episode_0230

The date was fun.

No, we’re still in the middle of dating, so let me rephrase it a bit–it’s fun. 10 years, no. It’s so much fun that I’ve never had this much fun in over 100 years.

happy. Sometimes, when my hand lightly touches me while walking, my gaze naturally goes in that direction, and when I turn my gaze like that, our eyes meet. When our eyes meet like that, we smile as if it’s natural.

What should we call this if not happiness? If this is not joy, how can we express it? this… . What can I say if not love?

“Uh, Charles! Look over there. Do you sell artifacts too?”

“Want to take a look?”

“Good! Let’s go!”

I, who was smiling at Hermel, nodded and followed Hermel as he walked forward, heading towards the stall where artifacts were lined up on the stall.

A short festival after the academy’s entrance exam. There were far fewer items than the artifact store I saw that day, and it was rather unsightly.

Well, in a way, it’s natural. Is it possible that the goods in the royal capital and the goods in the remote mountainous countryside, far from the border, are the same?

Since it is a traveling troupe that travels around the country, they probably have something like this. It is unclear whether farmers on the border will use the artifact.

“Hmm… . There are a lot of things that look interesting.”

“Oh, you have eyes to see. It is an artifact that turns into tea water when placed in water.”

“If you put it in water, it becomes tea?”

“Well, the efficacy is not that great, so it takes 3 minutes to change one cup of water into tea.”

“Gehehe.”

“Fuhu… .”

That’s trash. Hermel didn’t say anything and just frowned, but I felt like I was hearing something he didn’t say, so I ended up laughing.

The stall owner also smiled when he saw Hermel’s face and held up a star-shaped ornament to show him.

“Then how about this? It is a decoration attached to the pommel, and is an artifact that flashes light every time the sword is drawn.”

“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to use it at night. Can I use it like a lantern?”

“Once the sword is fully drawn, it goes off on its own, so it cannot be used as a lantern.”

“… Where do you use something like that?”

“You don’t hang it up for use, you hang it up for style.”

In response, Hermel stepped back with a speechless expression on his face, and I chuckled as I looked at Hermel’s face and turned my head to look at other artifacts on display at the stall.

This is natural, but since most of the items were collected by traveling troupes, there was nothing that caught the eye.

Since I wasn’t there to buy a proper artifact anyway, I looked around the stall without much thought, and stopped for a moment when I came across an item that caught my eye.

At first glance, it looked like a crystal ball used by fortune tellers, but unlike ordinary crystal balls, it was hemispherical in shape and small enough to barely fill the palm of my hand.

“――And, this… .”

“What is that?”

“Yes? Ah, you mean that? Let’s see this… . Ah, this is it. It is a sphere that lights up on its own when the surroundings get dark, but it is an unfinished product that was meant to be a replacement for a lantern.”

“It’s an unfinished product… . Does that mean there is a defect?”

“Yes. The brightness is less than half of what was originally planned. It’s ambiguous to use it in place of a lantern, but it’s useless to use it for something else. In the end, it’s an ambiguous invention that doesn’t make any sense.”

“Hmm… . After listening to it, it’s hard to even call it an artifact.”

“Hahahaha! Yes. Well, aren’t all unfinished products like that?”

The store owner smiled brightly and nodded at my disparaging comments, as if he was okay with selling or not selling.

By the way, the brightness is less than half that of a lantern… . As I was looking at the goods with my arms crossed, I looked at the store owner and asked.

“If the brightness is less than half of the original plan, what level of brightness do you mean?”

“Oh, I’m sure you’re curious. I’ll show you in person.”

The store owner said so, brought a small wooden box with a hole, put the items in it, and covered it with a cloth.

“Now, if you look through the hole here, you can see how bright it is.”

“Where… .”

I took the box the store owner handed me, looked inside through the hole, and blinked.

As the store owner said, the light that was less than half that of the lantern and even that glowing softly did not hurt my eyes at all.

‘Mood etc… ?’

Okay, I can see it like this. This is the mood, etc. It’s not a real mood light, but it seemed like it would be perfect to use as a mood light.

The light intensity was much weaker than that of the mood light, but it was actually better. Because I liked this soft light more than the bright light.

“It’s okay.”

“Uh, are you going to buy it?”

“Huh? huh. I liked it.”

“Show me too.”

With those words, I handed the box to Hermel, and Hermel looked around inside the box I had seen, then tilted his head and made a questioning expression.

I could vaguely sense what he was thinking, but I didn’t dare say it out loud.

I took out my wallet while Hermel was looking inside the box.

“How much is it?”

“It was difficult to dispose of this item since it was something no one would buy anyway, so please give me about 2 silver coins.”

“It’s not bad.”

Compared to its performance, it feels expensive at around 2 silver coins, but on such a nice day, there was no need to bother bargaining, and more than anything, 2 silver coins was a price that wouldn’t even put a dent in my wallet, so I just gladly paid it.

When I paid the price neatly, the store owner who accepted the silver coin nodded and took something out of his pocket.

It was a hair tie with a crescent moon decoration, and it looked like it was worth a lot of money.

“This?”

“This is a gift to customers who purchase items from our store. Please feel free to accept it.”

“It looks quite expensive for a gift, right? If you do business like this, where do you make money?”

In response to my question, the store owner smiled arrogantly, put a hair tie in my hand and said,

“We are a traveling theater company that sells joy, not goods. We’ve already sold a lot. Oh, and you can just take the box with you.”

“Thank you.”

“Nothing to say. Because it is the duty to give good things to good customers.”

I chuckled at those words and took my hair tie.

The store owner saw that and went to another customer, and I tapped Hermel on the shoulder, who was still holding the box and tilting his head.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes… .”

“Fuhu… . Are you still unhappy that I bought that?”

“No, what… . It’s not that I dislike it, but there are many better ones than this, so I was just curious as to why I bought this. There must be a reason because Charles chose it and bought it… .”

I believe it because I was the one who bought the product. But regardless of what I believe, I have no idea where this will be used.

Hermel made that face and scratched his cheek. I laughed at that cute sight and answered, linking arms with Hermel.

“Wait a moment. You’ll find out soon.”

“If Charles is like that.”

“Oh, and would you like to bow down for a moment?”

“Huh? Yes.”

Hermel bowed slightly at my words, and I wrapped my arms around Hermel’s neck and tied Hermel’s hair with the hair tie I had brought earlier.

Hermel’s ears turned bright red, but he waited for me to finish tying up his hair. I, tying up my long straight hair, smiled and kissed Hermel’s cheek.

“Gift.”

“Huh… . It would have been okay to tie it normally… .”

It was nice, but I smiled brightly as I looked at Hermel, who was grinning and stroking the back of his neck, probably because it tickled his face.

“Including that, it’s a gift.”

When I smiled like that, Hermel blinked, pushed me against the wall, and bent down to get his face close to me.

A heated face and sparkling eyes filled with joy filled the face. Even though the sun had already set and darkness had come, Hermel’s face was shining beautifully under the moonlight.

“Then, this is repayment.”

Hermel’s face came closer, and I closed my eyes.

With a jingle, the hair tie that was tying Hermel’s hair fell down.

* * *

On the way home after a date late at night, Hermel, who was walking with great strides, expressed his regret in a voice full of laughter.

“Ahh~ If I had gone a day earlier, I would have seen the griffon training!”

“Still, I’m glad the food was sold until the last day. You could eat special food.”

“Compared to the food Charles cooked, it didn’t taste as good.”

I chuckled at the words that lifted me up and shook my head.

We walked a little further and arrived home, and the first thing we did was pack up our luggage, such as swimsuits, that we had prepared for the trip.

You may wonder what kind of swimsuit this is in the Middle Ages, but first of all, this is not the real Middle Ages, but the Middle Ages in a game. There’s no way there’s a sea event and there’s no swimsuit.

Anyway, after wrapping things up, Hermel and I lay down in bed to prepare for our trip tomorrow.

“Oh, that’s right. I almost forgot.”

“What? Did I miss anything?”

“Wait a minute.”

After saying that, I placed the mood lamp I bought at the street vendor on the table.

As I closed the curtains to hide the moonlight, the mood lights began to glow softly, and a naturally cozy atmosphere filled the room.

“How about it?”

“This… . It’s better than I thought.”

As he said that, he looked at the mood light with sparkling eyes, and at that sight, I smiled happily and lay down next to Hermel.

Hermel naturally stretched out his arm and gave me an arm pillow, and I laid down with Hermel using my arm as a pillow and hugged her.

I put it off for a while, but yeah… . Now is the time to speak. After calming down by looking at the mood, I looked into Hermel’s eyes and opened my mouth.

“Hermel, there is something I want to tell you before going to bed.”

The summer nights are deepening.