chapter 24
“I love you…”
My cautious voice spreads from the wide, low ruins that are dry with life.
The corpses of countless demons, including Malua, began to decompose quickly, and just smelling them gave off an upturning smell.
“I love you Harold… because I don’t need anything without you…”
The coolness that whispers in my ear and the quiver filled with affection gently torment my ear.
“Wait a minute, Erina… I need some time to think…”
I honestly confessed my feelings to her and pleaded for mercy, but…
“Uh… I don’t like it…?”
In an instant, he is at a loss for words, as he clings to the sad tears.
But right now, I was mentally driven to the point where I really wanted to rest.
Still, I feel like my consciousness is fuzzy because of the spirit that is about to crumble under the influence of Malua.
It was such a bad feeling that I wanted to vomit out everything in my stomach as my mind became so complicated with all the tangled thoughts, and then the terrible stench emanating from the corpses of so many demons was added.
I want to go outside and get some fresh air, but Erina, with a strange switch on, has been putting pressure on me without giving me time.
“After all, Harold doesn’t like me…? Because he always causes trouble…”
She is now sincerely reflecting…. She was purely lamenting and hating herself, not acting as a kind of acting to put a psychological burden on me.
It’s not that Erina is acting like this with bad intentions, but this attitude puts me to the brink.
For it is pure evil without purpose, not acts full of malice, that really drives people crazy.
Think about it, if it’s really intentional evil, you can deny it and persuade it with objections, but if it’s the result of a pure heart with no malicious intent, it causes a catastrophe.
For example, if a child messes up the house because he wants to play a prank, and breaks things, the parents will be really angry and scold the child, but they will be arrogant.
If the idea is to cook a hand-made meal for their struggling parents, but the kitchen is in a mess and the food is thrown away, will the parents be able to scold their children?
Probably not.
I don’t know if it’s because the parents hate it He will also try to calm his anger.
A child also finds out what he has done and sheds a tear and a runny nose, sincerely repents and even asks for forgiveness, but no parent will be weak.
It is questionable whether they can even do anything properly, and if it is said that a child who does not know anything about the world has done for them, instead of getting angry, they think that it is fortunate that the plate does not break. would have done
So was my current situation.
Erina kept spitting fanatical words that she would do anything for me, and all she wanted in return was to have herself by her side.
In spite of the condition that her heart would be suppressed by such a generous burden, when she put on a shaky expression on her face, she thought she might be a nuisance to me.
So, isn’t it a situation that can be solved by just nodding your head? Talking too much;
The same reaction may come out, but the reason I couldn’t accept her easily was the dark atmosphere I felt in her.
Her red eyes, which were originally bright and dazzling like a ruby, were darkened and corrupted, and an unstable voice filled with joy and sorrow and unusual aura made her reject Erina.
“It’s not like that, so calm down first, because I need Erina too.”
At first, with maximum flexibility, babble your improvised words, but it may not be the right choice for resolving this situation.
“Then will you accept me?! Are you going to be together forever?!! I’m so happy…!! I’m so happy… Because I don’t need anything with Harold…”
However, if I said something that seemed to be responding to her even a little bit, I over-interpreted it, which gave me a headache.
“No… up to that point…”
But if you deny Erina even a little…
“Ugh… It’s not like that…? Isn’t it…? That’s right, since a woman like me has only harmed you all the time, to be honest, you won’t like me either…”
Because of his still soft mind, he begins to cry sadly in an atmosphere that has changed rapidly again, perhaps because of an unclear emotional line.
“That much…”
“Then will you accept it?”
“……”
“Why can’t you answer…? I’m not good at it?”
Due to the situation in which neither one nor the other is possible due to the absence of a reaction in the middle, I am almost out of my mind.
It wasn’t really empty words, but mixed with sincerity and pushed him mentally more strongly than Malua.
“Ugh… what the hell is that?!”
Erina’s furious voice, which had finally reached the end of her patience, tormented my ears, and I pulled out that gigantic sword and slipped it into my car right next to my head in a matter of seconds.
Ching!
Intuitively that the time was running out from the vivid sound of iron fricatives, and if he did not give a definite answer, he could instinctively know that the irreversible would happen.
“Speak quickly!!”
“Ugh…”
As time went on, a feeling of fear that I had not been able to pay attention to at Erina’s attitude, which was putting more and more pressure on me, engulfed me again.
“Okay!! I’ll do it with Erina!!”
◆◆◆
The party, who managed to return to the royal road after completing the ruins exploration quest, was in the worst condition when they arrived at the guild.
Fully armed and confident that they will overcome any hardships, all the eyes are shabby and shattered, with damaged armor that looks like they have been working overtime for three days and three nights. could
After returning from the dungeon, everyone was exhausted and wanted to collapse.
Except for one person…
“Hmm~ Hmm~ Hmm~♪”
It was Erina-san, who looked quite excited…
“Hehehehe… Harold likes me…”
Mumbling those words from a while ago, he hugged my arm like a pillow and didn’t want to let go.
Naturally, he couldn’t avoid people’s eyes in such a heterogeneous atmosphere, and he didn’t pay any attention to it, even though he received glances filled with emotions.
No… It seems that he didn’t realize it in the first place.
“Erina… Still, people’s attention is drawn to me, so can’t we just restrain ourselves a little…?”
However, despite my earnest wish, I shake my head from side to side refreshingly.
“Ummm~ I hate it~ It’s natural for lovers to act like this, right? I don’t care.”
I’m concerned…
At first, I didn’t say I was a lover or anything like that…
If that’s the case, wouldn’t the atmosphere change drastically?
after….
She sighed deeply and was troubled, but despite this, Erina showed no sign of changing.
At that time, why did you accept Erina in the dungeon… You must have had a better way… But at that time, it was too difficult to judge rationally…
I do regret my past decision to spill a bucket on the floor because I couldn’t spill it, but considering my condition at the time, it was not a wise choice and it wasn’t a stupid choice, so I couldn’t say anything to myself.
“The reward is from the loot you submitted, Harold and Erina, please visit the counter.”
At the receptionist’s words, the two of us got up and headed to the counter.
There, there was a bundle of money divided into two sacks, a quantity that might be a little too heavy to lift alone.
“It’s a little heavy…”
“Huh? It’s heavy…? Not at all?”
Unlike me, who is holding the bag of money with a little grunt, if I hold it with one hand, I gently shake it up and down.
“……”
Based on this incident, his abilities have awakened and he has grown tremendously.
Until now, the perception that she was more than a friend and less than a lover had put a brake on Erina’s active personality to some extent…
“What are we going to do with this money now? Shall we find a house for the two of us to live in?”
Already in her head, she and her lover thought that they were already close to marriage, so she couldn’t stop Erina from swerving like a truck with a broken steering wheel.
“Erina… I won’t deny our relationship, but please think slowly…”
“Huh? I thought I was slow enough?”
“……”
Because the thinking itself was so different, the conversation itself did not come to fruition in this respect, so it was just a lot of answers…
◆◆◆
“Hmm… Harold… What happened between just one quest…”
After the settlement, I stopped by the Abne temple for a while, and this time, I got Erina out of the room first and had a conversation with Goddess Abne.
“I’m curious, too…. I overcame the crisis and got a chance to make it with strength… but it seems like I’ve been out of sync for a long time…”
Then he put his hand on his forehead as if it was a big problem, took a deep breath and looked at me with a serious face.
“Listen… You have achieved inner maturity as you wished, and you have succeeded in awakening your abilities, but you are only obsessed with you… I understand from the situation, but the concepts and thoughts that have settled inside of her have also gone wrong, so it may be difficult for you to handle it. I don’t know…”
Yep… yes… yes… i know…
“Still, if it were only for her growth, it was absolutely perfect, she had awakened to perfection, and after meeting her for a while, the unknown power that can’t break the end… I dare to cut through even a transcendent being considered divine.”
The journey ahead will be very easy, but my personal relationship will be twisted to the extreme.
“It’s going to be hard, but like it or not, you’ll have to persevere. That’s the hallmark of mortal life, so it’s a hopeful, yet very cruel moment.”
He is comforted by Goddess Abne and calms down a little.
“after….”
And as I open the door to the audience and walk through this long, long hallway every day, I feel anxious about what is to come and calm my heart.
“Erina?”
After leaving the temple, I called Erina to wait near the entrance as usual, but…
“Erina…?”
she was not seen
“Where are you going…”
I look around the streets a bit more to find her who has disappeared.
I kept looking around the streets looking for her, who usually stands out because of her red hair, but I couldn’t find her.
“Yes…?”
Instead, people were gathering in one place, as if some big event had happened, and they were all murmuring with their eyes focused on one place.
“Wait a minute… I’ll pass a little bit…”
I wondered what was going on, and as I moved forward through the people who were blocked, Erina stood in the center of the people’s eyes.
“Erina? What’s going on?”
“Tell me again… Are you serious…?”
I tried to call her, but the voice was cut off by a voice different from usual.
Judging from the situation, she now seemed to be confronting someone.
I don’t know what the hell happened while I was away, but it was definitely a bad mood.
I don’t know who is facing Erina, who is still hidden behind people’s backs, but as long as I touch her awakened heart, it won’t look good.
“Move away for a second, I’m sorry.”
First of all, I was afraid that I would kill a harsh person because I remembered the words of Goddess Abne, who said that Erina should be stopped, that even divine beings could be cut.
“Erina is my colleague, I’m sorry-“
In order to mediate the situation, I got out of the crowd and tried to mediate and check who was facing Erina, but I was stopped again.
“Is there no reason why I should lie? Rather, a human like you is making fun of a filthy snout, isn’t it?”
The person who was currently hostile to Erina was none other than an opponent I knew well.
“I don’t know who you are, but you won’t see a good one.”
Erina draws a sword and threatens ‘she’.
“Haha! Are you… are you kidding me?”
As if there was no absurdity, he smiled wildly once, closed his eyes and pulled out his claws.
It was the person who had a quarrel with Erina…
“Feel me, and…”
It was a black old dragon that I knew all too well.
“Fear…. the dark-eating Mir…”