Epilogue

“Ah, what a shame. I could have seen you two with lovely embarrassed faces if you hadn’t ruined it.”

My hunch was correct. It was Faeleth who had tried to make Aria and I kiss each other under the guise of making peace with the giant boar. Not only that, but it seems like she was also anticipating Porky’s reaction to seeing the girl he fell in love with kissing another man in front of him. But, nature called me and deprived her of that opportunity.

“Why do you keep teasing me anyway?” I asked her as we were saying our goodbyes.

It was the morning after the incident. Faeleth, the other elves and the giant boar, who had behaved itself since, had stayed for the night after negotiating with the village elderman and the sheriff. Luckily, no one died so that went smoothly and the elves only have to help rebuild the ruined houses. Their party was about to leave to escort their deity back to their village.

I continued, “Didn’t I tell you I’m not into those things?”

“I can’t help it, I think I’ve fallen for you”, Faeleth replied.

“I’m not falling for that one”, I reacted sternly.

“That’s mean”, she said, sounding hurt. “Like the other girls, I found you interesting because of your tales of your adventures.”

“But, what really made me like you is that you stayed as my friend even though I’ve told you of my proclivities. Most men would just start avoiding me.”

Well, she is a little bit hardcore so I could relate to those men. I wasn’t going to say that out loud, though.

“Too bad you seem to have made up with Aria”, she said ruefully.

I was beginning to think she was honest about all this. But, I commented no further in case it was a trap.

Not quite a vindication to my gut feeling, but she picked her mood back up again as she said “Oh, and Porky wants to tell you something.”

I looked at the giant beast nervously. I wasn’t sure what it wants from me, but I better watch what I say because I don’t want to fight it anymore.

“He says he’ll tell stories about how you defeated him”, Faeleth said. “That you, a normal human, faced a sacred beast to fight for the one you love.”

It took a moment for what I just heard to sink in.

In the meantime, Faeleth took a jab at me saying “Good for you, you’re going to be part of the heroic legends you love so much.”

It was flattering, but a little embarrassing, admittedly.

“Oh, and if you ever make Aria cry, Porky will come running back here to steal her away from you.”

That one pulled me back to the ground hard. Figuratively, this time.

Meekly, I said “I promise I’ll treat her right.”

Then, Faeleth teased “Is that the way heroes reply when faced with a challenge?”

Annoyed by this, I told them all to go straight home.

Speaking of Aria, we finally resolved some of our issues.

We’ve reached an understanding that I wasn’t at fault for stopping writing to her. Apparently, the box that she sent me, which was the last thing I received from her, was supposed to make our communications easier. It was some sort of magical item wherein it could send and receive letters within the day, unlike the standard way which can take weeks.

Unfortunately, or so she says, she placed the instructions to open the box inside it. So, being unable to read the letter, I had no way of knowing how to use the box.

When we opened it last night, it contained three years worth of letters. That also proved Aria did not stop writing to me.

Of course, during the year after she sent me that box, she wondered why I wasn’t using it. But, she figured I preferred the non-magical method of mail.

She also never became suspicious that I was unable to receive any of her replies because I never mentioned it once in my letters and wrote as normal, giving updates to my life and the village.

However, there was still some lingering resentment with regards to me taking other girls on dates. But, as Aria felt guilty about the box, which was the beginning of the trouble in the first place, we compromised to restart our reunion over again.

Oh, and not to mention, she kind of owes me a favor as I covered for her in that incident. The giant boar normally would not have been able to come near the village due to the traps present in the forest, but apparently some of the traps have either rotted away or have been triggered by some other animal which created a path for it.

Of course, that question came up during the quick inquest last night, which the elves were more than happy to provide the answer for as they themselves have an interest in preventing the same event from happening again.

It was my job to inspect the traps, and the people thought I was out doing it this past week. But, as I was stuck to a tree at the time, I was unable to replace them. If Aria hadn’t done that, none of this would have happened and she seemed to have realized that.

Luckily for her, I only reported that I fell behind schedule, which everyone seemed to have accepted. I didn’t report that I was stuck to a tree so she didn’t get into trouble. Faeleth almost spilled the beans, but I managed to convince her somehow without anything in exchange.

As for that favor, I wasn't thinking of something nefarious. I was thinking of using it to have Aria make something other than sandwiches for our picnic date later at lunch.