Vol 1 Chapter 16 – A Good Day for a Journey

“Strike while the iron is hot,” as they say. With Puria-san still looking the other way, I decided to head toward Ista for now.

Our first destination was the Forest of Un-giving.

By the way, Garon-san secretly gave me some shoes and clothes last night, figuring I wouldn’t be provided with any.

I really owe her big time.

As I threw on the jacket she first gave me, her lingering scent filled me with a sense of warmth.

Alright, first let’s go fulfill my promise to Tia-sama.

To do that, I need to fix this girl’s mood first.

After all, it’s going to take more than two days on foot to reach the Forest of Un-giving.

“Hey, Puria-san, look over here.”

“…”

“I wasn’t making fun of you, really. So please, cheer up.”

That’s a lie, though.

“…”

“Hey, Puria-san, look over here?”

“…”

“I’m sorry for doing that. But you’re partly to blame too, Puria-san.”

“What exactly did I do?”

“Because, Puria-san, you’re just too cute.”

“What are you talking about? Are you an idiot?”

“You give such incredibly cute reactions. I just couldn’t help myself.”

“You think I’ll fall for smooth talk like that?”

“I’m serious, Puria-san. After all, you’re incredibly cute.”

By the way, this part is true.

At the end of the day, this harpy is idiotically cute.

I end up teasing her partly as payback for when we first met, but also because I just want to see her reactions.

“I’m not an easy enough woman to take that seriously.”

Saying that, Puria pouted and restlessly began preening the feathers on her wings.

“Well, fine, water under the bridge. In exchange, don’t get too carried away from now on, alright?”

She caved!

Man, this is great.

Puria-san really is idiotically cute.

Garon-san is the same. Demons are kind of simple and honest, aren’t they?

Except for Aroma-san and Eva-san, that is.

“So, what’s the plan? Even if we go towards Ista, there aren’t many humans around, you know?”

“There are still plenty down south where the capital is, right?”

“The capital, you mean Tiamaria? You want me to carry you all the way there? Sounds like a pain.”

“Now, now, we’ll be going through the Forest of Un-giving on foot.”

“The Un-giving? Oh, you mean the Forbidden Forest.”

“I guess that’s what demons call it.”

After the First Lost, the demons cleared a path through the Forest of Un-giving—or the Forbidden Forest, as they call it—which blocked the way between Agusta and Ista, and paved a road.

After all, I was carried all the way to Agusta along that very road, so it’s not like I’m unfamiliar with it.

“I wonder why it was given a name like the Forbidden Forest.”

“Who knows. Personally, I think we could’ve attacked Ista way sooner if we’d just cleared it out, but apparently, no one wanted to touch it until the current Demon Lord-sama came along.”

“Forbidden. Maybe there was some kind of legend about it. Like, ‘touch it not’ or something.”

“The elders used to tell us not to go near it. To be fair, when I was little, I definitely didn’t want to go anywhere near that place either. It doesn’t bother me at all now, but I wonder what that was all about.”

Puria tilted her head.

Seeing that she genuinely didn’t understand actually helped me grasp the situation a bit better.

“How old are you now, Puria-san?”

“Don’t ask a maiden her age!”

Smack. She slapped me with her wing.

It hurts, sure, but somehow this sensation feels strangely good.

“I think you’re probably younger than me. I don’t know how fast demons or beastkin grow, but you’re under twenty, right?”

“Well, yeah, but.”

I knew it.

Then what Tia-sama said was true.

Please wait for me, Tia-sama.

I’m coming to see you right now.

And when I do, you’d better keep your promise, alright?