A bit more of Elina, and Rana's story continues deep in the forest...?
Enjoy!
Huge Waste of Time
Turning back the clock a few days...
Elina and Melona had left Echidna’s hideout, and had a chance meeting with the Fighting Master Alleyne, at long last.
“Michel...”
The elf looked slightly doubtful for a while.
“Echidna was saying he left him with you?”
[If she tries to hide it, we can settle this with a Queen’s Blade fight.]
That was the attitude the Vance girl had when facing the other.
“Aah, that boy?”
*Plap*, went her hand when she remembered.
“Yes, that child, where is he now?”
“I left him with Cattleya.”
Elina crumbled down like a house of cards when she heard that. The village where Cattleya lived wasn’t even that far from Echidna’s hideout.
[If I think back to all the time we’ve spent tracking Alleyne, my head will explode.]
“This has been a waste of time~~~~!”
It was quite rare for Elina to let out that kind of scream and lay her emotions bare.
“Hm. I might not know all the details, but I can empathize with your hardship. By the way, I’d like to take the chance to ask you both, won’t you know where my disciple Nowa is?”
Both shook their heads as one to the question.
“I see, you don’t know...? Hm, understood.”
The elf turned her back on the crestfallen Elina, and left.
“Nowa? Who was that? I’ve never met her.”
“I wouldn’t know, would I? By the way, Elina...”
“What?”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but didn’t we stay too long at Echidna’s?”
“There was nothing I could do, chances to learn new skills are far and few between.”
The blonde replied with a sullen tone.
Picking up new tricks as one went along was an important factor that directly influenced a Beautiful Fighter’s victories. The strong were those with a great ability to adapt on the spot.
[It doesn’t matter how strong your secret technique is, the moment they come up with a countermeasure, you’re on your own.]
And, for strong people, there were few opportunities to learn new techniques. The three sisters of the Vance family had never been instructed by a proper teacher, maybe due to the fact that there were few people strong enough to teach them in the first place.
“Well, that’s ok. Let’s switch gears.”
Elina stood up and turned on her heel.
“Let’s go back, Melona.”
Encounter and Cooperation (1)
Rana was running through the road at night. Despite having stormed out of his house, he didn’t really have a destination in mind.
All the village residents knew his face; it didn’t matter if he hid somewhere, he would get found and sent back home.
And so, he ran.
Fortunately for him, it was just a slightly cloudy weather between rainy seasons, there was no risk in getting caught in the middle of the rain.
Going on with the flow, he climbed a small hill overlooking the village, and that’s when he came out of his reverie.
On the other side of the hill there was a jungle he had never set foot in. Or rather, all the times he had come up to that hill for a picnic, it had been with his mother; he had long gone beyond the farthest he had ever reached alone by now.
He felt his body shrinking a bit in fear, but when he looked back to his house, the lack of any apparent turmoil there made him feel frustrated enough to kick the ground.
“Tsk!”
His mother didn’t appear to have come out of the house. Ever since Michel had come, his mother had been acting strange.
For the last while, whenever he suddenly woke up in the middle of the night, Cattleya had never been by his side, despite her having always been there in the past.
In most cases he had fallen asleep again, lacking the courage to go look for her... but one time he had left the bedroom. And he had found his mother coming out of the other boy’s room.
“Maybe she doesn’t... care... about me?”
The boy wiped his tears, and walked towards the dense forest under the moonlight. He would never behave like this normally, but the resentment against his mother and Michel was driving his actions.
[If I’m not mistaken, there’s a pond ahead.
If I just look at the scenery for a while, maybe I’ll calm down and mom will come pick me up.]
As he went on through the path, fog gathered all of a sudden. It was rare for fog to appear at that time.
“Huh? It’s warm...”
It was closer to steam than fog.
Brimming with curiosity, he followed the direction of the deep fog.
Inside the forest, a stream flowed freely. When the rain stopped, the stream would lose its source of water and cut off, creating countless ponds.
The shallow, clean ponds that didn’t stagnate were one of the play areas of the village children. Or at least, of most of them; Rana had never played there.
“Whoa...”
The voice was out of his lips before he could notice.
Steam was coming out of the ponds.
[Did this become a hot spring?]
*Drop*, he heard some water go.
[Something might be here.]
He quickly hid, exploring the source of the sound.
And then he saw her. A slender woman’s body, floating on the other side of the night fog lit by the moonlight. Perhaps all women looked slender compared to his mother, but the breasts of the woman enjoying the hot water did look big enough.
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