CH 21

If he asks me that, then I have no choice but to answer.

“Uh, stalker.”

“What?!”

Dante screamed. Ah, come to think of it, I didn’t say anything about the stalker.

“A bastard who follows me just because he likes me. Let me be clear, I definitely declined. I also said I had a lover.”

When I turned my body to look up at Dante, his purple eyes were very dark and vivid. Something a little different from usual, purple is definitely a cold color, yet it feels like it’s burning.

You could even look so angry.

Soon after, a growling voice came out.

“Since when?”

“Um, I don’t remember exactly.”

I roughly counted the dates and tilted my head. I come to the next village at least once a week, and I think he’s followed me four or five times so far…

“A month, if I only count for a period of time?”

“A month?!”

At that moment, in front of us, the man who was shouting, “What are you! Where did you come from!” became quiet. His mouth is constantly twitching, yet I can’t hear any sound, so it must be magic.

I feel this again, but it’s really instant to use magic. I unknowingly cast my gaze toward that direction, but Dante continued his conversation without taking his eyes off me.

“Has that person done anything to harm you?”

“No, there was no such thing.”

If there was any harassment, I wouldn’t have stayed quiet either. I rolled my eyes as I added.

Dante opened and closed his mouth with a puzzled expression. He frowned and pressed her brow for a while, then he spoke in a suppressed voice.

“Why until now… No, we’ll talk about that later.”

When Dante stretched out his hand toward the man, a magic circle floated beneath the man’s feet.

As if he seemed taken aback by the sudden situation, the man was shouting something and pointing at him, but I didn’t see it closely.

A soft light rose from the magic circle for a while, and the man disappeared in an instant.

“What did you do?”

“I just sent him out of sight.”

Where? I was about to ask that. Sending people away with a single gesture seemed familiar to him, and I wondered how often he would use that magic to be able to use it so quickly.

Thinking he’d handled it well, he shrugged his shoulders.

So are we going home now? After looking at the spot where the man had disappeared, I looked at Dante again, but suddenly my wrist caught. It was soft enough to be easily shaken off, yet somehow it felt firm.

“Ei.”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell me until now?”

Well, if you ask me that, I have nothing to say. I just had no idea.

In the meantime, I haven’t been able to explain to others what I’ve been through. After living for a long time, I was able to handle most things by myself, and for a while, there was no one close enough whom I could tell about what I had been through.

But it’s weird to explain it like this, and it’s even weirder to say that I didn’t feel the need to say that.

I racked my brain over what I was going to say, then decided to just babble.

“Because I forget when I see your face?”

At those words, Dante grinned. Ah, it’s the usual gentle face, but why do I get goosebumps, I wonder.

“Shall we talk on the way home?”

You’re angry. I’m doomed.

***

Like that, we walked home on our own two feet through the forest road without using magic.

It’s been a while since I moved to the village, but the forest is still there. Except for the well-trimmed land, which was an abandoned dirt road, it was the scenery at the time I was living.

I glanced at the man who made the road so neat, who was swaying my hand back and forth on purpose.

Dante, who wanted to talk on the way home, didn’t say anything for a long time. But seeing that he didn’t let go of my hand during that time, I don’t think he’s angry.

“Dante.”

“…”

He didn’t answer. Is he really angry?

“Dante.”

“…Why.”

When I called him once more, he answered as if he couldn’t help it. I asked, feeling a bit awkward.

“Are you mad at me?”

At those words, Dante stood tall. After standing there for a while, he sighed, held my hands and looked at me.

Dante’s face, facing me straight, looked somewhat gloomy. I thought it would be an angry expression, but it was more like a sullen one.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, so why am I mad at you? That person is crazy.”

“No, I thought you were mad at me for not telling you.”

“That’s…”

Dante opened his lips a few times, then muttered as if he was talking to himself.

“Rather than angry… I’m regretting it.”

“Hm? Why all of a sudden?”

“Didn’t you say nothing because I wasn’t trustworthy?”

“What? No, what kind of nonsense is that?”

I raised my voice in bewilderment at the unexpected words, and Dante’s face was openly sullen.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him this depressed, so I unknowingly released Dante’s hand and grabbed his arm.

“It’s not like that. It’s just… I forgot to say it. Also, he’s not even worth caring about, and I didn’t want to even bother talking about him.”

“Still…”

“Still?”

As I followed Dante’s words and tilted my head, Dante hesitated before continuing his words.

“I should have asked first what happened. When I went to pick you up, I should have gone straight to the next village instead of meeting you after you came out of the forest.”

What are you talking about? I looked at Dante silently, and let out a long breath as he seemed to have no intention of getting angry with me until the end.

He might say, “Why didn’t you tell me?” I only thought he was thinking about how to get angry, yet he was reflecting without even asking.

Although it’s not that he thinks of himself as insignificant, I don’t know why he only becomes so small in front of me. Thinking about that, I stretched my hand over Dante’s head, and Dante lowered his stance just enough for me to pet him.

“You’ve been very busy lately to pick me up like that. Why do you keep blaming yourself?”

“…But.”

“And I didn’t say anything, so why are you regretting it?”

You’re so sweet sometimes that it’s  a problem. As I slowly stroked Dante’s hair, he closed his eyes.

“If there’s anything unusual going on in the future, I’ll remember to tell you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really.”

“You made a promise… You must tell me.”

Even if I said that, his depressed face didn’t go away. Isn’t it meaningless just to say that?

I was thinking about how to ease Dante’s mood, but at that moment, a method flashed in my head.

A way to express that I believe in Dante and if I say something like this, I’m conveying that I’m really committed to tell him everything.

“…”

No, yeah. It certainly seemed like the perfect mood to do this. But at the same time, it was such an outrageous idea.

It’s the first time I’ve developed into a relationship like this, so I’ve never thought about it any further. In fact, Marsha had asked a similar question a few days ago, yet I answered that I hadn’t thought of doing it yet.

No matter how much we live in the same house, Dante told me he would never leave, and the villagers treat us almost like a married couple, so isn’t it still a little early?

…Is it not?

The more I thought about it, the more it felt strange. It will come out someday, anyway, though?

“Ei?”

As I was shaking my brain fiercely, it seemed that my steps slowed down unconsciously. I looked up at Dante at the sound of my name being called.

Hmm. Looking at this face again, I realized that I was worrying too much.

“Phew, nevermind. It’s good if it overflows.”

“…?”

I quickly shook my head to end my thoughts. It was funny that I was thinking about this while trying to ease Dante’s mood, but it didn’t seem like a bad idea.

I can roughly predict what kind of reaction he will have, so well, the sullenness will definitely be resolved.

When I stopped on the spot, Dante followed me and stopped.

“Dante.”

“…Why?”

“You said you were going to stay with me?”

Dante nodded his head as if I was asking the obvious.

“You’re not going anywhere?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you going to continue listening to me?”

“Yeah.”

Think about it before you answer. I looked at Dante with a docile expression and cleared my throat a few times.

“Actually, there’s something that person always said, though?”

Dante looked at me curiously, as if he was lost in the flow of the conversation. I’m saying this because I have an idea, so just listen.

“Until I got married, he said that I could have several lovers, and he wanted to date me.”

“…What kind of garbage.”

“Then it was obvious to him that I was fed up with my lover, so he started talking nonsense about coming to him… No, that’s enough.”

I even spat out such useless noises. I tried my best to ignore Dante’s eyes shaping into something again.

“So I thought about what I should do to never hear that kind of thing again, and there was the simplest way.”

Saying that, I grabbed Dante’s cheeks and pulled him closer. He was as cute as usual with his eyes widening at the sudden approaching distance.

I looked him straight in the eyes and spoke in a clear voice that Dante could understand at once.

“Dante. Shall we get married?”