Chapter 110: Bond Me Again

"What?"

Kael stared at Alexis, his expression caught somewhere between disbelief and confusion. For a moment, he genuinely wondered whether he’d heard her correctly.

Given the nature of her request, he couldn’t entirely rule out the possibility that she’d said something else and he’d somehow misunderstood."Say that again. I don’t think I caught it."

"I said, bond me again."

Alexis forced the words out, each one requiring a little more effort than the last. She raised her chin and met his gaze directly, refusing to let her growing embarrassment show.

Whatever reservations she had, she’d already made up her mind to ask. Backing down now would only make the situation worse.

"I want to be your companion."That settled it. Kael hadn’t misheard a thing.

He stared at her for another moment, apparently searching for some explanation that would make the request less bizarre.

Finding none, he reached out instinctively and pressed the back of his hand against her forehead. His expression shifted to one of genuine suspicion as he checked for a fever.

"No fever. So what exactly brought this on?"

"You’re the one who needs checking."

Alexis knocked his hand aside, irritation flashing across her face. She shot him a look that made it clear she wasn’t amused by his reaction.

"I heard the monsters in the Astral Spire hit hard. The higher you climb, the better the rewards. I just want to borrow your boost and push a little farther than I could manage on my own."

Her explanation was reasonable enough. The Astral Spire was a challenge where every additional floor mattered, and having a significant advantage over its monsters could make the difference between reaching a new height and being forced to stop early.

Still, Kael couldn’t help wondering whether that was the whole story.Alexis hadn’t forgotten what being bonded to him felt like.

A fifty percent increase to every base stat. Experience requirements cut in half. A hunting speed so absurd that ordinary grinding began to feel painfully slow by comparison.

Those benefits had changed the way she fought, leveled, and approached difficult challenges.

Once she’d experienced that kind of advantage, returning to her previous pace had been far less pleasant than she’d expected.

When Kael severed their bond, she’d assumed she’d simply return to normal. Instead, the sudden loss of those benefits had left an emptiness she hadn’t anticipated, something uncomfortably close to withdrawal.

The difference had become obvious in her performance, and Frostbloom and the others in her circle had noticed it too.

They hadn’t needed to spell it out for her to understand.

She was no longer moving through the game with the same ease she’d grown accustomed to, and the contrast had become increasingly difficult to ignore.

Now, with the Astral Spire providing a perfectly reasonable excuse, she’d finally gathered the courage to ask.

Kael rubbed his chin, studying her with an expression that hovered between curiosity and suspicion. He understood the appeal of the arrangement well enough.

The benefits were substantial, and there was little reason for someone in Alexis’s position to turn them down when an opportunity presented itself.

What he wasn’t sure about was why she’d seemed so determined to deny any personal interest in the matter.

"If all you want is the temporary boost, running the Spire isn’t a bad idea." He paused, watching her closely. "That’s genuinely all this is?"

Alexis hesitated.

Kael’s eyes narrowed slightly as another possibility occurred to him.

"...Did you get a taste for it last time and actually start missing it?"

"Absolutely not!"

Alexis’s composure shattered almost instantly. Indignation flared across her face as she crossed her arms and lifted her chin even higher.

The speed of her response would have been convincing if she hadn’t looked quite so offended by the suggestion.

"I’d starve first. I’d throw myself off a cliff before entertaining a thought that strange."

She glared at him, her pride practically radiating from every word.

"Don’t go reading things into this that aren’t there."

"Fair enough."Kael nodded, quietly relieved.

He had no intention of making the situation more complicated than necessary. If Alexis wanted to borrow the benefits of his bond to climb higher in the Astral Spire, he could accommodate her request without much trouble.

At least, that was what he told himself.

A line of text flickered into existence above her head a heartbeat later, courtesy of the Seer’s Eye.

[Says one thing. Means another entirely.]

Kael’s expression barely changed, but the corner of his mouth twitched.

So that was it.

The artifact had provided the confirmation he’d been looking for, exposing the truth behind Alexis’s emphatic denial.

She could insist otherwise all she wanted, but the message above her head told a rather different story.

For a moment, Kael considered whether to accept her request immediately or press the point a little further.

There was something amusing about watching her struggle to maintain that stubborn composure, especially when her reactions made it so difficult to take her denial seriously.

Then he took a proper look at her.

Her posture remained rigid, her chin raised defiantly, and her crimson armor fit her figure closely enough to make her striking appearance difficult to ignore, even when she was glaring at him.

’Can’t exactly say no to that.’

Kael relented.

He temporarily dismissed Lyra to free up a companion slot, then raised his hand while Alexis watched with barely concealed anticipation.

Despite her efforts to appear indifferent, the expectation in her eyes was difficult to miss.

Golden runes blossomed across her forehead, their intricate patterns spreading in a familiar display of light. The symbols formed the bond, and a moment later, the connection settled into place once more.

Something in Alexis’s chest eased the instant it was complete.

The familiar warmth returned, accompanied by a quiet sense of satisfaction she wasn’t fully prepared to examine too closely.

She had obtained exactly what she’d come for, yet the relief she felt seemed disproportionate to the simple act of restoring a temporary arrangement.

She pushed the thought aside before it could develop any further.