FFF-Tier System, SSS-Rank Wife

'Wait, a double room?'

I gulped my saliva down.

And just a moment later, right after Saintess paid for the room and turned to move for the stairs…

"Double room?" I asked out loud, even though my voice only amounted to a faint whisper.

The implications behind this simple, two-part word ran wild in my head.

'What is this? Is this how I'm supposed to pay for her keeping me safe? But since when are my looks anything more than just average?'

"What about it?" Selia turned to me and asked, her voice unnaturally tense, as if she struggled not to keep her mouth clenched.

"I mean…" with a blush appearing on my cheeks, I scratched the back of my ear while turning my eyes away, avoiding Saintess's intense glare.

Even though neither of us raised our voices, just by standing in place even though we clearly dealt with all there was to be done by the counter, we'd started to attract some stares from within the tavern.

For now, they were fueled by nothing more but random, passing curiosity. But if we were to remain for much longer, this passing attention was bound to soon evolve into vivid interest!

And judging by the twitch in the corner of Selia's eye, I wasn't the only one who arrived at that conclusion.

"This entire place appears safe to you only because you have me by your side," she said, too into the moment to notice the very specific way she worded her explanation.

Then, even though it felt as if we were still mid-discussion, she simply grabbed my arm before yanking me towards the stairs, pretty much forcing me to follow her to the level above, away from the growing number of stares from the rest of the inn's patrons.

Yet, as soon as we climbed up the stairs and took a corner, cutting any line of sight anyone on the bottom floor could have on us, she stopped and turned so that she could face me properly.

"Listen, the moment we separate, you are dead. So, while this might feel weird for both of us, we don't really have much choice but to stay in the same room," she explained.

And by all means, her point was so obvious, it was only my awkwardness that stopped me from making it myself.

Still, all reason aside, to spend the night in the same room as a woman?

That alone would be doable, but a woman of such intense, almost blinding beauty? The face that appeared to be born to be caressed, the cheeks designed to be pinched, the eyes made out for men to lose themselves in?

And that was all before I even turned my eyes away from her damned face!

With all of that in mind, how was I to stay sane by spending the night in the same room?

'Sure, we've camped out together, but that was out of necessity! It was to stick together or to die to some vicious monster!' I tried to argue in my mind… only to realize how, even though we were now in the city, nothing really changed.

This place might be free from any sort of wild monsters and beasts just itching to get a taste of human flesh. But who was here to say with full confidence there were no powerful humans ready to take the place of those beasts, making them all the harder opponents due to their intellect and ability to not only prepare for an encounter but also learn from those?

'Thinking about it, spending the night out in that jungle could be safer for me than doing the same here, in this small town!'

With my head stuck in this mental debate with no one else but myself, Selia opted not to wait for me to sort my thoughts out, dragging me along instead. Which is why, by the time I shook myself out of my daze, I'd realized that the whole topic was already a done deal, with the doors to the room shut closed behind my back.

In front of me, there was the room itself.

Quite small for a double, with just enough room for two people to move around, a huge box with a hefty lock to store one's belongings for the night, a large bed and then a window with surprisingly elaborate shutters attached to the inside of its frame.

By all means, this place had to be the love hotel of this world, given its thick walls and the attention to the design of the window, making it capable of not only blocking all the sights of what could be taking place inside, but also—judging by the thickness of its shutters and how perfectly well they fit together—likely all the sounds too.

After inspecting every detail of the room from where I stood, I ended up with my eyes locking in on the huge bed.

It was big enough for two people to comfortably fit on it without an issue. There was enough room, in fact, for them to build a dividing line out of cushions that would run down the middle, splitting the bed into two separate areas!

Then, on the other hand, with that much space, there would be absolutely no issue if one wanted to go quite wild while in here!

"Do you really plan to cultivate that… coffee thingy?" Selia asked, ignoring my dazed stare and already moving to put what little personal belongings she carried on herself into the box before reaching out with her hand and freezing in place.

For a moment, I just stared at her hand, unsure what I was supposed to do, only for my eyebrows to twitch up as I finally got the hint, took my backpack off my back and then passed it over.

A moment later, all of our belongings ended up locked within the hefty box. And judging by the lock's hefty size or the metal lining on the box's inside, there was no way for anyone to open it quickly and silently enough for neither of us to notice.

"Yeah," freed from the burden of my backpack, I moved my shoulders around before turning around and taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

When compared to the beds I knew from Earth, it was nothing much, a simple wooden frame and a mattress with just enough filling in it to get a passable score. But when comparing this bed to the hard and cold ground we slept on while camping out?

'Humans all live through contrasts,' I thought, smiling to myself. This random thought a great refuge for my mind to momentarily forget about all the dangers, problems and potential issues I was going to face in this unfamiliar, dangerous world.

"The coffee and, if I were to be honest, all sorts of other things," I admitted while leaning to the back while making sure to support myself by putting my hands even further down the bed's length. "But whether or not I can do it?" I paused for a second before shaking my head. "That all hinges on my experiment tomorrow," I revealed.

Selia stood up above the box as she stared at me for a moment only to then sigh out and sit down on the bed herself at a close yet comfortable distance away from me.

"Experiment this, experiment that…" she shook her head, only to then lean it over to the side as she pinned her eyes on my face, "but when it comes to that experiment of yours," she paused for a moment herself, "what even is that charcoal you spoke back at the smithy about?"