Vol 1 Chapter 15 (1/2)

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Chapter 15

It’s been a few days since I beat the living daylights out of Mirror and tossed him into the river.

After that, I made my way back to Cecilia, who had been rather worried about me. In particular, she didn’t know what to think when I had taken on my demon form. I had to take that form to instill the fear of demons into Mirror, but…Cecilia wanted me to continue living my life in my more human form.

I had my own reasons, but I became a demon in body only. If at all possible, I never wanted to take my demon form again. Right now, I just wanted to live my life as the human Youki.

I wondered if it was from the shock of losing the fight, but ever since then, s.h.i.+ek had been down in the dumps. Cecilia and I did our best to cheer him up, but it wasn’t very effective. At this rate, I’d have to rely on Duke and Hapyneth to do something about it when we returned home. And if eventhey couldn’t manage, my last resort would be Celia-san. She was very fond of s.h.i.+ek, so I hoped she’d be able to do something for him.

Through our healing magic, Cecilia and I somehow saved Tiel-chan from almost certain death.

She was in really bad shape, but the Gargoyle never let go of her hand, and that may just have been what kept her hanging in there. That same gargoyle had lost both his wings and an entire arm.

That wasn’t something healing magic could fix. He, himself, said not to bother worrying about it, but it was sure to be all kinds of inconvenient.

Cecilia contacted the knights, led by Raven, to take care of incarcerating the captured bandits.

We met a lot of people and dealt with a bunch of incidents, but today we were finally leaving Dagaz Village.

At the moment, we were packing up our things at the Mayor’s house. We’d lived here for over a week, and I felt a little sad to leave.

“s.h.i.+ek, did you get your things all packed up?”

s.h.i.+ek was moving slowly, packing his clothes and medicine-making supplies into his rucksack. His only response to me was a small tilt of his head.

There was nothing we could do if s.h.i.+ek hadn’t gotten over the shock by now, so Cecilia and I gave up on trying to help. He was still young, and this was the first time he had ever hit a such a high wall.

“When you’re done packing you can go play outside. You made friends with some of the local kids, right? This might be your last chance to play with them, you should go.”

“…Sure.”

He slung the packed rucksack onto his back and jumped out the window.

…Why couldn’t he just go out the front door?

“…It’d be nice if he could cheer up a little bit at least.”

I hoped the village kids could get s.h.i.+ek in a better mood while I finished packing my own belongings and cleaning up the room. Just as I got to a point where I could take a break, there was a knock on my door.

“Youki-san, is it all right for me to come in?”

I heard Cecilia’s voice from the other side of the door.

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

After I answered, she opened the door. As she entered the room she glanced around.

“I see you’re all done packing. And cleaning the room… hm? Where is s.h.i.+ek-kun?”

“It’s our last day here, so he jumped out the window to go play with the village kids.”

“…Is that so? We still have plenty of time before we depart, so I don’t see any problems.”

Cecilia also didn’t mind s.h.i.+ek’s absence.

“So, do you need something?”

“Yes, as I said, we still have some time before we depart, so would you come with me to see Tiel-chan and Gargoyle-san? “

I guess we should give them a proper farew

ell before we leave.

Tiel-chan had been on the verge of death due to my pride and carelessness. And even though the gargoyle had lost a few of his limbs, he was still a pretty cool guy, and I wanted to see him again before we left.

“Sounds like a plan. And s.h.i.+ek…he’ll be fine. Let’s go.”

Cecilia and I headed off to Tiel-chan’s home, just the two of us. We had gotten used to the walk through the woods, but when we arrived at Tiel-chan’s house we heard a ruckus coming from within.

“Youki-san, someone’s in Tiel-chan’s home!”

“Did one of the bandits get away?!”

Cecilia took up her staff, and with my magic always being ready, we a.s.sumed our battle positions. Then, when we opened the door to the ruckus…

“Guardian Deity-sama! To think you would come visit someone as unworthy as me! I apologize for the mess of books about the room. Please wait just a moment, I’ll get them all cleaned up right away!”

“Eeeh, it’s fine, just go back to bed, girl. You’re still not fully recovered! If you don’t, it defeats the whole purpose of me coming to tend to you.”

“There is simply no way I could go back to sleep. I must put away all my books, clean the room, make the tea, and, and…”

“You don’t have to do anything, just go to bed!!”

Clad in only her nightgown, Tiel-chan was struggling as the Gargoyle forced her into bed.

Cecilia was completely blindsided in shock; I, however, had gotten used to such crazy situations a long time ago.

After she protected him with her own body, I guessed that the gargoyle had become worried and came to see how Tiel-chan was doing. It was his intention to nurse her back to health, but when the venerable Guardian Deity-sama came to see her, Tiel-chan completely freaked out.

“Hey, you lot there. Quit gawking and give me a hand! Throwing a fit like this can’t be good for her health.”

“Guardian Deity-sama, Guardian Deity-sama. May I may be so bold as to request that you call me by my name, Tiel?”

“Eer, sure. Then…Tiel, you’re not fully recovered, so stay in bed like a good…”

“Kyaa! Guardian Deity-sama called me Tiel! He really called me by name. Ah, I can die happy now…”

Her face became red as she went off into her own little world. She held her head in both hands as she swayed back and forth in rapture. It looked totally wrong.

She was probably replaying the gargoyle saying her name on infinite repeat in her head.