Chapter 219: (5/3): Running Away

“Milla.”

“Yes?”

“Why are you in here? This is the bathroom.” An exasperated sigh escaped from Kagriss’s mouth, but Camilla didn’t leave.

“It’s not like you actually have to do anything here. You’re just trying to get away from me.”

Kagriss looked away, since Camilla was right on the money; she really was trying to avoid Camilla. Camilla’s constant presence was starting to wear on her. 

On the other hand, Kagriss didn’t think that she should be blamed. The change in Camilla was just too big; one moment Camilla was totally normal and coming back from the commission, and the next day Camilla was practically joined at the hip to her. It all began with that stupid record that Victoria showed them.

Considering that Kagriss had always been the one to stick to and bother Camilla for affection, the sudden reversal made her uncomfortable.

Kagriss coughed. “You’re right, I don’t really need to be here. Let’s go somewhere else, okay?”She didn’t mind being seen in the bathroom with Camilla, but Camilla had an image to maintain. She could only imagine the ruckus that Ismelda would make if that woman ever came across them in such a situation. “Where do you want to go?” she asked.

“Anywhere is fine.”

They snuck out of the bathroom after checking that the coast was clear, with Camilla still following closely behind Kagriss, just short of holding onto the latter’s sleeve. 

Camilla was so close that all of a sudden, even the mansion that Victoria lived in seemed too small to accommodate a clingy Camilla. Kagriss felt the walls close in on her. 

Camilla at arm’s length all day every day was perfect for Kagriss, but when that same Camilla was constantly so close as to brush against her, it was too much for even Kagriss. For the first time, Kagriss realized what the saying “be careful what you wish for” really meant, and she really did regret having once hoped that Camilla would show more affection toward her in their day to day life.

“I need a bigger space…”

“A bigger space?” Camilla repeated, making Kagriss jump as she realized that she had accidentally let her inner thoughts leak over their bond. 

“Wait… I mean…” What else did she leak? Kagriss really hoped she didn’t leak anything rude with how Camilla was right now. The state that Camilla was in… Kagriss didn’t want to imagine the consequences.

Unaware of the rest of Kagriss’s inner thoughts, Camilla thought seriously about Kagriss’s wish before settling on a location. “If you want, we could go out into the mountains. We’ve mostly been stuck in the city, and when we went to the mountains for the mission, the weather was very unpleasant and we were in a hurry.” She pointed out a mountain in the far distance. It was a small mountain. “Let’s go over to that one over there and stay for a while. Together.”

The mountains. That was just what Kagriss needed. 

In the mountains, there will be no one but her to see the clingy side of Camilla. With how calming it was in the wild with no distractions, it’ll be easier for her to accept how Camilla was right now.

The change in setting will do Camilla’s mental health good as well. 

Kagriss nodded in agreement. “Let’s go then. Do you have anything to prepare or can we go now?”

“Now is good. You first.”

Unlike before, ever since their meeting with Victoria, Camilla had never made the first move. She would always watch Kagriss go first and then follow after, never letting Kagriss out of her sight. Having a pair of eyes on her all the time, watching her every move, was unnerving. After experiencing that for multiple days in a row, Kagriss cringed when she remembered her own actions while following behind Camilla.

When Camilla went back to normal, Kagriss swore that she’ll give Camilla more personal space.

After a few more moments to check if Camilla was really serious, Kagriss sighed and cast the spell she used for flying, lifting from the ground. She held out her hand. “Come on.”

A small smile crossed Camilla’s face then and she grabbed Kagriss’s hand, her own wings spreading out from where they were hidden under her skirt. Under Kagriss’s lead, they head straight for the mountain that Camilla pointed out.

Even though they were still in the midst of the coldest times of winter, the weather was surprisingly pleasant today. The sun was concealed by a thin cover of clouds, but just enough light shone through to make the day warm. The wind wasn’t heavy either, so that warmth wasn’t blown away.

Although the mountain was far away, it didn’t take long for Kagriss and Camilla to get there flying. The mountain was covered by trees, but even so, there were a few rocky bare patches and cliffs. They landed on the edge of one such rock and sat down at the same time with Camilla’s fingers still stubbornly intertwined with Kagriss’s. Even when Kagriss tried to gently pull away, Camilla’s hand simply followed along with her struggling motions, leaving Kagriss speechless.

However, she allowed Camilla to hold on as they just sat together.

Her guess had been right. Once they were away from Victoria’s mansion, Camilla visibly calmed down, even kicking her legs idly while sitting at the edge of the cliff. While Camilla had previously hung on to Kagriss’s fingers so tightly that their knuckles turned white, her hand was now laid loosely over Kagriss’s hands.

It was clear that the mountain air and the lack of other people around did wonders for Camilla’s mood. There was no reason to go back.

“Do you want to go somewhere by ourselves? We haven’t really explored yet since we’ve been rushing and rushing since we got here,” Kagriss said. 

Camilla nodded. “Where?”

“Where you say… anywhere. The possibilities are limitless. All those places where we would've gone for missions seem like nice places to be if we don’t have a particular goal. An example would be…” Kagriss thought back to the mission pamphlets she had flipped through. She stopped when she got to a C-ranked herb gathering mission. “Do you remember seeing a mission that would have sent us on a long trip to a heat zone forest?”

“I remember, I think,” Camilla said. They both shared a near eidetic memory when it came to memorizing images. 

For good measure, Kagriss did her best to provide her recollection to Camilla through their bond, and she felt a burst of recognition from Camilla. 

“Yes, that’s the one I was thinking of. Is that where you wanted to go?”

“If I remember correctly, it’s not too far away from here, which was why we didn’t take the mission in the first place. A few days on Elyss, but if we fly as we are now…”

“It shouldn’t take more than a day, right?” Camilla finished Kagriss’s sentence for her.

A bit of the former glow in Camilla’s eyes returned to her and Kagriss quickly nodded, not wanting to see it fade. “Yes. So what do you think?”

“If it’s a place that Kagriss wants to go, then I naturally have no objections.”

Still wasn’t the normal Camilla, but that was as much as Kagriss could hope for at this moment. Taking the initiative to take a firmer hold on Camilla’s hand, Kagriss pulled Camilla up. “Let’s go!”

“Okay…? Wait…”

They backed up a little for a running start and jumped off the edge of the cliff, with Kagriss having no intentions of activating her magic.

“What are you doing?!”

For a moment, Camilla froze, unsure of what to do, but with the ground rushing up to meet them both, Camilla spread out her wings and stopped their fall mere moments before they crashed into the trees. Only their intertwined fingers prevented Kagriss’s hands from slipping out of Camilla’s grip.

When Kagriss looked up, Camilla was panting with her eyes wide open. 

“Why did you do that?!”

“It’s not like I’ll get hurt even if I fall,” Kagriss said, giving her a big smile. “Besides, you caught me, didn’t you? Carry me.”

Camilla didn’t know what to say. Kagriss was being so nonchalant about the whole ordeal, and she was right, that Camilla couldn’t find a rebuttal, so she settled with a glare. “It was instinct… don’t scare me next time.”

“I’m sorry. I won’t,” Kagriss promised her and allowed Camilla to pull her into a bridal carry. It was the only way that Camilla could hold her while keeping her wings free. Kagriss looped her arm around Camilla’s neck, and her close presence and quiet, steady breaths made Camilla’s tense muscles loosen and relax. “Sorry for worrying you.”

“...it’s fine.”

“Am I heavy?” Kagriss asked. In response, Camilla tightened her grip, and that was enough of an answer.

With her wings, Camilla was fast. They cleared the summit of the mountain in an instant and flew over the endless verdant forests below. Eventually, they moved over a swamp. A huge monster covered by slime reared its head from the murky waters and sprayed a jet of mud up at them.

To be expected from an ambush hunter, the monster had completely hidden its mana and only revealed itself the moment it attacked. However, this time they picked the wrong target.

As easily as she breathed, Camilla shifted her wings a little and dipped smoothly into a shallow dive. The glob of mud soared harmlessly by and Camilla pulled back up as if nothing happened.

The whole process went so smoothly that Kagriss almost didn’t feel a thing, and that’s how it should be.

“That wasn’t very hard, was it?”

“Since the change, reacting to sudden attacks like that has gotten so much easier,” Camilla replied. “On the other hand, that thing is very good at hiding. We’d probably have been caught had we passed through here on foot.”

“Even so, we can defeat it, can’t we?”

Camilla nodded after measuring their respective strengths. As what seemed like an old mana beast that had a long time to accrue strength, the slime monster had a vast amount of mana at its disposal. However, Camilla thought that if she and Kagriss worked together, they’d easily be able to take it down as they were now.

She considered diving down and put that to the test, but when she thought about fighting that filthy looking monster up close, she quickly abandoned the thought and continued flying, even speeding up some more to get out of the swampy region.

Beyond the swamp was rolling plains, and after the plains was forest again. However, this forest was different from the kind often seen down south.

Instead of having needle-like leaves, straight trunks, and a lack of undergrowth, the forest ahead of them seemed more like the kind found further north, with big leafy trees. At ground level, there were bushes and ferns that hid the ground, and a wave of heat drifted up from below them.

The Heat Forest, a forest that grew above a hotspot of fire mana.

“We’re here,” Camilla said, landing on a tree branch and withdrawing her wings. She put Kagriss down next to her and they stood straight, overlooking the wilderness beneath them. They couldn’t see too far, as the leaves of nearby trees blocked their sight, but they could feel the vitality of the forest through their senses.

The life in the forest practically jumped out at them. From all the colorful plants that sprouted here and there to the animals that boldly stepped out as long as Camilla and Kagriss hide their true natures, the Heat Forest was unlike anywhere else that Camilla had ever been.

“All this vitality must come from the mana from the earth… the warmth this place provides this far south must be like an oasis in a desert.”

“It does show. And it’s not just beautiful too…” Kagriss said. She half turned and followed with her eyes a blur that passed by her face, just barely dodged. The small animal that tried to attack them landed on the trunk of a tree, took one look at them, and went off to find easier prey. “It must have been curious since it’s never seen things like us. Does no one come here even though there are missions?”

“It seems there’s something a lot more dangerous lurking deeper inside,” Camilla replied. She must have read it from somewhere.

“Do you want to head in?” Kagriss asked.

Camilla shook her head. “Maybe sometime else. Right now, I just want to…” 

Just want to calm down and not think about anything…