"Where did you go all of a sudden?"

I couldn't help revealing a wry smile when I heard this.

I had only been gone for a few hours, but it was different than when I normally went out to handle matters. After all, there was nothing that I had to handle right now and I should have spent my time in town.

"I just took a small walk." I gave this excuse, but it was clear that they weren't happy about this.

Vanessa narrowed her eyes to look at me while Leaf just looked at me with an unhappy look on her face.

"You were supposed to help me train my spirit magic today." Leaf said while pouting her lips.

Vanessa didn't say anything, but it was clear that she wasn't happy that I wasn't here.

I knew that she was going to drag me to handle some paperwork, but really it would have been her taking care of the paperwork alone. All I would have done was sit in the room with her.

Recently, she's been getting quite touchy while we were together.

It wasn't as if I was against it, it was just that she was getting closer than usual.

Almost as if there was something that she was threatened by.

And by that, it should be Mia.

Still, I didn't say anything since I didn't want to put any fuel on the fire.

It wasn't as if I was against being with both of them, it was just that they needed some time to work things out between them. After all, it wasn't as if the two of them were that close to one another.

Perhaps it was their personality, but they often clashed with one another on different matters.

"Let's go and do some training now." I said in response while ignoring the look that Vanessa gave me.

Leaf immediately cheered up when she heard this before dragging me off to the training grounds.

Vanessa followed behind us, but I could tell that she was still glaring at me.

Once we arrived, Leaf didn't hesitate to summon out roots that came right at me. These were roots that she called from the ground and they were large roots that seemed like they could incapacitate me.

I didn't do anything as I let those roots grab me and hold me in place, but for some reason…

"Why are you so hard to hold down?" Leaf suddenly asked.

It wasn't as if she meant anything by this, but Vanessa's attention was immediately drawn when she heard the word 'hard'.

I didn't say anything as I also tested this feeling.

I knew the reason, it was just that I didn't say it out loud.

It was all because of the dragon blood that I used to refine my physique.

Because I had bathed in that dragon blood, my body was much stronger than before. Since I focused on refining my iron skin, that meant that my entire body became harder when I refined it.

Though even I was surprised how much stronger my body became.

Before this, I would have still felt something when Leaf used her roots to grab me.

But now, it didn't really feel like there was any pressure. It wasn't that my iron skin was so hard that I didn't feel anything at all, it was just that she couldn't put any pressure on me no matter how hard she made her roots squeeze.

As if she was doubtful of something, Leaf suddenly had the roots pick up a rock and squeeze it. The moment that the roots squeezed the rock…

"Kacha!"

The rock instantly shattered to dust the moment that the roots squeezed it.

This was more than enough to show how strong the roots were, but they weren't able to do anything to my body.

That was just how strong my body was now after I refined it with dragon blood.

Leaf didn't seem like she could accept this as she summoned more roots out of the ground and started squeezing me even harder.

It wasn't that she wanted to hurt me, it was just that she didn't believe that she wouldn't be able to do anything to me.

But I also wanted to test something…

With a single flex, all of the roots that had been holding me were ripped apart and I was freed from their grasp.

Leaf looked at me with a shocked look at first before pouting her lips again as if she wasn't happy that I did this.

I just went over to pat her on the head before saying, "It seems that I'm growing faster than you."

"I won't lose." Leaf said in a determined voice.

She didn't blame me for this, she just seemed like she was determined to pass me.

Or at least it seemed like she was determined to show that she was strong.

As for Vanessa, she had been silently moving closer to me while staring at my body.

When she came up to me, she said, "Don't move."

A bitter smile appeared on my face, but I did as she said and let her touch me all over.

As she was doing this, I could see the smile that was on her face.

Finally, she said with a cough, "It seems like your body really is much harder than before. What did you do to make it harder all of a sudden?"

A part of me couldn't help feeling awkward when she said it like this.

Especially with the way that she looked at me while she said it.

But I kept this part of me down as I just said with a cough, "I've been doing some training and it seems like it's been paying off."

"Training? What kind of training?" Vanessa asked in a curious voice, but I could tell that there was more to it.

With another cough, I said, "It's just some strength training, it's nothing special."

She kept looking at me for a bit before saying, "Then you should let us observe you next time. I'm sure that it'll be helpful if we observe."

Though she tried to seem calm, it was hard to hide the slight trace of drool that came out as she stared at my body.

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