Volume 2 Chapter 15: Back Together

(Walson)

It's only after we both drank 10 to 12 glasses of wine did Barella start to talk.

"Say, Walson, do you now realize what kind of mistake you had made?"

Not trusting myself to speak correctly, I just nodded my head. Due to how much wine I drank, my head felt heavy.

"That so? Do you know what it is?"

"Eeehh…. Is it because I have been torturing both Grace and myself with this problem due to me not trying to fix it harder?"

After saying so, I chugged another glass of wine down my throat, at this point, I can't tell anymore which direction is south, and which one is the north.

"Sort of, the problem lay in both of you, but since you are her childhood friend, you should know how horrible Grace is at communicating and telling her intention out, so you should know that rather than her be the one who is bringing in the problem, it's the problem that followed her, do you know anything else beside that?"

"I left both Grace and Melon all by themself in her coming-of-age ceremony without telling anyone else where I would be going, sorry about that."

"It's useless to say those words to me. it better to tell Grace these words herself, here, drink more."

"Woooo..." When I finally fell on the table, body filled with exhaustion, I could hardly see anything clearly, everything that I saw was blurred.

"And the man went down." In my blurred vision, I vaguely caught the sight of Barella standing up. "Lastly, I have a question for you, you like Grace, right?"

"Do I like grace? Hmmm….. Maybe, but . . . . I'm still young, so perhaps it's not love, perhaps it's something else."

"Yeah, that's it, I can't do this anymore, forget it, think about this issue for yourself, it's getting late, so I'll go back first." It was already dark.

After talking to Barella about everything that happened between me and Grace so far, and about the incident with Neolla, the elf immediately called me 'stupid' and directly pointed out that I was mad at the wrong person.

Rather than being mad at the naive girl who has communication problems and can't express herself correctly, it's more correct to be angry at the guy who stalked the said girl in the first place.

Also, she pointed out that the reason why I reacted so badly at what happened is because I like Grace, and am jealous at the fact that Grace brought a random man into our secret space. (From my point of view)

I don't really have anything to say about that, since combined with the age from my past life, I should be around 30 something years old.

And the idea of a 30 year old man like me liking the 15 years old Grace, despite both of us still being a child, is still a crime in my eyes.

The notion of an older person marrying a younger person, in fact, is not uncommon, even in the modern world that i'm previously from, much less in a fantasy world that i am now.

I may be stubborn and refuse to admit that I like Grace. But the feeling of affection toward Grace does exist inside of me, that is something that I can't lie to, not even to myself.

This world is not a game.

My previous life is long gone, and I am now living as Walson.

No matter what feelings the previous me have, the "Walson" in this world does like the girl named Grace.

When I regained consciousness, I felt that I was lying on something soft.

I'm lying down on the hard floor, and yet my head was placed on something warm.

I can also smell something nice coming from it.

Hm? Did Melon give me a lap pillow? What a nice girl…

When I opened my eyes, I froze.

"...Walson."

Graec!? I was just thinking of you!

You know, I only admitted to liking you one, two, three... eightlines ago, why did you suddenly appear!

"...Hmm." I tried to speak, and suddenly remembered that I was in a hangover state, so I can't speak all that well, and I also must smell awful.

Why is Grace here—? Ah— It's your work isn't it Barella! I know nothing good would come out from associating with you!

"...your wound..." I only realized now that Grace's eyes were red.

... Have I ever seen her cry before?

No.

This is the first time this girl cried.

And it's because of me.

…. I'm so sorry.

"Hey, it's ok, I'm super tough and have regeneration— er— huh?" It's at that moment I noticed something particular about myself.

The clothes that I wore right now, and the ones that I wore when I passed out, are different! Someone changed it when I was unconscious!

Then I saw Melon bobbing her head up and down at me.

— Good job Melon!

—But, does this mean that you have seen me in my birthday suit!?

"...But, Walson got hurt because of me..."

Ah, crap, Grace whose eyes are red are still on top of me!

Focus brain! Focus!

"That can't be considered an attack, those kind of brawl can be considered as our personal greeting." There, I changed what should have been a bad thing to a positive thing, that should be enough, right?

"...I'm sorry, for earlier..."

"Huh? I should be the one who apologizes, I just ruined your coming-of-age ceremony after all."

"..." Grace didn't speak, but just looked at me.

I looked at her too, while lying down on her soft thighs.

Our communication breaks down in odd places.

We fell into a stalemate in silence.

...I remembered being scolded by Barella because of this kind of thing.

"Grace is horrible with talking, if there is something you want to discuss about, you should be the one who started it!"

Hmmm… Let's test it our.

"Grace," I said.

"...?"

"I'm sorry." I tried to smile, but I got the feeling that it doesn't look as good as I intended it to.

"...What for?"

"For straining our relationship."

"...Both our fault…."

"Uhhhh…... Then, sorry to turn your coming of age ceremony into a bad memory?"

"...No."

"Uh? Sorry to not send my gift to you in person?"

"...No."

"Umm.. sorry for not eating together with you yesterday— Ouch! Don't! Don't! Grace, don't twist my ears!!!"

"...Obviously, it's also Walson's coming-of-age ceremony day, But Walson didn't make himself happy."

"Ah–Sorry."

"...Um, I'm sorry too."

After saying so, Grace puffed up her mouth, and both of her hands suddenly clapped both sides of my cheeks.

Ahhh, it hurts, even if it's coming from you, Grace!

But, I laughed.

I suddenly found myself feeling a lot more carefree, I wonder why?

"...Hey, Happy coming-of-age."

". . . Um, happy coming-of-age."

After some clapping from both of us and clap and clap, Grace clapped her hand and suddenly, a gift box fell on my chest.

Oh! I totally forgot about it!

Exchanging gifts! yeah!

"Hey! Thanks!" I sat up, but Grace stopped me when I was about to tore open the gift packaging.

"...Wait." She lowered her head slightly, blushing, fidgeting and wriggling her body,

Then, she stood up.

"...Going to class, Walson, bye." After Grace finished speaking, she disappeared, leaving some particles behind.

Ahh~ even though we had just reconciled, it's fine i guess.

So I opened the gift.

It's a jewel necklace and... a new [Ender Pearl].

This is... a necklace made of Lunar Core, right?

A magic tool that can open a small barrier around the user after injecting it with magic power, and the red gemstone in the necklace grants it a beautiful luster.

This is a high price item, right? Last I heard, it's at least 10 Gold Coins or more.

...Ugh, thank you, Grace, I have received your message.

At this point, I felt my shoulders being tapped.

"Huh?" I turned around, and something soft placed itself on my lips.

! ! ! ! !

As I felt the warmth remaining on my lips, Grace's pleasant smell was automatically imprinted in my mind.

I opened my eyes wide and looked at Grace in front of me.

No, what I see is not the ender girl herself, rather, only the particles left by Grace teleportation, and the words that I vaguely heard from her mouth makes my heartbeat go a little faster.

"...There is something, I forgot to say, actually, I like Walson."

...

...

...

After that, I don't really remember what I did that day.

I was so happy that my head was dizzy.

As for the gift for the coming-of-age ceremony, besides the Lunar Core necklace and [Ender Pearl] from Grace, Melon also gave me a dagger made of the Ground dragon's reverse scale.

It turns out that you also put a lot of thought into my gift huh, Melon, I'm grateful.

...It's just that the technique on the making of the dagger is messy, but still, thank you Melon.

It seems that in her hometown, giving a dagger to someone else means that whoever gives it respect and submission to whoever the dagger is being gifted to. And I seem to have heard her say that it is something that a girl would give to a man she likes?

...Huh… It seems I'm in the kind of situation the men from my previous life would only dream of.

Nice.