HPV 35

I tried to excuse myself, huffing and puffing, but Banwes didn’t seem convinced. He covered his lips—those that had just been pressed against mine—with his palm, looking somehow flustered. Almost like someone who had accidentally discovered a secret they would have rather not known.

Seeing Banwes flustered irritated me, but more than that, I was most annoyed at myself. Even after reaching adulthood, I had never been like this before.

It was all the damned demon’s fault. A different kind of anger surged up inside me. Thanks to that, the slight agitation I had felt before the kiss quickly subsided.

“…It’s just because I’m cold without any clothes on,”

I squeezed out yet another pathetic excuse, cleverly turning my obviously bright-red face away.

My heart was still pounding from the lingering sensation. I dipped my hand into the bathwater. It should have still been warm, but somehow it felt cold, as if it had already cooled.

It was the same silence as always, yet now it felt unbearable, so awkward.

“Did you say that doing this makes you feel good?”

Banwes suddenly spoke after a long silence. I instinctively snapped my head toward him.

“Me?”

“Yeah.”

“When did I ever? I never said that.”

Banwes looked at me coldly, as if staring at a liar. I glared right back at him, not only because I truly had never said such a thing, but even if I had, there was no way I would ever admit it.

It would have been a slightly less ridiculous sight if at least one of us had been clothed while glaring at each other.

Banwes was the first to look away, moving his feet toward his own bath. Only then did I feel the chill on my bare skin.

Shivering, I hurried to get dressed, but Banwes approached again and poured the remaining hot water from his bucket into mine.

“…”

With a reluctant heart, I dipped my feet into the water Banwes had given me.

The comforting warmth made me let out a big sigh without meaning to.

I quickly threw on my shirt to cover my waist and thighs, then sat there splashing my feet until the water cooled.

Banwes kept staring at me the entire time.

Since we were the last ones to bathe, we cleaned up the area together. I kept my distance from Banwes as we headed back.

When we arrived, Paronai, who was drinking stew from a bowl, tilted his head and asked, “Did you guys fight?”

I sharply responded, “We’re never not fighting.”

When I woke up the next morning, the memories of the previous day had thankfully faded quite a bit.

It’s best to forget embarrassing things as quickly as possible.

I acted natural around Banwes, and let him carry me on his back without making a fuss.

“Heave-ho.”

Paronai always volunteered to carry the largest load.

Although each of us usually carried our own belongings, there were still quite a few shared items, and the others would take turns carrying those—except me.

Paronai was really the perfect embodiment of the word “hero.”

Always strong, kind, and just a little bit clumsy.

His pure-heartedness even showed when we ran into a group of heavily armed bandits on the road.

Grizzled bandits with tangled beards, demanding we hand over everything we had.

Their bloodshot eyes made it clear they had killed more than a few people.

Honestly, it’s the bandits who should be worried, not us.

I could say with confidence—any single one of our party, other than me, could wipe the floor with these bandits.

Without even setting down his heavy pack, Paronai calmly and methodically tied the bandits up, one after another, and, going the extra mile, dragged them to the local guards.

“Just kill them already. Such a hassle.”

“Penzey!”

“What, you can’t do it? Should I?”

Penzey whistled as he spoke, as if suggesting something as casual as, “Should I take the cooking duty tonight?”

Paronai turned so pale it looked like even his eyebrows had lost their color.

“N-no, please spare us! I swear, I’ve never killed anyone! I’ve got a sick mother and little siblings at home!”

“See? We can’t kill them!”

“Haha…”

Penzey let out a deflated chuckle and shrugged, saying no more.

Thankfully, Paronai wasn’t gullible enough to let them go just because of some sob story.

He made sure they paid for their crimes by handing them over to the guards properly.

It took him a bit of time to find the local patrol, but fortunately, we made it to the next village before nightfall.

Finding an inn to stay at was a piece of cake.

While we were having a late dinner at the inn’s first-floor tavern, someone clapped Paronai on the shoulder.

“Paronai?”

“Huh? Sisen?”

It was a young man around Paronai’s age.

Paronai, looking a little stunned at first, then immediately beamed with genuine delight as he jumped up.

“Sisen! What are you doing here?”

“I’m heading home for graduation. What about you? What are you doing here?”

The young man’s name was Sisen, the third son of Viscount Danoah. He was Paronai’s classmate from the Swordsmanship Academy.

The fact that I even knew his full name meant he wasn’t just some random extra in the game.

“Uh, I…”

Paronai rolled his eyes briefly.

Just for moments like this, Yurichen had firmly instructed him to memorize a prepared excuse word-for-word, without changing a single syllable—because lying didn’t come easily to Paronai.

“We’re traveling as a party after accepting a subjugation request.”

“Ah, I knew it! You were always the top of the class. Where are you headed?”

“North… somewhere.”

Somehow, Paronai’s lie passed without suspicion.

Sisen, taking advantage of the chance encounter, asked Paronai if he wanted to drink with him and his friends tonight.

“We’re going to set up over by the forest and have a good time.”

“The forest? Is there even a forest nearby?”

“It’s a bit far. If we party all night near the village, we’ll disturb the residents.”

“I have companions, though…”

“Hey, we’ll send you back before it gets too late.”

Paronai looked like he really wanted to go.

He glanced over at our table, especially at Yurichen, who was sitting with his face veiled.

“Can I go?”

Yurichen didn’t answer out loud. Instead, he used someone nearby.

With a swift, almost invisible movement, he brushed his sleeve against Penzey’s arm, then wrote something with his finger.

After a short pause, Penzey grinned and said,

“Be back by midnight.”

Paronai shifted his gaze from Yurichen to Penzey but didn’t seem suspicious of the strange situation, where someone else answered for him. He just nodded obediently.

“Ria, wanna come too?”

Suddenly, he said something that absolutely should not have appeared in the game’s storyline.

Without thinking, I blurted, “Me?”

“…Uh, no, never mind. You’re too pretty—no, I mean, that’s not it. You just looked like you were having fun at the village festival last time, so I thought you might like lively gatherings. Just pretend you didn’t hear that.”

I stared at his awkward smile, feeling absurd.

Not that I had any intention of going anyway, but what was with him bringing it up only to backpedal all on his own?

“Back by midnight, huh? Hahaha, since when were you such a goody-two-shoes?”

Paronai threw his arm around Sisen’s shoulder and laughed along with the teasing, then headed out of the inn.

The rest of us went upstairs to prepare for bed.

We took turns drawing hot water for baths, gathered in one room to briefly discuss tomorrow’s plans, and then dispersed.

“Goodnight, Ria,”

Penzey said, blowing a kiss toward me—only for Yurichen to step in front of me protectively, like shielding a five-year-old child.

Most likely, he snatched the kiss right out of the air like swatting a bug.

After such a long and tiring day, just seeing the bed made my eyelids heavy. Sleepiness came crashing down on me.

Still resisting it, I sat down on the edge of the bed.

I couldn’t fall asleep yet. I had to wait until midnight, when Paronai promised he would be back.

Not because I wanted to greet him.

Because he wouldn’t make it back by midnight—and I needed to see what happened afterward.

I stubbornly stayed sitting on the bed.

Sleep kept overwhelming me, my head bobbing in an embarrassing way.

Then an idea struck me.

‘Should I ask Banwes to wake me up at midnight?’

I thought about it for a moment, then shook my head firmly.

Not a chance.

There was absolutely no reason to trust him.

He already growled at me whenever our eyes met—no way he’d do me a favor.

If I left it to him, I’d probably wake up tomorrow morning to the sunrise.

I knew the misery of being sleepy but unable to fall asleep all too well.

When the cult had decided to torment me, they had taken turns staring at me through the prison bars for four days, keeping me awake.

‘But this time, I’m choosing to stay awake…’

—

Bang bang bang!

The sudden knocking on the door jolted me awake.

Damn it.

I had dozed off after all.

I sat up from bed—and belatedly realized something strange.

I had been lying on my back, legs still hanging off the side of the bed, just as I had been sitting earlier.

‘Not completely sure, but… if I had fallen backward like that, wouldn’t the impact on my head have woken me up? And yet I didn’t even notice?’

I stared down at the bed, where my body had left a faint dent, lost in thought.

Then my eyes met a pair of red ones, sitting across from me on the other bed.

…Had Banwes laid me down?

There was a chance he had—or maybe he hadn’t.

Either way, guessing seemed pointless.

I hurried to find my shoes, put them on, and opened the door.

As expected, it was Yurichen.

“Paronai hasn’t returned.”