Growburn Village – Doubt

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Carlson glared at Lena, and Lena smiled back at Carlson.

As if to put the finishing touch on this chaotic scene, Lena opened her mouth.

“Hoo…. Carlson, would you mind eating at another table?”

She was asking Carlson to eat separately.

“Excuse me?”

“…I want some time with just us. Is that alright?”

“Le, Lena?”

Jade, who was next to Carlson, was more taken aback by Lena’s attitude than Carlson himself.

It was rude to do this in the middle of a meal, and it wasn’t like she had ever suggested the three of them talk together.

“Umm….”

Annie didn’t know what to say and fidgeted.

Should I give Lena a stern word?

But what if I end up fighting with Lena….

While Annie was racking her brains, Jade fortunately appeared like a ray of light.

“Lena must be in a bad mood lately. Let’s just eat together, okay?”

Jade patted Lena and apologized to Carlson. From his perspective, Carlson, being a man, was a bit annoying, but not enough to kick him out.

“…Haha, no, it’s alright. I’ll take this and eat at another seat.”

Carlson declined, saying it was okay. But his face was frowning.

-Screech.

“…”

Carlson got up, picked up his food, stopped, and stared intently at Lena. He seemed to have an expression of incomprehension.

At that sight, Lena asked curtly.

“Do you perhaps have something to say to me?”

“No. I’ll see you at the village entrance after the meal.”

“…How amusing.”

Carlson muttered something small, then, with trembling hands, took his food and headed to another table.

In this strange situation, a seed of doubt sprouted again in Annie’s heart.

‘Is there really something going on?’

Unless Lena was crazy, there was no way she would act like that towards Carlson for no reason.

Annie immediately asked Lena why she had done this.

“Lena, why did you do that?”

“Sorry, I just really don’t like that guy. You know what Carlson did from the very first meeting.”

“Well, if that’s the case….”

Annie felt sorry for Carlson, who had been kicked out. She had already forgiven him for his efforts for them.

But that didn’t mean she could choose him over Lena.

“It’s nice to eat just us. Now that it’s like this, should we talk about what happened yesterday?”

Jade looked like he didn’t mind. After all, the man had disappeared from Lena’s side.

“The story of you guys having a few drinks and passing out?”

“Th, that’s because it was our first time drinking. I’ll show you my skills next time.”

Jade lowered his head as if his pride was hurt.

“Hehe, I’ll look forward to it. Let’s go all the way next time. But you know using mana is cheating, right?”

“Huh? Ah, I know….”

Jade and Lena quickly started chatting amicably.

Meanwhile, Annie was quietly eating her meal.

‘I’m going to find out.’

She kept glancing at Lena, trying to get even a small clue from her behavior.

**

After finishing their meal, Lena and her group left the village and started heading back to Grow Burn Village.

At first, everyone was a little wary, wondering if they would encounter Monsters or bandits again.

But whether the Orc they met at the beginning was all the Monsters living nearby, nothing dangerous happened at all.

“It’s so peaceful. When I read books, bandits would attack merchants, and the protagonist would save them. Doesn’t that kind of thing happen?”

Annie grumbled, looking out the window.

She had been full of expectations for new encounters… but now that was long gone, and only boredom remained.

Jade scolded her, looking dumbfounded.

“You shouldn’t say such scary things. It’s like things always happen when you say them.”

One of the things adventurers shouldn’t do is say that nothing is happening when things are peaceful.

Jade was just as bored with the journey, but he also liked the recent short but precious peace. He had gone through all sorts of hardships with the two of them at the Academy.

“Sorry. Hehe….”

Annie apologized and scratched her head.

-Screech!

“Wh, what is it? Could it be?”

Annie was flustered by the suddenly stopped carriage.

Did something really happen like Jade said?

While Annie was spacing out, Lena opened the carriage door and came out to assess the situation.

-Squeak.

“Carlson, what’s wrong?”

Then Carlson got out of the driver’s seat and walked towards the carriage.

“Ah, it’s nothing serious. I just had to stop because I urgently need to use the restroom.”

Annie breathed a sigh of relief at those words.

“Phew…. I really thought something happened because of me.”

“Hehe, how could that be?”

Lena smiled at Annie’s reaction.

“Are the others alright? It’s a long journey, so it’s good to go once in a while.”

At Carlson’s question, Jade asked everyone for their opinions.

“Is everyone going to go?”

“Not really?”

Annie shook her head.

“I’m okay too— Heut?!”

Lena suddenly stopped talking, looking flustered. And Carlson, who was standing behind her, quietly asked again.

“Lena, are you ‘really’ alright?”

“…Ah! I’ll go once just in case too.”

“Then be careful. Jade and I will be waiting.”

Leaving the two in the carriage, Carlson and Lena disappeared into the forest.

**

Somewhere in the forest away from the carriage.

Lena was kneeling in front of Carlson, who had his pants down.

“Are you crazy? How could you grab my butt in front of my friends? What if we got caught!”

“You ended up following me anyway. By the way, were you trying to provoke me with what happened at the meal earlier?”

Lena burst out laughing when Carlson mentioned the earlier incident.

“Hehe, that’s the price for making fun of me, right? I didn’t want to see you so arrogant. How does it feel? Seems like you’re angry here.”

Lena tapped the erect object in front of her with her finger. Then the pillar swayed from side to side.

“You didn’t seriously expect me to love you just because of what happened yesterday, did you? I still have feelings for Jade. He’s a wonderful and good person, even if he has some shortcomings.”

“Then what about yesterday….”

“It was just that having sex with you wasn’t so bad.”

“Huh?”

Carlson let out a hollow laugh. He was dumbfounded by Lena’s attitude.

He thought she was a cool-headed and intelligent person when he first met her… but now he saw that she was a fox-like woman who charmed men.

“You certainly know how to make a man angry.”

Anyway, since she provoked him, it was his turn to punish Lena. He could do whatever he wanted with the woman in front of him right now.

“We’re alone here, so be prepared.”

Carlson grabbed Lena’s hair.

-Thwack.

“What are you doi—”

And he shoved his penis into Lena’s mouth, who was smiling seductively.

“Uueup, Kueueup… Chureueup!”

Lena was suffocated by the sudden intrusion and pounded her legs, but Kay didn’t care and shook his hips like crazy.

“I won’t go easy on you even if you cry and beg.”

Squelch, squelch, squelch!

“Uueueup?! Jjueup… Chueup!”

Lena began to pay the price for teasing Carlson.

**

Swish, whoosh—!

“Are you training even in this short amount of time?”

Jade stopped swinging his sword at Annie’s disgusted expression.

“Sorry, does it look bad? But I have to get stronger.”

“No, it’s because you’re amazing….”

Annie was impressed by Jade’s training addiction, which had continued from the Academy until now.

Annie felt ashamed of herself for putting off even studying magic books lately.

A little later, Jade stopped training and put his sword back into its scabbard.

-Sheath.

“I should just do this much for now. By the way, Lena and Carlson are late.”

“I’m a little worried. Is something wrong?”

Just as Annie was wondering if she should go look for Lena, who wasn’t coming back.

-Rustle. Rustle.

Lena appeared from the forest, pushing through the grass.

“I’m a little late, right? I guess I went in too deep and got lost.”

“I was just about to go look for you. But it’s the first time I’ve seen Lena make such a mistake.”

Annie, who was waving her hand in greeting, noticed something on her face as she got closer.

“Huh? You have something on your left cheek.”

“On my cheek?”

“Yeah, it looks like hair….”

“Re, really?”

Lena was startled by Annie’s words and touched her cheek, then took off the hair that was stuck to it.

“Ahem, thanks for letting me know.”

Annie felt that Lena’s reaction was strange. Lena had been flustered by her words.

‘Why is she so flustered?’

By the way, it’s too curly and short to be hair.

Looking closely at the suspicion, her face was also a little red, and her clothes were disheveled. It seems like something happened in the forest….

“Annie! Let’s get in the carriage quickly. I met Carlson earlier, and he said he’ll be here soon.”

“Huh? Okay….”

Lena grabbed her arm and pulled her into the carriage, noticing that she was looking at her intently.

**

“Hmm….”

Annie was sitting in her chair, organizing her thoughts and the situation so far.

Lena had definitely been more prickly towards Carlson than before. Even from the perspective of someone watching, it was to the point of being harsh.

But strangely, she felt that they were actually spending more time together.

It was the same even after arriving at the village where she was staying now.

Lena and her group were wandering around the village because they had run out of supplies needed to go to Grow Burn Village.

“It’s my first time coming to this place, so I think we’ll have to find the shops and restaurants ourselves. Should we split up and look?”

Carlson suggested dividing the group to search more efficiently. Then Lena immediately answered.

“I’ll go with Carlson.”

“Huh? Lena’s going with Carlson?”

Annie was flustered because she had naturally assumed that Lena would go with Jade or herself.

“Yeah, I’m going to keep an eye on him in case he introduces us to some strange place.”

“…”

“Is there a problem?”

Lena expressed her doubts when Annie stood there without saying anything.

“…No, it just seems like you’re treating Carlson like some kind of criminal. Then I’ll go that way with Jade and look. Jade, hurry up and follow me.”

“Uh, uh? Annie, wait a minute!”

Annie grabbed Jade, who had a sorry look on his face towards Carlson, and hurriedly dragged him away.