Ch.174Chapter 174. May Freya’s Blessing Be With You.

“Just hold me for one night……”

When I first heard those words, I naturally thought she wanted a physical relationship, but you need to hear someone out completely to truly understand their meaning.

“So I just need to hold you?”

“Yes, just… before you fall asleep, lie down and hold me. That’s all.”

Fortunately, what Flan meant wasn’t “that kind of thing.”

She just purely wanted to be embraced… Of course, she wouldn’t ask for something like that in such a serious situation.

I knew better than anyone, after fighting alongside her for six months, that she wasn’t that oblivious.

“If you just do that for me, I think I can calm my mind.”

“…This is strictly for comfort, right?”

“Yes, strictly for comfort.”

Flan immediately answered my repeated question, which I asked to prevent any possible misunderstanding.

Finally feeling relieved, I calmed my tense chest and prepared to grant Flan’s request.

All I had to do was embrace that small, delicate body with both arms—a simple task.

-Rustle, rustle.

…Wait a minute.

Why is she suddenly taking off her clothes?

“W-wait!”

I came to my senses when Flan was down to her underwear.

When she seemed about to remove that too, I quickly stopped her and turned my gaze away, asking in a strained voice:

“W-why are you suddenly taking off your clothes?”

“Because I think I’ll feel it better this way.”

Feel what?

-Thud.

Before I could fully grasp her meaning, Flan had removed even her underwear.

I quickly averted my eyes when I realized she was naked, but Flan, as if anticipating this reaction, simply moved quietly to the prepared bedding.

“…It’s okay if you refuse. This is just to calm my troubled mind.”

Then with a rustle, she slipped under the covers and said to me:

“If you think I’m asking too much… you can just go to another room.”

“No, it’s not too much, but…”

I could hold her anytime, but her nakedness naturally made me uncomfortable.

Especially since she had such a small frame, which increased the risk, and above all, I already had someone in my heart… Actually, come to think of it, Irie had permitted my relationship with Flan.

While I shouldn’t cross any lines, she would probably overlook something at this preliminary stage.

“J-just so you know… I’m only doing this because you asked, okay?”

Right, I just need to maintain my integrity.

I just need to grant this naked girl’s request, strictly for comfort.

“Yes, please.”

“I’m just going to hold you. Nothing more…”

“Yes, just hold me, that’s all.”

Flan answered casually to my questions, which were meant to eliminate any possibility of misunderstanding.

Then she pulled back the covers she was under and gestured invitingly to the empty space.

“Just until you fall asleep, like a doll…”

-Gulp.

I swallowed hard, trying to calm my nerves.

Then I quietly reached into the covers, preparing to embrace Flan’s body.

“So, I’m going to hold you now…?”

A cautious question.

With it, my outstretched arms gradually began to embrace her delicate body.

Her snow-white skin, slender limbs, and slightly protruding…

“…Ugh!”

My hands froze with guilt the moment they were about to touch those areas.

I quickly pulled back, but Flan just stared at me without showing any particular reaction.

“…Hehe.”

Then came a faint laugh.

There was a glimpse of seductiveness in her that I hadn’t noticed before.

“You always treated me like a child, but now that I’m like this, you’re nervous about touching me?”

As if reminding me that despite appearing to be a fragile girl on the outside, inside she was a being who had lived for over a thousand years.

“You’re cute, my master.”

“…Don’t tease me.”

Cute? Usually I was the one who felt that way and teased her.

But the situation wasn’t right for joking around as I normally would.

She was my companion, my teacher, and someone who had proven her loyalty to me over the past six months.

For someone like her, everything happening in this land must be unbearable just to witness.

-Rustle.

Yes, perhaps this provocation was her defense mechanism for enduring such reality.

Accepting her behavior as such, I gathered my resolve again, got under the covers, and embraced her.

“Is this okay?”

“…Yes, it’s fine.”

Her head against my chest, my hands beginning to comfort her back.

That was the best position I could manage.

I felt that if I moved around too much, I might touch dangerous areas or create too much stimulation, leading us down an irreversible path.

“How does my body feel to you?”

I could feel myself being drawn to her, which is why such thoughts occurred to me.

It wasn’t just because she was naked.

If that were my only concern, I wouldn’t have accepted her and would have left the room the moment she undressed.

“Is it too hard? Difficult to touch? Or perhaps you find my body unattractive…”

“…No.”

Rather, showing me her naked body meant our distance had grown that much closer.

It meant she trusted me, and this closeness, combined with what we had built up until now, was becoming more pronounced.

“It’s not bad. Rather, it’s soft…”

“Is that so?”

“…Yes, it’s soft.”

We trust each other.

And we believe this relationship will continue.

“You’re warm.”

She whispered this sentiment to me.

“…Yes, you really are warm. Your embrace.”

Saying this, she buried her face in my chest and placed her hand on one of the arms embracing her, beginning to apply pressure.

“I want to feel you more.”

“……”

“…Is that not okay?”

“No, it’s fine.”

Flan closed her eyes, savoring the touch.

I could clearly feel through my palm how the corners of her lips gradually turned upward as she brushed them against the surface of my hand.

As if showing genuine satisfaction in simply feeling my warmth.

“…This is my first time.”

How long had this silence of joy passed?

Flan, still pressing her face against my hand, began to whisper to me again while absorbing its warmth.

“This is my first time. Asking for something from the person I serve.”

A careful voice with a slight, perceptible tremor.

The anxiety I sensed from it surely stemmed from her own sense of guilt.

Whether it was simply from making a request of me, or from feeling she had no choice but to stand by and watch what was happening in this land.

“…You’ve never done this with anyone else?”

“Of course not. I was satisfied with my life without having to ask for anything.”

Continuing with words tinged with guilt, Flan closed her eyes and gave me a summary of her life.

“I would sleep, then awaken in eras that needed me… When my work was done, I would sleep again, waiting only to be awakened. That was my only mission, and achieving that was the only reward I desired.”

Just a useful tool, or a slave…

Some might view her life that way, but that certainly doesn’t apply to her.

She is a being who genuinely finds joy in serving others. The past six months have been more than enough to make me realize that.

“But in this era, what I had to do wasn’t fighting, but pretending to be human while hiding my true identity.”

And that realization immediately made me understand how ill-fitting the appearance she showed when I first met her was.

“For me, who should serve humans, to pretend to stand above them… That was beyond wearing ill-fitting clothes—it was something that could be considered blasphemous for a being like me.”

She hates not being able to follow her mission.

Yet she resents the era that forces her to do so, and feels powerless having to reluctantly accept it…

“…That’s why I’m grateful to you. If someone else had found me, we probably wouldn’t have developed the relationship we have now.”

Perhaps because she had been consumed by such emotions, she cherished our time together all the more.

“Because you found me, I was able to purely enjoy the joy of serving humans, if only in form, rather than standing above them.”

She was using this moment to tell me that the time we had spent together had been a source of fulfillment and joy for her.

She was honestly expressing that the trust and gratitude I felt for her were not one-sided.

“I wish we could continue this feeling… Why doesn’t the world allow even such a modest relationship to continue?”

But the words that followed taught me that this relationship would not be eternal.

Before I could grasp what that meant, a “Crack!” sound rang out, and my body, embracing her, stiffened on the spot.

“Kuhek!!”

My breath caught and my body went numb. I felt my consciousness gradually fading.

What’s happening? What’s going on?

“…I’m sorry, Master.”

In this incomprehensible situation, a faint voice reached me.

By the time I realized it came from Flan’s lips, she had already slipped out of the bedding and risen to her feet.

“But if I said I would stay here, you, with your warm heart, might prepare to stay here with me.”

Stay here? What does she mean?

No matter how difficult it is to accept what happened here, hadn’t we decided to leave this place and plan for the future?

“That can’t happen. I, who should serve you, cannot put you in danger because of ‘a problem that started with me.'”

I wanted to demand an explanation, but my mouth, already paralyzed by the unexpected shock, could only produce gasping breaths.

Even those didn’t last long as my vision darkened, and finally, my hand, which should have reached out to Flan, crashed to the floor.

“…So farewell, Master.”

And finally, my consciousness sank into darkness.

“May Freya’s blessing be with you.”

With only that farewell, without any explanation, echoing in my ears.

****

“Huh!!”

Right after recalling that farewell.

My stiffened body sat up, and my gaze began moving in all directions.

I had awakened in the same room inside the cathedral where I had fallen asleep.

But the one who should have been beside me was nowhere to be seen.

“Flan, Flan!”

Damn it, to think that undressing was just to lower my guard.

How long had I been asleep? Where is Flan now? Could it be!?

“Hero.”

Just as I was about to gather my weapons and head to where I thought she might be.

I encountered expedition members positioned in my path, all waiting for me with tense faces.

“This way…”

Among them, Sanson gestured to me as if he had something to show.

I was concerned about Flan’s absence, but those who had awakened before me might know something.

With that judgment, I followed Sanson to the upper floor of the cathedral, and my breath caught when I saw the cityscape through the window.

“W-what is that…?”

Unlike yesterday, the fog had lifted, revealing the entire city.

In the scene, still permeated by the desolate air of dawn, the monsters that had been swarming yesterday were now clearly visible.

Not a single monster moved; without exception, all were dismembered with their cross-sections burned.

The forces we had deemed impossible to defeat with our personnel had been annihilated overnight, greeting us as we looked down upon them.

“That, could it be…”

No, there was one person capable of such a thing.

If that girl, whom I believed would never harm humans, had broken such a taboo and done this.

“…This is Flan’s message.”

The girl who had broken that taboo now spoke to me through Sanson’s lips.

“I will leave the path to the exit open just in case, so please leave me here and return to the Empire as soon as the Hero wakes up.”

Words indicating that the tragedy she had caused while I was unconscious was not all she planned to do in this city.

-KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

As if to prove that it was still continuing.

Soon, screams erupting from the Papal Office at the center of the city began to echo throughout the entire city.