Chapter 116: Your Hands, Your Eyes 4
*
See, like this.
The moment I thought I heard those words, my eyes snapped open, and I sprang up with all my might.
An iron stake was piercing the spot where my stomach had been as I lay collapsed, telling me exactly who the speaker was.
“You really did wake up, didn’t you?”
Responding to Erica’s voice, Elza was teaching her something outrageous, saying this was the quickest way to wake up her Senior Disciple.
Stop it, you idiot! If it were an attack from Erica, I’d gladly accept it, which means I’d die, you know?
“Please, Erica, don’t ever imitate that.”
Perhaps because my voice was quite serious, Erica replied, looking offended, “I would never do such a thing.”
“Putting that aside,” Erica said.
“You’ve succeeded admirably, My Lord.”
Erica’s gaze turned towards the remains of the Jewelhead Dragon.
Atop the sand-like Magic Stone Fragments, a fist-sized Magic Stone sat imposingly.
They say the value of a Magic Stone isn’t determined by size alone, but even so, it seemed surprisingly small, I thought.
At the same time, I realized Erika was misunderstanding something.
That wasn’t my objective.
My spirits sank as I patted my Tool Shed.
“W-Wait, wait, hold on! I almost let it slide, but what was that just now?”
I looked at Erica and Elza’s faces.
Just when I thought I’d defeated the Blackened Dragon, I was thrown into an even deadlier situation.
I desperately needed an explanation, at the very least.
“Something incredible came, so it was just instinct, I suppose.”
Oh? You almost skewered your Senior Disciple ‘just because’?
I was about to be exasperated by Elza’s nonchalant answer, but then again, she’s the type who’d aim to skewer me deliberately, far from ‘just because’.
You’ve got to be kidding me. ‘Just because’ would actually be better.
“Um…”
Erica searched for words in response to Elza’s non-explanation.
Hoping for a proper answer, I looked towards Erica.
“From a distance, it looked like you had collapsed, so I thought I must rush over immediately…”
Her words gave me a general idea of the situation.
Erica, being dutiful because she had promised, must have rushed towards me with all her might when I dropped to one knee.
And what was the result?
My Female Disciple, who’s a bit… off, must have reacted to Erica’s full power.
Perhaps because she’s a resident of a simply mad world divided into Others, Enemies, and People Allowed to Kill Her, Elza is sensitive to hostility.
But this time, it seems that sensitivity didn’t work quite accurately.
When I glanced at Elza, she tilted her head in response to my gaze.
Are you trying to fool me with that, my Female Disciple?
Deciding it was fine, I turned my gaze back to Erica, who blushed and sharply averted her eyes.
Incredibly cute.
“That… it is Shin’s fault.”
Should I just prostrate myself?
At Erica’s final verdict, I seriously considered how to apologize. There was no ‘why?’ here; if Erika said so, then it was so.
But my contemplation was interrupted.
“What do you think I should do?”
It was a teary-eyed Shara.
“How do you expect anyone to believe that just two adventurers subjugated a Blackened Dragon?”
She approached with unsteady steps.
This is scary.
“If they don’t believe me, it’ll be back to daily interviews! I’m so sick of people questioning my sanity! I thought something interesting was happening with Shin-san, but this is just too much!”
Saying something quite rude about me, Shara clung to me.
This girl who can call that interesting is really something else.
“Like I know!”
One wrong move and I’ll toss you somewhere you’ll get your head blown off, damn you.
“You’re the one who actually defeated it, Shin-san!”
As Shara shook my shoulders while shouting, Erica watched from behind with an amused smile.
Her eyes were merciful, like looking at a hopeless younger sister, but Erika, that look will only spoil her.
“I’m bummed out too because I couldn’t achieve my goal! How can I take responsibility for your side of things too?!”
—Huh?
Erica and Shara tilted their heads simultaneously at my voice as I yelled while peeling Shara off me.
“But Shin-san, you defeated it splendidly, didn’t you?”
I regretted blurting that out, but it was too late now.
I messed up. What a slip of the tongue, saying that in front of Erica.
“Actually…”
Well, what’s said is said.
I explained that my target wasn’t the Dragon, but the jewel it dropped.
“Eh? You were trying to subjugate a Dragon just because you wanted to gift a jewel?”
To be precise, a ring using that jewel, I corrected mentally while listening to Shara’s exasperated words.
So, because you wanted a jewel, you hunted Monsters like crazy to make a Dragon that definitely drops jewels appear, and even when the Dragon that appeared underwent Blackening, you didn’t give up and tried to defeat it, and unbelievably, you actually defeated it?
Shara rattled all that off in one breath, and then—scoffed with a ‘Ha’.
“Are you an idiot?”
“No.”
Elza’s sharp voice cut into Shara’s blunt assessment.
“Senior Disciple isn’t an idiot. He seems to have joined the ranks of the fools, so he’s a fool.”
“Is that so?”
Shara brushed off Elza’s words.
You’re amazing sometimes.
“So, Shin-san, despite pulling off something straight out of some heroic legend by defeating a Blackened Dragon, you’re lamenting that you didn’t get the jewel you wanted?”
Shara laughed, grinning broadly.
“Don’t tell me things that will just make people doubt my sanity even more when I explain it as it is!?”
Well, yeah.
“The jewel itself did drop, though.”
It did drop, didn’t it! I ignored the shouting Shara.
“It was supposed to drop a jewel called ‘Priestess’ Eye’.”
I opened the Lid of the Tool Shed to take out the jewel.
“I see, so that was what you wanted to obtain… a gift, is that it?”
The one who said that was Erica.
Well, yeah. I figured she’d realize.
If I was trying to obtain a jewel, Erika would immediately figure out why.
After all, it was Erika who made me realize I hadn’t given her a ring in the first place.
I wanted to give it to her in a cooler way if possible, though.
“The Priestess’ Eye… as a gift, it’s a bit too straightforward, but it’s a choice typical of you, isn’t it?”
I wasn’t just seeking rarity, but was giving a ring adorned with a jewel matching the recipient’s eye color too simplistic for the daughter of a great noble house like Erika?
I, the giver, have zero experience giving jewelry to women, but the receiver is the daughter of a great noble house.
This might be seriously bad.
Even the ‘Priestess’ Eye’ might have been dismissed as commonplace, yet what I have is a plain black jewel. And it’s small.
I truly am a thoughtless man.
To think I was about to indulge in self-satisfaction by giving a self-centered gift without considering the recipient’s position.
No, but well, that was a needless worry, wasn’t it.
Because—.
“But it didn’t drop the ‘Priestess’ Eye’.”
I took the small black jewel out of the Tool Shed.
Resting on my palm so Erica could see it, it was indeed plain, and polishing it likely wouldn’t make it look luxurious or brilliant.
“I don’t know if it’s because it underwent Blackening, though.”
Shrugging to hide my disappointment and putting on a brave face, a thought occurred to me.
Maybe Erica might know something about this black jewel.
She was a Marquise, after all; she should have a deep knowledge of jewelry.
Maybe, just maybe, this plain black jewel could possibly be incredibly valuable.
In terms of being a jewel dropped by a Blackened Jewelhead Dragon, its rarity alone is outstanding.
Unfortunately, I don’t possess the skill to create value from rarity alone, like some Pantile.
In that case, there’s no problem if it had value from the start.
A faint hope made me ask a question that threw away all pretense.
“By the way, Erica, would you happen to know what this jewel is?”
“You ask me that?” Erica peered at the jewel with a wry smile.
True, even though she knew, it wasn’t something you ask the intended recipient.
My heart pounded slightly at Erika’s approaching red hair, but still, I waited for Erica’s answer.
“I’m sorry, Shin.”
The reply was an apology.
“I… am not very knowledgeable about jewels and the like, so I do not know.”
I was speechless at Erica’s unexpected answer.
“That… if anything, I was the type who preferred looking at weapons rather than jewelry.”
Seeing Erica add, somewhat defensively, “It’s not that I have absolutely no interest, you understand.”
Ah, it’s over, I thought.
In other words, it’s that.
I was wrong.
There’s no doubt Erika wanted proof that we were married.
Naturally. Because even if it was a Farce, I, her partner in it, had declared many times that I was serious about the Farce.
In that case, it’s only natural that Erika would seek proof of our marriage.
Rather, despite saying I was serious, it’s my fault for having forgotten the obvious matter of presenting a token of marriage.
It was Erica’s kindness that she mercifully conveyed that to me gently and indirectly, without putting it into words.
However, a man like me ended up betraying that kindness of Erica’s.
A gift is something you give while thinking of the recipient.
If that’s the case, isn’t it only natural to give something considering the recipient’s tastes and preferences?
Apparently, in the countries to the south, they give a special sword as proof of marriage, not a ring.
In other words, the proof of marriage Erica sought wasn’t something like a ring, but a special sword!
It’s just like Erica, known for being knowledgeable and even called a prodigy of Sword and Magic.
To think I didn’t realize that…
How could this happen?
Having been so completely wrong, I couldn’t look at Erica’s face and ended up lowering my gaze.
The jewel that naturally entered my sight only served to emphasize my failure all the more.
“Then… I guess I chose the wrong gift…”
I ended up blurting it out simply because I couldn’t find any other words for an excuse.
Erica’s exasperated voice reached me then.
That’s only natural, I suppose. It’s perfectly understandable she’d be exasperated.
“I don’t know what mistake you think you made, but I don’t believe she dislikes things like jewels?”
When I raised my gaze, I saw Erica’s face wearing a wry smile.
Well, it’s not like she was the type to favor extravagance, though.
I tilted my head at Erica’s words.
Following suit, Erica tilted her head too.
“‘She’?”
I asked, not understanding who this “she” Erica mentioned was.
“The person you’re giving that jewel to?”
Erica said, her head still tilted.
“No, this is a jewel I meant to give to you, though?”
There was a pause of about two breaths after my matter-of-fact answer–
“Pya.”
The moment I thought I heard that sound from Erica.
“Gah.”
I let out a short groan.
Everything before my eyes went white.