63 – Southern Hunting Tournament (2)

The name is Krause’s Sogaju, the place where I live, but the objects in the tent are simpler than I thought.

A bed where I sleep, a chair to sit on and a small table. Other than that, there are only a few tools, such as a sharpening stone, needed to maintain the clothes and equipment you will use while you are here.

As in the castle, tea sets could be prepared, but simple refreshments were not prepared either. Ken, who always helped me, wasn’t here either. It wasn’t necessary for hunting training with the Knights, and above all, Ken, because he hated camping very much.

He had been working for Krauss for a long time, but Ken was a butler, not an unmanned man. He would have been waiting for us to return from Legion, which would be the site of the tournament by now.

The reason we are currently out in the forest is purely for Orcus and Noel’s practice, and this has nothing to do with the style of the tournament. Since the tournament is a contest of nobles, in which various families large and small in the south participate, it starts with one castle as a base.

At that thought, I turned my head and looked at Elena. In line with my gaze, she also looked at me and smiled at me, but I responded with a small smile out of sorryness.

It seems that the place we are now is not enough for the young lady and the boy who lived as nobles to live.

Now, Noel and Orcus seem to have adapted, but they had the purpose of participating in the tournament, so Elena, who was not attending the tournament, could have waited in the Legion with Ken.

Considering her future career, these things were trivial and nothing to worry about, but that doesn’t mean Elena didn’t have to endure this inconvenience. I was happy when she voluntarily agreed to follow me, but I wanted her to wait comfortably in Legion this time.

Contrary to my worries, she spent the two days living here skillfully like a person without any discomfort, but that didn’t make me feel comfortable either. As expected, from now on, it would be beneficial for me to have Elena stay in the castle, even if Elena wishes.

As I organized my thoughts like that, I turned my eyes to the blanket that started to tremble slightly at some point. Finding the cause was simple. It was because Elena’s hand, which was touching right next to her, was the cause.

She looked at the bed without a word, wondering if the bed I was using was strange, and pressed the bed with her palms like a cat. As for the bed, I must have prepared the same bed for her as I did for Orcus and Noel, but did I feel something different?

Well….

this is a bit embarrassing

The figure of Elena holding down the bed sheet was cute, but thinking that the place she was touching was the blanket I usually use made me nervous for some reason.

I’m sure I hadn’t thought about it until just a while ago, but I wonder if it’s a problem that she’s kneading on my bed.

“It’s wet…”

“Yes?!”

While I was so focused, Elena’s muttering caused me to reflexively spit out the words.

It’s damp…Did I ever spill something on the duvet?

At her completely unexpected words, I swept the duvet covering the bed with a puzzled look on my face.

Now, all I could think about was worrying about what misunderstandings she might have. Elena looked at me and laughed out loud, as if the expression on my face as I was groping for the blanket was ridiculous.

Hearing that laughter, I finally woke up and realized that what she meant was simply the damp blanket that had become uncomfortable.

When I looked up again and saw Elena, only her mischievous smile greeted me.

“Why are you so upset?”

“Um…no, nothing.”

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Must have had tea on this once or twice.

Of course, as long as it feels wet, I’m sure I’ll remember it, but the person who was lying in bed a while ago couldn’t know it. It was my mistake to be taken aback by her unexpected words.

In response to my answer, Elena touched the fingers that were touching, then raised her other hand and began to stir the air around. The flow of mana moving along her hand made it clear that what Elena was doing was not just a simple hand gesture.

Small water droplets floating in the air begin to gather toward the picture she is drawing.

The clothes I’m wearing right now and the blanket that was spread under us were no exception.

Drops of water formed on the cloth and soon floated onto her hands. The blanket, which Elena had said was damp, was now soft as if it had just been dried in the sun.

I thought it was just like a dehumidifier to collect moisture in the air, but unlike a dehumidifier, the sight of sparkling water droplets forming in the air and heading towards one place seemed very mysterious.

At some point, a small ball of water was completed on Elena’s hand.

It was in the shape of a round sphere, but I could tell that it was water by looking at the flow that continued to sway dangerously as if it was about to collapse at any moment.

Elena touched the ball of water with her hand, but the ball did not burst.

It went in deeply, as if pressing on jelly, and soon snapped her fingers. As I gazed at it curiously, Elena moved her hand again and began to draw something with the water floating in the air.

The transparent stream of water that started from the ball soon became a line and moved along her hand, gradually taking on a new shape. Looking at the picture being completed, I decided to guess what Elena was trying to draw.

“Well…”

It doesn’t seem like a person at all. So is it an animal?

The contours of the shape become increasingly clear.

The painting, which started with a small stream of water, was on its way to completion at some point. But even so, I still couldn’t come up with an answer. I’m sure it’s an animal, but is it a canine? isn’t it a cat? Looking at the ears sticking up, I think one of them is correct, but I’m not sure which one.

What is this?

Elena, who has completed the painting, is looking at me with expectant eyes. Normally, I would have looked at her and smiled at her, but now I’m afraid to look at those sparkling purple eyes.

Elena…you can’t draw.

This is a part that wasn’t even in the novel.

Knowing one more thing about her was definitely something I should be happy about, but now I couldn’t help but smile. The painting has already been completed a long time ago, and now it is time to tell the answer. He still couldn’t decide whether it was a dog or a cat, but he couldn’t keep ignoring Elena’s eyes.

After a long thought, I couldn’t bear the pressure anymore and opened my mouth.

“A dog… is it?”

At the same time as my answer, a moment of silence passed between us.

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Maybe the answer is wrong?

Should I have done it as a cat?

As thoughts started to fill my head, Elena opened her mouth. There was a look of regret in her eyes, but her lips moved in a smile.

“If you say dog… it could be. The correct answer is wolf.”

“Ah, that’s right. It’s a pity.”

It was a wolf…

that was a wolf

Elena’s reaction wasn’t bad, perhaps because it was close to the correct answer.

Come to think of it, it seems that the animal in the Edelweiss family’s coat of arms was a wolf, but it was fortunate that I didn’t say cat. Or a fox.

“Then shall we move on to the next problem immediately?”

oh

Before I could say anything, Elena’s hand started moving quickly again.

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My heart felt like my blood was drying up when I saw that, but seeing her smiling brightly and moving her hands around like that, I couldn’t bear to say anything.

Elena wasn’t narrow-minded enough to say something was wrong.

In the end, I quickly gave up and moved my gaze back to Elena, not the picture she was drawing. Anyway, whether you see it now or when it’s finished, the unpredictability is the same, so seeing her smile and putting your mind at ease seemed like a better choice.

How many minutes have you been watching? Elena suddenly stopped drawing and started talking to me.

“Damian. Do you want to do Damian too?”

Elena, who out of the blue said this to me. Maybe it’s because I kept looking elsewhere without looking at the picture. I was just watching you because I liked seeing you smile. I thought for a moment about what to say, then nodded.

Then Elena grabbed my hand and moved mana in a completely different way. It is as if a cool energy passes through your hands. Unlike the passing wind, the energy continued to stay near my hand.

“It’s done. Give it a try.”

I raised a finger in response to her words, and the moisture in the air began to collect on my finger, just like hers before. Seeing it, I drew a straight line like a person touching a pencil for the first time.

“It feels strange. It’s also cool.”

“Right? Then try drawing it. This time I’ll guess!”

Seeing her speak confidently, I raised the corner of my mouth and moved my hand.

***

“Wow…I didn’t know it would turn out like this.”

I exclaimed in exclamation at the sight of the ceiling turning blue as I raised my head. Paintings drawn with water floating in the air gave a dreamlike feeling that escaped from reality.

How should I express this?

They were floating on the ceiling of my tent like clouds, but they were neither white nor light like clouds.

similar feeling. I think I’ve experienced it before…yes. It was like entering an underwater aquarium. An underwater aquarium that looked like fish were flying in the sky. It’s different from that place, but similarly, animals made of water were flying in the sky here.

Neither Elena nor I would have intended to create a landscape like this from the beginning.

I was just absorbed in drawing, but there was no more space to draw, so I looked up at the ceiling and saw that the scenery around us had changed like this.

“Um, shall we do this?”

When there was no more free space in sight, Elena began putting together the pictures she had painted. Perhaps because they were all made of water, the paintings turned into one giant drop of water as soon as they touched each other.

Was there that much water in this room? A huge drop of water appeared in front of my eyes, covering the ceiling of the room. The person who made it proudly pointed at the drop of water and told me.

“Now I can draw with this.”

Apparently, she had a lot of fun playing with me.

Thinking that it wouldn’t be bad to be with Alphonse later at home, I raised my hand toward the drop of water. This time, Elena’s and mine’s hands moved at the same time. I don’t know when it started, but it was changed to free drawing instead of giving each other problems anymore.

Elena opened her palms and began to spread the round drops of water into squares, and I moved my hands on top of them to create the earth and sky. It wasn’t painted in color, but just lined in, but it became a picture worth looking at.

Elena doesn’t just draw animals…

As I waited for the paintings to be completed one by one, the tactile feel of the blanket in my hand passed through my mind.

The duvet was soft and not damp like before. When I removed my hand from the futon again, this time I touched my palm with the opposite hand. When it rained, the unique feeling of discomfort no longer remained in my hands.

Outside, the rain was still pouring down. The sound of rain hitting the tent and the ground pounding was good background music. You can tell by hearing that sound. That means the rain is still far from over.

There was such a huge drop of water floating above my head, and water was pouring out from the sky outside the tent as if there was a hole somewhere. But even so, now I couldn’t find any discomfort caused by the humidity.

The reason is simple. What she took away when she made the water droplets was also a very small amount of the moisture that was on my skin. It wasn’t that my lips were dry enough to dry out, but it was like when I greeted a spring day without rain.

Touching my hands to check the humidity on my skin, I reached out to her.

“ah?”

I didn’t think anything of it.

The need to touch only the tips of the hands like before, fearing that touching them would only give them a sense of discomfort, was just that.

I grabbed Elena by the shoulder and pulled her to my side. At my sudden action, Elena stopped drawing and turned her head toward me, but I put my head against her without saying anything.

Her soft hair brushes and tickles my head.

Elena didn’t blush, and she didn’t look away from me with her head down like before. Just like when we went out together before, she leaned on me comfortably.

“lol…”

As I tickled my chin with my hand, Elena smiled and came closer to me as if chasing the warmth of my hand.

Perhaps thanks to the sound of rain that sounds like a song and the paintings floating in the air, this place seemed to have flown into another world, not the tent I was staying in.

Could it be because of the feeling of being left alone in the world? Or was it that she was drawn to her smile? My head was gradually closing the distance from her.

Elena did not push me away as I approached her.

Without turning her head to another place, she also looked at me and narrowed the distance with me.

A distance close enough that each other’s breath touches the skin.

Even when we danced together, we had never been this close. Where did I go when I blushed and averted my eyes? It may not be that there is not a lot of influence of the existence of Damien left in me in this action, but in this action, the same madness I felt every time I got close to her was no longer found in my heart.

I stopped breathing and stared at her lips.

“Well.”

The time I approached Elena was a very short time, almost like an instant, but in my head, unlike the outside, a long time was passing. I would never have thought that the ability to process accidents in a category beyond human beings would catch my ankle at a time like this. Thanks to that, many thoughts piled up on an action that could have been completed in an instant, adding only tension to me.

When the distance and the heart rate of my beating heart reached their peak. Something different from the constant sound of rain pierced my ears.

chapak

I hear the splashing of watery, muddy mud.

The sound of someone coming in here. I couldn’t confirm who had come here by turning my head, but this was immediately followed by a voice that I could tell who had come here.

“Damian!! It’s a big deal! My older brother seems to be very sick!! When the rain stops, let’s go hunting…”

Chow ah ah-!

Noel’s continued voice did not reach my ears, drowned out by the sound of pouring water. The painting floating above our heads became a mighty waterfall and watered the room.

I really hoped that this would happen.

Unfortunately, I used the stream of water that covered us as a screen and gave her a short kiss, then looked at Noel again with a calm face and asked.

“I just didn’t hear you. Can you say it again?”

There was no answer from Noel.