The instant he wrapped his arms around her, Ryan felt a faint struggle coming from the person in his embrace.

  "It's me." Evelyn slightly turned her head, her cool voice sounding in the darkness.

  She could clearly feel that Ryan's entire body was almost pressed against her back, with only his feet barely planted on the ground. The posture was far too intimate.

  "Evelyn?" Ryan's voice carried obvious shock, as if he could not believe he had hugged the wrong person.

  To make sure, he instinctively began feeling around the figure in front of him, trying to find Lyra.

  Evelyn's heart tightened. She quickly pressed Lyra firmly against her chest, trying to use the child's body to block Ryan's restless hands.

  But Ryan's movements were hurried and chaotic, and he did not notice her intention at all.

  "Where's Lyra!" Ryan fumbled for quite a while. He squeezed the soft flesh at her waist, brushed her slender neck, and even touched her taut thigh, yet still could not find Lyra's small body.

  "Lyra is in front of me..." Evelyn's voice trembled slightly, clearly because Ryan had touched sensitive spots.

  That bastard had practically touched her all over. Especially those few squeezes at her waist, which sent waves of numbness through her body. And yet, he somehow never touched Lyra, who was right there.

  Evelyn even began to suspect that Ryan could actually see in this dark void channel. Otherwise, how could he so precisely avoid Lyra and only touch her sensitive areas?

  "Dad... Mom..." Lyra, tightly pressed against Evelyn's chest, had her chubby little face flushed red from being squeezed. Struggling to breathe, she called out with difficulty.

  She had hoped to use her crying voice to draw the attention of the two adults, but instead,

  on one side was her dad still blindly fumbling around in a panic to find her, and on the other was her mom, so tense that she was holding Lyra almost breathless.

  Clearly, her call for help was not heard at all, and instead became an awkward shield in the strange tug of war between the two.

  ...

  The snow swept endlessly across the Northern Border Icefield.

  In a large city closest to Glacial Arcana Academy, the teleportation array suddenly erupted with brilliant golden light.

  The guards stationed around the array immediately turned their gazes toward the glowing formation, quietly waiting for the travelers to emerge.

  The golden light quickly receded, and three figures appeared at the center of the teleportation array.

  The moment the guards saw them clearly, the calm on their faces was instantly replaced by shock, followed by an eerie silence.

  In their view, a veiled woman stood gracefully within the array, holding a small girl who was rubbing her eyes and wearing an aggrieved expression.

  What shocked them most, however, was the man pressed closely against her back.

  That man was Ryan. His arms were still wrapped around the woman's waist, the posture so intimate that they looked like a pair of lovers locked in an embrace.

  The guards and the three people in the array stood there staring at each other in silence. Snowflakes drifted slowly through the air, and it felt as though the surrounding atmosphere had frozen solid at that very moment. The awkwardness was almost tangible.

  "You three seemed to be having quite a good time in the teleportation channel." Someone teased the trio inside the array.

  In their eyes, Ryan and the veiled woman were clearly a married couple. After all, the two were so intimate, with a child in their arms, and they emerged from the teleportation still locked in an embrace.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  It was hard not to imagine that they had grown impatient and gotten close during the transfer itself.

  "What do you know? Get lost." Ryan was not angry in the slightest.

  The guard's teasing was not malicious, at most a bit of envy. With a quick turn of thought, Ryan had plenty of ways to make these single guards even more jealous.

  He slowly released the arms wrapped around Evelyn's waist, the motion natural and smooth. Then he swiftly took hold of Evelyn's fair and soft hand hanging at her side.

  He raised their joined hands high and waved them at the guards, his tone carrying a hint of smugness."Just a little fun between lovers. Not like some people here who still haven't found a partner, right?"

  Holding Evelyn's hand, and leading her while she still carried Lyra, Ryan strode past the guards without giving them any chance to retort.

  "You little brat!" The guards took several seconds to react. Watching the three figures recede into the distance, they immediately erupted in frustration.

  "So you're the only one with a partner! Just you!"

  "In a few days I'm going to find myself a partner too. I can't stand this anymore!" one young guard shouted bitterly at their backs.

  What made it even more infuriating was that just as Ryan was about to leave their field of vision, he suddenly stopped and turned around.

  Once again, he lifted their tightly clasped hands high and waved them at the guards in a shameless manner. It looked like a greeting, yet also like deliberate flaunting.

  "You're really asking for a beating!" the guard cursed at Ryan's back, his eyes red with anger.

  Why was it that he could not find a partner he liked?

  In the end, the guards could only watch helplessly as the affectionate couple gradually disappeared into the snow filled streets at the far end of the road.

  The crisp sound of footsteps crunching on snow echoed along the path leading to Glacial Arcana Academy.

  The snow here was not very deep, at its highest only reaching around the ankles.

  Presumably, there had been recent combat in this area, or someone had used magic while passing through, compressing the once thick snow and reducing its depth.

  Evelyn wore white lace edged stockings produced by Grimoire, shielding her from the cold, so there was naturally no worry of freezing.

  Moreover, her constitution itself was well suited to extreme cold environments. One could even say that such icy, snow covered lands were the perfect place for her to meditate.

  Yet at this moment, the atmosphere between the two of them was somewhat subtly heavy. Or rather, not heavy at all, but a kind of unspoken warming.

  Ryan's palm was warm and firm as he tightly held Evelyn's hand. Even the occasional brush and friction of their fingertips was enough to make their heartbeats quicken slightly.

  Evelyn did not pull away. She merely lowered her gaze a little. The expression beneath her veil could not be seen, yet her hand showed no sign of loosening as she allowed Ryan to lead her forward through the snow.

  The source of this rising warmth was their interlocked hands. From the moment Ryan's fingers slid into the gaps between Evelyn's, he never let go again.

  The heat passing from palm to palm slowly melted the bitter cold of the far north, making the atmosphere between them grow increasingly subtle.

  Time rewinds to a few hours earlier.

  "Can you let go now?" Evelyn asked after Ryan had led her far away, well beyond the guards' line of sight at the teleportation array. She stopped and spoke up.

  "Evelyn, why is your hand so cold?" Ryan seemed not to hear her question at all. Instead, he turned the tables and asked with concern.

  He could clearly feel it. The small hand wrapped in his palm was smooth and cool, no different from the frigid land of the extreme north itself.

  "Constitution," Evelyn replied curtly.

  As the Headmistress of Glacial Arcana Academy, her body was naturally aligned with extreme cold. Her body temperature was lower than that of ordinary people year round, and even more so in this snowy land.

  "Then let me warm it up for you." As Ryan spoke, his fingers tightened slightly, gripping her hand a bit more firmly.

  "No need," Evelyn refused.

  But Ryan ignored her refusal outright, clearly determined not to let go.

  In his view, when a woman said no, it often meant yes. Perhaps Evelyn was secretly pleased right now.

  Of course, this was nothing more than his own speculation. Whether it was right or wrong, only Evelyn herself knew.

  In reality, Evelyn had been quietly trying to pull her hand free the entire time, and the force she used was not light.

  If Ryan's magic level had been any lower, she might actually have broken free. This tug of war lasted for at least half an hour.

  Evelyn never stopped struggling, yet Ryan's hand seemed welded to hers, gripping her without the slightest intention of releasing.

  To outsiders, the two of them were undoubtedly a deeply affectionate married couple. Only the people involved knew about the silent struggle between them.

  Ryan completely suppressed Evelyn's hand, leaving her not even the slightest room to move.

  She struggled for a long time, yet never used magic, such as directly striking Ryan himself.

  This time, she stubbornly focused only on freeing her hand, as if she had forgotten that she possessed the strength to subdue him with ease.

  Had she given Ryan the chance to hold on so tightly?

  Across the vast white wilderness, Ryan continued to hold Evelyn's hand firmly, an unconcealed smile on his face as he walked briskly through the snow.

  Beside them, Lyra happily rolled around in the snow, her small body tumbling back and forth until she was soon covered head to toe, looking just like a round little snowman.

  Then her tiny body trembled slightly, and a faint ripple of magic spread outward.

  The snow on her instantly shook loose, and she turned back into a clean little girl, bouncing as she chased after the two of them.