LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 21 - Partners.
“Aaron.”
“What?”
“Why does Aaron send gifts to other women?”
“Why are you so certain they’re women-”
“Because you’re not denying it.”
“I vowed not to lie anymore.”
“So they are women?”
“Still, those gifts might not be in a good sense…”
“But they are gifts, right?”
“…Yeah.”
“Could it be because of that?”
“If it was that, wouldn’t I have done it with you?”
“You haven’t been doing it much lately.”
“That’s because you always scratch up your whole body out of embarrassment…”
“Ahhh! Anyway! If it’s not that, then why are you sending gifts to women?”
“Because I need to.”
“Need what?”
“It’s a secret.”
“Because of that secret, I have to go around the Magic Tower and ducal houses delivering gifts to other women without even knowing what’s inside?”
“Think of it as finding good trading partners. When the higher-ups there see what it is, they’ll be happy to make a contract with you.”
“Sigh…I understand for now, but shouldn’t you at least tell me what I’m carrying around?”
“If I had to say…memories?”
“You admitted to cheating yourself?”
“No, we weren’t even lovers in the first place…”
“Huh?”
“The first time we did it, I clearly said we were just trading partners…could you please put the dagger away for now?”
“…I never picked up anything like that.”
“Aren’t you being too shameless?”
—–
“Anyway, stuff like this happened too.”
“I see.”
After listening to Sephir’s story, I clearly set my future direction.
“I’ll have to take your words with a grain of salt.”
“Why are you interpreting it that way?”
To her questioning me with a dumbfounded expression, I clearly told her.
“I’ve never even been with a woman before. I’m not the kind of guy who can play around with multiple women like the one you described.”
How can I believe you’re saying I cheated on multiple women and was even nonchalant about it when I’ve lived as a virgin from my past life until now?
“Even if I become trash from being broken, I’m not the kind of guy who would be nonchalant about cheating.”
“…That’s true.”
Sephir continued to object while puffing her cheeks.
I grabbed her puffed-up cheeks.
-Stretch
I pulled them to the sides just like that.
“Owwie~ Stahp~”
“You’re the one who should stop. Teasing people like that is scamming. Read the room.”
Why does she say weird things while I try to comfort her?
Maybe I pulled Sephir’s squishy cheeks too hard. As they gradually turned red, I quickly let go.
“Ah…”
“I apologize if it hurt.”
But I had to show her sternly.
We have to keep cooperating from now on, so how can I smile and agree when you say things like that from our first meeting?
“… It’s true though.”
She mutters in a small voice while rubbing her reddened cheeks.
“Did you say something?”
“I didn’t.”
She did say something.
“Hmph.”
She turns her body in the opposite direction from me as if upset.
A back figure that seems to say, ‘Spoil me.’
How should I put it?
If it’s really the Sephir I knew who played lively pranks, the Empress Sephir… I don’t know.
Still, the Sephir before my eyes made me think we were close.
The reason she’s acting like that now is probably because she’s confused too.
She must be seeing an overlap of me who is different from the me she knew.
She constantly plays pranks and expresses emotions to an extent that feels excessive; maybe it’s because she wants to hide that side of herself.
At Sephir’s back figure exuding loneliness, I slowly approached her and gently rubbed her reddened cheek.
“Still, even if not everything, I’ll believe you to some extent for now. At least that we had a friendly relationship.”
Hearing my words, she looked at me again.
While holding back some tears.
“Do you really believe me?”
“Even if not everything, at least I was friends with you.”
Let me say it again, this woman before me is a woman wearing countless masks on her face.
I can’t believe everything, but let’s believe her to some extent.
“Thank you!”
Sephir wagging her tail and leaping at me.
Swiftly wrapping her waist, she buried her face in my chest.
“Y-you’re welcome.”
With a beautiful woman smiling brightly like this and running to me, I just felt shy.
—–
“Well then, now that the mood seems to have loosened up, shall we start with self-introductions?”
It got to the point I could smile… Just a little.
To continue this atmosphere, I tried to start with self-introductions, which can be called the basics of starting a relationsh-
“Do we have to? I know you, and you roughly know me too, right?”
Oh come on.
What an unromantic demi-human.
“Just do it, please. I might be misunderstanding you.”
“That’s true.”
Sephir nods and energetically stands up from her spot, reaching her hand out to me.
“I am Sephir Livris. The fourth daughter of the Great Clan Chief and a famous trader in the underworld.”
The hand she reached out to me.
That hand signified a handshake marking the start of a deal.
Grasping her white hand, I confidently declared.
“I’m Aaron Dight. A person of the now fallen Dight Viscount family.”
We shook hands while holding each other’s grasped hands.
“I look forward to working with you from now on.”
Looking into her eyes, I greeted her with sincerity.
“I also look forward to working with you again. Aaron?”
—–
“Well then, for now, let’s organize the information about the Academy’s future.”
Now that the atmosphere has loosened with her story full of lies and turned definitively positive with the following self-introductions. I tried to organize the information she knew.
“First, Sephir. What happens after this?”
Originally, I could have just followed the plot developments as they were, so there was no need to ask, but the situation changed.
‘Even though it’s only been a day since the start, the developments have changed too much.’
Even though the story has only been going on for a single day, the developments have changed too much.
From here on, Sephir’s known future is more certain than the plot developments I know.
So the future she knows-
“I don’t know.”
“Excuse me?”
“I originally never even enrolled in the Academy. I only followed along this time because you came.”
Ah right. I forgot Sephir wasn’t at the Academy.
“Oh. Wait a minute.”
While recalling Sephir’s words, a sudden question popped up.
“Hm?”
Sephir tilted her head as if asking what was going on.
“How did you, who clearly never even enrolled in the Academy, know that I would come to the Academy?”
How did Sephir, who wasn’t at the Academy, know that I would go to the Academy?
‘Something’s strange?’
However, the reason was simpler than I thought.
“You told me.”
“I did?”
“Yeah. You said you had an admission letter but no money, so you couldn’t go.”
Ah…I guess the me before also had no money the same way.
It was a curiosity resolved more simply than I thought.
Back to the main point.
“Then…Sephir.”
“Yes.”
“What was our exact relationship?”
—
We greeted each other, but to her, I was a different person.
I needed to know how I acted and my relationship with Sephir to determine how to behave towards her.
“Just in case, I’m asking you seriously. Please don’t joke around.”
Seeing her about to open her mouth after hearing my words and then close it again, she shows a contemplating expression for a bit.
After a moment of contemplation, the relationship with me came out of her mouth.
“Partners?”
“What kind of partners exactly?”
The range of partners is too broad.
A more definite standard was needed.
“Hmm…quite a few. We first met as business partners in a back alley. Later, we handled some work together and chatted when we were bored.”
“That’s indeed partners.”
Certainly, if I listen to her words, it’s fitting to call us partners who did most things together.
Just as the image of Sephir was being revised in my head.
“Aaron! You’ve been asking questions this whole time. Can I ask one, too?”
“Of course you can.”
It can’t be called an equal relationship if I’m the only one asking questions unilaterally.
Just as she answered the things I asked her without hesitation, I also had an obligation to answer her questions.
But what would she, who hung out with me, have to ask the current me?
“Why do you still not have aura?”
“Pardon?”
“Weren’t you a Sword Saint?”
Oh.
Something I just found out.
It seems I succeeded in taking the Sword Saint skill tree.
“Seems like I succeeded in the future.”
Then, let me ask a few things.
If I can find out what abilities my future self used, it means I can prepare in advance.
“Sephir. What was my aura attribute?”
With some anticipation.
Maybe I also have a special ability-
“I don’t know.”
“…?”
I stared at Sephir with blank eyes.
With eyes mixed with some resentment.
“Don’t look at me like that. I asked you countless times, but you were the one who never answered.”
She glared at me slightly as if she was also a bit disappointed and answered.
“Then, do you at least know how I fought?”
Even if she doesn’t know my exact attribute, she might be able to know how I fought, right?
“Umm… it’s kind of hard to explain.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, you fought in a rather unique way.”
Just how did I fight that even Sephir, who has seen all kinds of dogfights in the underworld, calls it unique?
“Sometimes you were really slow, and sometimes you became extremely fast. I’m not just talking about running, but your actions too.”
Certainly, I can’t understand her explanation.
For it to be a speed-related ability, there’s no reason to purposely slow down by deactivating it. To say it’s a conditional ability, it’s impossible to make any predictions with just that.
“Hearing that, it does sound quite unique.”
But at least I found out something.
I’ll ask Aslan later.
“But, Aaron.”
Sephir called for me again as if she had something else to ask.
“How long are you going to speak formally?”
“Ah.”
Certainly.
In a situation where she is speaking casually to me, it could be awkward if only I speak formally.
In addition, while I can’t know our exact relationship, if part of the earlier conversation is true, it means Sephir and I normally spoke casually.
“Then I guess I’ll start speaking…casually now?”
“Yes!”
Sephir smiled brightly while even wagging her tail.
At that moment, the curtain blocking the window fluttered in the wind, and the bright moonlight shone into the room.
Sephir’s gray hair fluttered beautifully as it received the moonlight, and her golden eyes showed a strange color as if she was gradually being embraced by the light.
To her like that, I greeted once more.
“Once again, I look forward to working with you, Sephir.”
“Yeah!”