Hyaku Ma No Aruji

"- Melea!"

"Hmm?"

As Merea bracketed the rest of her luggage on Noel's back, she noticed a voice calling her name.

With his neck out of Noel's back, he looked down at the one with the voice, and Elma was slightly reddish and Jen-royal.

I can also see the strength of a samurai by doing both hands on my hips and standing pin, but the femininity is more noticeable than a samurai because of the slightly moistened eyes and the cheeks stained with Zhu. It also seemed to applaud the impression that I was upbeat because I was looking up at Merea from below.

"Ha, we need to talk!

"Talk? - Yeah, nothing, but wait a minute."

"Ok!!"

Melea raised the speed of connecting the load, wondering in her heart that she would be well if she did.

I will also take care of the horse's feet on this desk, so I will have some time to talk.

Because of their familiarity with the journey, there are several demon kings who are good at caring for horses, and they lead the care around them. - Well, in fact, there was also a slightly pitiful reason that it was safer and quicker to leave it to them than to leave it to the amateurs.

So in the meantime, it just gets a little shabby.

Naturally, Merea has never looked after a horse or anything. Plus I stopped even riding a horse in the status quo.

And the partner that Merea's on right now,

"You're so sturdy that you don't need to take care of..."

"Ga?"

They didn't need to take care of it for the time being.

Melea strokes the back of Noel's neck as she lowers her brow butt and laughs.

The sturdy, touchy black scales glowed shiny when the dust on the surface was swept that way.

Noel at the time said, "Are you finished packing?" But as if to ask, he had twisted his neck and looked up from the bottom.

"-Okay."

"Gaw!"

Merea saw it in Noel's black scale beauty for a little while, but as soon as she remembered Elma, she snapped her last package from Noel's neck and now tapped that back lightly.

He shook himself left and right several times so that Noel could sit still and relax his solidified body.

Crouching and luggage bracketed all over the body make noise, but at least it's not going to fall.

Once again, she nodded to see how it was, and finally Melea jumped off Noel's back.

◆ ◆ ◆

Elma stood with her back open, beside a rock that was tucked away in the nearby field.

He leans down on his face and stares at the ground all at once, as if to be delayed in his thoughts.

With a gentle welcome of the pebble that was at his feet with his toes, he felt like he was not here.

"Thank you for waiting."

From a short distance, raise one hand and speak up.

Her face rose all the way up and her moist dark hair swayed.

"Eh!"

She just rippled her mouth and didn't spin words right away.

My face is still red and my eyes are slightly moist.

After confirming it, Merea's consciousness strayed towards her full body image.

It was a further story, but again, observing her,

- That's beautiful.

I thought so.

Her posture from the side (I want to) looked like some sort of artistic sculpture, partly because of its cold beauty and slender stretched limbs.

Beauty Reishi.

Then I feel that it is her most characteristic atmosphere where the fragrance of innocence mixes in the gloss.

If a woman feels powerful in her body, she sees beauty in her beauty and innocently loves it mixed with the atmosphere.

A lot of words of praise have come to mind in Merea, but in sum, to sum it up,

- Yeah, it's beautiful.

It's not just about appearance.

I thought the words would suit me, including the atmosphere and interior.

"Wait?

"Oh, oh... oh, hey, man, I'm not waiting!

Her voice was shaking a little.

It's like I'm nervous, but Merea didn't know what the hell I was nervous about.

"So, what's the story?

……

Merea walked over to Elma and was similarly in the mood as she kept her back on the rock.

Elma still doesn't answer right away.

I thought I was assembling words in my head, and Merea decided to wait for a while.

That's how for some time, Elma finally opened her mouth.

If you look at it, its face was so bright that it couldn't compare earlier.

"Oh, hey..."

- I bit it.

Merea did not speak the word, but held it in her heart.

"Gohon," Elma coughed deliberately, opening her mouth again.

"Oh, um..."

I feel a lot uncomfortable at a time when I'm suddenly behaving differently in the first place, but I dared to think it was a bad idea to break the hips of the story and Melea kept quiet.

Instead, I light an innocent light in my red eyes and shoot through Elma's eyes.

"What?"

Elma seemed, instead, more nervous about that gaze.

"Huh! That's it... whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, how are you?

I chewed it. I pushed it, and at the end of the day, they asked me an unusual question.

It's too improbable and rather uncomfortable.

"Boy, I'm fine. Super healthy."

"Right..."

Elma is exhaling in relief at all the time saying, "I've finished my job." - I haven't solved anything.

But Elma wasn't just going to finish with it either, and she was making her face rude again and asking Melea.

"Merea."

"Yeah."

"Do you have a desire?"

"Desire...?

The content of the question is too vague.

There were about three question marks floating behind Merea's brain.

- Do you mean, like, the three greatest desires...

I still wonder if it's about that side when it comes to desire and dreaming.

But, well, I wouldn't dare ask about something that's so obvious.

For one thing, assuming it was, I interpreted it at will, perhaps referring to something a little more personal, some kind of dream or something.

So,

"I do?

I'll give it back.

Then,

"Oh! Well..., Melea is still a man too... If it's a man... but it's not... it's rather unsound..."

……

I dropped my moist eyes to the ground, shaking a little as Elma sifted.

Melea no longer knew what it was.

Either way, it's possible that all the time will pass if we stay like this.

In order to relieve her of her tensions, it might be better for her to dare ask questions from herself so that the conversation can proceed.

That's how Merea went on to spin the word.

"What about Elma?

"Hey, what? Me? Oh, don't be afraid to ask a woman, you."

Merea returned the same question to Elma, but still seemed to receive it slightly differently.

"- Oh, there is. Naturally, it's on me too."

"Oh, what?

"Do you ask that much?"

"What!? I shouldn't have asked!?"

She blushes so red that Elma is still about to burst with enthusiasm that she flies out to Melea with her face stunned.

Merea unwittingly twitched at Elma's sudden rise.

"-Bye, I didn't say no... but you have something called Delicacy... and I'm still a woman..."

"Yeah, you know that, don't you? Elma, she's beautiful."

"Huh!"

Elma's shoulder responded perfectly to Melea's honest remarks.

Shortly afterwards, Elma's face leans sideways to escape Merea's gaze.

Then she turned away and, more than anything, gave her one index finger and pointed it at Merea.

It was like a gesture just called "Another Voice".

Though Merea necked Elma's gesture, she somehow guessed what it meant.

"- Cute?"

A thumbs-up gesture returned from Goodness Elma. Apparently, it was satisfactory.

With his face turned away, he was shy enough to cover his mouth with one arm and let his gaze swim to the ground.

It was also a surprisingly glaring demand, but instead it also seemed to be instrumental in attracting innocence.

Elma is still turning away, desperately hiding her expression with one arm, but at last a strange laugh leaks out of that gap.

Melea was followed and laughed at the laughter of being embarrassed but unable to reveal her joy.

"Haha, you're cute. - Yeah, it seems even more so when you're honestly happy with that."

Elma finally covered her face with both hands and shivered as she sifted red to her ears.

"... Oh, thank you"

The word returns with a voice up from Fumi Elma.

You still can't look straight at Merea, so much so that you just glanced at her for a moment, but the words were clear.

I wondered if Elma could raise her face as she was, and Melea decided to look up at the sky with her back to the rock.

After a while, now I felt Elma's fever next door.

Apparently, he's calmed down.

He also captured at the edge of his sight that he was looking up at the sky as well as standing next to him.

I wonder if it would be more disrespectful for her to continue to bow.

"Shh, sorry. I've never really been told 'cute' or anything, and I got greedy..."

"Well, that's surprising."

'Cause I've been waving my sword all my life.'

"Oh - that's the thing"

True, the word "cute" may not appear when you see her on the battlefield.

Even if words like "beautiful" or "beautiful" came out, cute wouldn't come out.

With that in mind, Elma has inadvertently turned the story around better.

"- I have dreams outside the battlefield, too"

Apparently, the tongue tension also relaxed, and even the sound continued.

Also, the tone of his voice was shifting towards someone who was somewhat serious.

Merea nodded small and listened, looking lightly at the sky.

"I still wanted to live as a woman in the crowd. I mean... what the... oh, you have a family... you wanted to have..."

"That's a good dream."

Merea answered briefly so as not to disturb Elma as long as she could.

"But I don't seem to have that kind of talent. It's always a failure. I've never been able to be decently feminine. After stepping into the status of mercenary, it became unnecessarily so"

"But if you're that beautiful, wouldn't you be pretty hot?

"Mercenarism is a lie if you say it was utterly untold because there are so many men, but when you saw me wave the Devil's Sword, they all fled. Well, nothing, even if it wasn't the Devil's Sword, it would have happened. At the end of the day, it seems that a woman with more arms than herself is out of hand."

"- I see."

No affirmation or denial, take it.

It was felt over her shoulder that Elma slightly missed next door, but Merea did not turn her gaze.

"Well, I had 'Battlefield Dreams' on the battlefield too, so I didn't mind much"

"What's a battlefield dream?

"- Like my ancestors, I wanted to be a hero too. I wanted to be a hero saving someone."

Merea was heartbroken by the words.

I had the same aspirations as myself.

At the same time, it was a 'battlefield dream' for Elma that made something hazy for Melea.

"But that's all I get. - The Eluiza family has adage that their ancestors passed down from generation to generation."

"... what's that?

"Along with battlefield dreams, also have dreams off the battlefield. Dreams outside the battlefield lead me back to life from the battlefield."

- That's a good word.

"Oh.... in the end, when you only have battlefield dreams, people can't go back to everyday life. I can't get out of the battlefield, I'm ruined. As a mercenary, my ancestor who blended himself more into battle than anyone else says, so I think that's probably the right word.... Maybe my ancestors regretted being too inclined to dream of the battlefield. So I think I left those words in the pattern of the Devil's Sword on purpose."

Fu and Elma removed every sheath of the Devil's Sword and handed it to Melea.

Melea ran her eyes there, as Elma's fingers pointed to the pattern (or parts) of the Devil's Sword.

Unwrapping the strings that were wrapped around the pattern, the words that Elma had just said were inscribed in ancient fonts.

"Enough to carve into the iconic Devil's Sword on the battlefield. Perhaps he wanted to convey this word to the warriors who would have it."

……

Merea was still looking at the text engraved in the pattern.

Seriously, I watched it with a complicated look.

- Merea.

Second, Elma looked at Merea, and she was calling her name.

Merea finally looked at Elma.

And with her - I saw eye to eye.

"Do you have dreams outside the battlefield?

――

I couldn't answer.

◆ ◆ ◆

Melea knew she had an impulse, but it was a battlefield dream.

A chain of battles that has been wrapped up by the name of the Demon King.

The dream I had in it, of wanting to help the Demon King.

Dream of being a Demon King hero.

But it's a dream in battle.

In reality, in a way that they were chased by various countries, raided in front of them, and so resisted it - I lay my urge on my wishes.

But that's all.

On second thought, I don't have that 'after'.

Fight, fight, win - and then what?

I can't think of anything else.

What to do, what to do - win, it shouldn't be the end.

I know that, but I can't come up with a big vision that complies with the world.

It was as if that had proved that I hadn't been able to exist properly in this world yet, and Merea was still zoomed.

I suddenly felt my body get cold.

Just myself, I felt abandoned by the world.

I feel the backs of the people around me, unexpectedly far away.

They have lived in this world.

This is the only world I know.

So to speak, we have to conform to this world.

This world is more than absolute for them.

As long as they recognize the world, they can only feel their existence.

In contrast, not to mention I know 'that side', so I can be objective about this world.

I can be somewhere skeptical about this world's cuisine.

Through the superficial layer, I can pull my hand "somewhat different".

I just turn my suspicious gaze to what they think is the truth.

That's kind of nasty.

And even for them conforming to this world, it was felt from the mouthfeel of Elma that a place called the battlefield was a kind of symbol of extraordinary, unreal.

So I guess this is how she told me about the importance of dreams outside the battlefield - that is, dreams based on the taboos of the world.

- I'm just barely clinging to that battlefield.

The only desire I have recognized as an impulse is a dangerous dream rooted in the uncertainty of the world.

- Blurring.

Unexpectedly, I don't know where I stand now - anymore.

◆ ◆ ◆

One, I felt like I was left behind in a narrow space between the world and the world.

◆ ◆ ◆

Do I have a dream outside the battlefield that I can count on in this world?

... I didn't know.

◆ ◆ ◆

"... I don't know"

"... right"

Melea answered honestly.

Elma wasn't in trouble, she wasn't angry, she just smiled softly and watched Melea.

And Elma was holding hands on Merea's cheek.

It was like a mother merciful of her child.

Or like a healthy woman who works for her lover.

"Then 'let's look for it from now on'. It's okay, I'm sure we'll find it soon. You haven't been out in the world long, have you?

"- Yeah."

"I have a lot of brand new stuff. As you look at things like that, you'll soon find them. What, you're gonna be my husband, or what? It's definitely a dream outside the battlefield. Then my dreams will come true! Two birds with one stone!"

Elma took her hands off Merea's cheek, and now with those hands on her hips, she said and showed them with her nose high.

Words I joked and spun to cheer Melea up.

Elma herself, I didn't know how those words came out, but there was no wonder or regret in the words that came out of the way.

Melea laughed at Elma's words like that,

"Ha, that's not bad. Let's think about it."

"What, didn't you say beautiful about me? Answer immediately, answer immediately."

"A lot of people advised me that marriage can only be seen on the outside."

Merea had remembered in nostalgia the lessons of the English spirits who had once laughed at the summit.

"Ha, fine. Then you should see through my insides. - I'm starting to feel like I'm saying something amazing..."

"Shouldn't you mind?

"Mm-hmm. So is that."

Because she would probably blush again, Melea told me like a joke in her chest.

Then from where the other demon kings had gathered by that time,

"Yes, then it's time to leave."

And I heard Shaw,

- 'Cause...

"Oh. Then let's start by looking for a safe place to sleep. If you look for a place outside the battlefield, you can't even keep your ancestral adage. Even Melea would have trouble if she told me to stay on the battlefield and look for dreams off the battlefield."

Elma gave Merea a clear grin and ran towards everyone as she bounced.

Merea looked at her back with a grin as well.

- That's right.

Nod small.

And

"I'll make sure you put it on the road."

Melea still doesn't quite understand her dreams outside the battlefield.

Like then, Pa, the urge didn't come up all the time.

But that's not why the battlefield dream disappeared.

So first of all, I wanted to make my battlefield dream come true.

It was subtle when it came to whether something had changed in the end, but I still felt Merea's back load was a little lighter.

I felt more desperate than ever to survive from the battlefield.

―――

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