“You…”
Airi turned around and looked behind her toward Shien, who was hugging, with a somewhat disbelieving expression.
“What is it?”
Shien showed a calm facade, but he was actually shouting excitedly in his heart.
It couldn’t be helped. The loli in his hands was just so soft, so nice and light too. Plus, she felt great in his hands. Shien nearly fell the instant he picked her up.
Plus, Shien kind of wanted to laugh at the disbelieving expression that Airi was showing him.
“I only picked you up, that’s all. Is there a need to be so surprised at it?”
Given just how unbelievably adorable this little girl was, likely everyone in the world would have wanted to try picking her up and hugging her. Her family probably have done that a lot, right?
Yet, as Shien was thinking that, Airi instead fell silent.
“… It was indeed very surprising.” Airi muttered, “I don’t even remember how long it’s been since I’ve been hugged like this.”
Shien’s previous thoughts were thus shattered by Airi’s words.
“Has no one hugged you before?”
Shien was truly surprised now.
Yet, unexpectedly, Airi just lowered her eyes even further.
“Of course there was.” Airi spoke dully, “Only, that was something a long long time ago.”
“Is that so?” Shien looked at her like a child pretending to be an adult and laughed, “How long ago was that exactly then?”
“At the very least, far longer than you may have thought.” Airi spoke in a tone that was half reminiscing, half sorrow, “There was only her who could pick me up and hold me like this, but she’s no longer around anymore.”
Airi’s words turned the atmosphere around them heavy.
“Cough…”
Shien didn’t know what to say there.
Looking at the cute girl reminiscing, Shien had now seriously started suspecting something.
(This girl called Airi. Could she really be someone unbelievable?”)
Undetectable magic power.
Strangely mature yet self-assured mannerism.
And now this atmosphere now.
All those factors were pretty much telling Shien that Airi may not be merely a cute little girl like what her appearance shows.
(…Based on the usual tropes, she might seriously be some unbelievable big shot.)
It can’t be some hundreds or thousands of years old goddess or demon who ran here to the mortal world to pretend to be a kid, right?
Just as Shien was thinking that, Airi seemed to have detected something and turned her head.
“I feel like you’re thinking something rude about me. Am I mistaken?”
Airi stared intently at Shien, making Shien feel a chill down his back for some reason.
Now Shien was certain.
This cute little girl was definitely not just some normal kid from some noble family, but a real bit shot.
As for how big a big shot she might be, that’s something that Shien didn’t know.
Thus, Shien could only give a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“Not at all. You’re overthinking it. Yeah, overthinking it.”
It’s unknown if those words were said to Airi or for himself.
“Never mind.” Although Airi still had a suspicious look on her face, she gave up pursuing it further in the end. She just looked at Shien, who was still holding her up, “Speaking of, why did you grab me?”
Of course it’s to prevent you from running off!
Shien really wanted to say that.
However, there were plenty of other ways if he just didn’t want her to run off on her own. Like calling for her to stop, or grabbing her arm or something. There was no real need to grab her and pull her up.
But that’s exactly what Shien did.
The reason for that was simple. It’s just that when he saw that cute little girl getting ready to run toward the palace with her little legs in that strangely self-assured way of hers, Shien ended up being unable to resist and just did it on impulse.
(Would I get hit if I just told her the truth?)
Shien hesitated.
If his guess that Airi was actually some kind of big shot wasn’t wrong, then Shien might not actually care about that. However, now that he did guess it, there’s no way that he’d actually speak truthfully here.
After all, who knows just how big a big shot she might actually be, and whether or no he’d be able to handle it if she got mad?
With that in mind, Shien could only speak vaguely.
“No particular reason. I just suddenly wanted to. Is that no good?”
The moment he said that, Shien kind of started to suspect if he was some kind of pervert.