"I'm truly sorry... those people behind us insisted on following..."
"I'll go send them back to the tavern right away."
With that said.
Ryu Lion was about to turn around and teach those three trouble-loving spectators a lesson. "It's fine."
Haimo waved a hand slightly, stopping her.
"The road is open to everyone, and those are their own feet. They're free to go wherever they like."
"Besides."
Haimo turned his head, a calm smile in his deep black eyes as he looked at Ryu Lion's flushed profile.
"Do you really think I'm someone who must be hidden away, Miss Elf? Or some terrifying, dangerous individual you need to guard against at all times?"
At those words.
Ryu Lion's body abruptly stiffened.
The blush that had only lingered on her cheeks flared all the way to her ears.
"No! Absolutely not!"
Ryu Lion frantically waved both hands, her sky-blue eyes filled with panic. Even her speech became much faster.
"I-I-I... at first, because of certain misunderstandings, I did think you were a dangerous being with sinister designs on Orario..."
"But... after spending these past few days with you, I've already completely abandoned that ridiculous idea!"
"Not only are you tolerant and generous, but you also show tremendous goodwill toward residents of the Lower World like us, whom you've never even met!"
"So, in my eyes, you certainly aren't anyone frightening! You're a God worthy of great respect!"
Desperate to explain, the elf girl stumbled over her words and spilled every last one of her original thoughts.
And so.
Once she finished saying all that.
She realized that not only had she admitted, right in front of a God, that she had once considered him dangerous.
In her panic, she had also poured out her honest opinions of Haimo without holding anything