Arc 2 - Chapter 25: Sweet and Embarrassing Memories at the End of the Day (1/2)

"Look! Look!"

Yu was pointing to the picture book he was holding in his hand as he pranced around the two young girls.

"I made an escape plan, and I made it alone! I drew the map myself!"

As he waited for their praise, he continued to show them the map drawn in his sketchbook. It was a crudely drawn map of the orphanage in dry paint, with the escape route drawn in red.

When his head started to spin, he stopped running around them and stood in front of them and handed them the picture book. He kept jumping up and down with excitement.

"If we follow this map at night we can successfully escape from here, trust me!"

Having their trust would fill his little heart with happiness.

"You are so sweet," the girls said. They both spoke at the same time, as they sometimes did.

Yu admired that they could talk in synchronization. He wished he could talk in sync with them too.

Ryu grabbed Yu's right cheek and Myu grabbed his left cheek and squeezed. When they pulled their hands away, Yu's cheeks were red.

"Get ready for the night then."

He rubbed her cheeks shyly. It hurt a little to have his cheeks squeezed, but it was his older sisters doing it, so it was okay.

"Unfortunately, we can't do that."

"Why? I've thought of everything, it's going to be great. Everything will be fine! And mom Maya won't beat me anymore."

"Yu, we need to stay here..." Ryu said, patting Yu's head. He was smiling at him. "I'm sorry."

It hurt his little heart to have his perfect plan rejected, especially by his older sisters.

He cried.

---

He was sorry to wake up from the dream. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep so that he could have the same dream again, so that he could feel like he was with them again.

But his attempt was unsuccessful, he could not even imagine their faces because of his headache.

"My head... Oh..."

He held his head with his hand, as if he could relieve the pain. He was trying to remember what had happened last time.

"So, what happened last time?"

He remembered leaving Yurine and coming to the inn. And then he had prepared to do the job, but he couldn't remember the rest. The parts he did remember seemed to have happened last year.

"I was on the ground..."

There was something in his mouth that bothered him, a smell. He couldn't smell it with his nose, but he could feel it in his mouth. He was about to get out of bed to wash his mouth when he felt a heaviness in his stomach.

He lifted his head slightly and looked at his stomach. There was a head there and the owner of the head was also the answer to why Yu was in bed and not on the floor.

Yu's head was aching, but he couldn't help but smile when he saw that his lap was the place Yurine had chosen to sleep.

This was the first time Yurine had voluntarily gotten this close to Yu. He was excited that their relationship had progressed to this point after such a short period of time.

"It would have been better if I didn't have to faint to get to this point."

Seeing Yurine sleeping on his lap made him hesitate to get out of bed.

But Yu didn't want to wake up and greet her with bad smelled breath, he had to wash his mouth.

"If I could just get away for a little bit... Over there..."

He tried to get out of bed without waking Yurine, but it was not possible.

Yurine purred softly, then slowly opened her eyes and looked up at Yu.

"I think I woke you up..." Yu tried to hide his mistake by smiling slightly.

Yurine put her hand on Yu's stomach to straighten herself up, but not even a second later like a real cat she leapt into the air and landed on her two feet, straightening her tail and pointing her finger at Yu.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!"

"The one who comes and lies beside me-"

"YOU IDIOT! IDIOT! IF YOU'RE GOING TO FAINT, WHY ARE YOU SENDING ME AWAY!"

After Yurine's first reaction, he thought that she would be angry with him because of the position they were lying in. Although he guessed the angry part correctly, the reason for her anger was something Yu had never expected.

Yu's mouth hung open in surprise, not knowing what to say. He made several attempts to speak, but nothing came out of his throat. It had never crossed his mind that Yurine would be worried about him.

"I..."

He was so surprised by Yurine's reaction that when he tried to apologize, he could not for a moment even remember the words he should have used to apologize.

"I'm sorry, I apologize."

"You must be sorry!"

"I'm sorry, I'm really mortingen straße this time."

After Yu's apology, Yurine placed her hands on her waist and jumped off the bed, tail wagging.

The first time he had a seizure when he was separated from Yurine, his face, which had been smiling just moments before, turned grim.

"This was different from the other seizures."

Somewhere inside he felt it. Today's seizure was not like any other seizure. There was something different not only in today's seizure, but also in the seizure he had had in Redchapel.

He couldn't say exactly what was different, but he could feel that it was.

On that vigil, Yurine was right by Yu's side, but she was not able to get him through the seizure as she had done the first time.

He wondered if Yurine had been with him during his seizure today she could have helped him through it.

"What's that pathetic expression?"

When she saw Yu's worried face, she sat down on the bed she had jumped off again. She was at Yu's bedside.

He was glad that Yurine was worried about him, but he didn't want to worry her more by telling her his thoughts about his illness. So he brought up another problem he had.

"My head feels like it's going to explode."

The headache was not a small problem that could be ignored. If it continued for a while Yu would not be able to bear it.

"Will your healing spell relieve the pain?"

If the answer was no, the first thing on his to-do list was to find painkillers.

"I can stop you feeling the pain, but if it's not a wound, it will stay there."

Yurine's epilepsy treatment was the same. During the seizure, it helped Yu to get through it and afterwards to carry on as if nothing had happened, but the problem that caused the seizure was still there.

"Basically it's a magical painkiller, the logic is the same."

But this painkiller was not very effective last time. During the seizure at Redwood, Yurine had failed to heal Yu instantly and when Yu wake up, he was somewhere else.

"Please."

The pain in his head was almost more than he could bear. If it continued for a while Yu would start crying in front of Yurine because of his headache and he didn't want that to happen.

Yurine held Yu's head with her hands. On previous occasions, she had not touched Yu with her hands when casting the spell.

"I wonder if it's because she sees me as closer to her now, or if it's because the spell is more effective in that way. I hope it's about being close."

Even if her spell was going to fail, she would have preferred the first one to be right.

As the white light seeping through the cat-eared sword fairy's fingers caught Yu's eyes, the pain in his head slowly subsided and finally disappeared completely.

Yu could take a deep breath now, he felt his mind was like still water.

"Thank you, what would I do without you?"

"Nothing. Realize that and be glad that I'm with you."

Yu's words of pure gratitude were answered by Yurine in a way that was far from humble. Her demeanor brought a smile to Yu's face.

"I'm glad, I'm glad you're with me."

Yurine's cheeks turned slightly pink, and he saw the corner of her lips turn up slightly.

Yu couldn't take it anymore. Yurine's rosy cheeks raised the level of sweetness above Yu's threshold of resistance. He leaned back and prepared his words.

"So you were worried about me."

"Wha!?" Yurine jumped off the bed like she had just done, turned to Yu and straightened her tail. "I'm not worried!"

Yurine's face instantly turned red. Yu responded to Yurine's behavior with a chuckle.

"We both know it was inevitable. Sooner or later you would have been charmed to those exquisite eyes of mine that melt your heart. Impossible for any girl to resist."

"I SAID I'M NOT WORRIED ABOUT YOU! CUT THE CRAP!"

"I see... So you deny being worried but you don't deny being charmed?"

"IT'S NOT LIKE THAT! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE SAYING! OUCH! OUCH! YOUR ASS FLIES IN TWO MINUTES!"

"I'm sure it's not."

"NOT SO!"

"Yes, that's what I said."

"YOU'RE DRIVING ME CRAZY!"

"You're so romantic, so the extent of love-"

"ENOUGH! GET OUT OF BED!"