episode_0035

The steps towards the city where humans live were very light. Currently, Arjen was leisurely walking through the forest after stopping his attempt to instantly move to the city using magic such as teleportation.

“Are you okay? The city is so far away?”

“It’s okay. Every walk like this is a new experience, so why?”

In fact, there is nothing new about walking in the forest. When I was young, there was a mountain near my school, so I would often go for a walk. However, if this forest were a different world, the story would be different.

“Oh, that guy…”

I found a guy who looked exactly like the fairy I used to play tag with. I don’t know if it was the same entity as that guy at the time, but it was nice to see a fairy again after a long time.

“Dryad. It’s a fairy who lives in the forest. Young individuals are very rare… Adult dryads are the same size as humans.”

“What? Really?”

I was startled when I heard Arjen’s words. What I meant was that the possibility that this guy was the same fairy I met last time was rapidly increasing.

And perhaps this was just my prediction, I felt like something bad would happen if Arjen found out that that friend had something to do with the reason I got lost.

“Umm….”

So, for the sake of the fairy, I pretended not to notice and tried to pass by. But that oblivious dryad spotted me and rushed at me with a bright smile.

‘no! Nice to see you too after a long time! If you want to live, run away quickly!’

Of course, I had no choice but to swallow these words inside. As expected, Arjen seemed uncomfortable with the dryad being friendly towards me.

“Hmph, I know you’re handsome. Eugene won’t give it to you. Eugene, you too be careful. A dryad drags a man she likes into the tree where she lives.”

Ah, I think I heard a similar legend. Of course, that wasn’t what mattered now. We had to break up quickly before Arjen asked for this guy’s personal information.

“Ahaha… I’m sorry. I can’t play this time because I have somewhere I want to go quickly.”

I said my goodbyes in my own way, but those words became the source of trouble. Arjen noticed something strange in my words.

“This time? Eugene, have you ever met that dryad?”

“Uh, huh!?”

I was so shocked that I stuttered. Normally, you would just naturally deny it. Because what I said was a sentence that could easily be established even if we had never met.

The problem is that since Arjen has asked a question like that, he has to answer it somehow. And as I tell you time and time again, lying doesn’t work on dragons at all.

“#$%@^@#!”

“Hoooh, what?”

At that time, the dryad spoke a language I could not understand at all. Arjen’s eyes narrowed greatly when he heard that.

Please, don’t say anything strange and run away right now…!

“The game of tag we played last time was fun… Now that I think about it, you said that Eugene got lost while playing tag with a fairy the other day…?”

Ah, it’s too late to make excuses now. The dryad too tried to run away, perhaps sensing the intimidation that Arjen was belatedly feeling.

No matter how fast the fairy ran away, Arjen couldn’t catch it, so I also took action. Before she could chase the dryad, she hugged him.

“Eujin, let go of this! That thing is running away!”

“Let’s let it run away. Huh?”

“Ugh!”

In fact, no matter how strongly I restrained Arjen, she had enough strength to shake me off and chase after the dryad. However, the reason I can’t do that is because it doesn’t make sense to say that Arjen is pushing me away.

Who pushes who away? Arjen me? Rather than pushing him away, Arjen was making every effort not to fall away even for a moment. It didn’t occur to her to push me away just to catch one fairy.

Whether it was a loving hug or holding her back so she couldn’t run away, the fact that I was hugging her didn’t change. As expected, Arjen was unable to chase the dryad and was letting off his anger in my arms.

“Ugh…! A fairy who wouldn’t mind eating me…!”

“Arjen’s body smells good.”

“Hehe~ Thank you… not! No, thank you! Why did you save the fairy!?”

It’s just cute to see Arjen changing his emotional expression by the second. Why did you save the fairy? Of course, if you kill someone like that, you will feel too much guilt.

“It was all my fault for running away from Rare at that time. It was my fault for chasing the fairy. It’s because I’m sad that others are harmed because of my mistake.”

“Hmmmm…!”

But Arjen didn’t seem to understand. I had no choice but to tell a slightly unfamiliar story.

“Besides, if you think about it, we had our first…kiss because of that incident, right? Shouldn’t we rather be thankful?”

“First kiss…!”

Arjen’s face blushes red as if my words reminded him of the moment of his first kiss. From the looks of it, it seemed like everything had passed.

“Well, then there is nothing we can do about it! I’ll let you see it just this once!”

Well, anyway, one poor life was saved. In this way, we passed through the forest, meeting other than fairies, such as talking mushrooms, talking flowers, and talking trees.

‘Why is everyone talking so much…?’

Anyway, it took nearly half a day to come out of the noisy forest and I saw a new landscape. It was definitely a place that should have been familiar, but it had already been reduced to ashes.

“Uh… this is where the village was originally located, right?”

“Yes. This is where the villagers who brought Eugene to me lived.”

Kaela found out that I had tuberculosis bacteria, and Arjen burned down the entire village to get rid of it. I had only heard about it, but when I saw this scene in person, it was not like they had been burned, but they had been cremated alive.

“They were really good people… hehe…”

It was a place where I was drugged and sacrificed and had no good memories, but Arjen seemed to think of it in a special way.

If I follow the logic I presented when I was a Dryad, in the end, it was because of these people that I was able to meet Arjen, so should I be thankful?

I once again realized how sophistical what I said to Arjen was. No, of course, there is a difference between joking around and deliberately offering it up as a sacrifice.

“I guess I should camp near here today.”

When I looked at the sky, the sun was setting and darkness was coming. But the surrounding area is nothing but ashes. I had no choice but to use the camping equipment I had prepared.

“But where did you get these tents and bedding?”

I asked Arjen while unpacking. It was surprising that Arjen, who probably spends most of his time in Rare, had a product that looked like it was made by humans.

“That? It was given to me by adventurers who invaded Rare.”

“……You gave it to me? Did you give it to me?”

“Hmm? I couldn’t go. Of course.”

I guess I was asking something pointless. Anyway, while I was setting up the tent and putting down the pack, Arjen started a fire with the firewood he had brought in, and a fairly decent campsite was created.

“Ehehe, it feels fresh again because it’s like this.”

Arjen spoke in a very excited voice in a different atmosphere than when he was lying in bed. I asked just in case.

“…Aren’t you planning on doing it here?”

“? I wasn’t planning on doing it!?”

“No, of course it’s softer than I thought… but I guarantee you that if you do it, your back will be broken tomorrow.”

Time and place must be distinguished. The tent was not a room.

“But, we did it on the grass too, right?”

uh? Now that I think about it, it was like that. I was even the first to try outdoor sex. Compared to the great outdoors where the real wind blows, the inside of the tent could be considered a hotel.

“…….”

I’m in big trouble. I couldn’t think of a single excuse.

“Hehe! I will eat well~”

Arjen took off my clothes with expert skill.

***

Globec, the lord of Eletrobe, was having a busy day. Governing such a vast territory was a problem, but that was because the area under its jurisdiction included the rare of the bright dragon Arjen.

“Ha… Is it already time to offer another tribute?”

The ‘Day of Human Tribute’ designated by Arjen is four times a year. It was once every quarter. Therefore, when the day to offer tribute approached, the villages under the lord’s jurisdiction had to take turns offering living sacrifices, mainly to the criminals. Since it was a matter of human lives being exchanged, the seal of the responsible person in power, namely Count Globek, was needed.

The problem is that Arjen burned down the village that had just offered tribute. It was a headache because I couldn’t find out the reason, but then I heard that Arzen had a mate, so I asked the hero to subdue it, but the hero actually stopped subduing the dragon because Arzen was the only one.

“Keu… It would have been nice to subdue him while he was already busy…”

All Globec could do, not even thinking that the hero had been defeated, was to sigh. Moreover, his work did not end there.

The national holiday is soon approaching. Eletrov, one of the major cities, also holds a grand festival to commemorate the national holiday, and there were more than one sheet of documents to prepare for this festival.

Endless piles of documents piled up on the desk. Among them, there are many agenda items that give Globec a headache. Globec shed tears as she watched her hair fall out day by day.