Chapter 105: The one my heart chose…
Still, as much as her sudden closeness continued to unsettle him, he couldn’t deny that having the very spirit of Aegis on his side, willingly offering her support against a common enemy, was an opportunity he couldn’t afford to simply dismiss.
Leon chuckled awkwardly under his breath, a slightly strained sound escaping him as an amusing thought crossed his mind.
’That bastard is the spirit of one of my items...’ he thought, unable to help the odd humor buried somewhere beneath the tension of the moment.
Considering Arthur, the very spirit residing within Excalibur, was the man who had rejected and humiliated him so thoroughly, the idea of being tied to him through legendary items on both sides felt almost ironic.
He didn’t say any of that out loud, though, choosing instead to keep the thought to himself as he stood there with Medusa still leaning against his arm.
It became increasingly clear to him that she didn’t actually know the full details of what had happened between him and Arthur in that strange, otherworldly dimension.
She hadn’t mentioned the specifics, hadn’t brought up his rejection directly, or the exact words Arthur had used to strip him of his right to wield Excalibur.
All she seemed capable of sensing was the raw hatred and simmering desire for revenge he carried toward the man, buried beneath the surface ever since that encounter.
That alone, apparently, had been more than enough for her to conclude that the two of them shared something meaningful in common, a shared enemy bound together by circumstance.
Leon, meanwhile, found himself growing increasingly distracted by something far less complicated than spirits, revenge, or legendary items.
The soft, undeniable pressure of her chest pressing gently against his arm was becoming harder to ignore with every passing second, and as much as he tried to focus on the conversation, he couldn’t deny that a part of him didn’t mind the feeling at all.
It was, admittedly, the first time he had ever been this physically close to a girl, let alone someone as strikingly beautiful as Medusa currently was.
His pulse picked up slightly, an unfamiliar warmth creeping up the back of his neck despite his best efforts to stay composed.
’What kind of spirit is this...’ he thought helplessly, caught somewhere between confusion, caution, and an entirely different kind of distraction he hadn’t expected to be dealing with today.
As if sensing his growing unease, Medusa only hugged his arm even tighter in response, pressing herself closer against him as though she were trying to sink further into his side.
The motion pushed his arm even deeper against her, the soft press of her chest now unmistakable, and Leon felt his heart begin to race before he even fully registered why.
He swallowed hard, keeping his eyes fixed straight ahead, doing his best not to let his composure crack any further than it already had.
Every instinct told him to pull away, to put some reasonable distance between them again the way he had the first time, yet something about the warmth radiating from her, and the quiet, genuine affection behind her actions, made it difficult to bring himself to actually do it.
Medusa tilted her head slightly, resting it more comfortably against his shoulder, seemingly unbothered by how flustered he had become.
"Don’t worry," she said softly, her voice carrying a gentle, reassuring warmth to it now, far removed from the sharp, dangerous edge she’d shown earlier. "I’ll support you with all I have..."
She paused for a moment, her grip around his arm tightening just slightly, almost protectively.
"After all," she continued, her voice dropping into something quieter, softer, carrying a weight that felt far more personal than anything she had said so far, "you’re the one my heart chose."
The last part of her words came out barely above a whisper, so soft that even Leon, standing as close to her as he was, couldn’t quite make them out.
He turned his head toward her slightly, frowning. "What did you say?"
Medusa simply shrugged, a faint, unreadable smile tugging at her lips.
"Don’t worry about it," she said, brushing the question aside easily.
Leon nodded slowly, letting it go despite the nagging feeling in the back of his mind.
’I could have sworn she said something though...’ he thought, unable to shake the sense that whatever she’d muttered had mattered, even if she clearly had no intention of repeating it.
Medusa slowly loosened her grip on his arm, freeing it at last, and stepped back in front of him, putting just enough distance between them to look him properly in the eye.
She reached out and placed her hand gently against his chest once more, her expression calm and unhurried.
"We’re done here..." she said softly. "But I don’t want you to leave just yet."
Leon’s eyes narrowed slightly at that, his earlier caution creeping back in. "Why’s that?"
Before he could react, Medusa gave him a light, sudden push against his chest, and his balance gave out from under him instantly.
He dropped backward onto the soft grass below, landing gracelessly, like a sack of potatoes hitting the ground with a dull thud.
He blinked up at the sky, momentarily stunned, before Medusa stepped forward and stood directly over him, a faint, teasing smile playing across her face as she looked down at him.
Leon gulped, staring up at her, his mind racing through a dozen possibilities as to what she might be planning next.
Given everything that had already happened in the short time since he’d arrived here, he wasn’t sure whether to brace himself or simply wait and see.
"What are you doing?" he asked, his voice carrying a mix of confusion and wariness.
Medusa ignored the question entirely. Instead, without any further explanation, she lowered herself down and lay beside him on the grass, stretching out comfortably next to his side.
She said nothing else, simply lying there quietly, her long green hair fanning out gently across the grass beneath her.
For a few seconds, neither of them spoke a single word.
They simply lay there together on the soft, endless field, side by side, staring up at the wide, open sky stretching out peacefully above them, the earlier tension between them slowly fading into something quieter, calmer, and strangely comfortable despite everything that had just happened.
Medusa slowly shifted closer to him, closing what little distance remained between them, and wrapped her arm around his once again, settling in against his side with the same easy, unguarded familiarity she had shown him only moments earlier.
Leon’s mind went momentarily blank the instant her scent reached him, a sweet, flowery fragrance drifting off her skin, warm and faint, curling around him with every small movement she made.
It was unlike anything he had smelled before, delicate yet impossible to ignore, and for a few seconds he simply lay there, unable to form a coherent thought.
"Leon Allistar..." she murmured softly, her voice barely rising above a whisper against the quiet stillness of the field around them. "You’ll surely come back here to see me, won’t you?"
"Yeah..." Leon muttered, still a little dazed, his voice trailing off before he could think of anything more to add. "I guess..."
Before he fully registered what was happening, she leaned in even closer, closing the last remaining inches between them, until he could feel the faint warmth of her breath brushing softly against his nose, her face now hovering directly above his own.
He gulped hard, his composure cracking slightly under the sudden, overwhelming closeness.
"For now, though..." he said carefully, choosing his words with visible effort, "maybe we shouldn’t be this close to each other."
Medusa only smiled at that, unbothered, her hand drifting up slowly to rest gently against his chest. Her fingers moved in slow, idle strokes across the fabric of his shirt, deliberate and unhurried.
"Why...?" she asked, her tone light and teasing, clearly enjoying his obvious discomfort far more than she should have.
Leon opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again almost immediately, completely at a loss for words. His mouth kept opening and shutting uselessly, no actual sound managing to escape past his lips no matter how many times he tried.
Then, without any warning at all, the sweet floral scent surrounding them slowly began to shift.
It twisted gradually into something else entirely, faint at first, then stronger, until it had fully transformed into the thick, unmistakable stench of sewage, heavy and foul in a way that felt jarringly out of place against the peaceful field.
His vision spun sharply the moment the smell fully hit him, the beautiful, endless field blurring and warping around the edges of his sight.
Within seconds, both the grass beneath him and Medusa herself had vanished entirely, swallowed up by the sudden, disorienting shift.
Instead of soft grass, Leon found himself lying awkwardly sprawled across the top of a large, overflowing garbage bin, the disgusting stench growing stronger and more suffocating with every passing second, thick enough to catch in the back of his throat.
He sprang upright almost instantly, scrambling gracelessly out of the bin in a rush, one hand clamping tightly over his nose in sheer disgust as he stumbled away from the source of the smell, his legs still unsteady beneath him as he tried to shake off the abrupt, jarring return to reality.