Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

In theory, after dealing with Claudy, we were supposed to return to the forest…

But the relatively long period of Fay's silence was starting to become an itch I could no longer handle.

After showing all of the hints of being in heat before, she turned tame and restrained during the shockingly easy and straightforward negotiations. And now that we were walking down one of the empty alleys of the mercenary camp…

I gulped my saliva down, unexpectedly scared of peering into the state of Fay's soul through our bond.

"Now that I'm thinking about it, we will need to go back to the camp for the second round of negotiations, won't we?"

Since I couldn't bring myself to sneak a glance at Fay's soul, I decided to try to soothe her mood in any way I could. And the prospect of bringing her all the way back to the forest, to where most of the mercenaries were currently held captive and where all of the wounded would be trying to get…

Bringing her over to the forest sounded like anything but a good idea.

'Her mood spoiled the moment she set her affectionate side aside.'

I took a short, shallow breath while carefully picking my steps to slowly yet steadily turn our direction away from the forest and towards the northern part of the human camp. It was the only place that was totally deserted even before the battle, due to all the casualties and mercenaries concentrating their forces to defend the camp where Loraz attacked.

And now, it turned into a sea of simple, relatively uniform tents with a slightly bigger, finer one spaced every twenty tents or so.

I've led Fay towards one of the bigger tents with the desperate wish to somehow lift her mood, be it by lending her my ear, hugging her, or apologizing. Yet, the very moment we reached the entrance of the tent…

Fay suddenly reached out for my chest. Not like she normally would to bring herself for a cuddle.

This time, she grasped at the cloth of my shirt before flinging me forward, right through the opening of the tent's entrance.

Stumbling forward, I allowed Fay to throw me with no resistance.

A mere fall like that would do me hardly any harm. On the other hand, though, I was eager to figure out what Fay was thinking… Quite frankly, more than positively kinked out by her sudden outburst.

Turning around mid-fall, I ended up striking down on a set of simple cushions with my ass. Luckily, whoever lived in this tent before left behind all the beddings they used, giving me something relatively soft to land on.

Still, down on my ass and shocked out of my wits, I only managed to slightly raise my eyes to look up at Fay's suddenly domineering presence.

She looked… different, while still the same.

It was still the same, lovely, cuddly, and devoted Fay that I knew. But as I looked up from the floor, her legs suddenly appeared to be slightly longer. The round shape of her ass hidden behind the cloth of simple, baggy sweatpants appeared more pronounced.

Even higher up, Fay's shirt outlined the indent between her hips and chest, leading to yet another set of lovable curves that bordered the realm of biological implausibility. And as my eyes rode even higher on the arousing trip of Fay's new, domineering look… I finally reached her face.

Surrounded by the storm of her silvery-white hair, Fay's eyes looked down on me with a mix of several emotions. And, as I found out just now, staring back into them without the crutch of our bond… Made for one hell of a challenge to decipher what I saw.

'I took this ability to sense her for granted, huh?' I thought, feeling as if I was finally onto something.

Fay's chest shook up as she took a deep, long breath and lowered her eyelids for a second before raising them only a tiny bit up and looking down at my face. Her lips froze in a thin line, before…

"Do you know why I'm angry?" Fay asked in a cold, lecturing tone while raising her arms and crossing them over her chest.

'Because I left you hanging for so long? Because I didn't cave into your approaches right away…? Or maybe…'

"Is it because I held back on our bond…?" I asked, firing my shot under the pressure of the moment.

"Huh?" Fay's eyes twitched as a look of genuine surprise flashed on her face.

And being able to tell as much made me strangely… happy? Proud?

'Relationship goals, I guess,' I thought, before rushing my mind to figure out the sense of this confusing encounter.

"I'm not sure we are on the same page here…" I muttered… yet, when faced with Fay's instant glare, I nearly jumped up from the bedding, only to land back on my knees and straighten out my back.

For some reason, under the scrutiny of Fay's angry stare, I could only get on my knees and await the verdict of my judgment.

"No, I mean…" Suddenly growing uncomfortable, Fay looked away and scratched her cheek. "I could tell we weren't as closely connected, but I thought you wanted to slow down our affection," she added, her cheeks covered with a slight blush. "But that's not it."

Fay raised her eyes and once again glared down at me.

"In a sense, you felt what my mom did to…" Fay hesitated for a second, her face twitched, "that man."

My eyes widened a little, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't really figure out where Fay might be leading with it.

"I mean… Watching something like this happen…" This time it was my turn to avert my eyes. "Any man would twitch and feel uncomfortable…"

Without turning my eyes and with our connection relatively lax, I couldn't really tell Fay's reaction.

"Haaa…" Hearing her exhale with clear hints of exhaustion, I overcame my fear and confusion and took a look, only to see Fay step forward.

And with the look on her face melting as she reached out and grabbed my head only to bring it to her stomach…

Plop.

My face buried into Fay's shirt while the warmth of her waist made my brain boil.

"I hate seeing you hurt," Fay whispered, leaning down and covering the top of my head with her bust before leaning her head to the side to bring her lips as close to my ear without opening up her embrace. "So, when your balls hurt, you should hurry up and let me make them feel better, m'kay?"