Ingrid shuffled off to her side while wincing in pain before lying down and taking a deep breath. Resting her head on the pillow, Ingrid's eyes naturally closed. She had not only been physically abused, but her mental state was also extremely fragile after what had just happened.
Especially her painful screams that kept overlapping with the traumatizing screams of her mother. As she thought of how similar her scream was to her mother, she couldn't help but shudder inwardly. With the overlapping screams echoing in her head, tears naturally escaped her eyes as she sniffled. She lay on her side as both her hands rested under her head. She tried to wipe her tears, but they just kept pouring.
That was when she felt a familiar pair of arms wrapping around her waist and pulling her close. Her eyes widened as she took a sharp breath and froze in her place. As her butt brushed against Leo's pelvis, she winced in pain, but strangely, it gave rise to the same kind of heat that she'd been feeling before.
She let out a whimper but was too afraid and tired to actually try to resist. As she felt his palms trailing along her body, she shivered lightly, but strangely, his touch was more comforting than anything and she didn't truly feel like resisting it. As the warmth dissipated through her body, she felt his hands separate as one of them made its way to her chest and slipped under her bra, cupping her breast. As for the other, it slid lower and slipped into her panties. Her first reaction to his touch was a hiss of apprehension. She didn't have it in her to be touched any further.
She wasn't a squirter. And the fact that Leo had gotten a squirt out of her meant that she was unbearably sensitive right now. Anything touching her between her legs only made her feel an unpleasant burning sensation.
Strangely enough though, there wasn't any painful burning sensation. Her tense body quickly calmed down, almost as if her subconscious expected that Leo's touch wouldn't arouse any painful sensations, even on such a spot. She only felt the familiar heat dissipating from his palms into her body that calmed her down, making her cries slowly die down as they turned to sobs.
The trauma was still there. Her most prevalent thoughts that she was having were still from her childhood traumas. But there was a slight sense of comfort that she was feeling from Leo's presence. Even if he was the one responsible for bringing her suppressed thoughts to light.
After a while, her sobs had died down to mere hiccups and she subtly pushed herself backward such that she would get to feel even more contact with him. His comforting hug was something that she desperately needed.
As for Leo. Unlike Ingrid, he wasn't going through any of that. He was just extremely tired and was asleep by now. He'd not only fought many battles along the way, but he'd also used a large amount of his stamina by utilizing Lust Magic to such an extent. Although that's what allowed him to bring it to level two, his fatigue was very real.
He wanted to use Ingrid as his body pillow and that's what he was doing. He was already fast asleep as Ingrid dealt with her emotional turmoil. That was the purpose of what he'd done, after all. He wanted her to be in a vulnerable state and make it even more volatile while bringing her a semblance of comfort from his presence.
With her being unable to harm him in any way, he didn't even need to worry about being stabbed in his sleep. So he just slept peacefully, uncaring of Ingrid's state of mind as she eventually fell asleep after crying so much.
…
The morning sun shone on Leo's face as his eyes opened his eyes. His arms were still wrapped around Ingrid's lithe frame.
He groaned lightly before freeing his arms and sitting up, "Gotta get ready quick…" Leo said to himself before spanking Ingrid's inviting and still-reddened butt. Since he'd essentially suppressed her aura capabilities with the crest, her healing was also much slower than normal. That was why, her eyes opened wide as she woke up with a pained shout and jumped away from the bed.
Just as her legs touched the ground, "Fuck!" She cursed as her legs buckled due to the aftereffects of the previous night's experience. She fell to the ground, kneeling beside the bed while stabilizing herself on her knees with the help of the bed.
"You have five minutes to freshen up before we leave." Leo's indifferent tone somewhat brought her to reality. She seemed to lose her strength and her face buried itself in the mattress. She gave him a muffled reply without making any other moves.
Leo didn't care for her state and moved to the bathroom to get ready. Ingrid raised her head and gave Leo a complicated look just as the bathroom door closed. She slapped both her cheeks as if hyping herself up and pulled herself together before getting up on her legs, though she still fell on the bed after standing, "This is gonna take a while…' She lamented her fate.
Five minutes later, Richard was at Leo's door. Just as he was about to knock on the door, it opened on its own, "Morning, Richard." Leo greeted with a smile.
"Shall we be on our way, Young Master? We should leave within the hour if we want to get to Vineta before noon," He said.
"Yeah. We're ready." Leo said, "Let's go." He said and Richard turned around while walking towards the exit.
Leo stepped out of the room with Ingrid walking behind him. She was wearing the same cloak as yesterday along with the same outfit underneath since there wasn't any time to change. Leo was also in the same clothes as the previous day.
Soon enough, they were on their way to Vineta.
"Our current path is going to be fraught with much more dangerous enemies, Young Master." Richard informed Leo as the horses picked up speed and started moving through the path, "I'll be taking care of any enemies that appear this time."
Richard's words were like music to Leo's ears and he sighed in relief. He knew that this path would be much more dangerous, so it was best for Richard to take the reigns of the bandit attacks now since the enemies would mostly be out of Leo's league since he was still a novice and a lot of the bandits would be adepts and journeymen.
Leo, seeing that he wouldn't be doing much decided to continue training Lust Magic. Which was a nicer way of saying that he was going to be toying with Ingrid's body and enjoying himself. The poor girl was doing her best to suppress her screams of pain considering that her butt was constantly bouncing on the saddle of the horse and stinging her like a bitch.
When Leo's hands slipped into her cloak, she almost screamed in grievance, but still held herself back. She knew that his actions would actually distract her from the pain and make her feel good in the process. She gladly leaned back into his chest and gave him full access to her body.
It didn't take them long for them to run into their first bandit group.
"On second thought, Young Master," Richard's words brought Leo out of his distraction with Ingrid's body and he frowned while counting the number of people in the group. It was a smaller group of people barely numbering ten, but he could feel the presence of their auras. While most of them were novices, the leader was an adept.
"Yeah…" Leo trailed off, wanting Richard to continue.
"I want you to fight that novice." Richard swung his sword casually and released a wave of bluish-golden Aura from the tip in the form of an arc that traveled toward the group of people.
The adept's eyes widened in horror as a blue glow appeared around his body in an attempt to defend against the slash, but it was of no use. Richard's attack slashed through his aura and cut his head clean off along with the rest of the members of the group, leaving a single one who was quivering in his boots.
The bandit shouted, "A-a h-half step m-master…" The man's legs were quivering with fear. As for Leo, he nodded and walked toward the bandit with Bloodrender drawn.
Seeing Richard's attack had sent Leo into a state of awe and his reluctance transformed into determination as he walked toward the bandit, fully willing to go all out to kill him.
"If you can win against my Young Master, I'll let you go. I give you my word." Richard's words made the man look at him with wide eyes before he turned to look at Leo who had an arrogant expression on his face.
Seeing a ray of hope in surviving, the man raised his tomahawk before charging Leo.
Just as the man approached Leo, he raised his sword before parrying the man's tomahawk and pushing the man back by a few steps, stunning him momentarily. Leo approached him and flipped his sword around, holding it in a reverse grip before slashing it at the man who tried to block the attack with his tomahawk.
Leo narrowed his eyes and changed the trajectory of his attack, targeting the man's hand instead. It was very clear that the bandit wasn't trained in any formal combat and even his aura was something that was probably something that he awakened by a stroke of luck.
The man screamed in pain as his wrist was slashed and he was forced to let go of his weapon. Knowing that dropping his weapon would be a death sentence, the man grabbed his tomahawk with his other hand and made a last-ditch effort to hit Leo.
Sadly, just as he moved forward, he found Leo's sword embedded in his chest.
"You were weaker than some of the previous bandits that I ran into, and they weren't even aura wielders…" Leo casually commented as the man fell to the ground, dead.