By Zephyria 
I reached out and fiddled with Aska’s earlobe, blinking. Now that I was actually going to talk about what happened back then, I didn’t know where to start.
Was this why Aska hadn’t told me the details of what happened to him back then? Come to think of it, it didn’t seem like he was deliberately hiding anything, and he answered well when I asked.
I kept kneading his soft, squishy earlobe, thinking about this and that, when Aska suddenly put a tiny, millet-sized earring on my ear. It was just a small black gem, so it wasn’t very noticeable.
“Wear this.”
“Suddenly?”
I wasn’t trying to get him to buy me something. Anything Aska picked out would be fine, but I wondered why something so shabby was mixed in here in the first place. Sakira would have weeded out the low-quality items when she brought the things over.
Then, I saw a flow, as if a subtle current was running through the gem of the earring. Surprised, I frowned and looked closely again, but what I had seen earlier was gone without a trace.
Aska, who had been fiddling with my earlobe as I had been just now, put one of the earrings on while I was flustered.
“I’ll buy it for you.”
I watched Aska take the other earring from my hand and put it on, and asked, “You’ll buy it for me?”
“Yeah.”
“……”
I was momentarily speechless at the unexpected words. Sakira didn’t seem like she would take money. Even if she did, I only thought about buying it for her, and it never occurred to me that Aska would buy something for me. Until now, all the gifts he had given me were just junk he had picked up off the street, so that was even more so.
Aska bristled, not liking my lukewarm reaction.
“I have money too.”
“Who said you didn’t?”
“I did well when I worked at the guild, so I got a lot.”
“……”
Wasn’t his nickname back then Rhino…? I burst out laughing as I remembered something I had forgotten.
“You saved up a lot of money?”
At my question, Aska nodded, looking somehow proud.
“Enough to buy a house.”
“You haven’t worked that long, but that’s a lot.”
It was probably still cute, but it was meaningful that he had earned the money himself.
“Then I’ll have to get you to treat me today.”
And so, Aska and I went out on an unplanned outing. Sakira looked at me with a flustered expression when Aska said he would pay for the earrings. Then, she noticed me gesturing behind Aska’s back and naturally opened her mouth.
“It’s 1200 silver.”
Seeing that it was about the price of a meal, it seemed like it was a mistake that it got mixed in, as I had expected. But it was special because it was a gift that Aska had picked out and given to me. It was smooth and relaxing to keep touching, so it was very useful.
I grinned and went outside with Aska, wandering around and buying snacks. It reminded me of when I took young Aska to the festival.
There wasn’t as much to see now as there was then, but the weather was nice and it was quiet, so it was even better. Everything was fine, but I felt like someone was watching us, which was a little unsettling.
If I couldn’t feel any presence and Aska didn’t notice it either, it must be my imagination. Was I just on edge because I had killed someone recently? I didn’t feel good back then either, so it was understandable.
“They say this is good.”
After wandering around the alleys for a while, Aska and I entered a small shop. Aska, who had been talking to the owner while I sat down, explained it to me one by one.
“They said they sprinkle fried, finely chopped onions on top to make it taste better.”
He said it was a simple food to eat, with sausage and vegetables sandwiched between bread. I wasn’t hungry, but Aska’s voice was so excited that I couldn’t refuse.
“Then I’ll have this.”
“Should I get the same thing?”
“Get something else. If you want to try this, I’ll give you half of mine.”
At my words, Aska chose chicken instead of sausage.
“This is 15 silver, and the chicken is 12 silver. That’s 27 silver in total.”
Aska took out coins from his pocket and paid. It felt unfamiliar, admirable, and awkward. Even if everything else was fine, shouldn’t I just take those coins?
I should get the money Aska gave back from Sakira later. I should tell Abyss to find out how much he’s paid so far and bring it all back. Of course, I’ll recalculate the amount.
Ah, but Aska might not like it if he found out. But I’m not robbing him, I’m just exchanging coins, so it should be fine, right?
No matter how I thought about it, I didn’t like the idea of Aska scattering the money he had worked so hard to earn. I should collect it all and keep it a secret.
I was making such plans when I suddenly noticed something wriggling behind the counter. It was a small lizard with reddish skin, lingering in front of a brazier with embers.
A reptile running around in a restaurant, of all places? How do they manage hygiene? The moment I frowned, the lizard opened its small mouth wide and shot fire at the brazier.
“……?”
Did I see that wrong? How could fire come out of a lizard’s mouth…?
But my eyes weren’t deceiving me. The moment it shot fire at the brazier, the fire flared up to the end of the iron pot hanging above it. The surprised owner even turned his head because of it.
“Oh dear, it’s doing it again. The fire sometimes shoots up. There must be something wrong with the new pot I bought. Haha.”
Perhaps because he was embarrassed, the owner awkwardly laughed and chattered to Aska. The lizard had disappeared, but the embers that had been cooling down were now on fire.
Aska didn’t seem to care and didn’t respond.
These strange things that I couldn’t explain kept happening. At first, Aska didn’t say anything, and he would have warned me first if it was dangerous, so I just didn’t pay attention.
I thought it might be a strange Magical creature around Aska, like Pipi, Chichi, or Popo.
“……”
I was staring blankly out the window in the carriage to the Imperial Castle when I had to stop. I found a huge ball of light, about the size of my palm, floating in the air.
But when I looked closely, it wasn’t just a simple ball, it had arms and legs. It also had a face, with eyes, a nose, and a mouth inside. It was just small in size, but it was almost identical to the shape of a person. Except for the wings on its back and the fact that its eyeballs had no distinction between the whites and the pupils…
I wondered if it was because of the earrings Aska had given me, but even when I took them off, I could still see it. While I was distracted, the giant gnat in the shape of an unidentified person disappeared, but it was definitely not an illusion.
Then, I suddenly remembered that I had seen a similar sight before. In my dreams, that is, whenever I looked at the world through Aska’s eyes, these things would appear in my field of vision like scenery.
From one-eyed owls to unidentified clumps of fur, to clusters of light that had been there from some point on between the leaves and branches…
What kind of phenomenon is this? It didn’t seem like a problem to just ignore. As if on cue, Aska, who had run out of the carriage because he was feeling stuffy, returned, and the ceiling rattled.
Aska, who had come into the running carriage, took off his hood with a flushed face, carrying something in his pocket.
“Look at this.”
Leaves were stuck all over his robe, as if he had been running through the bushes. I smoothed his disheveled hair and asked.
“Are you going to eat again? Ugh, you pig.”
Anyone would think I was starving him. I clicked my tongue as I looked at the red, yellow, and blue berries in his pocket. Aska shoved a berry into my mouth as if telling me not to nag.
“It’s delicious, right? I think I found a whole colony. There are so many. Let’s go together later.”
“……”
It had a texture somewhere between crisp and mushy. It was juicy, so even eating just one filled my mouth and was refreshing, making it good to eat. Then, Aska paused and muttered.
“Ah, we’re going to the Imperial Castle and then back to Actan, right?”
He seemed disappointed for some reason. It seemed like there was a more fundamental reason than just not being able to take me to a common tree berry colony.
I carefully looked at Aska’s face and asked.
“You don’t want to go to Actan?”
“No, it doesn’t matter. Wherever I live, well…”
I nodded as I watched Aska shake his head. As Aska said, it didn’t really matter where we lived. The only difference was whether we lived together or not.
Or maybe he didn’t hate Actan, but he didn’t want to go to the Imperial Castle? He must hate it because he only has memories of being trapped there every day, waiting for me.
If we go back, there’s no reason to hide like we did then… Still, I didn’t like the idea of Aska walking around with his face exposed or meeting other people and greeting them for no reason.
There would be quite a few minor events, and I couldn’t keep skipping official events for no special reason like I did when I was young… Suddenly, my head throbbed.
Whether he knew my feelings or not, Aska was seriously picking out the prettiest berries and putting them in my mouth. Just looking at his focused face made me feel at ease, so I decided to postpone this problem for now.
“I saw a huge gnat earlier.”
“A gnat?”
Aska’s eyes widened like a startled rabbit as I spoke with my mouth full.
“How big was it?”
He could kill Magical creatures without changing his expression, but he must be afraid of bugs, because Aska’s shoulders flinched slightly.