“What I’m trying to say is I will be going on a journey.”
Leila received Kail’s report about his departure at her home.
“Did you tell Seraia?”
“Yeah, she cried a little but I managed to convince her.”
Leila made a wry smile.
“Roe… Ah, you mean dad. What? When did he get back?…. Rather he was already back? Well I’ll tell him if I meet him.”
“Don’t say it as if it’s just an extra… Well it’s good to learn more about the world. With how strong you are now you’ll be able to beat most of your opponents….. By the way take Seran with you while you’re at it.”
“Oh, he’s perfect for being a shield for magic or arrows. There are also other uses, like a sacrifice or scapegoat.”
“That’s just wasteful. It’s alright if he can take the hit and die for me when it counts.”
“You guys, don’t say something like that in front of the person himself.”
Seran who heard us began to complain.
“What about what I want?”
“Of course there isn’t anything like that since the beginning. In the first place I was planning to have you go on a journey in order to train your spirit and learning about how severe the world is.”
Actually, according to the flow, Kail knows Seran will be forced to go on a journey one year from now.
Many things happened at that time, but Kail thinks that all in all it became a good experience.
“I was thinking about whether to leave you to mercenaries with influence of the old, or putting you at the frontline against the demons…..”
“It’s alright, unlike in the old days there are only a few skirmishes now. Seems like even rookie’s can survive…. But it’s alright since Kail is with you right? Since you aren’t planning to do anything meaningful with your life, are you.”
“What the hell are you saying! Even I have a future dream I want to accomplice.”
“Hoh, how about saying it?”
“Obtaining a beautiful, rich and virtuous wife, a cute maid to whom I can do with whatever I want whenever I want. I want to live a frivolous life surrounded by two or three women!”
Leila who was clenching her fist with a lot of strength spoke while ignoring her son.
“For now it’s alright as long as he’s alive, if he were to ever give up and come back it’s alright to ignore him.”
“It’s not like I feel pressed or something…. Well he should have a lot of uses.”
“Initially, the plan was to have a dozen maids, so I it’s reduced it quite a bit….”
As expected, raising Seran while ignoring him was a failure on my part as a parent, Leila says while sighing. No, this guy was absolutely born with this personality, Kail says comfortingly.
That evening, Kail was training with the sword in the usual ruins.
Since I finished my training my muscles were aching, while I was thinking I had to go back soon, Lize appeared.
“…………”
I look curiously at Lize who doesn’t have her usual cheerfulness.
“Just now Seraia-san came to me, and said while crying “Kail-chan says he’s discarding me.””
Kail bowed deeply.
“And, is it true that you’re going on a journey?”
“Destination?”
Kail and the others live in the country of Jirges, the capital is Marado which is about 5 days traveling from the village.
“I see….”
Then Lize says with a determined look.
“I’ll say it bluntly but I have no intention of taking you with me.”
Kail interrupts her knowing what she wanted to say.
“Why!? Seran’s coming with you right?”
“I won’t become deadweight!”
Actually her strength is enough to make me strain my body.
Especially these past few days, I unconsciously hold my flank.
If Kail’s a genius with the sword, then Lize her talent is close combat, from a young age she trained together with the armed priests of the Earth Goddess Karis’s church.
Working harder than anybody, in exchange, she raised her skills a lot, she always said she’d make a fortune with this in the future.
But Lize’s mother who lost her husband in the war before Lize was born, had to raise Lize all by herself and even though she never said it she always wanted her daughter to walk a path of peace.
Since then Lize was helping around in the house of her aunt and the aunt’s husband.
Even now she still continues training, but she never hit anyone other than Seran or Kail.
That Lize couldn’t sit still when she heard that Kail was going on a journey.
Certainly, if let alone Lize would probably be force to reckon with.
“If it’s about mother…. I’ll apologize as many times as is needed in front of her grave….But.”
“It isn’t just that…. Simply put; it’s a little of my own selfishness too. I want you to stay in a safe location, I don’t want you to encounter any danger… Absolutely.”
I remember the time when Lize gradually lost her life in my own arms.
I don’t ever want to feel like that again.
I don’t know what kind of changes my actions will bring, even so it’s safer here than having her coming along.
“Also I have to ask…. I need a hometown. If I have a place to return to, the weight on my heart will be lessened.
“Before anyone else I want to tell you I’m back first. And I want you to tell me “Welcome back.” That’s why….. Please believe in me and wait here.”
“Kail….. I….”
Kail slowly closes his face in on Lize’s face, and with a little distance, they kissed just like that.
“Auu ……”
I look down to see Lize’s blushing face.
“Kail changed after all…. You became more cunning….. If you do something like this…. I can’t refuse.”
“Aren’t you the same age as me…”
Kail smiled gently.
It was a gentle smile Lize had never seen before.
Kail hugged Lize’s body, unlike before she obediently entrusts her body.
“You should come back safely…. Absolutely. Since waiting is hard you know?”
Only this was a complete lie. in order to accomplice his goal, Kail is prepared to go through any danger.
“Yeah…. I understand.”
While embracing the feeling of guilt Kail continued to hug Lize.
“Well, Let’s go home”
In order to go back, we’ll have to walk through the main street, we’ll probably be seen by our friends of the same age.
In this small town I predict this rumor will be spread before the end of the day, Lize was a little shy but couldn’t care less.
“Yeah lets go home”
Lize strongly held Kail’s hand with a superb smile.
(Now that I think about it, last time my first kiss was when I was eighteen wasn’t it….. I was a late bloomer, ironically.)
Kail was walking along the road while remembering unimportant things.
The main street of the town of Rimase near dusk.
In the vibrant street, shops were trying to earn something in the last hours they are open, by calling out to others.
However different from usual there was one difference that Lize found.
Wearing a sturdy mantel, a dagger at her waist and a small bag of luggage. Summarized they were typical travelers’ clothes, so no one cared.
“Ah, an Elf ……”
Just like Lize said the female Elf traveler is walking while facing our way.
Elves are a tribe that doesn’t leave the forest they live in much, if I had to say they would be a peaceful tribe.
Even though there isn’t an Elf settlement near the town of Rimase, it’s not as if Elves don’t appear here at all, but it’s still unusual.
Long ears and a beautiful appearance, are the racial traits of Elves. This Elf too, was very beautiful, but that isn’t all, I feel a kind of gracefulness from her.
She left an unforgettable impressing once seen, all the people she passed by involuntarily looked back.
“As I thought Elfs are beautiful people, if Seran saw her he wouldn’t leave her alone.”
I’ll have to send him flying at that time, Lize said that while lightly laughing.
But Kail didn’t hear it.
I start walking as if being pulled away, from the hand I was holding.
“Ka…il?”
Lize’s somewhat anxious voice.
But Kail does not answer. He kept looking at the Elf as if his heart had been stolen. And Lize muttered his name in a faint inaudible voice.
“Ekses……”
The Elf Urza had been called eccentric by those around her, and I myself was aware of it.
On the road she met with various troubles but, she who was able to wield elemental magic and a dagger was somehow able to overcome it, and fully smoothly journeyed on.
Urza’s POV;
It’s wasn’t as if I needed anything special from the town of Rimaze, it was just that I stopped by in the middle of my journey.
Urza thought that it was the face of someone who had seen a ghost.
Surprise, Joy and hesitation…. I understand he isn’t hostile but I get he’s looking at me with some kind of feeling.
There’s no doubt that it’s a face I’ve seen for the first time, I thought of going to talk to him, but at that moment the human man muttered something.
“Ekses……”
Normally it would be an inaudible voice, but unlike humans Urza who’s from the Elf tribe with superior hearing, didn’t let it slip past her
Urza screamed.
Kail regained his senses after hearing the screaming.
“You think that kind of deception will work!”
Seeing Kail who was smiling weirdly while checking out the surrounding townspeople, she could only think he was messing with her which made her even angrier.
“Oh yeah you did say you came to the town of Rimaze once…. for it to be at this timing…. how close.”
Kail was holding his head, regretting blurting something like that thoughtlessly.
It wasn’t as if Kail had forgotten her or didn’t care about her.
When I have time I’ll definitely go to meet her, I’ll definitely go to find her is what I thought but I would never have expected to meet her here.
Being annoyed by the man’s muttering Urza tried to reach for the dagger at her waist thinking she no longer cared.
“Idi-, Stop it!”
Kail applied non-chanting [Haste] on himself and closed into her fighting range in a moment.
So that she can’t pull out her dagger he holds both of her hands, and in order to prevent her from being violent, he suppresses her with his body.
In order to rend her powerless, Kail had to knock her out, but there’s no way he could do that to her.
“Wha! You, get away! You bastard!”
I have to break free, Urza was struggling while thinking that, but there’s no way for a delicate Elf to escape.
“Calm down, there are some patrolling soldiers, we’ll get caught!”
If she as an outsider tried to draw her weapon and try to attack the weaponless villager Kail she’d be thrown into prison no questions asked, it wouldn’t be weird even if she got sentenced to death.
“Shut up! Let me go!”
But Urza won’t listen while in a state of anger.
If it continues like this she will definitely try to pull out her dagger with force, and try to cut me down.
I’m convinced, since that’s the kind of personality she has, moreover if she starts using spirit magic then I won’t be able to stop her.
“There’s no other choice….”
But Elves originally have high magic resistance, so it’s hard to use magic on them.
If she tries to resist she’ll certainly begin to go on a rampage so I’ll have to use my trump card.
“[Sleep Ekses]!”
I trigger the build up Mana and activate hypnotic magic by saying her name.
“You, You bas…tard…”
While leaving a gaze burning with anger, Urza falls asleep.
Kail hugs Urza’s delicate body that was about to fall to the ground.
In my mind, was a recollection of the evening of that battle, the piled up bodies of the many.
Also the time when she protected me showing that ephemeral last smile.
“We’ve…. Met again haven’t we.”
I stroked her beautiful sleeping face gently.
Kail smiled gently to Urza who was breathing faintly.
At that moment Kail felt a tremendous shockwave in the flank, which sends him flying.
“What the hell are you doing….”
Lize was looking down on Kail and speaking with a voice and gaze as if they were missing emotions.
“No, it isn’t like that. Please listen to me, calm down, let’s talk it over. How do I say this, she also lost her family and loved ones, so we’re comforting each other’s wounds….. I, I was also sad when you weren’t here anymore you know.”
“A, A misunderstanding!….. But maybe it isn’t, the, there are various circumstances!”
“No no, that’s totally a misunderstanding Gya!?”
“As I thought I really can’t trust you! I’m coming along! I’ll come along no matter what! As if I’d let you out of my sight~~~!!”
As if I care about what Kail wants! Next to the peacefully sleeping Urza the assault continued untill the patrolling soldiers stopped it.
By the way, since Lize’s assault on Kail is a common occurrence in town they were let off with only a warning.
AUTHOR’S NOTES
The entrance of the second heroine.
This scene is like after being seperated from your lover for a long time, and you think you’re a step further with your childhood friend, the ex-girlfriend appears…… No isn’t it like totally different?
Ranked third in days, I surpassed a thousand favorites!
This is all because of you who reads this, thank you very much!
However suddenly getting a high evaluation as a new guy I feel more surprise and hesitation than joy.
At any rate three days ago it was lucky to get just a hundred copies sold….. I hope the balance won’t get messed up….
Anyway in order to thank you all, even a little I’ll try to write up an interesting story, I hope you’ll continue to cheer me on from now on, you have my gratitude.