The Villainess in the Romance Fantasy Is Strange

14. Date (5)

“Key, kiss? Me and Cain…… ?”

Perhaps surprised by my words, Lia hurriedly covered her cheek with her hand. She seemed to be doing this to hide her shyness, but it was meaningless as I could see her blushing cheeks through the cracks between her fingers.

A glance.

Leah glances at my face as she is almost hugged by me. Her dainty lips parted slightly, then she let out an exclamation or something. Blushing her already reddened cheeks even more, she let out a sigh of satisfaction.

“I think doing it with Cain will be fine. Yes. It’s okay, it’s okay…….”

“… ….”

I made a big decision to save one person. Why does Leah feel like she’s half enjoying this situation, maybe she’s just delusional?

This must be because of her mood. Here, I cleared my throat and drew Ria’s attention.

Lia’s twinkling eyes look up at me as if they contain some kind of strange desire.

“…… Leah. I’m just asking this again to confirm.”

“Uh, huh?”

“If you kiss me right now, it means that you are mortgaging me for the next 10 years. Are you really okay?”

To spend about 10 years only next to each other. It will definitely be a big risk for me too. It’s enough to think of me as an extension of the mission given to me by my family. But Leah isn’t like that.

A little over 10 years, that is, 3650 days. It means that you have to spend an hour every two days with an outsider. Isn’t it a condition that could be burdensome enough for Lia, a girl?

The thought struck me, so I waited for Lia’s answer. Her heart was in a hurry, so I asked for a kiss, but I thought I wouldn’t force it if I refused even now.

Tuk, Leah touched my shoulder.

“What about Cain?”

“Yes?”

“If Cain kisses me, she’ll be by my side for the next 10 years, right? So, she’s asking Cain if she’ll be okay with that.”

“As long as Lia-sama doesn’t hate me, that’s fine with me.”

“Really?”

“It’s true.”

“Really, really really?”

“Yes, really, really.”

The moment I thought what kind of guy this conversation was.

Ouch, Lia grabbed my collar and pulled it lightly. Normally, she would have balanced herself, but because of her posture, she couldn’t straighten her back. Because of that wind, my upper body tilted towards Lia, and Lia took advantage of that momentary gap.

──Page.

I kissed her on the lips…… Only.

“…… Uh?”

Perhaps it was because Lia’s upper body was a little short, her lips landed halfway down her left cheek instead of on top of mine.

The soft sensation on my cheek disappeared, and I belatedly came to my senses. The gaze automatically returns to Lia.

Now, what happened? Could it be that Lia was trying to give me her surprise kiss?

Staring at her Lia and asking with only her eyes, Lia covered her eyelids with her hands, her cheeks burning hot.

“…… Hot, heung, whoah, heaah-!”

“… ….”

Occasionally, even Lia is secretly clumsy.

For Leah, who was feeling ashamed and tormented by what she had done, she briefly turned her gaze to look in the direction of her Grace.

Grace, who had been looking at us with interest just a moment ago, as if she hadn’t seen Leah’s skit as soon as our eyes met. Digging the soil with her fingers, she sighed.

…… At any rate, it was clear that she would die of shame if I spoke to her now. So I waited for Leah without saying anything. She hinted as her rough breathing slowly died away.

“Lia-sama. I’ll pretend I didn’t get that kiss.”

“Eh. I’ll do it right this time……. Cain, put her head down a little—”

“Oh, you don’t have to?”

The moment I tried to move her head as requested by Lia. Grace, who had been silent, interrupted.

We both glanced at Grace at the same time, as if we were doing a weave. Then, perhaps astonished, Grace, who twitched her shoulders, pointed to her own cheek.

“I said kiss. Actually, a kiss on the cheek is fine, right?”

“…… What?”

“That’s because, after all, the necessary condition for sharing the curse is contact between the target and the target’s mucous membrane and skin. That’s why you don’t have to do it mouse-to-mouse because you just need to touch each other’s lips and skin somehow. Hee hee profit…… !”

At this point, I thought he was doing this on purpose, so I pulled out my sword with my free hand.

By the way, it was then. Suddenly, I felt a strange tingling sensation on my left cheek.

Involuntarily, I rubbed my cheek with my hand. What is this, could it be that I was bitten by an insect living in the labyrinth?

“Uh… ? Cain, wait. Put your hands away!”

“Yes? Why is your hand all of a sudden?”

I put her hand away, bewildered, and Leah studied my cheek carefully. Then, he took out a hand mirror from her bosom and showed her left cheek.

“Cain, look at this. You have a strange pattern on your cheek.”

“It’s a pattern. It could have happened all of a sudden……. Uh?”

The moment I looked at my face in Leah’s hand mirror, I was shocked. It was because there was a pattern engraved on my left cheek, which obviously had nothing on it, like a clover cut in half exactly in the opposite direction.

No, what is this? The hand moved spontaneously toward the pattern. It might have been stained with soot, so I tried scrubbing it and wiping the hand mirror with my sleeve. The pattern on my cheek that I saw in the mirror remains.

“Ugh, what is this? What happened… ….”

To think that there were such strange marks on my cheeks that no one except my older brother and my teacher had ever given even the slightest scratch to. Could this be a dream?

My mind was a bit distant, so I staggered for a moment, unable to keep my balance. Cried Grace, who was about five paces away from us.

“Aha! I see This is what you saw in the book!”

“What? That?”

“Oh, that’s it. It is said that the person who shared the curse of misfortune has a pattern that looks like a clover pattern cut in half in the opposite direction somewhere on the body as proof of that? But I didn’t know where it was located, so I didn’t know, but now that I see it, I know it. The location where the curse of misfortune is engraved seems to be the place where the person giving the curse kissed!”

“… ….”

Does that mean that if Lia and I had kissed each other on the lips, this ugly pattern would have been engraved on my lips?

I’m rather fortunate that it’s engraved on my cheek, not on my lips…. Didn’t you mean it could have been engraved on an inconspicuous place like the neck or the back of the hand?

As if I wasn’t the only one who had that thought, Lia, who was observing my cheek, was startled. She muttered in a very apologetic voice.

“Mi, I’m sorry. Cain, I’m so sorry! If I had known it would be like this, I would have done it to an invisible place like my wrist or back….”

“No, no. What’s wrong with Lia-nim?”

I swallowed the words behind my back, ‘It was the fault of that Grace, who didn’t tell me all this in advance.’ I just stared at her.

Facing my murderous eyes, Grace stepped back, stomping on his buttocks.

“…… Grace. How to erase this glyph. Of course you know, right?”

Lia can’t hear, ‘Mutted limbs. Abnormal libido. Old aristocrat,’ she muttered with only the shape of her mouth.

Grace shook her head desperately, her face white.

“Oops, sorry! It’s not written in the book up to that point, so I don’t know… !”

“Ah…. Okay? I mean.”

The condition I put forward with the Mana Oath is to ensure my safety in the underground labyrinth. In other words, as long as you go through the underground labyrinth, it doesn’t matter whether you use Grace to slice or make hwachae.

I made up my mind and approached Grace, bending my neck from side to side.

By the way, chin. Leah grabbed my sleeve.

“Cain, wait a minute. Speaking of Grace, wouldn’t it be better to let her live for now?”

“Yes? What are you doing?”

“Grace is well versed in black magic, so I’m asking her to find out how to remove the mark from Cain’s cheek after she’s kept alive. After that, it won’t be too late to dispose of Cain as he pleases, right?”

“…… Ah.”

I see, there was such a way. After all, Leah is smart.

“Cheer, handling it. Such a scary sound with a casual face…. Also. Are you saying that the only girl that can go along with a monster is the same monster… ?”

“Hey.”

I crouched down in front of Grace, who kept talking about monsters in an annoying way.

“You have two options. The first is, like Lia-sama said, to find a way to erase what’s on my cheeks. The second time, I will drag her out of the underground labyrinth, and her limbs will be—”

“…… Tea, I’ll find it! No matter what happens, I will definitely find it!”

Before I could finish my words, Grace fell flat on her face with a frightened face.

“Really? Good. If so, that is.”

Grace slowly lifted her head.

I made eye contact with Grace and smiled kindly.

“Should I make an oath of mana?”

“Yes, yes, yes… ….”

* * *

There must have been Grace’s willing consent. I added a few restrictions while making the oath of mana.

First of all, an oath never to harm good people, including myself. The reason is simple. Since Grace is a demon, wouldn’t she hurt a hundred out of a hundred people if she left her alive?

I can’t cause harm to other innocent people just because I want to be nice, so I put strong restrictions from the beginning to prevent me from doing that at all. Now Grace cannot use magic except for research purposes without my permission.

And the second. In fact, this is the key point, but I decided to do this after hearing the detailed explanation of the ‘Cult’ that Grace had briefly mentioned earlier.

With no fixed name and unknown date of establishment, this ‘church’ was a more dangerous place than I thought.

According to Grace’s explanation, the meaning of existence itself is to resurrect the ancient evil god ‘Sisyphus’ and bring it down to the present world. Is that means offering the flesh and blood of innocent people as a sacrifice?

It is said that the ‘believers’ of the cult, a pseudo-group that gives you goosebumps just by hearing it, are already deeply rooted in all parts of society and are secretly working.

It’s not wrong, right now there seems to be a believer among the nobles I know. The person who presented Lia with the necklace containing the curse of misfortune also seems to belong to the Church.

…… We cannot afford to watch people in these anti-social organizations breathe the same air as us.

So, Lia and I, to destroy the religious order and make the world a better place. He appointed Grace as a spy and gave him a special mission to dig up inside information about the church.

Of course, Grace vehemently refused. I know a magic spell that forces Grace to agree to our offer. It is a list of completely unrelated words such as ‘limbs, nobility, and abnormal s*xual desire’.

Hearing my magic spell, Grace said, ‘This, this is really going to die, if it gets caught, it’s really going to die… !’, But eventually accepted the offer.

With Grace as my subordinate in such a peaceful way, Lia and I exited the underground labyrinth and were walking toward the village.

“Hey, Cain.”

“Yes, Lia.”

“About the church that Grace explained, something really happened. Isn’t it shocking? If Grace’s words are true, then there’s a chance that the people around us right now are also members of the Order.”

“It’s not just a possibility, maybe some of them are actually believers. Because even Grace, a member of the Order, said there were so many believers that she couldn’t fathom the total size.”

“Yeah, I guess… ? Ugh, I hate it. I hate being suspicious of people around me…….”

As if Leah didn’t want to even think about it, she shook her head.

I cleared my voice and spoke softly.

“Then, you can trust Lia.”

“Huh? Believe me?”

“I will take care of all doubts. Therefore.”

I stopped walking.

Following me, Lia also stopped walking.

“Lia-sama, just trust me.”

“I, Cain…… ?”

“Yes. After all, we are already inseparable.”

So, whether we like it or not, we have no choice but to trust each other.

Instead, I held out my right hand slightly.

Lia stared at my palm, then she grabbed it with a slight hesitation.

“Yeah, okay. I will only trust Cain.”

“…… Yes, thank you. Then, shall we go now?”

“Huh? Where are you going?”

“Now that I’ve finished my business, I have to go on a date that I couldn’t finish. However, please don’t be too disappointed. It’s hard to say with my own mouth, but the Reinhardt Manor is a boring place. There is less to see than I thought.”

Coming to think of it, I think I made a bit of an embarrassing sound, so I involuntarily sped up my steps and speech.

Lia often followed me with a step, and gave strength to her hand that was holding her.

“Cain. What are you going to do after the date?”

“Well, isn’t there a lot to do?”

“Um, for example?”

“Look for believers, and think of a way to dismantle the church. As a bonus, I’m also trying to find out if there’s a way to break the curse quickly.”

“If we do all of that, we will be very busy in the future.”

“Probably, I will be very busy.”

Muttering similar words, we looked ahead.

A single ray of light straddles the edge of the forest.

The village was right in front of us.

“You know, Cain.”

“Yes.”

“The promise that I, Cain, and I made today. Will you never forget?”

“A promise? …… Ah.”

The moment I thought, “Is that what you asked me to believe in?”

Lea smiled.

“Yes. Cain should marry me later when he grows up. Because she promised that earlier, right?”

“… ….”

I don’t remember making that promise…. Wouldn’t it be useless to say that?

Well, it’s a promise I make before my hair grows thick anyway. I’m doing this on a whim when I was young, and I’m going to stop doing this for a while.

I nodded her head and gently ran her hand.

“Yes, what. All right. By the way, did you know that you have to get engaged first?”

“Ah, that’s right. Girls had to make their debut before they could officially get engaged, right?”

“Since the debut can be held in the year a woman turns 17, Lia-sama will be able to get engaged to me in the next seven years.”

“Oh, it’s sooner than I thought?”

“Yes, it’s not too long.”

“Yes. We can get engaged soon!”

Seven years.

After that much time, she will have forgotten the promise she made when she was ten years old.

Sincerely thinking that, I just laughed.

So, after 7 years have passed.

──Cain, Cain!

-Rumble!

“I’m 17 from today!”

As soon as January 1st of the year I turn 17, I will be entering the Imperial Academy.

“So, as promised, get engaged to me!”

“… ….”

Dear Lia, her leash was held tight.