“… Ah.”
“…”
Feeling Riley’s hand gently holding her own cheek and creating a sweet mood, Nainiae blushed out of embarrassment. However, the moment didn’t last long.
“Uuuuu?”
Her blushing cheek was stretched out like marshmallow.
“Y… Young Master.”
Feeling the skin on her cheek being pulled, Nainiae cringed her eyes. She started to struggle. It looked like she was begging him to stop.
“What happened? How come you know about it?”
Riley had asked how Nainiae knew about his past life.
“T… That is… That is!”
It seemed she was asking Riley to let go of the cheek first. Nainiae was struggling with tears in her eyes. Riley brought his face close to Nainiae and smiled violently. He was implying it would be good for her give straight answers.
* * *
To prevent what happened at Solia, the last time, from repeating, Nainiae put away Kabal’s dead body in the dimensional space. She organized the crater in the area as she told Riley about the things that had happened so far.
“… You received them in the dream?”
“Yes. A woman in black… She said she was the Goddess of the world that you used to live in your past life. I met her in the dream. I received the memories of your past life from her as well.”
Having heard the explanation about what happened in the dream, Riley crumpled his face. Noticing this, Nainiae carefully asked,
“By any chance… have you met her before?”
She asked because she was worried about Riley. However, because the Goddess’ face was very similar to her own, Nainiae was concerned that Riley might hate her because of it. That’s why she asked.
“No. I resented her, but I had never met her.”
“Is that so?”
“I wish I could see her face just to see what she looks like. What an ungrateful bitch…isn’t she? If she took advantage of me that much, it should have been enough. Yet, she is trying to put me to work again?”
It seemed that he didn’t like this. Riley ground his teeth and poured out curses at the Goddess in the black dress and they had no way of knowing what could have happened to her now. While at it, he listened to the rest of the explanation from Nainiae.
He listened to everything as Nainiae explained that the power used in Riley’s past life is creeping into this world and how the Goddess said it would be best to handle the situation quickly. Nainiae also mentioned what the Goddess said about the Holy Sword.
“As I thought, there is something to the ‘World Below’ that Ian was worried about, but it was that. I see.”
Rile had a rough idea based on the purple colored people and what Ian had told him. With an annoyed look on his face, Riley started to scratch his head.
“What about Rorona’s side?”
Riley was scratching his head to organize his thoughts. He asked about Rorona, the mercenary who they had seen, before coming here.
“Fortunately, Mr. Reitri followed us, so I left her in his care and came to find you. On the way, I ran into Kabal mercenaries who were carrying Ms. Priesia and Nara on their backs, so I also left the two of them in Mr. Reitri’s care.”
Nainiae explained these were the reasons why she ended up joining Riley later than she expected. She rubbed her cheek, which had turned red and asked,
“Is there anything else that you want to know about?”
Now that he was finished with Kabal, he was going to go back and check on Nara’s and Priesia’s situation. Riley turned to look at Nainiae.
“Ah, I have one more thing.”
He said he almost forgot to ask this one thing. Riley came closer to Nainiae and asked,
“About me taking a nap inside the cave last time…”
Riley had an angry look in his eyes. Facing Riley’s glare, Nainiae flinched her shoulders and slowly avoided the gaze.
“…”
“About that, I recommend that you tell me honestly about what happened?”
Riley said it with a refreshing smile. Following his lead, Nainiae also smiled awkwardly. She then carefully opened her mouth.
“That is… I was worried about you, Young Master. So, I had no choice but to use a sleep spell…”
Nainiae muttered in mosquito size voice. However, Riley definitely heard what she said. He ground his teeth big time and brought his hand toward Nainiae.
“Ah, ah ah… Young Master, I’m sorry…”
Riley pulled Nainiae’s cheek. Suppressing the frustration that he was feeling, Riley asked,
“I see. So, was that another choice that you made because ‘you wanted to’?”
“Young Master, about that…”
“I also feel like I want to pull someone’s cheek.”
For a long time, Riley grabbed Nainiae’s cheek and stretched it out as he ground his teeth. It looked like he had enough. He let go of Nainiae’s cheek and forgave her.
“Uuu. So… What are you going to do now?”
At first, it was her right cheek. And now, it was her left cheek. Nainiae rubbed her cheeks with her hands and looked at Riley’s back.
“Do you even need to ask? First, let’s go get free lunch from Reitri, and then…”
“No, I’m not asking about that.”