Chương 81: What Should I Do?

POV: The Dark Lord, Milo Miles Rather than waiting for me to come inside, Lunessa came out to meet me. I had a feeling she'd come with more on her mind than just the Arkhay news, not after seeing me out here alone with Nyx.

"So... everything's good?" I said.

"With Arkhay, yes. They sent a letter to confirm it. Though I imagine you already knew, given your Terror Level ought to be climbing right about now." So Evelisse had filled her in. Though I didn't know to what extent.

"And what was that about?" Lunessa asked, falling into step beside me. She said it lightly, with a smile, but there was an edge underneath it, not murderous, exactly, but the kind of thing that could get there, given the wrong answer. And I had a fairly good idea why.

"Just Nyx asking me some stuff. There's really nothing—""Milo." Oh, hell.

"Y-yeah?"

"You remember what I told you before?"

"Of course. I won't... make Evelisse think she made the wrong choice." That eased her, a little. She stepped around in front of me, making sure I was looking her in the eye.

"It's not that I don't trust you. I just want to be sure you're not being pulled off course. If you've genuinely decided you want something else, then I'd only ask that you tell me in adva—""N-no! No. I... I won't." The words came out in a rush.

"There's—there's nothing there. Really. You don't need to worry about it."

"It's all right, Milo." Her voice softened.

"I only want you to think it through, properly. Just understand that this isn't a thing to be careless with."

"Right. I understand," I said, because I couldn't come up with any other response to something so reasonable. Lunessa was right; I shouldn't be making more of this than it was. Nyx had asked me a few strange questions, that was all, and whatever I'd felt sitting on that log was just... the leftover ache of a guy who'd spent his whole last life lonely. Hell, I'd gone red as a beet around Lunessa, before I'd found out she was Evelisse's sister. It didn't mean anything. Lunessa's smile returned.

"Good. Then, we ought to see about returning those hostages. I'd think dropping them near the gate and letting them walk the rest themselves should do it."

"Are you coming with me?"

"Do you want me to?"

"N-no — I mean, I can handle it on my own. It's just a drop-off."

"Suits me, then." She stepped in close and set a single finger against my chest.

"This can get very confusing, Milo. Especially at your age." Her tone stayed even.

"So I'll say it once more; don't make a decision you'll come to regret. This is a delicate matter of the heart, but that also means you need to use your head." A pause.

"Otherwise, things get messy." She sounded genuinely serious then, the melody gone out of her voice, and I couldn't blame her. She'd been emphasizing this quite often lately, and I understood why. If anything, I was grateful she wasn't just forcing me which way to go.

"Yeah. I know," I said.

"Good. Sorry, for repeating myself." She let it drop with a small wave.

"I just don't want you to—well, you get the point." Her lightness came flooding back all at once.

"Anyway! If there's nothing else, I'd better start thinking about dinner. I've got proper equipment to cook with now, which is fun!" This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. And with that, she turned and breezed back toward the house, already humming something to herself, the letter still in hand. I knocked on Nyx's door to get the hostages. She opened it, and she looked... normal. The frown was back in place, the glare was exactly the usual one.

Whatever soft, nervous version of her had surfaced out on that log was gone. And yet, that little jump in my chest still fired the second she appeared. Great.

"W-what?" she said. Okay, maybe not entirely back to normal. The stammer was still there.

"Arkhay got back to us. My Terror Level's up to forty. Haven't checked the new skills yet. I need to get those two goons back to Astrea. They still in there?"

"Yeah. Get them out." She crossed her arms.

"And you'd better be grateful I let them rot in here at all. Do you have any idea how restless it is, sleeping with two idiot strangers snoring on your floor?"

"... You do realize you're the one who dragged them in here, right?"

"That's—irrelevant."

"You literally hauled them in yourself.'""I said it's irrelevant, pig-brain." She jabbed a finger at me.

"Would you rather I'd stuffed them in Evelisse's room? Go on. Try that and see how well it goes." Fair point, actually. I decided not to press my luck any further on that one.

"Yeah, alright. Thanks, Nyx. I owe you one."

"Hmph." She lifted her chin.

"You owe me a great deal more than one."

"I know, I know. That's why if you ever need anything, just say it, and... if what you asked earlier was real, the memory stuff, just tell me what you need me to do and I'll do it. If it helps with whatever's been eating at you." Something flickered across her face, and for a second I thought the nervous version might come back out.

"I-I'll tell you when it comes down to it," she said, quickly.

"Don't go reading into it. I only asked. It's not like I definitely need you, or—or anything like that." She was flustered all over again, and—I'm just going to say it—it was distractingly cute. Many would call this peak textbook tsundere; the kind that would've made me grin like an idiot in any— Nope. Lunessa's voice slid neatly into my head, and I firmly shoved the dumb feelings back into whatever hole they'd crawled out of.

"Okay, uhh, can you let me in, then?" She was still planted square in the doorway, blocking the whole thing.

"I need to grab them and find somewhere safe to drop them off. Figure a couple slaps'll wake them up enough to walk the rest."

"Fine, fine." Nyx turned to step aside, and somehow, in doing it, her foot clipped mine, and she pitched forward with a startled little sound. Since I was pretty close, I moved; my arm shot out across her middle, catching her mid-fall, and I hauled her back upright against me before her face could kiss the floorboards. For a few seconds, neither of us moved.

"... Sorry," I said." I should've stepped back first. You okay?" She was close. Very close. close enough that I could see the exact moment the faint blush rose in her cheeks, the nervous version of her flooding right back to the surface. My heart did the stupid jump again. Then she seemed to register the position we were in, and her eyes went wide.

"J-j-just—" She shoved off my arm, spun around, and stalked straight for the bathroom.

"Just get in there and get out quick!" The bathroom door slammed hard enough to rattle the frame. What's going on with her lately? Because those… things; the stumbling, the blushing, the bolting, were the stuff I'd only ever seen in romcoms. The tsundere slowly thawing, the armor cracking to show the softer bit underneath, the part that makes everyone fall for the character in the first place. And if that was what was happening here, then— No. No, no, no. First things first. Return the hostages.

Check the new skills. Then, maybe, think about the rest. I had Evelisse. We had something, something real and good and worth not torching. If I let myself get swept up in this, I'd just be a selfish creep. Nyx was probably only embarrassed about the stumble, that was all. Nothing more to it. They were flimsy reasons, and I knew it, but they'd hold me together for the next few hours, which was all I needed. So I stepped past the bathroom door, hauled the two tied-up idiots up off the floor, and carried them out.

Right… a flight to Astrea should be quick enough. Time to get this over with and— Evelisse was sitting on the log outside. She had her light armor on over her usual outfit. The last time we'd properly talked was at breakfast; just small stuff, about what she and Lunessa should grab in Arkhay, the stove and all that. Then the elf had launched into her tragic story, and we'd had lunch, and somewhere in all of it, I'd realized I hadn't actually said a word to Evelisse the entire meal.

So finding her out here now, right after the whole strange business with Nyx, and Lunessa's warning still ringing in my ears, I had no idea how to start. Our eyes met.

"Are you heading out to Astrea?" she asked. There was something careful in the way she said it, like she'd been sitting there rehearsing the question.

"O-oh. Yeah. Gotta hold up our end of the deal. Haha." Great. Nothing says calm and normal like tacking a nervous little 'haha' onto the end of a sentence. Evelisse shifted where she sat, her fingers curling into the hem of her skirt, then uncurling. Her gaze dropped for a second, then came back up, like she was steadying herself, gathering something before she let it out.

"Um... can I come?" she said. Oh.