Day-27
...
The next day, we left the inn and began our day.
We headed toward Damroww as usual. A little drama happened along the way, coloring this otherwise beautiful morning.
Shihoru suddenly came over and apologized to Haruhiro. Not knowing what had happened before, I could only watch from where I stood.
"I-I... I'm sorry! Yume explained everything to me. I thought you two had that kind of relationship... I'm sorry for jumping to such a conclusion..."
I looked at her curiously, wondering to myself. Did something happen while I was gone last night?
It was only a little curiosity, but I wanted to know.
As usual, Ranta couldn't stay quiet after hearing that.
"Relationship?" Ranta moved his face closer to Haruhiro's, staring at him suspiciously. "What do you mean by 'that kind of relationship'? A relationship between whom and whom, hmm?"
"None of your business," Haruhiro said, trying to move away from Ranta.
"That's not true. Tell me. Come on! Tell me everything!"
"Like Shihoru said. It's all just a misunderstanding."
"I want to know every little detail about this 'misunderstanding.'"
"Well..." Yume interrupted.
My gaze focused on Yume, waiting for her to reveal what had happened.
"Come on, tell us. It's not nice to keep people waiting," I said impatiently.
Haruhiro looked at me in surprise.
"Sirus, even you?" was all he could say.
I answered with an awkward smile.
"What can I do? Something happened while I was away. How could I not be curious?"
"See!" Ranta exclaimed, pointing at me. "Even Sirus is curious, so hurry up and tell us what happened!"
"Yesterday," Yume began to explain. "Yume asked Haru to hug her tightly, and then Shihoru happened to see it..... So....."
My eyes immediately widened as I turned my gaze toward Haruhiro, staring at him in disbelief.
"No, that's not it, Sirus. You misunderstood," he said, trying to explain himself.
"What?! What the hell, Haruhiro?" Ranta's eyes widened as he stared at Haruhiro. "Are you serious?! Are you really serious?! Since when did you two make it to the second stage?!"
"What do you even mean by the second stage?" Haruhiro said. "No, wait, ahh, forget it. I already told you, it's not like that."
"How could it not be like that?! You must have wanted to do it, but then you stopped when you saw Shihoru catch you! You're really good at hitting the emergency brakes!"
"But Haru was crying..." Yume explained.
"Yume," Haruhiro said. "You didn't have to mention that..."
"Crying?" Ranta looked back and forth between Haruhiro and Yume, then ran his hands through his hair. "...I understand now. So that's what this is about. In other words... you got rejected. Yume rejected you, so she felt sorry for this stuuuuuuuupid, and Yume tried to make you feel better. I understand everything now. It's perfectly clear."
I stared blankly at Ranta, thinking his guess was absolutely hilarious.
Shaking my head, I turned toward Haruhiro.
"You're completely, utterly wrong, but whatever. I don't want to explain anything to you anymore."
"Anyway..." Yume began speaking, seemingly ignoring what Ranta had just said. "Yume has decided to try to get along with Mary. Shihoru wants to try, too."
Hugging her staff, Shihoru looked down. "...I don't think this will work, but I'll do my best."
"Get along with Mary?" Ranta frowned. "That's not going to happen. That girl has no intention of becoming our friend."
Mogzo lowered his head. "B-but, we can't keep going on like this. At the very least, we have to convince her to heal us during battle."
I didn't really understand what was happening, but it seemed like this could be a positive thing. I guess we'd all had enough of this situation.
Therefore—
"I think it'll work as long as we try. Even if it's only a possibility, we'll never know unless we try. Besides, it's not like we've ever truly accepted her into this party. So maybe, just maybe, if we can all accept her, she'll feel comfortable around all of us."
That was what I said, nothing more than small talk. Just words that came out because I wanted to go along with what was happening.
But that was fine.
"To begin with..." Haruhiro started speaking, looking at each of us in turn, except Ranta. "We need to build trust with her. We won't make any progress without taking the first step. Who knows? Mary might just have her own way of responding to the things around her. Maybe we can't get along with her because we don't understand what she's thinking."
Ranta immediately scoffed. "Are you sure this isn't simply because she's a horrible girl? Her mental state must be seriously messed up. Psychological disorder. Or, more accurately, Chronic Congenital Horrible Personality Syndrome. And there isn't even a cure."
"But we need a priest..." Haruhiro replied.
"That reminds me..." Ranta said, then looked at me. "Hey, Sirus! You haven't joined any guild yet, right? How about joining the priest guild? Then we won't need that girl anymore. THIS IS THE BEST IDEA I'VE EVER HAD! Damn, I'm a genius!"
I scratched my hair and replied.
"It's not that I can't. It's just... I think it's too late for me now. If I join a guild, that means making all of you wait for me, and that would only be a burden to you. Besides, we're the ones who invited Mary into this party. So... We have to take responsibility for what we've done, right?"
The right time for me to join a guild was when I first arrived in this world, and it's already been almost a month since then.
If I joined now, I'd only slow them down.
And besides, I don't think I really need it.
Especially if we were to kick Mary out just because I became a priest, I would feel terrible about it.
Therefore, I decided to refuse.
At the beginning of the day, all we did was talk about things like that.
It reminded me of those good times. Would they ever come back? I don't know. I really don't.
As I raised my gaze toward the sky, the sun, which had only recently awakened, shone brightly. The morning sky was a slightly dim blue, with a few clouds accompanying it.
Truly—this morning was beautiful.
...
-
I'm back with another chapter. This one was inspired by a song—Bob Dylan's "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." It's a great song—probably my favorite of his, aside from "Mr. Tambourine Man." Well, once again, this chapter might not be quite up to my usual standard, but I hope everyone enjoys it.