Chapter 281: Smug Lily

"Oh, and one more thing," Vlad added, his tone serious. "Using Mana isn’t allowed. We can’t destroy the hot spring."

Lily didn’t even bother asking about the limitations of the wish the winner could make. There was no need. After all, why would she want to limit her own scope?

"Okay," she nodded, turning her gaze to the opposite end of the pond.

"Do you want to start from here or from outside the pond?" Vlad asked the obvious question. Starting from outside would give them a head start.

"From here is fine," Lily muttered, giving him a side-eye as she moved deeper into the water, even submerging her shoulders.

She was only wearing a thin pair of white undergarments that must have already become see-through after getting wet.

She was basically bare. Of course she didn’t want to expose herself to Vlad by coming out of the pond.

Vlad only raised an eyebrow, wondering why she was glaring at him.

"Alright then, on the count of three," Vlad said, pressing his legs against the wall behind him, his knees bending. Lily remained floating beside him, completely relaxed.

"One."

"Two."

"Three!"

Vlad had not even completely straightened his legs when water suddenly splashed onto his face.

"I won," Lily’s soft voice came from afar.

Vlad dragged a hand down his face, wiping away the water, and found Lily already on the other side of the pond, her arms crossed over her chest and a smug smile playing on her lips.

"D-did you cheat?" Vlad demanded, his brows furrowing. How could it be physically possible for a human to swim nearly thirty metres in less than a second without using Mana?

"I did not!" Lily’s answer came sharp. "And don’t you dare go back on your word!"

Vlad looked at the aftermath of her swimming. Her head was completely damp now, strands of hair clinging to her temples and slender neck. Water dripped from the damp leaves on the high branches of the trees behind her. The water had splashed several metres high from the speed of her swimming. Vlad couldn’t sense any lingering mana in the surroundings either.

He just released a defeated sigh before swimming towards her.

"Of course I won’t go back on my word," he said, leaning against the pond wall beside Lily, placing both his elbows on the ground behind him. "Say it. What do you want?"

Lily gave the offer deep thought. What could she possibly ask from a broke commoner from the countryside? The only good thing going for him was...

Her gaze lingered on the enticing lines of his broad chest, water cascading in slow rivulets over his skin, then drifted lower to the deeply cut abs half-submerged beneath the surface.

The gaze didn’t go unnoticed by Vlad. He immediately lowered himself into the water. "You are still as much of a pervert as before," he hissed, giving her a playful smirk. "What kind of inappropriate wish are you thinking of?"

Lily’s face turned bright red, a gasp escaping her lips at his audacious words. She immediately turned her face away. "You’re misunderstanding me again," she blurted, her voice rising as if it could deny the allegations. "I was just thinking about the wish."

"Reeeeeeally?" Vlad teased, nudging her with his shoulder.

She pushed his annoying shoulder away with her palm. How could he be so dense when he needed to be sharper and so sharp when it wasn’t needed!?

Knowing he wouldn’t stop teasing her and that she couldn’t beat him because he was her friend, she spoke in an attempt to change the topic, "I will hold onto the wish for now. By the way, what did you need from me?"

Vlad raised an eyebrow with mild surprise. So she had already figured out the reason for the sudden bet. Vlad wanted something from her, but he hadn’t expected to lose the moment the competition began.

"I do want to ask you for something," Vlad agreed, rubbing the back of his head.

Lily’s figure only tensed. The people in Argentum who had seen her true face and were still alive could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Her whole existence was a mystery to Vlad, one she couldn’t afford to reveal if she wanted to keep this friendship.

’If he asks anything about me, I will just lie as I always d—’

"Can I have your contact number?" Vlad’s words pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Huh?" She looked at him with her head tilted.

"Last time, I had to leave a letter," Vlad explained, looking ahead, enjoying the warmth of the hot spring. "And I can’t just come here without notice, or something like today will only repeat."

Lily’s eyes lowered in shyness. She had been bathing in her undergarments for the past few nights to make sure she wouldn’t be exposed if he arrived, but on the very night she decided to bathe bare, he appeared.

"You could have just asked for it. There was no need to make a bet," Lily chuckled, shaking her head. "Now you’ve even lost the bet. A complete loss for you."

"Well, I wouldn’t consider it a complete loss," Vlad answered calmly, lowering himself into the warm water up to his chin. "The smile on your face was worth losing the bet."

His face turned towards her as he continued, "You don’t look down anymore."

Lily gulped, a faint pink appearing on her cheeks. So the reason he had proposed that silly swimming competition was to brighten her mood.

"I-I don’t have one," she murmured, her voice a bit flustered. "I don’t have a phone."

"No phone in this era!?" Vlad gasped, his voice rising slightly in shock. "Do you send letters if you need to talk to your friends? And how do you pay for food or clothes?"

"Miss Principal provides me with the daily necessities," Lily lied with a straight face. As a Primordial Dragon, she couldn’t obtain the energy needed to function from food or water. These mortal needs were useless to her.

Her eyes fluttered in embarrassment as she continued, "And I didn’t have any friends. So, I never needed a phone."

Vlad’s lips parted, but no words came out. He was close to the level of a Star Three Knight. He could sense the power level of anyone two or three levels above him. For those beyond that, the natural pressure of their superhuman bodies was enough to warn him that they were dangerous.

From Lily, however, he couldn’t sense anything. It was as if she weren’t even an Awakener but a Morin. The only other person from whom he had sensed such an absence of presence was Lucas, an Eight Ring Archmage. So Lily had to be close to Lucas’s level, a Seven Ring Mage or Seven Star Knight at the least. Naturally, she must have lived for several decades to attain such strength. Yet she didn’t have a single friend.

What kind of lonely life had she been living to become so disconnected from the rest of the world?

"But I think I might need a phone now," Lily’s low voice pulled Vlad out of his thoughts. She looked at him with a warm smile and narrowed eyes as she continued, "I will contact you once I get one."

Vlad drew a pen from his storage ring, grabbed Lily’s smooth, slim hand, and wrote something.

"This is my contact number," he said, putting the pen back into the ring. "I’ll wait for your message."

Lily’s gaze lingered on the number on her palm a moment longer than necessary, the smile never leaving her lips.

"Thank you..." she murmured, slowly lowering her hand back into the water.

"For what?"

"For being my friend. I’m very hap—"

Splash!

A handful of water hit her face before she could finish her sentence. Water dripped from the tip of her nose and chin. Her brows furrowed at Vlad, who wore a mocking grin.

"What was that f—"

Splash!

Another splash of water struck her face.

"You—"

Splash!

This time the water hit the ground behind her as she immediately ducked low, going below the surface.

Vlad knew what was coming after striking the beehive twice. He had only turned around in an attempt to create distance from Lily when a splash of water struck the back of his neck.

His whole body shivered, a heavy gasp escaping his lips. The water was icy cold, after all.

He turned around and snapped, "Hey, you can’t just use mana to decrease the water tempera—"

Splash!

Another critical strike of cold water, directly on the face in this bone-chilling weather. An act so vile that it should be considered a capital offence.

"Who said I would be playing by your rules?" Lily scoffed, running a hand through her damp hair to move it away from her face, revealing a smirk beneath. A rare expression on her face, one she had forgotten she was capable of making.

She had already grabbed another handful of water, its temperature dropping in her palm, when Vlad vanished beneath the surface.

The next moment, she was suddenly dragged under as her ankle was pulled down.