Roy Vs. Nick (1)

After returning home from the commercial city of Eto, Yuri made fried Arangora for us.

The coating was crispy, the spices were perfectly balanced, and the meat was juicy. With just one bite, savory juices flooded my mouth. There wasn’t any fried meat this delicious anywhere else.

We normally took turns preparing meals, but there was quite a lot of Arangora meat this time, so I helped with the frying.

The huge platter had been piled high with fried meat, but it disappeared in no time… Well, I ate about eighty percent of it myself.

Even I was shocked by how much I’d eaten… Every single thing Yuri cooked was exquisite.

After dinner, we took turns having a bath.

I’d gone first yesterday, so today it was Yuri’s turn.

After drying all the washed dishes with a cloth and putting them away, I wiped down the table.

“I finished my bath first.”

The bath in my house was semi-open-air.

It was surrounded by hedges so nobody could see in from outside, and it had a roof so it could still be used on rainy days.

Apparently Yuri hadn’t been accustomed to soaking in hot water, but she’d completely fallen in love with the hot spring at my house and always came out of the bath looking blissfully happy.

Yuri’s skin was faintly flushed beneath her sleepwear, and steam still rose from her body.

Without thinking, I looked away.

There was something strangely adorable about the way she wore an oversized shirt that hung loosely off her.

Come to think of it, her sleepwear was one of my old shirts… I should’ve bought her some proper pajamas too.

Well, she looked cute like that anyway.

“Shopping was fun today. Good night.”

“Yeah, I had fun too. Good night.”

…I hadn’t looked in a mirror, but I was absolutely sure I had a stupidly relaxed grin on my face.

When she smiled so innocently and told me she’d had fun, how could I not feel ridiculously happy too?

After Yuri went upstairs to her bedroom, I let out a breath and pressed a hand to my forehead.

“Hey… considering what I was like in my previous life, am I really allowed to be this happy?”

I asked the question to no one in particular.

I’d enjoyed living alone and doing whatever I pleased, but living together with Yuri had kept that same sense of freedom while adding even more enjoyment.

Ideally, the two of us could just keep living this quiet, easygoing life forever.

Just then, there was a tapping sound against the window.

Hm?

It was a Mouse Bat, a rat with bat wings that I’d assigned to watch the area around the house.

Ever since I was a child, I’d been able to understand the language of monsters, and I had often befriended those that were naturally friendly toward humans.

After the incident where an Arangora charged straight toward my house, I’d asked one of the Mouse Bats that had grown attached to me to patrol the surrounding area.

When I opened the window, the Mouse Bat fluttered its wings and squeaked, reporting the situation to me.

【INTRUDER APPROACHING. STRONG MAGIC. RIDING WYVERN. COMING THIS WAY.】

After hearing the Mouse Bat’s report, I turned a sharp gaze toward the darkness outside the window.

Looks like I wasn’t going to be allowed to enjoy my quiet, peaceful life quite so easily.

…Well, I’d been thinking about taking a walk to help digest dinner anyway. Might as well go see what was happening.

I went outside and chanted the spell for Release Magic.

Appearing in a swirl of smoke was the greatsword, Diares, the God of Destruction. I took it in hand.

The lights in Yuri’s second-floor room were already out. Looks like she was asleep.

“If anyone tries to enter the house, let me know.”

I instructed the Mouse Bat keeping watch.

I doubted anyone would try breaking into a house this deep in the mountains, and even if they did, Yuri could probably repel them immediately, so I wasn’t particularly worried. Still, better safe than sorry.

The Mouse Bat squeaked, “Chee,” as though acknowledging the order, then began flying around the house.

“Stealth Magic.”

When I quietly chanted the concealment spell, a faint mist spread through the surrounding area.

If I didn’t do this, Yuri might sense me leaving and wake up.

Yuri was an adventurer too. Even while asleep, she’d immediately wake if she sensed something ominous nearby. It would be a shame to disturb her when she’d already gone to sleep.

If someone was coming here on a wyvern, they’d probably land around the middle of the mountain.

There was a vast grassy plain there.

I hoisted the greatsword over my shoulder and started running.

Just as I’d expected, a wyvern stood in the middle of the grassy plain halfway up the mountain.

It wasn’t as impressive as the Black Wyvern I’d borrowed from Wolk, but it was still a magnificent male.

And the man riding a flying creature that even SS-rank adventurers struggled to handle was Nick Bluestar.

Looks like he’d come alone too.

After landing, Nick stroked the wyvern’s head. It seemed extremely attached to him, closing its eyes contentedly.

When Nick noticed me, he chanted Storage Magic and placed the wyvern inside a Storage Ball.

Then he looked toward me with a refreshing smile.

“I didn’t expect you to come out and greet me, Roylotte Blake.”

“We don’t get many visitors around here, so I figured I should give you a proper welcome.”

I spoke while lightly tapping my shoulder with the greatsword resting there.

At least he didn’t seem hostile. He stood in front of me with his arms crossed.

“Do you know why I came here?”

“You still haven’t given up on Yuri or something?”

“Well, I can’t say that’s completely untrue, but the main reason is you.”

“Me?”

I’d been completely convinced he’d come because he wanted something from Yuri, so I instinctively pointed at myself.

Nick smiled and nodded.

“Yeah. I’ve become really interested in you.”

“—Sorry, I’m not into that sort of thing.”

“That’s not what I mean. You were that bear in Belgion, weren’t you?”

“————”

He knew…!