“Hey girly! You okay?!”
“Yeah, you saved me there, thank you.”
After approaching and getting a good look at her, it actually looks like she’s my age.
…and she’s really cute.
I was so focused on taking down the bear that I didn’t notice.
If I had known she was this cute I would’ve been a bit more friendly when I called out to her.
“What are you doing in the mountains during this season? Didn’t your father ever teach you common sense?”
“…no, umm… my father’s not here anymore.”
“Oh, um…”
Crap.
I didn’t mean to bring up a touchy subject like that, hopefully she hasn’t started grown unpleasant feelings towards me.
Argh whatever! A cute girl is trying to thank me so why am I driving her away?!
“Well around this time, all the bears sleeping in the mountains wake up from hibernation, haven’t you heard?”
“Unfortunately no, I just arrived in this area recently.”
So that’s how it is…
“Does that mean, you’re one of Elenoire Academy’s new students?”
“Yeah, my name is Iris Parala.”
Well what do you know? Turns out she’s one of the young mistresses going to that noble school.
It’s a good thing I saved her when I did.
Though now that I’ve helped her, what’s she gonna do to return the favour?
Around five years ago I helped another Elenoire student out of a pinch, and they ended up giving me five gold.
This girl’s not only cute, but she’s rich and I just saved her life. I should definitely get something at least worth ten gold this time.
“Love, for a saving a beauty like you, I’ll only charge you ten gold coins.”
“Eh?! There’s no way I can pay off that exorbitant amount of money!”
“Really? Well, if you can’t pay cash, I’m fine with taking something of equal value. Don’t you have any jewelry on you? Hurry up and take it out.”
“Sorry, I’m not wearing any jewels like that.”
“It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it’s gold I don’t care.”
Her face scrunched up in confusion towards my statement, and instead of gold, she offered me some of the wild plants she had picked.
“…don’t you have like a gold necklace or something?”
“The only thing I have are these edible wild plants.”
Taking another look at the girl, her dress wasn’t any different from us commoner folk, there wasn’t a single expensive thing on her.
She even looked a bit skinny.
“Just what are you?”
“My name is Iris Parala.”
“You already told me that.”
“Then what am I supposed to tell you? All I have are these wild plants I’ve picked, so what else can I give?”
“Nonono, I mean, why are you picking wild plants in the first place? Noble kids don’t eat stuff like that.”
“I never said I was part of the aristocracy, I missed eating wild plants like I did back home, so I came to pick some.”
“But you just said that you’re one of Elenoire Academy’s students.”
“You can enroll there even if you’re a commoner you know?”