Chapter 6
“Hmm..”
She fell asleep.
I knew this was going to happen.
Since healing magic required an extraordinary amount of power from a mage, it was quite taxing for Lumia, who was still a novice mage. While I was looking down at Lumia, asleep with her back against the wall, someone approached us.
“Um.. Excuse me..”
It was the woman from earlier and the man who had just been healed by Lumia.
“Thank you so much for helping us.”
“If it weren't for the mage over there, I nearly would have died.”
The woman and man said that as they bowed their heads to me.
Apparently, they were thanking me because Lumia had fallen asleep, but I wasn't particularly pleased by that.
If they wanted to thank someone, shouldn't they thank her?
“Don't thank me. Thank this girl.”
“Ah.. Um.. We wanted to thank you for helping us deal with those guys.”
“Ah..”
Oh no.
Embarrassed for no reason, I turned my head away.
It hadn't been like this when I first met Lumia and formed a party with her..
Heat rose to my face as I wondered whether I had seemed overly concerned, or whether they might think me strange.
The woman watching me broke into a somewhat mischievous smile and cautiously asked me,
“Do you.. perhaps like that girl?”
My face flushed bright red at the woman's question.
Maybe because she'd caught me so suddenly, I couldn't control my reaction.
Just being asked whether I liked Lumia brought all sorts of thoughts to mind, making me feel ashamed of myself as well.
“Um.. Please don't tease me.”
“Come on.. Anyone can tell at a glance that you like her~!”
Perhaps my reaction was funny, because the woman said it with a giggle.
“That's enough, Remi. We're here to thank him, not tease him.”
“Come on~ I'm only doing this because I want to make friends!”
“Can't you see you're making him uncomfortable..?”
When the man said that with an incredulous expression, the woman seemed to finally understand. Then, as if she'd thought of a good idea, she approached Lumia. Just as I was about to turn my head to see what she was doing, something heavy leaned against my shoulder.
“..!”
Lumia's face appeared right in front of my eyes.
“Ugh..!”
The afternoon sunlight slanting into the carriage painted her golden, making her look even more vibrant. Her gracefully curved features, long pale-lavender eyelashes, and lightly flushed cheeks, which rose and fell faintly with each breath, were more than enough to capture any man's heart.
Yes, even someone like me.
“Ngh..”
I couldn't bring myself to look at her face.
I turned my head away.
“Wow, look at that reaction.. He's totally inexperienced, isn't he?”
“...”
Inexperienced, huh..
That was true.
Nothing had happened during the entire time I'd traveled with my all-female party.
If anything, whenever my companions made advances, I turned them down because I was afraid the party would fall apart and because of my feelings for Lumia, so I had never had a relationship with anyone.
“He's really handsome.. How fascinating..”
“Um.. That's enough of the embarrassing comments..”
“Oh, sorry. Still, our Hughes is more handsome.”
...
What am I even supposed to do with that..
She moved away with an awkward smile, perhaps because of the dumbfounded expression on my face.
“Judging by your reaction, I can tell exactly what the situation is. You have a one-sided crush, don't you?”
“...”
I nodded.
A thought suddenly occurred to me.
Perhaps this woman might know how to make Lumia fall for me.
“Um.. Is there a way?”
“A way.. Well, I'm a woman and you're a man, so it might be difficult for me to explain it exactly, but do you want me to tell you?”
“If you would.. Thank you.”
Besides my feelings for Lumia, there was another reason I absolutely had to make her fall in love with me. Only then would I be able to save this girl sleeping against my shoulder—the mage who had sacrificed herself for us.
“You have a very serious expression for someone asking for a favor.”
“Ah.. Um..”
“Oh, you don't have to say anything. I understand that feeling very well.”
Then why did you ask?
I almost challenged her on that, but barely held myself back.
As I sighed inwardly, the woman seemed to ponder something for a moment, then smiled brightly and introduced herself.
“I'm Remi. I'm a commoner, so I don't have a family name.”
“Ah, I'm..”
As soon as we finished briefly introducing ourselves, Remi said with a mischievous smile,
“Now that we've introduced ourselves, I can speak casually, right? Ah~ I thought my tongue was going to swell up from using all that formal speech that doesn't even roll off my tongue~”
“...”
I hadn't expected her to loosen up this quickly..
Perhaps she had noticed my dumbfounded expression, because she turned to me and asked whether there was a problem.
I shook my head.
“Then there's the matter of the promise you made earlier..”
“...”
This was the important part.
I refocused and looked up at Remi.
After thinking for quite a while, she finally made a troubled face and said to me,
“It can't be helped. I'll have to ask Hughes!”
“What..?”
What was she suddenly talking about?
She had just been talking as if she could give me advice, then seemed to think for a while, only to say she would ask her boyfriend? I stared at her in bewilderment, since that was by far the most absurd thing she'd said so far, and Remi spoke as if she had been wronged.
“Huh? But it can't be helped, can it? I only know what appeals to women. It's not as though I know how to woo one.”
That.. was technically true, but..
Still, perhaps she should have thought twice before offering to tell me, only to ask her own boyfriend afterward.
The man called Hughes also seemed flustered that the attention had suddenly turned to him.
Hughes was flustered for only a moment before Remi gave him a sly smile, pressed close, and asked,
“Hughes, what was it about me that made you fall for me?”
Uh..
“Um.. Do I really have to say it?”
No..
“Tell me, hurry!”
“Ah..”
Maybe..
“You really mean it?”
A land mine,
“Are you going to get upset if I don't tell you?”
I might have stepped on one.
“... I suppose it's the way you're always so lively and take care of me.. I like you because you make me feel more alive.”
As if he'd finally given up, Hughes answered with his face bright red. Remi grabbed both her cheeks and radiated joy with her whole body, then flung herself at him and shouted,
“Yes, yes! I love you so much too, Hughes! I love you!”
“Ngh..!”
I only realized then that asking a couple how to become a couple would just result in them bragging about themselves. Regretting that I'd asked them to tell me, I closed my eyes and covered my ears, somehow trying to purge the cringeworthy scene unfolding before me from my mind.
I wish they'd stop.
Apparently I wasn't the only one thinking that, because the other people in the carriage were covering their eyes and ears too.
Please, look around you..!”
Please!!!
.
.
.
.
Had I fallen asleep..?
I thought I'd been awake just a moment ago, but apparently I'd fallen asleep at some point.
The moment the drowsiness suddenly swept over me after I used magic, I immediately realized what it was.
I think it was called mana depletion in the game.
Put simply, all the usable mana in my body had run out, leaving my body in a state where it wanted to rest.
Even in the game, the Heal spells used by mages consumed an absurd amount of mana, and it seemed that had been realistically reproduced here.
I never expected to collapse after using it just once..
At any rate, my vision was blurry, and drowsiness was still washing over me.
On top of that, I couldn't properly figure out what was happening.
In the game, mana depletion caused you to faint on the spot and suffer a debuff that reduced your mental strength for a while afterward. Could this be that debuff..?
Even now, my body felt hazy, as if I were floating on a cloud, so it was hard to say that I had properly awakened.
“?”
Huh..
I was sure I'd been sleeping while leaning against something, so why was I lying down now?
There wasn't even anything that could be called a pillow, so it shouldn't have been possible for me to be lying down.. right..?
Why was I lying down..?
“Um.. Hello?”
This voice..
I tried to turn my half-asleep gaze toward the direction of the voice, but suddenly found it too bothersome and gave up.
That sort of thing didn't matter right now.
After transforming into this body and then going through one incident after another, my whole body felt languid and I didn't want to do anything. I couldn't give up something this comfortable, so I burrowed deeper into what I assumed was a pillow.
“W-wait a second.. Lumia..?!”
Ah, changing positions made it a little uncomfortable.
I shifted my body this way and that in an attempt to find a comfortable position, and finally settled into the right one. Then, so I wouldn't lose this warm, comfortable thing, I wrapped my arms around it, hugged it even tighter, and buried my face in it.
Lying down like this was wonderfully comfortable.
I'm going back to sleep now..
I wanted to think about the complicated things later.
I closed my eyes again.