The child’s red eyes fell down.
I hurried hand away with the fervor of a person caught doing something bad. When Noelier’s hand fell, the warmth drifted away.
Rachel, who rolled her eyes and looked at Noelier, asked with eyes wide open.
“… What are you two doing?”
“Yes? Just having a little talk!”
I quickly went to Rachel’s side.
From behind Rachel’s back, Zion said, ‘I want to see, too!’ And hopped over.
Rachel stared at Noelier with an interested face. The eyes that looked alike were twinkling with wonder.
Did you just let down your guard a little bit? I looked between Noelier and Rachel.
In the meantime, Noelier was repeatedly clasping and stretching the hand he had held with me a few times.
While looking at his hand, he had a complex expression that I couldn’t explain. His face seemed to have sunk and darkened.
Noelier looked up. He said to me with a nice smile. “… I’ll just go back.”
“What? You leave just like that?”
“I came here without any preparations or goals, so I left a lot of mess behind. Of course I thought we’d go back together, but ….”
Noelier said so and approached me. Before I knew it, Rachel was clinging to my leg. Noelier bent on his knees to meet Rachel at eye level. Rachel looked at Noelier with a distressed look as if she didn’t like something.
“I know what you’re thinking, but…”
“….”
Noelier slowly blurted the end of his speech. But Rachel kept her mouth shut and hid behind me. It’s like she was avoiding an answer.
“… I get it for now.” Noelier, nodding his head, raised himself again. “Please take good care of my sister.”
Noelier greeted me with a slightly stiff face. I greeted him in an awkward manner. Rachel was still clinging to me with a sulky face.
I sighed with relief as I saw him moving away.
First of all, my life was saved.
Of course, Rachel didn’t leave me, but since I lied to the chief, it seemed that I could fool any other dragon who may come.
It was when Noelier was a little far from the hut that people in black cloaks approached him.
I saw some of them glance at me. I felt a sharp gaze through the hood.
I could hear an apology ringing through my head.
I quickly brought Rachel and Zion into the house.
As expected, dragons are dangerous. I embraced Rachel, who was shaking and hugging me.
***
“Chief.”
The dragons bowed down to their heads.
“What happened? Isn’t the young lady coming with you? Besides, what about that woman …?”
“….”
Noelier did not answer. The smile he showed Eve had long since disappeared.
Noelier looked down at his hand.
The heat that was boiling when he touched her disappeared in an instant. Twice.
It wasn’t a coincidence. No, it couldn’t have been a coincidence.
None of the people who came into contact with him were able to overcome his heat. Even Rachel, a family member, was no exception.
‘This may be…’
Noelier slowly raised his head. Bloody red eyes filled the cabin on the snowfield.
“… Let’s wait and see.”
The dragons bowed their heads to show loyalty to the chief’s words. There was no one who would not obey before his fire.
***
I lay back with the children in my arms.
I lost all my strength.
Even if the storm passed by, it seemed to be quieter than this.
I looked at the closed door with a bewildered look and turned my head toward Rachel. She still had a serious face.
‘Of course, I was surprised too, but it would be far less than her.’
I opened my mouth to alleviate Rachel’s fear.
“Rachel.”
Then Rachel cried and shook her head. It meant to not to call her by that name.
“… Okay, Ruby. Are you scared?”
Rachel nodded at my question.
“Yes, I was so scared. Like, something like that comes out of my hand ….”
“Right.”
I patted the child’s back. Rachel, in my arms, looked up at me and asked.
“… Aren’t you scared, Sister?”
It was scary…. That was also incredible.
I gulped down the words in my mouth.
My fear is on the back burner. The first step was to appease Rachel and increase the affinity for her brother.
“That’s right, but, um, wasn’t he really cool?”
“Was he cool?”
“Huh?”
Rachel lit her eyes and pulled my hem.
“What is it? Please be specific.”
Rachel asked me for an answer, like an agent uncovering important information.
Do you like stories like this? Having discovered Rachel’s new side, I continued to answer with a puzzled look.
“Uhm… first of all, he’s really tall. I look up so much that my neck hurts.”
“And?”
“And his shoulders are so wide. I’ve never seen such a broad-shouldered person.”
“You like men with broad shoulders.”
“Yes, it’s my style.”
“Then what about his face?”
“His face is just crazy.”
I tried to change Noelier’s image to likable, but the conversation started to diverge in a different direction.
Rachel asked me this and that with her eyes shining, and I answered sincerely.
“Is such a man your ideal type?”
“Rather than my ideal type, I just like him. Well, like his features?”
At my words, Rachel said, shining big eyes like jewels.
“Then, is that older brother your ideal type?”
“Ideal type …?”
I tilted my head.
He was a man of my tastes, but the dragon, the enemy, was strange no matter how much I thought about it.
I couldn’t put it in her brother’s category.
I shook my head. “Not really.”
“… I see.”
Rachel somehow nodded with a gloomy face. You don’t like my answer?
They even said they look alike, but is it a bit weird to say that they’re not the same type? Should I have compared them a bit more closely?
To me, who was embarrassed by the sullen Rachel, Zion blinked his eyes.
“What are you two talking about?”
Only then did I come to my senses at Zion’s words.
I smiled awkwardly and looked at Zion. At last, Zion pouted his lips.
“Sister, is that why he is coming back to our house? He’s not living with us, right?”
“We don’t live together ….”
“Then?”
“For the time being, Rachel will stay with us until she finds her memory.”
In my words, Zion puffed up his cheeks like a balloon. He seems to hate Noelier very much.
“I don’t like him.”
“Zion?”
“He hurt my sister. That’s why I don’t like him.”
Zion dug into my arms as if he were swarming with an ungainly face.
“But….”
“You said there are only dangerous people out there, and that brother is also out there.”
“Yes, but ….”
I blurred the end of my speech. I never imagined that the ideas I had pushed so hard onto Zion would come back to bite me.
“Zion.”
While I was embarrassed and unable to say anything, Rachel called Zion.
Rachel looked at Zion with a serene face. He flinched for a moment at the light of her eye.
“Why, why?”
Zion asked, but Rachel did not answer.
I looked over the children with impatience. No matter how bad the situation was, Rachel seemed to be angry because he spoke badly of her real brother.
It was when I was thinking about how to mediate this.
“I’m bored. Let’s go have a snowball fight.”
Rachel said with an innocent smile.
When I saw that face, I felt as if the tension that was holding me back was loosening.
I breathe out a sigh of relief for a moment.
“Wait, Zion.”
“Huh?”
“Have you ever gone out for a snowball fight?”
Zion, who was shivering, blurted the end of his speech.
“That’s ….”
“Did you go out without telling me?”
“….”
Zion shut his mouth shut.
I told you not to go out like that! While I was out, he seemed to play with Rachel while walking around the forest.
I sighed softly.
I’m the only one who’ll get tired of being angry. Most of all, nothing happened.
Moreover, now that we have already met Noelier and Rachel, our plan was useless.
While I was organizing my thoughts, Zion looked at me with a nervous look. He seemed to think he would be scolded.
I smiled and stroked Zion’s head.
“Don’t go too far. Just play around here.”
Zion’s face was brightened by permission, not the anticipated scolding.
Whenever he laughed like that, his ears would pop out, but seeing that it was quiet, I felt like he practiced a lot.
‘And if you meet other wolves, you’ll be fine with Rachel.’
Our final boss heroine. The heroine who likes me so much ….
I raised my other hand and stroked Rachel’s head gently. The fine hair was scattered between my fingers.
At the patting, Rachel looked up at me. She was worried about what would happen if Zion was scolded for what she said.
I shook her head in the sense that I would not be punished.
“I’ll make you something delicious. Have fun.”
The children’s faces bloomed like flowers.
“Yes! Let’s go, Zion!”