Chapter 27

Chapter 27. "The Dark Elf, the Dwarf, and a Single Rose." 07

...Ah.

I woke from sleep with a strange feeling.

When I turned my head, Rene was not beside me. Was that why? No, it was not. When she was not there, ...it felt worse than this. I began looking around.

Perhaps it was dawn, because everything around me was tinted blue, but there was no real trouble making things out.

At this rate, it would still be quite some time before the sun rose. But... what exactly was I resting my head on right now? It felt strangely soft for a pillow.

I raised a hand and felt around behind my head. What my fingers touched was something warm and soft. Hm? What is this? Feeling that something was off, I opened my bleary eyes wide and looked up, only to find a golden-haired elf woman gazing down at me with smiling eyes. Seeing me groping at her thigh, she gently pressed my cheek with one slender finger and said,

"Good morning, darling. You are up early, aren't you?"

I smiled at her with my eyes, and Rene tilted her head slightly to one side and smiled brightly back at me.

My woman, who always, always smiled at me with warmth.

Rene was sitting on the bed with my head resting on her thighs. So that was why the pillow had felt strangely soft, and it seemed she had been combing her hair while keeping my head in her lap.

When I brought back the hand I had stretched behind me, there was the wooden comb I had made for her long ago in her hand. Watching her brush her hair, I said,

"I feel like I have seen that comb somewhere before."

"Oh my, you remember that too?"

As Rene brushed her hair back, she pressed my cheek with one hand and spoke. Smiling, I turned my head this way and that to avoid her hand as I answered,

"Yes. In fragments, but I remember it all."

You waking me and making that contract with me.

You fighting five thousand heavily armored infantry alone for two days and two nights and wiping them out to the last man.

You forcing King Galtan, half against his will, to write a pledge in his own blood.

Even the sight of you weeping on a rain-soaked battlefield, begging for forgiveness.

And that comb was, well...

"It was something I made for you so you would at least go around with your messy hair brushed, probably."

At my words, Rene gave me a smile of unreadable meaning, reached out, caught my nose between her fingers, and gave it a light twist as she said,

"I was out of my mind at the time. Where was I supposed to find the time to brush my hair? It was not just me. Everyone was like that."

"Mmmngh, th-that may be true, but could you let go of thith while you talk?"

But Rene had already sunk into reminiscing about the past. When she got like this, I had no choice but to remain as I was until she returned to normal.

Darling, please do not squeeze so hard.... It hurts. Raising the hand that held the comb, Rene touched it to her cheek, closed her eyes, and smiled faintly.

All while still holding my nose, of course.

"But when you gave me that comb, I understood. No matter how busy we were, no matter how little time we had to rest, we still had to protect the minimum dignity of being elves. You know that too, do you not? After that day, we all began paying a little attention to our appearance. Because the will of one elf is the will of all."

"Ahhh, th-that doeth ring a bell."

As I nodded from where I lay and spoke through a stuffed nose, Rene smiled and loosened her grip on my nose a little, and at last I was able to speak in something like a normal voice again.

"Mm. Your grip is incredible, you know? You might even be stronger than I am."

"What did you say?"

She flared up and gripped my nose again, and I let out another nasal, muffled sound with a helpless laugh.

"...No, it wath nothing. Right, hand me the comb. I will brush your hair for you."

"You are going to brush my hair for me?"

I nodded with a grin, and Rene gladly agreed, lifting my shoulders and helping me sit up. I rose from my place, turned around, and said to Rene, who was quietly watching my face,

"Rene? I am going to comb it, so turn around."

"All right."

She smiled and turned her back to me. I moved behind her, where she sat wearing only a loose pajama top, took the comb she handed me, and slowly began brushing down her soft golden hair.

It was long and smooth and swayed like silk. Though golden, it was oddly straight. Humans usually had wavy or curly hair when they were blond, but perhaps elves were different.

As I slowly brushed through her hair, Rene, who had entrusted that beautiful golden hair to me and sat there quietly, spoke from beyond the curtain of it.

"Darling. You love me, do you not?"

"I do. But why ask that?"

"It is nothing. I just wanted to hear you say it once."

At her words, I let out a small laugh and kept brushing her hair. There were hardly any snags.

She had told me before that an elf's hair was so soft that, unlike human hair, it rarely tangled or snapped.

I had been skeptical, but after touching it as often as I had over the years, it really did seem to be true. After brushing her hair for a while, I nodded, lowered the comb, divided her hair into three sections, and said,

"Darling, I am done. Ah, do not move. Wait a moment, I will braid it for you."

"You know how to braid hair?"

"Yes."

With a faint smile, I began crossing the three sections over one another and braiding her hair down. Rene's hair reached all the way to her hips, so it took a bit of time to braid it properly, but....

Mm, there. Wow... now that I have done it, this is really beautiful.

I pulled out the hair tie I always kept tucked into my pajama pocket and tied off the end of her braid.

Come to think of it, with her hair braided like this, she looked slightly more mature, yet at the same time there was a faint trace of girlishness about her. Rene was still only one hundred and sixty years old, so she was certainly young for an elf. Besides, it was rare for an elf to find a mate at that age.

Most of them did so somewhere around two hundred to three hundred years old, or so I had heard.

Then I slowly lifted my head and, for a brief moment, looked at the small back of Rene, who had come to me a little over twenty years ago at the tender age of barely one hundred and forty.

A sad expression passed over my face, but I quickly smoothed it away into a brighter one, lightly patted her on the back, and said,

"There. How is it? Comfortable?"

After rolling her head from side to side a few times, Rene turned around and sat facing me. Smiling brightly, she caught the end of her braid and tickled my face with it as she said,

"Yeees, it is very comfortable. You could have braided it for me more often, you know?"

"Sorry. You just look too beautiful with your hair down."

The moment I said that, Rene suddenly stopped moving, then broke into a broad grin and said,

"You like me with my hair down?"

At her question, I turned my head slightly aside and answered. Even in the darkness now, my reddened face would be plain for her eyes to see.

"Yes. If you put it that way, then yes. I like you best when your hair is down."

After hearing me, Rene lowered her gaze to the braided hair in her hand for a moment, then smiled, raised her head again, and said,

"All right. But since you braided this for me, I am going to keep it like this for a day. What do you think? No complaints, right?"

I answered her with a smile.

Rene watched my smiling face for a moment, then noticed the comb I had set down. Picking it up, she tapped my shoulder a few times with her palm and said with a smile,

"Now then, turn around. This time I will brush your hair for you."

At her insistence, I gave an awkward smile and turned around as told, and soon I could feel the careful motion of Rene's comb through the hair at my back. As she cautiously drew the comb through my hair, she said,

"Oh my. Your hair has grown so much, darling. It reaches all the way to your waist now."

"Ah? I cut it about a month ago. Already? I think my hair grows rather quickly."

At that, Rene suddenly flung herself over my back, her body draping over me as her head came to rest on my shoulder. Narrowing her eyes, she gave me a sly grin and said,

"That is because you are always thinking lewd thoughts."

At her words, I waved a hand dismissively and let out a laugh, and Rene smiled before climbing back off me.

She continued brushing my hair a few more times, then seemed to pause for a moment before slowly beginning to braid mine as well. I smiled faintly and said,

"Darling? Are you braiding my hair right now?"

"Correct. And do not start saying anything about what men should or should not do. Understood?"

"Mm, all right."

I nodded with a smile, and a little while later Rene pressed the end of my black braid to my cheek and tickled me with it as she said,

"It is done. What do you think? Is it comfortable?"

"Mm, very comfortable. You could have braided it for me more often too."

Sitting on the bed with both her white legs drawn up, Rene smiled brightly and said,

"Really? Then look forward to it. From now on, I will braid it differently every day."

At her words, I smiled back and nodded.

"All right. I will look forward to it. But what should we do now? There is still a long time before sunrise. Shall we tell old stories?"

Hearing that, Rene turned her head and looked once toward the still bluish window, then turned back to me and slowly curved her lips into a smile she rarely showed.

"Old stories are old stories. Right now, let us talk about what can be done right now."

"What do you mean?"

I tilted my head at her words, and keeping that smile on her face, Rene unfolded the legs she had drawn up and began walking across the bed on her knees.

As she did, she slowly undid the buttons of the top she was wearing one by one, and only then did I finally understand what she meant.

Oh, darling. This is a bit much for first thing in the morning....

Wearing that loosened top, now hanging open after all the buttons had come undone, she came toward me. With a smile that belonged not to the usual Rene, but to some other Rene entirely.

As she approached, I retreated little by little with an awkward smile, but noticing that, Rene came close enough, gave a wicked grin, and then deliberately toppled herself onto me. Thanks to that, I was thrown backward just as she intended and fell onto the bed.

After pouncing on me like that, Rene slowly spread her legs and sat astride my stomach, then lifted my arms above my head and pinned them down with both her hands.

Lowering her head, she looked at my face, which I had turned to the side, and with that same unreadable smile, she said softly,

"Han?"

"...Mm?"

"I want to have your child."

At her words, I turned my head and looked up at her as she gazed down at me, and I tried to say the thing she already knew, my face full of sorrow.

"B-but, Rene, that is...."

She did not let me finish. The moment I turned my head, Rene lowered hers and pressed her lips to mine. I twisted a little beneath her, then gave in completely. Against the way she was now, I had no choice but to lose. If I did not, Rene would think I disliked her and turn her back on me.

That had happened a few times before, and I knew it painfully well.

By the time she ended the kiss and raised herself, I was already half melted. Rene looked down at my face and grinned, and I stared up at her blankly before snapping back to my senses, flustered over what to do with my reddened face.

It was then.

At that exact moment, while Rene was clinging to me with her arms wrapped around my neck, the bedroom door slowly slid open and the silhouette of a small child appeared.

The child stood there staring at us, frozen in place, and I hastily grabbed the sheet beside me and covered Rene.

Then the small figure standing in the doorway, one hand pressed to her forehead, spoke in a voice that sounded almost like a sigh.

"...That is quite a picture. At the crack of dawn, no less."

"Lu, Luna?"

At my trembling voice, the silhouette shook its head, turned away, and walked off as it continued,

"Someone came. Since you said this place is an inn, 'guest' would be the proper word. Why do you not get dressed and go out to meet them?"

"Ah...."

Leaving those words behind, Luna immediately went away. Rene and I turned our heads and looked at each other as we murmured,

"They said a guest has come. What should we do?"

"...Could we not go down after a little while?"

"I would like that too, but...."

I propped up Rene's upper body and my own with my right arm, wrapped my other arm around her waist, pressed a light kiss to her forehead beneath the hair falling over it, and smiled.

"We should not keep our guests waiting, should we?"

At my words, Rene smiled brightly and nodded.

"All right."