Chapter 331 – Duties.

-Shoot it

Reuben was sitting on the beach watching the sun rise with the sound of the waves. Could it be because he didn’t fall asleep even for a moment? Last night, the scenes he stumbled upon are still haunting his mind. It was a time when I was staring blankly at the sky because even though I wanted to erase all the images of Usher and Erica mingling in my head, the images that were already deeply entrenched lingered in my mind.

“Mr. Pervert? What are you doing here?”
“Eh, Erica?!”

Surprised by the voice behind me, I turned my head. Sure enough, the girl in my imagination just a moment ago was staring at him with her back bowed in a gray light shining brightly in the morning sunlight. At first glance, he lost his eyes at her skin, which was exposed under the loose suit, but struggled to raise her head to face Erica.

“I was just watching the sun rise.”
“Um, that’s right.”

In fact, I kept thinking of the sight of her distorted skin, so I couldn’t remember anything like the rising sun.

“But why is Erica here…”

More than that, he was more suspicious that Erica, who slept late, woke up so early. Besides, there was quite a distance between the cave she was in and the beach now.

“Hehe, I heard there’s a place to play around here.”
“Are you playing here?”

Reuben answered her words, but his gaze was checking the back of her. Sure enough, there was a boy who could be considered a girl, with shiny yellow hair that reflected the white sunlight hanging down to his shoulders, and brown eyes that seemed to be shining green at first glance.

“Ah, did you see Yesterday too?”
“…Hi.”
“Huh? Uh uh.”

Usher looked at Reuben with a frown, as if he didn’t like something, but as if he couldn’t help it, he greeted him bluntly, and he also nodded his head absentmindedly. I already knew he was a man, but he was wearing a white dress, and the limbs that the dress couldn’t cover were wrapped in bandages, giving a strong impression of weakness. If it weren’t for the leather protective plates covering the chest, elbows, and knees, the rapier worn around the waist, and the cross-shaped shield visible behind the back, it would have been even more unbelievable that he had defeated the monster that had killed Joab so easily with a body like that.

“Hee hee, Usher! Let’s play quickly!”
“Okay, do you know what else is going to happen?”

After their awkward greeting, Erica talks to Usher.

“It’s okay! The mermaids told me there would be no problem playing here.”
“When did you ask that again?”

Reuben responded to Erica’s words as if he was annoyed, but watched Usher lead as if she couldn’t help it as she led her by the hand. My heart ached at the sight of them without hesitation. Her anxious feelings keep telling her to take Erica’s hand, but she knows that she doesn’t deserve it, so it was when Reuben was barely holding her heart.

“Oh, that’s right! Would you like to play with Mr. Pervert?”
“Me too?”

He looks at her bewildered, but her girl is just facing him with her muted greyness.

“Yeah, aren’t you lonely alone?”

As Erica held out her remaining hand, Reuben gulped at her. Looking behind her again, Usher looked dissatisfied, but she didn’t say anything. Yeah, since we’re friends, isn’t this enough? Thinking, the girl grabbed her outstretched hand.

“Eight!”
– Chow!
“Oh! Erika!?”

As soon as Erica got into the shallow water, she let go of their hands, but instead she scooped her water into them and splashed them on Usher. As he looked at her frowning as he hit her in the water, Erica stuck her tongue out at her Usher as if she were taking her medicine, letting out her laugh in her bash. Then, as if crying, he pours water into her hand and sprinkles her girl.

“Kyaat! It’s cold!”
“Erika started first!”
“Ehh!?”

Her girl hit her with water and shook her head, but Usher scooped up her water and sprayed it at her. Reuben seemed to have been forgotten by the two before he knew it, as Erica was also throwing water at Usher.

“…What did you expect?”

So he passed the morning watching Usher and Erica run around spraying each other with water.

“Are you okay?”
“Yes! Hee hee.”

When the sun had risen, they returned to the place where the wagons were stopped, but Reuben was not at ease. After all, the person who asked Erica about her condition was none other than the saintess, who is said to be hard to see her face even in the Holy Land.

“But this child was yesterday?”

When Reuben was nervous at the sight of her looking at him, Erica nodded her head.

“Hee hee, friend.”

The word that he was a friend of such a girl relieved his tension, but he did not know why her heart was full. During lunch he could sit by the girl, but Usher and Diana were also there.

“Usher, ah~”
“Eh, Erica!”

Most of all, being around her didn’t feel as enjoyable as she thought, as she had to watch Erica feed her Usher her food from her own spoon herself. She still had her girl in her eyes, because her heart pounded just to have her in her eyes, and she felt like being stabbed just looking at it. Because she was still in the water, her wet clothes didn’t dry, and even the feeling of sticking to her skin was stinging.

Hehe♪ What else shall we play?”
“Wait a minute, I think I’ll have to put a weapon in the water and throw it away and oil it.”
“Chii, don’t you have to worry about it for a day?”
“No. My uncle said he must take good care of it.”

Reuben thought it was an opportunity. Maybe Usher could be alone with Erica while he took care of the weapons. But it was a vain hope.

“Then I’ll help you too! Can we just do it like last time?”

The girl wanted to be by Usher’s side and help him more than play with her.

“I’ll just ask for a shield.”
“Huh!”

Only then did Reuben realize. Erica knows she doesn’t like to play, she likes to play with Usher. There was no room for him to intervene from the beginning.

‘It’s too much. Really.’

Reuben felt as if he was about to weep from the misery. She thought that if she could be her friend she could get a little bit closer. She wasn’t at all Erica’s world is entirely focused on Usher and revolves around him. She herself was just hanging around there. Watching Usher and Erica grease the weapon together, Reuben made up his mind.

“Erika, can you give me a minute?”
“Huh? Why?”

Targeting when they had oiled their weapons, I spoke to Erica first, and she tilted her head.

“Then you may…”
“No, I just want the two of us to talk.”
“What?”

Usher glared at him warily, but he couldn’t back down.

“Oooh, that’s troublesome. It’s insecure without Usher.”

The girl licked her lips and refused, but Reuben did not give up.

“You don’t have to worry because it only takes a moment. If you’re really worried, it’s okay to watch.”

Unsure of his intentions, Erica and Usher looked at each other, but soon Erica nodded her head.

“If Usher is watching…”

Reuben walked along the beach alone with the girl. Although if you looked behind you, Usher was following you from not too far away, but at this distance, their conversation would not reach you because of the sound of the waves.

“But what do you mean, do we have to be together?”

Erica spoke dissatisfiedly, but he replied in a slightly disappointed voice.

“Why is Ki with Usher? It’s because I can’t really talk to you. I thought I was going to die of boredom after seeing him all the time.”
“…Aww?!”

The girl then, as if realizing what she was doing, wrapped her arms around her cheeks and tried to cool her flushed face.

“Are our friends right?”
“Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t pay attention.”

Reuben smiled bitterly at Erica, who seemed really sorry. She didn’t want an apology. Because he liked her one-sidedly from the beginning of her life, and he only unilaterally hung around her. Perhaps this precarious relationship would soon end, so he brought out what he had prepared.

“It’s okay. How about this?”
“Clam?”

It was a clam that could be found anywhere if you wandered around here. Until you open the shell of the clam. Erica widened her gray eyes in surprise. What was between the shells was none other than a large pearl.

“I found this this morning.”

He had come to this beach in the morning because he had been told by a mermaid that pearls could be found in the seashells here. Fortunately, after opening the shells over and over again, he finally found one.

“Why is this?”
“I just wanted to give it to you.”

Erica was puzzled, but that was all Reuben had to say. Because she can’t confess her own feelings. She just wanted to give her heart like this.

“Erika?”

But for some reason, the girl just stares at the pearl he holds out. By the time the sound of the crashing waves filled the silence and he could feel the cold sweat running down his spine.

“I’m sorry. I can’t accept this.”

Erica shook her head.

“Uh, why? It’s just a gift, right?”
“You know. Why did Reuben ask me to be friends?”
“Yeah, that’s because I really want to be friends.”
“Is that really all there is to it?”

I was speechless at her question. Reuben soon sensed that his heart had been caught.

“Yeah, that’s right.”

The girl accepted his silence as an affirmation and turned around.

“Hey, wait a minute, but this is…!”
“Save that for when you have someone more important to you. I’m sure you’ll find someone nice.”

Even so, as he tried to hold on to her, she looked back at him for a moment as if she had remembered.

“Aha ♪ It’s short, but thank you. We’re breaking up now ♪”

Erica untied her leash, which he had put on himself. Looking at her back as she left, Reuben collapsed.