The Guardian Knight of Affection-Starved Young Ladies

98 – Flache (05)

099.

It wouldn’t be an illusion that Laris’s eyes became clearer.

Because Laris, who had been staring blankly at the necklace he held out, carefully accepted it and smiled purely with joy.

The girl’s murky grayish-white eyes, looking at each other, seemed to regain a bit more of their original color.

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As the murky grayish-white eyes brightened, a thought occurred.

Kallen looked around at the mirror-like stones surrounding them and then looked back at Laris’s eyes.

“Ugh… Why are you looking at me like that…”

Was his gaze too blatant?

Laris awkwardly avoided his gaze and protested in a creeping voice.

“You look similar to the sparkling stones around us.”

“…What?”

“Your eyes. They are sparkling in a good way.”

“Oh…”

They say there’s nothing like a compliment to lighten the mood.

That was already confirmed by Sinat, Eliana, and Selacia.

“…”

But it seems that Laris is different.

The young lady of Plache lowered her head slightly at Kallen’s words.

“…Turn… around…”

She grabbed Kallen’s body and, with her small hands, forced him to turn around.

Kallen wondered if Laris didn’t like the compliment.

After all, the usual response to a compliment is to either reciprocate or express gratitude.

And the way Laris’s attitude subtly turned high-handed made it feel as if she didn’t like it.

Kallen decided to comply with her small strength and quietly turned his body.

Then.

Flinch.

“…It hurts, doesn’t it…”

A sharp sensation was felt on his back.

A burn from the incident on the cliff.

Since it wouldn’t heal just by leaving it alone, Kallen immediately realized that Laris was touching his back.

It felt a bit different from when she had been tracing the scar earlier.

If she had been careful not to hurt him before.

Now, it felt more like she was caressing the wound.

Naturally, it hurt more than when she was being careful, so Kallen tried to pull away, trembling slightly.

But Laris’s hand clung to the wound, not letting go, almost as if it were sticky.

Unable to endure it any longer, Kallen turned his head slightly and asked in confusion.

“Miss.”

“Haa… haa…”

“…Miss?”

“…Because it hurts. I’ll take care of you…”

A strangely excited breath touched his back.

Her voice, trembling slightly, seemed unstable.

Just as Kallen felt something was wrong and was about to turn around completely.

Before he knew it, Laris, who was close to his back, moved ever so slightly faster.

And then.

Hoo…

It wasn’t an excited snort, but a properly exhaled hot breath that touched his back.

“Ugh…”

As he was flustered by the unexpected action, Laris gently stroked Kallen’s wound and blew on it with her mouth.

Kallen froze in place.

Laris, undeterred, continued to blow on Kallen’s wound.

Though it was hot breath, the sensation was strangely cold.

Before he knew it, his back was tense, and paradoxically, the stiffness in his body was relieved by Laris’s breath.

Hoo- Hoo-

Kallen, who had never experienced such a situation before, couldn’t grasp the flow of time.

Nevertheless, a long time passed, long enough to feel lengthy, and finally, Laris stopped blowing.

“Does it… not hurt anymore…?”

“…”

Only after Laris stopped blowing did Kallen turn around.

There, Laris was waiting for an answer, her hands clasped in front of her.

But he couldn’t bring himself to speak.

Kallen quietly nodded.

“…That’s a relief.”

Laris’s expression, looking at him, seemed as clear as her much brighter eyes.

*

“Umm…”

The sudden closeness between them was probably due to this cave.

The recent events and the fact that a delicate girl like Laris had no one to rely on in an unfamiliar place except for the knight by her side.

That’s why Laris tended to Kallen’s wound and even provided such treatment.

That’s what Kallen decided to think.

Even now, this appearance showed her anxious heart.

Kallen looked down at Laris, who had fallen asleep using his thigh as a pillow.

Having fainted and then regained consciousness couldn’t be seen as a recovery of strength.

That just means the body has escaped a dangerous situation, not that it has rested.

Laris, who had tended to the wounds, soon became sleepy.

Kallen, who couldn’t let the struggling woman lie on the hard stone again, offered his thigh.

Unlike when they first held hands.

Laris, without refusing or feeling embarrassed, thanked him and immediately lay down on his thigh.

Just as she had gotten used to holding hands in the spray of water, she seemed less resistant to things she had already become accustomed to.

Kallen looked down at the sleeping Laris, brushing away the grayish-white hair that kept falling.

He exerted effort to suppress his gaze from drifting towards her lips.

Even for the inexpressive Kallen, Laris’s actions were enough to disturb his mind.

It was time to leave the cave and get away from the Latia Falls, and he used this as an excuse to steady his heart.

Kallen stared blankly at the sleeping Laris, using his upper garment as a blanket.

It was at that moment.

Without taking his eyes off Laris, Kallen picked up a small stone rolling around nearby.

He flicked it towards the mirror-like stone ahead.

Tick, tick, tick…

The sound of the stone hitting.

At the same time, it wasn’t just the sound of the stone rolling.

“Your senses are sharp.”

Laris was asleep, and this was the end of the cave, so no sound should be heard.

But it was clearly someone’s voice, so distinct it couldn’t be a lie.

“I knew what I was doing, though.”

Kallen carefully lifted his head so as not to wake Laris.

When he looked up, there stood someone other than Laris and himself.

A grotesque face.

A distorted expression as if crying.

It was that incomprehensible being that had caused the explosion on the cliff.

Kallen slowly observed the being.

He didn’t respond immediately because he didn’t sense the dangerous aura like during the previous explosion.

But he couldn’t afford to be completely off guard, so he kept a minimal response while watching the strange being.

“`

The being surprisingly seemed to be a woman.

Although her face couldn’t be seen as human, the curves of her body were unmistakably those of a woman.

Is she human?

Even that is uncertain.

It was the moment when Kallen, who had let out a faint sigh, was preparing to strike first.

“I’m sorry.”

“…”

Calculating the third-level combat attribute magic ice spear.

Ready to summon two spirits if necessary.

What came back was an unexpected answer.

A situation completely different from the sudden appearance and explosion.

Kallen hesitated for a moment, then waited for her words without dispelling the magic.

The reason for waiting was because an apology had flowed from her lips.

“I had no choice but to lead you here.”

The woman nodded slightly, as if acknowledging the consideration, and continued speaking.

“…Lead?”

“Yes. This is the only place I can speak.”

“…”

The woman looked around at the mirror-like stones.

Kallen also looked around at the stones following the woman.

Three figures were reflected in the crystal glass-like stones.

But that didn’t mean he believed the words of this incomprehensible being.

Maintaining the magic was proof of that.

“Then couldn’t you have just gestured for me to follow instead of attacking?”

“As you know, this is my space hidden beyond the waterfall. Would you have willingly thrown yourself into the waterfall to follow someone you don’t even know?”

That was something he couldn’t deny.

As she said, it made no sense to throw oneself into the Latia Falls following an untrustworthy being.

Kallen silently stared at the woman.

The woman also silently accepted Kallen’s gaze.

After that brief confirmation.

“`

Kallen withdrew the magic he had been maintaining after calculating.

It wasn’t appropriate to act in a state of complete disbelief.

After all, if such an explosion was an attack, there was no point in holding onto a third-rank magic that required a lot of power to maintain just for containment.

The woman, confirming that the magic had been withdrawn, slowly approached Kallen.

Then, as if she were truly human, she sat gracefully, as if she had learned the etiquette of nobility.

Kallen, who was watching the woman with somewhat awkward manners intently.

It was the woman who spoke first.

“You must have many questions.”

“…”

“I will answer them first.”

As if waiting for those words.

Kallen covered Laris’s ears so she wouldn’t wake up and asked.

“Why did you lead us here?”

“As I said earlier, to have a conversation.”

She said she couldn’t speak anywhere else.

So she used such a drastic method to make Kallen and Laris fall under the waterfall.

“What if we had died?”

“I know you wouldn’t.”

The woman pointed at Kallen.

“Because you climbed the cliff of Latia Falls, even with someone without any help. And if I had misjudged, I would have saved you.”

She said she had no intention of killing them.

Just that was enough to ease the tension considerably.

Kallen then asked a few more questions.

The woman answered without refusal.

As the situation progressed, the woman also began to ask questions.

Since Kallen had much to learn from the woman, he answered her questions willingly.

After a few more exchanges of questions.

When it was the woman’s turn to ask, she pointed not at Kallen but at Laris, who was asleep on his lap.

More precisely, at the necklace Laris was holding tightly.

“That… how did you get it?”

Kallen followed the woman’s finger with his gaze.

“A keepsake left by your mother.”

“…”

Flinch.

At that answer, the woman’s body trembled.

“…Miss…”

Kallen did not miss the small tremor in the woman’s muttering.

“Now it’s my turn to ask.”

“…”

“Plache.”

Flinch.

Mentioning the Plache family made the woman’s body tremble once more.

He could guess from the previous conversation, and now he was certain from her reaction.

Covering Laris’s ears, Kallen asked the woman directly.

“Were you the owner of that necklace the young lady has?”

The woman’s gaze was fixed on the pearl necklace in Laris’s hand.