156 – I Told You, I’m Not the Enemy – 6

In a sense, the festival taking place in Cor was a blessing for Gi-jun.

Although it was said to be the greatest metropolis in Gratia, Cor was not overflowing with entertainment like modern Earth, so escorting Biche perfectly was as good as an impossible mission for the novice Gi-jun—

Since there were people everywhere who were highly excited and keeping the atmosphere lively, that alone was enough to make one’s mood feel a bit uplifted.

It was just like how, even if one went to a cherry blossom festival or a fireworks festival, they would only get swept along by the crowd without even properly seeing the cherry blossoms or fireworks, yet that was still enjoyable.

Because it made him fall into the illusion that he, too, was enjoying what so many people were enjoying, and that he was living a life that did not pale in comparison to theirs!

On top of that, it was even better because that crowd of people did not pay attention to Gi-jun and Biche.

“Do you want to eat some skewers?”

“No, I don’t want to fill up on street food. I will only eat food made by you.”

“Okay, I’ll cancel the restaurant we reserved for dinner.”

However, Biche had a subtly picky side.

What were the three elements of a festival? Were they not the theme of the festival, the crowd of people drawn by it, and finally, the street stalls lined up to not miss a chance to make money!

Yet Biche adamantly expressed her refusal of everything Gi-jun pointed to, declaring that she would only put food made by him into her mouth.

Gi-jun was pleased by her sentiment, but his mind became complicated as he wondered if he was ultimately just a housekeeper, while on the other hand, he also felt worried, wondering if the side effect of her ability was really that serious.

“Then it can’t be helped… This place is fine, right? Let’s go in.”

“Hmm, if it’s tea, sure. Ah, is this the place listed in the documents?”

“Did you catch on?”

“It’s because you keep checking like that.”

The place where Gi-jun stopped was none other than a famous tea salon in Cor.

Originally, it was a place where nobles active in Cor gathered to drink high-quality tea and hold social gatherings, but when the salon’s owner recently died, it almost closed down; however, a noble acquired it along with all the distribution and management infrastructure and opened it to the public—rapidly rising as a landmark representing Cor.

“Letan nobles are really proud, but they just let a noble’s salon be opened to the public?”

“The original owner here was a vampire. For your information, the person who acquired it is a noble who is quite close to me.”

“Ah.”

Of course, the vampire referred to here was Io Defect, and the noble who acquired the salon was Monoceros, the Lord of Turis.

To begin with, the Lord of Turis’s acquisition of the salon took on the character of a minor reward from the King to him for sponsoring Gi-jun.

The other nobles, who feared they might invite unnecessary misunderstandings if they tried to interfere with a salon managed by a vampire, could not voice any complaints about Monoceros’s decision to open it to the public.

“Then, by any chance, wouldn’t they give us a discount?”

“If I reveal that I am Jun, wouldn’t they serve me tea for free for the rest of my life?”

“No, actually, forget it.”

The two who entered the salon received many stares as their Charm control slipped upon entering the narrow space, but they quickly went into a private room and shut the door.

Even though no one could disturb the two of them now, Biche waved her hand and cast a barrier to prevent any unforeseen circumstances.

Detecting the colorless mana blooming from her hand, Gi-jun asked, “Come to think of it…”

“Biche, you handle both close combat and magic at the same time, right…?”

Back when he trained with her, he had merely thought vaguely that since she was the Demon King, she would naturally be good at everything—but upon crossing over to Leta, he found that there was virtually no one who accomplished those two things at the same time.

He had seen Lectus use magic, but even he did not seem to be able to blend magic and swordsmanship together in battle.

At best, Lora, who had been a priest before obtaining the power of a vampire, handled holy magic and blade techniques at the same time, so was she not the closest case to Biche?

Although Tilla was also skilled in whip techniques and handled flames at will, it had to be viewed that she simply possessed the ability to dominate the attribute rather than handling systematic magic.

Ji-hye? She was just exercising out of necessity to survive.

It was no different from practicing Tai Chi in a park every morning.

“Well… I was originally a magician. Think about it, don’t you think the probability of success is higher for a magician to learn fighting than for a warrior to learn magic?”

“Indeed.”

“And as I told you before, a magician’s mana circuit and a warrior’s mana circuit are different. Only after I obtained Libertas was I able to train in close combat in earnest.”

The expression on Biche’s face as she said that looked somewhat bitter.

Perhaps she, too, had been a magician with a similar feel to Ji-hye in the past.

Perhaps circumstances arose that prevented her from doing so, forcing her to learn her current style of combat.

Once he started thinking about it, questions about her past began to arise one after another.

Not to mention the way she looked when she was summoned to Leta—the members of her civilization, the enemies she fought against—and even the one who turned her into a Hero.

“…You’re curious after all, aren’t you? Do you regret not asking yesterday?”

When he realized it, Biche’s gaze was directed toward him.

Gi-jun answered honestly.

“I have no intention of prying, but if you want to tell me, I’m always ready to listen.”

“Ha, how cute.”

Snorting at Gi-jun’s words, Biche picked up her teacup in a picture-perfect, elegant posture and tilted it to her lips.

Although he had no way of knowing, if there was a separate etiquette for such things, she must have mastered it.

“You said you’re receiving a reward from the royal palace tomorrow, right?”

“Ah—that’s true, but.”

Gi-jun decided to go along with Biche’s change of topic.

“Still, we don’t necessarily have to go tomorrow right away, do we? It will probably take up quite a bit of time.”

“Go anyway. Won’t they give you something useful for battle, whatever it may be?”

“That’s probably true… but why?”

“You should arm yourself with it and fight.”

Biche said, still drinking her tea in an elegant posture.

When they stayed in the tutorial channel for ten years, there was no opportunity for the two of them to sit face-to-face like this and take it easy, so he hadn’t noticed it, but looking at her like this, he could tell at a glance that she was born with elegance.

A princess… no, looking at only the clothes she wore, she was completely a queen.

Would there even be anyone else who could pull off this leather one-piece dress as naturally as she did?

“Jun?”

“Huh? Ah, yes. By fighting, you mean sparring with you, right?”

“Yes, sparring. I want to check your current skills. …But are you okay? Why do you have such a blank expression?”

“Did you get sulky because I won’t play with you tomorrow?” Biche playfully continued.

Because it was difficult to explain the reason he was spacing out, and he couldn’t very well complain that he didn’t like the idea of bloody sparring on the day they parted, Gi-jun just decided to gulp down his tea.

And he was surprised that the tea was much more delicious than he had expected.

“…It’s delicious.”

“Yeah, I was a bit surprised too. Gratia is not a poor country, but they did well to import such high-quality tea. As expected, vampires have a talent for luxury.”

“Ah—I told you, right? Those bastards got caught complaining that they wanted to eat expensive chocolate.”

“Speaking of chocolate, it reminds me—I want to eat the whipped cream cake you made. The one topped with strawberries!”

As expected, it seemed correct to think she just saw him as a housekeeper.

Gi-jun narrowed his eyes for a moment, but soon burst into laughter and stood up from his seat.

“Then shall we head back soon? I’ll bake you a cake.”

“Huh? No, I don’t want that. If we go back, it’ll be crawling with party members clinging to you. We’re finally alone together… I know.”

After setting down her teacup, she thought deeply about something for a moment and then let out a cough to clear her throat.

“Since it’s supposed to be a date, should I give you a bit of service?”

“Service.”

How could such a tempting word exist in the world?

Gi-jun swallowed his saliva without realizing it.

“Come over here.”

“Yes.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Gi-jun crossed over and sat next to Biche.

Biche double-checked the barrier she had cast around the room for no reason, and then patted her lap with her hand.

“Lie down.”

“Yes.”

Resting his head on Biche’s lap, Gi-jun recalled what had happened in the tutorial channel, thinking that there had been a time like this before.

In a dungeon, when he had suddenly collapsed and fallen asleep due to the aftereffects of a skill—at that completely unexpected moment, Biche had given him a lap pillow.

What had she said back then? Surely—

“Is this a senior’s love for their junior?”

“How are you my junior? You’re my disciple.”

“Then let’s make it a master’s love for their disciple.”

“…Sure, well, half of it.”

As they finished the silly joke, Biche gently stroked Gi-jun’s hair.

Although Gi-jun prided himself on being quite good at resisting sleepiness, perhaps even his Unfailing Body Clock lost its power in front of Biche, as a pleasant drowsiness strangely washed over him.

Looking down at Gi-jun’s face, a pleased smile also hung on Biche’s face.

“Heh, staying like this really is the best. I’m sorry, even though we finally got to go on a date.”

“…No, I like this too.”

Gi-jun quietly replied while resisting the oncoming drowsiness.

He did think that they certainly looked more like long-term lovers or a married couple, far surpassing a couple in the early stages of dating.

And considering the time they had known each other, it was actually quite accurate.

Ultimately, this was also their limit for now.

No, since they had clearly crossed the line with each other, even if little by little, ever since she crossed over to Leta and they reunited… would their relationship change in the future?

‘I’m so happy about that… but there are still too many problems.’

Even though she seemed to have regained some degree of freedom, Biche ultimately still belonged to the dark faction.

The system—the entities governing Leta—did not like her trying to cooperate with Gi-jun.

Now that he knew their purpose was to maintain the confrontation between the light and dark factions, he even had a reasonable suspicion that another crisis, transcending the competition taking place on the continent of Leta, was lurking.

It was already going to be difficult enough to get by in Leta in the future…

Patum, who had been a fairly reliable powerhouse, had suffered a massive mental blow—

Gi-jun had also done quite well so far, but he was skeptical about whether he could continue to do so in the future.

He even felt like clinging to someone, but there was no one around him except those who clung to him.

Although he had worked hard to become such a person, it was truly selfish of him, even in his own opinion, to feel burdened now that he actually stood at the center of attention.

It was considerably heavy and difficult.

He, too, wanted someone he could rely on.

He wished there was someone by his side who would readily catch him even if he collapsed, and raise him back up again.

“Biche… can’t you not go…?”

“Why are you acting like a child all of a sudden? …Ah.”

Realizing that Gi-jun had already fallen asleep, Biche wore a bitter smile on her lips.

To think that Gi-jun, who had grown so much both physically and mentally, would speak such weak words.

If he had been fully conscious, it was something he would never say even if he died and came back to life—but because he was on the verge of falling asleep, and because he was with Biche and his heart had relaxed, the words must have slipped out.

Biche was even at the point of feeling somewhat proud that she had become such a close existence to Gi-jun.

“Of course I want to stay here too, you dummy.”

He was the hope she had barely managed to find.

He was the only treasure she had left.

Although she also felt it was unfair, she lightly pressed the nose of Gi-jun, who had fallen asleep after only pouring out his own inner thoughts, but perhaps because he was quite deeply asleep, he did not react in the slightest.

“This guy… being so uselessly handsome.”

But she still missed his old face a bit, too.

The face of a wounded warrior, where the hardships and agonies cast like dark shadows were clear, yet a sincere passion that would not die could still be glimpsed.

But now, after undergoing a rebirth, that face had become a dazzlingly bright radiance in which not a single shadow could be felt.

“Either way, to me… Oh well.”

As Biche played around by pushing, pressing, and pulling the sleeping Gi-jun’s eyes, nose, and cheeks with her fingers, her gaze suddenly rested on Gi-jun’s firmly closed lips.

Staring blankly at those firm lips, Biche eventually cleared her throat with a cough and checked the barrier once more.

“Since it’s a date, it should be fine to give a bit more service. Right? Don’t other people even rub their lips together when they go on dates?”

―Who are you making excuses to right now?

“Hieee—!”

Biche’s heart almost stopped from being so startled by Lucy’s sudden appearance in midair.

“You, you.”

―You didn’t really think I was just held back, did you? I really didn’t follow you out of consideration for you.

“Then what about now?!”

―Since my contractor fell asleep, I wanted to check if the devil was doing anything strange, even though I thought there was no way…

To think she was really trying to do something strange.

Lucy narrowed her eyes and glared at Biche.

Biche felt incredibly wronged.

If she was going to get caught anyway, she should have at least done it after they collided lips!

However, Lucy spoke as if she had read her thoughts, looking dumbfounded.

―If you’re going to do it, do it when my contractor is awake.

“I don’t have the courage to do that.”

―Why are you replying so confidently about that?

“You don’t know. The courage I’m talking about is, well, it—it’s not something simple, it’s about the future of Jun and me, that, that kind of thing! It’s the courage of whether or not to take a step forward after taking all of that into account, do you get it?”

―There are nothing but pronouns, so how am I supposed to understand, you dummy?

Lucy let out a sigh and sat down over Gi-jun’s face as if protecting his lips, and then spoke to Biche.

―You, stop giving my contractor a hard time and just hurry up and cross over to Leta. This place is so full of things causing trouble for my contractor that I can’t put my mind at ease.

“Yeah, I’m working on it too.”

―Thinking back to what happened this time, it doesn’t seem like it will work through your individual efforts alone. Tell me, devil. Has a fateful, powerful existence like you from the dark faction ever crossed over to the light faction before?

“Fufu, I’m planning to set a precedent.”

―I figured as much.

Shaking her head, Lucy soon spoke in a firmly resolved voice.

―Since a lot of things happened recently… I remembered a bit about my past. That might be of help to you.