Drifted Into a Reversed World ~ The One Method for Me, a Japanese Guy, to Survive in a World Where Men and Fertility Are Scarce ~ - 26

Chapter 26: Flames of Jealousy

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When the night grew even deeper, the temperature dropped, and the sounds of the soldiers’ breathing as they curled up inside their blankets mingled together. Some breaths were regular and rhythmic, while others snored boisterously.

Elraine listened to these various sounds on the edge of her consciousness, still unable to fall asleep. Even though her skin, exposed to the wind, carried a tingling chill, heat welled up steadily from deep within her core. Her heart beat like a small, rapid alarm bell at narrow intervals, making her eardrums vibrate slightly with every pulse. Elraine twisted her body, tossing and turning for more than the tenth time tonight.

“…”

Her mind wouldn’t clear. She didn’t have the slightest feeling that she could sleep. The cause of the ripples in Elraine’s heart was, as expected, the member of the opposite sex named Sota Akitsuki.

She had never imagined that Sota’s unintentional, selfless love and the concern she received from a man could be such a sweet nectar. The atmosphere he carried, the voice he produced, his scent… each and every memory seared Elraine’s heart. To put it plainly, Elraine was bewildered. She couldn’t understand what this emotion she was currently harboring was, and it was more than she could handle.

However, within her brilliant mind, there was only one answer that fit.

The thing called “love.” Not a physical urge, but a kind of abnormality where one falls for another from the bottom of their soul. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t harbored love-like feelings toward Sota from the start. For a woman of this world, it was practically inevitable to feel such things upon witnessing a good-looking man. Yet, for it to be so deep-rooted, coming from the heart… to the point where her chest ached even before any sexual arousal when she pictured the man of her dreams behind her eyelids—this was nothing other than “love.”

“Fuuh…”

Stripping off her blanket and putting on her glasses, Elraine stood up sluggishly. She pulled back her silver hair and gave her flushed cheeks a sharp slap. With her heart so restless, sleep was out of the question. Elraine threaded her way quietly between the sleeping soldiers and walked aimlessly toward the center of the village. Along the way, a night watchman called out to her in surprise, but she quelled them by saying, “It’s just a walk.”

A trained warrior also required the skill to sleep under any circumstances. For Elraine, a first-class knight who was the living embodiment of the words “calm and collected,” to be taking a walk after lights-out was nothing short of a rare sight to those who knew her. Feeling the gaze of the curious night watchman on her back, Elraine continued to walk.

“…”

She had said she was walking aimlessly… but strictly speaking, that was a lie. As if seeking Sota’s lingering traces, Elraine had made her way to the house where he was sleeping. Half consciously, half unconsciously.

“Sota-sama…”

A gust of wind stroked her cheek. She felt as if Sota’s fragrance was mixed into that wind, and her heart raised the scale of its melody by one octave. Just the fact that a man was inside that small, quiet house before her felt like something out of a dream. Furthermore, when that man was the very existence that continued to cause extraordinary ripples in her heart, it felt even more like a trance.

Elraine’s eyes looked as if she had returned to being a young girl. Her eyes were filled with a sparkle as if she were witnessing her beloved, and heat mingled with her sighs. She wanted to talk to Sota again. The pure wish to touch Sota filled Elraine’s entire being.

“…Huh?”

But suddenly, Elraine noticed something. There were no guards around Sota’s house. She looked around, wondering what had happened, but they were definitely gone. Her chest felt restless. After looking around for a while, the guard from earlier walked up from behind as if sensing her presence.

“Elraine-sama, I apologize for the delay in informing you. It’s about Sota-sama…”

“Did something happen!?”

“N-no! It’s not that something happened, but earlier General Firis said there were matters of a private nature to discuss and ordered the guards to stand down.”

“I see… Firis-sama did. …At this hour?”

“Yes. Well, it’s been about an hour now.”

“I see… Thank you. Please continue with your vigilance.”

“Understood.”

Saying this with a bow, the soldier returned briskly to her post. Watching her back, Elraine ruminated on those words in her heart.

“At this time of night, for an hour…? What on earth is Firis-sama doing?”

Elraine felt a murky sensation fill her chest. It was nothing other than irritation derived from jealousy. Elraine liked Firis. She respected, loved, and idolized her from the bottom of her heart. It was no exaggeration to say Firis was the woman who embodied the image of the perfect knight she envisioned.

And yet, for the first time, Elraine felt a sense of loathing toward Firis. A sense of rivalry. While she was currently so anxious and desperate just to have contact with Sota, she even began to think that Firis might have taken advantage of her position to be alone with him.

“…How foolish.”

Elraine felt disgusted with herself for harboring such childish emotions. She felt appalled that she was burning with hostility toward that Firis.

…However, the murkiness remained. Elraine let out a sigh at her inability to manage emotions that her reason could not control, and she fixed her gaze on the house in question. Sota and Firis were inside. Curiosity and jealousy washed over her. What could they be doing alone for an hour?

As if drawn in, Elraine walked up to the side of the house.

(For an hour, alone together, just what are they…?)

“Eh…”

Elraine, straining her ears, froze.

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