"Enough of this!"
"I can't take it anymore" Clair cried.
"What happened? Is something bothering you?" She has been acting strangely for some reason. And here I thought she got better at it than before.
"This hunting thing is not for me Steve. I can't do it anymore"
"But to grow..."
"Do you want to make an amazoness or something, you musclehead!"
"But you need to be self..."
"I don't care anymore. I just want to leave this wilderness. You know what? I don't need to become stronger or be proficient in using weapons cause I am gonna leach off you!"
"Off me?"
"Yeah, I will! I will just fool around brazenly in a nice and cozy home living off on your hard-earned money. I will cook and pump you up with food to fuel your batteries so that you can work harder and earn more for me!"
"Do you mean?..."
"And Steve don't even think about escaping from me. There's no way you can! Your faith is sealed with me forever!"
Will you let me talk? Won't you at least consider my opinion on it? Seriously what a drag.
I sighed.
"Let's go"
"Go?" she acted flustered all of a sudden, "Where do you want to take me too. If you try anything funny, no one can save you from my fury"
"Where to? Out of this wilderness of course"
"Right! You are right let's go" she fidgeted uncomfortably.
This girl... sigh.
I sighed.
'Did you expected me to take you around the corner and f*ck you against the tree or something?' Steve thought.
Although that sounds like a nice idea. There are some decisions I must make before doing that.
Well, I thought of Clair as a friend up till now, but her confession... made me strangely conscious of her. It won't be wrong to say that I might be seeing her as a potential romantic partner.
But what should I do? Even her confession sounded so strange... this girl.
Let's go with the flow for now.
After that, I didn't leave any monsters for her. I wanted her to grow stronger to protect herself but if she doesn't wish for it then there's no helping it. On top of that these headless monsters aren't much for me to deal with anyway.
With me not leaving behind any monsters and not waiting for Clair anymore. Our path through the forest quickened.
"Clair, can you answer a question of mine?"
"Hmm"
"Why me?"
Clair paused in her tracks. I was looking straight into her eyes. But she turned away her head not wanting to meet my eyes. Her cheeks turned red.
At least this proved that she is not tricking me.
"Cause I want to be with you. Isn't that a reason good enough?"
"I see"
I walked a few steps away but when I noticed Clair wasn't following I shouted.
"Let's go. We need to leave this wilderness by sunset if possible"
"Yes"
She ran after me.
It wasn't long until we reached the boundaries of the forest. I was walking ahead as I bumped into a force field into thin air, or should I say magical field?
"Ouch" I cried as I rubbed my nose.
"Such a fool!" Clair exclaimed, "On second thought it is not your fault, you are new to this world after all"
I glared at her. She ducked her head not wanting to meet my glare.
"The wilderness protects itself by casting a barrier that prevents entry and exit to the forest. The barrier can be destroyed by strength equivalent or higher than the wilderness just like you did but the barrier restores with time" Clair explained.
I nodded and punched the invisible barrier. That's what took it for me to destroy the barrier.
*chunk*
The sound of the barrier getting destroyed entered our ears. Owing to this we finally safely left the wilderness.
"What's now?"
"We wait for the dawn"
"I see"
The sun has gone down the horizon for quite a while. Although I can't make any accurate assumptions of the time. But it must be night already.
I sat on the ground spreading my legs.
"Will it be dangerous around here too?"
"There are but with your strength, no one will approach us here"
"Am I really that strong? You make me as an overlord or something"
"You aren't. The world is a big place and we are just frogs at the bottom of the pond. There are sovereigns much stronger than you out there," she said, "However those kinds of people... they won't appear in these desolate lands, so there is no one strong enough here compared to you"
"Well that puts down a lot of weight off my shoulders"
She smiled.
"Let me make your shoulder heavy again then"
She sat down beside me and rested her head on my shoulders. Her smell... the smell of her hair entered my nose.
Man! She stinks. How many days has it been that she hasn't got a shower! Wait aren't I the same?
But still... I believe that I don't stink... let's be optimistic yeah optimistic.
Shouldn't she be a bit more conscious of her smell? Should I tell her?
Maybe I should... but seeing her happy smile and sleeping face I chose otherwise.
As she is now she looks like a baby although she smells like a tribal.
Sigh... she already fell asleep and left me with this smell. How can I fall asleep with such a smell assaulting my nose?
I tore a bit of my shirt and put them in my nose. Breathing with my mouth now I closed my eyes trying to fall asleep.
--
Author's thoughts:
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