Chapter 519 – You Who Remember the Sea.

“Muuu, when are you coming?”

Around this time, Ereine was stamping her feet in the wait she had become accustomed to, feeling her cheeks and pronunciation being crushed by the cold feel of the tavern table she had become accustomed to.

“Eraine, can you look at me for a moment?”
“Lisa?”

Suddenly, it was Liza who sat down at the table she was at.

“What’s going on?”

When asked why her face did not hide her dissatisfied expression, Liza let out a deep sigh and opened her mouth, as if suppressing something in her.

“Ereine, do you know how many months it is today?”
“How many months has it been?”
“The day she began seeing Sir Lancelot.”

Elaine tilted her head for a moment and remembered what she had done so far. They had promised to come to Liza’s tavern and play chess with her every weekend since she came to her tavern again and played her chess.

“Hmm, about 3 months? I guess it’s been about 3 months.”

Including today, it will be exactly 3 months.

“Whew, that’s right. Three months. Three months.”

Lisa patted her chest, wondering why she was so frustrated with her answer. She tapped and stressed three months.

“Do you know what Elain and Sir Lancelot have been doing?”
“She doesn’t play chess?”
“Okay. Elain, do you think it makes sense to play chess for three months at a time?”

She asked me to think carefully about whether there was something wrong with her.

“But I’m coming to play chess with him…”
“Is that really all you need? You don’t really think there’s anything else wrong?”

She couldn’t understand what Liza was scolding her for because she was so into the fun of gradually increasing her chances of beating Lancelot after dozens of challenges.

“…Is the problem that the win rate is not good?”

It was at this point that Erein spoke quietly about her dissatisfaction.

“I can’t take it anymore!!!”

Lisa’s roar echoed throughout the quiet tavern and struck her ears.

“What?”
“Is there a problem?!”

Erein never thought that Liza would yell at her for being a tomboy, so she screamed! As she was frozen with the aftershocks ringing in her head, even Lancelot, who seemed to be about to enter, hurriedly entered the store and asked about the situation.

“Sir Lancelot! Sir Lancelot, you know what the problem is!?”
“Yes, yes? Lisa, what are you talking about all of a sudden…”

She said he was, but there was no way she could reply now that she had arrived.

‘Why is Lisa doing this?’
‘I-I don’t know.’

Lancelot didn’t understand why she was doing this and was exchanging glances with Elaine, so Liza finally calmed down and asked him in a calm voice.

“Whew, yes. Sir Lancelot, what do you think about meeting Erene every weekend?”
“You mean Miss Elaine?”
“Yes!”

For some reason, Erein perked up her ears at that question and waited for his words.

‘Well, I’m just curious what my opponent thinks of me!’

Even though no one was criticizing or reading his actions, Lancelot was listening while making excuses to himself, and after thinking for a while, he opened his mouth.

“I think Miss Elaine is a good partner.”
“Yes!?”

I don’t know why Lisa looked happier, but Elain was also proud.

“It was fun to play against him because I could see him improving every day in how he used his pieces and how he made moves.”
‘…I’m glad.’

Moreover, knowing that his thoughts were similar to hers, wouldn’t Lancelot find it annoying that he kept asking her to play chess? He was relieved to realize that his previously proud thoughts were nothing more than unfounded thoughts.

“…”
“Lisa?”

For some reason, Lancelot called out to Liza with concern as her smiling expression froze, but she didn’t move as if she had really frozen.

“Lisa, are you okay?”
“Why are you doing that? What’s wrong with it?”

Lancelot called her as if to check if something was wrong, and Elaine also asked Liza, worried about her.

“…Get out of our bar right now!!!!”

For some reason, what came back was the roar that once again echoed throughout the bar.

“Lisa. What is that all of a sudden?”
“Isn’t this too sudden?!”

The two of them had nowhere else to go but this bar, so they protested as they were pushed out by Liza, but she was adamant.

“Our bar is closed today! You two should go somewhere else!”

Thud! They were suddenly kicked out by the bar’s door closing and looked at each other blankly.

“Even if I tell you to go, where should I go…”
“I finally found this place…”

Elain and Lancelot tried talking to the closed door, muttering just in case.

-Rock!
“”…””

All that comes back is a ‘Closed for Business’ sign callously hung above the door.

“Uh, what do you do?”

Ereine looked up at Lancelot with her trembling eyes. After all, Liza’s tavern was one of the few places where she could act freely.

My plan to spend most of the day playing him and her chess was ruined because I suddenly couldn’t go to that place.

“It’s definitely troublesome. I was planning on spending the day at Liza’s tavern today…”
-Rock!

Since they still had no intention of leaving the bar, Lisa even put up a freshly made sign above the door, saying ‘No chess allowed’, as if to drive home her nails.

“I can’t help it since you refuse like this.”
“Ugh, it seems Lisa is in a bad mood today.”

In the end, seeing Lancelot smiling bitterly, Eredo had no choice but to give up on entering her tavern again.

“…Then where would it be better to play chess?”

However, I said that I thought it would be possible to play chess even if it wasn’t a bar, but he seemed to think about it for a moment.

“Now that things have come to this, why don’t you spend your time doing something other than chess today?”
“Then chess is…”
“You can do that any time, right? I’m just going to try something different today for a change.”
“B-but me.”

To be honest, Elain was in trouble. Because the only time she ever did anything with anyone outside was chatting with Liza or playing chess with Lancelot. When she asked to do something else, she felt awkward and even scared.

“It’s okay. I’ve been around here quite often, so I know what’s there.”

However, her anxiety stopped when she met Lancelot’s palm held out at her eye level.

“…A native of the West?”
“After all this, isn’t he the commander of the Eastern Knights?”

As Lancelot spoke slyly even when she complained and asked questions, Elaine eventually placed her own hand on top of her hand.

“I guess we should evaluate how well the knight commander is an escort.”
“Please leave it to me, Lady.”

It was a gauntlet made of iron armor that seemed cold at first glance, but Erain realized for the first time that day that the gauntlet was not made of cold iron, but was just iron armor layered on soft leather.

‘Very soft. ‘It’s warm.’

Contrary to its cold appearance, the palm of the gauntlet is worn and smooth, as if showing the owner’s efforts, and even conveys a warm body temperature.

‘It’s also big.’

I tried to slightly spread my hand to cover his palm, but it was difficult. Because her fingers were so small and thin compared to his hand.

As I walked down the street as if captivated by the warmth coming from Lancelot’s hand, a small melody suddenly reached my ears.

-♪
“Where?”

When I came to my senses to the melody and looked around, there were crowds of people passing by in the background, with numerous musical instruments and occasionally gentlemen in old-fashioned attire playing them.

“It’s a place called the Street of Music. I’m sure you’ve heard of it, Miss Elain.”
“Isn’t it obvious?”

But since she had only heard stories and this was her first time here, Ereine was preoccupied with her surroundings.

‘It’s a place where strange sounds come from…’

She had heard music with similar melodies many times in ballrooms, but the fact that that kind of music could be heard in such an open street was both unfamiliar and surprising.

Although it seems completely out of place, the melody heard from all over the street creates a new tone by combining with the noise of people murmuring and the sound of footsteps made by the crowd.

“That, huh?!”

I was distracted for a moment and was about to bump into someone and fall.

“Be careful.”
“Ah?”

When she came to her senses, Elaine was in Lancelot’s arms, looking straight up at him. Even though she was hiding behind the cold helmet, she blushed at the sight of his face that seemed to be visible through it.

‘…It seems like everyone has a partner somehow.’

What I realized later was that there were an unusually large number of men and women paired up here.

‘Hey, that cheeky!’

Even in a corner of a deserted alley where there was no sunlight, there was sometimes a strange(?) Scene of people embracing each other, so Elain’s eyes had no time to rest.