Sunken eyelids slowly opened. Unfocused green eyes blankly faced the ceiling.
“Are you conscious?”
Eyes that had been repeatedly closing and opening slowly slid.
“Rose……”
“Rose…? Ah, my name is Kalian. Kalian Artes. Affiliated with the Royal Palace Holy Hall, youngest chief First Mage.”
Once the lengthy self-introduction ended, the gaze that had been meaninglessly fixed in the air finally turned toward Kalian. Each time his eyelids closed and opened, intelligence gradually returned to his green irises.
“Huk……!”
Elijah sat up in shock. Watching him instantly curl up into the inner corner of the bed, Kalian smiled brightly.
“You don’t need to be afraid. You’re safe now.”
However, making that kindness meaningless, Elijah’s deathly pale face was the expression of someone encountering an utterly disgusting monster.
“Whe, where is this? Where have you taken me?”
“Ah, this is the Delpha Inn.”
“De, Delpha Inn……”
What’s that…… Elijah, who had pulled the blanket up to his neck, bit his trembling lips. Bailey, who had been standing at the doorway, sighed and approached.
“Listen, Flying Squirrel-ssi.”
Kalian, startled, lightly scolded him.
“It’s not like we don’t know his name, so why do you keep calling him Flying Squirrel-ssi?”
Even in that urgent situation in the forest earlier when they were spiriting Elijah away, Bailey hadn’t hesitated to use rude forms of address.
“Watch your words, won’t you?”
Even though he’d let it slide then since he’d been concentrating all his nerves on casting magic, he couldn’t allow him to continue being rude when they needed to somehow coax the other party well.
However, Bailey, who still thought of Elijah as just some petty thief or con artist, didn’t particularly want to understand his superior’s feelings.
“We haven’t even formally exchanged names yet, so isn’t it stranger to call him by name familiarly?”
“Then it’s okay to treat someone you haven’t exchanged names with as a rodent right off the bat……?”
“Of course.”
It’s better than calling him Thief-ssi, isn’t it? Bailey whispered softly so the flying squirrel trembling in the corner of the bed wouldn’t hear his words.
Facing the two people having an incomprehensible argument about flying squirrels and rodents, Elijah trembled in fear without understanding why. Then Bailey suddenly turned toward him.
Elijah, who made eye contact with him, curled up even more in shock. Tsk, clicking his tongue, Bailey opened his mouth.
“We’re people with verified identities, so you don’t need to be so wary. This is an inn inside the village, and you might feel a bit dizzy from the aftereffects of the teleportation magic.”
“……”
“You seem weak to motion sickness. You fainted completely.”
Only then did Elijah remember the situation just before this. He’d definitely been facing Rose in the mountains. Then a flash burst, and in an instant he’d fallen into some village alley.
What followed was vomiting as if all his insides were being pulled out. Collapsed on the ground throwing up……
When he opened his eyes, he was here.
“Wha, what are you people……? Why, people……, on your own, suddenly, without even asking my opinion……”
The voice hoarse with exhaustion couldn’t produce proper words and rambled incoherently.
“It seemed like an urgent situation, so we took the liberty. Weren’t you in the middle of escaping? If we hadn’t stepped in, you would have been caught without fail.”
Bailey didn’t like his attitude of treating them, his saviors, as suspicious characters instead. Can’t he grasp the situation? When he should be prostrating himself in gratitude……
Even after hearing his words, still not having come to his senses, the flying squirrel’s expression suddenly became gloomy. It was a look as if he resented them.
“I’m grateful you saved me, but it wasn’t what I wanted.”
Lo, look at that attitude? Bailey’s eyes widened.
“Then……, I’m sorry for imposing on you. I’ll be leaving now.”
He slowly moved his body and came out from under the blanket. Even that took the form of moving along the wall because Kalian was in front.
“Um, that…, was it Elijah-ssi? Right?”
It was when he’d barely gotten one foot down from the bed while avoiding Kalian.
“May I ask where you’re currently residing?”
Bailey wished his superior would rather just shut his mouth. Because with each word he said, the flying squirrel’s complexion was turning blue and pale moment by moment.
“……Why do you ask that?”
As expected, the flying squirrel pulled the blanket up again to cover his body. He seemed to think that blanket scrap was some kind of steel shield.
“Ac, actually, I’ve been……, admiring Elijah-ssi for a very long time……”
“Kalian-gyeong, you can’t say it like that!”
“What? I just said it as it is.”
Elijah looked with confused eyes at the two people suddenly having an argument.
“You just sounded like a real perverted stalker bastard, you know?”
“What?”
“Flying Squirrel-ssi, don’t misunderstand. It’s not admiration but admiration, admiration. Everything our lord says is nonsense, so don’t listen.”
“Bailey, why are you speaking so harshly? Even so, calling your superior a perverted stalker bastard?”
The one with straw-colored hair trampled in mud seemed to be Kalian, and the one with charred wood-colored hair seemed to be Bailey. Elijah checked his inner pocket while surveying the room, worried they might rob him of his money. In the direction the two were facing away from, he could see the entrance door.
Then Kalian spoke with a smile.
“Elijah-ssi, do you perhaps remember me?”
Of course he remembers.
“At Gillie-ssi’s ranch……”
How could he forget when someone stared at him with such gleaming eyes? Watching him trail off in a crawling voice, Kalian nodded his head happily.
“Yes, that’s right. Then by any chance, do you also remember when we met before that?”
“……”
Elijah shook his head and subtly lowered the blanket. And gauged the distance to the entrance door.
“At the marketplace.”
Elijah, who had been picturing in his mind the situation of running to the entrance door while avoiding the two people blocking his escape route, finally looked at Kalian.
Come to think of it, he definitely looked familiar. Definitely……, somewhere…….
“When you bumped into me then and dropped your bag.”
That characteristic way of speaking, that awkward smile.
“Ah.”
Elijah’s eyes finally widened.
“You remember, right?”
He looked at the brightly smiling Kalian and thought.
‘That crazy bastard.’
Elijah barely swallowed the words that almost burst out of his mouth, and his gaze fell between Kalian’s legs. He now clearly remembered what he’d done to him at that time before running away.
Following his gaze and looking down at himself as well, Kalian laughed awkwardly.
“Haha, that’s right. I’m honored you remember.”
Kalian took off his glove and held out his hand to him. Elijah’s body moved backward as far as the hand extended. Watching Kalian withdraw his hand that hung awkwardly in the air, Bailey sighed.
Elijah stood up and apologized haltingly while distancing himself from Kalian. Bailey, who had been behind Elijah, suddenly narrowed his brow. Because he witnessed head-on the flying squirrel’s hand behind his back crossing his index and middle fingers.
“……I’m sorry for unintentionally causing harm back then.”
He clearly wasn’t sorry.
“I, I don’t have any money right now…… Next time we meet, I’ll definitely compensate you for the medical expenses then.”
Compensation or whatever, there clearly wouldn’t be a next time.
The foolish flying squirrel was so busy being preoccupied with Kalian in front that he seemed not to have noticed he was behind him. My, that, ungrateful squirrel. How can he deceive people so shamelessly without his complexion changing even a bit?
“What? That’s not what I want, ……um, Elijah-ssi? Where are you going?”
Kalian hastily blocked Elijah. Elijah, shocked to see him, hurriedly changed direction, then was startled to see Bailey who had been behind him.
“Hik……”
Bailey clicked his tongue. The situation was turning out really strange. Anyone watching would think they’d kidnapped him. Of course, in the sense that they’d brought him without obtaining his consent, the actual situation wasn’t much different from kidnapping either.
“Kalian-gyeong, just a moment.”
Bailey, who pulled Kalian’s arm and dragged him to a corner, scolded in a lowered voice. If you approach so suddenly like that, he’ll really……, then what should I do, look even now, he’s trying to run away……, when you make perverted stalker-like comments like that, how could he endure without running away……?
While they were having a suspicious private conversation, Elijah swiftly ran to the entrance door. As his hand touched the door handle, a heavy vibration rang through the entire door and a special pattern in the shape of laurel glowed blue.
“There’s a door-locking spell on it, so it won’t open.”
At the words from behind, Elijah turned around and his lips trembled. Now he was even afraid to ask why. Why on earth had they brought him, and why were they confining him so he couldn’t leave?
“So, right now……, because I kicked your balls, you’ve been holding a grudge for several years…… And kidnapped me……”
Bailey, offended by the word ‘kidnapped’ that the trembling voice let slip, straightened his face and explained.
“It’s not the kind of reason Flying Squirrel-ssi is thinking! Given our status, if we run into thieves or suspicious people, the situation becomes very awkward, you see?”
