My Childhood Friends Are Trying To Kill Me

***

“Why, why…?”

She thought he believed what she said. The moment they shared that rough kiss, she felt that her sincerity had been conveyed. So why? As soon as the kiss was over, Oscar created a crack in the air and pushed her in. She thought he would come with her, but she was alone.

Lelia sat dazed in her room, drenched by the rain, for a long moment. As she recalled the last moment she had seen Oscar’s eyes, her whole body seemed to harden. Suddenly, her heart sank. Oscar acted decisively as if it was their last, as if she would never see him again. Sadness flooded into his red eyes. Her wet shoulders trembled. Lelia began to weep, sobbing like a wet mouse. Why and where did it go wrong?

She wanted to hold Oscar and ask him. She wanted to know why he had changed his mind all of a sudden, and why he was so cold-hearted. At that moment, another magic scroll that she had kept in her arms came to mind. Lelia did not cry, but stuttered and pulled it out. Luckily it was specially made so it didn’t get wet. She again had to meet Oscar. She had to ask, and she had to hear an answer. She tore the scroll, recalling the room she had just been in with him a moment before.

***

The scene changed.

She was in that room a while ago. But the room was empty. The window was open, and Oscar wasn’t there.

“…Oscar.”

Lelia was stunned that the same thing had happened to her again. But she soon decided that she would calm down.

[He’ll be back.]

Lelia stared endlessly out of the dark window. It was still raining. Her shoulders trembled and her lips were blue from the rushing chill. Realizing that her teeth were shaking, she closed the window.

Chills settled in her. She wasn’t weak, but she was especially vulnerable to colds. Lelia thought that she couldn’t be ill when Oscar would return. She had to be at least conscious to have a proper conversation with him. Going straight to the bathroom, she turned on the hot water. Soon, hot steam began to fill the bathroom.

Her whole body felt like crushing pain, but Lelia barely managed to wash her body with warm water and step out. With her wet clothes left to dry, she slipped into women’s pajamas, which was in the room. She climbed onto the bed, rolled up the sheets and waited for a while. It was still cold and her teeth clenched hard.

It was a chill she felt because of the fear that Oscar might never return. Outside her window flashed. Soon a great thunder rang in her ears. Lelia, startled, shrugged her shoulders and laid her face on her lap. Where the hell is Oscar? She wondered what he must be feeling after hearing the thunder.

[Aren’t you afraid of this sound now?]

Dozens of thoughts ran through her mind. Then, at some point, she lost consciousness.

***

It was dawn when she woke up. It had been raining all night, and the window was bright and there was no sound of rain.

“…”

Lelia saw the room was still empty, and realized that Oscar hadn’t returned. There was no warmth around her, and Oscar’s scent that lingered on the tip of her nose was long gone.

[PR/N: Oh, this is no bueno…]

[Did you go away…?]

Lelia crumpled up her clothes and went outside. The rain stopped, and the sun came up, so she thought she’d go find Oscar. He found her wandering in the streets yesterday, so she thought he would show up again. He may be watching her secretly, and appear when she is in danger. Just like yesterday.

Lelia started walking, while looking around her. People looked at Lelia in half-dry clothes. They whispered something she was completely unaware of, as was busy looking for Oscar. She walked all day long, repeating her way back and forth the way she had come. After a while, the sun had already begun to set. Her legs were numb and aching and she couldn’t stand it. Lelia eventually slumped into the corner of the alley as she leaned her back against the wall.

When she saw shabby looking people, she thought they would have a fight, but it was daytime, so she couldn’t see them very well. All she could see were merchants and passersby. She lowered her head as if she were weary.

[Romeo would be worried.]

Should she have come back? Come to think of it, she didn’t have a magic scroll to use to return. She had used the last one in a hurry without a second thought. It was something she did because she thought she could unconditionally meet Oscar. Now that she thought of her family members, who were worried about her mother, and now must be worried about her being missing.

It was the worst. Her guilt about worrying her family mixed with her anxiety about not finding Oscar. If she didn’t find Oscar, she had no way back. The only way is to wait for Kalix to come back to find her, or take the land route home. Lelia looked down at the ground in despair. For a moment, the eyes of Oscar came to mind, and it was painful. She would rest a little longer then look for him again…

If she doesn’t find him, she’ll fall into a fountain or something. If Oscar was truly watching, he would surely come to her rescue. As she was thinking, a shadow suddenly fell over her head. It wasn’t a single shadow. Lelia raised her head.

“…”

She was dazzled by the glow of the sun shining through the crowd. She blinked her eyes a few times to see who it was. They were the first people she saw. However, it was a peculiar thing, they were all knights wearing armor. Their armor had an unusual pattern on it, and if her memory is correct, that’s…

“I finally found you.”

“Excuse me for a moment.”

Mumbling the unknown words, in an instant one of the knights reached out to her. Lelia closed her eyes helplessly on the spot and collapsed. The moment she closed her eyes, she remembered what the pattern was. In her childhood, it was the pattern drawn on the armor of the paladins that she saw while staying at the temple.

***

Meanwhile, the castle of the Duke of Superion.

In Lelia’s room stood Romeo with a serious expression. He was near the seat where Lelia was sitting down earlier. He pondered as he looked at the rainwater stagnating there.

‘Is Lelia back?’

It was easy to guess the situation.

‘But why…?’

Lelia was nowhere to be seen. The Superions said they were going to look for Lelia. He felt dizzy in his head. He certainly gave Lelia two scrolls. One should have been used on the way home, and the other should have been used on the way home.

“…”

Romeo tilted his head. He couldn’t believe she met Oscar.

Tsk.

Romeo clicked his tongue and turned his body around. If she doesn’t come back, he will give Kalix a scroll, and then he will return after finding Lelia. He was the one who found her, which could not be guessed by neither magic nor divine power, purely by intuition.

Romeo now almost considered Kalix as a beast. A beast that can still be controlled. Close to a wolf, but was still a dog. Returning to his room, Romeo was planning to take the scroll and go to Kalix’s room. But his steps stopped in front of the desk.

“… What is this?”

A fountain pen that he shared with his friends when they were children. A letter lay next to it as if it had just arrived. It was the familiar handwriting of Griffith.

“… Damn it.”

Romeo’s expression wrinkled as he read the letter. This cowardly b*****d… He has been expecting this to happen for a long time. Even if he knew beforehand, there was no way. Dangerous b*****d, sullen b*****d…

He was appalled. Romeo smirked and bit his lip. In some ways, Oscar was as simple as Kalix. He believes that if locks Lelia up, everything will work out. But it wasn’t the same with Griffith. He would seize Lelia’s weakness if necessary, and set a trap for her to block all escape routes and come back to him. Romeo blamed himself for his mistake and hurried to the Duke’s room. He had to let him know where Lelia was right away.

***

She opened her eyes in an unfamiliar space.

Lelia got up from the bed, stuttering and reaching out her hand. She then realized that her clothes had been changed. She was dressed in pure white, and it was as soft as new. Lelia looked around.

It was a clean and white room. There were a few pieces of furniture. Maybe Oscar brought her here? As she thought about it, her last memory suddenly came to mind.

[The paladins…]

The person who reached out to her was definitely a paladin. She must have been stunned by divine power. But why? While guessing for the reason, a man’s face suddenly appeared.

[Griffith…]

And she remembered the story she had heard while at the Superion’s. What happened to Griffith while she was gone.

“After you disappeared from the Imperial Palace, Griffith and Romeo were very fussy about looking for you. Then suddenly Griffith disappeared.”

“Then suddenly we heard some strange news. It was rumored that the saint Griffith recognized was Lelia, you.”

“Anyway, upon hearing the news, he said he was taking you to the temple right now and acting like you are doing well. It’s ridiculous how successful he was at it.”

She also remembered the conversation where she asked Griffith to distribute medicine by borrowing his name. Griffith agreed and smiled happily. The moment she remembered that smile, goosebumps ran down her back. It was then.

Knock

A knock on the door was heard, and then the door creaked open. It was a terribly creepy sound. The person who came in at a leisurely pace was as she expected.

“Did you sleep well?” Griffith asked with a soft smile.

***