Just to be clear, it wasn’t like I stayed in the forest solely because I wanted to be alone with Ethan.

That was merely a side benefit of the choice to remain in the forest. The real reason was for training and gaining experience.

If I was going to do it anyway, it was better to do it with Ethan than alone, and having no other distractions around was a plus. But that didn’t mean I stayed in the forest just because I was overjoyed at the thought of being alone with Ethan.

Incidentally, after Ethan and I voluntarily extended …