Is This a Green Light?
“Haa… I’m exhausted…….”
Click.
The heavy door shut, drawing the curtain on today’s exposure training in the village.
PTSD wasn’t going to vanish overnight. That much was obvious. But standing still wasn’t an option either. If I wanted her to grip a sword again, I had to drag her out into the world somehow.
I’d circled the village and confirmed it: luckily, there was no sign the Hero’s Party was moving in person. But if those bastards started recruiting replacements and regrouping? They could come crashing down on Elara and me at any moment. Until then, turning Elara back into a hero was my only survival plan.
“Haa… it’s so hot…….”
Thud.
The moment she stepped into the room, Elara roughly tore off the stifling veil she’d been wearing.
— Slip.
White silk slid limply to the floor. The rebound sent her suppressed cascade of silver hair tumbling free like a waterfall, spilling over her slender shoulders and the line of her back.
Without hesitation she strode to the window and flung it wide open.
“Fuu… now I can finally breathe.”
— Whoosh.
The night wind rushed roughly into the room. In that instant the loose white dress clung tight to her body, plastered by the breeze.
“……!”
My breath caught in my throat.
Across the thin fabric stretched taut, the overwhelming curves that had been hidden under her baggy dresses were laid bare without mercy. From the sharply cinched waist the line flared into hips that looked ready to burst free, and the silhouette of her full breasts strained as if they might tear through the cloth itself.
She perched her hips on the windowsill and lazily arched her back. Moonlight from behind traced highlights along every contour of her figure. Between the silver strands tossed by the wind, the pale nape of her neck and collarbones gleamed with a chill, almost painfully sensual light.
Counseling, therapy, whatever…… I can’t take my eyes off her.
Dry saliva scraped roughly down my throat. It was hard to believe she’d been walking around hiding a body that lethal. Instinctive danger alarms blared inside my skull. The person standing in front of me right now wasn’t a patient who needed protection.
She was a perfect member of the opposite sex—one who stirred a man’s desire to conquer from the absolute bottom of his gut.
I forced my gaze up to her face and smoothed out the crack threatening my voice.
“Ahem. Uh…… Elara? Did you enjoy yourself today?”
At my call she slowly turned her head. Backlit by the moon, a transparent smile I’d never seen before curved her lips.
“……It was nice.”
She tapped the windowsill lightly and narrowed her eyes at me in a pretty crescent.
“Thanks to you, Teacher.”
Thanks to me, huh. In the expression that went with those words, I couldn’t feel any of the unpleasant noise that used to scrape at my ears. It didn’t seem like empty flattery.
“Um, Teacher.”
“Yes?”
“Do you know something?”
“Know what?”
“Actually…… my legs are still shaking a little.”
She playfully wriggled her bare white feet.
“I was scared. Really. That people might recognize me, that they might throw stones…….”
Elara looked out the window again, smiling faintly as she held the moonlight.
“……But nothing happened.”
She grinned like a child. The tension and fear that had hung over her until moments ago melted away like a lie—leaving only the pure smile of a young girl.
“Thank you. For pushing me…… even if you had to force it.”
The emotion coloring her voice was unmistakable dependence, and deep trust.
Heroine ‘Elara von Heim’’s affection has skyrocketed!
Current Affection:75 / 100 (Adoration)
“…….”
I rubbed my eyes, half-convinced the numbers were wrong. I’d expected her affection to drop and crash back into the forties. Instead it had rocketed straight to 75. At this level we were past simple trust. The outline of a happy ending was starting to take shape.
Relief and a strange sense of responsibility hit me at the same time. I bowed my head politely to her.
“Not at all. I’m the one who should thank you for trusting me and coming along. Well then—let’s continue the counseling tomorrow.”
“Um…… Teacher.”
She hurriedly called me back just as I was about to leave the room.
“Yes?”
“Tomorrow too…….”
“?”
Elara’s lips moved soundlessly for a moment before she looked straight at me and spoke.
“……Could we do it again tomorrow? The, um, village date…….”
“Ah…….”
Date. The word choice tickled my chest in a strange way. Still, there was no way that vicious trauma would be overcome in a single day. If she was ever going to pick up a sword again, she would have to clash with the world and break free on her own.
I nodded and smiled.
“Of course.”
“Heh…… I’m looking forward to it.”
“Haha, is that so? Anyway, it’s late, so get some rest. Have a peaceful night.”
I gave a light bow.
“You too, Teacher. ……Dream of me.”
Leaving that soft final whisper behind, I quietly closed the door.
Click.
“……Ha.”
I fled back to my room and threw myself onto the bed. The lukewarm night air still clung to my fingertips; the faint scent of her skin still lingered at the tip of my nose. The silhouette of Elara leaning against the window just now. And those dangerous, sweet lines she’d thrown my way.
Dream of me, huh…….
My heart hammered like mad. This surging emotion, this absurd result—keeping it all to myself felt like a waste.
I couldn’t hold it in.
Time to drop a nice fat flex on those ghost bastards.
I summoned the gallery into the empty air.
“Idiots…….”
The reactions were so hot I was about to get burned. I rolled around on the bed snickering. The jealousy dripping from every line of text on the screen was pure gourmet.
Gogumador’s words definitely had bones in them. The condition for a happy ending wasn’t just winning love—it included stopping the destruction that was coming.
Goguma dropped a useful reply.
Oh, look at this guy. Surprisingly solid approach.
Checking the map, there were roughly five spots. Advice was attached that properly clearing just these places could drastically reduce Elara’s PTSD.
“Hmm…….”
I tracked the red dots floating on the hologram map with my eyes and started plotting the optimal route.
I closed the gallery window and stared at the ceiling. The five red-marked points flickered before my eyes.
Tomorrow’s date wouldn’t be simple romance play.
It would be a journey to fix Elara.
Heavy silence settled over the room once more.
Elara stared blankly at the doorknob he had closed and left behind for a long time.
“……Dream of me. Huh…….”
It was a line she still couldn’t believe had come out of her own mouth. She covered her rapidly heating face with both hands. The cheeks under her palms burned as if they might scorch her skin.
Thump, thump, thump.
Her heart was pounding hard enough to snap her thin ribs. She slowly approached the full-length mirror. Her reflection under the moonlight.
She had always thought of herself as black.
A black stain that only wanted to hide away inside this mansion, rotting in the darkness. Black swallowed everything it touched and dyed it the same color. That was why every servant and butler who had brushed past her side was no exception. They were merely subjects who had been consumed by the dark and had to receive the judgment she handed down.
The countless so-called healers who had come claiming they would save Elara were the same. Peel back the shell and they were either the same black, or murky gray hypocrites soaked in greed. Elara had despised them and sentenced them in her heart—with the only tool of judgment she could still lift: a dagger that served as her hammer.
But.
This teacher who had come this time…… his color was different.
Without fear he had approached her pitch-black self and held out his hand. Far from being dyed by her darkness, he was someone who erased that darkness instead.
Teacher alone was white.
The only pure white that could cover her blackened self.
Toward that white…… she wanted to lean, wanted to depend on him so badly she almost wanted to soil him. Because he was by her side.
She carefully traced the waistline in the mirror—the place his gaze had rested.
“……Tomorrow.”
Tomorrow had always been something she forced herself to face because she couldn’t die. Times when opening her eyes had been pure torment. But today, for the first time in a very long while—
She ached for tomorrow to come.