10. First task – 05

There is an old saying like this.

There is a saying that a man dies for the person who knows him, and a woman puts on makeup for the man who makes her happy.

The existence of women is truly profound, and they are creatures full of contradictions.

They want to embellish themselves in front of others.

In order not to reveal one’s ugliness in front of an unspecified number of people, and to firmly prove that one is more beautiful than anyone else in this place.

And at the same time, women don’t like it so much that people other than ‘the person they want to show’ look into their appearance.

There is only one person that women want and want them to notice that they have changed.

If someone else notices and pays attention to what you’ve done, that would be rather distasteful.

It was the same with Erekaya.

Today, I decorated for you. No, it was made just for you.

In order to stand shoulder to shoulder with you, talk with you, and walk this street together with you, I tried on something I hadn’t done in my entire life.

And… I want you to know about my efforts like this.

I know it’s extremely selfish, but I want to confirm that you’ve always been interested in me and that you’re only looking at me at this moment.

Because I want a man like you to look at a woman like me with different eyes than other people.

“… Well. Well.”

Jin’s gaze scans Erekaya’s body here and there. As she requested, I look around here and there with interest in order to discover a different appearance than usual.

“… It’s okay.”

Seeing that gaze, which could only be described as blatant, Erekaya shrank back without realizing it.

If another man had looked at Erekaya like that, she might not have hesitated to crush or pluck out his eyes.

A woman named Erekaya del Pendragon was too noble a woman to become the object of interest or attention of another man for a moment.

Of course, in the first place, there was no tall man in the world who looked at her as the little princess of the Duke of Pendragon and the body that would become the next Duke of Pendragon.

but… At this moment, Erekaya didn’t feel too bad seeing Jin looking at her body.

No, I don’t know why, but I felt proud and satisfied.

At this moment, the fact that you were only looking at me made me feel very good.

“Well… It seems that the layered clothes inside have changed. Her hairstyle also seems to have changed a bit. And it looks like he trimmed his nails a little too. And… ”

“… And?”

want. I want him to tell me that my body smells different than usual. No, tell me it smells a little better than usual.

Because he was watching me with interest, because I wanted people to quickly notice such a minor change in me.

“That… I don’t know any more. sorry. I’m not very observant.”

“no it’s okay. I got it all right, but what? Seeing that you know me so well, you must have been looking at me normally with interest?”

Erekaya smiled and joked around. However, behind her smiling face, there was something slightly bitter.

After all, I put on perfume… didn’t you notice

Well, that would be unavoidable. In the first place, aren’t Jin and Erekaya close enough to smell each other’s scent and remember the smell?

If you could recognize that her body smells different with just a little bit of perfume… It would be safe to say that the two are already close to lovers.

‘… Hey, lover?’

For a moment, Erekaya was taken aback by the word that passed through her mind.

Are you a lover? Could it be that Erekaya was just imagining that he and herself might one day become lovers?

“… Ugh.”

Let’s not think about anything. At least for now, let’s not think about that.

Let’s not rush. And let’s not be in a hurry. After all, time is on your side.

Today is the first day he and the student council started working. At the same time, it’s the day I went out with him for the first time, and it’s also the day I went out with him for the first time shopping.

In the future, there will be enough days to spend time with him, do something together, and build memories.

so… Let’s be content with this for now.

After all, the final winner of this game over that man was neither Altina nor Claire, and it was as if Erekaya had been decided.

“Then shall we go?”

snap.

Saying that, Erekaya stealthily grabs Jin’s hand, but without hesitation, grabs it without hesitation.

“There are so many people passing by here. You could get lost or lose track of where each other is… .”

Erekaya’s words, which made it possible to hear the sound of ants crawling dozens of meters away if you set your mind to it, had no credibility at all, but Jin wasn’t a ignorant person enough to say it out loud.

And, as she said, the shopping street in front of Nineveh was one of the busiest districts in the capital, so there is no possibility that the roads might cross each other…

“Then, shall we go buy sweets for entertainment first? If it’s too late, all good quality sweets might be sold out.”

“yes.”

Crucially, Jin also didn’t hate holding hands with Erekaya.

That’s how Jin and Erekaya started going around the shopping mall together to buy things.

The items they buy today are really many.

From sweets for entertainment, to file folders, writing supplies, back paper, and various supplies in preparation for the festival to be held soon.

Erekaya was busy dragging Jin from store to store, measuring various things, and seeing her like that, Jin soon felt tired.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve felt like this.’

It’s been so long since I’ve forgotten about it. There is nothing more tiring than going shopping with a girl in the world.

‘Still, I’m not here to buy clothes, so I should consider myself fortunate.’

It’s a hundred times better than going to dozens of stores for hours and looking through hundreds of clothes for a couple of hours to buy a set of clothes. ?

It was at that moment when Jin was staring at Erekaya’s back with a bitter smile.

“… Well?”

Erekaya, who was carefully looking at things and thinking carefully, came to Jin’s side before he knew it, and whispered in a very small voice.

“Jin, I’m going to go somewhere for a while. So please guard the things we bought here.”

“Where are you going?”

Erekaya only smiled at Jin’s thoughtless question.

“It’s stupid. Originally, it would be a gentlemanly attitude to let the lady go without saying anything like this.”

Saying that, Erekaya left the shop, leaving Jin there, and then, without hesitation, moved toward the dark alley.

Unlike the bustling and bustling shopping district, the back alleys were a place filled with eerie energy, with no one walking around.

No, to be more precise, should I say that Erekaya chose a place in the back alley where no one could feel any signs of popularity?

“At first, I didn’t want to care. I was aware of it, but I didn’t bother pretending to know. There aren’t just one or two rats following me anyway, and I didn’t want to pay attention to anything else on a day like today.”

Erekaya muttered in a voice that was quiet but at the same time somehow dignified.

But who the hell is she talking to? There is only one Erekaya here. No sign of a person exists anywhere in this back alley…

“But I couldn’t do that if I didn’t care. Because I realized that it’s not just me where your eyes are directed.”

Saying that, Erekaya’s hand slowly began to lift upwards.

The purpose of today’s outing was shopping, so she didn’t wear a sword on her body.

But from the beginning, there was no need for anything like a sword. Because as long as she was determined to cut something, it didn’t really matter if she had a sword in her hand or not.

Swoop-

Her hand slowly descends from top to bottom.

From the outside, the movement was too slow, and nothing but flimsy.

But even the result of her hand gesture was nothing.

Pooh!

In the next instant, the space behind Erekaya cracked and a blue feathered bird ‘appeared’ here.

Until recently, no one was present here except for Erekaya, but Erekaya’s expression did not change at all when she saw the bird that suddenly appeared.

“At first I didn’t notice. There are so many people around here looking at me, and the way you hide your face is also so clever.”

By refracting the surrounding dimensions and layering the shielded time and space around their own existence, they could barely hide their presence.

If Erekaya hadn’t learned how to perceive the changed time and space through her experience fighting Altina, it would have been a magic so great that she would not have noticed it at all.

“Seeing that he uses this level of magic, he must be a famous wizard after all. It’s just a peek at what you have to do on such a subject. It’s really absurd.”

I felt dirty. It wasn’t just because the wizard was spying on Erekaya.

Something to monitor her actions from somewhere? And secretly spying on her in the dark?

From the moment I made up my mind to live as the heir to the Duke of Pendragon, I had already made up my mind against such disparaging glances from others.

Besides, isn’t Erekaya not only the current only heir to the Duke of Pendragon, but also the most important figure in the Empire, the future Duke of Pendragon?

That said, the presence of rats watching Erekaya’s every move, or watching her with their eyes wide open to gather any information, was nothing new.

… However, aside from monitoring himself, daring to peek at Jin was something that could never be overlooked.

Leaving everything else and having her time with him interrupted made Erekaya feel very bad.

It was as if something was bubbling inside, like someone who had witnessed something precious to them get stuck in muddy water.

So, this is an example.

On a day like today, and when you’re spending precious time with someone else-

A stern warning not to send that dirty gaze at yourself.

“Warning you. I don’t know who you are, but if you spy on me or him again-“

Kwajik!

Erekaya broke the neck of the blue-feathered bird without any hesitation.

“… Just like today, warnings won’t end.”

Whoa!

After that, an aura spark rose from inside the bird and burned the corpse. Indeed, in the overwhelming heat, the bird’s corpse soon evaporated and disappeared without a trace.

****

“Oooh!”

Nineveh’s class A girls’ dormitory.

In the middle of a room located there, Claire, a woman with blue hair, was holding her by the scruff of her neck and retching.

“hahahaha, hahahaha, ha-”

Just a while ago, the link with the familiar that was connecting her with “sight” was forcibly cut off.

And the recoil hit her in an instant, and as a result, she rolled to the floor with pain as if her internal organs were being torn apart.

However, the emotions that gripped her now were not the pain caused by the feedback from her familiar.

“… I got caught.”

I got caught. I thought I would never get caught, but it was none other than Kaya.

And when Kaya saw her familiar, she said she had ‘spoken’ at him.

… Did you steal it? What do I look like Kaya? like a rat? I hope it can’t be

He wasn’t interested in Kaya from the beginning. Her only concern was Jin’s safety.

I’m afraid he’ll get hurt somewhere. I’m afraid I’ll be in danger in a place I don’t know. I’m afraid I’ll head to a place where I can’t easily find my whereabouts like last time.

It was the only thing she was concerned about, so she created a familiar, and made it to escort Jin in the dark.

But it’s not enough to not know anything and to drive people into rats, even to kill their familiars!

“… Kaya.”

Know. Kaya made such a choice because she thought that someone unknown to her identity was spying on them.

If she had been in Kaya’s shoes, she would have trampled the rats who were spying on them without hesitation.

but… But that is it and this is this.

The only time I can be with Jin is during meal times. Outside of that time, our relationship is only that of classmates.

But Kaya, it’s not enough that you work and spend time in the same space as him, so you go out together like that, and even walk around the streets holding hands.

I couldn’t build any memories with him. I wanted to walk down the street with him, and I wanted to hold hands with him too!

Does this mean that I am not allowed to even look at him from a distance?

“… jin.”

In the end, slumped on the floor, Claire only stared blankly at the ceiling.