You Give Me Despair, but Lock My Arm

Did I really not care about her?

Kousuke jumped from the ship and followed Mochita who had jumped in excitement. He wouldn’t die or feel hurt anyway, so he could just jump.

“[Anti Gravity],” Arabella said and jumped too, but slowly and gracefully.

“So. How to reach that floating island? Are we going to go to that tower?” Arabella held her hat and looked up.

“Why did you think I never cared about you?” Kousuke asked.

Arabella made a sound with closed lips. Then she said, “My fiance. Did you ever think, am I happy?” She looked at Kousuke and didn’t sound as snarky or happy as her usual self. She seemed serious, for once.

Kousuke came to a realization and was stunned.

I didn’t.

He glanced away from her and looked at the tower.

I only had schemes in my mind to make you fall for me. Like a merchant, I offered what I had, and I hoped you found it to your liking. And therefore, we would exchange love.

But never did I, I thought about you without thinking about myself.

However, is it bad to be a thinker in love? I present myself neatly, so you will be attracted to me. Is it bad? Does it imply I don’t think about your happiness at all?

Arabella Dekever. Do you wish for a man who does not think or expect anything from you? If that’s the case, I think I would never have your affection. Because I’m not a man like that.

And that, gives me despair.

Arabella smiled and glanced away from Kousuke. She raised her hand and offered it to Kousuke. “My fiance. It’s already enough that you realize, sometimes, giving love is more appreciated. But an exchange isn’t bad either. But you never did that.”

I’m confused as heck. What is “that”, giving or exchanging love??

“Shall we go?” she said and looked at Kousuke with a smile.

Kousuke held her hand and snorted. Sometimes, I feel like you know me so well, Arabella.

“Arf!” Mochita stuck out his tongue and waited for them.

“Thanks, Sir Martial Artist!” Adelina waved her hands at Zaracas who jumped back to the ship and then carried Felis to a cabin.

And Scolastica lifted a cubic rock on the shore and swung it back and forth. That rock was big as her belly. She looked small. “Ay! This rock can’t fly! Why?”

“Scolas Captain, are you not joining us?” Kousuke asked. “We are going to go to that floating island.”

Scolastica raised her chin and looked at some cavities on the rocks that surround the area. There were a few people and furniture in those cavities, so the townsfolk also built residential caves on the rocks. Likely, if the town sank, people would evacuate to those artificial caves.

She seemed to also notice some sharp gazes. But only for a moment.

“Nay. I can’t leave my precious baby here. It seems that they don’t fond of outsiders. It’s dangerous. So me, guard the ship,” Scolastica replied, and that was the first time she looked serious.

“The Saintess of Knowledge, who resides on the highest floor of that tower, has a miracle to transport people to any place she can see. But unfortunately, she can’t transport something big like a ship,” Kousuke said.

“Ay! A fellow saintess? But me, is already satisfied by knowing how to reach such a mysterious place!”

“Then, we will be back. Can you wait here or around the Eye of Norma for some days?”

Scolastica dropped the rock and made a V sign with her hand. “Two weeks. Longer than that, we consider you dead. Me, hate waiting. Me, want to sail and explore!”

“Alright. Thanks, Scolas Captain.”

She might send Zaracas to bring some food from the town. And Master has to protec her, so he won’t join us either.

He needs to convince Felis too with “Fan Nile”. “Fan Nile” puts the target in a trance with a tap on the target’s shoulder, and it’s gonna be easier to suggest something to the target in that condition. It’s like hypnosis.

But one can also say it makes the target addicted to us. What a great Fingering Technique!

When Kousuke took a step forward, he saw Adelina run toward Mochita and held the dog’s front leg.

“Doggo, let’s go!” Adelina said.

Hold on. When did they become that close? During their sleep on the passageway?

WHAT HAPPENED?!

“You know, it makes me happy when I see Mochita happy like that,” Arabella commented. “He is adorable. Don’t you think so?”

Kousuke released Arabella’s hand and locked her arm instead. “Yeah, like when we see some children playing around. Do you want to have our own children, my lady?”

“Ha. Ha. Ha,” Arabella just laughed snarkily.

“Are you going to write about this town in your guidebook?”

“Yes, but to keep our promise to Lady Felis, I won’t say anything about the entrance. I also don’t mind if people treat it as hearsay.”

“I think I always fall for a trustworthy lady like you, my lady,” Kousuke was smoothly wooing Arabella when they arrived at one of the major roads. The roads weren’t paved, they were just dirt.

“Oh my, thank you. I hope you have a lady like that one day,” Arabella dodged Kousuke like a pro. But they still locked arms. “If Lady Felis is a knight of this town, then why does she work as a guild chief? Gathering information?”

“I suppose. The dukes in this town send their people to go around the world to gather books and information. Lady Felis probably rushed here to tell the dukes about me, the Saint of Immunity.”

“No king?” Arabella was eyeing some food from the street booths. She seemed hungry.

“No king, but only dukes. And it’s a rule by few, an oligarchy.” Kousuke glanced at Arabella’s hand that lifted a weird food from a booth. Like other people in that town, the vendor was busy reading a book. So he, the vendor, had written something on a wooden board instead: “Here are the prices. No haggle. Serve yourself.”

“The Saintess of Knowledge doesn’t have a power?” She observed the weird food. It was like a bunch of green worms glued together, so the food was wiggling.

“She is just a scholar. Unlike Scolas Captain and our church, she, and her church, don’t engage in politics and intervene with the secular power. Although the Order of Abbado is a religious order of knights.”

“Ah, so there is a religious duchy, and it’s more powerful.” Arabella left some copper coins on the booth and stuffed the weird food into Kousuke’s mouth. Kousuke became horrified and so confused. I’m not your lab rat!

“Tasty?” Arabella asked nonchalantly. “It’s called a green brain.”

Kousuke released Arabella’s arm, threw away the weird food, and went somewhere to puke. What the fuck was that??

Arabella just smiled and walked away from that questionable booth. Since the streets were dirt and not all flat, the streets were like cubes of dirt at some points. Therefore, she tripped. "Ah!"

But a blonde held Arabella’s arm and said something in a good-looking man’s voice:

“Are you okay, my lady?”