"Shade!"
Emilia suddenly called out.
"I'm here. What is it?"
A certain light flickered in the elf girl's eyes.
"You said last time that you would give me a Youthful Immortality Leaf. Does that still count?"
Shade had indeed said he would give her one last time, but Emilia had reacted strongly and fled at once. Later, Dorothy told Shade that giving a Youthful Immortality Leaf to an unmarried elf was, in this era, a marriage proposal ritual. So what Shade had done then had been extremely rude.
"Of course it still counts."
Offering one proactively was a proposal, but asking for one was not. Shade took two leaves from his pocket—the last of his current supply.
"Here. Happy summer vacation. Emilia, we'll see each other again soon."
Emilia Sinode accepted the emerald-green leaves. As she lowered her head to stare at them, she bit her lip, then suddenly leaned forward, her hands seeming to want to embrace Shade as well.
Her face came closer and closer to Shade's, until she kissed his palm.
The back of his right hand rested lightly against Shade's lips, while the elf kissed his right palm. Smiling, Shade said to the shy yet confused elf:
"That won't do. You're still too young."
So when young ladies wanted to forcibly kiss you, as long as you wanted to stop them, you could stop them completely.
Shade ignored that thought. Emilia, her face red as though she had used up all her courage, lowered her head and said, "I understand," then patted Little Unicorn and walked with her bewildered friend toward the cabin entrance.
Then she suddenly turned back and asked:
"Shade, if I..."
The Outlander stood by the deck railing, looking at her beneath the starry sky.
"Emilia, time will tell us the answer."
Emilia