Feelings Hard to Reciprocate

"Is it good?"

"Mm—"

"Want some more, then? I made a lot this time, hehe."

Lia rested her chin in her hands, her eyes shimmering with a clear emerald light as she looked at Galan.

To help Galan get his strength back, she had made a whole big pot of nourishing soup.

True to its name, she had thrown all sorts of nourishing ingredients into a pot and boiled them together.

Yet somehow, whatever she had done to combine them, it had turned out to taste decent.

Had she put a lot more skill points into cooking lately?

"...I think I've had about enough."

"But shouldn't you have been practicing magic all this time? How did your cooking get so much better lately? Who did you learn from?"

"Hmph! I'm not telling!"

Lia pursed her lips in a haughty pout.

A casual compliment from him had brought all her delight to her face, and Galan couldn't help smiling at the sight.

He had to admit, she was pretty cute.

He wiped away a trickle of blood that had run down onto his lips.

It was the second time Galan's nose had bled during this meal.

If he kept eating, he felt like all that nourishment would make him stupid.

But seeing how earnest and expectant the girl looked, he swallowed and polished off the freshly filled bowl in his hands.

In the room, the kettle hummed on the stove, sending out rings of mist.

Now and then, a bird swept past the window, leaving a brownish-yellow afterimage.

It didn't linger long on a branch outside the house before chirping and flying high toward a more distant place.

Duncan had finished eating early and was sitting in a chair by the window, gently turning the pages of History of Magic, which made an occasional rustling sound.

Whenever he came across an important point, he carefully marked it with a quill and added his own understanding.

Lia said Duncan had suddenly picked up the habit lately, scribbling notes in her copy of History of Magic whenever he had free time.

Sometimes, when he came across something difficult to explain, he would spend the whole afternoon frowning over it.

These past few days, something had apparently spurred him on, though she didn't know what. He often stayed up late with a lamp lit, making annotations, and wouldn't say why when asked.

"Is that so..."

Galan looked over at Duncan as he swallowed the food in his mouth.

He smacked his lips a few times, as if something had occurred to him, then suddenly stopped.

"I'll clear up."

Seeing that Galan's bowl was empty, Lia reached across the table with one hand and took it from him.

"Hm? Oh, right..."

Suddenly finding himself the one being looked after, Galan was too taken aback to react for a moment.

"I'm really not used to having you take care of me."

"Hehe, I can't keep relying on you to take care of me forever."

"Actually, I think I'm almost better. I just took some medicine I prepared, too..."

"No, you're not getting up!"

She puffed out her cheeks as if she were angry.

"You're injured, so get some proper rest!"

Watching Lia suddenly put on the airs of a grown-up and then trot off to busy herself in the kitchen, Galan gave a helpless smile.

It really was just as Duncan had said.

Her feelings for him were so obvious, yet he had been turning a blind eye to them all along.

Or rather, he had never dared believe it.

Because her "liking" him was too dreamlike.

It was like bringing a cat home from the pet store and having her immediately let you kiss her, hug her and lift her up high.

That wasn't realistic.

But Galan couldn't think of any other possible explanation.

The intense worry and sadness that had welled up in her when she saw him wake up couldn't be faked.

After all, he was the Shadow Warrior who had become a legend through disguise and assassination...

Galan shook his head, clearing the jumbled thoughts from his mind.

Then he brought over a chair and sat down beside Duncan.

The two sat side by side, enjoying the warm sunlight streaming in through the window, and Galan suddenly remembered sunbathing by the sea in his previous life.

"Looks like you're making quick progress."

"Mm."

Duncan adjusted his monocle and turned another page with a rustle.

"I should be finished by tomorrow night, more or less."

He was so focused on writing his notes that he didn't even take a moment to look at Galan.

"Are you... leaving?"

At those words, the quill flying across the paper suddenly paused, but a moment later, it resumed its scratching.

"A secret letter came from the Empire. I have to go back early."

"I see..."

"Sorry. In the end, I couldn't finish my job as a teacher..."

Duncan's face remained impassive, his eyes fixed intently on the tip of his quill, as though he had expected Galan to guess the reason.

"No, when it comes down to it, I was the one who tricked you into coming here in the first place. Getting this far is already pretty good."

Galan smiled, but he suddenly felt empty inside, as though something were missing.

"Once you're gone, it's going to feel quiet around here again..."

"Don't you have Lia with you?"

Unexpectedly, Duncan stopped writing his notes and turned to look at Galan with a serious expression.

"You must have noticed by now. She really likes you. Even the reason she's working so hard at practicing magic..."

"—Apart from taking revenge on the demons, part of it is so she can help you."

"...Mm."

"Aren't you going to reciprocate her feelings?"

Galan scratched his head.

Whenever he ran into something he couldn't make sense of, or a particularly thorny problem, he found himself doing that.

"...I don't know what her feelings for me come from...

"At least, I don't think that just bringing her back and giving her some help would be enough to make her unconditionally..."

"Fall in love with me..."

"Does that matter?"

Duncan looked at him with an extremely complicated expression, even a little... frustrated at his failure to act?

It seemed that in Galan, he saw the man he had once been, who hadn't dared reveal his feelings to Lecktire.

"Some say elves are a race with little feeling because of their long lives."

"But Lia's feelings for you are very passionate... I'm curious too, actually, but she hasn't told me the reason either. Still, that isn't important."

"What matters is that her feelings for you now are real."

"But if you don't even have the courage to respond to her feelings, how are you going to get along with her from now on?"

Faced with Duncan's pressing gaze, Galan looked away and out the window.

As if he didn't dare face him, or perhaps didn't dare face himself.

"...When Lecktire passed away, I was still happy about receiving a decoration..."

"...But what did that mean?"

"The rewards I received because of it couldn't be used to treat my wife, so to me, they were nothing more than a pile of scrap metal..."

"...That was my greatest regret... so I don't want you to beat your chest in anguish one day in the future because of your hesitation and avoidance, and regret it for the rest of your life."