"Forest? At this hour?
Lilty became more and more annoyed and smaller as Almark shook his face.
"Lilty, you better not go to the woods at night if you don't have much to do. Tomorrow."
There are no good memories of Almark or anything in the Night Forest.
Filled with the forest at night are darkness and danger, betrayal and evil. It's all that kind of stuff.
"But... I have to go. Bye!!
That's what Lilty says. No, he slipped past Almark and ran away.
Almark was slightly taken aback and dropped off the little lamp light shaking away.
Lilty is known for being particularly frightening among her fellow classmates. That's the only thing that frightens my back when the torque shouts out loud, and I tremble, and if the road back to the dorm gets any darker, I don't want to go home alone.
I didn't know such a lilty would take one lamp to the woods after the sun had completely fallen. It would mean there was something extra going on.
Almark saw the road leading to the dorm and thought about dinner, which would now be lined up in the dining room.
Then I looked back and saw the road leading to the woods, and I thought about Lilty running alone on one hand with the little lamp.
... If I see it, I can't help it.
Almark sighed one and ran out after Lilty.
The woods behind the elementary school buildings are a playground and a place for students to dress up.
Some streams and pompous open primaries are ideal for kids to play with.
There are also complex terrain, such as waterfalls and rocks, if you proceed to the back of the forest, and there is also a wealth of valuable wild grass that can be a raw material for healing techniques and other sorceries.
The forest covers a considerable area of the College's premises and extends to the middle and higher school buildings.
Not without danger, especially if you go to the back, there are demons, there are sealed ruins, and so on, but no one at the junior student level seems to have ever ascertained its authenticity.
Almark wasn't interested either, but now that I don't have time for my studies and training anyway, I've only gotten the minimum I need, such as when I go to pick up the weed to use in my conditioning practice of healing techniques.
Other students who have been familiar with the woods since freshman year lead to the complicated paths in the woods as if they were the gardens of their own homes, and Nelson and Morgen also seem to often go to the woods after school.
"Lilty!"
Lilty turned around with a crying face as the chasing Almark rang from behind.
"It's not safe alone. I'm coming, too."
Lilty let the words shine her face all the time, but soon she clouded her face again,
"But I'm sorry..."
and shook his head.
"At this hour, Maia's already cleaned up dinner. I'll go out with you. Instead, tell me why you have to go to the woods."
Lilty hesitated for a moment, but the courage to go alone seemed to happen to have been frustrated with eyes on the woods surrounded by the pitch-black darkness that spread in front of her. answered in a small voice.
"... I lost it in the woods"
"Lost it? What?"
"My father and mother gave it to me, handkerchief"
"Handkerchief, no?
I accidentally shouted. Lilty gets embarrassed.
"If my parents gave it to me, I know it's important... but it has to be today."
"... I can't sleep"
"Huh?"
"............ Without it, I can't sleep!!
Almark solidified into unexpected words.
"... so I didn't want to say"
Lilty doesn't look at Almark, she stares at the woods with tears.
"... sorry. Tell me more, Lilty."
Almark hastily apologized.
Listening to and summing up stories that don't get Lilty's guidelines, this is what it looks like.
Lilty's lost handkerchief, she said, was what her parents gave her when she came to school to distract her from the loneliness of dorm life.
I missed living away from my parents, Lilty crying every night at first, but by grabbing that handkerchief every day and sleeping thinking about my parents, I finally started not to cry.
Even now that it was completely habituated and used to dorm life, I couldn't sleep without that handkerchief.
"... that's crazy. I can't believe I can't sleep without a handkerchief when I'm 11"
Lilty says like a shin.
"Hmmm......"
Almark remembered the pendant of his own mother's shapes. If I lost that one in the woods... would I look for it tomorrow?
No.
"Okay. Thanks for talking to me. It's okay, you'll find it. Let's look together."
Lilty saw Almark's face much more in unexpected words.
"You don't laugh."
"It's important to each person."
Lilty nods with a surprised look.
And then I was embarrassed to say, "Yeah. That's right," he muttered.