Ch.392Side Story: Mountain Climbing

As I approached the middle of the mountain, just as I had thought earlier.

Findenai and Deia naturally joined the place where Illuania and I were together.

“Kyahaa!”

Findenai exclaimed with delight while enjoying her beer. She seemed to be in a good mood drinking alcohol outside after such a long time.

Normally, Findenai shouldn’t even show her face in public, but she insisted she couldn’t just stay cooped up after coming all the way to Norsweden, so she ended up coming out here.

Since Norsweden was a relatively closed city environment, we were letting it slide for now.

‘If any problems arise, Darius will handle it.’

I’m just passing the responsibility to the highest authority and moving on. If that doesn’t work, asking Elenoa or King Orpheus once should resolve things.

“I missed this place! This meat! This beer! They just go so well together!”

As Findenai practically inhaled the meat and beer, pounding the table and cackling with laughter, Sevia, who was nestled in Illuania’s arms again, squealed with delight. She seemed to enjoy Findenai’s antics.

“Hmm, Norsweden hasn’t changed much.”

Deia, who had been away in Robern recently due to matchmaking meetings, looked around while drinking her beer, seemingly out for the first time in a while.

“Winter preparations should be similar to usual. Fortunately, this winter doesn’t seem like it will be as cold as expected.”

“Because the Mountain Guardian is away.”

After saying that and taking a sip of beer, Deia looked at me and asked.

“Does something change when the Mountain Guardian is away?”

“Basically, he was a guardian deity accustomed to operating in cold climates. So the Mountain Guardian used to spread cold air around, but now that he’s with Findenai, it won’t be as cold as before.”

“Oh.”

Nodding in understanding at my words, she glanced at Findenai, who was playing with Sevia, oblivious to our conversation about her. Deia smiled slightly at the sight.

“She’s helpful sometimes.”

That single comment revealed how Deia felt about Findenai.

“How long will you stay in Norsweden? I heard you were planning to visit Greyfond too?”

“I should go. I won’t stay here long.”

As Erika had told me, I wanted to meet Owen, who was apparently working hard to become a spiritmaster after me.

“You’ll be staying here, right?”

At my question, Deia shrugged and answered that it was obvious.

“The Verdi family can’t enter the capital for years, you know? Thanks to someone.”

“Ah, right.”

I had forgotten what she told me last time, since I’m not particularly interested in the political situation here. This reminded me again how much I’ve truly relaxed.

“Still, I’ll stay for a few days. I’m planning to visit the Norsweden mountains and look around the area.”

“Sure, sure. If you leave too soon, Darius will get upset again. I’d be disappointed too.”

Deia grinned and kicked my shin under the table. But when I didn’t react much, she put down her beer glass and took off her shoes.

Then she slowly ran her foot sole down from my knee to my calf. Her mischievous smile while playfully touching me with her foot was an obvious seduction by anyone’s standards.

“……”

When I glared at Deia, she was smiling, saying it felt good. She seemed to find my reaction amusing.

“Stop it.”

“Whyyy.”

Her voice sounded coquettish, making me wonder if she was slightly drunk.

Why indeed.

Perhaps because Findenai was sitting on the opposite side, there was even a sense of taboo to the situation, and I finally reached down to grab Deia’s foot.

“Eep?!”

Deia covered her mouth, apparently ticklish. I had intended to make her stop, but the atmosphere had changed into something like a strange play, making me feel odd.

Yet she was still wriggling her foot, struggling unnecessarily.

“How long are you going to keep this up?”

Findenai, who had been playing with Sevia, looked at us with a bored expression and asked.

“I was trying to ignore it, but it just won’t end, so I can’t pretend not to notice anymore.”

“……”

“I have too good instincts to not know what you’re doing under the table.”

True, someone like Findenai could track and react to bullets flying at her with her eyes. There’s no way she wouldn’t notice what we were doing under the table when we were this close.

“Having fun flirting in front of your wife?”

With that, Findenai suddenly slipped her foot between my legs. The sudden action made my body jerk, but…

“Not hard, I see.”

After confirming something, she withdrew her foot.

“…Findenai.”

As I glared at her with an incredulous expression, Findenai stuck out her tongue and pouted.

“If you had gotten hard, you’d be dead.”

Findenai’s curt warning made her seem a bit sulky.

I understood her feelings.

Deia had openly declared she would pursue me, and Findenai was subtly jealous of her.

That’s understandable, but…

“Sevia is watching.”

I made an excuse using Sevia.

“Sevia’s eyes are covered though?”

But Illuania had already covered Sevia’s eyes with her hands, and Sevia was enjoying her mother’s playfulness with a smile.

Anyway, I pushed away Deia’s foot, and Findenai didn’t push things further either. Partly because there was a one-year-old baby in front of us, and partly because they didn’t seem to want to break this slightly tipsy atmosphere.

“You’re always making useless excuses. Whatever, let’s just drink.”

Finally, Findenai held out her beer bottle, and Deia responded by clinking her bottle against it.

I joined in as well.

* * *

The next day.

Findenai was rolling around in bed, suffering from a hangover, while I made a separate trip to the Norsweden mountains.

I thought she might want to go to the mountains since the Mountain Guardian was with her, but she wouldn’t wake up no matter how much I tried.

‘She’ll probably go by herself later.’

Someone like Findenai wouldn’t take long to make the trip anyway.

[Wow, I hated mountains so much when I was alive! Now that I’m dead, it’s not even tiring!]

On the way up the mountain.

The Dark Spiritmaster was looking around excitedly. It was like watching a person act like a dog frolicking in snow. The effect was enhanced by the snow already piled up in Norsweden.

[Mountains are nice because they clear your mind.]

Stella, who was walking beside me like we were on a stroll, seemed to have quite liked mountains.

The reason why the Dark Spiritmaster disliked mountains was obvious if you thought about it. Since she disliked moving in the first place, she naturally would have hated hiking too.

[Look at all this snow! Woohoo!]

The Dark Spiritmaster made a snowball and threw it at me. When I easily blocked it with magic, she pouted.

[What? That’s no fun.]

“We didn’t come here to have fun.”

[Then shall we build a snowman? How about it?]

“I said we didn’t come here to have fun.”

No matter what I said, the Dark Spiritmaster wouldn’t listen. She just expressed regret that she hadn’t brought Ppopsil along.

[What do you think, Stella? Should we build a snowman? As a Saintess, didn’t you do this kind of thing often?]

[I did my fair share. It would take about 20 minutes normally, but with magic, wouldn’t it take just 2 seconds?]

[…I suddenly lost all motivation.]

When Stella said not to waste time unnecessarily with a smile, the Dark Spiritmaster’s shoulders drooped.

This was a kind of dilemma for mages. Using magic would finish things quickly, but it strangely removed the sense of achievement. Yet if they tried to do it physically, they’d wonder why they were moving around when magic could do it instantly.

Of course, some mages feel a sense of achievement even when using magic, but…

That’s for mages of a certain level.

In our case, magic was as natural as breathing, so we didn’t feel any sense of achievement.

Just as a normal person doesn’t feel accomplished by raising their arm.

[We didn’t come here to play, senior. I’ll build one with you later.]

[Tch, don’t treat me like a child.]

[We’ll make hands with twigs, eyebrows with pine needles, and eyes with pebbles. And the nose will be a carrot.]

[Oh? That sounds fun.]

As the Dark Spiritmaster hummed and followed behind, I glanced at her and nodded approvingly at Stella.

“You’re really good with children.”

[Well, if we’re being specific, I’m good at handling my senior.]

Since the Dark Spiritmaster had spent a lot of time alone, she maintained a childlike innocence that I wanted to preserve, but…

When actually caught up in it, I also wanted to tell her to grow up a bit.

[Besides, senior isn’t a child.]

“Oh? Even after seeing that behavior?”

[The fact that she only shows that side to you… means she’s not a child.]

“……”

With a meaningful smile, Stella walked ahead. It felt like she was hiding something, but for now, we headed toward the middle of the mountain.

Today’s destination was the grave of Emily, the girl who loved flowers.

Even though Emily was now sleeping inside Deus’s corpse, I wanted to come here once to show that I hadn’t forgotten her.

But there wasn’t just one gravestone.

-Emily, the girl who loved flowers. May she find eternal rest here.

Next to Emily’s grave.

There was another gravestone I hadn’t seen before:

-Started as a bastard, ended up pretty cool.

The inscription, which seemed like a joke, clearly reflected Deia’s way of speaking.

I didn’t need to wonder who the grave was for.

His grave was truly shabby.

Nothing was placed around it, and there wasn’t even a body buried beneath.

It was a grave for his real second brother, not the Deus Verdi I had been pretending to be.

That’s what this was.

[So this is what you came to see?]

Beside me, Stella smiled brightly as she cleared the snow from the gravestone.

I nodded slightly.

And then…

[What? I thought we were going to do it outdoors.]

From behind, the Dark Spiritmaster’s vulgar comment with her unique taste hit the back of my head.