Watashi wa Teki ni Narimasen!

"Hiccup."

I was surprised at the drop, but thanks to Reggie landing with me in her arms, I wasn't hurt.

They went inside the dirt rat's nest.

It's dark, but warm thanks to the escape from the blizzard. But it's still cold.

As if I knew that, Reggie, with her sword in her sheath, held me back horizontally.

It's dark ahead. I am making sure that the front and rear are sandwiched by a dirt rat, and I am still being guided somewhere.

But there is no anxiety. Reggie doesn't do anything terrible to me. Because I know you'll protect me.

I'm just worried that you're walking quite a distance. I think it's a hard distance to walk with people, but Reggie doesn't say anything.

"Reggie, I'll walk myself."

I got a little rest, so I don't think I'll flutter than I just did.

"No, you were barefoot. And I want to touch Chiara."

When they say that in the dark, they wander off. I felt the words echo my heart.

Somehow unable to argue any further, he finally went out of the dark soil.

I see the moon.

Round and very bright, full moon.

The light of the moon was illuminating where we were.

It was on the side of the river, under a small cliff. The fast flowing river looks black like washing a large rock. All Reggies and earth mice stood were round little gravel.

So Reggie finally drops me off.

I put my foot directly on the stone, so it's just a little cold.

"Here."

To Reggie's twinkle, I snap my neck.

"You didn't know where you were going to get out?

"The dirt rat has made some exits. Because it was up to that dirt rat where it was going. Either way, it must have been a long way from Liadna on the battlefield. Others should be moving to another exit with dirt mice as well.... Hands out."

When Reggie prompts me to offer him a hand that stays tied, he cuts the rope with his sword.

I was finally relieved to be released. But the marks on the rope tingled, so I scratched them.

Then Reggie treated me for the injury.

You assumed to take me away from the others from the start, and Reggie seemed to have brought some kind of wound medicine with her.

The bandages go wrapped around the marks of the ropes and the wounded palms with Isaac's sword.

But can I take my time here? I twitch that the enemy will find a hole in the dirt rat as well.

"Don't you have to worry about the enemy coming after you or something?

"Miss Emeline and the others are supposed to block me. I hear there's a way a dirt rat might want to plug a hole."

That's the owner.

"I also sacrificed some dirt rats..."

It was painful and painful to see a cute creature with so much appearance slashed with a sword and falling, although it's just me being hit by my body.

"That's what I know and I did, so don't worry about you. Miss Emeline told me that that was okay, and that at the time you brought me to the fort, if you used magic, you would have run right into the middle of the enemy army. than that."

When Reggie, who cut the words, finished wrapping a bandage around his hand, he hugged me.

"I'm glad you're safe"

To Reggie's word, my eyelids get hot.

The truth is, I didn't think anyone was coming to help. He said we shouldn't expect it.

If you do that, someone will get hurt. There was nothing I could do to kill people in the war, and I finally gave up, but at least I didn't want the people I cared about to get hurt.

So I thought it would be a second time for me to escape.

Let Falgia win, and then he tried to give priority to defeating Viscount Credias. Because without Viscount Credias, Falgia would not struggle.

Yet you came.

I'm glad you were worried about me, and I think you still need me, and that's all my heart feels filled.

Happy, at ease, I couldn't stop crying.

"Chiara, don't cry"

Reggie caresses my back so I can fool around. The feeling of familiar hands makes me cry well.

"You made me feel scared. Sorry I couldn't be there to help you so quickly."

I wanted to tell you not to apologize, but the whimpering got in the way and I can't say anything.

Because it's not Reggie's fault. Because I made my own decision to follow the war.

But I knew I was scared, so I cling to Reggie.

I couldn't even reply as it was, but while I was crying for a while, it seemed to have subsided a little, and the tears finally stopped. But I lay still with my forehead against Reggie's chest, not being able to lift my face.

Then Reggie said as she stroked her head.

"It's time to see your face."

"Shit. Because you're crying and you look terrible."

I refused immediately. If you're Isaac or something, I don't care if you like it if you think it's terrible when you're fully disillusioned, but I don't want Reggie and the others to see it like that.

"I don't care. Chiara's always cute."

"... eh"

To such a straightforward compliment, I almost inadvertently held my breath.

I lifted my right hand like Reggie was nothing.

"Has the ring been taken away?

Even the moonlight would have fully understood that there was no ring. But you want to make sure, he moves you to stroke your fingers and tickles you. It's not the same, I answer to the feeling that I'm not sure what it is.

"Um, using it to stab the Viscount..."

"You got a stabbing situation?

Reggie asked me back and I realized I had said something extra.

My idiot! How could I have said that when it just made Reggie worry?

"Um, it's okay. Because Aida helped me, and then Isaac kept me away..."

"I need to keep you away from me. You got eyes on me, didn't you? What did they do?

"Wow. Eh, they're going to take me to manage because I'm a magician..."

"You said it was to manage, and you got close enough to stab me, didn't you?

I felt like I couldn't deny it any more and I tried to escape. 'Cause I can't tell you how embarrassed I was that I was about to get attacked.

"But no more questions!

If I leave like that, Reggie gives up before I get stubborn. I thought so.

I couldn't get my hands off Reggie's hand, which was gently gripped. I'm afraid to let go.

Then Reggie wraps his other hand around me.

"Chiara, don't you hate being touched by me?

I nodded, being asked quietly and not knowing what to do myself.

"Even if you were holding me, didn't you hate me?

"... because there was"

When I gave it back, I laughed small.

"Then don't run away, will you?

I feel like I've been told that before. When I said "I wouldn't run away from Reggie" remembering when it was, I was held softer than I had just been, and on the contrary, held up.

In no time, Reggie sits holding me on a nearby rock.

I can put my right hand up and mouth on my middle finger, which is missing the ring, in a groping gap wondering if it's not heavy.

"Don't like this?

"I don't like it..."

I don't think it means I'm angry, even if I've broken the ring.

My chest hurts at the same time. I feel so spared not wearing a ring.

But just to make sure it's gone, you don't have to mouth it, but isn't that what you do to whoever you want?

But I can't ask. Scared.

Because if you're nobles, you know you can talk to your fingers in a social dictionary. If I were a royal Reggie, I might only have that degree of meaning there.

If you know for sure...

I just thought about it and I vividly recall Isaac's words.

- You don't believe in romantic feelings?

I wonder why Isaac mentioned that. Reggie whispered to me about to think about it.

"Then what's this?

When asked and looked up, Reggie's lips touched her cheeks.

Even though it's only for a moment, there's a sweet feeling in the back of my chest. The blurry comfort of my head makes me feel restless.

But not like when Isaac did the same thing to me.

I feel like I could figure out why, and I stare at Reggie.

"I know you were captured to protect Wentworth, but I've been worried about you. Thanks to you, Wentworth came back alive."

Well, Mr. Cain's back safe and sound.

I breathe when I know how cheap it is.

Reggie gently wiped my cheeks, which were still wet as she smiled, with her hands peering through her fingers until just now.

"I wanted to do that if it was something I could replace. I'm not sure I'll let you stay out of my sight from now on.... Chiara, that's how important you are"

They tell me it's important, and the tears that I should have pulled in are about to seep into my eyes again.

"I'm sorry to make you worry. But don't do anything dangerous anymore. I'd do something about it, and I don't like Reggie getting killed or hurt."

"I don't agree with you on all this."

To be honest, Reggie laughs bitterly but doesn't accept it.

Terrible, I thought he whispered to me.

"I won't pull on this either. Because no one is more important than you.... I like you, Chiara."

I like it.

Reggie said I was holding my breath like I was being poked in the chest.

Reggie's face approached me as I anticipated the moment... and I was mouthed.

I never thought of avoiding it.

Just as soon as I realized my lips were soft, I got so hot that my face seemed to ignite.

When moved to be bewitched, he falls into a sensation that shivers his spine. It's like falling somewhere, close to feeling that way.

But I wasn't scared like Isaac, and I was confused by myself wanting to make me feel more at ease.

At the same time, I think I only figured out a little bit about what Isaac tried to tell me that day.

The reason I was dying. But I wanted to help, and even though I knew it was dangerous, I followed you to the battlefield.

Didn't I try to teach you the difference between me and Reggie when I said I resented you?

Tell me to know the difference between someone I like and someone I don't.

... well, I liked it.

Shit, that word impregnates in my mind.

Since when? But I'm sure it's pretty much from the beginning.

I just knew him. He came running away on his own, and there's no one I can count on. Only Reggie believed me, under dubious and natural circumstances, even if I spoke honestly.

But I thought there was no way this guy would fall in love with me. Even now, I wonder if I'm lost in liking it.

Somewhere, you seem like someone from a different world.

Because you think there's no way a prince in the game is in love with himself?

So sometimes, even if Reggie did something that would step over the boundaries of her friends, would she have tried to think she was being teased? If you think it's a joke, you don't think calm relationships can break.

But when the lips leave, it becomes crummy.

Because of that, I felt engraved in my heart that my feelings were not lies.

Reggie tells me.

"I won't apologize this time. I didn't want you to hate me and I wasn't trying to force you to do this, but I thought I didn't like it when you were gone and I couldn't tell you. That's why I've decided to say it all already."

"Why, all of it?

"I like it, so I didn't want you to fight. I really wanted to lock you up and protect you from getting out of nowhere. Because I wanted you to live even if I died. I wanted you to know that, but Chiara didn't have to go through with it. In the meantime, I put all Wentworth on my side, and I thought I was going to make him the best, and I just might have to leave before it gets hard."

"What, Mr. Cain?

"'Cause even if Wentworth was holding me, Chiara didn't hate me"

Did you mean at Baron Delphion's castle?... were you watching? It embarrasses me when I know that.

"Cain thought he just wanted to talk to someone..."

I couldn't forget about the family Mr. Cain lost then, and I thought he wanted a replacement. You wouldn't cry because you're a man, but if you're lonely and hard, you just felt like lending me a little chest.

That's why you told me you liked him, too, and I didn't take it directly from the front. Because before I accepted it or anything, I thought something was different.

But I can't delude the difference anymore. It's all Isaac's fault.

"But... I decided to stop shying away"

Reggie smiles feeling good.

"I may find you annoying or have trouble being bound, but I want to say what I want to say as much as possible. Because I didn't want to be able to say it again. But... didn't you like Chiara?

My answer is settled.

I had always decided, but I was just pretending not to know.

"I don't like how Reggie feels... no. But about me, I really don't..."

You like me without lying to me?

This is all a dream, and I'm scared that when I wake up, it's going to feel like there wasn't.

If I held Reggie's cape collar tight at some point, Reggie would put his own hand on my hand like that. That's all, I'm so glad this feeling that you figured out my confusion, too.

"Unbelievable?

"... a little, scary"

You're supposed to recognize that this is reality, but I was afraid to say what it felt like to take a step. I'm not sure myself why I'm so scared.

"I think I understand why you think that way. So I'm going to make sure you understand as many times as I can, until I don't think I'm scared. If you're not scared in time, I want you to let me know how Chiara feels. I'll wait till then."

Reggie was not forced to push.

Is it because I know that my feelings are inclined?

"I like you, Chiara"

Reggie hugs me again to teach me it's not a dream, and she repeats the same words.

I close my eyes to immerse myself in gentle words, and I remember the person who made me realize what had put a lid on the bottom of my heart.

Isaac, what did you think you did?