Chapter 66

Chapter 66. Please Do Not Lie (6)

“Oh my! Do not say it like that. I know nothing about it.”

“You were the one who summoned the spirits.”

“But they are the ones who receive my requests and use their power. So making soot stick to your body like this was also something they did because they wanted to. Spirits love pranks, after all.”

Was that so?

Mm. I should read a book on spirit magic later.

I knew too little, so I had nothing to refute her with.

Rene placed her finger against my chest, drew a line across it, and blew away the soot on her finger.

I smiled at her, then roughly wiped off the soot on my body with a towel from the laundry tub.

I was going to bathe anyway, but I should wipe it off a little first.

And I could wash the towel again.

After I rinsed the towel a few times and wiped myself down, the soot quickly disappeared.

Ohhh, not bad.

At this rate, I may not even need to bathe.

At that moment, Luna, who had been crouching by the water behind us, picking up a small stone and turning it over in her hands, suddenly made a strange expression.

She slowly approached, glanced at my back, then looked at me again.

Then she made that peculiar expression once more. Crying face + smiling face = !!

“What is this?”

“It is a stone. But what kind of stone looks like that? It is so dark, almost like…”

At my words, Luna frowned, shoved the stone in her hand into her pants pocket, and crossed her arms.

“It is mithril ore. More importantly, answer my question. What is that drawn on your back? It looks similar to mine.”

I smiled softly at her question.

“If I said you do not need to know, what would you answer?”

“Shut up and tell me already!”

Luna, with her small body, shouted sharply.

She caught her breath a little, then slipped her hand back into her pants pocket with her usual expressionless face and opened her mouth.

“…That is what I would say. For now, it is something similar to mine. That means a hope that the thing carved into me might be removed, based on something you know, is quietly blooming in a corner of my heart.

Now hurry up and tell me. What is it? And judging from what I know of your personality, you are not the sort of great man who would carve a tattoo into your body for fashion. Do not give me a ridiculous answer.”

I smiled and looked for a moment at Rene, who had her eyes closed and was feeling the wind. Then I turned my gaze back to Luna.

Luna was staring at me with a deeply dissatisfied face. Because of that, I felt slightly amused as I spoke.

“You do not need to know.”

“I told you to shut up and tell me already!”

Luna shouted sharply once more.

I started to cover my ears, then stopped. Looking at her face, I smiled softly.

At Luna’s gaze, which looked as though she would beat me to death, I smiled bitterly, pressed both palms together, and bowed my head politely to her.

At that, Luna let out a long sigh and opened her mouth again.

“I think I understand, even if only very slightly, how Narsh felt when she handed back the Dragon Heart she was holding. So tell me already.”

Should I end the joke here?

If I went any farther, she might truly try to kill me.

I looked at Luna with a bitter smile.

“This is the wall.”

“The wall?”

“Yes, the wall. It blocks my power. Right now, it is cracked a little, so I need to repair it.”

At my words, Luna looked even more curious.

Mm, now that I think about it, it would not be bad to show the old woman what is carved on her chest and ask her about it.

While I was thinking that, Luna opened her eyes wide and asked once more.

“A wall? It is cracked? It blocks power? I do not know what you mean, but there is one thing I do understand. That part is not what I need. Tell me. Who carved it for you? Are they alive?”

Before taking her there, I should teach her how to ask a favor from someone else.

Looking at Luna’s face, I smiled softly.

“There is no way that person would die. She is extremely hale and hearty. But Luna, is that the attitude of someone asking a favor?”

Luna looked at my face for a moment, then erased the surprised expression that, depending on how one looked at it, seemed rather cute.

With her original expression and original tone, she slowly opened her mouth. In other words, she spoke flatly with an expressionless face.

“It seems you dislike it. But this is my way. I have no particular intention of changing it.”

“I am not asking for that much. I would just like you to show a certain degree of courtesy. For example, even if you do not speak in an ordering tone, the person in front of you right now can tell you most things without asking anything in return. Of course, that includes the person who carved the inscription on my back. So…”

“I refuse.”

I closed my mouth and looked straight at Luna.

At that, she took out the dark stone she had called mithril from her pocket and looked down at it.

“I said I refuse. Why should I lower my head and beg you? Recently, I have shown you people a somewhat better face, but before I came here, I was originally somewhere else. Where do you think that was?”

I tried to gather honey and ended up poking a beehive.

But I cannot keep avoiding it just because I dislike it.

“Even so, I do not think you need to keep sulking like a child whose candy was taken away.”

“Have you ever had candy taken away from you?”

Luna opened her eyes sharply and glared at me. So I gave her a firm expression suitable for her glare and answered like this.

“Rene once took away my pancake. For the sole reason that if I ate like that, I would get a belly. It was truly a shame. It was quite delicious.”

“Pfft! Ugh! Hehehe!”

Perhaps my joke in that situation was very funny to her, because Luna lowered her head deeply and giggled.

I showed her a warm smile.

Just as expected.

She was originally a child who laughed well.

She had simply seen and learned too many cold truths at a young age, and lost her smile because of it.

At that moment, the back of my head felt a little itchy, so I slightly tilted my head and saw Rene smiling with her eyes.

She seemed to be silently mouthing something. I opened my eyes wide and interpreted the movement of Rene’s lips. The words were these:

‘A maz ing.’

I smiled softly at her and turned my head back to Luna.

Luna was laughing while gasping for breath, and that was the first time I learned elves could have such a side too.

I had never seen Rene laugh like that.

Is it because she is a child?

After laughing and catching her breath for quite a while, Luna finally stopped laughing, wiped her tears, and opened her mouth.

“Ahem, mm. Fine. I understand what you mean. I will think about it for now. But it would be best not to expect too much. I am a dark elf who returns what she receives.”

“As long as you do it within the range your pride allows, that is enough. I will not force you.”

After saying that, I stood up and approached Rene.

Rene was turning the laundry around and around with her hands, and the water inside the tub had turned almost completely black.

Seeing that, I clicked my tongue.

I feel this every time I see it, but it really is impressive.

Rene glanced at me, then put her hand into the tub, felt around a few times, found the small pouch dripping black water, and held it out to me as she said,

“Throw away what is inside this. And Luna, could you help me a little?”

Before I knew it, Luna had brought the empty laundry basket beside me and was crouching beside Rene.

Then, exactly as Rene taught her, she squeezed the laundry tightly and moved it into the basket.

I wanted to help a little, but when I did it, there were times when I accidentally tore the clothes.

So I merely took the pouch in my hand, went to a place with soil, dug it up a little with my foot, and poured out the contents of the pouch there.

A large amount of bluish, sticky substance(?) came out.

This was a detergent Rene had made by combining several reagents and foam tree leaves.

If it was placed in water with the laundry, the sap of the foam tree leaves, whose medicinal effect had been multiplied by the reagents, seeped out and removed all the dirt from the fabric.

When I first saw it, I was truly surprised.

Until then, I had not even known what a foam tree was.

Because my wife was an elf, she surprised me in many ways with her remarkable abilities, but what I wanted from her was very simple.

I would be satisfied as long as she loved only me.

If I asked for too much, it would only make things difficult for her.

After roughly rinsing the pouch, I shook it out, spread it properly on a rock, and approached Rene.

The two of them had finished taking out the laundry and were carrying it from both sides toward the water’s edge, but the laundry tub was still there on one side, filled with black wash water.

So I understood that this was the task being handed over to me.

I approached the laundry tub and looked at it.

My face was reflected in the black water.

So all of this is stains and dirt?

With a slightly uneasy face, I picked it up and poured it out into the forest.

I had never done it before, but if I poured something like this into the river, the fish would probably all float up belly-first.

In any case, after emptying the tub and carrying it back down to the riverside, Rene and Luna were rinsing the cleaned laundry in the river water.

I washed the tub in the water, set it beside them, and said,

“Should I help a little?”

“You? Mm. Then do not wring anything out. Just rinse them in the water.”

Like that, together with Luna, I took on the role of rinsing the cleaned clothes from the laundry basket in the river water and handing them to Rene.

Rene wrung out the laundry we handed her with all her strength and began placing it neatly into the washed laundry tub.

I picked up a white shirt, dipped it into the water, stirred it around a few times, then lifted it again.

The sound of water dripping was refreshing, and every stain on the shirt had been washed away.

Amazing. Truly amazing. Without rubbing it or beating it with a bat, the stains came out at once.

I turned my head and looked at Rene with an expression full of affection.

At that, perhaps sensing my gaze, she lifted her head.

Then we looked at each other’s faces and smiled softly, only for Luna’s cough to make us turn our heads again and focus on the work in front of us.

Ahem.

A long while later, each of us ended up sitting on rocks or the gravelly ground by the river, looking up at the sky as we let out small sighs.

Haaah~ We finished.

Looking at the sky, it seemed to be late afternoon now.

The sun was still up, but it was gradually nearing sunset.

Perhaps Rene and Luna realized that too, because before anyone spoke first, they slowly rose to their feet. I also rose at their urging.

Just as I was about to shoulder the laundry basket, Rene handed me a black shirt and said,

“You do look handsome without a shirt on, but if you wander through the forest like that, branches will scratch you. Wear this. I dried it in advance.”

I touched the shirt she held out to me and spoke with a somewhat moved expression.

“Rene, should I kiss you?”

At that, Luna said with a disgusted face,

“Could you restrain yourselves a little?”

Respecting her opinion, Rene promised me the kiss for later, and I smiled softly as I put on the shirt.

Then I placed the neatly folded laundry basket on my shoulder.

“Did we pack everything? What about the dipper?”

“It is inside.”

“Really? Then what about the pouch?”

Luna held up the cloth pouch, which had somehow already dried. I nodded to her with a soft smile.

“Good work, everyone. Shall we go home now? Anyone object to this opinion?”

“If anyone does, I will bite their nose. Let us go. I am hungry.”

That was Luna speaking.

She took the lead and walked ahead. Rene and I looked at each other, chuckled, and quickly followed Luna as she disappeared ahead.

By the time we arrived home, the sunset was beautifully dyeing the sky. Jimant, thoroughly drunk, was sitting back-to-back with that fellow and giggling.

I frowned at that sight, but Jimant did not see my face.

Because I hurriedly erased it when he looked back.

“Ohh~ Welcome back, everyone.”

“Oh my! Mr. Jimant, are you all right?”

“Of course I am all right. I do not get drunk from this much alcohol. But Mr. Han, you have quite an interesting suit of armor.

I have heard many stories about self-aware magic swords, but this is the first time I have seen armor like this.

How peculiar. Thanks to it, we had many amusing conversations. Hahaha! Hey! I heard many good songs. If the chance comes again, let us meet once more.”

He said that to the armor, lifted the liquor bottle in his hand, and slowly walked back to the inn.

Beside him, Luna stood with one hand on her forehead, looking up at the sky.

I looked at them one by one for a moment, then followed Jimant inside the house.

And I did not forget to glare slightly at that fellow as I passed beside the armor.

Surely he did not blurt everything out, did he?

After entering the house and setting the laundry basket down on a suitable table, Rene came in through the door, and I looked at her as I said,

“Where should I put this?”

“Just leave it there. I will dry it tomorrow. More importantly, do you not need to bathe?”

“Ah, mm. I will do it in a little while. After I put away what is outside.”

After saying that to Rene, I went outside.

Then I walked toward the armor standing in the middle of the yard, leaning against the back of the empty chair. When I placed my hand against his back, his voice sounded as though he had been waiting.

-Relax your face. How can you be loved by your wife if you make a face like that?

“That is none of your business. So, what did you talk about?”

-What did I talk about with a drunk dwarf? I listened to him babble drunkenly. I sang him a few songs too. Ah, I also learned a few dwarf songs. Shall I sing them for you?

It did not seem he had blurted out too much.

Was I being oversensitive?

Mm. Well, he is not the sort of fellow who easily talks about his own affairs.

I grabbed the stand part to carry him back into the armory.

“No, that is all right. More importantly, it is evening now, so you should go inside, right? I will take you out again later.”

-I truly wonder when that later will be.

“If the weather is good tomorrow, I will take you out again, so do not say it like that.”

I carried him into the armory and set him down in his original place.

Then I also brought the chair and longsword back and set them in their original places.

Before leaving after finishing everything, I patted his breastplate with my palm, and his brief words immediately reached me.

-Remember what I said earlier.

What words? Ah, the fire-watching.

I tried to ask about it again, but he had already fallen asleep.

Ahem! So in the end, I have to think about it myself.

I went outside, closed the armory door, stopped by the stable next to it, and took care of their evening feed.

After that, I walked around the yard for a while, thinking about what he had said earlier.

What on earth did he mean?

As I walked like that, I bumped into something like a soft sheet. Strangely enough, when I bumped into that sheet, it began speaking.

“I do not know what you are thinking about so deeply, but Han? Hurry up and bathe. Otherwise, there will be no dinner.”

When I lifted my head, it was Rene.

She was raising a finger and wagging it left and right as she spoke. I smiled softly at her and took the towel and soap she handed me, then went down to the underground bath.

I undressed, wrapped the towel around my neck, held the soap in my hand, and entered the bath.