Chapter 61

Chapter 61. Please Do Not Lie (1)

Why was she lying?

Thinking that, I removed the window frame and fitted in the new pane of glass I had brought from the storage room.

CREAK, CREAK. TAP, TAP, TAP~

Fortunately, the frame itself was not broken, so I did not have to go through the trouble of making an entirely new window.

All I had to do was remove the fasteners with my tools, cleanly brush away the broken glass shards, place a new glass pane over it, and finish it with new fasteners.

Once the fasteners were removed, they became unusable, so I could simply toss them into the trash bin along with the glass shards.

I lifted the window with the newly replaced glass and carefully hung it where it had originally been attached.

Then I aligned the holes, inserted the latch, and gently tapped the window frame with a hammer.

TAP, TAP~

Because our house had been touched by dwarven hands, even the most trivial parts had been made with meticulous care.

For example, the latch on this window.

Normally, a window would be fixed directly to the frame with nails. This one, however, could be lifted out without pulling out the nails fixed into the frame if the glass broke.

Holding the tools in one hand, I grabbed the window and opened and closed it a few times.

It opened smoothly and closed properly.

Mm, good.

I nodded and came out of the room.

Then I saw Jimant coming up the stairs connected to the first-floor hall, whistling as he carried a toolbox.

When he saw me, he grinned and said,

“Heeey~ I finished this side.”

“Yes? You replaced all the first-floor windows?”

At my surprised voice, Jimant smiled cheerfully and nodded.

Before lunchtime, he had come down to the hall while rubbing his eyes.

Then he glanced at the wall clock hanging in the hall and frowned.

He glanced at Luna, but she leisurely sipped her tea with a face that said she knew nothing, so no one told Jimant that the liquor he drank had been drugged. Not even Rene.

Jimant shook his head vigorously and was about to say something, but when the cold wind rushed in through the broken windows, his eyes widened, and he turned his gaze toward Rene and me.

“Did you perhaps have a marital quarrel…”

At those absurd words, Rene and I tried to give him bitter smiles and tell him no, but because of Luna’s scheme, the truth was distorted, and Jimant somehow came to believe that all the broken windows were the result of a marital quarrel where Rene and I had unleashed magic and hand-to-hand combat. Absurdly enough.

After lunch, I called Luna aside separately and protested to her.

However, Luna only smiled brightly, so I had no choice but to raise my hands in surrender.

After all, the price was a dark elf’s smile.

“Which parts of the second floor are broken? Ah, no, never mind. I will just go around and fix them.”

He vaguely glossed over it like that and opened the door to Luna’s room right beside the stairs, then went inside.

I gave a hollow smile at Jimant’s attitude.

Good grief. We did not fight.

That Luna…

But Jimant, who had entered Luna’s room, soon let out a small scream.

“Wh-what is all this?!”

Wondering what had happened, I ran over, grabbed the doorframe, and quietly stuck my head inside.

My first impression was admiration that it was, indeed, a girl’s room. My second impression was shock at what all of this was.

Luna’s room was pretty and neat, as girls’ rooms usually were. The furniture arrangement was too.

Wait. Furniture? Huh? Why are there two storage cabinets?

This girl must have quietly taken furniture from an empty room.

She could have just asked someone to make her one. How dishonest.

On top of the two cabinets placed tightly together, several books taken from Rene’s study were neatly stacked.

Beside them, strange seed-like things of unknown use filled several small cups.

I thought we were oddly short on teacups. So they were all here.

And the furniture arrangement was somewhat different from before.

Since it was her own room, she must have rearranged everything however she wanted.

All the furniture had been moved inward, and only one table sat near the sunny window. Small flowerpots were piled all over it.

Those must have been brought from the underground storage room.

Mm, when did she even go down to the storage room?

And tiny sprouts were growing from some of those pots.

Was she trying to make flowers bloom in autumn, when it was almost winter?

I looked at them with interest, then turned my head toward Jimant, who was staring at the flowerpots in the corner.

He was staring at them with his mouth wide open, which made me a little puzzled.

Growing flowers in autumn was a little strange, but it was not so shocking that one would gape at it.

“Mr. Jimant, what is wrong?”

Without even turning his head, Jimant only raised his hand and gestured to me.

Come here and look.

I tilted my head and slowly entered Luna’s room.

I could faintly smell something like a fragrant floral scent.

Mm, what flower is that? It smells nice.

Should I ask Rene to plant some around the house?

With that pleasant thought, I went and stood beside Jimant.

Looking down at his head, I asked,

“What are you looking at like that?”

At that, Jimant glanced up at me, then lowered his head and carefully approached the plants in front of him.

They seemed to have grown to a certain extent.

Mm, there is no way she made them grow this much in such a short time. She probably found them in the forest.

No, since she has a natural gift for making medicine, I cannot completely dismiss the possibility that she raised them herself.

Jimant bent his knees and quietly stared at a plant with a wide mouth and red patterns beautifully etched in the middle of its leaves.

That plant had something like a large flower bud on top, so perhaps the fragrance was coming from there.

It looked rather comical, but once it bloomed, the scent would probably become stronger.

What is its name?

At that moment, Jimant stared at it and let the words slip out like a groan.

“The red blood drop burning in hell, Hell-Flaming Red Blood.”

What kind of Blood?

That name is quite brutal.

“You seem to know the name of that flower well.”

At that, Jimant turned his deathly pale face toward me.

“Do not call it a flower. This is a devil in the form of a flower.”

“Yes?”

At my words, Jimant looked at it again, then turned his head toward another flowerpot and said,

“It is a type of man-eating monster. Do you see this? This flower bud can open left and right, and once it fully matures, it reaches ten meck in size and can even devour calves.

Because it has a pleasant fragrance, ones that are not fully grown like this are sometimes used ornamentally, but they are still dangerous. Even this one right now can eat something about the size of a small mouse. Where did that girl get such a monstrous thing—ugh?!”

Because Jimant hurriedly backed away, his foot landed on my toes. I smiled somewhat bitterly and grabbed his shoulder to help him stand.

But a man-eating flower?

I stared at it with a dumbfounded face, then turned my head back toward Jimant. I could see the expression of a startled dwarf.

He was staring at a plant that looked a little longer than the other plants. Its leaves were narrow, making it look somewhat like reed leaves.

He stared at it with a pale face and continued speaking in a murmur.

“Oh, my God! Verdandi, is that not Explosive Grass? Does she intend to blow up this inn…?”

Explosive Grass? This cannot be! That thing?!

Soon, Jimant and I stared at it for a while with the same expression.

Among a dozen or so kinds of plants, a single pot had been placed far away from the others.

Above it, a plant with long, sharp leaves received the warm sunlight pouring through the broken window with its whole body and gently swayed its leaves in a single breeze.

Explosive Grass, also known as the beautiful flower of fire.

It was a plant that lived not only in this Forsaken Forest, but in any deep forest.

If even a small impact was applied near it, it would cause a massive explosion and completely erase everything within thirty meck around it.

Because of that, it was used in places like dwarven mines, or by humans in wasteland development—or war. Since it could not spread its seeds widely, its population was extremely rare.

And yet she was growing something like that inside the house.

Luna, this girl…

I hurriedly helped Jimant up.

At that moment, the voice of the person I very much wanted to see right now came from behind me.

“Honey? What are you doing instead of fixing the window? Hm? Oh my! Mr. Jimant, are you all right? Your complexion is not good.”

I turned around.

Rene was standing there, wearing gloves and holding a broom and a dustpan.

Beside her, Luna, also wearing gloves, let out a small sigh and looked at us.

Just as I was about to say something, Luna opened her mouth first.

“What are you doing in someone else’s room?”

“Before that, Luna, what are all those?”

I raised my hand and pointed at the plant weapons in front of us, which were watching us with smiles(?).

Luna looked at us with a completely unconcerned face, then dragged the broom and trash bin she had brought back into the hallway.

Uh? What are you doing, just leaving like that?!

As I looked at the Explosive Grass once more and was overwhelmed with despair, her voice came.

“They are my hobby. And everything there is safe until the flowers bloom, so there is no need to be so frightened.”

“Oh, really? Whew~ Thank good… no, wait! You little brat! Are you planning to blow this entire place up? And where did you get such dangerous things?!”

Jimant hurriedly got to his feet and ran after Luna.

A moment later, I thought I heard the two bickering in the next room, and then Jimant’s scream immediately rang out.

“Uaaaaah! Where are you biting?!”

I smiled faintly as I listened to that sound. Then I moved and plopped down onto Luna’s bed.

Well, that was neatly handed off. Jimant, you were quicker than you looked.

Listening to the abusive(?) exchange between Jimant and Luna coming from the next room, I stood up again and tried to walk toward the window. I had to fix it, after all.

Ah, of course, I certainly would have done that if something had not grabbed the hem of my shirt from behind and pulled it.

“Huh?!”

THUD!

“Let us talk.”

When I turned my head, Rene was sitting on the bed, holding the hem of my shirt.

She removed the gloves she was wearing and put them into the pocket of her skirt.

I watched her do so, then noticed that the door was closed and imagined something rather ominous. Unfortunately(?), it did not seem to be that kind of conversation.

Rene straightened her skirt a little, then suddenly crossed her legs, wrapped an arm around my shoulder as I sat beside her, and pulled me toward her.

I helplessly ended up leaning my head against her shoulder. Rene stayed like that for a moment, then slowly opened her mouth and spoke.

“I lied to you.”

I had been leaning my head against Rene’s shoulder with a bewildered expression, and when I heard what she said, I quietly looked up at Rene with an expression even more bewildered than before. If I made an expressionless face, she would know I already knew.

Rene was looking at me with a grin, but her expression was truly strange.

That smile of hers, which seemed as though she might be crying and yet not crying, was a kind of smile I had never seen before.

Rene continued.

“I am sorry. If there is something you want, tell me. I will do it.”

“Let go of me first.”

“Then will you forgive me?”

“No.”

After hearing my words, Rene slowly turned her head away, lowered her eyes, and let go of me.

I quietly looked at Rene like that, then held the hand she had wrapped around my shoulder and said,

“I want to ask why.”

“What will you do if I say I do not want to tell you?”

Rene uncrossed her legs as she spoke, and I lifted the hand I was holding, brought it against my cheek, and looked up at the ceiling.

Saying this while looking into her eyes felt awkward.

“Then I will ask your body directly. If you lied, there must certainly be a major reason for it. That is why I absolutely have to know.”

After hearing my words, Rene made a horrified face.

I also felt the fingers pressed against my cheek tremble slightly.

Mm, I only said it once as a test. If you react like that, I start feeling sorry.

“Here? No! Absolutely not!”

I was about to laugh and tell her it was only a joke, but because Rene spoke first, I smiled somewhat bitterly.

Then I lowered my head, looked at her, and since things had already turned out this way, I decided to keep pushing a little.

For some reason, Rene had kept looking beautiful to me since earlier.

I grinned and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her toward me.

The flustered Rene had no choice but to fall into my arms.

I lowered my head a little and brought my mouth near Rene’s ear as she squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her lips tightly together.

“Rene, how about you just tell me before I really do that?”

“I-I do not want to.”

“Is that so?”

I said that, but her horrified face truly looked pitiful.

Hahaha! What is wrong with me? This is a little strange.

Yes, the joke ends here.

However, something in a corner of my heart did not agree with that opinion.

So, while feeling something peculiar from Rene’s horrified face, I decided to threaten(?) her just a little more.

After finishing my words, I lightly kissed her long ear, and a reaction beyond my imagination occurred.

“I will tell you. Stop.”

Rene narrowed her eyes with the face of someone who had completely given up and moved her lips.

Seeing the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes, I had to feel a stab of guilt.

So instead of releasing the hand around her waist first, I raised my other hand, wiped away her tears, and said,

“Oh dear! Honey, it was a joke. You must have been very startled. Are you all right?”

At the word joke, Rene’s eyes sharpened.

I swallowed a breath, but since the water had already been spilled, I braced myself.

However, she did not really get angry.

She merely raised her hand, roughly wiped the corners of her eyes, removed my hand from her waist, stood up, took the gloves she had put in her pocket, and put them on. Then, with a face as though nothing had happened, she said,

“Han? Since we exchanged like that just now, what I said a moment ago is invalid. You have nothing to say, right? Then hurry up and replace the window glass. Only the windows directly hit by the sound broke, so if we replace them quickly, we can rest leisurely in the afternoon.”

Then she picked up the cleaning tools she had set by the door and went to clean up the broken glass shards.

I sat alone on the bed and smiled bitterly.

What a shame. If I had drawn it out a little longer, I could have heard it.

No, if I had drawn it out any longer in that state, it would have been dangerous.

It felt as if there had been something a little strange about me earlier.

Normally, I would not behave like that toward Rene. Mm, did I eat something wrong this morning?

As I thought that, I took a deep breath and let it out.

At that moment, along with a fragrant floral scent, something quickly flashed through my mind.

Could it be?