Chapter 25: One Year Later, a Spring Day
About one year after Lydia left the great tree.
On a pleasant spring afternoon, when a gentle breeze softly swayed the fresh green leaves of the trees.
Lydia was walking through the forest together with Leohart.
Leohart was carrying a small basket.
As she walked between the trees, she peered carefully into the undergrowth.
Spotting red berries, she crouched down.
“These are wild strawberries.”
“You found them well.”
“Fufu, I’ve always been good at finding things like this.”
The two of them crouched down, picked the wild strawberries, and placed them into the basket.
Enjoying the scent of spring, they walked to a small stream and gazed at the clear snowmelt water flowing down from the mountains.
‘What a lovely, spring-like scene.’
While she felt happy, Lydia also had something weighing on her mind.
Recently, Leohart had been acting a little strangely.
He was as kind and considerate as ever, but there were more moments when he seemed absent-minded or unusually alert.
‘What could be wrong, I wonder.
Did something happen?’
With those worries in mind, they returned home, washed the wild strawberries, and preserved them with sugar, then prepared dinner together.
After enjoying a salad of spring vegetables and galette, Leohart brewed coffee for her.
He placed the steaming cup in front of Lydia.
She thanked him and then hesitantly spoke.
“Hey, Leohart, did something happen recently?”
“…Nothing in particular, but why do you ask?”
“It feels like you’ve been thinking about something lately.”
Leohart gave a wry smile and sat down across from her.
“I didn’t realize it showed that clearly.”
“Are you alright?”
“Yes.”
Lydia said “Hmm,” and lowered her gaze to her coffee.
It felt a little like he was dodging the question.
‘But forcing the issue probably isn’t a good idea.’
Thinking that people should talk when they’re ready to, she poured plenty of milk and sugar into her coffee.
“…At that point, isn’t it basically sugar milk with a hint of coffee?”
She drank the overly sweet coffee while being teased like that.
Then, after agreeing to go to the Adventurers’ Guild the next day,
“I’ll go to bed first.
Good night.”
She stretched, gave Leohart a goodnight kiss on the cheek, waved to him as he blushed slightly, and returned to her room.
After Lydia returned to her room, Leohart let out a quiet breath and approached the window.
Carefully pulling back the curtain, he looked outside.
The garden was very quiet, the round moon softly illuminating the plants, while the occasional breeze rustled through the trees.
Gazing at the scene, Leohart let out a small sigh.
“I thought I was acting normal enough.”
The day after learning of a request at the Adventurers’ Guild to search for an elf believed to be Lydia,
Leohart left the house early in the morning and headed for the capital.
He went to the Adventurers’ Guild headquarters in the capital to investigate who had issued the request.
After looking into it from various angles, he discovered that the requester was someone from outside the country.
According to what a receptionist quietly told him,
special missing-person requests like that were almost always extremely dangerous cases.
“In other words, they can’t search openly.
That means it’s not anything decent.”
Leohart fell into thought.
Judging from the situation, there was a very high chance the request came from the Elven Kingdom.
Searching for Lydia after imprisoning and abandoning her was guaranteed to be bad news.
When he asked the receptionist whether the request had made any progress, she told him that there hadn’t even been information about anyone resembling her.
“Elves themselves are rare, after all.”
Hearing that, Leohart let out a sigh of relief.
It seemed Lydia wasn’t being recognized as an elf.
‘So, what should I do from here?’
He briefly considered telling her about it, but decided against it.
If she knew, he felt she wouldn’t be able to live with the same carefree smile as before.
‘…For now, I’ll keep an eye on things.’
There was a chance the request might be withdrawn, or that it would fade away without being seriously pursued.
He would stay cautious while watching the situation.
Fortunately, this house was protected like a fortress.
As long as he stayed alert when they went out, it should be fine.
That was why Leohart was living as normally as possible while strengthening his vigilance around Lydia.
He picked up a lamp and quietly stepped outside.
Exhaling white breath, he went to the gate and confirmed that the latch was firmly secured.
Then, after returning to the house and locking the door properly, he slowly went up to his own room.