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Urania’s point of view.

It seems like Lily finally realized what I meant. Her face turned from being pale and lifeless to bright red, and she’s flinging her hands everywhere, looking really confused. How do I say this, she looks a lot like a kitten; it’s really cute. I’d really like to watch her for a bit longer, but she looks really distressed, so I changed the topic.

「The rain’s, not stopping.」
「Hm? Ah, yeah. It’s probably going to rain all night long.」
「What do we do?」

Was it a bit mean of me to ask that? After pondering for a while, Lily proposed that we stay here for the night. Since it was an adequate suggestion, I agreed with her. Moving in the forest at night, more so in the middle of heavy rain, is something that even veteran adventurers avoid. All the more if it’s inside a Dungeon.

I can see in the dark and Lily, who’s a Succubus, says that she can see like it’s morning, but since the scents are washed away in this rain, my nose is mostly useless. That’s why, since we don’t have the capability to search for enemies right now, it’s going to be really exhausting to travel without knowing when and where a monster may appear.

Besides, some adventurers —former adventurers since their rights were revoked— are aiming for us right now, so we’re going to need extra caution going home. We should at least avoid doing things that are clearly dangerous. Since she’s explaining something similar to me, Lily seems to properly understand that too.

「Nn, agreed. We’ll rest here tonight, and prepare for tomorrow.」
「Luckily for us, we have the fruits that you harvested earlier, and some preserved food inside my storage too, so we have food to eat. We can’t use fire here, but if we just need something to warm us up, then I can at least make us some soup.」
「Wait, soup? How?」

Since we’re inside a tree cave, we can’t use fire. The tree itself might not burn up, but we might inhale the smoke, so we would probably end up getting suffocated inside. Every year, many adventurers end up dying like that when spending the night in caves.

Yet despite that, Lily said that she can at least make some soup. How do you make it? Can you show it to me? I requested Lily and she readily consents.

First, she takes out our cooking pot. It’s just big enough to cook food for the two of us, so it’s not really that big. This is something we bought together on the day we first met. It’s the first time it’ll ever be used. After a simple chant, she fills it with water and then recites another chant.

「I ask, for those frozen in time, let the pulse of origin “Move”」
「Eh? No way…」

The spell Lily used is one of the most basic Magcraft, “Move”. It’s a spell that every Mage learns from the very beginning and is simply used to move objects. With skill, one can use it to shoot off rocks, but it would be better to just use other spells. If I’m forced to give an advantage of using it, it just makes rearranging things a lot easier to do.

But the instant Lily cast that spell, the water inside the pot started boiling. Lily saw that and says 「It turned out pretty well.」 And then after skillfully slicing the preserved food, she drops them into the pot. What she finished was an extremely simple soup, but that bowl she handed me was definitely piping hot, containing something that you’d never think could be made without using fire.

「Thanks for the meal.」
「You’re welcome, I hope you like it.」

I thanked her and have a taste of the soup. 「Delicious.」 My thought leaked out. This was made with dried potatoes, meat, and other preserved food, making its flavor rich and condensed. Although it should’ve been just prepared with simple seasoning, I can taste depth in the flavors. Moreover, it should’ve just been cooked for a short amount of time, but the preserved food are all soft, melting in my mouth the moment I take a bite of it.

「With this, you can start an eatery.」
「Jeez, you’re exaggerating. Anyone can cook up something like this. 」

Lily said so, but I’ve only tasted soup this delicious at the “Gray Cat’s Inn” or “Grantz’ Eatery”. I tried asking her how she cooked it with “Move” and 「Your body warms up when you exercise right? It’s the same as that.」 is what she said. It’s absolutely not the same at all, but one thing I could somehow understand is that it’s something Lily could comprehend and I couldn’t.

There are times when Lily does these kinds of things. We’ve only been together for a short five days, but even so, after observing her every day, I somehow noticed that.

At first, I thought it’s because she came from outside the Kingdom, but it seems like that’s not the reason. Lily’s way of thinking is just fundamentally different. Although she doesn’t know things that everyone in the Kingdom should know, she can understand things that not even the Kingdom and the Empire could comprehend.

Still, I really, really love Lily. If I’m asked since when did I fall in love with her, then I’d say it was from the first time we met. After hearing the rumors, I saw her from behind, groaning while staring at the Request Board. And the moment she turned her head looking surprised after I called out to her, was definitely the moment I fell in love.

She might just see me as someone of the same sex, and she might even consider it disgusting. But since I ended up falling in love at first sight, I can’t help it. After all, even I didn’t think that the first person I’d fall for would be a girl. Still, as long as she’s by my side, then I’d be satisfied with that. Unlike a failure like me, Lily’s an amazing Mage, so before long she’ll definitely raise her rank and go somewhere out of my reach.

That’s something inevitable. So even if my feelings never reach her, I’m fine with it. But, if I can be with her even if just a minute, just a second longer, I’d be glad with just that.

But Lily told me her secret. She told me that she wanted me. I couldn’t remember it, but she kissed me. And then I noticed, she felt the same way as I do. Ahh, I’m such a bad girl. Knowing that Lily has feelings for me, and was driven by guilt because of what she’s done to me, I couldn’t help myself from feeling really glad.