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Chapter 37

【Heroes Party Side】Emmy: Relieving My Mental Burden, My Reliable and Considerate Best Friend, and… In The Name Of Goodwill…

 

It’s the next morning after I decided to talk things out with Jannet.

 

I woke up from my sleep without the usual fuzzy feeling and my head felt strangely refreshed.

When I remove the blanket covering my body, I notice that the light coming in through the window is dim blue.

For a moment, I wondered if it was still nighttime.

 

Just the day before yesterday, I always had a headache that wouldn’t stop every time I woke up because I had a lot of things on my mind.

And “Heal” is surprisingly ineffective for this kind of symptom… Perhaps I should’ve asked Jannet to cast “Cure” for me.

I think it was also because of all of the nightmares that kept torturing me in my sleep. Well, it’s not like I can remember them after I woke up, so I don’t know exactly what my dreams were about.

 

I was still having some thoughts on my mind yesterday too, but I was able to go to bed right away nonetheless.

I am sure it was because I talked to Jannet about it.

I feel like sharing my pent-up worries with Jannet has eased the burden on my mind.

I never thought having someone to share your worries like this would help me so much. Especially since Janet is so smart, I feel like she would be able to think through the parts this stupid brain of mind can’t understand.

Although I feel a bit guilty that Jannet has to worry about it as much as I do now since I shared it with her.

 

Still, I can’t believe it’s still early in the morning.

It’s a big step up from yesterday when I overslept.

It feels really refreshing somehow.

 

……But, what was it again…? I feel like there’s a proper way to call this dark sky in the morning…… I remembered Jannet taught me about it and I thought it was a cool-sounding name.

 

……Dark… And Morning? I’m pretty sure it sounds like Darn or Darm or something… was it Darn? Yeah, I think it’s Darn. Good good, looks like I still remember.

 

「It’s Dawn.」

 

「Hweh?」

 

When I look to my side, I see a girl who, like me, just got up out of bed.

She stares at me for a few seconds with her usual half-opened eyes, then sighs in exasperation.

 

「On the night side, there’s twilight, dusk, and midnight. And in the morning side, there’s dawn, daybreak, and sunrise. Now are you going to sleep already?」

 

「Ah, Ahaha…」

 

We just woke up and she suddenly wanted to end the day? O-oh no… this girl is completely out of it.

And she was also the one who retorted to fix my mistake, my smart and kind best friend.

 

「Good morning, Jannet.」

 

「N, Morning.」

 

She still looks somewhat sleepy as she wobbles to the left and right while rubbing her eyes with her hand.

 

「My, you two sure are early today~」

 

Jannet and I couldn’t help but startled when another voice chimed in and we turned around to where the voice was coming from.

 

「——O-Oh my, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to surprise the both of you like that.」

 

A blonde woman scratches her head as she reveals her face from under the blanket.

She’s a woman with perfect beauty that made me realize once again that I’m just a woman from the countryside.

 

「Ah, ahaha… I’m sorry. Good morning, Katie-san.」

 

「Yes~ Good morning, too, Emmy-san!」

 

As I thought, Katie-san was full of charm and her smile just looked so pure and innocent without a trace of suspiciousness.

Hmmm, it’s to the point where I feel like I’m the bad one for suspecting her.

 

As a matter of course, Katie-san turns her gaze at Jannet next.

But… Jannet didn’t say anything to her.

Katie-san, who’s probably confused, keeps looking back and forth at me and Jannet with her eyes blinking more often. Whoa, look at those long eyelashes.

 

Wait, no, it’s not the time for that! Jannet, why aren’t you saying anything!?

Don’t tell me you’re already doubting Katie-san because I talked to you about my suspicions yesterday!?

Isn’t it way too soon!?

 

Me who was all nervous and Katie-san was just watching her when Jannet suddenly stood up.

W-wait——!

 

「…Umm, I don’t have my change of clothes here, so…」

 

——Eh?

 

Jannet pulled off Katie-san’s blanket and… revealed an overwhelmingly sexy outfit if I had to put a word on it.

Only her breasts and butt are covered in a proper fabric while the rest of her body is only covered in a semi-transparent, curtain-like fabric.

 

「Katie-san, you said you don’t have your change of clothes here, but… don’t tell me, you don’t intend to go to the bath only wearing that negligee, don’t you?」

 

「Umm… is that bad?」

 

「The men passing by won’t be able to keep walking straight if you do that, so please don’t. Or rather, have you been walking around in that outfit since yesterday? Haa…… I’ll lend you my cloak, so be sure to change your clothes when you go to the bath.」

 

「Oh? My my my~! Jannet-san, you’re willing to do that for me? Fufufu, what a sweet and considerate girl you are~!」

 

Katie-san smiled gently as she hugged and stroked Jannet’s blue hair.

Jannet was a little uncomfortable with that, saying, 「Please stop……」 but she didn’t even try to put up too much resistance of her own, perhaps because she was embarrassed.

 

……What a relief……

Well, even I know it’s not a good idea to question her right away, so there’s no way Janet would be that careless…

 

「Well then, I’ll be going ahead.」

 

Katie-san then put on Jannet’s cloak and headed to have a morning bath. I wondered if there was hot water this early in the morning… but then I remembered if it’s that person, she could just make her own hot water easily.

 

After seeing Katie-san leave the room, Jannet turned her head to me.

 

「You surprised me you know? I thought you were gonna start questioning her or something.」

 

「As expected I won’t do such a thing. But, I saw something.」

 

「What? What did you see? The pattern on her negligee?」

 

「……Ei.」

 

A chop comes flying in from Jannet.

But it doesn’t hurt at all. Or rather, it was cute.

 

「I’m talking about her eyes. Sure, they were beautiful, but you don’t see those types of eyes around here very often.」

 

「Her eyes? Ah~ her eyes are indeed beautiful, aren’t they?」

 

「Un. I’ve never seen eyes as beautiful as hers. And that’s what’s weird to me… I don’t understand how come that there’s not even a rumor about a solo adventurer with such outstanding beauty, or anyone ever trying to recruit her. So it made me wonder if there’s anyone around here who has golden eyes like her.」

 

……As I thought, Jannet really thinks about it a lot, unlike my dumb self.

She’s really reliable, as expected of my smart best friend!

 

「Let’s leave Katie-san’s mystery aside for now and start to get change too.」

 

「Yeah.」

 

Jannet and I changed our clothes and continued our conversation in the room.

It’s been a long while since we had a casual conversation like this and we also exchanged information about the various magic we had learned with each other.

 

Then, Katie-san, who had just finished her bath, joined us halfway in our conversation.

Katie-san had also learned some useful and reliable magic, probably because her level had risen all at once.

Jannet and Katie-san exchanged information about their offensive magic and their impression of it with each other as fellow mages.

……Oh right, she had told me about this magic before, didn’t she?

 

「I have finally learned how to use “Protection” and “Magic Coating”.」

 

「My! That’s wonderful~! Now that you’ve learned it, let me tell you a secret so you can be more of a help to everyone!」

 

「Really!? I can’t wait to hear it.」

 

「Yes, yes, of course! From this moment, it’s time for the 【Holy Knight】 Emmy to show what she’s truly capable of to the world!」

 

Yeah… maybe I shouldn’t overthink it after all.

Katie-san being a mysterious type is not something that happen today, so… yeah, it’s okay, it’s okay.

I’m sure the person herself has no malicious intent.

 

The morning is still long.

The three of us have girls talk leisurely as we wait for Vince to wake up.

 

And then came… daybreak, was it? Around the time we passed this time of the day, the area around the inn started to get crowded, and we all had breakfast together.

It would be weird to avoid him too much, so today I sat next to Vince and ate in silence.

Vince glanced at me a few times, but I just gave him a quick good morning and ignored him for the rest of the breakfast.

 

「…..Do the two of you rarely talk with each other?」

 

「Hm? Ah, yeah… well, we’re just used to it.」

 

「Used to it, huh? Fufu, a mature relationship like that is nice too, isn’t it~」

 

Vince is talking to Katie-san. But I think she just developed a weird misunderstanding.

Or that’s what I thought, but Katie-san is staring at me, not Vince.

 

「……Umm?」

 

「No no, it’s nothing. I just thought, don’t you want to join the conversation?」

 

「No, not really, I think… well, we’ve always been together anyway.」

 

「My, always together!」

 

I wondered what made her so happy hearing those words, as she put a big smile on her face again while looking back and forth at me and Vince.

……As I thought, you’re such a mystery, Katie-san. I don’t really get what this person is thinking.

 

After we finished our breakfast, we went back to our room and discussed about exploring the dungeon again today or not.

I thought Katie-san might push the idea since she wanted the dragon armor, but she easily agreed that we should take a day off.

 

「We will just accumulate fatigue if we explore the dungeon every day. So let’s make sure we all get a proper break.」

 

「Nnー Katie looks like she has a lot of experience compared to us, so if that’s what you think is the best, then I’m fine with it. Besides, it’s been a while since I’ve gone exploring for two days in a row.」

 

I think we can trust Katie-san’s judgment and Vince seemed to respect her opinion as the person with the most experience among us too. Well, I don’t think Vince would have rejected Katie-san’s decision even if he didn’t.

And that Vince said that he would spend the day strolling in town while looking around stuff. I’m sure he’s just going to play around… but he’d better not be wasting his money.

 

「Do you wanna tag along?」, After Vince was ready to go out, he asked me before he left… but of course, I refused.

 

Maybe it’s the result of putting together every little detail of how his words and behavior.

As expected even I can guess what he really had in mind when he invited me. Besides, girls are sensitive to the way guys look at them, regardless of whether they are smart or not.

Right now, I still don’t know how to look Vince in the face after he kicked Russell out of the party.

 

In the end, I just sent Vince off with a halfhearted feeling and went back to my room again, and there, I found Katie-san sitting alone.

 

「Katie-san, do you know where Jannet is?」

 

「I tried calling out to her, but she said she had to run an errand and now went out. Ah! Actually, this is perfect since I want to talk to Emmy-san about something! How about it?」

 

I ended up agreeing without thinking about it deeply.

And I would regret myself for nodding my head without any preparation.

……This is why I’m just no good.

 

Little did I know, the content of what Katie-san was about to tell me… is something that would affect my destiny.

 

「Now, I’m going to tell you the secret of how you can make the most of the most powerful defensive magic, “Protection” that will be useful to you as a member of the Hero’s Party!」

 

「A secret, is it?」

 

「Yes! I’m sure Emmy-san will be able to use it! It didn’t work when I tried to instruct you to use it yesterday, but after seeing Emmy-san this morning, I’m sure it will work this time!」

 

Then I was told the whole truth by Katie-san who excitedly explained it to me.

 

No matter how stupid I am, her explanation was enough to make sense of everything I’ve done all this time.

 

I understand everything now.

About myself, and what my Job is all about.

 

A Job with the strongest defense, the【Holy Knight】.

A Job which has the role of protecting the Hero’s Party.

 

And to break the spirit of such Holy Knight——.

 

「The 【Holy Knight】 has a special skill. When activated, the shield will shine brightly and unleash a powerful force that can blow away your enemies no matter how strong they are! And the activation condition is… guess what? It’s the moment you become conscious of the person you love! Kyaaaa! Isn’t that like, romantic? It’s literally the power of love you know~!」

 

——just one goodwill is enough.