By Zephyria 
The tremor that touched my skin carved into me like a sharp knife. The pain jolted my flagging mind awake.
Whether it was 70 or 80, it was all just semantics. How could the depth of one’s heart be measured numerically? Whatever the case, the best thing to do was to try to like him less than I did now.
Since it was impossible not to like him at all, I would try, and hopefully, my affection would wane even a little. I didn’t know what the future held, so unless I was going to die with him, I thought it would be best to prepare myself in my own way.
Listening to the sniffling, I made up my mind once again.
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In the end, I lazed around in bed until the next day. Every time I woke up, Aska was next to me, and we would have a pointless conversation for a while before falling back asleep.
Before I knew it, a day had passed.
“Why aren’t I hungry?”
Aska said I had slept for a week, but didn’t I not eat anything then either? It was true that if you kept not eating, you would become desensitized to hunger, but it had been seven days. Normally, I should be on the verge of death by now.
I got up late in the morning, washed up, and slowly started to prepare to leave. I thought I should eat something before going out, so I asked the inn for lunch. It was just hard, dry bread, corn soup, and stir-fried meat, but I couldn’t afford to be picky.
I was tearing off the hard bread like meat from a bone when Aska said,
“Soak it in the soup before you eat it. It’ll get softer.”
When I washed up, there were no proper toiletries, but Aska had found some in the nearby mountains. I washed with something made by crushing and steeping grass, and it was definitely better than just washing with water.
Whether it was during meals or when bargaining, he wasn’t doing it for the first time. Was this what they called being resourceful?
He must have learned some things while living in the slums, and he seemed to have naturally picked up others while living alone and searching for me.
“Shall we walk? Or should we call a carriage? There’s a village about two days away in this direction.”
Aska said as he put a long robe on me.
“Walk in this cold?”
I asked in surprise, and Aska nodded.
“If you wear this, it’s not that cold. If we don’t rush and walk slowly, it won’t be too hard.”
Why was he even trying to travel on foot in the first place? Frankly, I didn’t like the idea of taking a carriage either. Couldn’t we just use teleportation magic or fly?
That would be much better if we wanted to join Abyss quickly.
Seeing that I didn’t answer, Aska, looking at me carefully, spoke again.
“Even if we want to take a carriage, we have to walk a bit first. It probably can’t come all the way here. Should we call a carriage? But the weather’s nice, so I think it would be okay to walk. Look at the sky.”
As if trying to persuade me, Aska led me to the window. Then he put his arm around my shoulder and pointed to the sky.
“It’s so blue, and the wind is so cool.”
“It’s not cool, it’s cold.”
“I told you, you won’t be cold if you wear that? Are you cold now? If you put on the hood, no wind will get in. It’s not just warm clothes, it’s enchanted, so you don’t have to worry about the cold. Anyway, the sky is pretty.”
Aska was asking for my opinion, but he seemed determined to walk. I didn’t understand, so I asked.
“It’ll take a lot of time if we walk.”
“Only two days?”
“It’s two days to the next village, not two days to our final destination. And we need to join them quickly.”
“Why?”
Why? Because I don’t want to be alone with you, of course…
I couldn’t bring myself to say what was on my mind, so I just shut my mouth. And I had to let Mahir know that I was alive so I could go back to Actan…
I remembered what Aska had said when he had turned into a Magical creature. He had said something about finding a house somewhere and living there together…
I had decided to put Aska’s condition and the crack that had appeared in the sky of Actan that day on the back burner. But now that my memories were back, I couldn’t do that.
No, I could actually ignore it if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to. I would rather go back to Actan, regain my status, and live a busy life.
That way, I could make various excuses to reduce the number of times I met Aska. Wouldn’t my heart grow distant if he was out of sight?
“We’ve already contacted them to let them know we’re safe. The investigation team is still looking for the Ruins in the Rollai Mountains.”
Aska said with a sulky expression.
“Pipi is investigating a wide area near the mountains, but he hasn’t seen any Magical creatures. I told Chichi to stay with Abyss just in case.”
Still, Aska hadn’t been idle while I was sleeping. Come to think of it, they were looking for the Ruins… Now that my memories were back, the exploration was no longer a priority.
But the Ruins that had only reacted to me and Aska were a mystery. So were the strange videos I had seen inside, and the unidentified underground city.
Besides, there were a lot of dangerous Magical creatures there that I had never seen before. I shuddered at the thought of what would happen if they were released on the surface.
And then there were the soldiers wearing hunter masks that I had seen in the lake…
“What is so complicated?”
There were a lot of suspicious things, but nothing had been resolved. Frankly, I didn’t care about those hunters or soldiers or whatever they were.
It seemed to be related to the incident of being attacked by Magical creatures in the mountains where there were no Magical creatures, but that was not my concern. It seemed that the villagers were leaving one by one, so if they didn’t go deep into the forest, there would be no casualties.
“Should we call a carriage?”
As I was sorting out my complicated thoughts, Aska asked. Looking at his expression, he clearly didn’t want to ride a carriage. I was puzzled because he kept stubbornly insisting on strange things.
“Do you really want to walk that much? Just because the weather is nice?”
Aska, who had been silent for a while as if contemplating my question, shook his head.
“I heard there’s a hot spring on the way…”
He trailed off, looking somewhat embarrassed. I asked again, just in case.
“Don’t tell me you were planning to stop by there?”
“Just for a day… We’ve been saying we should go together for a long time, but we haven’t been able to. I’ve never been there before.”
His expression was still sullen, but his eyes were more earnest than anyone else’s. In fact, there was no problem with taking a day off. Nevertheless, I couldn’t easily agree.
I had already made up my mind as soon as I heard it, but I pretended to think about it for Aska’s sake for a while. Then I said with the most apologetic expression I could muster.
“We don’t have much time right now, so let’s go next time.”
“Next time when?”
“When things get a little less hectic.”
My heart fluttered at the sight of his disappointed face. Overwhelmed by guilt, I turned my head away.
“Okay.”
I thought he would whine at least once more, but he surprisingly agreed. That made me feel even worse. On the one hand, I wondered what I was doing.
It was an incomprehensible act to anyone, but I was that desperate.
“Then let’s just ride Popo. That’s the fastest way.”
In the end, Aska and I headed to Pukara village as quickly as possible via the shortest route. It felt like it had been a long time, but in fact, I hadn’t been away for that long.
Was it only about ten days? I didn’t know how long I had been underground, but it would be about that long at most.
We got off Popo a little away from the village, and Popo hid himself. Aska and I walked to the village. Aska naturally took my hand, and I was just waiting for a chance to shake it off when I spotted Abyss in the distance.
Unlike when we had left, there were quite a few people who looked like outsiders gathered in Pukara village.
“Theodore!”
I naturally let go of Aska’s hand and tried to greet him, but I failed. As soon as I tried to let go, his grip tightened, and I unconsciously shook my hand hard as if to dust it off.
“What are you doing?”
Aska asked in disbelief at my blatant attempt to shake off his hand. His face was hidden by his hood, so I couldn’t see it, but I could tell from his voice that he was dumbfounded.
“Let go of my hand.”
“Why?”
“Theodore!”
While we were bickering for a moment, Abyss quickly approached us. Abyss’s face was a whirlwind of emotions, as if he had met a family member he had been separated from as a child and reunited with after decades.
“Are you all right? I was worried because you suddenly disappeared. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“……”
I stared at Abyss’s face, which was almost distorted as if he was about to cry, and then I closed my eyes tightly. And still holding Aska’s hand, I muttered to myself.
“No wonder this bastard annoyed me every time I saw him…”
“Excuse me?”
Abyss, who had heard me, asked back with a puzzled expression. I opened my closed eyes and sighed.
“I sent you to work, and you’re seducing a child?”
As I tried to calm my seething heart, Abyss’s eyes widened. He covered his mouth with a surprised look.
“Don’t tell me your memories are back?”
“Do you want to die? I told you to protect him, not to date him?”
“Well, I was already scolded enough before we got married…”
“I don’t remember scolding you?”
I walked over to Abyss and drew the sword from his waist. Aska had no choice but to let go of my hand when I drew the sword.
Abyss took a step back with a flustered expression, and eventually ran away, and I chased after him with the sword.