IPDT 12

By the way, should I tell Lauren that it seems like we’ll be staying for about a week? No, that’s not right. The elves are a race subservient to me, so why would I ask for permission? A simple notice was sufficient. Yes, of course. I nodded my head, having roughly made a plan.

In the morning, a visitor came to our lodgings. Long blond hair, blue eyes, a handsome man, pretty as an elf should be. It was Lauren, dressed in clothes like a monk’s habit with ample room.

“Lauren! You’ve come at a good time. There was something I wanted to tell you.”

When I jumped up and greeted him, Lauren blinked, looking a little flustered. Lauren’s long hair swayed in the wind.

“We’re going to stay in this village for another week.”

“Yes, I will make the preparations.”

Lauren answered without any argument, even at the sudden notice. It was a very pleasing attitude. It would be great if Fleabag were like that too.

“When I first saw you, you were very young, so I didn’t know… but you know how to serve me quite well, don’t you? You seem more loyal than my familiar, Fleabag.”

“Is that so?”

When I offered the compliment, Lauren said with a faint smile. His long eyelashes, like a thicket of grass, fluttered.

“And the twenty elves who attacked the Balancer have been temporarily stripped of their scout positions. As they are ones who take pride in their work as scouts, they will feel the revocation of their position as great pain.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

I wasn’t very curious about what happened to the twenty elves anymore. That was the extent of my interest in them.

“If you say so, then it must be so. I’m not interested in that matter anymore. By the way, Lauren, you must have guessed why I came to your village, right?”

“Yes, it is because of the fissure in the world.”

“Yes, that’s right. Did you manage it well while I was away?”

“If we had not managed the fissure properly, our village would have already been destroyed.”

Hmmm. For some reason, it felt like the elder’s face was overlapping with Lauren’s. Perhaps because they were of the same bloodline, Lauren was as well-spoken as the elder.

As I was staring intently at Lauren, I suddenly felt my clothes being tugged from behind. When I turned my head, I saw Yul, who had woken up at some point. He was sleeping until just a moment ago, when did he wake up?

“Yul, when did you wake up?”

“…”

Yul glanced at me and then turned his gaze to Lauren. And then, he just stared at Lauren without even blinking. He was staring so intently that I was worried a hole might be drilled into Lauren’s face.

Is he curious because Lauren is an elf? If I made my ears pointed, would Yul be curious too? By the way, this is a little uncomfortable… I didn’t like how Yul’s gaze was fixed on one place. Especially since it was the pretty-faced Lauren.

“Lauren.”

“Yes.”

I pointed my finger toward the door.

“Go prepare breakfast. My human needs to eat.”

“Yes…?”

“What are you dawdling for? He was injured because of you guys. Is providing medicinal herbs all you’re going to do?”

When I deliberately raised my voice, Lauren grew flustered and fidgeted. Hmph, he should be hurrying out to prepare a meal in that time. As I held my head up stiffly, Lauren gave me a silent bow.

“I will prepare it so that it can be served soon. Then…”

“Ah, wait a moment, Lauren.”

I realized too late that in my haste to kick him out, I had forgotten to say the most important thing. Lauren, who was about to step outside the door, looked back at me.

“And although you’ve managed it well, I’m going to go and check the end of the world myself once. Just in case there are any cracks you haven’t discovered yet.”

“I understand.”

“Okay. Now that our conversation is over, hurry up and bring it.”

Lauren couldn’t answer any further and left the room. Click, after confirming that the door was closed, I quickly sat on the edge of the bed and faced Yul.

“Yul, you’re hungry, right?”

“…”

Yul, who had been looking at me quietly, let his head drop with a thud. Yul’s head rested on my shoulder. His hair tickled the nape of my neck.

“Yul?”

I called Yul’s name, but there was no reply. Yul just grabbed my forearm and rubbed his head against it. It was like receiving the affectionate nuzzling of a submissive animal. Ugh… this was even better than getting an answer. I stroked Yul’s hair and enjoyed this satisfying moment.

Elves were a species that did not eat meat. Moreover, since they came to live in the monster forest, they would have distanced themselves from it even more. They wouldn’t have wanted to eat meat that was tough and tasted foul.

I understood it in my head… No, I couldn’t understand. Even so, how could they not put a single piece of meat on Yul’s table?

“Yul, are you really okay with just this?”

Yul nodded his head. Greens here, greens there, with fruits as the only special dish, was this meal really okay? My heart ached.

To be honest, I wanted to return to the lair and bring back some meat. If it weren’t for the barrier that restricted teleportation magic in the elf village, I would have done so in a heartbeat.

With my shoulders slumped, I watched Yul eat. One bite of greens, two bites of greens. The fork used to scoop up the greens was also made of wood, making it look as if Yul was chewing on a tree. Ah, this won’t do. I really should go out and make some meat, even now…

As I was about to jump up from my seat, a fork suddenly touched my lips.

“…Huh?”

A natural scent emanated from the fresh, verdant greens. My eyes trembled. Why did he stick this in my mouth? Don’t tell me…

“Is this for me to eat?”

When I asked cautiously, Yul nodded. He had a face completely devoid of any guilt after offering me a mouthful of greens. Avoiding Yul’s innocent eyes, I glanced at the table full of piles of greens. It was a truly unappetizing sight that didn’t stimulate my appetite at all.

“You know, Yul. This stuff…”

I wanted to say that I didn’t like it. But when I met Yul’s sparkling black eyes, the words just wouldn’t come out, no matter what.

Where Yul couldn’t see, I clenched my fist tightly. Right, it’s not like I’ll die from eating it. I opened my mouth and accepted the greens, swallowing them. A freshness I would never eat on my own filled my mouth.

Ugh… even the meat of monsters living in the monster forest would probably taste better than this.

The more I chewed the greens, the more astringent they became. I squeezed my eyes shut and savored the taste, then looked up at Yul. Could it be that he actually gave it to me because he didn’t want to eat it? How could he give me something like this? But there seemed to be no malice in Yul’s eyes toward me. In the end, I couldn’t even spit it out and gulped down the greens.

As I barely managed to swallow it down my throat, Yul picked up some more greens. Don’t tell me he’s going to give it to me again?

My unfortunate premonitions were never wrong. I frantically waved my hands to refuse the fork being thrust in front of me.

“No! It’s okay! You eat a lot, Yul.”

Thankfully, Yul didn’t offer a second time. The greens didn’t enter my mouth again and all disappeared into Yul’s stomach.

After the little commotion caused by the green-filled meal ended, I laid Yul down on the bed. It was to check his wound.

When I lifted his clothes, the wound, with the hardened medicinal herb on it, was revealed. I soaked a towel in the clean water Lauren had brought and wiped off the hardened herb. The medicine seemed to be quite effective, as I could see the torn wound was about half-healed.

After checking the wound, I put the medicinal herb in my mouth again. As I had felt yesterday, the herb had an unpleasant taste and texture. I grimaced and chewed it with difficulty, then applied it to the wound.

“There.”

Phew. After carefully applying the crushed herb to the wound, I wiped my hands. Until then, Yul was still looking at me quietly. Did I have something on my face? I tried rubbing my cheek with my wet hand, but nothing came off, so I just smiled bashfully and let it go.

“Lie down for a bit.”

I whispered, gently stroking Yul’s hair. Yul’s alert eyes began to glaze over dreamily. It was because I had cast a sleep spell.

Only after confirming that Yul was completely asleep did I remove my hand. His peacefully sleeping face was so pretty. His dark eyebrows, the bridge of his nose, and his black hair. It was difficult to find a single part that wasn’t pretty.

“I’ll be right back.”

On impulse, I pressed my lips onto his hair. Yul slept soundly, unaware of what had happened. Ahem, I let out a pointless cough and hummed a song as I opened the door to the lodgings. Lauren, who was waiting outside the door, bowed his head to me in greeting.

“Lauren, let’s go.”

“Yes.”

As I had said yesterday, I was planning to go see the end of the world. Because it would be a big problem if chaos entered through a fissure that hadn’t been discovered.

I left the village with Lauren. To get to the end of the world, we had to walk for about 30 minutes from the village.

“Is there something that has made you happy?”

How far had we walked? Lauren suddenly spoke up.

“Why?”

“Because you were humming a song…”

Ah, it seems I had been humming unconsciously. I shrugged my shoulders and said.

“Do you know this song too? It’s a song humans sing to celebrate becoming adults.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. I went to a seaside village with Yul a little while ago. They were having a coming-of-age ceremony in that village.”

Lauren listened to my story quite attentively. Even though it was just about teaching Yul to dance at the seaside, and how it rained then, and things like that. As expected of someone from the elder’s bloodline, he was good at getting on my good side.

“Ah, we’re here.”

In any case, thanks to him, we arrived at the end of the world without getting bored.

Endless stretches of purple flowers swayed their bodies as if welcoming visitors. I knelt down and took a flower in my hand. It was budded, like a tightly closed mouth.

“It looks like you’ve managed it well.”

“Thank you.”

Here, a ‘fissure’ did not mean a crack in the ground or shattered glass. A ‘fissure’ was when these flowers opened their buds and spewed out chaos.

If a flower about to open its bud was discovered and left alone, the world would be twisted. This power is neither visible nor palpable, so it would disrupt order in an instant.

“I’ll look a little more.”

“Yes.”

As I stepped into the flower field, the flowers parted in droves to create a path. Oh my, when am I going to see all of this? Trying to do it after such a long time felt overwhelming. If only I had checked on it little by little, I wouldn’t have to do it all at once like this… I strolled through the flower field, chewing on my belated regrets.

“Ugh, I’m so stiff.”

I stretched high. Looking through the flower field wasn’t something I could easily finish with magic. This was because if a disturbance occurred in the magic due to chaos, an ‘open flower bud’ could be perceived as a ‘closed flower bud.’ In the end, I had to check them one by one, so it was perhaps natural to feel stiff.

On the way back to the village, I let out a deep sigh and looked at Lauren. Lauren, with his long blond hair swishing, was looking ahead with a humble face like a priest’s.

I pouted. I was so tired right now, but I didn’t much like the fact that Lauren looked perfectly fine.

“Lauren, how did you manage to look at all of this?”

“Because that is my duty.”