31—Weak

"Um... Ray?" A small voice, muffled by my pec, barely reached my sensitive ears. It was Nika. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying, but other than that, she seemed much better.

"Yes?"

"I've decided." She separated her face from my chest, looking at me eye to eye. Yes, this was her usual self.

"On what?" I asked

"I'll become your lover. We might not be able to stay together for long, but... I still want to be with you," she told me, her cheeks reddening.

I nodded.

"Well, a great man did say once, "'tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all", but I don't plan on losing you. I'll fight tooth and nail to stay with you, no matter what."

She smiled.

"Thank you. I really want to kiss you right now, but... I'll wait for now. I won't be able to go do missions with you two tomorrow by the way, but I hope you can come visit me in the afternoon. Just you, Ray, if possible."

"Sure. At what time would you like me to be there"

"Hmm... perhaps at three or so, if you're free?"

I nodded, wondering what she was planning. I soon dismissed the thought, however, before unwrapping my arms and freeing both Nika and Aina, who had stayed silent throughout the whole conversation.

She was most likely feeling bad, perhaps since she believed she hadn't contributed much in the battle, despite the fact that she had most definitely saved my life.

'Well, I'll try to cheer her up once we're back home.'

Thinking that, I quickly walked over to the chameleon's corpse, which had turned visible as soon as it died, and collected its head-sized eyes and tongue as thick as an arm, which was unfortunately split in half throughout a good bit of its length; they were the only really valuable parts in its body, according to Nika. The rest could get us a few extra golds, but it just wasn't worth dragging back from this deep in the forest.

I checked the girls' bodies for injuries, thankfully not finding anything past a few bruises and scrapes, used half of Nika's healing potion to take care of the persistent ache in my side, slung my pack over my shoulder, and less than an hour later we were back in the city, the sun still shining from the west.

'Damn, I'm beat. That journey felt like it lasted weeks... even though it was more like four hours.'

Once we got to the adventurers' guild, we handed in the vine viper's materials and completed our D Rank quest, but after some deliberation, I asked Nika and Aina if perhaps it would be best not to sell off the spear chameleon's eyes and tongue, since not only was there no quest for it, meaning it wouldn't really help us increase our ranks (not that I really wanted to anymore, given that it Nika would have to leave upon reaching D Rank), but the money we would get wouldn't be worth all the attention it'd attract to us.

My father, for exampple, surely knew already that I was an adventurer, but bringing in a C Rank monster's materials might make him feel like I'm risking my life and force him to take measures.

Both girls agreed readily, not that I'd expected Aina to do otherwise.

I'd have to talk her out of that habit, I was certainly prone to committing mistakes, and it would be pretty bad it Aina didn't correct me when I did out of deference or whatever.

As we left the place, I felt a tug at my sleeve, and looked down to see Nika, her eyes averted.

"Umm... so, could I buy those eyes off you? they might be useful for something I want to do..."

I smiled.

"Of course! In fact, you'd be doing me a favor, since I had no clue what to do with them. I was gonna bury them in the yard, or something. I won't let you give me even more money, though, no matter how much you insist. You've already way overpayed my services. Just take them, okay?"

"But..."

"No buts!"

"O-Okay, then... thanks, Ray." Her smile was like an angel's as she took the leather-wrapped orbs.

With that, we separated, a morose Aina tightly clutching my side, and soon we were back at the manor, or more accurately, the front yard.

"...Hey, Aina," I asked, a tad awkward. We hadn't really talked on our way back, and she was still clinging to me.

"Ah... yes. Sorry, Master." She said, quietly, somberly, before slowly untangling her arms from mine.

I grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her close, against my chest. Then, I wrapped my arms around her, hugging her with just enough strength to smother her but not enough to crush her.

She squirmed futilely in my grip.

"I love you," I said, my tone firm.

"Mffff." My chest blocked any possible response.

"I want you to know that, Aina. Always, no matter what. I love you. I love you so much, I can't stop thinking about you. I'm crazy about you," I breathed out. I could feel Aina shaking in my embrace.

"Now, with that out of the way..." I trailed off, trying to put words to my hunch.

"You feel weak, right? Useless, even." I eventually decided upon. Then, I waited.

After a moment, I felt her nod. "Is that why you've been so... down?" Another nod.

"Well, then we'll just have to do something about that, won't we? For now, I'll up the intensity of your daily training. You better get ready, 'cuz I'm going to run you ragged. You're going to go to bed wrung out like a rag.

"But... well, that's just the start. I already have some other ideas to make you more useful in a battle. I hope you won't hold it against me if I keep them a surprise," I told her, a slight smirk adorning my face.

She hugged me tighter, and I felt my shirt getting wet. I patted her hair, and we just stood there for a while, my hulking form protecting her slim body from the wind.