Ch.167166. Journey? (8)

# 166. A Trip? (8)

At last, this eventful day came to an end, and a brief moment of rest found me.

Of course, that didn’t mean I was alone.

“So what happened? Don’t tell me you actually got confessed to? Nah, that’s too much of a fantasy.”

“It’s similar but different.”

“Huh? What kind of nonsense is that?”

Chris was so persistent with his questions. To make matters worse, we were sharing a room, so I had no choice but to tell him if I wanted to sleep in peace.

“I don’t like her, you know?”

“No?”

I glared at Chris as if I could kill him for his joking response, and he quickly corrected himself.

“Right…! Right…! You don’t like her! You only have eyes for the princess! But then…?”

“And she knows that too, obviously?”

“Of course, since you’ve been putting up such a strong wall.”

“But she said she won’t give up.”

“Huh?”

“She said she’ll make me like her.”

“WHAT!?”

Chris was shocked by my words, while Raicle burst into laughter.

Their different reactions were both understandable given how strange the situation was.

“What do you guys think?”

“What do I think? I’m fucking jealous, you bastard. Did you save a country in your past life or something?”

Ironically, I actually did save a country in my past life.

It feels weird saying this myself, but the Kainis Empire would have fallen long ago if it weren’t for me.

Of course, I couldn’t openly admit that.

“Well… I don’t know… Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t…”

“Anyway! I’m so jealous… Though it doesn’t really matter to me.”

“You’ve been hanging out with Eve a lot lately, haven’t you?”

It wasn’t just lately—it had been since the beginning of this semester. Eve seemed to be with Chris all the time, and Raicle had become quite close with Rachel.

And it seemed like Raicle had given up on Luna since coming on this school trip.

“From what I can see, it’s happening.”

“What’s happening?”

“You know, that.”

“What’s ‘that’?”

“I’ll show you during this school trip.”

It seemed like this guy had made up his mind to confess to Eve.

But he was being annoyingly indirect about it.

“That’s none of my business, so do whatever you want. Can I go to sleep now? I’ve told you everything, right?”

“Of course, friend.”

“If we weren’t sharing a room, I could’ve just bolted…”

“Not a chance. We’re roommates for the entire school trip.”

That was truly terrible news.

About as bad as hearing that demon forces were invading right now.

“Ah… seriously… who arranged this?”

“We decided during class, but you were sleeping, so we just put you with us. You’re welcome.”

“Ah…”

This situation wasn’t because someone else had arranged the rooms strangely—it was simply my karma.

Once I realized that, an intense moment of regret washed over me.

“I should have… stayed awake…”

“It’s all your karma. You sleep through everything, whether it’s class time or when we’re making these decisions.”

“Couldn’t you have woken me up?”

“Now he’s blaming others. Are you crazy?”

“Ah! Whatever! Let’s just sleep. You’re ruining my mood.”

Still, this was a trip, so I shouldn’t be in such a negative state.

Since this was a rare opportunity, I wanted to maintain a bright and clear mindset.

“Tomorrow’s schedule looks pretty good… It should be fine…”

***

And so tomorrow arrived. Today, as planned, we would spend the entire day at our current location.

We were scheduled to spend the day at an amusement park.

“All day long… Won’t that get boring?”

“It’s fun to ride the same things again. Oh! And today you’ll have to go around by yourselves.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to spend the day alone with Eve.”

Chris said this with an expression as annoying as his words.

Watching this scene made me think of that person who would probably be finishing her graduation exams and reading books in the library by now.

“I wish I could do that too…”

“Then how about with me?”

“Huh?”

Words as irritating as Chris’s—they came from the person who had made me so uncomfortable yesterday.

“Please stop talking nonsense…”

“You can just pretend I’m the princess, and that’s that.”

“I don’t want to.”

She was someone I neither wanted to replace nor could replace.

If I could have replaced her, I wouldn’t be here now.

“Why not?”

“How could that work? And are you really okay with that?”

“Yes! I’m fine with it!”

“Doesn’t it hurt your pride?”

“Of course not. I’d actually feel good if I could replace her.”

She was truly a strange person.

I couldn’t understand how she could think like that and say such things.

“You’re weird…”

“What is?”

“You, and this whole situation.”

Luna wasn’t the only strange thing.

While we were arguing, everyone else had disappeared somewhere. The place that had been full of our entire class now had only Luna and me left.

“Why are we the only ones here?”

“I know… I wonder why?”

“Stop smiling, it’s annoying.”

“So, shall we spend today together?”

“I’ll just go alone.”

I said that and immediately turned around.

But Luna cut me off and now stood facing me from the opposite direction.

“That won’t do.”

“I can run away if I want to.”

“Let’s not do that… We’ve come all this way, and I told you yesterday not to run away…”

“I never agreed not to run away.”

“That’s true.”

Luna admitted it readily, scratching her head.

Seeing that made me laugh involuntarily, just like yesterday.

“Then tell me now, that you won’t run away.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Just give me today, at least…”

It felt wrong to keep refusing, but it would be even more awkward to start a chase in this situation.

So I decided to allow it just for today.

“But don’t stick too close.”

“Really!? For real!?”

“Just don’t get too close.”

“What’s the boundary?”

“Don’t touch my body.”

“Wow… that’s strict… So as long as I don’t break that rule, it’s fine?”

“For now.”

After the lengthy negotiations concluded, Luna, seemingly pleased with the outcome, approached me with a beaming smile, little by little.

About a minute later?

She hadn’t touched me, but she was so close that the slightest movement would bring contact.

“This isn’t right, is it?”

Finding this unacceptable, I instinctively backed away.

Luna’s face immediately showed signs of being upset.

Her face was unnecessarily honest.

“Don’t get upset about it. I told you not to get too close.”

“Fine… Let’s put that aside for now. Where should we go first?”

I was amazed at how quickly Luna’s expression changed again.

Then I asked her, as she spoke as if she knew this place well:

“Isn’t this your first time here?”

“Yes, but so what? You can guide me, right? That’s why I didn’t bring a map earlier.”

“We’re in trouble…”

“Why? No way…”

Luna wasn’t the only one for whom this place was new.

“This is my first time here too.”

“We’re doomed… Are we lost?”

“Pretty much.”

“What should we do?”

Luna’s expression didn’t match her words—for some reason, she looked like she was enjoying this situation.

“We just need to go toward those big rides over there and get a map.”

“Ah… that’s boring…”

“What were you thinking?”

“That we’d get lost until it gets dark, and then spend the night together.”

She had the talent of a novelist with an active imagination.

I let out a hollow laugh when I heard her story.

“It’s a plausible story, isn’t it? Someone earlier said it was quite plausible…”

“Who said that?”

For some reason, Luna put on the brightest smile she could and spoke in the cheeriest voice possible.

“I did!”

“Don’t act cute…”

“You say that, but you’re smiling right now. You don’t have to hold it back. I know you’re smiling anyway.”

My pride was hurt.

To think I’d laugh at such jokes and aegyo… it was like bringing shame to my family.

“I would have frowned if it were anyone else.”

“What does that mean? That you smiled because I was acting cute?”

“I meant that others would frown at such jokes!”

My voice unconsciously rose, and Luna seemed to find that significant.

Even though it meant nothing.

“It’s been a while since your voice got louder.”

“Ugh… let’s just go. This is annoying.”

We went to the area with the giant Ferris wheel that was visible from here and got a map of the amusement park.

But even after getting the map, we couldn’t move right away.

“This is really complicated.”

“I know…”

“Should we ride this first?”

To my surprise, Luna was actually pointing at the Ferris wheel.

I stopped her.

“Absolutely not.”

“Why?”

“This is something you ride at the very end, no matter what. No exceptions.”

“Who decided that?”

Hearing that reminded me of the earlier situation, and I was actually about to say “I did.”

But after thinking for a moment, that didn’t seem right.

“Books… say so?”

“You hesitated just now! You were going to say ‘I did’ but changed your mind, right?”

“That’s not it.”

“What do you mean it’s not? It totally is.”

“Anyway, we can’t ride this first.”

After I firmly refused, Luna pointed to the haunted house next to it.

“Then how about that?”

“I’d be fine, but… you probably wouldn’t be.”

“Why?”

Luna seemed genuinely unaware of what a haunted house was, so I explained it to her directly.

It would be bad if we went in without explanation and something unfortunate happened.

And Luna seemed like the type who might be a bit easily frightened.

“Do you know what ghosts are?”