He had a memory of this eerie and repulsive sound of a pipe.
──So it’s Kiira’s pipe.
Forget still having not withdrawn yet, to think that he would come to town again……As he thought, this probably meant that he had no intentions of keeping his promise.
Diablo quickly put the goods concerning 《Compounding》 away into his pouch. Taking hold of the War Scythe, he stood up.
He peeked outside from the window.
Near the front of the inn, a high class carriage that was unbalanced with the surroundings was at a halt.
The figure of someone holding a pipe could not be found.
With a *suu*, the sound of the pipe ceased.
──Did he run away?
He couldn’t find Kiira’s figure.
Diablo returned to the place he was at before.
Motionlessly, Shera was crouching, and was solidified in that same posture.
Because of the sound of the pipe, she probably remembered the difficult choice she made yesterday.
He took a look at her state.
As if she were looking neither into the distance nor anything nearby, Shera had eyes that looked like she wasn’t looking at anything.
Her lips were subtly moving, and she muttered words in a voice that couldn’t be heard.
Diablo became worried.
「Oi, Shera, what’s wrong? Get ahold of yourself!」
Shera looked at him.
「Ah, Diablo……Yeah, what?」
It was her usual self. She had been disturbed, but it looks like she returned to how she was.
「Are you alright?」
「What do you mean?」
「No……If you are fine, then it’s alright.」
「Is that so? Ah, that’s right……hey……? I, have something that I need to say to you, Diablo, but is that alright?」
It was an abrupt claim.
「What’s wrong?」
「You see, what I needed to tell you was……」
Her eyes were swimming.
For Diablo, since he had no idea about what she was going to say, he simply waited.
With an ambiguous facial expression that looked like she was making a smile where she was about to cry but looked like she was troubled by something, Shera gazed at Diablo.
And then, while hesitatingly rubbing her fingers, she opened her mouth.
「I’m, going to go back to the Greenwood Kingdom.」
──Just now, what did she say?
HIs comprehension couldn’t keep up.
Could it be he misheard her?
However, while Diablo was silent, she continued her speech.
「Y, you see, I, just have to go back. The Greenwood Kingdom is, my hometown after all, and if I don’t make children with “Onii-sama”, the royal family will die out……The continuation of the Elven country is, much more important than me being free by myself.」
「No way.」
「Ah, it’s not like I’m doing this out of a sense of duty. After thinking about it carefully, about Onii-sama, you could say that I respect him……and if I go back to my hometown, I won’t have to do the dangerous job of being an Adventurer……casting aside safety for the sake of freedom, that’s just foolish.」
「There certainly is that way of thinking, though.」
──What is this? Did something happen?
Shera, she should have refused Kiira’s temptation.
Even in her conversation with Rem last night, he knew that her feelings of remaining in Faltra City were strong.
What happened to that, all of a sudden?
──What is this, this inconsistency? Is a radical change in thought like this really possible?
In her conversation with Rem, was she hiding her true feelings and just going along with the mood?
However, was Shera really a girl that could do something like that so skillfully?
「Ah, I need to gather my things……Wait, I didn’t have much to start with.」
Shera packed her luggage into a leather bag.
Diablo, while looking at that scene, was thinking about various things. He had a thought.
──Did I, did I do something to hurt her feelings?
He felt like he did do something.
He was bad at understanding other people’s feelings. He was self-aware that he himself was a good for nothing person.
If his social disposition were his strong point, he wouldn’t have always been playing Net Games by himself.
Could it be, that he stepped on one of Shera’s land mines?
He didn’t know.
He completely could not see what Shera was thinking.
He didn’t know.
Was it because he himself made some kind of mistake?
He didn’t know.
Shera finished packing, and stood up.
「See you, Diablo.」
Diablo was still in confusion.
「……No, um……Let me at least see you off.」
「Thank you.」
Shera was still with an ambiguous facial expression the whole time.