Chapter 157: The Dagger is Short, the Light Pierces, and the Flame Runs 8
*
The moment Shin called her name.
Despite wanting so desperately to return to his side just moments ago, Erika increased her running speed.
Impossible.
It’s just too impossible.
Just hearing Shin call her name made her face twist into something rather unbecoming of a lady.
Was she supposed to show him this face? No, she wouldn’t mind showing him, but she had no idea what she might blurt out afterward.
No, in the first place…
“How embarrassing.”
Erika covered her face with both hands as she ran.
Her palms felt hot.
Anyway, it’s embarrassing.
It’s so embarrassing she doesn’t even know what’s embarrassing anymore, and yet her heart feels buoyant.
For a short while, Erika ran through the crowd relying solely on her Presence Detection Skill.
Shin called her name again.
Hoaahhh, this tingling sensation feels wrong somehow.
Her steps grew lighter, her speed increasing unconsciously.
Reacting to her increased speed, Shin shouted her name again.
The tinge of panic in his voice made her heart pound.
What, what should I do?
Erika picked up even more speed, turning the first corner she saw.
Her uncontrollable emotions, her irrational actions.
And on top of that, Shin was chasing her.
Having reached the peak of confusion, Erika somehow started to find it all fun.
*
Eh, what is this?
That was the honest thought of the Maiden of Light, Lou Memphis.
Just a moment ago, in her confusion, she had inadvertently struck her best friend’s husband.
But now, she was even more confused.
For some reason, her best friend’s husband, Shin Longdagger, was running around town shouting her friend’s name at the top of his lungs.
If you could call running across rooftops “around town,” that is.
It made no sense.
She had been shaken and confused by Erika’s expression and voice earlier, but this was even more bewildering.
Why was he shouting her name?
If he wanted to stop her, shouldn’t he say “Wait!” or something else?
Shin made no sense, but Erika also made little sense.
Just moments ago, Erika, having looped around, had dashed past right in front of her, face flushed red, mouth mumbling indistinctly as she ran at explosive speed.
It was unbelievable that her best friend, the Erika Solntsalri, had let out a voice like a lost child.
It was also unbelievable that the Erika Solntsalri would make such a face.
No, in the first place, it was unbelievable that they were using Physical Enhancement to run around a town overflowing with people everywhere.
She didn’t understand why no one had died yet.
The fact that she wasn’t the only one confused by this situation was the only saving grace, suggesting this wasn’t their normal routine—it isn’t their normal routine, right?
What kind of salvation was that?
Until just a little while ago—until Erika ran past—her new friend had been so confused she was muttering nonsensical things like, “The town will burn, at this rate the town will burn.”
Now, that same friend, the Sister of the Church, Shara Lansra, was clutching her head beside her, groaning, “Forced sugar, sugar in my ears,” making it clear this was no salvation for her.
“Luu-chan, please stop them, those two! If not both, then at least Erika!”
Shaa-chan says the funniest things.
Luu thought this as she looked at Shara’s pleading face.
“Things that even a dog wouldn’t eat, I probably can’t eat either, you know?”
Shara stared blankly.
After a few moments of silence, she clutched her head and screamed.
“It’s a lovers’ quarrel?!”
Good, seems like she got it.
“What else did you think it was, other than a lovers’ quarrel?”
“I thought maybe Shin-san had whispered some sweet words of love so intense that Erika ran away.”
Shin-kun was that kind of character?
Surprising.
Perhaps he really is a bad man?
Luu recalled the suspicion she had intuitively dismissed the moment Shin first greeted her.
No, he probably is a bad man.
No matter how you look at it, he’s charmed Erika far too much.
She hadn’t expected Erika to react like that just because Shin-kun spoke with her for a bit.
She hadn’t expected Erika, who was usually quick to give up on things slipping from her grasp, to show such possessiveness.
When it was laid bare so obviously like that, even someone who hadn’t known them long could understand.
She understood their feelings for each other, and she understood that Shin-kun was utterly devoted to Erika.
But that was the work of a major “charmer.”
The type that hits the mark perfectly for certain people.
The fact that he seemed completely unaware of it made him particularly troublesome.
He was surely the type to casually sit down next to something someone had spent decades building up.
And then he would praise it with a completely innocent face, perhaps even offer respect.
He probably wouldn’t care what had been built.
He would simply praise the process itself.
If he were merely ordinary, or just reasonably talented, it wouldn’t have been a problem.
“ERIKAAAA!”
He was abnormality itself.
A voice so loud you suspected it might reach outside the town.
At that point, the intensity of his Physical Enhancement was clearly not normal.
Even she, who had only recently begun systematically learning magic, could tell.
That was abnormal.
She could probably shout that loudly too; not just her, many others could as well.
But how many people could leap around on rooftops without breaking them while using enough Physical Enhancement to produce such a loud voice?
Moreover, Shin’s voice wasn’t the high-pitched squeal, normally inaudible to the human ear, that often accompanied Physical Enhancement.
Could it be that he was increasing the Physical Enhancement intensity only in his throat and lungs while deliberately lowering his voice pitch?
If so, his dexterity was freakishly skillful, enough to leave one speechless.
It rivaled the precision of Erika’s magical control.
And such an abnormal guy sits next to you and says:
You built up that much? That’s amazing.
Not the thing built, but the process of building it—that that is what’s precious.
Of course, that would hit home. Of course, it would.
For a kind-hearted lonely soul atop a peak of solitary achievement, one prone to calmly accepting loneliness and iniquity.
For her precious best friend, of course, that would strike deep.
“Good grief, this is really something.”
Luu couldn’t help but mutter this as she watched her best friend running towards her again.
“I can’t really complain, can I?”