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Back in town, the unconscious Reyne woke up. Right when she fell unconscious, she was certain that she saw Kirsten carrying her and running through the heavy rain.

‘Could it be that she saved me yet again?’

Reyne felt pain all over her body. When she fell into the water from the sky, the tremendous impact had broken both her legs. Her slender arm had also almost been broken by the Melgash’s bite.

Right when Reyne opened her eyes, she instantly saw that Mia was sitting beside her.

“Mia?” Reyne gently called out her best friend’s name. Her best friend was currently in a deep sleep. Her face was covered with fatigue, and there was evidence under her eyes that she hadn’t rested well for several days in a row (dark circles).

‘Could it be that she’s always been by my side and taking care of me?’

Reyne forced herself to withstand the pain coming from her body. She supported her body and looked around herself.

Reyne discovered that this wasn’t her own room. Why had she been moved here? She had no memory at all. Reyne’s last memory was that Kirsten was fighting with the magical beast in the lake to save her. Kirsten had been slightly weakened then and unable to defeat the Hell Melgash.

As Reyne thought about these things, she didn’t notice that Mia’s eyelashes were jumping slightly. Mia then immediately saw that Reyne had woken up. Mia instantly widened her eyes.

“R… Reyne!? You’re awake, this is great, you’re awake…”

Mia clasped her hands and made a praying gesture.

“Mmm, Mia, how many days have I been unconscious for?”
“You were unconscious for three or four days. You were so reckless. You actually ran out of the village on a rainy day. If it wasn’t for… er…”

Mia then seemed to want to say something, but stopped. She didn’t want to mention the person that Reyne was heartbroken over.

“I know. Kirsten and Mirabelle were the ones who saved me, right? How are the two of them?”

Mia hesitated for a moment, but she told Reyne the truth.

“The two of them have already left this town. I heard from others that they weren’t willing to get married, so they’ve become wanted criminals.”
“Is that so? They eloped? Then, Kirsten and Mirabelle really…”
“But, I don’t really understand. Why is it that the two of them still wanted to leave town despite being connected in heart? They could have just stayed in town and married each other…”
“You don’t understand that, do you? It’s precisely because they’re connected in heart that they decided to leave. Marriage is an oath for a lifetime. I don’t know how to express it well in words, but they might hate being forced to take such a lifetime oath by others? I think I can somewhat understand that feeling…”

After this experience, Mia felt that Reyne had become another person entirely.

“I keep feeling like Reyne’s become more mature. Such a mature Reyne is actually rather cool…”
“Cool? I don’t feel like I’m cool at all. I’m just someone who was dumped…”

Although Reyne couldn’t remember the process by which Kirsten saved her, she could remember clearly what happened after that.

In her hazy consciousness – Reyne could sense Kirsten putting her down at a certain location, so she directly pulled on Kirsten’s sleeve.

“Wait, Kirsten. Are you leaving!?”
“That’s right, I’m about to leave, Reyne…”
“Can you please not go!? I… from before to now, I’ve always liked you. Even now, my feelings haven’t diminished at all, so please… could you please not go!?”
“No, I promised that child that I would leave together with her. Perhaps from now on, I’ll never return to this town again…”
“How… how could this be!? What about my feelings then?”
“Although I’m happy that you feel this way about me, I can’t accept your feelings, because the person I like isn’t you…”

Kirsten didn’t even turn around as she rejected Reyne with plain and direct words.

Reyne was naturally furious, because Kirsten wasn’t even able to directly look at her while rejecting her. That was why Reyne clenched tightly with her hand on Kirsten’s sleeve.

“Even if you reject me, Kirsten, you turn around and look at me! Do you hear me!?”
“…”

Right when Kirsten turned around – Reyne completely understood after seeing the expression on Kirsten’s face.

Kirsten didn’t have any emotion on her face at all right now. It was as if she was looking at a stranger. That was why Reyne was certain that Kirsten absolutely wouldn’t like her.

If it was Mirabelle talking to Kirsten, then the latter absolutely wouldn’t have such an expression.

Thus, Reyne gradually loosened her hand from Kirsten’s sleeve. She leaned against the chair she was on and gradually fell unconscious as she listened to the sound of falling rainwater.

“Goodbye, willful princess. My heart already belongs to someone else. Although she is also a princess, she’s a gentle princess…”

It was obvious that Kirsten was referring to Mirabelle Brillana. Kirsten left Reyne in an obvious location before she hurriedly ran back towards her own home.

“You’re heartbroken? Could it be that you confessed to her?”
“I suppose I did…”

Reyne had a dark expression and atmosphere about her.

“What was the result!? Did she reject you? Or reject you? Or maybe she rejected you?”
“Hey hey, don’t ask me if you’re already so certain…”

Reyne’s face had an embarrassed red blush as she also turned her head away like a tsundere.

“So you were rejected?”
“…”

Reyne silently closed her mouth when she heard Mia’s question.

“What’s this, with my understanding of you, you must have been rejected? Kirsten likes Mirabelle so much, so she definitely won’t like you…”

Mia smiled wickedly like a devil as she said this while pointing with her finger.

“I’m so sorry that I’m not likable. Besides, what does it matter to you if Kirsten accepts or rejects me!?”

Reyne couldn’t help but explode because her best friend was poking her in her heart where it hurt.

“It matter, it really matters, because-”

Mia went directly over to Reyne’s face and pressed her lips against Reyne’s lips.

Reyne instantly widened her eyes in astonishment. She never expected that her best friend Mia would actually do such a thing. Mia, who had always accompanied her, was actually doing…

Mia only gave Reyne a light peck. She put a lot of distance between them right after pecking Reyne on the lips.

“That’s why I said it matters to me…”

To be honest, Reyne only treated Mia as her best friend. Reyne had never even considered Mia as a potential love interest.

“Although I know that you might not like me and have never even considered me that way before, despite all the hints I’ve usually dropped at you, you really never did think about me that way, which was why you never noticed my hints, right?”

Reyne was about to say something when Mia interrupted her. Mia stood up and turned her back towards Reyne.

“Even so, when I heard that you confessed to Kirsten, I also wanted to try confessing to you. If you reject me, then just think of that kiss as a commemoration gift for me.”

Mia’s shoulder kept trembling as she said this. Reyne wanted to touch her hand, but she was completely unable to move her body. She could only gently call out Mia’s name.

“Mia…”
“Ignore me for the time being. Let me calm my emotions down, Reyne…”

Mia responded like this when she heard Reyne calling out to her.

Reyne had no idea what she should do. For the past several years, she had focused entirely on Kirsten.

Reyne kept thinking about her childhood friend who had always been there by her side. Everything she did before with Mia would make her feel really secure.

‘Perhaps I really have focused far too much on Kirsten. In the end, Kirsten is only my idol. Becoming lovers with her is probably impossible.’

In that case, Reyne knew what she should do.

“Ahhh!!!!”

Reyne intentionally cried out loudly to attract Mia’s attention.

Although Mia was weeping in a small voice and had her back towards Reyne because she didn’t want the latter to see her crying, she immediately turned back around and went to Reyne because she heard Reyne’s scream. “What happened!? Where does it hurt!?”

“This place really hurts. Maybe that magical beast bit me here…”

Reyne pointed at her left breast. Mia’s face immediately became red.

“Mia, please help me…”
“You… what do you want me to do!? I can’t look at your body…”
“It’s fine. Didn’t we often shower together when we were young? If we really had to get married, we would have gotten married back then already…”
“But now…”

Things were different from when they were younger. The rule in this town for getting married if two female elves saw each other naked applied to all elves over fourteen years old. Both of them were already at that age.

“N… no, we can’t do that…”
“Pahahahaha…”

Reyne laughed out loud as Mia said this embarrassedly.

“What’s so funny!? Ahh, you fooled me, didn’t you!?”
“You only noticed now? You even claim to be my best friend…”
“Hmph, you love playing these tricks, I’ve long since seen through you!”
“Liar, you really don’t understand me at all. That’s why I don’t want to be best friends with you anymore!”

Mia never expected that Reyne would say something like this. More and more tears started dripping out of Mia’s eyes, which showed sadness and loneliness.

“I suppose so. You’d feel disgusted as well to have such a strange best friend at your side, right? I’m so sorry, I’ll never get close to you again…”

Mia turned around and wanted to silently leave. However, Reyne immediately went up to her and grabbed her wrist.

“Wait, I’m not finished talking yet! Why are you in such a hurry? I wanted to say that we’re not going to be best friends, because we’re going to be in a relationship more intimate than best friends. It’s because we don’t know each other well enough that we need to get to know each other better. Although I don’t know what I should say, I don’t want you to leave my side, Mia!”

Reyne tightly clasped onto Mia’s wrist.

Mia turned around and wiped her teary face on the back of Reyne’s hand.

“Is that so? Thank you, Reyne…”