Chapter 36

Chapter 36. "The Dark Elf, the Dwarf, and a Single Rose." 16

"Buuuurp~ That was a good meal."

"...You wretch, I beg you, please restrain yourself from doing such ill-mannered things. Hmm?"

Jeff said that, shoving both hands into his pockets as he came trudging over. At the sound of his footsteps, Narsh turned her head and said,

"Ah, Mr. Jeff. Did you enjoy your lunch?"

"Ah, yes. If you had tried it too, milady, you would have been surprised. It was extremely delicious."

"Thank you."

Rene answered Jeff’s words with a gentle smile, and Jeff gave her a broad grin and a nod. Then he turned his head toward me and said,

"Mr. Han? Could you pack us some lunches? It looks like we ought to head out now."

"Now? Where are you going?"

"We are going to look for something. Hey, Kal, get your gear and let us move. The sun drops quickly in the forest."

"I know th..."

Kal turned his head toward Jeff to answer him, but then he caught sight of Luna sitting at the table behind him and froze where he stood.

Luna looked at him with an expression that said she had just seen something tiresome, let out a long sigh, spread her arms a little, and said,

Your reaction is slow. You are only recognizing it now? In any case, here. I am a dark elf. I live here with them. And since the subject has come up, you already know the relationship between these two people.

It surprised you, did it not? A human and an elf as husband and wife. Is the world not absurdly amusing? Lizard Men sitting at a table drinking beer, an inn standing boldly in a forest like this, all of it. I am an elf, so I heard every word of your conversation.

And just as you said, one really ought to live long enough to see such things. And from the rough conclusion I drew after listening to the two of you, Kal, you seem like the sort who accepts such things as reality without much trouble.

So what I am saying is this: in that head of yours, which accepts things far removed from reality so well, one more dark elf ought not to be much of a shock. Well? Now then. Take a deep breath, look reality in the face, and accept it.

Clap, clap, clap...

Jeff started applauding with a moved expression, and as the sound of his clapping quietly filled the hall, Kal finally came back to himself. He looked at Luna once and said,

"Ah. Um. Right. I see. I am Kal Bernstein. And your name is?"

Quite the contrast with Jeff. Was he simply quick at judging a situation? Luna gave him a crooked grin and replied,

"Luna Rosemary. I am glad to see you seem capable of reason. You are quite unlike a certain human standing behind you."

Kal listened to her, glanced back over his shoulder, found that certain human still clapping, and said with a grin,

"That fellow is always like that. It is better not to mind him."

"Understood."

Jeff listened to their exchange, stopped clapping, folded his arms, and said,

"A human and an elf joining forces to corner one poor, innocent human like this. Are you not ashamed?"

"Not at all."

"Nor am I."

"Hmm... Something about this is wrong. Kal, should you not be taking my side?"

At that, Kal snorted with laughter, turned around, and started up the stairs.

"And what exactly is there about you to like?"

Jeff followed after him, rubbing his chin with one hand, and said in a sly voice,

"Oh ho~ So that is it. You have taken an interest in that little miss, have you? I did not know you had such refined tastes."

"Wh- Why, you little... How dare you take me for that sort of man?!"

Kal grabbed Jeff by the neck and dragged him at a run down the second-floor corridor, and a moment later...

CRASH!!

"Gyaaaaah!!"

...a scream rang out.

At the sound, everyone nearby gave wry smiles. I rose from my seat, worried whether a part of the floorboards upstairs had broken.

Then, placing a hand on Rene’s shoulder, as she had somehow risen and was already standing beside me looking at me, I said,

"I will go. You stay here."

"Mm. All right. Then, Han, bring some tea and cookies on your way back too, please."

When I turned around from where I stood, Rene had already sat back down and was smiling brightly up at me. Somehow, I felt as though I had stood up for no reason at all.

But I could not ignore a request from my beloved wife, so when I came out of the kitchen, I was carrying baskets filled with packed lunches in one hand, and in the other, a tray piled high with cookies, while balancing another tray with four teacups on it.

When she saw that, Rene rose from her seat, came over, took the tray from me, and said,

"I told you to carry only one thing at a time."

"But if I carry two things at once, I do not have to make two trips for something that can be done in one."

"But if you trip while carrying them, you will ruin both the cookies and the teacups in your hands."

"It is fine as long as I do not trip."

At my words, Rene narrowed her eyes at me, then said in a small voice,

"People with that sort of careless mindset are always counting on luck."

I shifted the basket of cookies from my right hand to my left, set the lunch basket down on a nearby table, then stood beside her and leaned close to whisper in her ear, imitating her tone.

"I am not counting on luck. I am only saying that it is fine if one is careful."

Perhaps because I had spoken right by her ear, Rene’s ear twitched a little. Carrying the tray with the teacups, she walked toward the table where Luna and Narsh were sitting and replied in an even quieter voice,

"It seems you do not recognize it, so I will teach you here and now. Those are the same thing."

"The same thing? That?"

"Yeees."

"...Explain."

"I will explain tonight. Now then, you have all been waiting, have you not?"

She smiled brightly and handed out the teacups. Watching her, Luna spun the pouch of jewels in her hand and said,

"How long has it been since we ate? And already it is sweets?"

"It is called having tea. And Luna, you are still growing. Eating well is important."

Rene set a teacup down in front of Luna, and Luna looked at it for a moment before shrugging.

"All right. I will eat."

Around then, the people who had gone upstairs came back down. Jeff and Kal had armed themselves with the longswords they had bought from me, and Kal also had his Great Bow restrung. Looking at them, I picked up the packed lunches I had set on the table and handed them over.

"Four packed lunches. And Mr. Kal, please take this as well."

Kal, who had been watching Jeff tuck the lunches into his backpack, looked at the pouch I held out to him and asked with a tilt of his head,

"What is it?"

"Bowstrings. Carry them as spares in case yours snaps again."

"Ah, I see. Understood. I have not seen much real combat, after all. Hmm, so that is how it is. Thank you for the advice."

"It is nothing. By the way, when will you be back?"

At my question, Narsh, who had been sitting in her chair, slowly rose and looked at him. Kal gave her a faint smile.

"We will return before sunset, so please do not worry, milady."

I was the one who had asked, yet he answered the lady instead. What an amusing way of holding a conversation.

In any case, Narsh still looked worried, so Kal grinned and turned to the two golems named Mir and Kali, who were standing against the wall like statues, glaring out the front window.

"I would like to borrow Mir and Kali. I will be careful, so please rest easy."

"...Please be careful, Kal."

"Understood."

Narsh looked at him with downcast eyes as she spoke. Dressed in a suit with a large cloak thrown over it, Kal bowed his head lightly to her while holding the Great Bow in his hand, then turned away.

At once, the golems named Mir and Kali, who had looked as though they would remain motionless forever, began to move and slowly walked forward.

The amusing thing was that after taking only a few steps, the two golems stopped in place and began unwrapping the bandages from their faces and bodies and removing their cloaks.

Jeff watched them blankly and said,

"Huh? Why are they doing that?"

"Why else? Those things would only get in the way during a fight. It seems they are not planning on merely running around and fleeing this time either. I did not tell them to do that."

"You are saying they think?"

"So I have heard. Their intelligence is about on the level of small children."

Jeff and I watched what they were doing in exactly the same pose, each of us with one hand under his chin and nodding thoughtfully.

A little later, if I may borrow Rene’s impression after seeing the two golems once they had removed all the strips of cloth wrapped around their bodies, it would be this:

"They are handsome."