“Hmm. You two look close. Ve~ry close.”
Amy, who was looking down at me and Friede with her arms crossed as we suddenly sat up at the sound of the door opening, nodded repeatedly with a snort.
Her mouth was smiling, but her expression conveyed a strange sense of pressure.
“Uh, um, Amy? Look, I think there’s been a misunderstanding…”
Reflexively flinching at Amy’s gaze, which seemed too sharp to be directed at a comrade, I hurriedly tried to explain the situation.
I didn’t know why I was in a position to explain this situation, but I felt an intuition that if I didn’t explain, some serious crisis would come.
“Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding?”
“Well, this isn’t what you’re thinking, it’s not like that…”
…Wait a minute, doesn’t this sound like the typical excuse of a cheating husband?
I tried to explain quickly out of urgency… but as I spoke, I thought again, wouldn’t saying such things only deepen the misunderstanding rather than clearing it up?
“What I’m thinking? What do you think I’m thinking?”
See?
Amy’s gaze as she asked back had become twice as cold as before.
A face that looked like it should be holding a kitchen knife or a saw. Eyes like those of an obsessive high school girl who had witnessed her friend and lover joining together in the entrance.
“Uh, well, you see…”
I hurriedly turned my head to glance at Friede, giving her a look that meant ‘please help me explain’.
With a face that said this situation was your responsibility for putting me back to sleep, so you should take responsibility and explain.
Friede, who met my eyes, nodded as if she understood.
She seemed to understand my silent plea immediately. I thought this might be what they call telepathy.
The moment I felt slightly relieved at that nod and inwardly sighed in relief.
“…Heh.”
Friede placed both hands on my right shoulder and rested her face on them, pulling up one corner of her mouth in a victor’s smile.
A provocation as if drawn in a picture. An expression that would probably result in a not guilty verdict even if Amy drew her staff and struck Friede’s crown with it.
“F-Friede…?!”
I let out a groan mixed with bewilderment.
What is this? I asked you to try and smooth things over, why are you provoking her instead?
“Yes, it’s Friede. Hilde-Hilde.”
Friede grinned as she met my eyes. It was a smile full of mischief to an exasperating degree.
…I see, so you had no intention of smoothing things over.
Telepathy my foot. My silent plea wasn’t just misunderstood, it wasn’t heard at all?
Well, although they’ve gotten along better recently, they used to be almost like sworn enemies before.
She probably didn’t want to miss this golden opportunity to tease Amy.
Even considering that, I wondered what kind of bizarre nickname ‘Hilde-Hilde’ was supposed to be.
* * *
Friede, who had provoked Amy instead of smoothing things over when I asked her to. It was an incredibly troublesome action from my perspective.
However, that provocation had an unexpectedly definite effect.
At least, it achieved my goal of calming Amy down?
“Haah… I should have kept my mouth shut.”
I’m not sure if Friede intended this, but contrary to expectations that she would fly into a rage at Friede’s provocation, Amy just shook her head with a deep sigh.
How should I put it? It felt like she lost the will to continue such foolishness, finding it pathetic to even respond.
“Forget it, I’ve got a new request, so let’s go downstairs and talk.”
Anyway, thanks to this, we were finally able to start talking about work as usual. Although it was a bit later than usual.
“We could talk here if you want.”
“No… just go down first and wait. I’ll quickly wash up and follow right after.”
I lightly ran my hand through my disheveled hair and expressed my intention to discuss work on the first floor.
Having just woken up, I was in no state to be seen, so I wasn’t in an appropriate condition to discuss work.
I need to wash my face first and change into proper clothes.
Instead of the damp and see-through nightgown, I needed to change into proper outdoor clothes and armor.
If we’re going to talk about work, shouldn’t I be dressed appropriately for work? It’s just basic manners.
“Alright. You haven’t eaten breakfast, right? I’ll order in advance, so don’t be too late.”
Amy nodded and turned to walk out of the room.
“Th-Then I’ll go down first too…! Take your time coming down!”
Friede, who had hurriedly gotten up, grabbed her armor and backpack and rushed out of the room after Amy.
Now that we were alone again, she seemed to suddenly fear the consequences of her mischief.
Like forcibly making me lie down on the bed and putting me back to sleep, or provoking Amy when I asked her to calm her down.
Both actions would have deserved a chop to the forehead if the other party had been like a younger sibling rather than a fellow comrade.
Anyway, after sending both of them off like that, I pulled back the blanket, got up, and headed to the bathroom.
Amy and Friede would be waiting, so a full bath would be too much… but washing my hair should be fine, right?
…No, wait a minute.
Amy and Friede, they’re not fighting downstairs, are they?
My chest suddenly felt chilly at this ominous imagination that had popped up.
If those two, who aren’t even guests, cause a commotion on the first floor… wouldn’t I, as the party leader, end up taking all the responsibility?
The innkeeper already knows that I’m their party leader.
In the worst case, we could even be kicked out of the inn. I could only hope that both of them would behave.
‘…No way. They’re not children, they wouldn’t be doing that there.’
I tried to suppress my anxiety by telling myself that my comrades wouldn’t be that childish.
* * *[ Inn First Floor ]* * *
Hilde’s trust was betrayed. About half of it, anyway.
Friede and Amy weren’t rampaging and smashing the furniture on the first floor of the inn as Hilde had worried, but they weren’t quietly waiting as Hilde had hoped either.
The two who had gone down to the first floor asked the innkeeper for breakfast for three, then walked out of the inn and were having an argument.
Talking about things they couldn’t dare to say in front of Hilde.
“What was that about earlier? Were you trying to test my patience?”
Amy glared at Friede and snapped.
She said that while she had let it go with just a sigh earlier for Hilde’s sake, now that they were alone, she needed to question the meaning behind that arrogant face.
“I don’t know what happened last night, but if you come at me in that disgusting way, I’ll have to…”
“…Think whatever you want. I don’t care what you say anymore.”
Friede cut off Amy’s words with a smirk. Her attitude was that of a victor who didn’t care what the loser said.
“Oh, really? Your speaking skills have improved quite a bit. Usually you can’t even say what you want to say properly, stuttering all the time. You seem to be overflowing with confidence?”
Amy, realizing this, mocked Friede with an even more angry face. Saying she had grown a lot from her usual self who could barely speak properly like a basement-dwelling shut-in.
However, instead of getting angry at Amy’s sarcasm, Friede smiled even more broadly and shook her head.
“I’ve already gained certainty. The certainty that you can’t beat me, Amy.”
The fact she had heard directly from Brunhilde. The confession that she had liked Friet—herself—gave Friede boundless confidence.
The confidence that since she and Brunhilde actually liked each other, it would be impossible for a third party to come between them.
Even though this was actually a complete misunderstanding.
“Is that so, shall we check that?”
Anyway, those words severely scratched Amy’s pride.
Amy glared at Friede with fierce eyes and placed her hand on the book bag at her side.
“You might think differently after taking one ice pick?”
Her voice had lowered. She looked ready to pull out her grimoire at any moment.
However, Friede shrugged her shoulders and shook her head as if she didn’t care about this at all.
“…I didn’t mean that kind of victory or defeat. That’s not even worth calling certainty.”
An answer saying that you not being able to beat me is so obvious that there’s no need to realize it anew.
The fact that this was an irrefutable truth made Amy even angrier. Because it was an undeniable truth that she was weaker than Friede.
“Friede…!”
“…Call me Sigfriede. Only Hilde is allowed to call me Friede.”
Friede glared back at Amy and warned her not to call her by that name, then chuckled and reached out to push Amy’s shoulder against the wall.
Then, glaring at Amy with her back against the wall, she snapped in a sharp tone.
“In the first place, I can’t do without Hilde, but that’s not really the case for you, is it?”
The reason why she disliked Amy.
“You don’t care who it is as long as it’s a woman who suits your taste, right?”
That she didn’t like ‘Hilde’ but just liked women ‘like Hilde’. This was the fundamental reason why Friede was wary of Amy.
Like how she talked about liking Hilde but tried to force her to drink alcohol, and even invited Friede, who was trying to stop her, to join in.
Trying to take the body before the heart, using coercive means without hesitation, and even showing an attitude that it didn’t necessarily have to be Hilde but any other woman would do.
There were plenty of actions that made it impossible to harbor goodwill towards her.
“From what I saw last time, you seem quite experienced, why don’t you just find another woman at this opportunity? Stop eyeing a woman who’s already taken.”
To put it bluntly, in Friede’s eyes, Amy might be okay as a comrade but as a love rival, she was close to just a female version of Gunther.
Therefore, now that Hilde’s feelings were certain, she had developed the intention to thoroughly block Amy from getting closer to Hilde ‘in that way’.
“…Kuh.”
Amy, pushed against the wall, twisted her body trying to remove the hand on her shoulder, but soon realizing it was impossible, bit her lip with a frustrated face.
“…You talk as if you’re her owner.”
Then she opened her mouth and spewed out harsh words. Burning with the stubbornness that if she couldn’t win in a physical fight, she should at least win in a war of words.
“If you had really done anything, you’d both be completely naked without a shred of cloth. It’s so obvious. You just slept without doing anything, right? You don’t have the courage to touch her even when Hilde is sleeping next to you. You.”
“What courage? The courage to have your way with a drunk woman?”
Friede retorted in a sharp tone.
Attaching the word courage to the evil act of violating a sleeping woman. If that’s courage, wouldn’t the death row inmates locked in underground prisons be the bravest people in the world?
“Don’t make me laugh. Unlike a woman like you who only cares about her own desires, I respect Hilde’s will and cherish and protect her, you know?”
It was behavior that was not just ridiculous but even contemptible.
“People who say such things usually end up crying after losing their partner to someone else. I think you’ll be like that too.”
Amy pulled up the corners of her mouth as if sneering and mocked.
Normally, even she wouldn’t have thrown such sharp sarcasm.
However, she was already irritated to the limit because of the scene she had witnessed earlier, and now Friede was openly provoking her.
Amy couldn’t help but feel she had reached the limit of her patience. That’s why she spewed out her indignation that had suddenly surged up.
“…What did you say?”
Not knowing that those words touched on a part close to Friede’s reverse scale.
“Huh…?”
Suddenly changed atmosphere. Amy let out a bewildered groan without realizing it, startled by the gaze mixed with killing intent.
Losing to someone else and crying. It was a statement that could only make Friede’s eyes roll back. Because she had actually experienced that.
If she hadn’t been a hero, if the other party hadn’t been a party member directly chosen by Hilde, she probably would have immediately reached out and broken the other’s neck.
“What are you two doing there? Breakfast is ready, aren’t you going to eat?”
If Hilde, wearing her helmet, hadn’t poked her face out from beyond the inn door and called them, she probably would have thrown at least one punch.
“Ah, um, we were just getting some fresh air. We’re coming now…!”
The moment Hilde’s voice was heard, Friede quickly changed her expression, let go of Amy, and walked back towards the inn as if nothing had happened.
Amy, who had been trembling with a slightly pale face, also took several deep breaths and then followed, walking with her head slightly bowed.
“Hey… Um, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean those words seriously.”
She apologized in a deeply lowered voice, saying she had gone too far with her words.
She did have a minimum of conscience. A conscience that said even in a war of words, you shouldn’t touch on the other’s reverse scale.
“…It’s fine. I went too far too.”
After a moment’s consideration, Friede finally accepted the apology.
Unless they were going to be on terms where they would never see each other again – that is, where one of them would be buried in the ground – it was difficult to snap back when the other apologized first.
It was a case of showing hero-like tolerance, so to speak.
Whether that was really tolerance or not was something no one could answer for sure, but at least Friede herself thought so.
That she had given the other a pass this time.
Like a hero.