Arc 3 - Chapter 27: Poison in the Heart (1/3)

After inserting the wicks into the hole between the roarons' hard, hairy buttocks, he washed his hands until his fingertips shriveled. Despite all this cleaning, he still felt dirty. He was dirty in body and soul.

"Yu, why are you in a bad mood?"

He was sitting in his tent with Yurine. He was so engrossed in playing with Yurine's tail that he only realized she was talking when she shook him by the shoulder.

"Who am I talking to, Yu?"

"It was not a good day."

In the morning he had to get up early for training, and when he wasn't training he traveled and studied Aramish. At noon he spent an hour with his dance teacher, got beaten up by Sivina when they stopped and had to deal with Leoral's problems the rest of the time.

When night came, he trained again, took medicine, ate, and when he decided he was okay, he trained again. Then the suppository incident happened. Yu was now wondering why he had accepted the suppository job at that time. He still couldn't understand why he had agreed.

At least the medicine for his seizures was merciful today, no headache, no side effects. It tasted disgusting, though.

But by far the most tiring and demoralizing thing for her today was yelling at Yurine.

Actually, it wasn't really shouting. He couldn't remember himself yelling really, really angrily since he had come into this world, except for the Camaeron Don incident, which they had decided to forget. Tonight he had only reacted out loud, but that didn't change the fact that he had upset Yurine. He wished that moment had never happened.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you today."

"Yu, I yell at you all the time. I said there's nothing to worry about."

"Even if you say so, I can't forgive myself… I didn't mean to yell at you, I didn't mean to scare you. I'm sorry, Yurine."

It was the sincerest, most sincere apology he had ever given anyone. Even though Yurine was fine with it and unhurt, as she said she was, Yu's heart was deeply wounded.

"Yu, I'm not sad or angry."

"Really? So," Yu turned his cheek. "Give me a kiss."

Yurine kissed Yu on the cheek without saying anything.

"And this cheek says 'me too, me too.'"

He turned her other cheek to Yurine and Yurine kissed that cheek too.

"Yu."

Yurine kissed him and then turned her cheek for Yu to kiss. At Rolderhelm she wouldn't have allowed such a thing, but now she wanted to do it herself.

"Ummmhhh..."

Yu kissed her firmly on the cheek and looked at her pink face. Yurine turned the other cheek.

"Y-Yu... My cheek is saying 'me too.'"

"I'll eat that cheek of yours."

Yurine put her hand where Yu had kissed it and turned her head towards the entrance of the tent. She seemed to be looking into the distance.

"That's what my mother said."

"Hmm, so Rie has good taste of food."

"Yu, don't be ridiculous! I'm not food!"

"I'm kidding."

Still, the fact that Yurine was very sweet remained there. As he pinched her cheek, he saw the shadows of two people coming from the direction Yurine was looking from.

"Mr. Valarfin."

The voice of a beautiful young girl was heard from outside the tent.

Yu was both afraid of meeting the owner of the voice calling his name and at the same time wanted to talk to her and explain the situation.

"Come."

Behind the girl with green hair and blue eyes, another girl entered. She had silver hair and bright sea green eyes.

Sivina was holding a cage with three crows. Yu wondered how they had caught the crows.

"Ana, that time you really misunderstood. We had the suppository and... Anyway, you got it wrong. It was because of the disease."

"Link told me."

"Tch, who knows what he told... I'll make my statement anyway."

Yu would not have been surprised if he had told him that there was forbidden love between them and made ridiculous claims.

"Yu, are you sick? Yu? What's the suppository?"

"I'm fine now, I'm fine, don't worry."

"Really?"

"Really."

He didn't want to tell Yurine that he was suffering from something like constipation. It would be embarrassing, he had to protect her dignity in her daughter's eyes.

"And what will you do with them?" Sivina asked.

Yu took Yurine off his lap and took the cage from Sivina's hand and put it on the table. Three crows were looking at Yu and he wondered where they had found a cage to put them in.

"I need them for an experiment, thank you for bringing them. If you have nothing to say you can leave, good night."

Leaving them behind, he took out a piece of paper and a pen for notes, and after rummaging in his drawer, he found a needle and put it on the paper. Sivina and Ana still hadn't left.

"Is something wrong?"

"A-actually, we have something to say."

Sivina folded her arms across her chest as Yu turned to her. She was looking into Ana's eyes and trying to get the courage to speak.

"I didn't understand why you were obsessed with what he said, he asked normal questions."

Ana spoke to allay Sivina's worries as she tried to take courage from her. Sivina nodded to her.

"No, the problem is that he asked us. He could have asked Mr. Valarfin or Yurine. He might be planning something we don't know about."

"Who are you talking about?"

Yu sat back down and Yurine took her place on his lap and handed him her tail to play with. Yu started stroking Yurine's tail with his thumb.

"Duke Vermilia invited us to his tent and asked us a few questions. Sivina talks about him."

"What did he ask?"

Sivina was acting suspiciously, and although Yu trusted Leoral's support for the Virgo Cathedral, he had not won her personal trust.

"He asked where you were from. Or rather, he looked you up and found out that you came from the Storm Kingdom. He was surprised when we told him you were from İlonya," Sivina said.

"That thing? Before I entered Andromedia, I told the officer at the gate that I came from the Storm Kingdom."

"Why?" Ana asked.

"The man wanted a convincing story about why I was supporting the bearer of the Virgo Blessing. If I told him Yurine was my daughter and told him what happened to us, he wouldn't believe me. So I made up the story that I came from the Storm Kingdom because the Storm Kingdom also worshipped Azer. It's strange that he actually researched it that far, he could have gotten the real answer if he had asked me."

It was really surprising that he had tracked Yu all the way there. Even more surprising was that he hadn't lied to them now. He had indeed done so.

"This man is a threat. It's dangerous for him to investigate me, not only will he find nothing about my past, but he has contradictory information. If he tries to separate me from Yurine..."

"I find that strange too." Sivina thought as she put her hand to her chin. She had chosen to trust Yu and Yu was proud of her.

"What else did he say?"

"He also asked about your gold. He asked how you got the gold you gave us and said you brought new gold. He told us that if we knew anything about it, we should tell him."

"We got some of it as a reward at Rolderhelm. I'm sorry, I didn't tell you, but I managed to talk Denise into a special reward. And the gold from my family... I can't tell you about them, and I don't have to tell Leoral about my personal information, just as I don't have to tell you. He must think he is king or something…"

What exactly had Leoral said to Sivina and Ana? Now he needed to reassure them with convincing explanations.

"And what did he mean by 'he said he brought more gold'? Except for the small amount of gold I smuggled into the city, we hadn't shown it to anyone except the roarons..."

And he knew that the roarons would not go and tell Leoral. Isolated from the world by their false pact and their culture, the roarons' loyalty was slavish and they could be trusted with secrets.

"Yu, if you want, I can tell him to stop," Yurine said.

"If you say something like that, he will start seeing me as a demon manipulating you. Let him do what he wants, after a while he will stop."

If Yurine went and talked to him, all they would achieve would be to reinforce Leoral's worries.

"Asshole. He'll be more suspicious if he hears about the stolen gold in İlonya. Maybe he's already heard that news."

He hadn't planned to do anything about Leoral for the time being, but if Leoral started to tamper with things, he would have to act before it was too late.

"That's it?"

"Yes, I felt I had to tell you these things."

"Thank you. From now on, I'll have to work to win Leoral's trust. I can understand him though, I would have done the same in his place."

With an innocent, gentle smile, he sent them out of his tent. When Sivina and Ana came out, the smile disappeared immediately. He shrugged his shoulders and threw his head back.

"Uh... He doesn't want me standing next to you. Who does that bastard think he is?"

Her head started to ache. Someone who had almost nothing to do with Yurine was trying to separate her from Yu.

"Such audacity is intolerable."

Yu had been with her all this time. He was closer to her than anyone else, closer than Leoral himself, maybe even closer than Rie. To calm himself, he brought Yurine's tail to his face and rubbed the fur against his cheek. It felt nice.

"Yu, don't worry. I won't let them separate us." Yurine puffed out her cheeks. "We'll always be together, so even you can't separate us even if you want to."

"Yandere loli catgirl, the perfect combination."

"What do they mean?"

"Yurine, I guess."

He took Yurine off his lap and walked out of the tent to catch his breath and think. Yurine was walking behind him, holding Yu's hand.

"Yandere loli catgirl... Yandere loli catgirl..."

"Are you saying something?"

"No!"

He heard her whispering the words he had just told her, trying to memorize them. Yu couldn't stand her sweetness.