episode_0106

Last night, I handed myself over to Prédel while suppressing the guilt of deceiving her and the aversion to the act itself, thinking that this was probably the only way for me to survive until the end in a story that had twisted away from the novels I had read.

Prédel was delighted, saying that her love had finally borne fruit, but it was just a delusion that she had fallen for my lies and acting.

I did not love her.

When I look at her face, I smile because she’s cute, her chattering voice is like a canary’s song, being with her makes me want to rely on her and protect her…

That’s, what is it? Fondness for a close younger sibling or junior? Caring for them? It’s that kind of emotion, isn’t it? That’s right, isn’t it?

Love is an intense emotion that cannot be compared to such things. Even I, who have never been in a relationship, knew that much.

Love is an emotion so intense that it blinds you to everything except the other person, fills your mind with longing and desire when you are apart.

It’s an emotion so intense and extreme that being together makes your heart tremble madly and even breathing becomes difficult.

So, the feelings I held for Prédel were far from love. Far from love… So, yes, it’s fondness. It’s closer to fondness, I should say.

Those were the emotions. Probably.

There was no love, it was truly an unprecedented experience.

That’s why, even as I decided to allow Prédel to have my body, I didn’t think it would be a pleasant thing.

I had heard somewhere that a relationship without affection is empty and dry.

…But, even for those unconventional reasons, mixing bodies wasn’t without pleasure. Not only without it, but very… That’s… I mean…

…It was amazing.

At some point, I completely forgot about the unconventional reasons and just hung on, begging for more, and eventually passed out.

When I woke up, it was morning.

◆◆

“Ughhh….”

Upon waking up to the morning sunlight, I found myself lying in Freide’s cloak, embracing her, and sitting up with my upper body, groaning as I covered my face.

My appearance from last night was vividly flooding my mind as soon as I woke up.

Overwhelmed by unbearable sensations, I cried tears, gnashed my teeth, and gasped with a saliva-soaked face.

It was so embarrassing that my face felt hot. To me.

“Haah….”

I exhaled a seemingly extinguishing sigh.

Gosh, what have I done? Seriously, losing my mind. How could I utter such words?

How could I, in such a vulgar and disgraceful manner…

Feeling ashamed, I closed my eyes, only to have memories come back even more vividly.

As the mental anguish intensified with every thought, I shook my head from side to side, trying to shake off the memories as I got up.

Swoosh.

The chilly breeze of dawn lightly brushed over my exposed body. The lower half was not much different from the upper half.

Legs marked with all sorts of traces. The inside of my pelvis felt oddly sore, and my waist and thighs were somewhat stiff.

Seeing no remnants of sweat or moisture, it seemed that while I was unconscious, Friede had wiped my body down like a rag and then fallen asleep.

“Tsk….”

In a moment of carelessness, I bit my lip at the memory of last night once again and picked up the underwear and clothes that were clumsily spread out on a rough frame.

While the top might be manageable, the underwear and pants had become nearly impossible to put back on, but thanks to being well dried during the night, they seemed wearable now.

With a slightly musty and strong lemon scent, it felt more frozen than dried, but…

‘…Can’t help it.’

Being a fugitive, do I really need to worry about such things?

Other than this, I had no other clothes to bring, leaving me with only two options.

To put on the contaminated clothes again or to become a perverted vagabond knight, exposing my lower body while wearing only the top, armor, and cloak.

If there were only those two options, wouldn’t anyone naturally choose the former, not me?

“Chulmyeonpi” Brunhilde or “Fugitive” Brunhilde, at least one of them has a decent ring to it.

If an alias like “Exposed Light” Brunhilde or “Fully Visible” Brunhilde were attached, I would lose all my strength to extreme embarrassment and collapse in despair.

Perhaps even in death, I wouldn’t be able to close my eyes. If such an alias were attached.

◆◆

Putting on an undergarment over the underwear, then securing the breastplate and pauldrons on top.

“…Fride. It’s time to get up. It’s morning.”

I lightly shook Fride, who was still sound asleep.

Unlike me, who had nothing on except boots, Fride seemed to have her undergarments on, having only removed her armor and clothes.

Well, I did make her faint before she could take off her clothes.

She probably didn’t need to undress completely just to dry her undergarments, unless it was the top that got soaked because of me. Probably.

“Ugh… ”

Fride groaned as if half-asleep, tossing and turning.

Her cloak, covering her body, slipped to the side, fully exposing the piece of cloth between her white lower abdomen and legs.

“…Black.”

Fride’s undergarments were entirely black, both top and bottom.

Undergarments dyed black with elaborate embroidery.

Surprisingly, rather daring.

People are truly unpredictable at first glance.

Wearing such undergarments with a face that would suit teddy bear panties or rabbit panties, it wasn’t that they didn’t suit her, but it felt somewhat awkward.

Anyway.

“Come on, get up, Fride. We can’t just hide here forever. We need to move.”

Shaking Fride once more, she finally woke up with a light groan, leaning in to kiss my cheek and smiling softly, which, well, made me feel a bit awkward… yet somewhat cute.

For some reason, it feels like there’s a sweet taste in my untouched mouth, and I unconsciously licked my lips with the tip of my tongue.

And then, I suddenly sat up.

What did I just do? Licking my lips as if regretful, laughing, what am I doing? It seems like I’m doing something tempting.

I must be crazy, really.

My face turned red with embarrassment.

Seriously, get a hold of yourself. If you understand a woman’s pleasure and end up becoming a woman in heart, what will you do?

This isn’t the time for that in the first place.

“Phew.”

I exhaled lightly, calming the heat on my cheeks with a fan. I vowed to bury yesterday’s disgrace deep in my memory.

◆◆

After regaining my senses, was last night embarrassing for her too?

Frida, who had washed away her drunkenness with melted snow, blushed more than usual every time she spoke to me.

“Hehe….”

Occasionally, she would turn her head away and let out a small laugh, avoiding my gaze.

If she wasn’t the main character of the original work, who had fainted me last night and had been trying so hard to avoid me, I might have found her cute in that state.

“Hehe.”

Uh, well… I mean… she’s still cute now, but anyway.

Of course, at this moment, I wasn’t petting her head because of her cuteness.

“Ahh….”

So, I quietly lowered my reflexively raised left hand and sighed softly.

As I put cold eyes in my mouth instead of water to clear my befuddled mind, I felt my senses returning to normal.

Now, what should I do from now on? Thinking about it again made me feel bleak.

It’s not that I didn’t know what to do. On the contrary, there were too many things to do, and I didn’t know where to start.

Like a child who only picks up neglected homework the day before school starts.

What should I do?

Where should I start?

I rolled my head and reviewed the events of the novel I read and the game settings that became the background of the novel one by one.

It’s been almost ten months since I read the original novel, so my memory was a bit fuzzy, but I still roughly remembered the really important information.

The means chosen to strengthen the one who was possessed by the original Freit.

Treasures and connections scattered around the world.

The events he experiences and the ways he resolves those events.

And even the personal information of the new colleagues recruited to replenish the power.

“The new colleague… is a bit much for now.”

First, recruiting new colleagues had to be postponed. The original Freit could recruit up to three party members. The possessor recruited two of them, paying no attention to the remaining one.

“She might be useful as a colleague at first, but later she’ll regret bringing in a bomb-like woman.”

So, we had to choose one of the remaining two or somehow recruit both… Unfortunately, neither of them were beings we could recruit at our current level.

One was affiliated with a faction, making it impossible for us, as wanted fugitives, to approach her, and the other was a woman we needed to recruit after acquiring sufficient power.

Recruiting wasn’t impossible, but if we accepted a low-level colleague into the party, they would be wiped out by pursuers or devoured.

It was said that we could attempt recruitment only after surpassing a level where we could easily defeat trolls.

So, it was still too early. Still.

“Of course, first I need to build up my strength.”

Despite all the deliberation, there simply was no other way. No matter what we did, we had to build up our strength first to even attempt anything.

Of course, that too could only start after fleeing even further away.

We don’t know when pursuers might catch up, so it’s not like we can leisurely go around dungeons or subjugate them.

No, we probably can’t even enter in the first place.

Since each country directly manages the deep dungeons, we can’t even access them, and most adventurers crowd the middle dungeons, so we’d be caught immediately.

Subjugating the lower dungeons wouldn’t help either.

“It’s really daunting…”

Being wanted fugitives. That was the problem.

Without somehow removing that stigma, any attempt I made would inevitably be thwarted.

But… Ugh, seriously. How am I supposed to remove this?

To boldly step forward in front of the public with the Holy Sword and clarify that everything is a misunderstanding and false accusation? Yes, then I could remove the fugitive label.

And, the fact that Gunter or Heid could secretly target me at any time.

In other words, to clear my name—well, it’s not entirely false accusations, but anyway, to remove something similar to a false accusation, I first needed to build up my strength.

So that even if my enemies set traps for me, I could crush them head-on.

That was the primary task to escape from being a fugitive.

…There are contradictions within contradictions.

To escape from being a fugitive, I had to become stronger. And to become stronger, I had to enter dungeons of intermediate level or higher to build up experience against formidable opponents.

However, to enter a dungeon, I first needed to escape from being a fugitive, right?

Seriously, there was no answer. No answer.

Of course, even if it’s not a dungeon, there are a few scenarios like those in novels, but most of them are exclusive to “heroes” or can only be obtained after reaching a minimal level of power.

Ah. There is one thing worth mentioning…

To obtain that, I first had to leave Herbor and return to the Kingdom of Raine.

…I wonder if that’s okay.

Honestly, as soon as I go, I feel like I’ll be caught and thrown into an underground prison.

If I explain well, Freide might be lenient, considering I’m a hero of the Holy Sword, but I didn’t think she’d exonerate me.

Why?

In the cultural context of this world, which is close to medieval times, tarnishing the reputation of a noble figure is already a crime worthy of death.

Brunhilde is a criminal who abandoned the hero party and the country, fleeing from the king and nobles, causing international disgrace. It didn’t seem likely that they would readily pardon such a criminal.

Even if there were seemingly justifiable reasons for the act.

It’s irrational and unreasonable, but… what can I do? That’s just how the class system works.

If you’re unhappy, you can only leave the world.