Chapter 11. Summer and the Sea (5)
When Ria woke in the morning, she felt a splitting headache.
Apparently, she had drunk far too much yesterday.
Still, the first can had been fine. It was the kind of alcohol that didn't really taste like alcohol in the first place, and even by the time she'd emptied the whole thing, she hadn't felt much of a buzz.
It was the complete opposite of how she'd felt in the Dwarf Kingdom, when a single glass had made her insides feel like they were burning.
If there was a problem—
"......Ah."
Right. If there was a problem, it was that she'd gotten a little cocky after that one can.
Since it was low-proof alcohol, naturally there had been quite a lot of it. Besides the chuhai, there had been beer and such too.
Ria racked her brain as hard as she could and slowly tried to dredge up her hazy memories. The very last thing she could properly remember was—
dragging Anna, who was talking with Lee Si-yoon, over to herself and hugging her.
"......."
What on earth had she been thinking?
Until just a little while ago— no, actually, saying "a little while ago" was a bit inaccurate. To be precise, it would be more correct to say "a few months ago."
That is, until a few months ago, Ria had been someone who, in her own way, supported the relationship between Lee Si-yoon and Anna.
Because, well, Anna didn't know anything.
She had lived her entire life in the Church, receiving the Church's education. Naturally, her sexual knowledge lagged behind other people's.
She did receive sex education in its own way, but that didn't mean she'd ever had the opportunity to date anyone. More than that, there wasn't a single man around her.
In a sense, Ria wasn't all that different, but there was a big difference between being able to think "I can date whenever I want" and judging "I don't even have that opportunity" and giving up. At the very least, Ria knew how to have a conversation with a man and such.
So, she had supported it. Because somehow, she felt like Anna would just watch from afar and only pine. Because she felt like Anna wouldn't even be able to entertain the thought of confessing that she liked someone.
And looking at the current situation, Anna might end up belonging to the Church for the rest of her life. Ria felt guilty about that fact too.
If Anna could date someone before that, wouldn't she perhaps not become a Saint? She would never tell her to date just anyone, but if she dated someone she truly liked, wouldn't Anna actually be happier? She hated the idea of Anna choosing her future without even considering such a possibility.
......And, for the exact same reason she felt that guilt, Ria had pulled Anna away from Lee Si-yoon yesterday.
There were already two women around Lee Si-yoon. Moreover, as far as Ria could see, there were even more women besides those two who had their eyes on him. She felt it every time she entered the Hunter Association building.
Lee Si-yoon himself wasn't particularly at fault, but even so, pushing Anna into a place like that was a bit much. There was no way a gentle girl who knew nothing about things like romance wouldn't get hurt in that gap.
"......."
Was that really true?
Ria seriously considered whether she had really pulled Anna away for that reason.
Wasn't she actually worried that Anna might go far away in another direction?
Maybe she had felt the same emotion as when she'd seen the blood flowing from Anna's hand in the Dwarf Kingdom? Afraid that someone might take Anna and just go far away.
For anyone in the world, when you get a lover, the time you devote to your friends decreases. In fact, bringing your lover along to meet your friends is also quite common. Then, at the very least, the relationship Anna and Ria had built up until now would change a little too.
That was only natural. She had definitely thought so.
But why was it? Why did thinking about that make her feel unpleasant? She had never felt the same emotion about the friends she'd known for years—
"......."
Ria hugged the blanket she was holding even tighter.
"Urgh."
And that sound came from the blanket. It was exactly like the groan a person makes when their waist is squeezed tight.
"Gyaaah!?"
"......Hm?"
No, it didn't seem to be a blanket. When you hug a blanket, it's only natural to feel warmth where your skin touches it, but a blanket isn't this squishy and soft in the first place.
It also can't be slender enough to wrap both arms around and hug tightly. The middle does dip in, but it isn't firm.
"Ah."
And then Ria, once again, remembered the last time she'd drunk alcohol.
Her face burned. It probably wasn't solely because of the warmth transmitted from the other person's chest fat.
When she slowly lifted her head,
there was Anna's face, a little pale, but at the same time wearing a gentle smile like a Saint's.
"Did you sleep well, little Ria?"
Ah, of course, that Saint's face was clearly just an act.
Mainly to tease Ria.
*
I don't particularly like the smell of alcohol. Especially if it's not just the smell of the alcohol itself, but the smell of a person who drank it, I dislike it even more.
Though, who would like it?
A person's peculiar body odor, especially the body odor of someone who couldn't wash properly, mixed with the faint sweat smell from being outside in midsummer—no one in the world would get a particularly good impression from that.
But, you know.
It was a little strange, but I didn't dislike the smell coming from Ria's body all that much.
I didn't dislike the sensation of her clinging to me, hugging me tight. Ria was...... yeah, because it was Ria.
Even setting aside talk of her being pretty or having a good figure, Ria was Ria. She had come a long way from being the novel's heroine 'Lee Chae-eun' by now. In the first place, I'd hardly ever called her by that name.
She laughs easily, she's honest, and even though she seems to tease me every time, she takes good care of me in all sorts of ways. Above all, even in the most dangerous moments, she stays by my side and protects me with her life.
Disliking a girl like that isn't such an easy thing. In fact, by now, even the one reason I might have to dislike her probably doesn't matter anymore. At the very least, Ria doesn't seem to have any possibility of ending up with Lee Si-yoon.
.......
Even if that possibility existed, I probably couldn't have disliked her. At the very least, I would never now openly say I disliked her like the Saint in the original work.
Unfortunately, the inner me was still a man even after 15 years in this world.
So I feel a little guilty about this situation. Ria probably acts like this because she trusts me completely.
If someone asked whether I didn't have even a tiny bit of ulterior motive, I would have to lie.
"Mmm."
As Ria shifted her body, I felt a little ticklish. I smiled slightly—
"Urgh."
—and then Ria squeezed my waist so tight that I let out that sound— no, this wasn't a situation to describe so leisurely—
No, wait, wait, wait!
This actually hurts? Never mind my stomach being pressed, my waist feels like it's going to fold into a bow shape? Now that I thought about it again, Ria had the ability to swing a sword with those slender arms and slice a Magical Creature's neck clean off. A power that went beyond the simple concept of "being strong for a human," literally belonging to the realm of "fantasy."
If those two arms put in their full strength, would my waist be able to hold out?
"Gyaaah!?"
I was debating whether I should smack Ria's body when her body flinched. Apparently, upon hearing the sound I'd made, she'd finally realized what she was hugging.
With her face dyed bright red, Ria hesitantly lifted her head.
Even before our eyes met, I was grinning at Ria.
Of course, it was a fake smile.
I'd gone to the trouble of not pushing her away and staying still, and she tries to kill me?
.......
Well, even if I'd tried to escape, my strength was quite lacking anyway. Yesterday, while Han Yu-ri burst out laughing at me and Glaria looked at me with eyes that seemed to be looking at something bizarre, I'd had to sit on Ria's lap like a doll the whole time.
.......
Hmm, okay.
Still, a little hostility is blooming.
I'll tease her about this all day today.
You brought this on yourself, dear sister, Ria.
Take it sweetly.
*
"What's wrong, Ria?"
I paddled my tube with my hands, splish-splash, moving closer to Ria as I asked.
"Are you too embarrassed to look at me? Yesterday you were clinging to my side like that."
In the sea too, well, if she clung, she clung. Though the meaning was a little different.
Both of us were wearing the same outfits as yesterday, but in a situation where only one side is embarrassed, the side that isn't embarrassed always has the advantage in compatibility.
"Or did your affection cool off in just one nigh—!?"
But my words didn't make it to the end.
Ria grabbed the tube I was sitting on from below and flipped it right over.
After sinking underwater with a brief glub-glub, I shot up from my spot and shouted.
"What are you doing!?"
"Oh, uh, no, sorry. You were there?"
"You flipped it over right in front of me and that's what you say!?"
When I protested, Ria went "hmph," snorted, and started walking away again, swish-swish.
"What? Are you sulking?"
"Sulk—"
Ria, who had whipped around toward me as if my words had set her off, for some reason wore a slightly dazed expression.
Ria mumbled like that for a moment—
"I'm not sulking!?"
She got angry in a voice loud enough that the kids playing a little ways away startled and turned to look this way.
She's definitely sulking.
That's what I thought at those words, though.