Heaven's Greatest Professor

Jenni circled in the living room while Gale rested his butt on the couch. Dawn stood across from him, observing Jenni as she made her decision.

"You have time to decide, you know?" Gale told her for the third time. "Anyway, do not wander off on your own. After dealing with some issues in my soul domain, I'll smuggle you into the frontlines the right way."

There was, after all, an actual process and legitimacy to how people entered and departed from the place. With Jenni being in his soul domain, her arrival was not archived officially. He was sure it wouldn't cause too much of a stir, or people wouldn't even find out, but there was no point in taking chances.

With that, he lay down on the couch and closed his eyes to enter his soul domain. There were a bunch of fiend corpses to take care of, while also observing what kind of changes had been brought about in the soul domain when he wantonly drew its power.

He observed that some of the stormy clouds still remained, though they weren't flashing with lightning right now. The void had expanded far more than usual in the meantime. Even the main island seemed to have expanded by a fair margin. Gale would have to do some experiments later to ensure these weren't unnatural. The essence he obtained from killing the fiends should be higher, with his soul domain taking the whole of it to empower itself.

Now for the corpses. He could just let them decompose on their own or splinter them into essence in an instant. But they were fiend corpses, after all; they could be good materials for various things like crafting and alchemy.

After a thought, he laid some formations around them, which would prevent them from decomposing for a time.

Gale finally opened his eyes to find Jenni had ceased her restless circling. He expanded his void sense to find her instantly and then retracted it, as she was in the washroom. He would need to be careful about the new sensing ability.

On the other hand, Dawn was on the opposite couch. She had changed into another identical white dress after refreshing herself. Her wet hair lay loose on her shoulders as she played with a lock between her fingers.

Dawn was competent enough to reinforce any normal material to a higher grade. He would never think she couldn't dry her own hair, which only meant she wanted him to do it. The sneaky glances she was shooting in his direction only proved that.

"Do you need some help with your hair?" he asked after a thought.

She hummed a little and blushed.

Gale walked up to sit behind her. He ran clumsy fingers on her neck, collecting half of the locks of her silvery hair. A shiver ran down her spine as Dawn sat straighter. He implemented a little essence to dry and nourish her hair while he brushed them with his fingers.

On second thought, it wasn't the same kind of dress she was wearing. Both were white with a little embroidery, but this one was sleeveless, with her slender shoulder blades and collarbone exposed. He sniffed the air about her and drew close. Dawn shook a little and leaned back on him, her head resting on his shoulder.

Gale might be as dense as a brick, but even he was not too dumb to understand what she was doing. And doing it too clumsily.

Drawing his head down, he let his lips rest on her exposed shoulder, close to her neck. A shiver ran down her spine, and it was as though she had lost all her power to move.

"You're a silly girl, you know that, right?" Gale said and kissed her on the shoulder.

"Mhmm," she let out a soft squeal and instantly turned her head. Without notice, she jumped on him, her lips meeting his. Sadly, she was too impatient and inexperienced about it, so she literally clashed against his teeth.

Silly girl,

he thought, spreading his arms around her waist to embrace her. After the embarrassment of her first attempt, she only brushed her lips against his before resting her head on his chest. Gale could hear her heart thumping in her chest, like she was any normal person instead of a Silver Ranker.

"Are you sure about this?" he finally asked. "You know there's June and. . ."

"She's not the first woman to fall for you," Dawn said meekly but firmly, "and neither was you, for that matter."

Gale was about to ask more, but before he could, Dawn jumped from his lap to sit a few inches away, sensing the washroom door opening.

Jenni came to the living room with wet hair and draped in a white dress, which belonged to Dawn. It held her frame tighter than it did on Dawn. She opened her mouth to say something, but it remained hung open for several moments as she observed them.

"Did something happen?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

"No," Dawn said instantly.

Gale rubbed his nose. "I was just helping her with her hair," he said. "Like usual."

"Is it usual?" Jenni narrowed her eyes.

Gale shrugged and returned to his work. Under Jenni's gaze, he styled Dawn's hair intricately. "So, have you thought about it?"

"I have," Jenni said and rested on the opposite couch. "I've made my decision."

Both of them perked up at her announcement.

"So long as you treat me as one of your equals," she blushed. "I mean, someone who can be your equal in the future, and do not treat me like a lowly apprentice, I'm fine with it."

"Have I ever treated you like a lowly apprentice? Ever?" He shot her a flat look. "Have I treated anyone like they were a lowly apprentice?"

"I don't know," Jenni said. "But you cannot go full hell mode on me."

"I think I can make a concession for you," he chuckled.

"And I'll get to eat your cooking every day," she put out another condition.

"Anything else you have on your mind?"

"Hmm, maybe I should have made a list."