I Wanted a Cute Girl to Cast Healing Magic on Me, So I Kept Protecting My Allies—and Ended Up with an Overprotective Party - 42

Chapter 42: A Dangerous Person

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The day after Miya got a mild burn. When I woke up at the usual time, Miya was standing in the kitchen. I made sure this time that she wasn’t using fire before speaking to her.

“Did you get enough rest yesterday?”

“Yeah, thanks. But still, isn’t it kind of an overreaction to tell me to take a whole day off just because I touched a hot frying pan for a second?”

“What are you talking about? Miya’s health is way more important than my meals. Besides, Emil and Karinka-san agreed without hesitation.”

“Uu… When you say it so directly like that, I…”

Miya muttered in a small voice and lowered her head.

That very same day, I resumed my activities as an adventurer. As a D-rank adventurer, the monsters I had to deal with were fairly strong. I used 【Damage Adjustment】 to inflict just the right kind of wounds on myself, then had Emil heal me with her Heal, repeating that blissful cycle over and over.

And then, at night, I’d return home and enjoy Miya’s delicious home-cooked meals together with everyone. I never knew such a happy life could exist…!

Then, one day, our usual dinner of consommé soup was served.

“Ahh…! This is it! This soup. That little kick of spice is irresistible!”

Apparently, Karinka-san was also a fan of Miya’s soup. Well, it was delicious, after all.

“My, Karinka-san, you always praise me! Here, this one is for Emil!”

“Thank you~! I love this soup too!”

“And this one’s for Rikuto. Just wait a moment, I will bring it to you.”

“You don’t have to bring it to me. I’d feel bad, so I’ll at least bring my own portion. You can sit down, Miya.”

“Eh!? No! Rikuto, you need to sit down!”

“There’s no need to rush like that, is there?”

“I’ll do it! I’ll do it! I like carrying the soup!”

“I’ve never seen or even heard of someone like that before.”

I still didn’t really understand Miya. She could be cute sometimes though. Well, since she was being considerate, I might as well accept her kindness. That night, as usual, I fell into a blissful sleep in my own bed.

I didn’t know how much time passed after that, but I woke up even though it was still pitch dark outside. This wasn’t good though. Good quality sleep was important after all.

I tried to go back to sleep, but then I noticed I could faintly hear the sound of something. Still lying down with my eyes closed, I focused on the sound. That was when I clearly heard a “haa… haa…”— breathing, almost like breathy sighs. The sighs didn’t seem like it was due to fatigue.  More likely, it was the kind of breathing you hear when someone was excited.

Crap. Someone is here and they sound excited. I’d better not provoke them…

Of course, I always remembered to lock the front door and my window. The girls would do the same. So I didn’t think anyone could just break in so easily. But this was another world. It was possible there were crimes involving the abuse of teleportation magic. Since I currently had 【Damage Adjustment】 set to 『Unharmed』 I decided I could take the risk. Yes. I knew it was risky, but I immediately jumped to my feet and switched on the room light.

“Kyaa!?”

“Miya…!?”

There she was, standing next to my bed.

“What are you doing?”

“Eh…? Umm, I was just checking to see if Rikuto was sleeping well…”

“Even so, normally speaking, you wouldn’t just come into someone’s room without permission, right?”

“R-really? But I was worried about you.”

“Even if that were the case, weren’t you kind of breathing heavily? You know, like you were excited?”

“You were awake!? Th-that’s because… Well, just being in a boy’s room in the middle of the night made my heart race.”

“I appreciate the honesty, but you still came in without permission.”

“Yeah, sorry. But can I just ask one thing? Have you been awake for a while?”

“That’s kind of a weird question to ask… But yeah, I guess so.”

“I see, thanks. I knew it… Alright, I’ll go back to my room now.”

With that, Miya quickly left the room, almost as if she were running away from something.

The next morning, after breakfast with everyone, we were chatting in the living room when the doorbell rang. It looked like we had a visitor, so Karinka-san went to the door. A few minutes later, she came back holding a piece of paper.

“Who was it, Karinka-san?”

“It was a guild staff member and they gave me this.”

Karinka-san spread the paper out on the table. It was a request form. Apparently, someone had issued an escort request for our party. 

“An escort request for us…? I wonder why? I’m surprised anyone would go out of their way to ask a D-rank party to escort them.”

“Well, it’s not just that. Apparently, the client specifically requested the Guild to give this job to us.”

“That sort of thing actually happens? Let’s see… The client is… The Saintess!?”

This revelation was so unexpected that a strange sound came out of me. Sure enough, it clearly said the Saintess wished to hire us as guards.

“Apparently, a D-rank party should be enough for this job.”

“Still, wouldn’t this normally be the job of the knight order or something?”

“Of course the knight order will be dispatched too. But as for why we were chosen, I have no idea.”

“I’m asking this just to be sure… But I suppose we can’t turn it down?”

“Well, I don’t see any reason to refuse.”

So we had no choice but to accept, huh? This was bad… This was really bad… And what was so bad about it? There was no way we could let the Saintess see Karinka-san and Miya getting all flushed from Emil’s Heal! We’d be labeled as a sketchy party for sure!

I’d love to use potions instead, but who knew what Emil would say about that. I was the only one in the party with resistance to Emil’s Heal. Which meant I absolutely couldn’t let those two get injured! Given the circumstances, there was only one thing I could do…!

I need to take every attack myself!

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