#108
“Ca, Carlisle?”
Gasp. Where had this bastard suddenly appeared from?
Carlisle, who’d come to stand beside me, checked the card picture. No, wait, if this bastard saw this picture…
As expected, a sly smile appeared at the corner of his mouth and cold sweat broke out on my scalp. The more embarrassing point was that the figure in the picture resembled me. (Moreover, though I couldn’t bring myself to say it, the other man honestly resembled Carlisle somewhere.) He couldn’t possibly think I was involved in this picture, right? Like I’d ordered it in advance… surely not.
“I didn’t know you had a taste for this kind of thing.”
Carlisle’s voice was gentle, which made it more ominous.
What did he mean by “this kind of thing”? Lewd pictures? Card readings? Probably both, right?
“No, that’s not… I don’t like it…”
“I’ll pay for it.”
“No, I don’t need…”
I tried to stop him, but Bisang’s hands were faster. Carlisle even paid with real money instead of festival coins, and Bisang, who’d successfully overcharged him, seemed pleased and took the items back, saying he’d wrap them up specially nicely.
What wrapping… I’ll just throw it away or burn it later…
Thinking that, I stole a glance at Carlisle’s face. Looking at his handsome profile as he surveyed Bisang’s items, I thought his jawline seemed sharper than before. I hadn’t noticed this morning because I’d been too frantic… had he lost weight from being busy?
Well, even though he was the owner of the house I was staying in, it had been quite difficult to see his face for a long time. Come to think of it, it was the same after the desert exploration. Back then the period was short and there were awkward things that made seeing his face uncomfortable, so I just let it be, but it seemed he was always busy during periods between explorations.
He must have been busy originally, but he became even busier because I dragged him into explorations.
His existing work would have piled up because of the explorations, and there would be increased work from exploration preparations and aftermath. Thinking this way, I felt somewhat sorry.
I was staring blankly when Carlisle suddenly turned his gaze toward me and our eyes met. Unable to avoid it in time and awkwardly continuing to meet his gaze, he raised the corner of his mouth crookedly and spouted nonsense.
“Why do you look more handsome every time I see you?”
“Handsome my ass…”
It was too accurate to call nonsense, so I tried to hide my flustered heart with grumpy words.
“By the way, why are you buying such useless things? If you have that money, you should reduce my debt instead.”
I muttered quietly, but Carlisle was nonchalant.
“Your debt is debt and my money is my money. Where I spend my money is up to me, isn’t it?”
“……”
He was right, so I had nothing to say.
“I’ll give you this too. Service. It’s a protective charm.”
Bisang suddenly held something out to Carlisle. It was a very small bell that looked like a bead. Was it just my imagination that it looked similar to the bell tied around the ankle in the card picture? But he was neither a shaman nor a cat, so what would he use a bell for? Was it some special item?
Even so, Carlisle and a bell. I briefly imagined tying a bell on a ribbon around Carlisle’s neck, but it was so unsuitable that I quietly smiled.
“Hand.”
But Carlisle, holding the bell, demanded my hand like he would to a dog. As I just stared blankly at the large palm he extended to me, he reached out directly and took my left hand. On my wrist, where the shirt sleeve was rolled up, was the bracelet I’d obtained from the unexpected event during the last desert exploration.
Actually, since the priest had shown a strange reaction to this bracelet and Eira had recognized it too, I’d had a strange expectation that Carlisle might also recognize it. After all, it was something young Carlisle had bought at the beach festival.
But even though Carlisle had seen this bracelet on the first night we slept together, he’d shown no particular reaction. He just gave me a look as if asking why I was wearing such a thing while completely naked.
Well, since such a story didn’t even exist in the original game, maybe it was natural he couldn’t recognize it. The beach unexpected event was probably fiction created by the system anyway.
It was the same now. Carlisle seemed to briefly touch the blue stone attached to the bracelet, but without any change in expression, he inserted the bell he’d received from Bisang into the bracelet. The bracelet that had only one blue stone dangling from it now had one more small silver bell hanging.
“……”
I looked down blankly at the new decoration on the bracelet that had somehow become mine. Though it had delicate craftsmanship on the surface, it was an ordinary bell. I tried touching it lightly, but it made no sound and no description window appeared. Was it really just a miscellaneous item?
You called it a charm, you bastard Bisang.
Somehow wearing a bell made me feel like I’d become a pet… at least it was fortunate that it didn’t make sound.
“What a loving couple. You should buy essential items too. It’s good stuff.”
While I was briefly examining the bell, Bisang held out another small box. On the surface of the light blue paper box were mysterious characters that couldn’t be interpreted.
Whatever it was, this Bisang bastard had really found a sucker. Now that a big spender had appeared, he was doing business non-stop. He seemed determined to see this through to the end. Well, this guy was someone who had a knack for pretending to be innocent while completely emptying the other person’s pockets. I was dumbfounded.
“What’s this again?”
“Couple rings.”
“What? Hey, why on earth would you tell us to buy this kind of…”
I was about to protest strongly when Carlisle wrapped his arm around my shoulder again and whispered quietly.
“You should watch your words, honey. People are watching.”
People?
Come to think of it, people were bustling outside the tent. This was on a different level from the few people who’d been peeking around while I was getting my card reading. When had so many gathered?
They were keeping an appropriate distance as if being mindful of Carlisle, but they couldn’t hide the overflowing curiosity in their expressions. Well, I was the village’s gossip material. Seeing me together with Carlisle, who was at the center of rumors, they couldn’t hide their interest.
But even so, why did I have to endure this scammer’s bullshit about “loving couples” and be pressured into buying?
“Whether people are watching or not, why…”
This time I tried to argue back to Carlisle, but he suddenly brought his face close.
….?
I flinched. For a moment I thought our lips would touch.
“Shh.”
Geez…
He wouldn’t do that in front of people, so what kind of absurd delusion was that? I became embarrassed at myself and my face heated up. Carlisle whispered low to me as I hunched my shoulders.
“You remember what I said at the mountain lodge, right?”
Mountain lodge? We’d never had a proper conversation at the mountain lodge, so what was I supposed to remember… Ah.
If I had to say we’d had a conversation, it was in the bath on the first day. The scene of exposed flesh came to mind first, so I hurriedly shook my head. Not then, but before that—we’d talked about our relationship to “display” to people. Something about making it look like we’d gotten back together.
Honestly, I didn’t want to be seen as a playboy anymore either. Anyway, as long as I was staying at my ex-spouse’s house, rumors about my relationship with Carlisle were inevitable, and it would be strange to desperately deny it. Even if we weren’t really dating, we were still… doing it together, weren’t we? We were even officially sharing a room now.
But there’s no need to buy couple rings…
Of course, buying from a festival stall like this probably didn’t have much meaning, but wasn’t this the kind of embarrassing thing that only real lovers did?
I felt reluctant, but since I understood Carlisle’s intention, I quietly watched him receive the small paper box. When he opened the box, two simple silver rings sitting obediently on black velvet cloth were revealed. Before I could examine them closely, Carlisle took my left hand again.
“……?”
“Wooooo!”
Even the people surrounding us from a distance burst into exclamations and started murmuring. I belatedly grasped the situation and panicked.
“W-wait a minute. Th-this, right now?”
I understood that Carlisle was deliberately buying couple rings in front of people. It would be a kind of show to demonstrate that we’d gotten back together. But wasn’t that enough? Carlisle was going even further, trying to put this couple ring on me right here in front of people.
Did we really have to go this far? Not just me, but Carlisle wasn’t the type to do such cringe-worthy things in front of people either, right? Even in the game, all private events except the wedding took place when only the two of us were present.
“I know you don’t like doing this kind of thing publicly.”
Carlisle whispered while pulling me, who’d stiffened up.
“But I need to do this kind of thing publicly so you’ll be more mindful of what people think.”
He mocked me with his words while smiling affectionately on the surface. As he put the ring on my left ring finger, amazingly the ring fit my finger perfectly as if it had been custom-made. It wasn’t even an item that automatically adjusted size. The only unusual thing was that unknown characters flashed green briefly when it was put on my finger, then disappeared.
What was that just now?
The character form looked familiar somehow. Where had I seen it?
Waaaaah.
The thought that seemed about to surface scattered due to the sudden cheering. The people who were already excited about the long-awaited festival seemed to accept this as a kind of spectacle too, as they started cheering and clapping. Though the circumstances were different, I’d already experienced something similar this morning. As someone who was uncomfortable with people’s attention, this was distressing.
“Honey, you have to put one on me too, right?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
