"Litt, Litt?"
"Wuaa."
It was only when a hand reached out from beside him that Litt came to his senses. He hurriedly stepped back and looked over, only to see Lilian standing there with her hands on her hips, cheeks puffed out as she glared at him angrily.
"What are you doing? You've been absent-minded all these days."
"No, it's probably... just that training has been a little too exhausting."
Litt turned his head away and spoke in a low voice.
"I see."
At Litt's answer, Lilian's expression softened somewhat.
"I know you've been training really hard lately, Litt, but you need to rest properly too. It wouldn't be good if you overdid it and got hurt... Ah, but if you did get injured, your cute Childhood Sweetheart would definitely take care of you, right? Maybe that wouldn't be so bad?"
"...Mina doesn't have time to take care of me now."
"Hm? Oh, right. The Hero has returned. I never thought he'd actually like our little village so much."
"Ah, yeah..."
Litt turned his head away, pretending to admire the scenery around him as he silently clenched his fists. What he had heard that night continued to echo in his mind. Afterward, when he opened his eyes again, he had already been lying in his own bed. He had asked his sister, who told him that he had returned the previous day and gone straight to bed.
Then had it been a nightmare? Or was it real?
Litt didn't know. However...
At that moment, Lilian sighed emotionally.
"Come to think of it, Mina has gotten prettier..."
"Huh? Has she?"
"You haven't noticed? Honestly, that's men for you... I noticed it ages ago. She's different from the Mina of before. Now she has a certain... how should I put it? A