Ch.147Aria and Leona – 3

“…What kind of situation is this?”

I was dumbfounded as soon as I woke up. It was because of Leona and Aria, who were sleeping peacefully on either side of me, each using one of my arms as a pillow.

The pillows they had brought were rolling around aimlessly on the bed, and they had each covered themselves with separate blankets from somewhere. To top it off, their hands were intertwined on top of my stomach.

I had roughly anticipated that they wouldn’t return to their own rooms and would try to sleep in mine. I was awake when they were checking if I was asleep or not. After all that commotion with them climbing on top of me, how could I have stayed asleep?

I just missed the timing to say I was awake, so I kept pretending to sleep. I would have gotten up if Aria hadn’t put her face so close to mine or if Leona hadn’t said she would do the same.

‘I should get out of here first.’

My priority was to escape before Silvia caught us and caused a misunderstanding.

First, I pulled my arm out from under Leona’s head and placed it on a pillow that was rolling nearby, then did the same with the arm Aria was using. Both of them were still sound asleep.

With my arms now free, I untangled their interlocked hands from my stomach. I placed them gently on the blanket and was about to move my body—

“Leona, are you here— Oh my.”

As I was trying to slip away, my eyes met Silvia’s as she opened the door and entered.

Her golden pupils, so similar to Leona’s, alternated between looking at the two sleeping contentedly on either side of me. Seeing her round eyes and the smile gradually spreading across her face, I inwardly sighed.

“My daughter wasn’t in her room, so I thought I’d check here… Did you have a good time?”

“This is a misunderstanding.”

“I know. I’m just joking. If you really had a good time, you wouldn’t all look so neat and tidy, would you?”

Wouldn’t a normal parent be angry if their only daughter was sleeping next to a strange man? It seemed Silvia was on Leona’s side. As for Aria, she wasn’t her daughter, so she couldn’t really comment.

“Breakfast is almost ready, so could you wake them both up? I’ll go downstairs first and set the table.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Hehe, don’t be too late coming down, or I might ‘misunderstand’ things, okay?”

Silvia left, closing the door with a joke that reminded me of the old Leona. Now I had one more reason to wake these two up. The moment we went downstairs late, all three of us would be teased throughout breakfast.

“Leona. It’s morning. You need to get up.”

I started by gently shaking Leona’s shoulder.

“Mmm… just one more hour…”

“Isn’t that a bit too long to sleep in?”

But she just tossed and turned while sleep-talking, showing no signs of waking up.

Thinking some cold air might help, I pulled back her blanket. This revealed her pale stomach and toned abs below her nightgown, which had rolled up just below her chest. She apparently had poor sleeping habits.

“Leona.”

“Mmmm…”

Even after touching her shoulder again, the result was the same. Leona kept shaking her head in refusal. It might be faster to wake Aria first and have her help me. I turned and pulled back Aria’s blanket.

“Ari—”

I stopped mid-word.

Aria was bathed in the morning sunlight from the window, her shoulders and cleavage defenseless and exposed through her half-undone nightgown. My mind froze at the sight of her fair skin.

Her chest, pressed between her arms, gathered in the middle, emphasizing her cleavage. While it might be normal for nightwear, there was no sign of the undergarments that should have been supporting and covering her chest.

My frozen mind started working again. I wondered if it was okay to wake her like this, how she would react when she woke up, and if she sat up, wouldn’t her nightgown slide down to her waist?

Should I fix her clothes before waking her? And if she woke up while I was doing that, what excuse would I give? My mind raced through these thoughts at a terrifying speed.

“…”

I covered her back up with the blanket. I changed my plan. It seemed Leona would be easier to wake than Aria after all.

“Leona. You need to get up. We have to eat breakfast.”

“It’s vacation… just two more hours…”

I shook her so hard that her whole body moved, not just her shoulders, but Leona still whined and tried to extend her sleep time. Doesn’t the body usually wake up on its own by this point?

‘Is she doing this on purpose?’

Leona could be pretending to sleep just like I had. Feeling slightly annoyed, I tried to lift her up, when Leona suddenly opened her eyes. Her drowsy golden eyes looked me up and down.

“What… Mira…? Why is Mira in my room…? Is this a dream…?”

“This isn’t your room, it’s mine. Stop talking nonsense and get up—”

“Haap.”

In that moment, Leona grabbed my outstretched hand and put my index and middle fingers in her mouth.

“Mmm… haah… slurp…”

As I felt my fingers being sucked and her tongue wrapping around them, along with faint wet sounds and moans, my mind froze again, unable to process the situation.

“Slurp… mmm?”

While I stood there frozen, Leona sucked my fingers harder before slowly opening her eyes.

Our eyes met. Blink, blink. As her eyelids fluttered a few times, life returned to her previously drowsy golden eyes.

“Huh…? I thought I opened my eyes… but…?”

Then, as if realizing her tongue was wrapped around something, she removed what was in her mouth. My fingers, dripping with saliva, appeared right in front of her face.

“…Hiccup.”

A hiccup escaped through her parted lips.

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Oh my. What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

We were awkward throughout breakfast.

Leona, who had sucked my fingers in her sleep before coming to her senses, was obviously uncomfortable, and Aria had her own issue when she woke up, rubbing her eyes to see what the commotion was about.

Her nightgown, which had been precariously hanging on her shoulders, finally slid down. With her upper body suddenly naked, Aria froze for a few seconds before burying herself under the blanket with a silent scream.

Of course, I had turned my head away first. If my reaction had been even slightly delayed, the pink tips would have been clearly imprinted in my eyes.

After such incidents first thing in the morning, the meal was naturally awkward. Only Silvia, who noticed the subtle atmosphere between us, wore a happy smile.

“S-so, let’s go. I’ll show you around the village.”

“Y-yes. Let’s go, Mr. Mira.”

After the meal, I somehow managed to head toward the village center with the still-stiff Leona and Aria beside me. Silvia, who saw us off, was beaming with a broad smile.

Their hometown was a typical rural village. Thanks to life magic, unlike real-world countryside, it fulfilled most human ideals while not being too small in scale.

“This is the central square. They say the village first formed around here when they dug the initial well. The well seems to have disappeared some time ago though.”

Leona and Aria, who had been awkward at first, seemed to have calmed down as they gradually returned to their usual selves from yesterday. The evidence was in how their once-brief explanations were becoming more detailed.

“There hardly seem to be any men around?”

I asked while looking around. If there were about ten women walking on the street, there might be one man, if that.

“Oh, that? They went on a subjugation mission with my dad. He took them last time too. It’s a loss since they can’t work during that time, but it’s better than letting monsters run rampant nearby, so it can’t be helped.”

I thought it was because this was a yuri romance fantasy world, but apparently not. Since most plausible explanations could be attributed to Laura, I hadn’t recalled the subjugation story I heard yesterday.

“Hello, mister! Good morning!”

“Did you sleep well? How’s that place that was hurting you?”

“How’s the calf? Is it doing well?”

While exploring the village, what surprised me was that Leona was much more sociable than I had thought.

She greeted most people she saw first, and those who received her greetings responded with smiling faces. It didn’t seem to be just because Leona was a hero.

“Leona has been like that since she was little.”

As I watched Leona arguing with a shopkeeper who insisted on giving her fruit for free despite her saying she would pay, Aria quietly spoke to me.

“She’s energetic, kind, has firm beliefs, and gets along with everyone. She was the one who approached me first too. If it weren’t for Leona, I’d still be helping my mother and spending my free time cooped up at home reading books. As you can see, I’m quite introverted.”

“For someone introverted, I remember you approached me first.”

I still remembered the day of the entrance ceremony. She was the first person in this world who gave me such a strong feeling of incompatibility.

I never imagined we’d end up in this kind of relationship.

“That’s…”

Aria’s cheeks turned slightly red.

“…This might sound like an odd question, but do you believe in fate, Mr. Mira?”

‘Fate, huh.’

It seemed to be a continuation of the conversation we had with Leona last night. Back then, Leona gave an ambiguous answer, while Aria confidently said she believed in it.

“Well, if I had to choose, I’d say I don’t believe in it.”

“May I ask why?”

It’s simple.

If the concept of fate truly exists, then all my struggles and desperate efforts in my previous world would have just been flowing according to a predetermined course.

“It feels like everything I’ve done is denied by a single phrase saying it was all destined to be that way.”

I absolutely hated the idea that all that time could be defined by a single statement: “It was destined to be that way in the end.”

“I see…”

After hearing my answer, Aria seemed to be deep in thought. I didn’t say anything either, just waited.

“I’m back! Let’s go eat lunch!”

Meanwhile, Leona returned with a basket full of fruit in both hands. Judging by the amount, she had lost the argument.

Aria, who had been lost in thought, smiled brightly again.

“Yes, let’s do that. Let’s go to my house, Mr. Mira. You can also greet my mom and dad.”

“Is it okay to visit so suddenly? We didn’t even let them know.”

“It’s fine. Mom said she already contacted them.”

So that was why it seemed so natural. I nodded and followed Aria, but then we heard a commotion at the village entrance.

We quickly exchanged glances. It definitely wasn’t a good sign. As we hurried toward the noise, the villagers who spotted us urgently made way. At the center was a man with a bandage on his arm.

Leona and Aria’s expressions stiffened at the sight of blood seeping through the bandage.

‘…This doesn’t look good.’

Wilhelm Brunhild frowned as he watched the approaching kobold horde in the distance. His blade was already dulled from blood and fat.

There was a limit to discarding dulled swords and wielding the weapons of the injured instead. Now he didn’t even have any substitute weapons left.

‘They were easy to defeat until recently.’

Originally, kobolds weren’t very threatening monsters. That’s why he had led only villagers on the subjugation mission and had always achieved overwhelming victories.

But today? They had suddenly become several times more ferocious, with strength and speed incomparable to those they had faced before. It was unbelievable.

If it weren’t for Wilhelm’s instincts and skills built as a former knight, he would have lost his life in the first attack. The kobold horde before him was that threatening.

So far, they had managed to escape without any casualties, but that was reaching its limit. The encirclement had tightened to the point where breaking through was impossible.

“Everyone, prepare to fight! We need to buy time somehow!”

Wilhelm finally made his decision. To hold out, trusting the one person who had managed to break through the encirclement. By now, his daughter should have returned to the village.

Everyone who could fight took up weapons. Even so, there were only about ten of them. Wilhelm also pointed his blood-stained blade at the front of the formation.

But Wilhelm’s decision would not come to fruition.

—CRASH!

Ice poured down from the sky, sweeping away the kobold encirclement. The kobold horde was frozen solid into ice statues.

While they shivered from the eerie cold spreading on the ground, someone descended from the sky. It was a young man they had never seen before.

The young man, holding a flickering sword in his right hand, turned around and scanned the group of injured people. His left arm stretched forward, and a green light flowed from his palm.

“T-the wounds!”

Then a miracle happened. Not only were the stabbed, cut, and burst wounds healing, but even severed arms and legs began to regrow.

While everyone was amazed and overjoyed at this fact, the young man slowly approached.

“Are you Leona Brunhild’s father?”

“Y-yes, I am.”

“I came ahead at your daughter’s request. Leona should arrive shortly.”

“Leona?”

Wilhelm was surprised. He hadn’t expected his daughter’s name to come up.

But the surprise didn’t last long. There was only one young man who could call his daughter so familiarly by name and possess such overwhelming strength. His daughter had mentioned him many times.

Originally, as a father with a daughter, he would have naturally wanted to test him, but his mind had changed. Testing someone who had saved not only his life but also the lives of many people behind him? That was nonsense.

Moreover, he had just witnessed with his own eyes how excellent the young man’s skills were. Wilhelm put down his sword, carefully wiped his hands on his clothes, and offered a handshake with a broad smile.

“Please take good care of my daughter.”

“Excuse me?”