Side Stories: Chapter 8

“Certainly, sir. I will be giving an opportunity to my foolish sister to make amends. When she ran away from home, she threw away the grace our family showed her by raising her. If she has the smallest ounce of common sense and integrity, she has to accept this offer.”

“Hmph, that’s very good!” Wesker clapped his hands like he was overjoyed to hear this news.

“If everything works out well, the world will know my name, Wesker Grashane.”

“I can’t wait for that day to come, sir.”

“Yes, I truly can’t wait.”

Their vile laughter rang inside the room.

***

Zich and Lyla wandered the city. Although there was still time before the official festival started, there were already a lot more people in the city. Temporary shops were set up in certain areas and were already greeting customers. Zich and Lyla pushed away all thoughts about doing kind acts and other troublesome matters off their minds and enjoyed the festivities—of course, while in disguise to escape people’s stares.

They bought and ate various foods, inspected goods on display, and enjoyed light entertainment. They looked just like any other couple enjoying their time. Though Lyla knew about festivals more than anyone else with the knowledge in her head, the number of festivals she enjoyed in person was very little. Thus, like a dog playing in the snow, she dragged Zich around and wandered all over the place.

Zich also enjoyed the festival. Though he had been to more festivals than Lyla, he also didn’t have much experience in this regard. Before the regression, he didn’t have the time to enjoy things like festivals when he was battling the entire world; furthermore, there weren’t many instances that called for a festival in an era where Demon Lords and Demon People ran wild. Thus, the two busily wandered around as if their goal was to visit every open shop in the city. Though it was a bit worrisome that they wouldn’t be able to enjoy the festival properly if they already saw everything, it seemed like there was no need to worry about seeing the number of shops increase day by day. The two were still speeding through the city when a commotion erupted near the city wall.

“What happened? Did monsters rush in or something?” Lyla pushed a cookie she just bought into her mouth and looked toward the direction of the noise.

“It’s not that kind of commotion. Rather than screams of terror, it sounds more like cheering and celebrating for someone.”

The two looked at each other.

“If we came here without our disguises, there would’ve been a commotion like that.”

“There’s a high possibility it’s someone we know.”

The two headed to the city gates. The closer they got to the gates, the number of people increased, and as Zich and Lyla moved through the crowd, they heard comments from people in their surroundings.

“What? Why are all these people here? Did something happen?”

“They say it’s an elf! An elf came!”

“An elf?”

An elf was a very mystical creature for an ordinary human, but the appearance of an elf or their mere existence wouldn’t garner such a big crowd. There was only one occasion when such things happened.

“Is it the dragon slayer?”

“Probably. There’s no other reason for so many people to gather.”

“Then, I want to also go and look!”

The people conversing also headed to the city gates. Zich and Lyla met eyes and nodded. They were sure it was Leona. The two snuck through the thick crowd somehow and approached the city gates. There, they were able to see a group of elves surrounded by a mass of people.

“It really is Leona.”

“It sure is.”

“What should we do?” Lyla asked. Zich pondered about the matter, but he didn’t think for long. If he approached Leona right now and his identity was revealed, it was certain that this huge crowd would begin to follow them. No matter how pitiful Leona’s situation was, they needed to say their farewells and depart.

“She was a good friend,” Zich said, and Lyla knew what he meant and immediately agreed.

“She certainly was.” The two looked regretfully at Leona and her companions and turned around.

“Ah!” Leona then shouted. She had met eyes with Zich and Lyla. Then, seeing that Leona had recognized them, Zich and Lyla hurriedly passed through the crowd and began to escape.

“Huh? What? Hey, wait…!”

They heard Leona shout something from behind, but they ignored her. They already decided that Leona and they were strangers until they escaped from the crowd.

“Where are you guys going! Help us…! Huh? What? Are you seriously leaving? Hey! Hey, Zich! Lyla!” Leona shouted her heart out, but Zich and Lyla had already disappeared into the crowd. Even if there were many people, she was an elf with superior eyesight, and moreover, exceptional skills. There was no way she would easily lose sight of two people unless they purposefully tried to hide themselves. With Zich and Lyla’s skills, they could surely do that, and at that point, Leona realized that the two had abandoned her and her companions.

“Those guys!” Leona shouted. Yet the two who should’ve heard her were already gone, and she and her other elf companions were still trapped. Leona’s mention of Zich and Lyla’s names made the crowd even more excited. In the end, Leona and the elves had to stand there and wait in front of the city gates until the holy knights from Yuras saved them.

***

“You betrayers!”

Bam! Leona struck the table hard. Liquid from the teacup spilled, but Leona was too flustered to notice things like that.

“How could you leave us like that?!”

“Hey, hey. Why don’t we calm down a bit?” Zich smiled brightly and tried to appease Leona, but it seemed to have the opposite effect instead.

“Caaaalm down! Did you just tell me to calm down?” Bam! Leona thumped her fist on the table again.

“You dared to run away when we were in trouble, and you are telling us to calm down?”

“It couldn’t be helped. If we tried to help you there, more people would’ve gathered and gotten more excited. I didn’t want to say this with my own mouth, but I am more renowned than you, so the crowd would’ve been a couple of times thicker.”

Leona seemed to think that Zich’s words held merit and closed her mouth, but her eyes were as fierce as ever.

Zich continued to explain, “It’s not as if I could’ve used physical force to move the crowd. Though they cornered you, everyone in the crowd gathered because they like you. You know that, right?”

“…I know.” The wall of humans stunned her, and Leona knew everyone in the crowd had pure, affectionate feelings for her. Thus, Leona and the other elves hadn’t been able to force their way through and stood in place without doing anything.

“When there’s such a big crowd like that, it’s best to employ a lot of people to slowly separate the crowd. That might have a reverse effect if people were protesting for something, but since everyone was there to just see your face, it worked.”

“…I get that you had your reasons.”

“I’m glad you get what I mean.” Zich smiled inside his mind, but on the outside, he remained composed and calmly drank his tea. He couldn’t show his happiness right now—but then, Zich didn’t realize that everything he had done until now would eventually come back to him.

“…I also get that you’re an expert in making the other person a complete fool with your sly tongue,” Leona said.

“Pft!” Lyla had been drinking tea after leaving Zich to take care of the entire aftermath, but she hurriedly blocked her mouth. Her shoulders shook madly. She knew that she was an accomplice with Zich, and her current actions would be of no help to neither her nor Zich, but she couldn’t repress her laughter.

“I’m sure it’s the same for this case too,” Leona said.

“How could you say that? I’m only telling the truth.” There was no sense of wavering in Zich’s face. Other people might have been fooled by that face, but Leona knew him too well.

“Yes, you are telling the truth but denying another truth simultaneously.”

‘…Is this really the gullible, pushover Leona I once knew?’ Zich couldn’t believe this was the same naive Leona when she first came to the human world. Yet, Leona didn’t stop there.

“If it’s you, I’m sure you would’ve been able to disperse the crowd. With your talking skills, you could’ve calmed the crowd with some intimidation. Not to mention, these are things I just came up with off the top of my head. Don’t tell me you couldn’t think of them either.”

“As I said before, I did my best…”

“You ran away because you thought it was bothersome.”

“…” Zich was really shocked—to think Leona had seen right through him. Lyla also appeared stunned while sitting next to him. Zich smiled and placed his hands on top of Leona’s shoulders with warm eyes and said, “To think that our gullible Leona grew up so much. It must’ve been all the experiences that I helped you accumulate in our travels…”

“So, you really did escape!” Leona shouted while getting up. After that, the three continued to make a fuss for a while.

***

“Hm! Hmmm!” Leona’s footsteps were light as she whistled. From behind, Zich and Lyla followed her.

“Can you be any slower?” Leona glared back at the two. Zich and Lyla quickened their pace and approached Leona. She looked at them with a satisfied look on her face and pointed in one direction.

“Let’s go look at that next time!”

“Sure.”

“Okay.”

Neither Zich nor Lyla refused—no, they couldn’t. For the price of abandoning her, Leona demanded the right to drag the two around the city for a while. It sounded like a grand request, but in the end, it just meant that she wanted to enjoy the festival with them. Naturally, the two had no right to refuse nor did they feel compelled to.

“As I thought, human festivals are fun!” Leona smiled while holding food she bought at a nearby stall.

“Isn’t it uncomfortable?” Lyla asked.

“Huh? You mean this? It’s fine.” Leona had a bandana wrapped around her head to hide her long ears. “It’s not that uncomfortable, and the discomfort is totally worth it to enjoy the festival freely.”

“That’s good then.”

“Yup. I’m going to eat and play as much as I want before I return,” Leona said with great determination as if she was preparing to do something very formidable, yet the contents of her words were far from anything serious.

“Will it be all right for you to just play around like that? I thought you came as the elf representative, and this is sort of a diplomatic business trip for you,” Zich asked.

Leona answered, “The others I came with will do most of the work anyway. They are better experts than me in this matter. Furthermore, I already have important schedules in my head, so I just need to do those as the representative.”

Then, she stretched out both arms and said, “So, I will play in the rest of my free time! I don’t know when I can leave the forest again, so I have to make full use of it. You both can help me make the best use of my time. So, don’t escape like last time.”

Leona pouted and Zich and Lyla smirked.

“Okay. We won’t be able to play with you for the entire festival, but we will try our best at least for now.”

“Really? It’s a promise!” Leona smiled brightly. Like that, the three wandered through the city for a while, looking for entertainment.