Ch.137136. Journey (5)

# 136. Journey (5)

I returned to the cave carrying as much firewood as I could.

“I brought it back, but… what are you doing?”

“Ah… just bored.”

She was leaning against the cave wall, combining the magic stones we had collected so far.

I laid the firewood in front of her and used a lighter to start a fire.

-Whoosh!!-

The bright light from the fire filled the cave, and thanks to that, we no longer needed to hold flashlights.

‘And… it’s warm.’

Until just a while ago, whether because it was night or because we were in a cave, I felt cold enough to shiver, but now that wasn’t the case at all.

She and I moved closer to the fire to warm ourselves.

“This feels like we’re on a trip, just the two of us…”

The dark cave, the smoke rising gently, and the two of us within it.

It was exactly the picture I had only imagined in my head, and exactly that atmosphere.

In that atmosphere, she spoke in a tiny voice.

“Somehow we ended up like this.”

“I don’t know about you, but from my perspective, this is actually nice.”

I moved closer to her, feeling the romantic atmosphere with my entire body.

Then I sat right next to her, our bodies touching.

“!!”

She was quite flustered by my sudden action.

The soft sensation I felt from my left arm and leg touching her, and her breathing echoing in the quiet cave.

The romantic atmosphere created by all these elements combined made my heart race.

“Until just a while ago, I couldn’t even dream of something like this.”

Usually, we were almost always with the others, so I had to be mindful of them.

But now that this opportunity had come, I couldn’t just let it pass.

“Y-yes, the atmosphere was different earlier… there were a lot of people too.”

“Aren’t you too nervous?”

Her expression showed signs of nervousness, and her voice trembled slightly.

That appearance was so lovely that just looking at her made me smile.

“Well… I can’t help it! You suddenly came so close…”

“Is it okay if we stay like this?”

“Yes… of course…”

She seemed very nervous, and I subtly took her hand.

Her face turned slightly red as she spoke up.

“So… are we going to sleep here together tonight?”

“That’s how it has to be, we don’t have much choice.”

“This is completely new to me… it feels like we’re doing something really bad…”

I rested my head on her shoulder as I continued the conversation.

“We haven’t done anything really bad yet.”

“R-really bad?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know… you know exactly what I mean.”

“I was just saying…”

“I was just saying too.”

The atmosphere became somewhat awkward because of that kind of talk.

In that atmosphere, she was the one who spoke up again.

“Come to think of it, I just remembered something.”

“What is it?”

“Before we left, my father told me something.”

She looked down at my face as she continued.

“He said all men are beasts, so I should always be careful and not trust them too much.”

“That’s certainly true.”

Of course, that statement would hold true even if you replaced “men” with just “people” in general.

So I simply acknowledged it.

However, she seemed to find my ready acceptance unexpected, and I found her reaction unexpected as well.

“Why… that expression?”

“Um… usually in this situation, wouldn’t you say ‘I’m not like that’?”

I raised my head and looked directly into her eyes.

Then I answered the question I had just received.

“I can’t promise I won’t touch you.”

“What..!?”

“Not necessarily today, but still.”

“Well, that’s certainly true… but…”

With her face even redder than before, she continued shyly.

“Then… what are you going to do tonight?”

Her face was bright red, and she had an embarrassed expression as she said those words.

And then I saw her plump lips.

Seeing those lips, I could only think of one thing.

‘A kiss… would be okay, right?’

In truth, now that I had seen them, there was no turning back, so the thought was meaningless.

Setting aside the consequences that might follow, I initiated action.

I leaned toward her, and our lips drew closer and closer.

As they almost touched, I whispered quietly.

“Tonight, I’ll settle for this.”

After that, our lips met, and we explored each other.

A wordless conversation of love that continued for a while.

During that time of ecstasy, which felt both long and short, I savored those lips fully, and she did the same.

***

Eventually, that ecstatic and happy time came to an end, and we were both looking into space, hiding our bright red faces.

In that situation, I spoke first.

“This is… really embarrassing…”

“This is truly my first time doing something like this…”

“You seem to have a lot of firsts.”

“For someone who talks like that, this is Albert’s first time too…”

I hadn’t specifically said it was my first time, but she knew it was.

More precisely, she was convinced of it.

“You seem very confident about that.”

“I don’t need to see the video to know.”

“You never know.”

“Since I don’t know for sure, I’ll choose to think that way, so don’t tell me otherwise.”

I turned my head to look at her face as she said those words.

She had already turned her head and was looking at me.

And then, with that serious expression, she said something unexpected.

“Also, Albert, please forget about me from your past life. I’m different from that person.”

But it wasn’t completely out of the blue.

I could tell that she had been thinking about this issue a lot, even in our daily lives.

She had said those words after considerable deliberation.

Of course, that didn’t change my answer.

“That’s a bit difficult, almost impossible.”

“…I thought so…”

“But please don’t worry about that. I’ve never once thought of you as a substitute for the Empress.”

With history changing, people inevitably changed too, and it was true that the her from then and the her from now were different enough to be judged as ‘different.’

However, that absolutely didn’t mean I didn’t like the current her.

“I love the slightly different you of now plenty, after all, I’m the one who changed things.”

In fact, it was correct to say that I was the reason she had changed slightly.

There were no other variables.

And…

“If I had to choose, I love the current you more.”

“Is that… true?”

“Of course, you’re my woman now.”

The cold ice from back then was good, but the unfrozen water of now was even better.

Especially since I could now hold that water in my cup.

“So don’t worry unnecessarily.”

“Okay…”

“But was that why you’ve been a bit gloomy lately?”

“Yes… recently I felt like the atmosphere was different from when we first met… I thought maybe you disliked me because I had changed…”

Hearing those words, the corners of my mouth turned up.

I had roughly guessed it was that kind of worry, but I hadn’t imagined it would be in such a cute form.

“How admirable, having such cute thoughts.”

“I can’t help it…”

“Back then, I was forward because it was our first meeting, but that’s not my usual personality.”

Originally, I was able to act that way because she was someone I already knew well. If she had been a complete stranger, I would have been too socially inept to even speak first.

Of course, I had improved a lot recently, but it used to be really bad.

“But today you were like back then, weren’t you? You just… went for it!”

“That couldn’t be helped, could it? How could I not do anything when you show such cute reactions?”

Today’s cute appearance was also proof that she had changed.

Because she wasn’t like this originally.

“I definitely prefer now.”

“Suddenly? What do you mean?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

“Hey! What is it? Tell me too…”

“Try to guess it yourself.”

We talked about many things, not just that, and in the meantime, she fell asleep first.

She was sleeping soundly, leaning on my shoulder.

Seeing her defenseless figure, the dark thoughts hidden inside me began to stir, but this time I had to hold back.

“Because I promised…”

Keeping promises was my principle, especially promises made to her.

So I just gazed at her for a long time, and eventually, an irresistible drowsiness came over me as well.

‘I guess it’s okay to sleep…’

Even if monsters came while we were sleeping, we would be able to sense their presence and wake up.

And there was a high possibility that she had fallen asleep like that because she could sense that too.

‘I hope she wakes me up tomorrow.’

I couldn’t think of anything happier than being woken up by her husky, just-awakened voice.

With such a small wish in my heart, I went to sleep.