episode_0014

“…”

Awakening early, Allen.

Originally, he had a lot to prepare for from the morning as planned, but Allen, who discovered Lily sleeping in his arms, simply watched over her sleeping figure quietly.

“Hoo… Hoo…”

Breathing out softly, Allen’s eyes watching Lily sleeping in his arms were filled with complex emotions.

After waiting for a while without seeing any sign of Lily waking up, Allen decided to wake her up himself.

“…Lily. Wake up.”

“Huh?”

As Allen gently shook her, Lily, who finally opened her eyes, looked at Allen with a dazed expression.

“…Mister?”

“When did you come here?”

“I’m sorry… I couldn’t sleep…”

“I see.”

Since it was natural for an anxious child to seek comfort, Allen didn’t mind much and got up from his seat.

“Lily. It seems like we need to solve a few problems before leaving.”

“What… problems?”

“Well… Sorry, but can you lend me your hand for a moment? I need to check something.”

“?”

Casually reaching out her hand, Lily didn’t understand why Allen was apologizing.

Since he had already held her hand several times.

“It might feel a bit uncomfortable, but bear with me.”

“…!”

Through the joined hands, Allen slowly infused mana.

Although Allen wasn’t a wizard, handling mana wasn’t exclusive to wizards.

He had already mastered simple diagnostic techniques.

“It feels nauseating…”

“Just bear with it a little longer.”

Requiring considerable concentration, as Allen diagnosed every corner of Lily’s body with mana, small beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

“Phew. It’s done now.”

“Ugh…”

Finally done with all the diagnostics, Allen slowly let go of Lily’s hand.

As soon as Allen released her hand, Lily, lying flat on the floor, still seemed to shudder as if feeling nauseous.

“Ugh… It’s nauseating…”

“Sorry. You’ll feel better soon. I’ll wait outside for a bit.”

Leaving Lily resting on the floor behind, Allen stepped outside for a moment.

“…”

Sitting down in a suitable place, Allen’s expression was unnaturally stiff.

Unable to show such an expression to Lily, he had no choice but to step outside, but Allen let out a deep sigh.

“Could it really have been a curse.”

From his first encounter with Lily, Allen realized that the curse-like aura he felt was not just his imagination.

Since he never felt that cursed aura again, he thought it was a misconception.

Still, out of caution, he decided to diagnose it and found out it wasn’t a misconception.

“Who on earth?”

With various thoughts colliding in his mind and numerous questions arising, the most pressing question was… Who could have cursed the young girl?

“For now… Let’s calm down.”

Not wanting to show a harsh expression to Lily, Allen calmly composed himself.

Since there was still insufficient evidence to know who cursed her, it wasn’t impossible to find out.

Even though due to the mixed blood of demons, she couldn’t be purified at the church… There was still a way.

“Could it be… that her unusually slow growth rate for her age is also influenced by the curse?”

Allen wasn’t an expert on curses, but this hypothesis seemed very convincing to him.

No matter what, isn’t it somewhat severe for an 18-year-old girl to not even reach 140cm in height?

“Mister.”

“Oh.”

Allen, trapped in his own thoughts, suddenly came to his senses at Lily’s approaching call.

“Are you feeling better now?”

“Yes. I’m feeling better.”

“That’s a relief. Do you need to grab anything else from home?”

“No. There’s nothing specific to take.”

“…I see.”

As dawn passed and morning approached, it was time to leave slowly to avoid attracting attention.

“Alright, let’s go. How about at least saying goodbye to your house one last time?”

“I already did that earlier.”

“I see.”

Allen reached out as if to show appreciation and gently stroked Lily’s head.

It had now become a habit-like behavior.

“Sir, can I ask you for one thing?”

“What is it?”

“Just speak to me in a normal tone.”

“…”

Allen fell silent for a moment.

“Did I stand out too much?”

“Yes. It felt really awkward.”

“…Sorry. I tried to use a kind tone in my own way.”

“No, I actually prefer how you are right now, more like yourself.”

“I’m glad, but it’s a bit complicated.”

Saying so, Allen put a hat on Lily’s head.

It was a cheap hat bought at the market, but at least it could cover her horns.

“In the future, it’s better to wear a hat whenever possible.”

“…To prevent people from knowing that I’m a demon hybrid?”

“That’s one reason, but the main reason is that I hope you won’t get hurt.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s nothing…”

About to say ‘it’s nothing,’ Allen couldn’t continue when he saw Lily’s bright smile.

It was then that Allen realized Lily had never properly smiled at him before.

Lily, smiling at him for the first time, had an ordinary girl-like smile.

“You look beautiful when you smile.”

In response to her smile, Allen also smiled brightly.

Finally, the girl who emerged from the shell spread her wings towards freedom.

***

To subdue the remnants of the Demon King’s army, the gathered party of heroes and the Imperial Knights slowly marched towards the area where the remnants were believed to be gathering.

While the heroes demanded a swift advance, the Imperial Knights insisted on a slow march, citing various reasons and excuses.

This fact alone made Aileen extremely uncomfortable, but the worst was yet to come.

“Sir Knight, aren’t you tired?”

“I’m fine.”

And about 10 minutes later.

“Sir Knight, do you see over there? There’s a naturally formed cave…”

“I’m not interested.”

And another 10 minutes later.

“Sir Knight, isn’t the scenery around here beautiful? The preserved nature looks really…”

“…”

Due to the unnecessary chatter from the Vice Captain of the Imperial Knights, who was also the Crown Prince of the Empire, Alex, Aileen was reaching the limits of her patience.

“Oh, there’s a deer over there…”

“If you say one more word, I’ll run you through with my sword.”

“…”

Eventually, unable to bear it any longer, Aileen threatened the Crown Prince with harsh words.

However, this was only a temporary measure.

Despite having spoken harshly several times before, whenever time passed, the Crown Prince would somehow find a way to engage Aileen in pointless conversation as if nothing had happened.

“…”

Observing this scene from the side, Jenny and Rebecca, aside from feeling discomfort, were honestly impressed.

To persistently continue talking despite being coldly ignored like that.

Of course, apart from that, they were also worried that Aileen might actually wield the Holy Sword and pierce the Crown Prince’s mouth.

Irene understood well, and they were equally uncomfortable, but no matter how valiant a warrior was, they couldn’t gracefully pass by killing the imperial prince.

“… It seems like it would be good to set up a camp around here,” the knight commander said cautiously, glancing at Irene.

There was still time before nightfall, but not wanting to witness the prince’s death, the knight commander decided to prepare the camp a little earlier.

“… Alright,” Irene sighed.

Thinking that the knight commander was a decent human being, she felt truly fortunate.

“Let’s get ready too.”

“Yeah.”

“Got it.”

Although they marched with the Royal Knights, due to Irene’s strong insistence, they agreed to set up their camp separately. The party of warriors began setting up their camp a bit away.

“Hmm…”

While setting up the camp, the prince quietly approached, but seeing Irene draw her holy sword with a cold expression, he turned away as if nothing happened and disappeared.

“Should we use Rebecca’s magic as usual to ward off the monsters?”

“… Let’s use both magic and warding off the monsters.”

“… That darn prince.”

Unless in extremely dangerous areas, they usually relied on Rebecca’s magic to ward off monsters. However, with only a spell that alerted them to monster approaches, they were very concerned about the prince’s presence when trying to sleep comfortably.

They were still acting sensibly for now, but they didn’t know when things might change.

“Then let’s do as usual…”

Click-

The three simultaneously extended their hands.

Back when the party consisted of four members including Allen, Allen had introduced a way to decide the order of warding off monsters through a game of rock-paper-scissors, which had become an unwritten rule.

“Why am I always in the middle?”

Having lost in rock-paper-scissors, Jenny ended up in the middle of the warding off order.

Jenny wanted to cry.