Chapter 19: My Master Princess Carried Me Yesterday for a Task and Today for Habit, Tomorrow Will Be on Purpose

’Man, running around my room at full speed for that long... was worth the trouble...’ Dante thought while breathing heavily.

After deciding on the theme for the. second mission, he had to make himself look sick somehow. So he sprinted around the room until he was panting, his body drenched in sweat.

He also took this chance to test out his max speed. He crossed 30+ mph easily without breaking a sweat.

His thoughts were broken by a soft slap on his face.

"Dante, can you hear me?"

Slap!

"Wake up, Dante! Don’t go back to sleep!"

Slap!

After taking the barrage of painless slaps, Dante pretended to open his eyes with a struggle.

He looked into her worry-filled eyes, feeling a small twinge of guilt. But those mana stones weren’t going to fall from the sky.

He had to act twice as hard.

"Master..." he called out to her in a pleading tone, as if he was on his death bed.

"Wha-what do you want? Tell me?" Natasha held his hand in hers and asked in a gentle tone.

"A glass..."

"A glass? Water? Do you want water?"

"No, no, gimme a glass of wine—"

Before he could finish, all he saw was something fly past his eyes and slam into the ground with a boom.

He gulped internally and pretended to snap out of his drunk haze. He glanced from the corner of his eyes and spotted a hole in the ground shaped exactly like her fist.

"Sorry, I might have misheard you," Natasha said with her eyes narrowed, her face dark. "Can you tell me what you need?" she added, raising her fist.

’So scary!’ Dante thought to himself. He then spoke with a nervous expression. "I-I said I want some medicine, master."

"Is that so?" Natasha’s face instantly brightened up at his answer.

On the outside, Dante nodded his head like a chicken. On the inside, he released the first task with a single thought.

’Here it comes...’

****

[Triggering Task 1]

[Chain Mission: Care for Dante (1/3)]

[Task 1: A sick person like Dante will have a hard time feeding himself. Help your student and feed him until he recovers completely.]

[Time Limit: 23 hours 56 minutes 29 seconds]

Natasha quickly read through the condition and felt a flash of annoyance. ’System, who do you think I am? I would have done this on my own without you telling me to!’

[Getting arrogant, are we? Fine, let’s see how you handle the next task.]

’...I should have just kept my mouth shut.’ She thought, regret instantly filling her heart.

’Haha, come on, I was just joking.’

[Don’t worry, I took that very seriously.]

’.....’

She had nothing to say since she knew it was already too late. She just made a mental note to never joke with the system again.

Feeling a bit depressed, Natasha turned her attention to Dante and picked him up from the floor to place him on the bed.

However, she soon noticed the weird look in Dante’s eyes.

"Master, why are you suddenly giving me a princess carry?" Dante looked at her with a puzzled face, as if he hadn’t made her do it yesterday.

"Uhm?" Natasha realised her mistake and was left speechless with herself.

She could have just helped him to the bed.

Why did she end up giving him a princess carry again? She didn’t know.

But she was never going to admit her mistake.

"It’s all your fault..." Natasha said with an angry face.

’My fault? No way, how did she find out?’ Dante’s heart nearly popped out of his chest after hearing her words, but what she said next put his worries to rest.

"Who told you to sleep on the floor?" She stared at him, waiting for his answer.

"Haha, in my dream, I was climbing the stairs to heaven. Turns out I just fell off the bed." He joked while breathing a sigh of relief inside.

"Haha." Natasha chuckled. She had no idea her student had this kind of sense of humor.

She placed him on the bed and walked over to the table to grab the soup bowl.

Since she was going to feed him medicine after, she figured it was better to give him some soup first to clear his headache.

Coming back, Natasha sat down on the edge of the bed, stirred the soup a few times with the spoon, and scooped some up. She blew on it gently before bringing it to his mouth.

"Master," Dante wanted to refuse symbolically.

But she had already seen through his intention and gently shoved the spoon into his mouth.

Dante raised his eyes to stare at her with a look that said there was no need for this. But his stomach was a lot more honest than he was.

She fed him a few spoonfuls while the two of them went over everything that happened last night.

Natasha was hoping Dante had forgotten a few things about her past, but he remembered everything up until her apology.

The atmosphere had turned really lively.

"Master, I think I actually do have talent." Dante said with an excited smile after swallowing the soup.

"Oh? What do you want to do?" Natasha asked with curiosity in her eyes. If he was interested in something, she was willing to give him her full support.

"I want to be the king of drinking!" He replied with a determined face, just like a certain straw hat.

He started rambling away. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"I had no idea before this. I drank so much in the bar that I started playing dominos with the empty bottles."

"I heard people pass out after just a litre of wine. I’m pretty sure I drank way more than that, and all I got out of it was a fever."

"Huh? Master, why are you so silent?" Dante asked with an innocent face while laughing like crazy on the inside.

He was having way too much fun with this.

He didn’t get a response from her. Instead, he heard the sound of a spoon breaking.

Gulp!

’Did... did I go too far?’ Dante thought, swallowing his saliva. He spoke with a hesitant smile. "Master, you’re an awakener. Please control your strength a little."

"Oh, I didn’t know that." Natasha stared at him with a smiling face that had nothing gentle about it. "Actually, there’s no need for the spoon anymore. There’s only a little left."

"Now open your mouth," she said with a smile.

"I was just kidd—Mmphh!" Dante tried to apologise, but she didn’t give him the chance.

A moment later, looking at his face swollen up like a puffer fish, Natasha’s face finally brightened.

"Don’t strain yourself talking. Save your energy for getting better. I’ll be back with your ’medicine’ soon."

With that said, Natasha got up from the bed and walked toward the door.

’I... I shouldn’t mess with her too much.’ Dante thought, watching her back as she left.