was sunk into her own little world, without the faintest urge to step outside.
"Sigh... the moment winter hits, the whole person just goes lazy, don't feel like doing anything at all."
"The way I see it, instead of hauling myself off to that hellhole of a Dungeon to grind Excelia for dear life, coasting at home is way more comfortable..."
"Roasting by the hearth, eating sweets, sipping hot tea, with all sorts of beauties by my side."
"Damn it... a life like this, it's straight up tempting me into ruin! I've been totally corrupted by this sweet, sweet slow life!"
Jeanne pushed the Gale-Force Reading Glasses up the bridge of her nose, set her magazine aside, and looked down at the man stretched out across her lap with a face full of lazy contentment, shooting him a cold glance:
"What's gotten into you? If you're going to lie there, then lie there properly and stop bothering my reading."
That's right, Leon was at this very moment comfortably pillowed on Jeanne's soft thighs, wrapped in white tights.
Faced with Jeanne's "scolding," not only did he not rein himself in, he pushed his luck even further, burying his face against her belly and taking a deep breath in!
"You...!!!"
The filthy move left the Holy Maiden so flustered and furious she nearly flipped him off her lap!
"Y-you you you you... you behave yourself!"
"Haah, haah! Sniff sniff sniff~~~~~~" A vein twitched at Jeanne's temple, and noticing the assorted looks the other ladies had focused her way, some amused, some bashful, some curious, she flushed crimson to the ears.
Her toes, wrapped in white tights, curled up tight inside her fuzzy slippers, her small hands clenched into fists, her chest rising and falling lightly with embarrassed anger.
If looks could kill, the murderous intent in Jeanne's eyes would have hacked Leon into eight pieces long ago.
"Le... on...!!!"
"You pervert!"
But before Jeanne could finish her flustered, furious words, she was cut off by a sudden development.
"Wha..."
A powerful surge of magic came from the courtyard, shattering this peaceful, blissful slow routine!
"Hm?"
Everyone, who'd been caught up in the flirty ruckus between Leon and Jeanne, was "jolted awake" by the magic surge as one, each of them turning their heads toward the window.
"This feels... a little familiar?"
The little blonde elf's face scrunched up in confusion as she racked her brains.
"Mm, I feel like I've seen it before, it's right on the tip of my tongue but I can't place it!"
At that, Aura closed her spellbook and spoke up out of nowhere:
"A summoning circle?"
"Yes! A summoning circle!"
Laurier clapped her hands, hauled up Aura who'd just reminded her, and in her fuzzy panda slippers went charging out the door!
Meanwhile, Leon, his whole face still buried between Jeanne's white-tights-clad thighs, went completely blank the moment he clearly felt the unique surge coming off the Familia Invitation.
"Uh, what the hell is this?"
"Holy shit, this isn't right. Why's this invitation working so fast this time?"
"It hasn't even been three days, and it's already reacting!"