So there we were sitting there twiddling our thumbs. Or more like, just me. I couldn't keep thinking about how Fina straight up kissed me.
("Was it real? Was it not? Am I weird for thinking so much about it?") [Solace]
As I kind of sat in the corner being useless, Fina was trying to get information from the room. She read every wall, and tried to decipher meanings from all of it. There was also some writing on the coffin, but it was too small for us to read it clearly. If only we could get closer.
"Alt?" [Fina]
"Y-Yeah?" [Solace]
I think my voice cracked.
"...You seem jumpy today. Are you alright?" [Fina]
"Na-Nah, it must be your imagination." [Solace]
The stutter wasn't helping. I was trying to keep myself cool and collected, but every effort was just me scrambling to find the right words.
"Are you sure?" [Fina]
She approached me with a worried expression. Watching her get closer made my heart race, and it felt like every step she took just made me more nervous.
"You look a little red there." [Fina]
She leaned in close, placing a hand on my forehead.
("No shit! It's because you're so close!") [Solace]
I was screaming in my head that she can't be this clueless. I kept my gaze down to avoid eye contact out of sheer anxiety, or was that I didn't want her to know how flustered I was? Fina was one hundred percent doing this on purpose right?
"Hm… A little hot. You're not sick are you?" [Fina]
"...Not really. I think I just need a little space, that's all." [Solace]
"Are you sure it's not something else bothering you?" [Fina]
"Something else?" [Solace]
"Yeah. Maybe something else like…" [Fina]
She moved her hand from my forehead to my chin, forcefully lifting my head up to meet her eyes.
"That kiss from earlier?" [Fina]
Yep. Fina one hundred percent knew what she was doing. My summoner had this huge grin that told me her teasing was very entertaining. I literally don't even know what happened. It was like she suddenly pulled out all the stops.
"...You're teasing me." [Solace]
"Am I? Or are you?" [Fina]
She removed her hand and sat down comfortably in front of me.
"Me? How could I be the one teasing you?" [Solace]
"Well, you haven't given me an answer yet." [Fina]
Even "I" wasn't that dense. Now that I know that the kiss wasn't a daydream, she must want me to reciprocate her feelings.
"I don't want to sound too arrogant or whatever, but we're on the subject of whether I want to be in a relationship with you, correct?" [Solace]
"A romantic one, preferably." [Fina]
Damn. She's aggressive. Does Fina think I'll run away or something? Oh wait, I think I did that once back at Grace Village.
"Hoo… Just… just give me a sec…" [Solace]
I had to take deep breaths to calm down. I was getting bombarded with Fina's advances, leaving me almost no room to catch my breath.
"First of all, I'm trying to wrap my head around why you even like me." [Solace]
"Secret." [Fina]
"...Okay." [Solace]
That told me a whole lot of nothing.
"You know… It took a lot of courage to kiss you." [Fina]
And it's taking me a lot of courage to even speak right now, but I'm never going to admit it.
"I'm surprised you like me." [Solace]
"I'm more surprised you didn't notice that I liked you." [Fina]
Oh, no. I think I definitely saw signs. It's just that I didn't want to be that guy who thought every girl liked him.
"I consider myself the patient type, but my approaches always seem to fly over your head. Can you believe that?" [Fina]
"Haha…" [Solace]
I had no words.
"That's why… I decided to change my approach." [Fina]
She scooted closer.
"I-I see…" [Solace]
"Did my message get across clearly?" [Fina]
She then scooted even closer.
"C-Crystal." [Solace]
"And your answer?" [Fina]
"I… I…!" [Solace]
"Hey guys!" [???]
Out of nowhere, Raon pulled up.
"Huh? What are you guys doing?" [Raon]
He must have found it strange that Fina and I were sitting quite close face to face. Also, for an instant, I could have sworn I saw Fina wear an unpleasant expression towards Raon.
"Oh, we were just waiting. Apparently all paths lead to here so we thought it'd be best to stay here until our whole party gathers." [Fina]
"Y-Yeah… What she said." [Solace]
"Hm." [Raon]
He nodded.
"That's smart. I'll join you guys." [Raon]
Raon then proceeded to also sit uncomfortably close to me.
("Seriously?") [Solace]
After that, we gave him the rundown on the location of the relic, the coffin, and the curse.
"That's… really weird." [Raon]
"Do you want to give it a try?" [Solace]
"Ha! Do you think I'm stupid? I'll wait for Wilharrow to do it." [Raon]
Smart guy. Wilharrow being a verified hero means he probably had the highest chance of being the "chosen one".
"I'm bored. Alt, snacks please." [???]
"Eh?" [Solace] [Raon] [Fina]
Unknown to us, Leon was already here. Matter of fact, she was also sitting uncomfortably close. Now we had some sort of sitting square shape formation.
"When did you get here?" [Solace]
Leon started to count her fingers.
"A while." [Leon]
Raon raised a brow.
"How long is… "a while" to be exact?" [Raon]
"When they sat down." [Leon]
She pointed at me and Fina.
"...So like, five minutes or something after we arrived?" [Solace]
Leon shrugged.
"Fina. What does… "romantically" mean?" [Leon]
Oh. She was here for that conversation too. Shit.
"Ah… It means to be closer to others through body and mind." [Fina]
Leon scratched her head in confusion.
"Sounds hard." [Leon]
"What? That's not what it mea-" [Raon]
Fina then covered his mouth.
"Raon, sometimes a proper noble must know when to speak. Be one such noble." [Fina]
She didn't remove her hand until Raon nodded that he understood. In the end, we settled on that while waiting for Wilharrow.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
After a long while, Wilharrow came out of one of the hallways.
"Woah! What happened to you?!" [Raon]
Our mighty hero had come to us in rags. His "adventurer" outfit of hardened leather armor and such had tears, cuts, and outright missing parts in it.
"Let me rest a bit and I'll tell you." [Wilharrow]
He plopped himself next to our little formation, also making himself at home within an uncomfortable distance.
"I think I found our competition." [Wilharrow]
"Our competition?" [Solace]
"The demon lord's brother. He's the one we have to get the relic before. He's a lot stronger than I thought." [Wilharrow]
I forgot about that part.
"What's he like?" [Solace]
"He's a knight. His main choice of weapon is a claymore, but that's not all. He is accompanied by a necromancer." [Wilharrow]
Something about that seemed familiar.
"A necromancer? I just fought one of those." [Solace]
"You did?" [Wilharrow]
"Yeah. There were five knights, one of which had no helmet, and a necromancer. Safe to say. I pretty much beat their ass, but the necromancer and the guy with no helmet got away." [Solace]
Wilharrow gave me a strange look.
"I think you fought the same guys I did." [Wilharrow]
"For real? Did you finish them off?" [Solace]
Wilharrow shook his head.
"Unfortunately, no. Although I was able to corner the necromancer using my holy magic, I was no match for the demon lord's brother." [Wilharrow]
"...Using pure swordsmanship or…?" [Raon]
"He's a Feerae." [Wilharrow]
"Oh." [Raon]
Feerae. Feerae. Where did I hear that again?
"I never considered that there would be two Feerae in Lithik." [Wilharrow]
"In other words, two hero level opponents. One that guards the demon lord, and a rogue." [Fina]
Ah, that's what it was. The demon's hero equivalent. Wait, isn't that bad news?
"Even if there was no sign of the knights Alt faced, the two are still formidable. It would be wise to get the relic and leave quickly." [Wilharrow]
"Why don't we do that right now, then?." [Raon]
"Right now?" [Wilharrow]
We then filled Wilharrow in on the coffin, the curse, and whatnot.
"Ah, so you think I have the best chance?" [Wilharrow]
"I already tried it." [Solace]
"We still need to think of something else if this doesn't work." [Wilharrow]
"Just do it already." [Solace]
We all stood up and gave Wilharrow some space as he approached the stairs. He gave us a glance of uncertainty before stimming himself by shaking his body.
"Okay… You got this…" [Wilharrow]
He took a courageous step forward.
"Hm? Nothing's happ-Oof!" [Wilharrow]
I saw him hunch over as he struggled to bear invisible weight. It was kind of funny to watch.
("...Is that how I looked when I did it?") [Solace]
"Take a step back!" [Fina]
Wilharrow wasted no time doing that. He pulled himself back, causing him to trip and fall flat on his ass.
"...Wow! I am NEVER doing that again." [Wilharrow]
"...Should we try as well?" [Fina]
"There's no other choice." [Wilharrow]
With that, Fina attempted it. Same results. Invisible weight, and her almost falling back. Thankfully, I was there to catch her. …Not that I stood behind her on purpose or anything like that.
"I'll try." [Leon]
She stepped forward into the pressure, immediately forcing her into a lower position.
"Ngh!" [Leon]
"Step back!" [Fina]
We had thought she would do as we say, but she tried to continue. Leon took another step.
"Are you crazy?!" [Raon]
The weight looked like it doubled. Tripled even. Leon was suddenly flat on the ground, reaching for the third step.
"Leon, stop!" [Solace]
I rushed in, bearing the weight of the first step to pull her out. By the end of it, I was successful.
"Leon, what were you thinking?!" [Wilharrow]
That's what I wanted to know. It was unnatural that someone so cool headed would be so aggressive out of nowhere.
"I thought you all really wanted the relic." [Leon]
She turned her eyes downwards as if it helped avoid the scolding.
"That can't be all. Look, you're injured." [Solace]
There were scrapes on her knees and arms, a result of hitting the ground too fast on the second and third step.
"...I also wanted to be nice. I'm sorry for not helping you guys when Master attacked you." [Leon]
She was thinking about that? Honestly, it was a little annoying that she sided with Jukhan when we fought. Even so, I didn't expect much considering Jukhan's temper. I let out a sigh and changed the subject.
"Stay still." [Solace]
I casted |Small Cure| on her wounds, removing the scrapes under a dim green light.
"Don't do this again and let bygones be bygones." [Solace]
"Bygones be bygones?" [Raon]
"It's a saying to forget about the issues from before. It's usually about issues between people though." [Solace]
"An interesting saying." [Wilharrow]
Leon nodded subtly as we helped her up.
"Guess it's my turn to suffer." [Raon]
I'm going to be completely honest, I had zero expectations for him. Raon stood in front of the stairs, understandably nervous.
"Please don't hurt my face. I'm begging. Seriously." [Raon]
He took a step forward.
"...Huh?" [Raon]
Then another.
"Eh?" [Raon]
And another.
"Hey, am I doing it?" [Raon]
Within moments, Raon made it all the way up the stairs.
"Hey guys, I did it!" [Raon]
We stared at him in shock as he raised his arms in triumph.
"...I refuse to believe he's the chosen one." [Solace]