…..
….
..
The dream broke away, and Lawrend opened his eyes. He breathed in a huge amount of air and sat up before looking around him. He held his head as a searing headache assaulted him.
"What happened?"
Lawrend saw that he was lying inside the carriage. The outside of the carriage was already dark except for a light of a fire flickering right outside.
He stood up, and when he did so, he felt wobbly. To his surprise, there was a blanket covering him that fell when he stood up.
"...Huh?"
Lawrend put it back on the carriage seat before he opened the curtain at the back of the carriage and looked outside.
Lawrend saw Aleshia hugging her legs as she stared straight into the bonfire. There was an air of melancholy coming from her.
Lawrend jumped down from the carriage and approached her. Aleshia sat up alert and looked in his direction.
"Young Master..?"
There was a look of disbelief on Aleshia's face as she looked at Lawrend. She couldn't believe that he looked like nothing happened at all.
"Aleshia? What happened?"
Lawrend called her name in response. He was puzzled at the look that she was giving him.
"You don't remember?"
Aleshia exclaimed in surprise. It was really like Lawrend didn't remember anything that happened before.
"Remember what?"
Lawrend became even more confused by the way she was acting. He doesn't know what she was talking about.
"Nothing, Young Master. How are you?"
For some reason, Lawrend felt that she was being quite nice to him compared to before. He shook his head and just chalked it up to his imagination.
"I'm okay except for a headache. Anyways, what are you doing here?"
Lawrend replied to her with a smile. It feels refreshing for him to talk to her like this. There was no feeling of constraint between the two of them, just a casual chat.
"I… I want to apologize for tricking and not trusting you the other day."
Aleshia bolstered up her courage and revealed to him what she had been thinking about after what happened today. It was enough reason for Aleshia to believe that Lawrend was really what he seems to be. He was naive, likes to give offers and plans, but that's because it was the only thing he knew about.
She finally realized that when she saw the crazed Lawrend. She realized that he was not like her, who had dealt with countless people and had already gotten used to the disgusting side of the world. Lawrend could be said to be still pure.
His naiveness at the start even led her to allow him to live in the end when they first met. She thought that it was pretty cute of him.
"Aleshia…"
Lawrend felt his heart warm from her words. He could feel the hate that he has towards her fade away. Though, he immediately walked backward as he raised his arm to guard against her for some reason.
"W-What?"
Aleshia was surprised at Lawrend's response to her. She felt like he was looking at her in fear.
"I… I don't know. It feels to me like you are gonna trick me again."
Lawrend was not accustomed to the way Aleshia was acting. His body just instinctively felt danger when she acted differently from how she was usually acting.
"Young Master… I have an idea. Why don't we break the blood contract?"
Aleshia felt pain and furrowed her eyebrows when she heard Lawrend's words. To ease him, she decided to have the barrier that blocks their trust in each other removed.
"We can?"
Lawrend's eyes lit up hearing her words. It would be a good idea in his opinion.
"Yes. We only need to… uh… k-kiss…"
Aleshia stuttered in the middle of her words. She immediately turned red from embarrassment. For a maiden like her, doing something like that was a sensitive topic.
"... Then f-forget it."
Lawrend turned around as embarrassment also took over him. Even for him, it was a sensitive topic as he never experienced his first kiss yet.
"O-Okay."
Aleshia nodded. Somehow, she regretted bringing that topic up.
"..."
"..."
It was an awkward silence for both of them for a while.
Lawrend sat in front of Aleshia as they both stared straight into the bonfire while Aleshia couldn't help but glance at him from time to time. She was still confused as to why he doesn't remember what happened today. Was it his body's protection against trauma?
growl~
Aleshia kept pondering about the topic before a faint growl interrupted her. She raised her head and saw Lawrend covering his stomach in embarrassment.
"I'll go prepare food, Young Master."
Aleshia instantly understood, and she stood up to prepare food as Lawrend's stomach was already growling in hunger.
"Y-Yes. Thank you."
Lawrend stuttered as his face was red from embarrassment. His stomach just growled so loud that even Aleshia heard it a meter away from him.
Lawrend waited in silence. He looked up into the starry sky and saw the stars flickering faintly. For some reason, Lawrend felt that the flickering was familiar. He shook his head as it was just the same sky that he had been looking at ever since he was born.
Just as Lawrend looked towards in front of him, a purple slime jumped onto his face.
"Gohoh-!"
Lawrend felt like someone slammed their palm on his forehead. He couldn't help but fall backward.
He opened his eyes to see Allen sitting on his chest while staring straight into his eyes.
"Allen?"
Lawrend felt dizzy as he looked at Allen. He sat back up as his headache from earlier became more painful.
Allen sat on his lap, and Lawrend could faintly see worry appear in Allen's slime face.
"Thanks for worrying about me."
Lawrend couldn't help but rub him, and a smile bloomed on his face as he felt warmth to have a slime worried for him.
Just as Lawrend was smiling at Allen, he suddenly felt his headache become more painful before memories flooded his mind in an instant.