24 – kiss
***
When I came out of the portal, the vast night sea greeted Maru.
The surroundings were bright like the twilight-colored dawn, and the sandy beach covered with white sand stretched endlessly.
The wind brushed my face.
The hem of Luciella’s robe fluttered violently, and the outline of her voluptuous body was clearly visible.
“Are you here?”
“yes.”
“What about the monster?”
“There it is.”
Luciella pointed politely with her palm.
When I turned my gaze there, at first I thought it was a dark looking mountain because it was night, so I passed by it.
Its head looked like a whole octopus stuck in its neck, and its torso had human-like limbs attached to it.
Its hands were large claws like crabs, its feet were webbed, and its skin was shiny blue like a mackerel.
The mouth of Maru, who was staring at the monster, opened.
“… You want me to catch something like that?”
“It will be possible if it is the king.”
“This is not the time to laugh. That one is too big.”
“The reward is as sweet as the big one.”
“Don’t suck your finger while imagining strange things.”
Maru looked up at the monster again.
He seemed to be looking for something, digging through the surrounding mountains with his tongs.
“That monster’s name is Gnir. It comes to the land once a year to find a vein of ore that is sleeping deep in the mountains, and eats insects that live nearby. Gnir’s Essence helps to increase magical power and is sold at a very high price in the market. But it’s such a rare thing that you only see it once every 20 years. It’s hard to find and hard to catch.”
“Are you lucky?”
“I had to give many men to the sirens of the sea to chase after that child.”
“Wow… Seed.”
“It’s not necessarily just humans.”
While Luciella smiled, a monster named Gnir turned around.
As if curious about Maru and Luciella, the guy drilled a hole in the mountain, pulled out the long tentacle he had inserted into it, and thrust it into the two.
It seemed to be trying to figure out what kind of creature it was by groping it with its tentacles.
However, Maru quickly pulled out the sword and struck the tentacle at once.
“Oohhh!”
Startled by the shock, the tentacles shrank like earthworms, and he let out a scream.
“The tape is broken. Now one of them must die.”
Maru threw the sword with the broken blade onto the sandy beach and rubbed his hands together.
“Come, monster.”
***
It’s been 3 days since he left.
“He didn’t come today… ”
Audrit looked around the empty room and came out.
He sighed as he closed the door.
“I don’t know what happened… ”
There was someone watching from afar as she sighed one after another with a worried look on her face.
It was Lucy.
‘What are you doing, a mutt, confined to your room for the third day?’
Three days ago, Maru suddenly stopped going outside.
As a result of the investigation, it is said that no one saw him leave the palace.
That means you’re stuck in a room.
In the midst of this, perhaps by a surprising coincidence, whenever he came to spy on Maru’s room, the time zone overlapped with the princess.
Seeing that the princess often went in and out of his room, it seemed like he was in the room.
Once I went in, I usually stayed for about ten minutes before I left.
“Do you have a special relationship with the princess? What does the princess see in the mutt? Are you crazy?”
Lucy tilted her head and left.
It was on the way back to the room.
I ran into Keira in the hallway.
“As a result of discussing with the Duke of Toledo, we decided to leave in four days. If you need anything, get it in advance and pack your things.”
“already? ah… I couldn’t do anything, but tsk.”
Lucy felt impatient for nothing.
She had to do what she had set her mind on so that her intuition would be resolved.
I wanted to quickly install surveillance magic in Maru’s room and peek at it throughout the trip.
“Loris wants to go back to her hometown. So I left the party.”
“I heard it too. to Yoris. Oh, Kiera.”
“yes?”
“When the hero’s power disappeared before. I made a hypothesis, but maybe it has a deep relationship with Maru? If we forget each other, we lose our strength, but if we think of each other, we regain our strength.”
“When I think of Maru and Maru also thinks of me, his strength returns… ?”
“This is the first hypothesis. The second hypothesis is that the strength of the warriors disappears when they are far from each other. This is because of the distance… ”
“Pu-huh.”
Keira laughed out loud.
“Ahahaha.”
She passed, patting Lucy on the shoulder.
And then, with a smile, I looked back.
“Did Maru instruct you to say that? I’m arguing with him right now. Don’t talk nonsense. My strength, like other warriors, is given by heaven.”
“Other heroes have the same hair color as when they were born, but it’s strange that only you change.”
“It is because my power is very special among the warriors. Lucy, you lack faith. I mean, give high regard to the warrior by your side. When looking for a priest to replace Lloris, you can also look for a new wizard.”
I left those words and left.
Lucy, who was left behind, frowned.
“Look at your words, bitch… ”
She patted her chin and fell into other thoughts.
“My hypothesis doesn’t make sense… ? yeah it doesn’t make sense Chet.”
Since there is no solid evidence, it is lightly admitted that it is a hypothetical hypothesis.
Until now.
***
“Princess, please sign here.”
“please. Let’s see, Cargo GT78931… It is silk.”
“Hehe, the royal family will use it, so I brought it a very good quality one. It is of the highest quality.”
“thanks.”
Audrit was spending a hectic afternoon at the loading dock wearing overalls instead of a dress.
“Here it is.”
“Thank you.”
At the entrance of the loading dock, where workers were busy coming and going, wagons full of cargo were lined up in a row.
Wine, silk, spices, precious perfumes, whale oil, salt, cod, herring, and so on.
Items to be used in the palace were coming in.
“Go to warehouse number 2 over there for fish!”
“yes!”
“It smells so fishy.”
Audrit covered her nose and looked the other way.
Caravans with high quality furs from the north were entering.
“fur! fur! There furry! Go to Warehouse 5 this way for furs!”
“Yes! thank you!”
“You make people below you do this.”
Baroness Osmond came over with tea on a tray.
“Does the princess have to do it?”
“I’ve been distracted for the past few days, so I need to sweat a bit.”
“Then what do servants do when you can relieve it through a dignified exercise? ”
As the baroness continued to nag, Audrit took a teacup and savored the scent, then took a sip and made a look of surprise.
“Oh, delicious!”
“Stop talking and eat slowly.”
While chatting like that for a while, I happened to see blacksmiths loading broken armor onto a cart.
Audrit was familiar with the armor, so his eyes automatically went away, so he moved closer and asked.
“What is that?”
“Hello princess! We have received an order for repair and are taking it to the smithy.”
“Who are you?”
“It was worn by the King’s Flag Guardian, tsutsu… How did it get to this point? I want to melt it down and make it again.”
At those words, the princess’s eyes widened.
“Su, guardian? Is Lord Maru here?”
“I never met the little man, but according to people, he was taken to the Trianon Palace.”
“What do you mean? Are you hurt?”
“They said he was seriously injured or was in a state of unconsciousness.”
“Oh My God!”
Audrit immediately ran to the Trianon Palace.
Trianon Palace was a detached palace where doctors with excellent medical skills and believers who worshiped the gods resided and took care of patients of the royal family.
‘I shouldn’t have been seriously hurt!’
Audrit ran anxiously from the loading dock across the vast green garden.
Did it run for 20 minutes?
Eventually, when he arrived at the hospital room and opened the door, he saw Maru lying unconscious on the bed with his shirt off, and a priestess standing beside him with both hands on his chest, breathing divine energy.
“How is Lord Maru? Are you serious?”
“It doesn’t seem like there is any trauma, but it hurts enough to tear my chest, so I’m trying to calm the pain.”
“Why does your chest hurt?”
“I came back after doing hard work, and my heart hurts like it would break… That is all I have heard.”
“You must have been conscious at the time?”
“Perhaps.”
“Oops… How painful that must have been.”
After a while, the priestess finished her treatment and left the room.
Audrit immediately took Maru’s hand and looked at him worriedly.
“cheer up.”
“… Oh, good. I like it because the princess often holds my hand.”
“!?”
Maru slowly opened his eyes and smiled softly at her.
Audrit was delighted and cupped his hands tightly.
“Are you okay?”
“Actually, it was fine from before. About 10 minutes ago.”
“You were awake, but you pretended not to know?”
“yes. I wanted the princess to be more concerned. I’m listening to the conversation with the priest and it’s interesting. He worried so much about me that he mistook us for lovers?”
Audrit stunned and smashed the hand he was holding.
“Either you get it or not! Are you just kidding? People are really bad! If you’re awake, you should say that you’re awake. I’m just watching! You break your promise arbitrarily! Just worry! spiteful! I ate badly! I’m upset, but I’m laughing!”
Maru only smiled calmly at the angry princess.
“You look pretty even when you’re angry.”
“I said that nagging words don’t work! Where are you sick! I’ll hit you!”
“Ah! Don’t hit me in the chest! stop! stop!”
“You bastard! die! die!”
As Audrit continued to hit her chest with both fists, Maru hugged her as hard as she could to stop it.
Somehow, as the bodies of the two came together, the faces of Maru lying on the bed and Audrit lying face down on it faced each other from a very close distance.
“… … ”
“… … ”
The two stared at each other for a while, and silence fell in the room.
“Thank you for your concern.”
“It is already late. Is it okay to tease you as much as you want and say thank you?”
“Disrespect… Forgive me.”
As soon as Maru finished talking, he grabbed her cheeks and kissed her defenseless lips.
“Oops!”
Audrit struggled with her eyes wide open, but soon calmed down.
He closed his eyes and gently kissed his lips.
***
clap.
Maru’s door opened slowly.
Lucy pushed in from the butt and slipped inside.
“Since the mutt is hospitalized, it’s a golden opportunity. You can’t miss it.”
She smiled sinisterly and looked around the curtained room.
Even in the middle of the day, it was rather dark and quiet.
“Sorry mutt, but I think teasing you is so much fun. Alas, that unforgettable addiction. I can’t find an asshole like you anywhere.”
Lucy pulled a sticky green object out of her pocket.
As she held it in her hand and approached the mirror, little by little a change began to occur in the room without her knowing.
Tentacles were sprouting as the ceiling and walls behind his back were silently encroached on by the hideous mass of flesh.
The visit had disappeared before I knew it.
I don’t wanna read how she’ll get mindbroken by tentacles 🤣🤦