Chapter 71: Words of Welcome
「……You’re leader-, Aldo, right?」
「……Kurune? Why are you here?」
Kurune and I both asked each other a question with a surprised expression on our faces.
She should be working her dream job of being a teacher in the Avalonia kingdom’s magic academy.
She did say that she would come to visit Nordende when she has some time off…but isn’t this too soon?
It takes about a month and a half to get here from the Avalonia kingdom. She would need to take at least three months off for her to have enough time to travel here and back.
The kingdom had just become lively after we returned with the news of the dragon-slaying; neither the country nor the magic academy should have agreed to let Kurune go since she’s a member of our party that killed a dragon…
It was already bad enough that I, the leader of the party, and Kiel, were both out of the country.
While I was wondering about Kurune’s circumstances, Aisha’s voice came from nearby.
「…Could she be…your old lover?」
「Is that true?!」
Flora grabbed my arm and asked me in a panic after she heard Aisha’s question.
「Nonono, she’s not!」
When I denied it in a hurry, Flora looked relieved from the bottom of her heart.
「But when I heard you two talking just now, it sounded like she’s your old lover who has been chasing after you though?」
However, after Aisha continued to speak, she became anxious again.
She looked very uneasy as she looked up at me with a frown as if she was about to cry.
「She’s not-」
「W-we-we’re not like that!」
When I was going to deny it clearly for Kurune as well, she denied it strongly herself.
Ermm. It’s fine but it’s a bit shocking to see her denying it so strongly like that. Well, it’s a natural reaction since I don’t think anything happened during our adventurer days that would have made her fall in love with me.
As our surprised gazes gathered on Kurune, she coughed and straightened her posture.
「Ahem. I’m Kurune. I’m Aldo’s companion from the same party back when we were adventurers. As you can see, I’m a wizard」
「Ohh, you’re his adventurer companion!」
Flora replied in a relieved voice after Kurune came closer to us and introduced herself with a bow.
It’s good that she understands. The relationship between me and Kurune isn’t like what Aisha said.
「So, miss wizard, why did you come to this countryside village?」
A question that sounded like she was not welcomed here came from next to me.
However, Aisha was just looking out for any weird intruders. She sounded harsh, but she is only thinking about the village’s safety.
Naturally, Kurune and I both understand that kind of thing since we’ve been to many villages when we were adventurers.
Without getting frustrated, Kurune explained herself calmly,
「I heard that “leader”-…Aldo moved to this village. Since I’m such a nice person…I came to tease- I mean, visit him」
It’s fine to call me “leader” in the royal capital since it’s filled with adventurers there, but in Nordende where there are no adventurers, she had to correct herself since the term sounded unnatural.
Also, she totally came here to make fun of me.
Flora and Aisha were letting out dry laughs.
「Would it be okay for you to tell me your names?」
Kurune asked them in the middle of such a laid-back atmosphere. Naturally, there was no room for me in there, I already knew that.
「I’m Aisha. I think you know this already since I came out of there to meet you, but I work in the grape vineyard」
「I-I’m Flora. I’m the village chief’s daughter」
Aisha introduced herself in a casual manner, while Flora politely bowed her head.
Then, as Flora raised her head back up, Aisha elbowed her stomach lightly.
「…That self-introduction wasn’t clear enough」
「Heehh?」
Flora made a clueless voice since she didn’t understand what Aisha meant by that.
Honestly, I didn’t know what she meant either.
As Flora tilted her head in confusion, Aisha looked at her and then at me.
Then, Flora’s face went red as if she realized what Aisha meant.
「D-do I really have to say that?」
「Well, she doesn’t know since she’s not from this village. You have to tell her」
Something about Flora that the villagers know about but outsiders don’t? Was there something like that?
When Kurune and I both tilted our heads, Flora looked at Kurune and opened her mouth,
「…Umm, other than the village chief’s daughter, I’m also going to be Aldo-san’s wife」
The moment I heard that, I felt my face go red.
Oh right. The people of this village know that Flora and I are a couple, but people from outside the village wouldn’t know that.
This feels like the first time we have introduced ourselves like that to other people since all the villagers somehow knew about it already. Yeah, even though Kurune and I have known each other for a long time, it’s still very embarrassing.
Kurune will definitely tease me after she hears that I’m getting married to such a cute girl. She probably wouldn’t even believe it.
「……I figured. I thought that was how it was when I saw you two from afar. Congratulations」
「T-thank you」
「Thanks」
Or so I thought…but she did not doubt us at all.
I thought she would surely go “You’re kidding?! Aldo is getting married?! No way!”, but I guess since it came from Flora’s mouth, it can’t be a lie.
Flora and I both bowed to her deeply to thank her for giving us her blessing as well as to apologize to her for our embarrassing flirting scene earlier.
「But to think that Aldo is getting married… I really can’t believe it」
Kurune let out a bitter smile as she looked at me and Flora.
Those words did not sound very nice, but I feel the same way as her myself since I know how I was in the past too.
「Was he not popular in the past?」
Aisha asked Kurune with a grin as if she knew where it’d hurt.
「Before, he only cared about sword training and questing so he was pretty hard to approach. Ah, but there were quite a lot of girls who had an interest in him though. Especially the fact that he was a dra-」
Oi, you idiot!
When I looked at Kurune like that, she came to a sudden realization and stopped talking.
「「Dra?」」
「-A dry person. Girls were attracted to that side of him」
What a way to save it. But that means she thought I seemed cold in the past…Well, she’s not necessarily wrong I guess. I was desperate to stay alive.
「It’s true that when he first came to this village, he did have a really scary aura」
「Ahh, yeah…You did seem hard to approach back then. Ah, but I knew that you were a kind person!」
Aisha and Flora both muttered like they accepted Kurune’s explanation.
Aisha probably figured out that was the cold me back then since Flora told her about our encounter nine years ago.
It’s very embarrassing listening to them share my embarrassing past and moments.
「What you said sounds like you have met Aldo in the past……?」
「Ah, yeah. I met him here nine years ago」
「Nine years ago?! Wait, how old are you right now? I did think that you look much younger than Aldo」
Kurune put her hands on Flora’s shoulders and asked her in surprise.
「Ehhh?! Ermmm…I’m 18 years old right now」
「So that means you guys met when you were 9?!」
When Flora answered hesitantly, Kurune turned her head vigorously and looked at me.
「I know what you’re thinking but you got it wrong, okay?」
By no means did I see the nine-year-old Flora as a love interest and make a move on her. Well, it did happen in the end with the adult Flora but I’m not going to say anything unnecessary like that because I feel like she’ll probably say something about that too.
Anyway, the relationship Flora and I have right now is a healthy one.
From the way things were going, it seemed like Kurune was going to keep asking questions like that all the way to the beginning of our love, so I decided to change the topic to what I was wondering about in my mind.
「By the way, what happened to your teaching job at the magic academy? I didn’t think you could go on a long break so soon?」
Long break aside, I don’t even think the kingdom would allow a party member of “Black Silver” to leave the country.
After I asked her that, Kurune scratched her cheek with an uncomfortable expression.
「……Ahh, about that. I’ll tell you later, okay? I’m tired from the journey」
Wasn’t she so lively just a second ago?…Something’s not right here.
「There’s never anything good when you scratch your cheek and make that expression. I’m worried so hurry up and tell me」
When I grabbed her arm as she tried to walk away, she sighed as if she made up her mind and spoke with a refreshed look.
「I quit it」
「Y-you quit?!」
I thought there was something up, but I would have never guessed that she quit her job as a teacher at the magic academy.
I took Kurune’s arm and dragged her a little bit away from Flora and Aisha while she had that strangely refreshed expression on her face.
「W-what about the guys from the kingdom? Were they okay with it?」
「No, they were chasing after me. That’s why it took me more than two and a half months to get here」
She replied with an unpleasant voice when I spoke quietly in her ear.
It seems that the kingdom’s people were chasing after her pretty persistently.
Well, Kiel had taught us how to shake off intense pursuers in the past after all. We are better in that area than even knights and assassins.
Not only can Kurune use magic as well, but back when we were questing, she had also picked up some tricks of her own and had built some trusted connections.
It’s not that easy to tail her across the country.
「Well, that’s good and all, but wasn’t teaching at the magic academy your dream?」
When I disbanded the party, didn’t she say that with a passion? She was all like “it’s amazing to be a teacher at the magic academy”. So why did she quit in not even half a year?
「T-that’s because a lot has happened and ermm how do I put it? It was completely different than how I thought it would be…」
Kurune tried to shake it off uncomfortably when I stared at her and questioned her.
Well, the magic academy is for children of nobles after all. Some things are probably going to be different from what she imagined and not go too well.
「Well, let’s talk about this later. Flora and Aisha are here right now too……」
Since I felt a lonely look coming from Flora for some reason, I tried to put a hold on our conversation for now. However, Kurune kept on going with it.
「Ah, it’s just something that I’ve been wondering, did you not tell Flora-san about the dragon-slaying incident?」
「…Yeah, I didn’t」
「Is that okay? She’s important to you, isn’t she?」
「I didn’t tell her exactly because of that」
I answered Kurune as I looked her straight in her eyes.
It’s because Flora is important to me that I want to keep her away from that kind of thing.
If she finds out about the dragon killing incident, she might ask me about a lot of things in my adventurer days.
I didn’t just kill big monsters, I also killed bandits and other people when I did escort missions.
My reputation wasn’t all that pretty. I don’t want her to know about that.
「…I see. I understand. Alright then, let’s take a break at your house. I’m pretty thirsty-」
I don’t know if she really understood me, but it doesn’t seem like she wants to keep on talking about it.
After our series of conversations ended, Kurune turned around as her brown ponytail fluttered in the air.
Speaking of which, I didn’t get to say something to her since we were just having that serious conversation. After I realized that, I called out to her.
「Kurune!」
「What?」
「Welcome to Nordende!」
She replied with a broad smile.
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