Ch.4545. The Glory of Sianella (3)

“We didn’t talk about anything special. I just asked how long I had been lying down and where Lady Sione was.”

“Hmm… is that really all?”

Sione gave me an uncharacteristically suspicious look.

“Just a moment ago, you seemed too close to Sister Siabel….”

“…She just wanted to see what happened to my left arm, so I showed her.”

“Is that truly all?”

“How could I possibly lie to you, Lady Sione. Would you like to see it as well?”

“No, that’s fine.”

I showed my left arm to Sione, but she raised her hand to stop me, indicating she didn’t need to see it.

Then Sione let out an inexplicable sigh of relief and said:

“I’ve already confirmed with my own eyes several times that your arm has returned to its proper form. The priest said you would need to receive Divine Power several more times… how is it? Can you move your arm yet?”

“The wound has healed, but moving my arm still seems impossible. Even when I try to use strength, it just goes limp immediately.”

“…That’s troublesome.”

Sione sighed softly as she looked at my limp arm.

It seemed she felt guilty about what had happened to my arm.

If this continued, she would probably keep making that pitiful expression every day until my arm fully healed.

Such an expression might be tolerable once or twice. But seeing it constantly would become bothersome and distracting.

I spoke up to help ease her guilt.

“Please don’t worry too much about my arm. The situation couldn’t be helped, could it?”

“Still, if I had been more helpful—”

“It’s fine. It’s much better that I got injured instead of you getting hurt, Lady Sione.”

“…What exactly is your reason?”

“My reason?”

“The reason you keep protecting me.”

The reason I protect Sione.

It’s nothing special.

I need Sione to survive in this cursed world.

Besides, if I abandoned her and ran away in dangerous situations, people from all sides would demand to know why I didn’t protect her.

If something went wrong and Sione died, I’d have to watch the world end with my eyes wide open.

And… I’ve also grown somewhat attached to her.

Sione was important.

Both to me and to this cursed world.

“At least for me, Lady Sione is more important than anything else.”

“…What?”

“I mean exactly what I said.”

Sione’s eyes widened.

Seeing her pupils trembling slightly, it seemed my answer had caught her off guard.

Sione tried her best to hide her embarrassment.

Unfortunately, it was quite obvious.

I smiled slightly, finding her unnecessary effort rather amusing.

Seeing her reaction made me want to tease her a bit more.

“If Lady Sione weren’t important to me, how could I have willingly sacrificed my arm to face that giant spider?”

“That’s…”

“I simply decided that I would rather offer my arm than watch Lady Sione get seriously injured.”

“……”

At my words, Sione finally lowered her head deeply, avoiding my gaze.

She flinched unnecessarily at her shoulders while her earlobes turned red.

It seems she has absolutely no resistance to embarrassing words.

Though I felt a bit shy myself after saying it, seeing her react so strongly gave me a sense of satisfaction.

I asked her:

“By the way, are you alright, Lady Sione?”

“…About what?”

Sione slightly raised her lowered head to look up at me.

“Given the situation, it couldn’t be helped, but… I did throw you, didn’t I?”

“…You fool.”

“Pardon?”

I only asked because I felt bad about throwing her onto that rough mountain path.

She’s calling me names for that?

Of course, “fool” is just a cute level of insult, I know that well.

But to openly call me a fool when I’m just showing concern…

“Just… just for something like that, what are you worrying about? Worry about yourself instead of me…”

It was then that I noticed.

Though I couldn’t easily understand why she was acting this way, I could see her eyes becoming moist.

…Why is she getting teary now?

This is awkward.

I never imagined she would show tears just because I said some loyal words.

For someone as emotionally sensitive as Sione to show tears.

Her sudden tears left me dumbfounded.

“…Are you alright?”

Sione tried to say something in response to my question.

“…I’m fine. I’d like to be alone for a while, could you please leave?”

In the end, she couldn’t finish what she wanted to say and only asked me to leave.

As I got up from the bed to leave the room.

Sione firmly grabbed the hem of my clothes.

“You don’t need to come see me for the rest of today.”

“When you say I don’t need to come…”

“So you can rest without any worries for today. The priest… said he’ll come after lunch until you’re healed, so keep that in mind.”

“…Thank you.”

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Sione with her downcast mood slipped into her bed.

Normally, she would lie in bed and stare at my back as I left the room.

But today, Sione lay with her back turned and didn’t look at me until I left the room.

After leaving her room, I whispered quietly in Korean.

“…What’s with both sisters acting strange today?”

Whether it was Siabel closing the distance uncomfortably, or Sione abandoning her usual shameless and silly demeanor to act all melancholic.

No matter how much I thought about why they were acting this way, I couldn’t find an answer.

I don’t know. It’s not like it would harm me anyway.

I soon gave up trying to figure it out.

I walked with light steps toward my assigned room.

After all the hardship following Sione around until now.

I planned to rest properly for one day without worrying about Sione and her trouble-attracting tendencies.

* * *

Perhaps it was because I had rested thoroughly for an entire day.

Unlike before, I was able to wake up feeling refreshed today.

Since it was early morning when most people would still be asleep, I wanted to sleep a bit more too.

But because of Sione, who goes jogging at this time every day when we’re at the estate, I had no choice but to prepare to go out.

After putting on my servant’s uniform, quickly fixing my hair, and washing my face, all preparations were complete, and I looked in the mirror.

“Handsome.”

That’s not just empty words.

There’s a reason the original owner of this body had the title of male knight and was about to be sold to nobles.

Although my appearance might come across as cold and heartless, objectively speaking, my face was quite handsome.

I smirked at the mirror.

“Well, at least I have a good face.”

Although I ended up trapped in this body because I died in a dungeon.

After losing all my fame and status, at least I should have one good thing like a handsome face, right?

With these trivial thoughts, I left the room.

I habitually went to Sione’s room to wake her up.

Since she’s such a heavy sleeper that she would sleep until lunchtime if I didn’t wake her up.

But clearly, I was going to wake her up.

“You’re here now?”

…Has the sun risen from the west?

Not only was Sione already awake, but unlike usual, there wasn’t a single trace of drool at the corner of her mouth, and she was neatly groomed.

Normally at this hour, she’d be scratching her stomach while still in bed, so I have no idea what wind has blown to make her like this.

“When did you wake up?”

“Unlike usual, I woke up early. Are you surprised to see me awake?”

“…A little surprised.”

“Hehe.”

At my words, Sione showed a playful smile.

“Now that I’ve seen you arrive, I’ll go out for a quick workout.”

“I’ll follow you.”

“No, you stay here and wait.”

“Pardon? Stay and wait?”

“Your left arm is still uncomfortable, isn’t it? Don’t trouble yourself unnecessarily and wait here.”

“…Thank you for your consideration.”

They say if a person changes completely overnight, their death is approaching.

Today’s Sione was uncharacteristically considerate unlike her usual self.

Even when I looked at her with a slightly puzzled expression, she just smiled gently.

It was fine that I skipped morning exercise and waited in the room.

The problem was that her excessive consideration continued even after the sun had fully risen.

“I’ll bring some refreshments and tea—”

“No, it’s fine. I’m not in the mood for that today.”

“Then I’ll clean the room a bit—”

“Why are you trying to work hard when you can’t even move your left arm… Ray, you just rest. I’ll tell another servant to handle it.”

“…Understood.”

I was getting restless from sitting too much and wanted to move around a bit.

But whenever I tried to do something, she immediately tried to make me sit back down.

Was she that grateful that I protected her from the Arachne?

Should I call it overprotection? She was too conscious of me.

It’s not like both my arms are crippled, or that my left arm was cut off making me one-armed. The arm is still attached, it just lacks strength.

I can’t believe she won’t even let me dust the corners of the room with a duster.

Should I be happy about this? Or not?

It was quite peculiar to see Sione hiding in her blanket, staring at me intently, determined not to let me do any work.

Then she came out of her bed and started busily preparing to go out.

I wonder where she’s planning to wander off to, leaving me alone in the room again.

I got up from the chair I was sitting on and asked:

“Where are you planning to go?”

“I want to practice archery, so I’m going to the shooting range.”

“I’ll accompany you this time.”

“Even if you come to the shooting range, you won’t be able to shoot a bow… I plan to stay for quite a while, so wouldn’t it be better for you to rest in your room?”

“It might be difficult for me to shoot, but wouldn’t it be fine for me to watch you shoot, Lady Sione?”

“Hmm…”

“I can correct your posture and give you advice on what to practice in the future.”

Only then did Sione nod at my words.

After receiving the okay sign, we headed straight to the training ground.

I heard that just this morning, quite a number of knights and soldiers, including Siabel and Diolia, had headed to the Beltrin Mountains.

Perhaps because of that, today’s training ground seemed to have fewer people than I remembered.

But that wasn’t the only difference.

As Sione and I entered the training ground, almost every woman there gave me a once-over.

Even though I had been coming to the training ground with Sione every day before, so they should have been somewhat familiar with my presence.

I could feel the glances of women with sparkling eyes looking at me from everywhere.

…I know a man doesn’t quite fit in this sweaty training ground.

But this seems like too much attention just for being a man.

Sione also noticed the unusually large number of gazes directed our way and said:

“…It seems the news has already spread.”

“What news?”

“After you collapsed, I went there with my sister and saw the Arachne you killed, along with a few soldiers. Even on the way back to the estate, the soldiers were talking about you, saying you were like a male knight from a novel.”

“Then…”

“Moreover, we brought back the Arachne’s body separately for investigation with the priests. Not a few people would have seen that body yesterday.”

Sione gave a sharp look toward those who were staring at me and said:

“It seems the fact that you were the one who caught that huge Arachne has already spread among them.”

“……”

“You’re probably being called something like the male knight of Sianella, don’t you think?”

It seems I’ve suddenly become a real male knight.