"I-I'm home...

" Layn muttered as he pushed the doors to his house open. This simple action was what fully sapped the rest of the physical strenght that he had in himself.

Right in front of him, there was the bed. The promised land of the tired, the heaven for those needing the rest. And with only a few steps separating him from that land of crusade against the exhaustion, Lyan could feel the joy and anticipation filling his mind.

There was a problem, though. The worst kind of the last boss awaited right on the only path that he could take to reach that promised neverland.

"Why did you ignore today's meeting?

" Irea asked, standing right on the path between Layn and his desired bed. Her arms were crossed on her chest while anxiety mixed with anger and disappointment on her face.. Yet, before all those bottled-up emotions could erupt right in the archmage's face, Irea's expression mellowed down.

"Wait, are you okay?

"

The wrath that only a man could see on a face of a girl he held dear disappeared, replaced by an endless sea of worry.

Layn took a step forward. At this point, several hours deep into the night, he was so tired that his body wobbled in the spot.

'Am I going to fall?' he thought as he lost his sense of stability.

The world around the archmage twisted and turned. Anticipating the worst, Layn prepared himself for the sudden wake-up call in the form of the pain of falling down, only to suddenly appear in the heavenly resting place of warmth and softness.

"Gosh, just what did you do to make yourself so tired,

" Irea muttered in a worried tone, catching Layn right as he was about to fall on the sharp edge of the only piece of furniture outside of the bed that their shared house had.

"I'm sorry,

" Layn whispered, quickly losing his consciousness in the sweet embrace of his girl.

"You are sorry about what?

" Irea asked as she started to pull the archmage towards the bed. Yet, even as she reached her desired location, she refused to just let her man fall on the sheets.

"Missing the council,

" Layn replied, using every last bit of his strenght to make his mouth and tongue move.

"For returning so late,

" he added as his vision blanked out.

"For making you worry,

" he finished his confession just as the last bit of strenght left his body.

"Oh, come on!

" Irea voiced her protest, using even more of her strenght to stop Layn from falling on the floor. Yet, even for someone who mastered not only magic but also cultivation to quite a degree, the task of holding Layn up proved to be too hard. With no other option, she tightened her grab over Layn's torso only to bend herself backward, forcing the two of them to fall on their bed instead.

"Here, here,

" she said, brushing her hand through Layn's hair as she pressed his face closer to her soft chest.

"You can rest now,

" she muttered sweetly, continuing to caress his hair.

"I'm sorry,

" Layn whispered in response, barely capable of producing any sound at this point.

"Seriously, what are you apologizing for?

" Irea asked. Her body stiffened up a bit. Even though Layn could no longer hold his eyelids from falling down on his eyes, he could tell that the girl turned anxious.

"It's not like you cheated on me, isn't it?

" she added, only for her flesh to stiffen up even more.

"Never,

" Layn forced his lips to utter yet another word. He was already past the limit of what he could handle.

This entire situation was quite strange. For someone as powerful as Layn, holding up for several days without even a second of rest shouldn't be a problem. Yet, here he was, dead tired after intruding for only a few hours into his daily sleeping schedule.

But the situation wasn't as simple as one could think without knowing all the facts.

On its own, Layn could easily hold for weeks, if not for months, with no sleep whatsoever. Yet, everything would change (when the fire nation attacked) when one accounted for how focused he had to be during the process of creating the bracelet.

From heating up the crucible to mix the stonedust into liquified gold, through making his small knife vibrate at an insane speed while using it to carve various, complicated patterns into the bracelet that rested in one of his pockets...

What Layn suffered from wasn't strictly a physical or mana exhaustion. His mind was simply overwhelmed with all the focus he had to spare, making him feel as if he was about to fall into his last and longest sleep that any human would enter at the end of the journey called life.

"Just what did you do to turn so tired?

" Irea muttered. Even though Layn denied any accusations of cheating on her, he could feel that her body refused to relax.

'Should I do it?' he thought, unable to enjoy the warmth of her embrace when knowing how anxious Irea had to be to become so stiff. 'But then there would be a marriage ceremony, no celebration... Would it be just bland?' he thought. For a short while, two ideas continued to clash in his mind, one of calming the girl down by revealing the truth and the other of keeping the surprise for a more fitting moment.

"I can feel just how troubled you are,

" Irea suddenly whispered. Her body tensed up even further.

"Tell me...

" she started in a weak, faltering voice.

"Did I do something not to your liking?

" she asked. Her voice trembled even further.

"What?

" Layn suddenly felt a burst of energy coursing through his veins. Sadly, this energy existed only in the plane of his imagination, yet it managed to somehow ward the mental exhaustion that put him down so much.

"Stop spouting nons...nonsense...

" he added, unable to ride on this wave of illusory power for long enough to finish his entire sentence properly.

"Then what is it?

" Irea asked. At this point, her entire body started to tremble slightly. It was something that even Layn would normally fail to notice... If not for the fact that he was hugging his entire self to the soft and warm flesh of the girl!

"I promise, I won't be angry. I won't betray you either,

" she added, her tone hinting that tears started to well up in her eyes.

"This is what it was all about,

" Layn couldn't hold himself any longer. He reached out to the side of his robe, pulling out the golden ornament he worked tirelessly to finish overnight. While he struggled to do it, when feeling just how anxious and stressed out his girl was, he just couldn't stop himself from acting up.

"Back in my original time, a man would offer a bracelet to the girl when asking for her hand in marriage,

" Layn said, as he forcefully circulated his mana to flush the exhaustion away, even if only for a moment.

Irea's body relaxed for a mere instant, only to tense up way more than before. Before moving any further, Layn gently grabbed the girl's hand, only to plant a kiss on its palm before raising his eyes at Irea's face.

"I intended to ask in a better moment when we would have more time to properly celebrate it,

" he muttered before forcing his body up and kneeling on the bed.

"Dear, you are the sun and the happiness of my life. The time I spend with you is the only shine I have when separated from you. Right now, I'm tired to no end and may not make any sense, but would you do me an honor of...

" Layn pushed himself to the limit.

The method of warding off his exhaustion with mana could only last for long.

And as if he was in some kind of slapstick comedy that became increasingly popular mere months prior to him invoking his gran arcana, he fell asleep before he could ask the most important question in his life.