Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: End of Vacation - 2
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Currently, the Magic Tower's transportation system had reached full capacity.
Residents displaced by the terrorist attack, a flood of injured people pouring in, and immigrants trembling in fear of further attacks.
Even the warp gates, including the trains, now had to operate on a reservation basis. The Magic Tower's traffic was chaotically overwhelmed.
As such, the House of Reinhardt's group had no choice but to wait their turn as well.
At a glance, there were no issues...
"Lady Aria~"
But that waiting time was nothing short of excruciating torment for one girl.
"Where could she have gone~?"
The evidence was a boy wandering around right now, his eyes gleaming with aura.
This game of cat-and-mouse chase had begun with the 'First Kiss Incident'.
"Lady? What's wrong?"
Ariasfil prided herself on having brushed death many times before.
When hunting orcs and wyverns,
When fighting the balrog,
Even when battling the clay golem,
"Do you hate taking walks with me that much?"
Leonardo smiling so brightly like that was the scariest of all. In truth, hadn't she defeated the balrog and clay golem thanks to Leonardo's help?
"...Uh... Well, you see..."
Cold sweat dripped down her entire body. She had no idea how to explain this.
"Lady Ariasfil? Why are you trembling like that? Someone might think I'm the one getting angry."
Wasn't he angry? Right, he was smiling, so if she just explained well...
Crack!
At that moment, Leonardo clenched his fist toward the empty air. Everyone around instinctively flinched.
"Whoops, there was a mosquito nearby."
Leonardo flicked his hand, personally displaying the gruesome scene of the massacre. The mosquito was squashed flat, spilling out the blood it had sucked along with its innards.
It was all too obvious who that hand would crush, and a vivid image flashed in Ariasfil's mind.
"So, where were we..."
Thud, crash.
Ariasfil bolted. Love or whatever, if she died now, nothing would be left. For the sake of future love, she chose to preserve her life right now.
"...Why make a simple answer so complicated on purpose? You're so cute."
It was clearly praise, but even Ameri, who clearly favored Leonardo, and Rios, who enjoyed pure love stories, felt chills.
"...Um... Bro...?"
"Yes, Young Master Rios."
Leonardo gazed at Rios with narrowed eyes and a smile. Rios felt an intense disconnect from this rare expression of Leonardo's.
"If... you know... you find out who that person is... what will you do...?"
"...You're not going to... k-kill them...?"
Ameri asked cautiously as well, and Leonardo chuckled lightly.
"Kill them? As if I'd do that."
"Phew... That's a relief..."
A shadow fell over Leonardo's face. Beneath the shadow, killing intent was smiling.
"Why would I do something so wasteful?"
Everyone pretended not to hear the latter part.
At that moment, the Sage, resting inside his cave, was completely out of the loop and suffered needlessly.
And back to the present.
The Sage clicked his tongue as he watched Leonardo, eyes infused with aura, meticulously searching for Ariasfil.
The Sage was spouting off casually since it wasn't his business. Well, having only heard about the scene, it probably didn't resonate with him.
Didn't Family Head Gladio Reinhardt, who was both the patriarch and her father, say exactly that to him?
-If you think she's wrong at times, point it out, and stop her if it's not right.
He had indeed said that. Though even the Family Head hadn't anticipated it being used this way.
Not just the Sage, but anyone who had seen Leonardo and Ariasfil's relationship would think the same.
The two of them showed no sign of noticing at all. Their obliviousness was at a level where the very concept of awareness seemed lost.
"Hm... She's not here."
Unaware that Ariasfil was plastered to the ceiling of the room, holding her breath, Leonardo closed the door.
"...Haa..."
Releasing the tension from her aching arms and legs, Ariasfil landed back on the floor. It had only been a day since that incident, but to her, it felt like a month on the run.
'...Should I just tell him?'
In truth, it wasn't just her who had kissed back then. Leonardo had boldly stolen her lips too...
'...Ugh... But...'
The problem lay in what came before that.
'That... beastly thing... with Leonardo...'
Almost being ravished by the fake Leonardo in her dream, and her own subconscious reluctance to refuse—if she brought up the kiss and he remembered that too, she'd faint from shame for the rest of her life.
'...I absolutely can't let him find out...'
Ariasfil hurriedly hid under the table.
Bang!
"Not here either."
It was a kind of collective sense—like breathing sounds or scents. Of course, it was an intuition that would make anyone uncomfortable.
Thud.
Leonardo glanced around briefly before closing the door again.
Ariasfil emerged from under the table and let out a sigh of relief to the spirit.
In truth, the reason she'd managed to escape Leonardo—the master of tracking and pursuit—until now was entirely thanks to the spirits.
The spirits scattered throughout the Magic Tower had warned her of Leonardo's position in advance, allowing her to narrowly avoid detection.
But
'...I can't keep doing this forever...'
She couldn't spend her life dodging Leonardo. Eventually, they'd have to leave together, so somehow, she needed to reconcile before then.
'...I really... didn't want to resort to this method...'
She had no choice but to use her last resort.
"So that's why you called us?"
Rios sat in the Sage's research sub-room, glaring at Ariasfil with slightly cold eyes.
"...Yeah..."
Rios took a sip of his coffee, then whispered into Ameri's ear loud enough for Ariasfil to hear.
"Take a good look, Ameri. That's the epitome of hypocrisy. The type you hate most in pure romance novels."
"That's not it!!"
Ariasfil snapped back in irritation. Instead, Rios smirked with narrowed eyes and prodded annoyingly.
"Then imagine if Leonardo had his first kiss with someone else, acted like that with you, and said those words. Wouldn't you be mad?"
"...That's... not the same..."
In the meantime, Ameri, who had been listening quietly, spoke up.
"That's not right, Rios."
Ameri took a light sip of her coffee and laid out her own philosophy.
"Ariasfil's of age, after all. Getting worked up over just a kiss is petty, don't you think?"
Ariasfil felt a strange mix of emotions hearing that. It was true, yet oddly hard to agree with.
"It's true, but didn't Ariasfil draw her sword even if Leonardo just held hands with another girl? Isn't that standard too narrow?"
"...That's... true, but..."
Ameri, as someone with experience of Ariasfil's possessiveness, couldn't deny that either.
"Still, making a fuss about virginity over a kiss is too much. Having experience isn't wrong to begin with."
For some reason, though she'd come for advice, Ariasfil felt like her character was being judged, and it stung.
"That's not the issue."
Rios's expression turned serious. It was because he was more earnest and broad-minded about love than anyone.
Ariasfil and Ameri inwardly thought, 'If only he were serious all the time'—a secret not-so-secret.
"The problem is that you suddenly ran off without any explanation."
"That's true. You bear responsibility too, Miss Ariasfil."
Ameri agreed on that point.
"Think about it. You slipped away mid-conversation and kept running without explanation. Beyond anger, Leonardo's naturally worried."
Even Ariasfil couldn't deny that. In fact, she'd blown the situation up herself.
If she hadn't run from that spot, at least this chase wouldn't have happened.
"And Leonardo's probably feeling quite betrayed, even if not outright angry. He's guarded your side without fail since becoming your exclusive knight... but you kissed some outsider behind his back. And it wasn't even recent."
He was probably angry too, but the sense of betrayal was real. Reprimanding her as her exclusive knight might not be the main goal, but it wasn't just an excuse either.
"...Still..."
"Just explain it properly. Honestly, with Leonardo's personality, I doubt he'd lay a hand on you. Remember what he said to that woman who visited the sickbed?"
Indeed, what Leonardo had said then was so grateful and loving. It was hard to find someone outside family who thought of her that way.
"Still..."
"Well, that guy you kissed better run for his life. If he doesn't emigrate, he'll really die."
At those words, Ariasfil's shame reached its limit.
"...It's not like that!!"
The wave of exploded emotions made hiding it more embarrassing now.
"...The kiss... was...!"
It erupted. Her love.
"Leonardo was my first...!"
The room fell silent for a moment. It took Ameri and Rios several minutes to grasp the meaning.
"So... it wasn't before the potion...?"
"...Yeah... so..."
"...Then maybe... before that..."
She clamped her mouth shut, unable to say more. No fool would interpret that silence as a denial.
"...Why did you run then?"
"No, but... why does Knight Leonardo remember...?"
Love makes fools of everyone, but those two felt the need for academic research on whether love scientifically lowers human intelligence.
"...Well... it's not exactly secret... but kinda... secret-ish..."
Excluding 'that incident', it was impossible to explain. They'd kissed mutually, but explaining why Leonardo's memory was erased would stump even the Sage.
"...So...!"
Knock knock.
At that moment, someone knocked on the door.
"Miss Ameri, I have something I'd like to consult about... Are you there?"
It was Leonardo. Leonardo was knocking.
(What do I...)
Snap.
While Ariasfil's mouth flapped open, Rios and Ameri had vanished before her eyes. Rios's teleportation had barely outpaced her reflexes.
On the table where Rios had been, a small note in pen read:
[Good luck~!]
"...Are you kidding me?!"
Ariasfil shouted without thinking, and naturally, the sound carried outside.
"Lady!?"
Leonardo wouldn't stay still after hearing that.
The timing to hold her breath had long passed.
"...That is..."
Ariasfil tried to dash outside.
"Sorry...!!"
Thump.
"Please stop running away."
Leonardo grabbed her immediately and pleaded. Then he blocked her path with his arms on either side.
"If you keep this up, I'll really get angry."
"...That is..."
Leonardo's face was close. Not a forced smile, but genuine anger.
But rather than scary, it had presence. She felt his breath, and his arms against the wall blocked her way.
Just like in the dream when Leonardo had pinned her down.
"...If you really can't tell me, then lie. I'll believe it."
"...Huh?"
"There must be a reason you're hiding it. Just lie. I won't pry anymore."
Ariasfil hesitated, then opened her mouth again.
"...What if... that person is the man I truly love...?"
"...Truly...?"
Leonardo's expression darkened slightly, but he answered promptly.
"...If it's the person... you chose, Lady... I'll help make it happen. If the family opposes, I'll persuade the Family Head. Even if the whole house objects, I'll try to convince them."
His earnest resolve somehow made her want to laugh. The fear of Leonardo was gone from Ariasfil now.
Leonardo was just clumsy, after all.
"If that man isn't proactive toward you... I'll tell him endlessly about your good points as I know them."
Leonardo's face was a tumult of mixed emotions. He wasn't sure which were his true feelings, but right now, he wanted to serve his lady.
That's why he'd returned, after all.
"Really? No matter what?"
"...If that man only has eyes for you, Lady."
At that answer, Ariasfil's smile deepened unnoticed. A cute little devil tickled her lips.
"It's you."
"...You... wait... no, yes?"
His arms went completely slack at the utterly unexpected reply.
"You. Knight Leonardo."
Ariasfil grinned and grabbed his chin with one hand.
"Then, as you said earlier?"
"...Yes? No, what do you..."
"Why? You said you'd believe even a lie?"
Now brazenly shameless, Ariasfil slipped free from Leonardo's makeshift bonds.
"Then it's a promise? You'll convince the whole family and be proactive about me."
"No, that wasn't the agreement...!"
"Hehe... I'm off first then! Thanks to you, I haven't eaten properly."
She left the room with a relaxed laugh. Truly carefree and refreshing, without a hint of worry.
"Not interested..."
Leonardo blankly stared at the room, ignoring the Sage. The lingering scent of Ariasfil remained inside.
Was that a lie or the truth?
No, more than that.
'...Did I hope it was a lie... or...'
Did I hope it was a little true?