Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival [WN] - Chapter 125.2
***
“Why are you here?”
“I was told to have someone escort you.”
The man who had picked me up from the campus felt like sighing a little at the girl who spoke so nonchalantly.
The man’s name was Feld. His height was close to 190 cm, and he was large and muscular, so even in his fine everyday clothes, he stood out oddly in the school.
In contrast, the girl in front of him was a student at the school, and at around 160 cm tall, she was average for an adult woman, but her slender frame made her look smaller than usual.
If the two were to stand side by side, they would look like an adult and a child. It was no wonder, then, that this young girl – Aria – who was only a twelve years old, despite looking like a full-grown adult, was still a child.
“…Well, okay.”
Aria was one of Feld’s companions in the adventurer party Rainbow Sword.
Aria and her self-proclaimed mentor, Viro, were commissioned by the royal family to escort Her Royal Highness the Princess around the academy.
Aria injured her leg on that mission and was sentenced to bed rest, but she needed her gear to be delivered for maintenance, and was told by the school’s healer to have someone escort her, so she contacted Feld.
It was hard to believe that this girl, who was expressionless and the embodiment of loneliness, would have any decent friends. Many would have been willing to be her friend, but few would have any ulterior motives.
(…So, it ended up being me escorting her.)
Feld didn’t have any urgent work to do, but he also didn’t have much spare time. When he had time, he would train, but recently, he had been placing a particular emphasis on combat training.
The reason for this was Aria, who was right in front of him. The spirit liked her hair color and gave her a self-made unstable technique as [Combat Skill], and she would be able to defeat even a Rank 5 if she used that power.
He did not yet believe that he would be defeated in battle if they fought, but if Aria continued to grow and improve in strength and control of that power, she would eventually surpass even their leader, Dalton, and become one of the strongest on this continent.
It was his will as a man to not train himself to be like that, instead imagining himself protecting her at that time.
“Well then, I guess we’re heading to Gelf’s place. Let’s go.”
“Yeah.”
At first, her answer was not what Feld wanted, but he thought it was inevitable because it was Aria, and the moment Feld turned away after saying that, Aria quickly plopped her body on his shoulder.
“…Hey.”
“I have a leg injury.”
“…you don’t like to have any problems, though.”
He thought that if Aria could ride on his shoulder without giving him any sign that she was there, she should be able to move normally, or alternatively, she could simply ride in a horse-drawn carriage.
It was not unpleasant to have Aria on his shoulders, but he felt uncomfortable. This was because Feld also had a complex circumstance.
Feld did not come from a commoner background. He came from an aristocratic family located at the easternmost point of the Royal Capital.
His family had once been known as a military family, but now there was no sign of it.
Although it was already decided that his elder brother would inherit the estate, the old men who longed for the old days favored Feld, and before he came of age, he voluntarily entrusted himself to Dalton, an adventurer who had been a friend of his father.
Feld, who had already reached Rank 4 before coming of age, was clearly an anomaly according to others.
His fellow members in the Rainbow Sword were all more skilled than Feld, but this was the result of long hours of training and actual combat. Not one of them had the power to beat off even soldiers in their teens like Feld did, and he lived his whole life under the gaze of strangers, envy, and jealousy.
It was then that he met Aria. At first, she was dressed as a man at that time, and he only considered her as some nosy brat, but when Feld met her the second time, she gave him such a shock that even his long-forgotten impression of her was blown away.
A girl with a power level of Rank 4, who looked like a commoner around 14~15 years old, with a beautiful and dangerous scent. He finally found a kindred spirit of his own with strong power.
But who would have thought that this girl was just a child around 10 years old?
Aria, as seen by Viro, a fellow member of the group, was a good-looking “little girl,” while Aria, as seen by Feld, was a good-looking “young lady”.
A commoner who had grown up rapidly through accumulation of magic power would have been just as impressive, but the first impression of her actual age was too strong for him to treat Aria completely as a child.
She was a reliable companion and a beautiful-looking girl. However, in her daily life outside of battle, there were parts of her that remained more childlike than her actual age, and he was puzzled by the gap between the two.
In fact, when he tried to treat her that way because she was a child, Aria easily stepped into his bosom with the face of a defenseless girl in front of Feld, even if she was not so carefree in front of Viro, her mentor.
When Feld heard that the reason for this was [she felt safe because he was like a father figure to her], he was relieved, but at the same time, Aria stepping into Feld’s mind even more made him feel more complicated than ever.
***
“Oh my, welcome Aria, you’re looking beautiful as always, and Feld, you’ve got great muscles, even better than ever.”
“Ye, yeah.”
As soon as Feld and I arrive at the store, Gelf the dwarf dressed in a full-fitting shiny leather dress appears, and Feld feels pressured to return the greeting.
“I’d like you to take care of those tights, they’ve absorbed a lot of blood. Also, I have a special reward from the government, so I’m going to order some spares. And are those boots I asked you to make ready?”
“…You really are as self-centered as usual, aren’t you?”
Gelf, who for some reason looked like a clown ignored by a child, took the sheer white tights from me and started examining them with a craftsman’s face.
“You, you’ve been reckless again, haven’t you? Be careful, even with mithril threads, if it absorbs too much blood, it will leave a dark stain when it regenerates, and it will lose its strength. The boots that the school had designated for you are made of steel plates of magical steel and have blades on the heels and toes. However, they will not be as strong as the boots you used before, so be careful who you use them on. And spare tights…”
Gelf cut off his words there and thought for a moment, then snapped his hand.
“Oh, I have spares. They’ll be the prototype mithril threads mixed with magic black steel threads, but the magic resistance will be a little lower, while the physical defense will be a little higher. I also have an inner layer for the torso to go with it, but you’ll have to try it on in the back to see if it fits. And…since the color is black, try matching your underwear with it. If it’s black, I have some unused silk ones.”
“Okay.”
Leaving Feld rummaging through the store’s merchandise, Gelf and I went into the back of the store.
There, as I undressed to adjust the size of my equipment, Gelf, who had brought the equipment to me, as if stunned, and held his head in his hands.
“Aria-chan…it’s time for you to learn about shame, okay?”
“?”
Was he talking about the common sense of wearing clothes when one grows up? Of course, I know that, but I had never really paid much attention to it.
“Oh, you still have that…Feld-chan gave it to you, didn’t he?”
Gelf smiled as he found the knife that Feld had given me when we first met, which I had hidden away.
“He’s a little slow, isn’t he? He still doesn’t realize that you’re the one he gave the knife to, does he?”
“It didn’t matter. It’s up to me to be grateful, and I want to be on equal footing with him.”
“Hmmm?”
Gelf looked as if he could understand the situation as I put on the equipment he had prepared for me.
Black tights and a black belt to hold them in place. After trying on the black body equipment, which I was called a bustier, I put on the black silk underwear and told Gelf, who was confirming the condition of the equipment, and what I thought about it.
“It’s a little loose around the waist. It might be easier to move around if it were a little tighter.”
“…Don’t say that in front of Mira, okay? When I made her try it on, it was pretty tight.”
“Hmm? I understand.”
“Do you really know what you’re talking about?”
It didn’t matter if I just kept my mouth shut. Gelf, who looked tired for some reason, suddenly smiled and pointed toward the store.
“Why don’t you show that equipment to Feld? I’m sure he’ll be happy to see it.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“…eh, hey, wait a minute.”
As I walked towards the store, Gelf’s speech suddenly became unintelligible to me. Dwarven language?
“Feld.”
I walked back into the store in the same clothes I had changed into, and Feld turned around when I called out to him, then dropped the cuirass he was holding on to the floor.
“F, get back there and get dressed ohhhhhhhhhh!!!!”
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Thanks for your time. See you in the next chapter.