Chapter 11. Summer and the Sea (6)
Honestly, no matter how close Ria and I are, spending the whole time off on our own away from the others we came with is a little awkward.
It would look like I had some kind of sense of entitlement.
Han Yu-ri in particular had always viewed us quite favorably, so before I knew it she had grabbed our hands and pulled us over to play together.
She apparently doesn't feel any particular rivalry toward Ria and me.
If you had to rank the most remarkable people here, Ria would be first, and I'd be a close second. Han Yu-ri and Glaria would be tied for third.
And— hmm.
That elf keeping her distance over there, I can't really tell what her figure is like.
Actually, she was someone I was a little curious about. She looked a few years older than us and was certainly beautiful, but even though she'd followed us here, she never actually played with us.
She was someone who hadn't appeared in the original story, yet she stayed quietly close to us. I couldn't help but be curious.
I didn't think she was a villain. If she were, she wouldn't have risked becoming like Glaria to save her, and she wouldn't have followed all the way to the Dwarf Kingdom to stay by Glaria's side.
"What's wrong?"
Maybe she sensed my gaze, because Glaria came over and asked.
Glaria was wearing a sky-blue swimsuit. Had she matched it to her eye color?
Maybe because a bikini was too revealing a design to accept by that world's standards, she'd chosen a one-piece swimsuit, but that didn't mean there was no exposure at all. The front was a fairly ordinary one-piece, but the back was quite open.
Seen from the back alone, it looked even barer than a bikini with a single strap running across.
While eating meat yesterday—cradled in Ria's arms—I'd casually asked, and apparently to Glaria that level of exposure was about the same as a fashionable dress. The design that gathered at the nape of her neck and ran down, leaving her back fully exposed, did indeed resemble a dress, if you thought of it as one.
Then why couldn't she wear a bikini? Was exposing her stomach on top of that a bit much? Well, before bikinis existed, I suppose that was how it was.
"I was wondering if she has no intention of playing."
"Ah."
Glaria nodded.
"Davi seems to find me a little uncomfortable."
"Davi?"
"That person's name."
I nodded at Glaria's words. Davi. So that was her name.
"She risked her life to save me, and in this world there's no point in fussing over status, so I've told her to relax— but she's been like that the whole time. She seems to think that wherever I am, she absolutely has to go and protect me."
"Is that so?"
Well, if that's the case, it can't be helped.
To put it bluntly, if you're in the military and the company commander comes over and says let's hang out, the soldiers would be incredibly uncomfortable. Even if they normally got along fairly openly. There's the age difference, and no matter what, the fact that she's a superior officer.
......And if it's a princess and her aide, even more so.
"Honestly, even if you asked me what kind of person Davi is, I don't think I could give you a proper answer."
Glaria said, gazing quietly toward Davi.
Davi, perhaps realizing Glaria was looking at her, was turning her head this way and that. It looked like she was averting her gaze, and also somehow like she was relaxing as she turned her head.
Either way, she seemed to be looking away out of slight embarrassment.
Hmm.
Somehow it didn't seem like it was purely out of a sense of duty.
Having come here without reading the original to the end, I didn't know what kind of past Glaria had with this Davi person, but somehow I felt like there must be something like that in the backstory.
Or maybe she was someone who was still alive and resisting when they returned to the world of the elves. Though the story never got that far.
"People who show that level of loyalty aren't common, are they?"
"You only have one life. Loyalty is something that's only demonstrated when money and life are on the line. There are occasionally those who fight solely for honor...... but well. Those very people are usually the first to become casualties of political strife."
That's a bitter thing to say.
Hearing Glaria say that, I felt like there really was something more. A very clichéd situation where Davi owed her life to Glaria in the past, but Glaria considered it a trivial matter and didn't remember it well.
Am I imagining things that are too much like a novel?
"Anna!"
I heard a voice calling me from far away. I turned my head and saw Ria waving her hand broadly toward me.
Even from this distance, Ria's red hair stood out.
.......
Ah, right.
Maybe I wasn't just imagining a novel-like situation.
Rather, maybe I'd been thinking about my relationship with Ria.
In a sense, I don't really know how we ended up trusting each other this much.
Well, you could say that even that relationship resembles it, if it resembles anything.
*
On the first day we just played on the beach, but on the second day we had quite a lot of time from the morning.
Do you remember the motorcycle we used last time, when we flew over the land contaminated by mana?
That motorcycle, powered by mana, was a vehicle that hovered over a surface and flew.
In other words, there was no major problem using it to fly over water. Of course, if the waves were too high it wouldn't work, but right now they weren't.
Since it didn't just skim right on the water but actually flew to some degree, it could actually run more stably.
Though the water below sprayed up violently.
With my arms wrapped around Ria's waist, I couldn't even scream and just kept my mouth shut.
We were both wearing life jackets, so it wasn't incredibly embarrassing, but it was still a little scary.
Flying over the sea might be somewhat more stable, but it wasn't any less frightening. Rather, the concepts of "falling" and "sinking" merged together, making the fear feel even worse.
"I'll trust you."
That's what I said before getting on!
Well, I mean, I wasn't saying she should go too slowly. If she went slowly, there'd be no point in riding at all—it wouldn't have been any fun.
I'd had some intention of flying over the sea and enjoying the scenery, but in the end I couldn't properly enjoy the surroundings at all and just clung tightly to Ria's back the whole way.
"......I almost died......."
"Hm? I thought I drove pretty safely."
Hearing Ria say that, I frowned and looked up at her. Ria had one corner of her mouth lifted in a grin.
Oh-ho.
So this was revenge for this morning.
"......."
Well, what can I do? I teased her first.
"You got drunk and clung to me first......."
"......."
"All night long—"
"Hey, hey, okay, okay. I'm sorry."
Ria said that as she grabbed my arm and pulled me up.
Once I stood up, I saw Glaria and Han Yu-ri whispering to each other.
"As expected, at the convent—"
"That's not it!"
As if she'd heard the whispering, Ria fumed and pointed her finger at Glaria.
The kids all laughed at the sight. Except Davi.
Ria turned to look at me with an annoyed expression, so I once again showed her my "Saint smile."
Ria's face turned red again.
Honestly, she only gets emotional at times like this.
If she acted like she does when fighting, she'd have won ages ago. Well, I prefer this side of Ria.
.......
Uh, well, I mean, when I say prefer, it's, what.
I meant it as in I don't dislike it.
Anyway.
*
With all the constant bickering, in a sense Glaria actually seemed closer to Han Yu-ri than to Lee Si-yoon.
Well, liking someone and being close to them are separate matters. Admiration is a feeling that can deepen precisely because you don't know the other person well.
Though Lee Si-yoon wasn't the kind of person whose feelings would sour or whose admiration would vanish just because you got to know her better.
After grilling and eating meat diligently, and eating snacks diligently too, we went back to the room.
As expected, the other kids who'd been in the "girls' room" all made various excuses and left without coming back. For reference, Davi also slipped out like a shadow when Glaria left the room.
If they'd come back last night, everyone would have seen Ria like that. Ria was lucky.
"......Hey. Are you okay?"
"Okay with what?"
"I mean, being alone with me even on a trip like this."
"I'm more comfortable this way."
"......."
"Why, would you rather I be with Si-yoon? I may not look it, but I'm a nun and a Saint Candidate."
"......."
Ria thought for a moment, then,
"No. Being with her is a bit."
She answered quietly.
"Right?"
Well, there are probably various reasons. If I, a Saint Candidate and a nun, got into an incident with Lee Si-yoon, both of us would get massive headaches.
And on top of that— I don't know whether Ria still feels some kind of attraction toward Lee Si-yoon or not. It didn't show on the surface, but there's no way to know what it's actually like.
"......You trust me even after what I did yesterday?"
"If you were drunk and moving purely on instinct and still didn't harm me, then sure, I trust you."
Ria didn't answer.
Was she embarrassed?
I rolled over toward Ria.
Across the bed, Ria was just staring at the ceiling.
"Are you trying to hand me off to someone else?"
"......No."
Ria's answer was quite firm.
I liked that.
*
I slept soundly, and the next day I woke up thinking we'd be heading back to the Church.
"Anna?"
Someone called me.
"Mm?"
"......Anna."
The person whispering and waking me was—
"......Ria?"
I answered, blinking my eyes.
When I sat up, everyone was in our room. Even Lee Si-yoon.
With a just-woke-up expression.
Except Davi. Davi's eyes were wide open and alert.
"Anna. Listen carefully."
Ria said with a fairly serious expression.
"I think someone broke in here."
Those words made my sleepiness vanish in an instant.