My Servant Is An Elf Knight From Another World

Chapter 1006: When In Doubt

It didn’t take long for the ambience to revert back to the status-quo after Dad made his silent uneventful exit, disappearing deep into the rustle of thick bushes and the crackle of stray twigs.

Never noticed just how heavy the air had become until he had upped and left. Not that he was some kind of misery virus—infecting those around him with symptoms of chronic frowny faces and bad vibes. I think the true root of it had more to do with Irene than him, actually.

Something about him just rears out something foul from her, that’s where that heaviness comes from. They meet again, was it always gonna play out the same way? Nothing but something so visceral and great festering the empty spaces in the distance they kept from one another?

"We’ll leave it here for today," Irene swerved. I felt my knuckles graze the sway of her blazer as she did. Her flowing hair was like a smokescreen, whipping into view, and the moment it left my eyes was when she did too. "Getting better, though."

I turned around and there she was, arms outstretched to the skies, acting as if it actually took some effort on her part to weave and dodge every flail of the arm I threw at her. I went along with it though, partly because I thought she needed a way to dispel all that bad energy that she has accumulated.

Luckily, it seemed to have done the trick, her usual mannerisms returning gradual. From a brief word of encouragement here, to a teasing quip there. There was a sort of unspoken consensus between us, inclined to pretend that the past hour or so never happened.

"So, listen, I originally intended for tomorrow’s lesson to be a continuation of today’s exercise," Irene said, eyes trailing the little ridges across the field that were still pulsing with the faintest hint of black. "But that doesn’t seem necessary anymore."

"What? We’re counting that?" I asked, wiping the grime off my face from the one time I swung my arm a little too hard and sculpted a patch of soil into a perfect replica of my squished left cheek. "I just used Adalia as a cheat code, why are we counting that?"

Hearing her name uttered, a crumpled bundle of gray and white stirred lightly from beneath a tree. After lifting bleary eyes at us, Adalia slumped her head back against the hard bark and resumed her snooze.

"No, I mean even before that, the progress you’ve made on your own," Irene said. "I thought you’d take a little longer. Obviously, I underestimated how keen you are on getting stronger."

"And so what does that mean for tomorrow?"

"Means I don’t have a curriculum planned. Which means, I guess, consider it a day off."

"You say that, but it’s still a day with you, y’know? If we’re still going by Amanda’s dating regime anyway."

"No, I don’t think so," Irene said, rooted to the spot in deep contemplation. "Work’s piling up again, I rather focus on that. Then there’s also having to prepare lessons for next week. There’s a lot. Just take the day, spend it with Adalia maybe. She deserved it after helping me out with your present... even if it didn’t turn out all that great in the end."

I couldn’t let that last self-deprecating remark slide by me like that.

"Didn’t turn out all that great?" I repeated back, tinging the words with the ridicule it deserved. "Shouldn’t I be the judge of that? Irene, I loved it."

But it seemed I had only been talking to myself here with all the acknowledgement I was getting back.

"Hey," I attempted again to catch her focus. "You better not start thinking you messed up or something, cause you didn’t. I really did enjoy—"

"Thanks," she turned around, cut me off, a simple smile on her lips. "And you’re welcome. But, um, it’s already getting quite late. Do you mind dropping me home now?"

It had surfaced again for just that moment; the way she stared, spoke. I remembered our little silent agreement and realized how close I was treading. So I let it go. For now at least.

When we did leave, I was a little reluctant at first. When we first got here it was just the two of us, now there’s three in our party, and my bike could only seat two.

I wasn’t at all fond of the idea of leaving Adalia behind. But logic and both girls’ insistence pretty much forced me to comply. After all, she wasn’t some frail damsel that needed constant pampering.

"I want... to rest here... for now..." she had mumbled to me in a half-stupor, resting her hand above mine in reassurance. "I’ll see you... at home... okay...?"

And so as painful as it was, I left her beneath her shade and began trying to catch up to Irene, who had already started forging the long trek back to civilization.

There wasn’t much chatter on the way back to my bike, and even less so on the route back to her place. Every red light, I chanced a glance at her in the rearview mirror, and every time I thought about speaking up, a flash of green would pry my attention back, and I’d speed us down the road once more.

It was already dark by the time I pulled up at the front of her driveway. There wasn’t any point to it, but I tried catching a glimpse of smoke, or steam, or anything of the sort through the view of her front window. As expected, there wasn’t anything.

Hell, the lights weren’t even on, idiot.

Irene swung off my bike, wriggled the helmet loose from her head and passed it back to me.

"Thanks for the ride," she said.

I flashed her a smile. "Anytime, Irene. Once again, thank you for today. I really had fun."

Irene wasn’t smiling back. It was like the more I tried expressing my gratitude to her, the more somber she gets. And I knew why. We can pretend, act like what happened didn’t happen. But it still happened.

"I really do love you, you know," Irene said suddenly.

Obviously, I wasn’t expecting for her to blurt out such a direct, sincere profession like that out of the blue, but I did my best to follow it up.

"Of course I know that, Irene. And I love you too."

"Your father just... just seeing him... he just stops me from thinking right."

"No, I get it," I reached out for her hand, holding tight. "There’s history there I’ll probably never fully get, but I understand. You don’t have to say anything. I’m not gonna pry."

"Really?" She said, tone slightly dubious. "So the fact that I... that I used to exploit and take advantage of people’s feelings for me—not gonna bat an eye?"

"Well..."

"It should be concerning, you have every right to be," Irene continued to speak. "It’s fine for you to wonder if I’m taking advantage of you too. I know you’re not, but I’m just saying... I understand if... I’ll understand if you think that."

"Irene," I paused for a second to process everything. "So, wait... is this what’s been on your mind this whole time? You’re wondering if I’m gonna start doubting you."

"Well, it’s not... it’s not everything I’ve been thinking about," she responded, quickly swiping a strand of loose hair that obscured her gaze from mine. "But it is the one thing I really want to address the most. I don’t want you to leave here with that kind of impression of me."

"Irene, being honest here, that thought has never even crossed my mind. If anything, I thought you were secretly pissed at me the entire time. Y’know, bringing dad over. I know now never to do that again."

"Of course you’ll say that. You can say that because you don’t know. Not really. If you really take the time to know about the thing I’ve done, then—"

"Listen," I stopped her right there. I didn’t need to hear anymore. It wasn’t necessary. "If I had to forever condemn every person I’ve met for how they once lived or how they used to be, I’d be living a really lonely life right now. Or, wait, maybe not—Amanda’s conscience is pretty clean. Hopefully, anyway."

Irene didn’t respond so I went on.

"Even if you tell me everything, it’s not like I can absolve you of your sins, y’know? I’m not a God. Those sins will stay with you. All your regrets, all the bad things you think you shouldn’t be forgiven for. They will all stay. They’ll stay with you and so will I. That’s just how it is."

I slowly lifted her hand to my face, felt the electrifying buzz of her touch as I lightly grazed it with my lips, before I leaned forward for a kiss.

"So," I asked, her hand falling limp by her side as I let go. "Is there anything else you want to address?"

"Um, well..." finally she was speaking again, a little higher pitch than she usually sounded which she immediately took notice of and rectified with a quick cough. "I... I kind of want to redo your present still. I know you said you were happy with and satisfied, but—"

"You aren’t," I finished for her.

She sighed. "I’ll figure something out eventually."

"Y’know I can think of one thing that’ll probably make us both happy."

I caught her interest with that; her gaze directed straight ahead at me, wearing a diligent look so eager to know.

"Which is?"

I gave her my sweetest smile. "Invite me inside."