Love at First (II)

A First Kiss.

A momentous romantic event that should be cherished fondly.

I had always fantasized about having my first kiss be a big fantastical moment. Finally kissing the girl of my dreams after falling deeply in love with each other and confirming our feelings. A grand romantic scene set to a backdrop of nighttime fireworks… something like that.

I never could’ve imagined it would happen by accident like this.

Yet even so, an indescribable bliss fills me as the girl’s soft lips meet my own.

I feel surprised. I feel overjoyed. I feel warm and fuzzy. And also…

Crack!

I feel immense pain.

“Ahhhhhhh, my neck! My neck!”

I flop onto the ground and scream in agony.

After having an entire person fall onto my face, my neck made a sound that it should never make, and I felt an indescribable sharp burning pain shoot through it.

“Oh my goodness. A-are you okay? I’m so sorry!”

The girl who landed on me panics apologetically as I writhe around on the ground.

“Here. Just stay still for second. I’ll heal you right away.”

She quickly kneels at my side and places a hand on my neck.

“「 Healing Touch 」”

Almost immediately, the pain begins to fade. A pleasant tingly feeling springs forth from the spot she’s touching and quickly soothes the entire area.

It isn’t long before the injury becomes tolerable and I’m able to stop gritting my teeth.

“Huh…? Woah. I suddenly feel all better.”

There’s still a little stiffness and soreness in my neck, but the sharp pain has completely faded.

Amazing. Was that a healing skill just now? It’s incredible. She really managed to heal me with just a touch. I’ve seen a number of skills so far, and I have my Greed skills, but this is the first one that feels like real fantasy magic. It’s like night and day compared to my Endure skill.

“Phew, thank goodness. It seems it wasn’t a major injury.” The girl sighs in relief.

“Th-thank you. You’re a lifesaver.”

“Oh, no, no. You’re welcome, but I didn’t do much. Besides, I caused the injury to begin with. I’m just thankful you’re okay now.”

She gives me a warm and sunny smile filled with genuine compassion for my well-being.

Now that I’m able to actually look at her, I find her to be quite the beautiful woman.

She has a soft and friendly expression that pairs well with her bright smile.

Her long hair is a soft blue and her eyes are a golden yellow.

From her looks, she seems a few years older than me. In her early 20’s perhaps.

And for some reason, she’s wearing a dark gray cloak that covers the rest of her body.

Who is she? What was she doing, jumping from roof to roof?

But even more importantly, how am I supposed to feel right now!?

We kissed, right? It went by really quickly, but I’m certain our lips touched. I actually kissed someone for the very first time.

To someone else, that may seem like no big deal, but this is a monumental moment for me.

Should I say something? Maybe thank her? No, that’s weird. Tell her not to get the wrong idea? No, that’s tsundere. Promise to take responsibility? No, that’s even weirder. Ignore it entirely and play it cool? No way can I pull that off.

Ahhh, just say something. This is too awkward.

“Ummm…”

“Well then, if you’re feeling better now, please excuse me. I’m in a bit of a rush. Sorry~”

The girl suddenly gets up, just as I was about to say something, and gives me a quick bow of apology.

“Huh? Ah, wait—”

“Goodbye! Take care!”

I try to stop her, but she dashes away before I can do anything.

Damn, she’s gone. Just like that.

While I was over here flustered about the kiss, she just got up and left. I guess it wasn’t a big deal at all to her. Maybe she didn’t even notice it. Now I feel like an idiot. I could’ve at least asked her for her name.

We’ll probably never meet again, huh. That’s too bad. To think that the girl who took my first kiss would leave my life so soon…

All things considered, though, it wasn’t so bad giving my first kiss to a woman like that. It’s not how I wanted it to go, but it’ll make a good memory to cherish for the rest of my life…

“Ah. Wait, one more thing.”

“Huh? You’re back?”

Just as I finished engraving the memory in my heart, the girl suddenly returns.

What’s going on? Is this just an illusion born from my desire to see her again? Or is she purposely playing with my feelings or something?

“Wh-what is it? Did you forget something?”

“Mhm. Sorry, I forgot to heal your other injuries. Hold still for a sec.”

“Eh—”

“「 Accel Recovery 」”

With a single smooth motion, she clasps her hands together and casts another skill.

My entire body gets enveloped in that tingly feeling from earlier. I had almost forgotten with everything that happened, but I’m still covered in all the wounds I got from fighting those punks and the carriage driver. Yet, all of those bruises and pains are soon soothed by her magical healing.

“There we go. All better, right?”

She cheers brightly the moment she sees the swelling on my face begin to fade.

“What the… you came back just to heal me?”

“Yes. Sorry. I noticed your other wounds earlier, but I was in such a rush I forgot to heal them too. My apologies.”

What is she talking about? Why is she talking like it’s a given that she needed to heal me?

Even though she’s in a rush, even though these injuries have nothing do with her, even though I’m just a stranger… she couldn’t leave without making sure I was fully healed?

“Okay. This time it’s goodbye for real. Bye bye~”

Once again, she waves farewell to me and prepares to leave.

No, wait. I should stop her. I should at least get her name. Otherwise, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.

I reach out to try and get her to wait, when suddenly—

“Over here! She went this way!”

“Quickly! Don’t let her get away!”

Loud voices shout out from the other side of the road. In the distance, I can see a number of people running in this direction. It’s hard to tell from a distance, but they all seem to be wearing the same armor as the knights I saw earlier.

For some reason, this makes the cloaked girl start to sweat and panic.

“Oh no, they caught up. What do I do, what do I do…”

She immediately makes a move to run away, but suddenly stops after two steps.

She looks back, looks at me, looks at the direction of the voices, looks back at me, and then nods to herself.

“Okay! I’m sorry but please come with me. We have to run!”

“Huh!?”

Before I can react, she grabs me by the hand and starts pulling me along with her.

“Wh-what’s going on? Why are we running?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll explain later. Just follow me for now.”

The girl drags me down a nearby street and forces me to run away from the governor’s house, never letting go of me the whole time.

I have absolutely no idea what’s going on. Who is this girl? Why is she being chased by knights?

Such questions and many more race my head faster than my feet can run.

But more important than all of them, I realize something of the utmost importance.

Right now. As we’re running away together. Is this… are we… holding hands!?

First, we kissed. Now, we’re holding hands too.

That means we may as well be dating already!

“Oi, what happened to slowly and naturally falling in love?”