CH 13

At that moment, I could hear the carriage rattle past me. I was in a dizzy situation where if it were too late, I would’ve collided with the vehicle. Of course, since my body is different from regular human’s it wouldn’t hurt as much. I could hear the horseman driving the carriage swearing at me from afar.

“You are the one going that speed on this crowded road.”

The man behind me muttered, clicking his tongue as if he had heard the curse words. He was wearing a robe, so I couldn’t see his face clearly, but his voice sounded familiar.

“Are you okay…”

His dark purple eyes were shaking and looked at me. We both stood there for a moment, speechless. I’ve already forgotten that I almost got hit by a carriage just now. The warrior couldn’t take his eyes off me. He even blinked several times and rubbed his eyes.

“I didn’t know you were here.”

He spoke first.

“I’m here to relax. What are you doing here?”

“I’m on vacation too… secret vacation.”

The warrior smiled as he slightly pulled down his hood.

“So I’d rather you call me by my first name than by warrior.”

“Ah, I see. Haron.”

There is nothing more attractive than being called a warrior in such a crowded place. When Tina was younger, she had a very hard time calling me out in front of others, and would say ‘The Devil~ The Devil~’.

“I’m a little surprised but I’m glad to see you again.”

“Oh, yes…”

A smile slowly spread on Haron’s face. It looks like he’s shaking his imaginary tail like a puppy.

“Lucia!”

Tina, who happened to go near the fountain in the square, belatedly called me and ran. I feel like I was immersed in all sorts of strange things just now.

“…Lucia?”

Haron who was next to her, muttered casually to himself. I pointed my finger at myself as if saying ‘that’s my name’ and only then did he nod his head.

“Lucia, I’m sorry! I got distracted by something else. We can go wherever you want now… why, why is this man here?!”

Tina quickly hid behind me as soon as she saw Haron. Then she pointed her trembling finger at him and shot a weary look.

“Tina, it’s rude to point your finger.”

“But…!”

She grabbed one of my arms and glared at Haron. I asked for understanding instead.

“Sorry. She’s a little fierce.”

“…”

“I don’t bite, so don’t worry.”

“Huh? Oh…”

Fortunately, he didn’t seem to care about Tina’s rudeness.

“… Lucia, let’s go now.”

“Yes, we should.”

I patted her on the shoulder as she whined, and then bowed slightly to the warrior saying ‘we’ll leave now’.

As soon as I turned around, the warrior called me in a hurry.

“I was wondering.”

“…?”

“… Don’t you need an escort?”

“…What?”

I stared at him blankly. Haron’s face was red and he looked like he didn’t even know what he was talking about.

“Oh, or a guide?”

“…”

His expression, which seemed increasingly desperate, turned into laughter. I put my hand over my mouth as I also started laughing and then looked at him.

‘The warrior stays at the lord’s castle so he might know the location of the Mahone Stones… there’s a lot of information to dig out.’

After calculating this and that in my head for a while, I opened my mouth.

“You’re… strong aren’t you, Mr. Haron?”

“What?”

He asked me back as if he couldn’t understand the intention behind my question. I smirked.

“If you don’t mind being a porter, would you like to come with us?” (In this case it means being responsible for carrying guests luggage, so she’s putting him to work ¬‿¬ )

***

“Look at this Lucia, isn’t it pretty?”

After Tina put on a dress, she spun around. The dress has brown lace on it, and with her fresh blonde hair, she looked like a sunflower under the sun. Or a baby bee.

“You look so good!”

“You’re so cute!”

“What an angel!”

All the staff in the dressing room praised her. It may just be words for show, but it felt sincere. With my mother mode on, I pulled Haron next to her, and he stood blankly.

“Isn’t she beautiful?”

“…Yes.”

“Um… I’m talking about over there.”

“Oh.”

Haron turned his head and glanced at Tina in her new dress for a moment, and then looked at me again.

“Pretty.”

“You’re lacking sincerity.”

“…Very cute.”

“That’s enough. I’m a fool for asking.”

There’s no need for me to continue. I grumbled and looked at Tina with my arms folded again. Whenever she chose more pretty clothes, she asked him how it looked, but his response was always the same.

After that, we went around the street and picked out more clothes for Tina. One was because the ribbon was cute, the other was more mature, and so on. Tina’s decision of choosing something cute she wore eventually led to her choosing every single clothing she tried on. She looked good in anything. The shopping finally ended when Tina got tired of trying on dozens of outfits.

“Please pay for all this.”

I approached the worker to pay the bill, however, the employee’s eyes widened and shook his hands.

“Oh my! The gentleman that was next to you paid for it. Didn’t you know?”

“What?”

I looked straight back at Haron. When I squinted at him, he avoided my gaze. I heard the employee laughing behind me saying ‘you have a good lover’.

“…Are you hungry? Let’s go.”

“Yeah.”

I followed him after speaking in a small nasal voice. Tina still seemed dissatisfied with Haron, but she quickly came while grinning. I wondered if she was happy for simply being out after a while. It was a scene where she often wandered around while Haron and I watched from behind. Before I knew it, his hands were full of things we had bought. I wanted to ask ‘do you want to be a porter for real?’ as a joke, but that might’ve been too much.

“I’m sorry, there’s a lot of luggage. Is it heavy?”

“It’s okay. It’s not too heavy…”

Haron looked down at his hands and said while shaking his head.

“I can do this myself. It’s not heavy to the point my hands hurt.”

“But you just said…”

I had no choice. I walked near a vacant lot where there weren’t many people around me.

‘The weather is really nice.’

The gentle wind touched my face. It wasn’t too hot or too cold, and the sun was warm. At that moment, a small leaf fell down in Haron’s hair.

“Oh, wait a minute.”

I reached for the leaf to help him since his hands were full from all the luggage. But as I approached him, he took a step back with surprise, and that happened a couple of times.

“Please stay still.”

“Oh, no that’s…”

I held him tightly and reached for his hair so he wouldn’t run away like before. Since he is taller, I had to get closer.

“That… there!”

After trying, I succeeded in removing the leaf from his hair. It was then I looked at him in joy.

“Look! It was stuck in your hair…”

…Oh, was I too close? I looked at his face in front of me which was turning red. Maybe he’s too close? I slowly took a step back. He looked like he wanted to cover his face right now, so he lowered his head. Seeing his ears burning up, I felt embarrassed because I feel like I was a troublemaker who made fun of an innocent person.

“… Well, that’s all. There was just a leaf…”

“… Yes.”

“I didn’t… have any other intentions.”

“… Yes.”

The atmosphere became awkward.

Shortly after, we walked around until Tina ran up and came between us.