Chapter 260 – The Road to the Present.
Usher caught his breath the moment he met that smile.
“Ugh, so the answer is!”
“Does Usher like to play tag?”
Because of this, it was the moment he tried to regain his lost consciousness and ask again. Erica said that while putting her finger to his lips.
“Suddenly why?”
“Hee hee, I’ll tell you when Usher catches me.”
“Wait! I have time for that!”
Before he had time to say anything, the girl laughed and ran toward the peach tree. Eventually, he had no choice but to run after her to catch her. Still, it was because she thought that since she was a girl, she would be able to capture her quickly. During his journey to the Holy Land, he had been with and trained by Krikaliev. Most of it was about coping with the opponent’s weapon and fighting, but that alone naturally increased his stamina. Sure enough, Usher was able to catch up with Erica right away. It was the moment when he grabbed the girl by the shoulder.
“Caught…! Huh?”
Her form seemed to collapse as it was, and then it changed into petals like petals pouring from a peach tree and scattered.
“What is this?”
I take her hand and spread it out. All that remains on her hand is a single white petal that blushes her face. I didn’t know what was going on, so I was in a daze, and in the distance I could see Erica sticking her face out from behind the pillar of her radiant tree.
“It’s troublesome if you think you’ll catch it easily ♪”
“You can’t use magic?!”
Although he thought about it, Usher was convinced that she was a witch like Belka.
“Are you a witch too?”
“Chii, I don’t like that kind of word.”
“Ugh, sorry.”
He couldn’t figure out why it was bad, but he apologized because he knew people didn’t use witches in a good way, and the girl’s voice came back.
“Hey, it’s okay. But if you don’t catch it quickly, it will run away♪”
“Oh, wait!”
“There’s no such thing as a moment in tag game♪”
Usher tried to say something, but before he could, Erica hid behind a peach tree. In the end, she had no choice but to grab hold of it and looked behind the tree.
“Isn’t it?”
No matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find a single strand of the girl’s long hair, so I thought she had just run away.
“Whoa~”
“OMG?!”
I jumped and jumped in surprise at the breath that whistled in my ears. Turning around, he saw Erika, who was smiling as expected, with her hands behind her back and looking at him. Usher didn’t miss the chance and tried to grab her, but this time, the only thing he got in his hand was her petals. And the girl’s voice came from the top of the tree.
“Hee hee, have you been tricked again?”
As Erica sits on her thick branch and looks down at her, he is forced to climb her tree to grab hold of her. The bark of the tree was smooth rather than bumpy, but it was not difficult to climb it thanks to the support of various twigs and protruding traces. The branch the girl was on was not too high, so she was able to climb up quickly.
“There’s nowhere to run now…!”
But Usher couldn’t follow her actions. Because she saw Erica leaping proudly at him who came right in front of him. Erica smiled at him, slightly sticking out her tongue.
“Oh really!”
He had no choice but to go back down hesitantly, feeling intuition that this tag team would be longer than expected.
“Kiya, it’s been a while.”
“Tsk, it’s been a while, so I’m grateful for putting in a lot.”
Isgar had barely calmed down and brought Krikaliev and his party three bowls of small mushroom-like raspberries with clear broth.
“As expected, I need to know the taste of my hands.”
“Then, do you come often or do you live in the same neighborhood and it’s really hard to see your face?”
As if it had been decided, they ate Raskippa in the soup that came with them and chatted.
“You know I’m busy too, right? I’m taking a little time today, so I have to go to work right away.”
“Tsk, what’s good about fighting those lizards is always popular.”
The voices of Lucas and Isuga continue and then stop, leaving only the sound of swallowing food and the sound of a spoon scratching a bowl. Then it was around the time the bowl was showing the bottom. Isuga, who had been silently watching them eat, opened her mouth.
“Well, I was going to just skip it. Yakaf, what happened to that figure?”
Even as she asked, she looked at Krikaliev, unable to straighten her uncomfortable frown.
“I’m curious about that too. What the hell would happen if that happened?”
When Isuga asked Lucas, who was eating together, she asked him as if she had waited. After all, Krikaliev had removed the face guard that was covering his face to eat, and his entire face was exposed. From the yellow eyes of one eye that emits light on its own, to the hard skin that looks like black fibers, and the human form that was worn, all that remained, it was difficult to see them as the same person no matter how you look at them. If someone saw it, they would think it was some kind of beastman, but even so, they couldn’t explain the inorganic yellow-an.
“No matter how you look at it, it looks like a golem.”
But they were different. It was because this place still had a lot of legacy from the Tsushima era, and among them there was a golem.
“Is there even a technology that turns people into golems on the ground?”
Even so, they could not understand Krikaliev’s figure. Because even here, all the remaining golems were in a state of inactivity, and there was no technology to create or repair golems here either. So, in the past, it was a golem that only knew that it moved.
“Even on the ground, there was no technology to turn people into golems. Rather, the technology to create a magic stone lamp would be enough to say that it was amazing?”
“It doesn’t make sense! Then who made you like that!?”
Isgar shouted, but Krikaliev put down the spoon and looked at them.
“Say something!”
“Yakaf wasn’t alone.”
So, when she tried to get angry, it was Tadao, who had been quiet until now, who opened her mouth. Then, as if realizing something on her part, Ysuga shut her mouth.
“Those little ones?”
“Yeah, he wasn’t one or two of the kids he took with him.”
“Could it be that there was a kid among them who knew that skill? Does that make sense?”
Downstairs was the quarters of the outcasts. Those who had their own skills but were abandoned because they were lacking compared to others or lacked any talent. So she couldn’t understand, but Thaddaeo continued to speak.
“It doesn’t matter if it exists or not. There might have been a pavilion sector or a magic tool that turned people into golems on the ground.”
Isgar opened and closed her mouth several times, finally looking at Krikaliev.
“What do you mean you were betrayed by them in the end?”
“Don’t misunderstand me. Tadaeo. It wasn’t like betrayal.”
“Then why the hell is that?!”
“That’s because I’m thinking of going to ask myself.”
Soon Krikaliev got up from her seat and asked her.
“So, isn’t there something Ysuga and Thaddaeo left behind?”
“There is, but how do you do that?”
“I just thought it would.”
When Isuga answered in surprise, Lucas looked at Thaddaeo as if he had noticed something.
“Hey, the parts that were inside it.”
“That’s right. I gave it to Isgar as well.”
He replied calmly, without any intention of denying it. In the end, Ysuga shook his head as no one could speak.
“Ha, I know it’s something filthy complicated. You want that?”
“Draw.”
“Whoa, follow me.”
So Isgar led them to a room on the second floor. And in front of one of the rooms we arrived at.
“Huh? What is it? Isn’t this Deborah’s room?”
“It was.”
Krikaliev also remembered what the room was like and asked her, but she sighed and opened her door. At the same time, what caught his eye were two pictures in black and white framed. They were elaborate paintings as if they had taken the moment directly, but it was the one picture on the left that caught his attention. Because there was a picture of a girl smiling brightly.
“…Tadao, you’re a grown-up.”
As he remembered, the shape of the painting and the objects placed around it had only the meaning of mourning for those who had left this place.
“That was the picture I took at that time.”
While listening to Thaddaeo’s bitter voice, Isgar entered the room and approached the painting that was in a different place from Deborah’s and took out an object from the drawer below.
“Did you leave it there?”
“I thought he was like a keepsake of yours.”
“So my picture was there.”
Watching her gaze scan Thaddaeo, Krikaliev accepted it.
“Haha, hold me now.”
Usher caught Erica’s breath as she chased after her, who showed no sign of being caught no matter how much time passed. She was able to keep up with the speed of her girl, but her problem was that if she wanted to catch her, her flower would become her flower and disappear, or it would appear on a tree or branch a little further away.
“Hee hee, no ♪ It’s no fun if you give away prizes too easily.”
“Then can’t I use magic?”
“No. No. Am I too disadvantageous?”
In the end, she had no choice but to hang out with Erica more. Because of this, it was when Usher tried to get to the branch where she was, climbing a tree that was meaningless even if he thought of it. Suddenly a good idea came to my mind. She didn’t dare to jump off of her if she looked at her floor for a moment, even though it wasn’t very high, but she couldn’t help it. Once she climbed to the same height as the branch she was on, as she had always done, she saw the girl jumping too, and he also jumped from her tree.
“To?”
Then, she opened her eyes wide and grabbed Erica’s waist as if she was looking at him. At least when she jumped under her, she fell slowly and didn’t turn into a flower. She thought that if it was between them, she would somehow be able to hold on to it. Fortunately, as if he was right, he felt the girl’s thin waist in his arm. However, thinking that Erica might be in danger if she fell like this belatedly, he held her so that he would go down, preparing for her upcoming pain.
“Ugh! Huh?”
It was clear that he had touched the ground, but what he felt was not the hard ground and shock, but a slightly cold yet soft touch. So when he opened his closed eyes and looked at the ground, he realized that petals were supporting him.
“Erika?”
Erica was the only one who could do this right here, so when I saw her. Usher could feel the soft touch of her own lips.
“Aha ♪ I got caught.”
She put her kiss on him, and as if nothing had happened, she smiled and looked down at him.
“You you!”
She tried to say no to the brazenness, but Erica spoke a little faster.
“Then what award does Usher want?”
“Of course you and Belka… Yup?!”
Usher was speechless. After kissing him just before, the girl kissed him again and cut it off. She raised her head again as she was distracted by the soft touch of her gently tickling his lips.
“Hee hee, is that really enough?”
“Ugh, that’s why you’ve been chasing me like that!”
She tilted her head as she shouted clearly at Erica’s behavior, which seemed to constantly divert her words.
“Um, of course you meant to tell me?”
“What?”
Erica whispered with a bashful laugh as Usher stood still at her words.
“Since what we’re talking about is a tag prize~ What prize does Usher want?”
As she reached out and rubbed his cheek gently, looking at her with a warm gray glow, Usher realized he had been tricked.
“Oh, wait, I don’t really need a prize!”
“Hee hee, then I’ll decide on my own ♪”
I wanted to say where such a law exists, but it seems that Erika has already decided.
“Don’t you want to continue what you were doing?”
The girl’s soft voice tickled his ears.
