Erika: My Friend Is Obsessed with Me
Chapter 39
Chapter 39
Erica - When My Friend Obsesses Over Me
“All right, all right. It is dinner time! Erica, let’s head inside.”
The children of light lived to repay the grace they received.
The grace of God. And the kindness shown by mortal men on this earth.
Hielia had searched through all the temple’s records to find a way to save him from the curse.
She had already spent countless hours buried under the vast records accumulated since the dawn of time.
And she had finally found it.
A way to save Pechenik.
But—
“……That isn’t a solution.”
“Why is this not a solution?”
“Because I won’t do it.”
“What in the……!”
Hielia bit her lower lip.
Sometimes, she wanted to yell at her precious friend at the top of her lungs.
Forgetting all the dignity and poise expected of a Saintess.
She wanted to scream at the back of Pechenik’s head as he carried his disciple on his shoulders with an utterly carefree laugh.
Please.
“Wait, you’re friends with the Saintess?!”
Erica jumped in the middle of dinner.
She nearly flipped the neatly set dining table over.
“You never told me that once!”
Her master was friends with the Saintess?!
They could have monopolized all the SS-rank requests from the Temple! It was utterly devastating that she hadn’t known until now.
Whether Erica thumped her chest while munching on cheeks full of food or not, Pechenik calmly pushed a cup of water toward her.
“Hielia is the Saintess who represents the Great Temple of Light. Revealing our connection carelessly to others would cause political complications.”
“No, I don’t care about that! Can’t you introduce me, too? I want to get close to the Saintess.”
“Why would you?”
“She’s just so……. so beautiful.”
Erica wore a dreamy expression.
Holding her spoon, she traced wavy motions in the air, mimicking fluttering hair.
“A goddess? A legendary elf? Something like that? I think she’s the most elegant and beautiful person I’ve ever seen in my life.”
As she babbled compliments with a dazed grin, Pechenik retorted in all seriousness.
“You look prettier.”
“Master, are you blind?”
“Insolent girl.”
Erica giggled. Waving her spoon, she asked about their upcoming schedule.
“How long are you staying at the temple? Is what you were doing almost finished?”
“…….”
“By the way, what are you doing here at the temple anyway? A commission?”
“…….”
“When are we going back to Dangtus?”
“…….”
After a brief silence, Pechenik pushed a dish closer to Erica.
Perhaps because she had grown up starved in her early childhood, her appetite was immense.
Watching her eat so heartily made him feel pleased, yet heartbroken at the same time.
“Tell me about how you got here.”
“Pardon?”
“What you briefly mentioned earlier. It sounded like you ran into something formidable in the Illusionary Forest.”
“Gasp, that’s right! The Basilisk!”
Erica covered her mouth, organizing her thoughts.
“It’s a long story, but…….”
Where should she start?
She reached far back into her memory, all the way to distant Dangtus.
“Out of nowhere, Caron said we had to draw lots to go find the Guildmaster because you hadn’t come back…….”
Erica chattered away, recounting the journey that had brought her here.
How the members of the Pechenik Mercenary Group drew lots, and she was the unlucky one chosen.
How when she was about to head to the Ruins Area to find her master, this punk next to her threw a fuss about coming along.
How she rode horses with him, boarded a large boat down the river, and ran through the forests of Lekankan…
“……And then, out of nowhere, an impossibly massive monster coiled right in front of us—”
It was an adventure she could talk about until dawn if she wanted.
Defeating the Basilisk in the Illusionary Forest, awakening as a Swordmaster!
And meeting the Holy Knights 8th Squad, all the way to arriving at the Great Temple of Light.
She even slapped the shoulder of Chaud, who was sitting next to her, punctuating her story with thumps.
“The knights from the 8th Squad told us to wait right in front of the temple, but…… wait, Master. Have you seen the holy knights from the 8th Squad by any chance?”
Taking the opportunity, she also brought up the strange thing she had heard earlier.
“I mean, why would the Holy Knights get locked in the disciplinary chamber right after finishing their mission without a hitch?”
They really did defeat the Basilisk! She protested indignantly on their behalf.
But Pechenik seemed to have little interest in them.
As if simply enjoying the sweet sound of Erica’s voice, he merely smiled at his disciple.
“…….”
The same went for Chaud, sitting on Erica’s right.
Chaud rested his chin in his hand and stared fixedly at only her.
“…….”
“…….”
Though Chaud wondered at the occasionally chilly glances Pechenik cast his way, he had no intention of prompting the man to speak first if he had something to say.
Giggle.
Erica looked delighted to be reunited with her master after so long.
The dinner passed in a delightfully warm atmosphere.
Beneath the moonlight.
The upper training ground of the Holy Knights.
Though it was the dead of night and everyone was asleep, Erica and Chaud were wide awake.
“Haa…… haa.”
“You’re not going all out, are you?”
“I can’t just smash this whole place to pieces! You take it easy too!”
The two clashed in a chaotic brawl, drawing upon their Aura.
Hummm—
Humm—
Two streams of blue Aura whipped rapidly through the midnight darkness.
Crash, slam!
Yet another railing shattered into rubble.
Because Erica couldn’t fully control her Aura’s output yet, the Holy Knights’ training ground was already a mess.
Since there were also deep gouges Chaud had carved into the floor, she planned to casually pin the blame on him come tomorrow morning.
Flash—burst!
Afterimages of Aura erupted against the night sky.
It looked just like fireworks.
This is fun.
Erica was swept up in an ecstatic thrill.
She had actually wanted to spar with her master first, but to her disappointment, he had gone to sleep early.
Still, Chaud seemed thrilled to spar with her, so she wasn’t dissatisfied in the least.
Biting her lip slightly, Erica smiled.
Seriously, it’s so much fun.
Whoosh—
Erica leaped into the air and drove her sword straight down.
Crack!
The blade plunged into the stone floor.
She had pinned Chaud beneath her, straddling him on the ground.
Aura surged right beside his neck. Erica grinned.
“…….”
The memory of their very first spar back in Dangtus flashed through her mind.
Back then, she had lost because she lacked Aura, but things were different now.
Wielding the same blue brilliance as Chaud filled her with incomparable joy.
“…….”
Strands of long hair tumbled down beside Chaud’s face, tickling his skin.
“I lost.”
Chaud admitted meekly from where he lay.
He gently brushed away the hair cascading over his face.
Erica’s face was lovelier than the moonlight shining behind her.
Chaud held his breath, at a loss for what to do.
“I think your master hates me.”
“……?”
Leaving her sword embedded in the floor, Erica brushed her hair back.
She settled comfortably atop Chaud’s abs.
“What are you talking about? My master isn’t the type of person to hold grudges or hate people.”
“I don’t think he likes me very much.”
“You’re just imagining things.”
Even as Erica repeated herself, Chaud cast her a pitiful, wistful look.
“If there’s something your master is misunderstanding about me…….”
“He met you for the first time today, so what could he possibly misunderstand? Stop talking nonsense.”
“…….”
Chaud stared intently at Erica.
The moonlight settled coldly atop her head—resembling that very hue.
Chaud recalled Pechenik’s piercing gaze.
Such a look of vigilant wariness was unfamiliar to him.
…It felt as if it wasn’t the first time he’d seen me…
An air of sizing him up.
The sudden thought struck Chaud that the man might have recognized him.
Since Pechenik was from Tenearha, he would at least be acquainted with Chaud’s father.
The possibility that he had seen Chaud as a child was slim, but it couldn’t be ruled out entirely.
Had they ever met? Perhaps so many years had passed that Pechenik was simply unsure.
Even so…
Pechenik hadn’t said a single word.
No specific questions, not even a probing remark.
Had he asked outright, Chaud could have lied flawlessly without batting an eye.
Instead, Pechenik had simply shot him a razor-sharp gaze behind Erica’s back.
