Kid, You've Fallen in Love?

"What... am I living for..."

Galan was left somewhat dazed by the question.

Glenn's train of thought was sometimes like a straight avenue, the kind without any turns.

When chatting with him, he always caught him off guard with his head-on style of speaking.

One second he was still talking about his own past,

and the next he pointed the topic right at him.

It was just like his combat style.

Even though he was a big guy wielding a greatsword, his movements were flexible, and he always managed to catch his opponent off guard.

Halfway up, Galan's hand, which wanted to scratch his head, slowly lowered back down.

His two legs involuntarily shook a few times, but he suppressed this strange impulse himself.

He seemed somewhat ill at ease.

Right.

What was he living for?

Galan did not have much of a desire for wealth; as long as it was enough, that was fine.

Power?

Even if it were given to him, he would not know what use it had.

Was it to avoid exposing his identity and live out this lifetime peacefully in this world?

The past him had always lived like that.

Yet thinking back on it now, those days had been utterly terrible.

Not only had he lived in constant fear and suspicion day in and day out, but at the very beginning, he had even hidden a weapon under his pillow when sleeping at night.

Still, putting it that way felt so strange.

It also felt a bit brainless, with a sense of having swapped the concept.

Living for the sake of living?

It sounded so passive.

Galan did not take up the thread.

After a pause, he picked up the liquor and poured it into his mouth.

He could not answer this question,

because he truly did not know where the meaning of his life lay.

After the bubbles in the wine bottle came into contact with the air, they dissipated in large swaths along with his thoughts.

Seeing him display a muddled appearance,

Glenn also let out a heavy sigh.

"You weren't like this before."

"If you're just living for the sake of living, you're not even as well off as someone like me who hates something."

"What problem are you bottling up inside that you still haven't figured out whether to tell me even now?"

People were actually very strange creatures.

When you talked to others about a bunch of irrelevant things,

bantering back and forth for a large part of the day,

you were actually just laying the groundwork for that thing you truly cared about.

Saving the question you genuinely wanted to ask for the very last.

It was like pressing the sweetest piece of candy to the bottom of the box, waiting until you had finished eating all the other odds and ends.

Only then would you peel open that candy wrapper full of joy and with twelve points of anticipation.

Galan indeed had a huge vexation.

Duncan's words from the morning were still revolving in his mind right now.

Refusing to dissipate for a long time.

If he could not respond to Lia's affection of unknown origin, how would he live with her from now on?

"Glenn, have you ever kept any pets?"

After falling silent for a moment, Galan seemed to muster up some courage and spoke.

"I used to have a dog named Bruce, which died of old age a few years ago. Compared to being tormented by illness, it could be considered a pretty good ending, so I'm actually quite happy for it."

"It stayed with you for a very, very long time, right?"

"Yeah, my affection for it is no less than yours—not that I'm comparing you to a dog, haha."

His expression was somewhat strange; he did not know what Galan actually wanted to say by asking out of the blue with this brainless topic.

"Then have you ever developed... feelings for anyone?"

"As you can see, I'm still a bachelor to this day."

"I did think about starting a family and all that in the past, though."

"Later on, however, I figured that since I didn't know when I might die out there, it's better not to pursue that kind of life..."

Saying this, he could not help but pause.

The look in his eyes when he looked at Galan also underwent an obvious change.

He seemed to have perceived some key element.

Turning from initial blankness to astonishment, and finally to disbelief,

an exaggerated expression surfaced on his face,

as if he had learned of some heaven-shattering secret.

Finally, he fiercely let out a curse.

"Fuck!"

"No way?"

"Kid... you haven't fallen in love, have you?"

Hearing this,

Galan, who had already found it somewhat difficult to speak, blushed all the way to the tips of his ears.

The genius pharmacist of Rogley, in front of Glenn, was currently like an unworldly rookie.

About to undergo a storm-like, fierce grilling.

"Is the woman a local?"

"What does the lass look like?"

"Ho ho! Not bad, kid, strutting your stuff outside behind my back!"

Glenn asked a whole string of questions, but Galan did not want to answer a single one.

He only looked somewhat speechlessly at this middle-aged man overflowing with gossip.

"So what on earth are you agonizing over?"

Glenn rubbed his head in utter incomprehension.

"Can merely emotional issues worry you to this extent?"

"What's wrong, you couldn't be suffering from unrequited love, could you?"

As he spoke, he even wore a look of disdain.

It seemed he had already put a lid on his verdict in his heart.

"No... I mean Glenn, would you calmly accept an inexplicable affection?"

"Could it be that the other person fell in love with you at first sight?"

"It doesn't really feel like it..."

Next, Galan roughly recounted everything from meeting Lia to her later showing increasingly obvious affection toward him.

In the end, he left Glenn completely dumbfounded.

"From the way you tell it, it sounds like the story of you accidentally bringing back an ignorant and naive young girl, and inexplicably being fiercely loved by her."

"Pretty much... So it's really strange, isn't it?"

"Yet I feel like you're getting off easy while still complaining."

"When all is said and done, this matter can be very simply summarized as: the girl had unconditional trust in you and an extraordinary, unreasonable fondness for you right from the start."

"It's as if she skipped the process of cultivating affection, yet her feelings for you are unexpectedly deep, like she has been with you for many years."

"And you don't understand the origin of this affection, and don't want to casually accept and reciprocate the other person... is that it?"

It sounded long and convoluted, but Glenn still sorted the matter out.

"...Yeah."

"I still don't understand what you have to agonize over."

"Huh? Why?"

Glenn looked at Galan as if looking at a fool.

That expression was practically identical to Duncan's from the morning.

"Let me ask you, do you hate her?"

"I don't hate her."

"Then do you like her?"

"You hesitated, and you didn't dare answer me because deep down you didn't dare deny to yourself that you have feelings for her."

"If that's the case, then what do you even have to agonize over?"

"Actually, your heart has been stirred by her too, only you're beating around the bush and don't want to admit it."

"When all is said and done, who could encounter this kind of thing and not have their heart stirred? No matter what the reason behind it is."

"If I had been able to encounter a girl like this when I was young, regardless of whether she was sincere or not, I'd have a roaring, passionate love affair!"

When he said this, he seemed as if he really had encountered such a foolishly simple girl when he was young.

Loving, hating, and finally exiting the stage in bleakness.

What a dashing and carefree attitude.

Galan looked at him and genuinely wanted to give him a thumbs-up and say: "Big brother, you're awesome."

"Don't you know what you're living for? At least right now, there is a choice right before your eyes."

"Such affection is laid right before you; she can choose not to spell it out and just quietly care for you like this. As a man, are you really not going to reciprocate?"

"At least living for that so-called love is better than you being muddled right now, isn't it?"

After listening to his words, Galan just quietly looked out the window.

The two of them fell into silence once more.

Yet the atmosphere inside the room was somewhat different from just now.

The afternoon sunlight was still very bright; it truly was a fine day of a kind rarely seen lately.

Just sitting here,

breathing in the light breeze and smelling the floral fragrance carried on the wind, was enough to make one's mood clear up a little at a time.

"Glenn."

"Hm?"

"Do you know anywhere with a skilled craftsman who makes magic wands?"