Renelle had a small satisfied smile on her face as they continued walking through the South’s streets with Adren in hand.
She named it that because it was a combination of hers and Adrian’s names, which the butler thought was cute.
It didn’t help that the stuffed bear had an expression similar to her butler’s when he was around other people.
Renelle was snapped out of her thoughts by a sudden flash, which caused her to turn towards her butler.
Adrian had a small smile on his face as he looked at the image on the magic tool in his hand.
One that had been acquired by the clone possessing Marion earlier.
"What’s that?" Renelle asked curiously as she saw him smiling.
"A magic tool, one similar to cameras back in my world," the butler explained as he showed her an image of herself leaning on Adren with a small smile on her face, "it lets you capture a moment exactly as it is."
Renelle looked at the image for a while.
She had heard of such tools before but had never paid them much mind, after all, portraits had always been sufficient for documentation purposes.
Besides, they were fairly new and hardly ever produced good results.
But looking at the image now, she understood why Adrian seemed so pleased with it.
This one clearly captured exactly how she looked in the moment, which was to be expected since Adrian had spent quite a bit of gold coins on this magic tool.
Though, he... well, his clone did try negotiating the price, which just involved it silently staring at the vendor until he got intimidated enough to reduce the price.
Adrian was uncertain that the clone intended to negotiate, though, after all, it might have hamply been staring because it didn’t know what else to do, since it wasn’t quite sure this was the correct magic tool.
The clone’s social skills were, at best, a work in progress.
The magic tool in Adrian’s hand suddenly lit up as he seemed to press a button, and to Renelle’s surprise, a portrait of her came out of it.
"I knew there was a reason it was so bulky," the butler said with a smile, almost seemingly proud of figuring out that the camera could print out pictures.
Renelle looked at the printed portrait in his hand for a moment before she held out hers, and he gave it to her without hesitation.
She had the chance to look at it properly.
The image was of her leaning on Adren with that small smile, the South’s festival lights naturally creating a breathtaking background.
She looked, she had to admit, like someone who was having a genuinely good time, and that was definitely a good thing.
But Renelle felt as if something was missing, and she lifted her head towards her butler.
"I want one of you," she suddenly said.
Adrian looked at her for a second before asking, "My lady?"
"A portrait," she said, lifting hers, "of you."
With a nod, he held the magic tool up, intending to take one of himself, only to have her interrupt.
"Not like that," she said, taking it from him before ordering, "stand still."
Adrian complied, and he looked directly at her instead of the camera.
Renelle looked through the viewing portion of the magic tool and couldn’t help but get a bit flustered.
Adrian wasn’t posing in any way, but for some reason, he seemed oddly more attractive right now.
A thought that perfectly mirrored Adrian’s whilst he was taking an image of her.
Snapping herself out of that line of thought, Renelle finally clicked the button that allowed her to take an image of her butler.
Printing it out, she realized that the portrait was exactly as the scene before her. After looking at it for a while, she suddenly chuckled, causing her butler to raise a brow.
"Cedric would be so mad if he discovered that these existed even back when we had our family portraits made," Renelle suddenly said, recalling how much her older brother hated remaining still for those portraits.
"Well, they weren’t as clear as they currently are," Adrian said, "after all, magic tools have improved quite a bit in recent years, even Elias was quite surprised when he realized how much Avera had advanced in just five years."
"I see," Renelle muttered, "then I’d like one more."
He nodded and walked towards her, taking the magic tool from her. But instead of stepping back as she expected, he stepped closer to her.
Lifting the magic tool with one hand, he wrapped the free one around her waist and captured the moment, catching the surprised expression on Renelle’s face as she looked at him.
He turned towards her and said with a smile, "One more?"
As revenge, moments before Adrian could press the button, Renelle suddenly pulled his head down and pressed her lips on his.
He pressed the shutter button reflexively, perfectly capturing the moment.
"There," Renelle said as she pulled back, quickly hiding the blush on her cheeks by physically cooling them, "now we both have a portrait where we look surprised."
And they did indeed, one was of Renelle being surprised, the other was of Adrian being surprised.
"I wouldn’t mind being this surprised again," Adrian said with a grin as he looked at the portraits before him.
Especially the one with the kiss.
He then turned towards Renelle again and slightly leaned down, "Would my lady mind?"
Renelle, although a bit flustered, wasn’t one to back down.
She wrapped her hand around his neck again and tiptoed a bit before locking her lips with his again.
This time, the kiss lasted a lot longer as the two completely savored it; this time, Renelle’s embarrassment slowly faded.
Instead, she momentarily forgot that they were in the middle of the streets of the south, with lots and lots of people around.
Fomindtely, PDA wasn’t a strange sight here, so no one paid them any mind.
Well, almost no one.
But the next second, Adrian felt a tug on his pants, causing the two to stop and look down.
The first words of the person tugging his pants caused Renelle’s eyes to immediately go wide.
"Papa?"