Ch.163Heart (5)

Alice grabbed my hand and clicked her tongue in disapproval.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk… My goodness, this is a first. You weren’t even attacked, yet you managed to injure yourself with your own magic?”

“Ow, ow, ow, it hurts, sis.”

“Your skin is completely peeled off. What would you have done without me? Your palm lines and fingerprints are all gone.”

“I was too panicked to think of another way.”

“This is exactly why you shouldn’t learn only theory without practical experience. That magic… or spirit art or whatever you used, you could have hidden yourself and shot from a distance. Then you wouldn’t have had to rush so much that you burned your palms…”

“I heard there were other groups nearby, so I tried to hurry…”

“If your goal was to handle it quietly, you were already out the moment that monster started screaming.”

“… Ugh.”

Alice harshly criticized the choices I had made.

The sense of accomplishment I felt from somehow defeating two monsters gradually disappeared under her strict words.

“Well, I suppose I can still give you a passing grade.”

“Really?”

“It was somewhat effective. And targeting the eyes wasn’t a bad decision.”

I smiled broadly, deliberately ignoring the pain, encouraged by Alice’s slight smile that barely lifted the corners of her mouth.

She turned her gaze away and spoke in a stiff tone.

“Still, it’s only about 50 points out of 100.”

“What’s the passing score?”

“50 points.”

“That’s really just barely… By the way, what’s the standard for that score…?”

“About 50 percent of adventurers die in their first battle.”

“Ah… so it’s a score you automatically get for surviving.”

“Something like that. Good job, anyway.”

Despite her verbal scolding, she carefully opened my palm and gently placed her own palm over it.

A warm sensation, different from the burning heat of the wound, spread throughout my palm.

When she finally removed her hand, my palm had returned to its original state, complete with palm lines and fingerprints.

“There, it doesn’t hurt anymore, right?”

“Hehe, I took risks because I knew you were here to help me.”

“Ash… I…”

At that moment, I saw a dark shadow fall across Alice’s face.

I could immediately tell what she was about to say.

Something about not forgetting that she would soon die, or something along those lines.

I hastily cut her off with a clumsy question.

“By the way! Where’s Silvia?”

“…”

“Where did she go after putting me through all this trouble? I don’t see her.”

Noticing my deliberate attempt to change the subject, Alice let out a small sigh but nodded.

She said:

“She went to hunt down the rest of those monsters.”

“Huh? When?”

“Around the time the creature you attacked started screaming.”

“Ah…”

Come to think of it, I had wondered why no other monsters appeared despite all that loud screaming.

It seemed Silvia was taking care of all the potential reinforcements.

“Shouldn’t we go help her?”

“Why?”

“What do you mean ‘why’? Who knows how many there are…”

Alice chuckled and said:

“I think she’d be fine even if there were a hundred of them.”

“…”

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Nothing, it’s just strange to hear you complimenting Silvia.”

“… Hah.”

Alice exhaled an irritated sigh.

She apparently hadn’t even realized she was complimenting Silvia until I pointed it out.

“Well… I have to acknowledge her combat ability. That’s why I can entrust you to her…”

I couldn’t help but smile broadly at Alice’s response as she blushed slightly and looked embarrassed.

I could feel the relationship between these two people, who had once fought each other to the death, gradually improving.

I suppose it’s up to me, standing between them, to help their relationship get better.

Honestly, facing the monster had been terrifying and extremely confusing, and both the process and outcome of the battle were pathetically inadequate.

But if it helped soften the sharp tension between Alice and Silvia even a little bit, then perhaps that messy fight had achieved something meaningful after all.

I smiled with satisfaction and said:

“Hmm, that’s nice.”

“What is?”

“Hearing you say that makes me feel like I got family approval for marriage.”

“…What?”

“Well, it’s actually true. Right now, you’re the only person I can call family.”

I clung to Alice’s arm.

Just like I did when I was a child.

Now as then, she was dependable and mature, someone I could lean on comfortably.

“…Ash.”

“Yes?”

At that moment, an extremely cold voice came from Alice.

“Why would I be your family?”

“…Huh?”

I froze instantly at that chilling response.

I was so frightened that my legs—no, the entire ground—seemed to be trembling.

The ground felt like it was undulating.

I even thought I could hear the ground rumbling with a “drrrrr” sound.

“Ash, stay seated there.”

Alice suddenly pushed me hard in the chest.

Sprawled on the ground, I finally realized.

The massive earth tremor.

It wasn’t just a feeling—the ground really was shaking.

“WOOOAAARGH!”

With a deafening roar that threatened to rupture my eardrums, dirt erupted in all directions.

From the explosively rising mound of earth, a massive hand shot up.

“Aah!”

I exclaimed in shock.

In contrast, Alice calmly bent forward and said:

“…I need to correct myself, Ash. You get 30 points.”

The hand that had emerged from the ground slowly pressed against the surface.

Then, a massive body that seemed to lift all the surrounding earth began to rise slowly.

It was the monster I had buried in the soil during our earlier fight.

“Pia!”

I hurriedly called for Pia.

“Don’t bother.”

Alice spoke briefly, then stepped forward, drawing a large sword from the scabbard at her waist.

Just as the monster’s huge maw began to appear, crunching and swallowing clumps of dirt,

*Bang*

With a sound like an explosion, the monster’s body instantly turned pitch black.

The large hand that had been firmly pressing against the ground transformed into charcoal and crumbled.

“…What just happened?”

I muttered with a dumbfounded expression.

My judgment couldn’t keep up with the situation, spinning meaninglessly in my head, and like my confused mind, my eyes and pupils wandered aimlessly.

My gaze, which had been darting around in all directions, finally settled on Alice’s sword, which was emitting a white light.

“Hmm.”

Alice lightly stretched her neck and slowly lowered her sword arm.

From the hilt and guard to the white holy energy continuously emanating from it, every part of her sword looked sacred. Warm steam was rising through the white holy power from the blade.

Obviously, I could tell that she had done something, but I couldn’t figure out exactly what she did or how she did it.

I ended up asking like an idiot:

“…How did you do that?”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“What?”

“That weak body couldn’t withstand the holy power emitted by the sacred sword. For something this minor, I didn’t even need to stop walking.”

“…”

Like Silvia, she’s on a different level.

The magnitude of power, the depth of experience—the difference in level is too great.

Alice said as she sheathed her sword:

“You fail, Ash.”

“…I guess anyone would by your and Silvia’s standards.”

“If you can’t handle even this much, going to the Demon Lord is nothing short of suicide.”

“No…”

I tried to object.

With two beings this powerful, is it really necessary to be so wary of a Demon Lord who has lost power and is still recovering?

But at the same time, I wondered just how fearsome the Demon Lord must be for both Silvia and Alice to be so cautious.

The Demon Lord must be at least at their level or higher, but my limited imagination couldn’t picture these two women losing to any enemy.

However, Alice’s tone had hardened even more than before.

She must genuinely be worried that I could die.

I swallowed my words and tried to defuse the situation with a joke.

“Well, what can we do now? Send me back?”

“It’s not too late yet. We’ve only been here for a day.”

“Wait, really?”

“…”

Alice slowly nodded.

“Yes.”

“…Huh?”

“This isn’t going to work.”

She grabbed the breastplate covering my chest and lifted me up.

Though there was nothing to grip on the flat metal plate, my body was effortlessly lifted as if there were magnets attached.

With a hardened face, Alice said:

“You’re going back.”

“…”

“What, you don’t want to?”

“…”

“Do you want to die?”

I shook my head and said:

“No, I want to live. With Silvia and—”

“No.”

Once again, Alice firmly stated.

Her forcefulness in cutting off my words was incredibly intimidating.

She closed her mouth for a moment, then slowly shook her head and began to mutter:

“No, it’s not that I don’t want to. It’s impossible. It’s too dangerous. At this rate, Ash will…”

That’s when it happened.

“What are you two talking about?”

A cheerful voice.

Both Alice and I turned our heads toward the sound.

Silvia was standing right next to me, having approached without notice.

“…Ah, Silvia.”

Silvia stood beside me with her hands behind her back, slightly bowing her head with a somewhat unnatural smile filling her face.

Her armor and face were completely covered in bright red bloodstains.

However, I could tell from her cheerful movements and voice that not a single drop of that blood was her own.

The contrast between her cute pose and the bloodstains, along with that unnatural smile that seemed forcibly pulled, made Silvia look somewhat bizarre.

“You two are so close.”

“Ah, I fell down and she was helping me up.”

“For that, your conversation seemed strange.”

If I mentioned that Alice was urging me to go back, another fight might break out between Silvia and her.

I explained the situation, carefully choosing my words:

“…Ah, it turns out one of the two monsters wasn’t dead yet… So Alice was just pointing that out to me. By the way, how did it go with you? I heard you went alone to take care of the group…”

“Five of them. Killed them all.”

Blood that had run down Silvia’s cheek dripped from her chin onto the ground.

“Um… I can see that.”

“Did I do well?”

“…Yes, you did well.”

“Hehe, I only saw part of it, but you did well too, Ash.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes.”

Silvia slowly walked behind me, pulled me into an embrace from behind, which caused Alice to release my armor.

Silvia rested her blood-covered face on my shoulder and said:

“I did well, and Ash did well too, so why is Alice trying to send Ash away?”

Alice turned her head as if trying to avoid Silvia’s gaze and said:

“…Because it’s dangerous. More importantly, could you step away from Ash? You’re getting blood on him.”

“Is that really all?”

“…”

“I don’t think so.”

Alice frowned and glared fiercely at Silvia.

“Since when did you become so good at reading people’s minds? Nonsense.”

“Oh my, Ash. I’m so scared. Really.”

“…”

With me in the middle, the two stared at each other without saying a word.

Both Alice’s face and Silvia’s face reflected in Alice’s armor wore identical expressions.

The atmosphere was beyond cold—it felt like frost was seeping in.

It felt like goosebumps were rising sharply all over my body.

It was similar to that chilling sensation I felt during the carriage accident, when I came close to death.

It seemed like something terrible was about to happen.

I swallowed hard and said in a trembling voice:

“Um, shall we have lunch before we go?”

Both of them answered simultaneously without even looking at me:

“No.”

Why are you both acting like this? Seriously.