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Chapter 31 Part 2

After we had finished eating, Sybilla and I quickly changed our clothes and were ready to depart.

 

「Russell-chan.」

 

—When Frederica suddenly called out to me.

 

「What is it?」

 

「Nothing, I just wanted to call you.」

 

What’s with that…?

As I tilted my head in puzzlement, Frederica was smiling happily for some reason. However, her eyes soon turned serious, and then… she wrapped my entire body with both of her arms.

It wasn’t as clear since I was wearing armor right now, but I could definitely feel something pressing against my chest. 

Frederica’s peach-colored hair was swaying out of the corner of my eyes.

 

「Promise me you’ll come back alive, okay?」

 

「…Yeah, I promise. I’m a 【Saint】 with limitless magic power, so unless it’s an attack that guarantees an instant death, I won’t die so easily. And since I’m wearing this armor today, it should be safer than yesterday.」

 

Frederica backs away and looks into my eyes.

 

「…Nn, I understand. I’ll hold onto your words.」

 

「Oh, right. If possible, would you take the kids and stay away from the village while I’m gone?」

 

「You must have a reason your reasons for that, right? Un, I’ll do that.」

 

Lastly, she said 「Have a safe trip」 to us, and went back inside the orphanage.

 

Still, I know and fully realize that my request was somewhat over-the-top, but… that’s just how worried I am.

Well, it’s not like I have told her that I can use Dark Magic. Right now, she probably just sees me as a Healer with strong equipment.

I’m not so insensitive as to openly reveal the existence of the Twilight Goddess to the Sisters of the Sun Goddess religion, even though they’re already like substitutes for the parents who raised me.

Besides, if I had told her about it, Frederica herself could be in danger because of this information.

 

Incidentally, the Goddess in question is saying incomprehensible things like,「I thought my only rival was the childhood friends, but I didn’t expect that there was such a hot sister around…」, so I ignored her.

 

Our exploration this time is, of course, going smoothly as usual.

I have better equipment than yesterday and I don’t feel like I’m going to lose, no matter how many Black Goblins appear. I just had to keep in mind that I should never let my guard down.

 

「About these equipments…」

 

Sybilla suddenly called out to me.

 

「You know, moving up the ranks little by little and obtaining better equipment along the way is nice and all, but instantly getting strong by buying the most expensive equipment feels thrilling too, don’t you think!?」

 

「I get you. Even though I know that it’s the result of a hard-fought battle, obtaining this kind of high-rank equipment all of a sudden certainly does feel thrilling…」

 

If from Sybilla’s perspective having this armor equals 『instantly becoming strong』, then there’s no doubt about its quality anymore, isn’t it?

Besides, I completely understand how good it feels to become strong all of a sudden.

The moment when I, who was useless in the middle layer, learned Dark Magic and managed to defeat a dragon in the lower layer couldn’t even describe half of how good I felt.

I think this girl’s sensibilities match mine in that respect.

 

As I got used to my new weapon and shield, making sure it felt comfortable in my hands, we steadily made our way through the second floor.

The second layer, where the enemies are more sluggish, is in a sense easier to conquer than the first layer, and we easily wipe out the Living Armors using chantless magic.

 

「Come to think of it, I wonder why Frederica was looking at me so much yesterday.」

 

「Oh, could it be that you don’t get it~?」

 

「……So you do, Sybilla?」

 

「Of course!」

 

How come only Sybilla who just met Frederica for the first time yesterday can understand her? Or… is this what they call a woman’s intuition?

Just thinking about it vexes me so I just decided to shut up and I signaled her with my chin to explain.

 

「Russell, I’ve heard that you are, unlike your childhood friend, Vince, trying to be mindful of where you look when you’re in front of a girl with big breasts, right~?」

 

「——!? Just where did you hear that!?」

 

「Yesterday, after you went to bed, in a girls talk between us three girls. Ah, and Gemma Baa-san is counted as a girl, of course, since girls are girls no matter how old they are.」

 

This girl……!

She told me to go to bed early and gave her reasons for it, and I actually thought that her reasons were valid, but… her real intention was to get Frederica to talk about me after I went to bed, huh!?

And so she was able to figure out the reason just with that little exchange yesterday, huh…

Haa seriously, reacting to this girl’s cheeky comments each and every time is just so tiring that I no longer have the energy left to feel annoyed.

……Those two didn’t tell her anything weird, right?

 

「Ah, don’t get me wrong, I’m not making fun of you, you know. I’m just relieved that Russell is not 『a guy who would brazenly stare at women without hesitation』 but 『a guy who does his best not to stare too much even if it’s right in front of you.』」

 

「…Oh, so that’s what you meant…」

 

I knew she was shaking them on purpose, but she didn’t do it because she wanted to tease me or anything like that.

 

「And then… ah, right, she was laughing when she saw our banter, right? She was probably relieved because it looked like you no longer acted reserved with your comrade. Really, she’s such a good big sister, isn’t she?」

 

I see. It seems Frederica was worried because I’ve become that much of a different person and she was afraid because she didn’t know just how much of me had changed.

But she still wanted to make sure that at the core, I’m still me.

 

「You’re really loved, huh.」

 

「Haa… you can say that again.」

 

I don’t know what my parents looked like, but I’m really glad that I was brought up in such a nice environment.

And even though it’s a bit vexing… I still have to thank Sybilla too for it.

She’s a well-prepared and thoughtful partner when the time calls for it.

 

Maybe she looked at me now and was worried about how I fight.

So much so that she might have misunderstood that I was going to fight without regard for my own life.

Really… I didn’t even realize this kind of thing until it was pointed out to me. Sometimes I hate myself for being so insensitive.

 

But thanks to this, there’s more reason I can’t die here.

 

「Alright, let’s end the talk here. Let’s continue.」

 

「Okay~! It sure does get easier the second time around!」

 

We then switched our gears to focus back on the exploration and made our way to the Cavalry Living Armor.

Of course, for this second time, we were able to defeat it easily.