By The Pond That Reflects The Stars

“Shinobu?”

 My body trembled as I heard a voice calling my name from behind. That can’t be right. After all, Annette-sama already said, “He’ll stay at my house today,” and I didn’t hear any galloping horses.

 “Shinobu, what’s wrong? Did something happen for you to be out here so late?”

 I didn’t hear it wrong. It’s Krish-san.

 Blanche, who heard the voice of her master, burst out happily.

 What should I do? I have to say something.

 “N-nothing. I just couldn’t sleep and was just relaxing. What’s about Krish-san? You said you were going to stay the night. I was surprised when I didn’t hear any galloping horses.”

 “There’s no way I would stay over at my boss’s house. Annette-sama said that, but I refrained from doing so. I left Blanche behind. I walked back. More than that… Shinobu, what happened?”

 The sound of crunching grass came nearer.  What should I do? If he sees my face, he’ll know I cried. I finally decided to smile and see him off.

 “There’s really nothing. I’ll be here a little longer, so Krish-san should hurry and get some rest. You have to work tomorrow, right?”

 “Shinobu, look at me.”

 I hear Krish’s voice right behind me. I no longer knew what to say.

 I’m so happy that you came back. However, I didn’t want Krish-san, who was enjoying a happy dinner with his family, to see my crying face.

Due to my little pride, I don’t want Krish-san to feel sorry for me. After all, Krish-san had a happy time today. I didn’t want anyone to know that I was crying alone during that time.

The tears that I thought had been cried out began to pool in my eyes again. I don’t know why I’m crying so much.

Don’t cry, don’t cry. Please, please hold back.  I’ll cry as much as I want when Krish-san leaves, so just hold back for now.

 Even though I tried my best to calm myself down, the tears only increased, and I felt like gouging out my eyes. They were supposed to be mine but they didn’t listen at all.

 “I’m sorry Krish-san. I feel like being alone for a while.”

Please, leave me alone. Krish-san always listens to my requests. So this time too, I want you to leave without saying anything.

Just hearing his voice hurts my heart, but seeing him makes the tears I’ve been holding back overflow.

 “Shinobu, look this way.”

Krish-san grabbed my shoulder with an unusual forcefulness. It would be easier for Krish-san to make me turn around than it would be to put a net around a fruit tree.

 It was so easy for him to force me to turn around, like a child picking up a stuffed toy. Then, as I slumped over, the tears that had accumulated in my eyes flowed down.

 “Were you crying…?”

 Krish-san wasn’t surprised to see me crying.  As if he had noticed it from the beginning, a hand reached out and cupped my cheek, his thumb wiping away the tears that had spilled.

 “Ah, no, I–I wasn’t crying, I was surprised because Krish-san suddenly called out to me.”

 Krish-san’s hands were as warm and gentle as before, but I couldn’t rely on them anymore, because they were meant to protect Annette-sama.

 “Did something scary happen? Are you still afraid of the dark?”

 “No, it’s nothing really. I was just surprised.”

 I grabbed his wrist that was touching my cheek and tried to move him away, but Krish-san’s arm didn’t move even with my strength.

 “Shinobu, tell me. Why are you crying? It hurts to see Shinobu crying. If there’s something that’s causing you pain, I’ll do something about it.”

 It’s not like I’m suffering. It’s sadness. It’s sad to distance myself from Krish-san. I want to smile and congratulate you, but the truth is, I want you to stay by my side forever. But if I say something like this, Krish-san will be troubled, right?

 I love you. I love Krish-san. I swallowed the words that were in my throat, lowered my eyes, and another tear rolled down my cheek.

 “Shinobu.”

 Krish-san didn’t forgive me as I lowered my eyes.  The hand that was placed on my cheek tightened, making him look up.

 It was always for my sake that the kind Krish-san became forceful. The one who held my hand when I got lost, the one who took me out of the house during the breeding season of the light moss, and the one who gave me bitter medicine.

 Everything…everything was forced out of concern for me.  And when he does that, he never backs down.

 In that case, it might be better to say it already.  It would be easier for me to give up if I told him my feelings now and he completely rejected me.

 However, even if I get dumped, I don’t think my feelings for Krish-san will go away for a while, so please forgive me for continuing to like you.

 When I looked up in thought, Krish-san was looking straight down at my face.

 “Shinobu.”

 When my name was called again, I opened my mouth, prepared to be rejected.

 “I love Krish-san.”

It was a tiny, tiny voice. I am a weakling, and even though I am determined, I am still a weakling, and I could only express my feelings in that small voice.

 The finger on his cheek twitches, and Krish-san’s eyes widened. Well, you’d definitely be surprised.  We weren’t talking about that just now.

You wanted to know why I was crying, but I suddenly confessed to you. You don’t understand why, right.

 “Does that mean you like me and want to be in the same household with me?”

Household is such an old-fashioned word.  But it suits the hard headed Krish-san. Yes, I would be happy if that had happened.

 “Yeah. Sorry.”

 Don’t worry about it, you can just say no.

 “I see…Thank you.”

 After all, Krish-san is kind.  Those words alone were enough to make me feel better.

 “No, thank you. Don’t worry. I understand everything, so it’s okay. I’ll be fine soon. Please be happy with Annette-sama.”

 My heart ached and hurt, but I managed to smile.  I was impressed that I was able to smile while crying so skillfully.

 “I want to give the two of you a wedding present, but I don’t have anythin. Ah, I have kukuri fruit. I heard it is a rare fruit, and Krish-san likes it too, right? Would Annette-sama be happy if I give her a basket full of kukuri fruit? ”

 “Wait a minute, Shinobu.”

 “I heard from Norn and the others that there are no weddings in this world. But how about we take the opportunity to gather the people closest to us and have a party? At that time, I will give you vegetables and fruits. I’ll do my best to make you something delicious too eat…nngh!  ?  ”

 While I was talking, his hand covered my mouth.  My eyes widened at the sudden incident, and Krish let out a deep sigh. I thought he would be happy, but maybe I said something unnecessary?

 “There seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding. I will not marry Annette-sama.”

 Eh!? But there was a rumor in town that you were about to get married, and you greeted Annette-sama’s parents and asked to, “Please give me your daughter.” right?

 There were so many things I wanted to ask, so I muttered with my mouth covered.

 “Maybe you heard the rumor somewhere?”

 “Yes, the people in town said that you were about to get married.”

“That was an excuse for Annette-sama to refuse her arranged marriage. She has had feelings for someone since she was a child, but no matter how many times she confessed to him, he would never accept her.”

 Now that she’s old enough, she doesn’t want to go for an arranged marriage, so she can’t help but cry, asking me to pretend to be her lover.

 I’m Felix-sama’s knight, so my identity is clear, and if I go on a journey, I won’t return for several years.  It seems like she was thinking of deceiving him for the time being and trying to get him to say yes in the meantime, but it seems things didn’t go so well.

 It seems that her parents, who were desperate had ordered me to come and greet them while I was still in town in order to solidify the marriage plan.  Otherwise, they will ask her to marry someone of her parents’ choosing. I had no intention of cooperating that much, so I was ran away, but I was finally caught today. Of course, Felix-sama also knows about this. ”

So, does that mean that I believed the false marriage story and fretted about it by myself?  Let me organize my thoughts for a moment.

 The rumor that Krish-san and Annette-sama are lovers is a camouflage to avoid her arranged marriage, and Felix-sama knows it too?

 Then, what did I say to Krish-san earlier?

 He asked me why I was crying, and then…

 “By the way, Shinobu. Is what you just said true?”

 H–hieeee!  What did I say? I let the momentum get to me and ended up confessing something I didn’t need to say.

 “You said you wanted to start a household with me, right?”

 “Aaaaaaaaaaaaa.”

 What should I do!  I can’t say “I was just kidding” now, no, but I didn’t lie, so I don’t have to make excuses, right? Eh?

 It’s my first time confessing my feelings, so I don’t know what kind of face I should make!!

 “…You said that in Shinobu’s world, love between people of the same sex is not common. When you got lost, you were teased when others thought we were lovers and didn’t like it?”

 Admittedly, at that time, I couldn’t shake my sense of the original world and said, “It’s not possible.”

 “No matter how accustomed you are to this world, it will be difficult to abandon the common sense of the place where you were born and raised. Just like Shinobu was reluctant to eat ravi meat, and was searching for the same staple food as in your original world. That’s why I thought that you were only interested in women your whole life. I thought that if I told you how I felt, you would only be confused, so I decided to just watch over you for the rest of my life.”

 Krish’s thumb gently strokes my cheek. The tears have completely stopped, so there’s no need to do that anymore.

 Also, unlike the usual gentle touch, it somehow tickled and was embarrassing.

 As I instinctively shrugged my head, his other hand reached out and wrapped around my left hand. He intertwined my fingers and lifted my hand, and Krish’s lips touched the back of my hand.

 It felt like electricity ran through me, and I almost jumped.

 If this were an American children’s cartoon, I think my skin would have rippled all over my body, starting at the back of my hands and running down my arms.

 “I don’t have to lie to myself anymore. Is it okay to think that way?”

 Have my ears become stupid?  It sounds like Krish-san is saying that he likes me.  I’m an otherworldly person who looks 10 years old with panda-like sunburn marks.

 Even if heaven and earth were turned upside down, I couldn’t wrap my head around this development, which I thought was impossible.  Maybe before I knew it, I had fallen asleep and was probably dreaming.

 “Can I hug you?”

 I couldn’t make a sound, so all I could do was nod my head up and down like the famous cow figurine.  I was afraid that if I said even one word, I would wake up from the dream, and I even thought that if this dream continued, I would be fine with never being able to speak.

 A thick arm easily pulled me in, and before I knew it, I was in Krish-san’s arms. Krish-san’s familiar scent enveloped me and I heard his rapid heartbeat for the first time.

 My heart, which had always kept a steady rhythm, was now pounding hard as if I had run 100 meters as fast as I could.

 “Shinobu, I love you.”

Maybe I’m dreaming after all. This world and the original world, what are the chances that we can share our feelings across two worlds.

 There was a time when I thought that I might never find a lover, but I never expected to hear such words from Krish-san’s mouth.

Maybe I was in an unconscious vegetative state after being attacked by the bandits, and is probably having convenient dreams while sleeping.

 Come to think of it, I vaguely remember hearing a rumor about the final episode of a certain nationally popular anime where a blue raccoon dog was the main character[efn_note] Sounds like doraemon [/efn_note], and there was a similar situation as I was surrounded by Krish-san’s scent.

 “Shinobu, can you say something?”

 Yeah, that’s good.  It could be a dream.  Let’s indulge Krish before he changes his mind.

 “I like you too. I like Krish-san.” 

 As I hugged him tightly, thinking that I wouldn’t let him go, something soft touched my cheek.  What is it?  When I turned towards him, I saw Krish-san’s face closer than ever before, and the hair on my scalp stood on end.

 The corner of his mouth lifted in a satisfied smile, just like when he ate kukuri fruit, and my face turned as red as pickled octopus, and I felt like steam was coming out of the top of my head like a steam locomotive.

 “Kukuri fruit smells so good.”

 Don’t think about what touched my cheek just now. If I think about it, my blood pressure will skyrocket and the blood vessels in my head will burst.