Looming Dark Clouds (3)

It would be a lie to say Yona wasn’t interested in the festival.

There’s no way the lively and talkative Yona would dislike a festival.

Although Evian was a large city close to being a medium-sized city, and was said to be a lively city to the point of being called an adventurers’ city, there were no such festivals.

But to say it’s an adventurers’ city also means it’s a city of transients, and while there are certainly people who settle and live there, there are also many who wander here and there, so there were no events with traditional value like festivals.

Moreover, being the people-loving person she is, Yona is more than welcoming of such festivals.

It wasn’t Alec’s imagination that Yona’s steps seemed particularly light as they entered the village after hearing about the festival from the self-defense force member.

“It does feel different because of the festival.”

“It’s our first time here, isn’t it?”

“I’m just saying it feels that way, you baldy.”

Watching Yona humming a tune, Alec couldn’t help but smile.

As they entered the village and looked for an inn, scanning the faces of people passing by, it indeed seemed like a festival was imminent.

The joy and happiness, excitement and thrill blooming on people’s faces couldn’t be hidden and were sublimating into happy smiles.

Expressions of joy filling each face, not just superficial pleasure.

“The atmosphere is amazing.”

Alec too seemed intoxicated by the city’s atmosphere, his face blooming with a wide smile.

Even while walking side by side with Yona, Alec was busy looking around with a grin.

“It is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this in Evian. Oh, wait.”

Yona stopped in her tracks, causing Alec to stop as well.

As street stalls are essential for a festival, the place where Yona stopped was none other than a waffle stall.

Although it was very different from the waffles with grid-like indentations in Yona’s memory, and was just a pancake pressed flat, it was still a waffle, so Yona unconsciously swallowed her saliva and stopped.

“What? Want to eat? Should I buy you one?”

When Alec, who had come closer, asked Yona, she frowned at him instead of answering.

Then she stuck out her tongue and took out a few copper coins from her own pocket.

“I have money too, you know. You might think I always freeload, but that’s not the case. Auntie, two of these please.”

“Oh my, two. Just a moment, please.”

The stall owner, a woman with a very good build to the point of looking like she might burst, wiped her hands on her apron that was originally white but now blackened with grime, and pressed two pancakes between two pans.

The pancake pressed between the pans that had been gently heated on the brazier flattened instantly.

As the pancake batter that oozed out was heated, gaining crispiness, although it was far from the waffle Yona had in mind in terms of shape and taste, it was still a decent snack.

“Thank you, I’ll enjoy it!”

Yona received the waffles with a smile so bright that even the person who sold them couldn’t help but smile.

The price was four copper coins.

Although it was hard to say it was cheap, Yona didn’t mind.

She compared the sizes by overlapping the two waffles.

Since the waffles were made by hand-pressing, they couldn’t all be the same size, so she did this, and indeed, they were different sizes.

“Here, eat this one.”

And she handed the one that seemed larger to Alec.

“This one’s bigger, why don’t you eat it?”

“Look at your size. You’re about twice my size. You should eat the bigger one.”

Alec took the waffle Yona was offering.

A warm temperature was transmitted.

Alec knew it too.

He knew well that Yona was also taking care of Alec in her own way, knowingly or unknowingly.

Occasionally, when there was equipment Alec hadn’t managed to bring, Yona would give it to Alec without hesitation, and whether it was food or water, Yona prioritized Alec over herself.

On the surface, she said it was because her chances of survival increased if he survived, but Alec thought there must have been something more than just camaraderie.

Just like now.

Like the warmth of the waffle Yona handed him.

Cantatien was a very prosperous village, good for living.

With the Cantasia River flowing behind it and the Viridia Plains spreading out in front, and the Nasikus River flowing on the other side, it was good for farming, and with the abundant forest of the Kapatia Woods, it was an excellent environment for livestock as well.

Moreover, if you go towards Lizard Den, there’s a colony of Orencia flowers, which could be called the protagonist of this festival.

Orencia flowers are quite large in size, and with five to six petals, they are thin and large, making for a pretty shape.

Moreover, the stem is tall and lanky, and the leaves are wide and shapely, making it perfect for flower arrangements or bouquets.

At this time when winter is heading towards mid-winter, Orencia flowers begin to scatter their seeds.

The seeds are also white, so when the cold winter wind blows, the scattering white seeds create a spectacular sight, often producing a scene that looks like snowflakes fluttering.

The Orencia Festival of Cantatien, held around the time when these seeds start to spread, was about to begin.

“This must be the Orencia flower.”

Orencia flowers were everywhere.

Not just flower shops, but all sorts of stores and stalls had picked Orencia flowers and placed them everywhere as decorations, which was truly a sight to behold.

The two were in the middle of wandering around looking for an inn like this.

It was a city with quite a few inns, but because it’s the tourist season, every inn was full of people, making it very difficult to find a room.

Alec was inwardly worried as he looked at the surroundings gradually darkening, but Yona, whether she knew Alec’s feelings or not, was picking up Orencia flowers and exclaiming how pretty they were with her mouth wide open.

“There must be an empty room somewhere. If not, we can just sleep outdoors, can’t we?”

“Is it that easy as you say? We’ve come to a city, we should sleep comfortably in an inn. Sleeping outdoors, that’s not something to do in a city.”

As Alec said, sleeping outdoors in a city is not something to be done.

It’s not the same as just having to be careful of monster attacks, you have to be wary of human attacks.

‘I don’t know why she’s saying such carefree things.’

Whether she knew Alec’s worries or not, Yona had already picked up an Orencia flower and bought it for one copper coin.

“You said you don’t have money, but you’re buying flowers?”

“We might not see these anywhere else, right? It’s good to buy one and look at it often at times like this. Don’t be so dreary. We don’t know when we’ll die anyway, so shouldn’t we look at pretty things a lot so we don’t have regrets?”

Not knowing when we’ll die, she says.

Alec felt upset at those words.

I won’t let you die.

I absolutely won’t see you die.

That’s why I’m doing this.

You will absolutely not die.

Especially you, never—

And, me too.

It must have been an outburst of such feelings.

Alec blurted out words he would never have said if he were his usual self.

“I see something pretty every day.”

“What? What do you see? Are you selfishly looking at it alone? Let me see too.”

Yona didn’t anticipate at all what would follow those words.

She didn’t expect that there was any ulterior motive in Alec’s words about seeing something pretty every day,

She didn’t think about what kind of mood Alec was in when he said those words,

She just thought about the literal meaning, the meaning those words had in themselves, and answered.

“…You can’t see it.”

Yes, of course.

You can’t see it.

Alec stopped in his tracks.

“The pretty thing I see every day is you.”

At those words, Yona also stopped walking.

For a moment, Yona didn’t understand what Alec was saying.

There was a moment of dissonance at the fact that the pretty thing Alec said he sees every day was none other than Yona.

“…Huh?”

“The pretty thing I see every day, that’s you, I said.”

“What?”

At Alec’s words, Yona’s face hardened.

Then her forehead slowly furrowed, and with her face scrunched up, Yona placed the Orencia flower near the shoulder of her cheongsaepo and slowly rubbed her arm.

“Hey, baldy.”

“…What?”

It was meant to be quite a heartfelt statement.

For Alec, it was words he was certain would stimulate a woman’s heart, that is, cause a crack in Yona’s heart, but Yona’s reaction was rather lukewarm.

“Don’t use lines like that when you get a girlfriend later. It’s really the worst.”

“Is, is it that bad?”

“Yeah. It’s really the worst. It gives me goosebumps.”

It seemed those words weren’t a lie.

Yona kept rubbing around her shoulder and couldn’t unfurrow her brows for quite a while.

“I mean, what kind of outdated pick-up line… Hey, baldy. Do you know my birthday?”

“Birthday?”

Alec was taken aback by the sudden mention of a birthday.

It’s not that he doesn’t know Yona’s birthday, but asking if he knows when her birthday is in this situation probably isn’t really about that.

“It’s today, because I was reborn today when I met you.”

“Ah.”

Alec finally understood.

That’s probably what Yona wants to say is on the same level as such lines.

“That’s how I feel right now. So don’t use lines like that. Got it?”

“Yeah… I got it…”

“Let’s go. Let’s find an inn.”

Yona walked ahead briskly even before hearing Alec’s words.

Her shoulders were slumped, so Alec didn’t notice, but the tips of Yona’s ears, who was walking quickly, had turned reddish.

“What? There’s only one room available?”

The innkeeper waited for the next response with an expression that seemed to match a “hee-hee-hee” laugh while rubbing his hands.

Alec had no particular expression, and only Yona looked somewhat flustered.

“As you know, it’s the festival season. So it’s not easy to find empty rooms.”

The innkeeper was right.

The inns the two had searched so far numbered over ten.

Everywhere they went, they only heard that there were no empty rooms.

But even so, like this—

“Well, it’s fine, isn’t it? Alec, right?”

At Yona’s question, Alec nodded with an awkward expression.

“We should unpack and get ready to enjoy the festival too. We don’t want to greet the festival wrapped in sleeping bags in some back alley after just searching for inns all day. Right?”

Yona was strangely glib, but Alec thought for a moment and then nodded.

“Yeah, it doesn’t matter. We’ve seen everything there is to see of each other anyway, so there’s no need to be particularly modest.”

Alec steeled his resolve.

It’s strange to be like this now, and above all, Alec can’t just be flustered like this.

To move forward, he had to take steps.

Even if there were countless failures ahead, Alec had to keep moving forward.

To fulfill the promise he had made—even to fulfill that promise to the end, Alec had to keep moving forward.

Although Alec had never been in a romantic relationship even once until now, he still had to move forward.

That was who Alec was.