Embarrassed Ryu!

Sirius and Ryuu walked in a strange, quiet forest surrounded by almost identical trees and crystal fields.

The trees were sparsely arranged, and lights penetrated through the gaps in the branches and leaves, illuminating the surrounding.

"Sirius-san, do you want to take a rest?" After passing through another familiar corner, Ryuu asked Sirius again.

"...Ryuu-san, why do you keep asking me this?" Sirius felt strange about this.

Since entering this forest, Ryuu has asked him this question multiple times.

Three times? Five Times? Or more?

Sirius couldn't remember the exact number, but it was definitely not one or two.

'Why does she keep asking me this? Do I look so vulnerable?' Sirius started wondering. No matter how injured he was, he could at least keep walking.

"..." Ryuu was ahead of him, and when she heard his reply, she rolled her eyes and was speechless.

'I want to take a bath. Can you not follow me…' Ryuu wanted to complain, but she controlled her emotions.

As a cleanliness-obsessed elf, Ryuu would never visit her deceased friends without taking a proper bath.

It would be a huge disrespect to her friends if she went to their graves with a sweaty body.

Although some people may not care about such things, Ryuu is not one of them.

As an elf, she cannot tolerate such dirty behavior.

Therefore, every time she came to the 18th floor to pay homage to her deceased comrades and bring flowers to their graves, Ryuu would bathe in a nearby spring to cleanse her body.

But with Sirius following her around, Ryuu had no chance to take a bath.

That's why she asked him whether he wanted to rest or not?

It was just an excuse for her to leave temporarily.

Ryuu was not a talkative person, so this was the only thing she could think of.

For this reason, she took Sirius around the woods in a circle to tire him out. But, the effect seems to be negligible.

Ryuu was depressed and annoyed by this situation.

"Um…Ryuu-san?" Suddenly, Sirius asked her hesitantly.

"Yes?" Ryuu replied subconsciously.

"Is it just me, or have we been going around the same place all this time?" Sirius also found the weird situation.

"It's just your illusion, Sirius-san…." Aware of this situation, Ryuu paused her footsteps and replied nonchalantly.

No matter what, she can never admit to such a thing.

However, Sirius approached a tree with a strange expression and touched its trunk.

"It should not be my delusion, Ryuu-san…You see, here are the marks I left before…." Sirius pressed a unique mark engraved on the trunk and verified his conjecture.

After all, he was the one who left this mark not long ago.

"Don't tell me we are lost, Ryuu-san?" Although he said so, Sirius didn't believe it himself.

Sirius knew that Ryuu was very familiar with this location. After all, she has visited this place countless times after the death of her comrades.

Even if she didn't explore the 18th floor fully, Sirius was sure Ryuu was very familiar with the area around the graves.

There was no way she would get lost in this place…

"..." After hearing his question, Ryuu sighed and fell silent. Then, she turned around and resigned to her fate.

After a few seconds of hesitation, she replied, "No, we didn't get lost. I did it on purpose…."

Ryuu didn't want to waste any more time and get straight to the point, no matter how embarrassed she was.

"Ah…" Sirius didn't know Ryuu's inner thoughts. Therefore, he was surprised and puzzled by her answer.

"Sirius-san!" Suddenly, Ryuu looked at him with a serious expression.

"Yes?" Sirius felt a bit nervous by her gaze.

"You should already know something about me from goddess Loki, right?" Ryuu asked with narrowed eyes.

"Yes, a little bit…." Sirius didn't want to lie about such a topic. But he gave her an ambiguous answer like usual.

"Only a little bit?" When Ryuu heard this same answer, she shook her head helplessly.

"Since we are here, there's no need to keep pretending, right?" Ryuu asked in an affirmative tone because she already had some guesses.

After hearing this, Sirius knew that it was no use playing dumb. It would be counter-effective if he kept denying the truth.

"Well, as you guessed, I know many things about you, Ryuu-san. Of course, I only know what I should know…." At the end of his words, he looked at Ryuu meaningfully.

Ryuu understood his intentions and rolled her eyes speechlessly.

"Then you should understand why I came to the 18th floor, right?" Ryuu asked.

"Bring flowers to your deceased companions?" Sirius nodded.

"Since you know this, then do you know what elves usually do before paying homage to their fallen comrades?" Ryuu finally got the point.

"Uhh… I have no idea…." After hearing such a question, Sirius was surprised and unable to answer.

'What does the custom of elves have anything to do with me walking around the forest in a circle?' Sirius complained internally.

In his view, these two things are unrelated because of his lack of knowledge about elves.

"Bath…" Finally, Ryuu couldn't bear it and spit out a word.

After hearing this, Sirius quickly realized his mistake.

"Cough, cough, so that's it. I finally understand what you mean, Ryuu-san…." When Sirius realized her intentions for asking him to rest, he felt embarrassed.

Ryuu didn't want him to follow her while bathing but was too embarrassed to say it.

"...In this case, can you wait for me here while I bathe, Sirius-san?" Ryuu sighed and asked him. There was no use for embarrassment anymore. Ryuu just wanted to leave this place.

"Okay. I'll wait for you here." In response, Sirius nodded with an embarrassed yet polite smile.

After hearing his reply, Ryuu didn't waste any time and left this place. Her figure soon disappeared into the forest.

"Well…" Sirius was speechless by such a ridiculous misunderstanding.

He rubbed his head and felt wrong for walking around in a circle.

…

On the other side, Ryuu found a clean spring after some time.

The trees shaded the area and maintained the temperature to a moderate level.

At the edge of the spring, some crystals were glowing dimly.

"I should hurry up…." The elf-waitress sighed and began to take off her clothes quickly.

This time is different from her usual visit because someone is waiting for her nearby. Therefore, she had no time to take a long and comfortable bath.

'Speaking of which….' Suddenly Ryu, who was about to put her clothes on the ground, paused.

She remembered when Loki brought Sirius to drink in their tavern, he accidentally brought a topic.

[Peeping is a kind of romance!]

Two half-drunk people had a great discussion on this subject. And unfortunately, Ryuu happened to hear this.

"Sirius-san won't peep while I'm bathing, right?" Although she said so, she still carefully looked around her surrounding.

"I hope he won't…." Ryuu didn't find anyone nearby and muttered.

"Right?" She didn't even spare the areas around the grass.

"I guess I'm oversensitive…." After surveying around, Ryuu completely submerged her body into the spring water.

…

At the same time, Sirius put his luggage on a tree branch and climbed to the tree's highest point.

"Hah, it's a pity that I can't see anything…." Sirius shook his head regretfully.

The tree that he climbed on was the tallest one in this area. And even from here, he couldn't see anything in the direction where Ryuu was located.

As the saying goes, voyeurism is indeed a man's romance.

But only stalkers and perverts will follow and peep into a bathing woman. There would not be a good result for him if he was discovered.

Sirius was not stupid enough to ruin Ryuu's favorability for him by doing such a foolish thing.

What he pursued was a safe and secure method.

For example, if he could see her from such a height without following her. Even if he gets discovered, he could make some reasonable excuse.

Due to his improved vision, he can overlook the entire forest without a problem.

But the area where Ryuu was bathing was obscured by many trees. Therefore, he had no chance to see anything.

After realizing this, Sirius gave up on voyeurism and simply sat down at the intersection of some branches at the top of the tree,

He had nothing to do; therefore, he started looking around to pass the time.

"Huh? What's that?" Suddenly, Sirius widened his eyes in surprise.

…

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