Chapter 538 - 538: Conversation

On the left side of the passage, Riveria gazed at Lefiya's rich golden hair without saying a word.

"Ahem..."

Bell cleared his throat twice, trying to give Lefiya a hint.

Because of the angle, Bell was the only one who could see Riveria standing there.

"Bell Cranel, you hardly ever cough. Are you feeling sick? Did you get hurt?"

Lefiya blinked, completely failing to understand what the boy was trying to tell her.

"I'm fine."

Feeling Riveria's gaze on him, Bell could not make the hint any more obvious, so he tried signaling Lefiya with his eyes instead.

"That's good... Actually, I wasn't trying to say anything bad about Riveria-sama just now. She never used to act like this, so I just thought it was a little strange..."

Lefiya paused before continuing her explanation on her own.

"I used to think you were forcing Riveria-sama to do those things, but now I understand that must have been a misunderstanding. I'm sorry..."

"The thing about biting me happened a long time ago. You don't need to worry about it."

Bell answered softly.

The golden-haired Elf had an endearingly girlish side to her. Like Riveria, she had also experienced the intermingling of magic power.

Among everyone in the expedition party, Lefiya was probably the person besides Bell who had come closest to seeing Riveria's girlish side.

"Um... Riveria-sama was definitely lying back then. I support the two of you being together, but... when it comes to that sort of thing, Bell Cranel, you absolutely have to tell me!"

Lefiya made her request in a forceful tone.

On the 59th Floor, she had been outnumbered and forced to accept the explanation that it had merely been an accident. But once she calmed down and thought about it, Riveria was a Level 6 Adventurer. If she had truly wanted to avoid that sort of contact, she could easily have broken free of the boy's arms or even let herself fall to the ground rather than allow her lips to touch his neck.

More importantly, from Lefiya's perspective, that same "accident" had somehow happened again on the 28th Floor, and it had been another kiss in exactly the same way.

No matter how she looked at it, it was far too suspicious.

"Lefiya-san, there's no way I can tell you about something like that."

Bell refused without hesitation.

Report the progress of his relationship with Riveria to the golden-haired Elf?

Unless these two elven women had some very unusual preference, there was no chance Bell would seriously consider agreeing to such an absurd request.

"Th-then do whatever you did with Riveria-sama to me too!"

Lefiya came up with a compromise.

"...Isn't that even more outrageous?"

Bell had never expected the joke he had made earlier to ease her worries to come back out of Lefiya's own mouth.

As the expedition neared its end, the girls around him had begun to change in subtle ways.

Bell could clearly tell that Lefiya had become much more honest with herself.

The fact that the golden-haired Elf had not run away even after blurting out something so ridiculous was proof enough.

"Um... because I don't know what I'm supposed to do either. If Riveria-sama really ends up going into heat because of your influence, then I..."

Lefiya abruptly stopped speaking.

Familiar, noble emerald-green hair had entered her field of vision.

"What's wrong? Go on. If I were to flirt shamelessly with Bell Cranel and go into heat while begging him for affection, Lefiya, what would you do?"

Riveria slowly walked over to them.

Despite how suggestive her words were, the Elf princess's tone remained completely steady and dignified.

"Riveria-sama... That's not what I meant?! It's just that I've gotten used to talking about Bell Cranel that way, so I ended up using the words 'in heat'... What I really meant was, um, that... that sort of thing, right?"

Lefiya's eyes nearly filled with tears from panic.

She hurriedly looked toward the boy, hoping he would help her escape this painfully awkward situation.

Something had changed.

Lefiya could not figure out where this strange sense of disorder came from.

In the past, she would never have voiced such suspicions about the Elf princess herself. If anyone so much as said one insulting thing about Riveria, Lefiya would immediately step forward to defend her, just as Alicia would.

But now, the scales in Lefiya's heart had lost their balance.

No matter how many important people were placed on one side, the boy standing alone on the other weighed more heavily on Lefiya's heart than all of them.

And yet that incomparable weight did not make her feel burdened or suffocated.

Quite the opposite.

Her giddy maiden's heart had long since become as light and sweet as a cream puff. No matter how many times she savored the memories, every interaction she had shared with the boy became another delicious piece of candy tucked deep inside that dessert.

Because of that, Lefiya's attitude toward Riveria had quietly begun to change as well.

The enormous gulf created by reverence and deference was gradually being filled in. In its place was something closer to a friendship between two girls who harbored feelings for the same person.

That change was exactly what had led Lefiya into her current predicament.

"..."

Riveria said nothing.

Instead, she looked at the boy and waited for his answer.

It was a small test.

It did not matter if he failed.

If he succeeded, he would merely win the Elf princess's heart a little more deeply.

As her lover, how well did the boy understand her?

Did he understand how she felt now?

Riveria wanted to know.

"Lefiya-san is right."

Bell naturally picked up the conversation.

Faced with such a troublesome question, he thought for a moment before answering.

"Riveria doesn't just go into heat all the time. She's also an incredibly willful and spoiled princess."

"She'll do intimate things right in front of everyone and enjoy the thrill of nearly being discovered."

"She'll get jealous and make demands, asking her lover to do indecent things."

"She'll suddenly get an idea and make strange suggestions to other girls."

"She'll put on the mature, elder-like demeanor she doesn't even like and lecture everyone else."

"She'll shoulder responsibilities that only make her drift farther away from the people she actually wants to be friends with..."

"All in all, Riveria is just like me. She's hopeless."

Bell quietly delivered his conclusion.

Hearing that, Riveria's lips curved into a smile.

Age created a barrier between people.

Just as they had discussed before, considering the effects of Falna and the unusual lifespan of the High Elf royal family, Riveria herself was still only a young girl.

And there was nothing she hated more than being treated with excessive deference because of her age and status.

What Riveria truly wanted with the other women was friendship, a relationship unaffected by age or position.

Bell's presence had allowed that wish to become reality.

Seeing the way Lefiya's attitude toward her had changed, Riveria was not angry in the slightest.

Instead, she felt a quiet surge of happiness.

The boy had found his way into her heart.

When Riveria realized that, the love in her heart began bounding around like an excited fawn once again.

"As my lover, you actually dare to speak badly about me. It seems I'll have to punish you a little."

Riveria smiled as she walked toward Bell.

"No. Lefiya-san said all of it."

Bell immediately replied.

"I didn't say nearly that much!"

Lefiya had not even finished processing Bell's words, so all she could do was deny them outright.

"But you did say I was 'in heat,' didn't you?"

"Th-that was an accident..."

"And you said that whatever I did to Riveria, I should do the same thing to Lefiya-san, right?"

"Th-that was just... I wasn't thinking straight..."

"And what about being worried about me?"

"Um... Of course I'm worried about you, idiot!"

Bell smoothly gave Lefiya a way out.

As long as she could claim that everything came from worrying about him, Riveria would have no reason to punish her.

"Hehe, Bell, stop teasing her... Lefiya, hurry back and get some rest. Don't tell anyone what happened here."

Riveria immediately saw through the boy's intentions and played along, neatly dismissing the whole conversation as nothing more than teasing and jokes.

"I understand..."

Lefiya glanced between the two of them before hurrying away.

What exactly had Bell meant by all those things?

Why couldn't she understand?

Even though Lefiya had been standing right there with them, it felt as though their thoughts had been operating on entirely different levels.

If she had to put that confusion and frustration into words, it was almost as though Bell and Riveria had been holding a much deeper conversation right in front of her, one that she could not take part in.

Compared to the kiss mark from before, this exchange between their hearts was even harder for Lefiya to make sense of.

How much of those jokes had been true?

How much had been false?

Why had Riveria-sama looked so happy?

And what kind of relationship would she and Bell Cranel eventually have?

Lefiya entered the tent, sighed softly, and collapsed face-first onto her sleeping mat.

I don't understand...

I'll just sleep.

Hopefully I'll dream about Bell Cranel...

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