Chapter 98

Saying goodbye to one of her favorites wasn’t the only choice Erabelle had made last night.

Dezeb had also told her to choose between a yacht and a camper van. Naturally, she had chosen the camper van.

Because she couldn’t swim.

What if she boarded a yacht and lost her footing? Erabelle had absolutely no faith in her own limbs. Enjoying the sea under the influence of her licensed spirit and actually going into it were two entirely different matters.

‘.......’

But as she stared at those glaciers, she began to wonder whether falling into the water and suffering for a clean five minutes might have been the preferable option.

After staring blankly at the snowy landscape outside for quite some time, Erabelle staggered into the bathroom.

It was cramped even for one person.

Of course, the bathroom wasn’t the only cramped space. The bedroom was small, and so was the kitchen. It couldn’t be helped. She had acquired the used vehicle in lieu of her share of the rent back when she was a penniless Academy cadet.

What money did a student have? Erabelle washed herself with considerable ease despite the narrow bathroom. Being here again after so long brought back old memories.

Back then, she had often gotten drunk off her ass, fallen over in the bathroom, and slept there. Anyway. When she had acquired this vehicle, she had never imagined that one day she would be alone inside it with Dezeb Avganis. Even if she had imagined such a thing, the genre would have been horror-thriller.

“Ugh.”

Finished washing, Erabelle wrapped herself in a blanket and emerged from the camper van, shivering violently.

Seriously, why had she willingly chosen to put herself through this...?

“Are you very cold?”

Dezeb asked as he placed a cup of hot coffee in her hands. Without waiting for an answer, he opened Miro and took out another blanket for her.

“.......”

Erabelle did her best to ignore Miro’s tearful eyes after he had been forcibly summoned.

It was about time he got used to this too.

“Should I take anything else out for you?”

There was a shuttle inside him. It would be perfect for escaping somewhere warm.

“Then I would like my quilted liner and combat winter gear, please.”

“All right.”

For some reason, Dezeb gave her exactly what she requested, though his expression turned complicated.

“There isn’t a trace of atmosphere left. This feels more like winter combat training.”

“It’s warm. I like it.”

Erabelle turned up the heating function on her winter gear and relaxed. With this, she could survive for roughly forty-eight hours even if she were abandoned on a glacier.

“As expected of the new model, its functionality has been substantially impro—”

Erabelle trailed off when his lips suddenly touched hers. After giving her a light kiss, he asked,

“Did you brush your teeth?”

“Very thoroughly.”

“Good girl.”

He smiled as though enchanting her, then went over and sat in a fishing chair.

It was an actual fishing chair.

They were near a lake frozen solid and white.

After parking the camper van nearby, he had bored a fishing hole through the lake’s ice. Because, for some reason, he had suddenly decided that he wanted to go smelt fishing.

Unlike Erabelle, who was bundled up from head to toe, he was dressed in nothing but a thin linen shirt, slacks, and backless loafers over his bare feet—an outfit so light it looked positively chilly. Seeing him sit leisurely before the hole in the ice with a fishing rod dangling into it left her at a loss for words.

“Sit beside me and start cheering me on.”

Following his instructions, Erabelle sat in the fishing chair beside Dezeb and began cheering for the smelt.

Run away. Don’t come over here. If you do, you’ll die!

“You are cheering for me, aren’t you?”

The perceptive Dezeb sounded suspicious.

“Yes, of course.”

“I don’t think you are. Think carefully if you want breakfast.”

Oh. Well, that changed everything.

Erabelle reversed her position without hesitation. By the time a respectable number of smelt had accumulated in the bucket, the sun was beginning to rise in the east.

A remote planet in the Nover Federation.

The cries of wild animals came from the forest across the snowy plain. This was utter wilderness, entirely untouched by human presence....

“.......”

Wilderness....

“...Dezeb.”

“Yes?”

“Th-There.”

A bear.

Erabelle had been idly looking around when her eyes met its, and she froze where she sat.

An enormous black-brown bear with dark fur had lowered itself as it stared in their direction. It looked ready to charge at any moment.

“Oh, you finally noticed it?”

Finally? How long had that thing been there...?

“Why? Are you scared?”

He asked with an expression of disbelief.

“Yes. Th-Things around that level generally have that effect on me.”

Because a level-two body like mine would generally bid farewell to the mortal realm after a single swipe from that bear’s paw.

“I’ll get rid of it for you.”

“...All right.”

He immediately made good on his word.

He was a man of extraordinary initiative.

Her eyes slightly unfocused again, Erabelle watched a tentacle as thick as a mature tree trunk seize the bear and shake it about. It looked like an enormous anaconda coiled around its prey.

Those tentacles came in a wider range of sizes than she had realized....

Erabelle silently watched the bear, which was as large as a medium-sized truck, get dragged away without even managing to make a sound. Then she quietly turned her head.

I’m truly sorry I drew attention to you.

“I threw it far away, so you don’t have to worry. Oh, how does bear meat sound for breakfast?”

She felt like Bear Grylls.

Nothing like fresh bear meat in the morning.... No, what kind of wild hunter killed something for breakfast?

“Um, Dezeb. I have around two hundred lunch boxes of various kinds....”

“Bear? Or smelt?”

“I would prefer the smelt.”

If she had to eat something they had just caught, she would feel less guilty about eating a fish than another mammal....

“How cruel. They’re so tiny. I never would have guessed you could be so frightening, Erabelle.”

Yes, clearly she was the wicked one here.

“My, how terrifying.”

Dezeb shook his head, repeatedly declaring how frightened he was. Erabelle let his words go in one ear and out the other as she sipped the coffee he had given her.

Unfortunately, the problem did not end with the breakfast menu.

After they fried and ate the smelt—Dezeb did the cooking, naturally. Frozen food was Erabelle’s staple diet, so the only cooking method she knew was setting a microwave timer.

Once they had made breakfast of fried smelt and a fresh salad he had somehow prepared in advance, he got behind the wheel of the camper van again.

“Mm, could you check the map?”

The problem was that the camper van had already been used when Erabelle acquired it nine years ago. She had shoved it inside her personal Miro, intending to repair and resell it someday, and had used it as a makeshift bed whenever necessary in the meantime. Honestly, Erabelle was amazed that it still ran.

“Look for Bogito Ranch. I was told it was somewhere around there.”

After roughly twenty minutes in the rattling vehicle, the temperature had risen, and the scenery had changed from a pure white snowfield to a red wasteland dotted with cacti.

He was roaming freely across someone else’s planet without permission. Feeling somewhat solemn at the thought of how stressed the local planetary deity must be, Erabelle studied the map and searched for the ranch.

The ranch stood in the middle of the wasteland.

“I think you should continue for another thirty minutes, then turn right.”

“We’re almost there.”

He placed the cigarette between his fingers into his mouth, rummaged through a drawer with his free hand, and passed her some sort of pamphlet.

“Choose what you want to ride in advance.”

“.......”

A huge Ferris wheel was pictured on the pamphlet’s cover.

She had no idea why a ranch had a Ferris wheel, but after giving the pamphlet a cursory look, it seemed the place also operated as an amusement park. The pamphlet was rather old. The colors had faded almost completely from the paper, and its cheap holographic chip kept stuttering.

“It looks fun, doesn’t it?”

“Yes.”

Erabelle answered automatically and smiled.

As though the camper van and ice fishing weren’t enough, now there was an amusement park? Even if they went, it would surely have closed down already and no longer be—

It was there.

Standing before the entrance to the shabby amusement park, where people wandered sparsely about, Erabelle temporarily lost the ability to speak.

Several bulbs in each string of lights had burned out, and the music playing over the speakers sounded slightly deranged, perhaps because of some malfunction. Nevertheless, the park was open. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

“What do you want to ride first?”

“Then I’d like the Ferris wheel.”

“How suggestive.”

...Excuse me? What part of it?

She had questions, but the inexplicable sense of danger made her choose the roller coaster instead. Since this was an old amusement park, the roller coaster was on the level of a children’s train, which made it reasonably enjoyable by Erabelle’s standards. For some reason, Dezeb seemed excited as well. Surely it had to be boring for him, yet he laughed delightedly.

“It’s hilarious that you’re holding the safety bar at this speed, Erabelle.”

Oh. She was what he found entertaining.

“What should we ride next?”

They bought cotton candy and rode the carousel. They also threw darts at balloons. They won two huge stuffed animals. Somehow, Erabelle had ended up with two enormous burdens that would require regular washing.

“Look over here.”

Dezeb even bought a cheap instant camera from a souvenir stand.

After taking several photographs, he continued dragging her from one attraction to another.

“Let’s try that one too.”

Of everything there, the haunted house entertained him the most.

“You like scary things, Erabelle.”

“Me...?”

“You always used to sit me beside you and watch nothing but horror movies. Wasn’t that because you liked them?”

“It was because I liked them.”

Erabelle entered with a smile and emerged with every fine hair on her body standing on end. The sight reminded Dezeb of the past, and he laughed for a long while again.

“Come to think of it, I’m relieved.”

Wondering what he meant, Erabelle looked up at him. His eyes narrowed as he smiled with bewitching sweetness.