The way back
The way back
Stachys shouts,
"Rus!"
"I know!!"
Kwang!
I lifted my shield to block the giant's club. Then, from behind the shield, my beloved man Stachys jumped out and stabbed the giant's wrist with his tonfa.
The attack landed sharp yet heavy.
"Uooooh!!"
The giant drops its club.
"Rus!"
"I know!"
I smashed my shield down onto the hand of the giant as it fumbled to pick up the club again.
In the meantime, Chis grabbed the club first and threw it far away. I love this kind of teamwork. Stachys and I understand and feel each other's intentions without words.
"Lily noona! The eyes!"
"Understood! Light!"
With Lily-ssi, I have to give orders like that... I felt a slight sense of superiority.
Stachys, a martial artist, and I, a knight, stand on the frontline together.
Because of that, I think both he and I have crossed the line of death many times, and we've shared a deeper communion than the other party members.
And I've known Stachys the longest of all.
A bright flash explodes right in front of the giant's eyes.
Grabbing its eyes, the giant shrieks in panic. It stumbles backward.
When I made eye contact with Stachys, he went for its left leg and I went for its right, and we tripped it.
The giant crashes flat onto its back.
"Guys, let's smash it!"
Stachys shouts,
Saint Vien casts a judgment spell,
Wizard Lily-ssi casts a binding spell,
and Stachys and I use our attack skills to beat the crap out of the giant.
The giant flails around in resistance before its strength completely drains away as Stachys heavily strikes its head.
Even then, we didn't stop and kept pounding on the giant.
At last, the monster's heart stops beating.
Even so, Stachys struck the dead giant's head a few more times to make absolutely sure.
Thus, our goal for this time was also achieved. The two-day hunt was finally over. Now, all that remained was to return home.
And after that... I'd get to go on a date with Stachys.
Stachys wiped the sweat away with his hand and let out a sigh, "Hoo."
At the sight of him, my heart races without even grasping the situation.
Is it because the tension is easing up now? If I let my guard down even a little, affectionate feelings toward him would well up.
My lips felt bone dry, so I licked them with my tongue.
Turning my eyes, I saw Saint Vien glaring coldly at me. It seemed she caught me licking my lips.
I mean, hey, I couldn't help it...
Anyway, the giant hunt was concluded.
On the way back.
Everyone was taking a short break. Lily-ssi was holding a canteen and drinking water, and I was getting some fresh air.
I looked around to see what Stachys was up to and noticed Vien stealthily creeping toward him.
I darted my eyes back and forth while pricking up my ears. Vien speaks.
"...Stachys. Um, are you hurt anywhere?"
Stachys was lifting his clothes to wipe away his sweat.
He smiled at her words and playfully flexed both of his biceps.
"Totally healthy. Thanks to you, Vien. Your healing timing was great today."
Vien's ears turned bright red and her hands trembled faintly.
The dense Stachys didn't seem to realize, but Vien looked like she could fly from joy. She kept chattering away at Stachys.
I wish she'd get away.
"Well, this much is a breeze. Shouldn't our party raise our rank soon too? You're the leader, so you have to decide."
Vien is a fox. A fox who can't be honest. Translating her fox-like lines just now: 'I can still work harder. Bring in slightly harder requests to raise our party rank so that Stachys, our party leader, can do well.'
"Haha. I'm thinking about it. Safety comes first for now, so let's challenge it once we're certain."
"Stachys is just such a coward."
Translated, it means, "Stachys, who thinks about safety, is so cute."
The conversation was short, but even this level of foxiness was hard for me to watch.
"U-Um... Stachys."
"Why?"
"Th-That... Wish Ticket! To what extent is it possible?"
This vixen... I know what Vien is trying to bring up. Knowing that, my expression naturally scowled. Trying to secretly score a good promise all by herself...
I stood up and headed toward them. I have to join the conversation to at least be able to do something.
"Chis-yah, I'm curious too."
I called out to him with a hint of aegyo. It's been a long time since I started calling him by his nickname Chis, but does he know that it still takes courage for me to call him Chis?
Vien lets out a sigh, "Ah."
Did you think you could score an advantageous promise all by yourself, Vien?
He scratched his head at our questions.
"Um... I'd like it to be under 10 silver for money? Whether it's buying a meal or whatever."
"Hey! We don't need money?!"
"That's right, Chis-yah. We can handle financial things together. That's not what we asked."
"Uh... Really? Then what did you mean when you asked to what extent is possible?"
Gulp.
I swallow my saliva.
...How far does your body go?
These words surged up to my throat, but I managed to swallow them down with my saliva. No. That would violate the treaty. If I get greedy for no reason, the peace treaty could break and I might lose him.
Of course, I might be the one to take him, but this gamble was one where losing far outweighed what I could gain.
However, lately there were many times when I thought I wanted a bit more sticky, intimate skinship.
Was it because I saw Lily-ssi hugging him yesterday?
Even leaving yesterday aside, lately I've been fighting against these temptations of sudden impulses a lot more.
Is it because my sexual desire is... a little high?
I swallowed my dry saliva a couple more times and said,
"I was asking how much time Chis can spare."
"Th-That's right! There's so many things I want to do with you!"
"Ah..."
Stachys gazes blankly up at the sky. Is he agonizing over it?
Then he let out a sigh along with a dry face wash.
"But, aren't we meeting every single day lately anyway? How else can I make time here?"
His tone had changed slightly. The fatigue from catching the giant must be crashing over him now.
Saint Vien said,
"If we use a Wish Ticket to make time for the whole night, will you give it to us?"
Right, that's it. I nodded my head repeatedly in my heart.
"You mean until the next morning?"
"Th-That's right! Isn't that obvious?"
"When am I supposed to sleep?"
"I'm fine even without sleeping?"
"I am not fine..."
Vien rolled her eyes around and said,
"Then sleep in even later the next day. There are things you can only do at dawn, you know... That's why I'm saying this."
"That aside, Vien, don't you have to pray at night?"
He expressed doubt.
"You can just wait a moment!"
"...Do we have to play to that extent?"
"Hey, you said it's a Wish Ticket! You won't even do this much?"
Annoyance wells up on Vien's face.
I know. That's also a fox-like act.
Because Vien isn't someone who gets annoyed over that much.
It's easy to forget when looking at her, but she is a saintess, the symbol of benevolence and goodness.
If you ask why she's pretending to be sulky, if she pretends to be sulky, Stachys doesn't know what to do with himself.
In the end, she's pretending to be annoyed to wrap Stachys around her finger the way she wants.
It was hypocritical, but I acted the exact same way. Otherwise, I'd be the only one falling behind...
If I don't pretend to be sulky, Stachys won't pay a single shred of attention to me while trying to cheer up the sulking kids.
Even if I feel a bit sorry, I have to show that I'm sulking so I can go on dates often and hear sweet words of comfort.
...Just like yesterday. Well, yesterday I was genuinely sulking, though.
So even though I knew it was a fox-like act, I kept silent.
"Vien, alright, alright. Don't sulk."
"...Then you'll meet me all night?"
"Ha... Fine, let's do that."
"Chis-yah, that applies to my Wish Ticket too, right?"
The eyes of Stachys looking at me after hearing my words were filled with fatigue. Whether it was the fatigue from catching the giant or the fatigue caused by me and Vien's unreasonable persistence, I couldn't tell, but I didn't care.
If I cared and used the Wish Ticket differently, Vien would get to meet him all night while I'd just meet him normally. This can't be helped.
"...Well, of course, Rus."
A smile blossomed on my and Vien's faces.
"How are you going to decide the meeting order for this week?"
Lily-ssi cuts in with a prickly voice.
She didn't look very happy.
She didn't seem willing to let us meet all night.
Such greed... Hugging Stachys tight, and she's even jealous of us meeting all night?
If you asked me whether I'd rather hug him tight or meet him all night, I'd choose hugging him tight unconditionally. She got to do something way better, so why is she being so greedy?
Lily-ssi's words startle Stachys in surprise.
"Ha... No, we haven't even made plans on what to do yet? What's this about deciding the order of who meets when first? Who just meets up first without any plans?"
"We can just decide the plans when we meet, you dummy!"
"My, does Stachys not want to play with noona?"
...Why is Stachys starting so badly? Leaving the other kids aside, does he not even want to hang out with me? Shouldn't he be happy since we can meet even without an excuse?
"....Chis-yah, do you hate it?"
And then, after looking at our faces back and forth, he flopped down onto the ground.
"No. Do whatever you want."
Hehehe. As expected of Stachys. He gives in right away when I speak, doesn't he? He couldn't bring himself to say he hated it after hearing my words at the end, could he?
"Fufufu, understood, Stachys. Just rest for a bit, okay? We'll figure out how to meet and let you know. Oh, and you don't have any other plans this week, right?"
Stachys was silent for a moment, then nodded slightly.
At that sight, it was hard to suppress a smile that threatened to stretch from ear to ear.
The days we can share Stachys this week total 5 days.
"Alright, then please wait a moment, okay?"
Lily-ssi tilted her head and led us in a different direction.
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The first of the 5 days is the most avoided day. Because things you can do might occasionally be restricted due to muscle soreness or recovery from wounds the day before.
The last day is also avoided. Since we have to go to the dungeon the next day, we have to save a bit of energy while playing.
"This time, we're dividing it into two days for me, two days for Rus, and one day for Lily, right?"
Vien said, crossing her arms.
"Why am I getting one day?"
Lily-ssi asked as if she genuinely had no idea.
"Because we're going to use our Wish Tickets, Lily-ssi. We'll be playing all night, so of course we should get the next day too."
"You can just play all night and return Stachys in the morning."
"Hey, you stupid wizard. Return him, my ass! Is Stachys your property?"
"That's right, Lily-ssi. You're phrasing things strangely, aren't you?"
I started getting pissed off at Lily-ssi's continued shameless behavior. She glanced at me.
"I feel this always, but Rus's appearance in front of Stachys and behind his back seem so different."
"What's wrong with it being different?"
It's not like I'm forcing myself to be like this anyway. This is my true self. It's just that smiles naturally leak out when I'm in front of Stachys.
Lily-ssi shrugged her shoulders.
"Anyway, Lily. Keep your greed to that much. Do you think we forgot that you hugged Stachys yesterday at dawn?"
"Ah..."
Lily-ssi's expression instantly relaxed and her body shivered. She seemed to be recalling that moment.
If Lily-ssi had been even slightly less attractive, it would've looked perverted... but because she's pretty, that shivering figure oozed sexiness even from a woman's perspective.
"...It was certainly great. He was completely mine back then..."
"Lily-ssi."
Seeing that, my head started spinning. I didn't even want to hear it. Who the hell do you dare have dirty imaginations about?
"How cute he was...? If I blew a wind 'hoo~', maybe because he liked the mint scent from my lips, he'd sniff around and keep getting closer..."
"Lily-ssi."
"And how nice the scent from his embrace was! The hug we shared for a really long time was great too. Not just a quick hug, but holding each other tight like real lovers for a good while—"
"Lily-ssi."
A voice much colder than I expected slipped past my throat. Even enough to make Lily-ssi flinch. She had an expression that looked like she had snapped back to her senses.
She seemed to realize just now that she had been muttering in a daze.
"If the treaty is going to last long, we need to make concessions to each other, right? Shall we break the Stachys Treaty in a do-or-die moment and see who seduces him better?"
Of course, I had not even a shred of thought to break the treaty. I couldn't bear the terror of it myself.
If I imagined Stachys whispering love to one of these two instead of me.....
For example, if Stachys hugged Lily-ssi tight and whispered into her ear,
'I love you, Lily noona. I only have you, noona.'
seeing him do that,
or if I imagined him grabbing Vien's two cheeks and kissing her so innocently that his face turns bright red with shyness,
Kukukuku....
The ground around us vibrated. Birds fluttered away in a start.
Lily-ssi looked around and said,
"Ahem! Ahem! My joke went too far. Rus, calm down. This week, I'll only see him for one day. There's no need to break the treaty."
Realizing she went too far, Lily-ssi finally steps back.
It wasn't that I exuded my energy to show my resolve, but rather that my energy burst out because I imagined Stachys sharing love with Lily-ssi or Vien-ssi... Well, everything worked out well so whatever.
"Th-That's right. Rus, calm down. Why break the treaty? And Lily, since your joke went too far, you meet him on the first day."
"That's...!"
"...Lily-ssi?"
"...Understood."
She was way too greedy, so she deserved it.
At that moment, Stachys came running over.
"Guys, what's going on??"
It must be because of the energy I exuded earlier. All of us startle in surprise together.
"It's nothing, Chis-yah! Nothing's wrong! Just wait a little longer!"
I hurriedly stopped him so our ugly fight wouldn't be found out.
And I walked over to Vien and whispered,
"Vien, since we've cleared away all the important problems, shall we decide with rock-paper-scissors...?"
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As expected, the person who suggests rock-paper-scissors always loses.
In the end,
Lily-ssi on the first day,
Vien-ssi on the second and third days,
it was decided that I would meet Stachys on the fourth and fifth days.