Chapter 44 - Today’s Plan

After a peaceful breakfast and washing the dishes, I sat down and relaxed on the sofa.

It feels good to relax after having a delicious breakfast.

I enjoyed the feeling of pure bliss as I buried myself in the sofa with my stomach full.

「Aldo-san, do you have any plans for today?」

Flora asked as she went to hang the apron back up on the wall after she finished cleaning up in the kitchen.

「Since we’ve just run into a red bear yesterday, it doesn’t look like there would be any hunting to do today. Loren-san told me that I could take some time off」

A red bear just appeared yesterday. And because such a ferocious monster had suddenly showed up like that, all the animals would be going into hiding for some time.

We wouldn’t be able to catch much even if we entered the mountains when it was in that state. The best thing we can do is to just leave them alone until the creatures that lived in the forest eventually return to their natural habitat. Otherwise, we might have to move our hunting grounds to some unexpected places and possibly encounter other dangerous monsters.

So for that reason, I think I’ll be taking some time off from being a hunter in the meantime.

Eventually, I bet Loren-san or Kyle will update me on the situation in the forest. I think I’ll take this chance to ask Flora if there’s something she wanted to do outside today.

「I don’t have anything planned today. Is there something you’d like to do, Flora?」

She was the one who asked if I had anything planned, so maybe she already had something in mind.

She came towards me after taking off her apron, so I made some space on the sofa for her.

「Umm, I’d like to pay a visit to my parents. They told me to stay here all of a sudden yesterday… But if possible, I’d like you to come with me as well」

My senses came back to me after hearing her say that while she glanced at me.

Right, we became a couple.

I thought of paying them a proper visit once yesterday, but I was in such rough shape that I didn’t act on it.

「Of course I’ll go! We’ve officially become a couple so I have to pay Ergys-san and Fiona-san a proper visit!」

「O-okay」

「…Moreover, umm, I wanted to ask them properly for their permission for your hand in marriage」

I stuttered as I endured the embarrassment.

I was ashamed of myself for not being able to say it loud and clear, but I still somehow managed to say it out loud.

Normally, the form of marriage ceremonies varied depending on the country, city, or the village you’re living in.

If there’s a church, you would make the couple’s vow in the church. Otherwise, it could be at a big gathering like a harvest festival with all the villagers celebrating with the married couple.

If it’s a small rural village where harvest festivals don’t even exist, it would be acknowledged officially if each side’s parents agreed to be witnesses to the marriage.

I heard that there are harvest festivals in Nordende, so I guess we would be celebrating during that time.

「………….」

Hmm? Flora had no reaction. Perhaps I brought it up too early or was marriage too much for her right now?

When I took a look at Flora who was sitting next to me, I could not see her face due to her bangs that were hanging down covering her face.

「Flora…?」

When I hesitantly took more peeks at her face, I saw tears running down her white cheeks.

…She’s crying?

「Ehh? Flora?? What’s wrong?」

When I called out to her in a hurry and checked her face again, tears were coming out of her big jade-colored eyes.

I was shocked to find out that my own words had made her cry.

「…No, I’m sorry. I was… just happy after hearing that」

Did she take notice of how shocked I was? She replied to me like that while she wiped the tears off with her hand.

My heart jumped after I heard that she was happy.

The tension and anxiety I had from a moment ago was all blown away. I felt like jumping for joy on the sofa as an indescribable feeling mixed of happiness, euphoria and all kinds of other emotions was born inside of me, filling my chest with warmth.

Seeing Flora shed tears of happiness almost made me cry as well.

I somehow managed to hold that in, and I embraced her to express my happiness and love.

Without resisting me at all, she entrusted her body to me and returned the hug.

Her warmth, her soft body and the nice scent of flowers coming from her reminded me that this girl was really here next to me.

「…Thank you, Flora. I’m so happy that you’ve accepted me」

◆

After we calmed each other down, we got ready to leave and head to Ergys-san’s house.

「Ohh, Aldo-san」

A voice called out to me when I opened the door of our house.

When I looked in the direction of where the voice came from, I saw Kyle walking towards me on a small path.

Perhaps he came to talk to me about the forest’s condition and the plans for the future.

I felt a bit relieved as the expression I saw on his face was not a bad one, so it doesn’t seem like it was going to be bad news.

「Sorry, I’ve kept you waiting」

Flora came out of the house while I was waiting for Kyle who has started to run here.

At that moment, Kyle had a look of surprise for a second and then it changed into a grin; it was as if he saw something interesting.

…I have a bad feeling about this.

「Aldo-san? …Oh, you’re Kyle-kun, right?」

Flora said as her line of sight shifted and noticed Kyle when she was wondering why I didn’t respond to her.

「Good morning, Aldo-san and Flora-san」

「O-oh good morning, Kyle」

「Good morning, Kyle-kun」

I spoke with a bit of awkwardness when Kyle greeted us with a smile on his face. Flora is a shy person, but she wasn’t nervous here probably due to the fact that Kyle was a kid and she always saw us going hunting together.

After he greeted us, he alternated looks at us while grinning before he spoke,

「I have to say…The two of you have already gotten together, huh? I thought that it would have taken longer than this since Aldo-san is a good-for-nothing when it comes to love and Flora-san is a late bloomer」

「Shaddap, be quiet」

I said that as I reached my hand out and attempted to flick his forehead, but he leaned backwards and avoided it as if he already saw it coming.

I am aware that I’m a hopeless person when it comes to love, but it still pisses me off a little bit when I heard it from his mouth.

Speaking of which, Kyle went with Loren-san and the others to clean up after the red bear incident, so he had no idea about what happened to us after that.

I think the only ones who knew were people like Toack and Aisha, who stayed with us at the end.

Even though we could be called close friends, for him to find out about us first thing in the morning makes me a bit scared. I’ll probably be teased when I’m asked about this afterwards.

「…..Ehh? Ah?!」

Flora made a sound next to me when she realized what was happening as I smiled bitterly.

She has been sticking close to me after she came out of the house naturally and greeted Kyle.

Kyle probably had guessed that we spent the night together after the incident yesterday, and I was not denying it either.

「…Ah!」

Flora quickly hid behind me as her face went red.

「Ahaha, you guys are a cute couple– No, wait, is she your bride already?」

「We’re going right now to get permission officially」

When I answered Kyle like that, Flora tugged on my shirt from behind to protest.

「Y-you don’t have to say that out loud in public!」

「You know how mean it is for you guys to be always flirting inside of the village like that and not tell anyone about it? I will tell my teacher and the news will spread in no time, you know?」

Kyle replied to Flora with a bitter smile.

Well, we have been working on our farm together, eating lunch together and going to the field of flowers together during our days off. So of course it’d appeared like that to the people around us. That made me feel a little embarrassed.

After hearing what Kyle said, Flora retreated and shrunk even more behind my back.

「So? What’s the state of the forest now?」

I changed the topic to save Flora from any more teasing.

Kyle shrugged his shoulders and said,

「We recovered all the meat and materials that we could from the red bear. A lot of small monsters have showed up following the scent of the red bear’s blood, but since we had a lot of hunters we were able to repel them without injuries」

It’s common for small monsters to gather by the smell of blood. It’s good to hear that nobody was hurt.

「I thought about bringing you the meat yesterday, but my mentor told me to leave you alone and just bring you some good jerky next time. Now that I think back, he may have already known what was going to happen」

「..Haha」

I made a dry laugh after hearing that.

What the heck, his intuition is too good. That is so sick. No, he might have thought that I was going to be tired afterwards as well. I’ll just think it’s the latter.

「And so? When do you think we can enter the forest again?」

「If no other vicious monsters come out, I think after four to seven days」

Hm. That’s more or less what I expected. There’s no choice but to see what’s going to happen next.

「I got it. Thanks」

I thanked Kyle who came all the way here to inform me of that.

「…Even so, you cut that huge monster in half so cleanly. It wasn’t wild swings but a clean cut. It looks like not just the bow, but you are first class with a sword as well, huh?」

「Hahaha, well, I guess I’m better with a sword than a bow」

It makes me a little uneasy being praised like that. My way of the sword did not have a beautiful form like a knight’s since it was self-taught. Moreover, my skills with the bow are still quite lacking.

「….Mou, it’s strange. Are all adventurers this strong?」

Kyle asked as he stared at me while he remained unconvinced.

「No idea. Well, with that said, I’ma head to Ergys-san’s house with Flora」

I didn’t want Kyle to pry into my adventurer background any more than this, so I told him that as I started walking.

Flora, who was still red and feeling embarrassed, followed me after giving Kyle a nod.

Then, Kyle spoke with a strange grin on his face,

「Yeah, yeah. Aldo-san, please be careful on the way, okay ? 」

Hm, I wonder why. I feel like if I pretended that I didn’t notice him when he was approaching us and just started walking to Ergys-san’s house, we wouldn’t have to hear all that teasing about us getting together… Strangely, I couldn’t stop thinking about that.