Erika: My Friend Is Obsessed with Me
Chapter 24
Chapter 24
Their eyes met.
“You.”
Chaud was blankly looking up at Erica.
It was the same gaze that had been fixed on her without pause for some time.
His hair was nearly black, but a faint blue hue shimmered beneath the morning sunlight.
He seemed entirely unfazed, even with a sword quivering where it was buried in the tree trunk right beside his dark blue head.
She had thrown it with considerable menace, but clearly, he had not felt threatened in the least.
“How long have you been watching?”
“Just a moment ago.”
“You shouldn’t spy on other people’s sword training.”
“You were so good I lost myself watching. Sorry if that upset you.”
“You sure have a way with words, don’t you?”
Thwack!
She gripped the sword roughly and yanked it out. A deep gouge was left in the tree.
She ran a finger along the flat of the blade.
Her recent commissions had been rough, and the sword was in bad shape. She thought she ought to drop by the blacksmith.
“Are you done training? Not doing more?”
“Yeah.”
“I wanted to watch more.”
“Shut it.”
Chaud stared up at her for a moment, then rose to his feet.
Hop.
He leaped high from where he stood and snapped off a tree branch.
Stripping the leaves from the rather sturdy-looking branch, he said:
“Go one round with me.”
It was utterly absurd.
Here he goes talking nonsense again first thing in the morning!
If he were holding an iron sword like hers, maybe, but this was far too unfair.
“You’re going to use a branch?”
“Yeah. I didn’t bring my sword.”
He held the branch like a sword and gave a sharp, straight thrust.
Whoosh. He even gave it a neat twirl with his wrist.
Every single bit of it was ridiculous.
“Hey, I’m not dueling a branch.”
“This isn’t a branch.”
Chaud asserted breezily.
Vrummm—
As if to prove the validity of his claim, the color of the branch soon shifted.
With a resonant hum, blue light rippled across it.
It was Aura.
Wrapped in an unreal strength, the branch glowed.
It looked almost like the physical manifestation of a World Tree spirit.
“……”
Erica stared at him, dumbfounded.
Seeing him smiling so casually was so irritating that she wanted to punch him exactly five times.
“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t use Aura in front of me?”
“That was on the condition that you become my fixed pair.”
“You really are obnoxious.”
“Not confident?”
“Who isn’t?!”
Tap. She widened the distance slightly—
Whoosh—!
Erica thrust her sword out at blinding speed.
Boom—!
The sword slammed into the ground, vibrating with a massive rumble.
Meeting the Aura head-on had completely chipped the blade, but she had planned on visiting the blacksmith anyway.
“Do you have any idea how many years of experience I have sparring with a Swordmaster?”
“With your master? That makes me a little jealous.”
“Then you’d better do better than this!”
Swish—!
As she swung her sword in a wide arc meant to cleave his waist, Chaud swiftly pulled back to create distance.
Thwip—
Erica kicked off a tree and leaped high into the air.
With the sun at her back, she looked like a bird.
Looking up at her, Chaud’s eyes curved into a smile.
He felt exhilarated.
His heart felt as though it would burst.
Guild Headquarters, 1st Floor, West Hall.
Since it operated as a dining hall during lunch hours, it was bustling with people.
Noisy chatter filled the air.
“Seriously, don’t you have a conscience?”
Erica fumed, huffing with indignation.
She jabbed her spoon toward him with her right hand.
“Even my master didn’t use Aura from start to finish during a spar! As a Swordmaster, you should have the conscience to give a handicap!”
“……”
Chaud kept his head buried in his bowl, eating his stew without a word.
He was letting Erica’s near-accusatory nagging go in one ear and out the other.
“Hey, are you listening?”
“……”
No matter how much she scolded him, Chaud quietly emptied his entire bowl of stew, then even piled cheese onto a large loaf of bread beside it and ate that too.
“……”
After throwing a fit by herself, Erica finally grew tired and began scooping up her stew again.
“……I lost.”
The moment she had conceded defeat surfaced in her mind.
On the grass.
The sound of the wind rustling.
She had been pinned beneath Chaud.
Beside her neck, the Aura embedded in the ground had been surging—it had grazed her by the narrowest margin.
There was no blood, but a fraction of an inch closer and her throat would have been cut.
Both Erica pinned below and Chaud straddling above had been breathing raggedly.
Her breathless throat had tasted of blood.
Looking into Chaud’s eyes, Erica had known.
He was satisfied.
His sea-like eyes had poured down upon her completely.
“……Erica.”
Before she knew it, Chaud had finished eating and was watching her eat with his chin resting on his hand.
“Do you train there every dawn?”
“Not telling you.”
“Spar with me tomorrow, too.”
“Are you trying to tick me off? Do I need to say it again? I lost. You won.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me, though?”
“I want to do it with you.”
“Put an object in your sentences!”
Chaud chuckled.
His sharp eyes narrowed softly as he gazed fixedly at her light brown hair.
He took in every detail—Erica’s eyes, nose, lips, down to every single strand of hair falling across her forehead.
His gaze was so intense that Erica knitted her brows.
“What do you keep staring at?”
“Let’s do it together.”
“I told you to include an object!”
“Be my fixed pair. Train with me, and only take commissions with me.”
“No, why do you want to partner with me so badly?”
“Because it pisses me off.”
“……?”
“Just imagining you hanging around some half-assed bastard who isn’t me makes me so pissed I can’t even sleep.”
“……”
What is he even talking about?
Erica cast an exasperated look into the air.
Chaud tore off a piece of bread and offered it to her.
“What are you doing this afternoon? Let’s go see if any new S-rank commissions have been posted on the board.”
“……”
Erica blankly wiped her stew bowl with a piece of bread.
She understood to some degree. It was probably Chaud’s first time meeting a fellow S-rank mercenary his own age.
She knew he was eager to go on commissions with her, but she couldn’t hang out with him.
“I’m leaving this afternoon.”
She had to set out for the Ruins Area to find her master.
“It’s a long-distance trip. It’ll probably take months before I’m back.”
Just thinking about traveling all the way to the far reaches of the West was already exhausting.
“……”
Only after blinking a few times did Chaud ask back:
“Today?”
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because it was only decided yesterday. Wait, why do I even have to—”
“I’m going too.”
“……? Going where, without even knowing what it is? This isn’t a commission.”
If he thought it was some grand S-rank commission, he was mistaken.
Erica laid out the truth to the S-rank mercenary who was demanding to tag along.
“I’m going to look for my master. I have to go all the way to the Ancient Ruins Area. It’s not a commission, so there’s no reward, and it’s really far.”
It was questionable whether her master was even still in the Ruins Area. The chances were high that he had moved on to another region.
With no leads, she had no choice but to track him from there, and there was no telling how long she would be gone.
“Anyway, this is……”
“Erica.”
Chaud didn’t even pretend to listen.
“I’m going too.”
Is he trying to start a staring contest right now?
“……”
“……”
Mistaking Chaud’s lingering, heavy gaze for a challenge to a staring match, Erica put serious force into glaring right back.
Erica prepared for departure.
She bustled around the house.
As expected of a veteran mercenary, she packed swiftly. Having done it since childhood, she could practically do it with her eyes closed now.
Neatly and methodically.
In no time, preparations for the long journey were complete!
Just before leaving, dressed in her traveling clothes, she stood before the table. She took a bite of her sandwich while standing.
A map lay spread wide across the table.
“Heeem.”
Scanning the map with her eyes, she traced out a route.
There were various ways to get from Dangtus to the western Ruins Area, but among them was a route that took the shortest distance.
‘First, ride horseback…… to the Grand Canal.’
Taking a high-speed boat from the Grand Canal along the river to the jungle area was the fastest way.
‘And after getting off the boat…….’
From there, it was a bit of a dilemma.
Lekankan Great Jungle.
She tapped her finger against the place name marked on the map.
Once she passed through the massive jungle, the Ruins Area would be right there.
The problem was that the jungle was no ordinary size, and among the countless forests comprising it, many were treacherous.
‘What should I do?’
Cut straight through? Pushing through the central Illusionary Forest alone would drain far too much stamina.
Then make a wide detour around the forest? But that would delay arrival at the ruins by another two weeks.
While she was lost in thought for a moment—
Knock, knock.
She heard the sound of someone rapping on the window.
