I Like You
The red mana stone bought for 8 silver was good for one week. It was a reasonable price without being ripped off.
Moreover, they were able to have a warm and delicious breakfast at an affordable price.
Though the village was small, it had a friendly atmosphere toward outsiders, so there were many village elders looking for Sharti. When Sharti gave them simple examinations and taught them medicine formulas before leaving, the village provided emergency medicine and medicinal herbs.
Having spent a satisfying night in various ways, Sharti hurried up the mountain again with Ren.
Perhaps because it had poured down snow and rain, clear weather continued.
“Today it would be good to walk a bit for exercise.”
Naturally brushing off Ren’s helping hand, Sharti climbed the mountain path vigorously.
Instead of a flowing robe, her steps in a warm fur outer coat were light as she climbed the mountain.
Perhaps because a bed with a roof was definitely comfortable, she showed no signs of fatigue.
“…….”
Ren was the only one who lost sleep.
In Ren’s gaze looking at Sharti’s clear face, complicated thoughts were busily crossing.
Ren kept clenching and unclenching his hands with a blank face.
‘We even confessed, so wouldn’t it be okay to just hold hands?’
His eyes burned as he looked at the small hands that swung every time Sharti walked.
He just needed to ask Sharti if he could hold her hand, but somehow he had a strong feeling he would be rejected.
Usually he would lift her up in his arms without even asking Sharti’s permission, yet holding hands required courage.
“……Whew-.”
Ren looked at his dampened hands and slowed down for a moment.
He stared at Sharti’s retreating figure and suppressed his impatience.
‘Given Sha’s personality, if I push too hard, there’s a high chance she’ll avoid me instead.’
It was good that Sharti was conscious of the confession, but if he made a mistake, she might feel burdened by his attitude and become awkward and slowly avoid him.
Of course, even now the situation wasn’t particularly hopeful.
Recalling Sharti’s attitude, which he couldn’t read at all, Ren forcibly shook off his complex and subtle feelings.
‘Sha must have thought a lot all night too.’
Since it was a sudden confession, he needed to give Sharti time to fully accept him.
More precisely, time was needed to newly define their relationship.
‘……I know that.’
Even though he had finally revealed his heart and confessed his feelings, the fact that they were still just a man and woman who shared mutual affection kept making him anxious.
The desire to become someone special to Sharti, a unique existence, only grew larger, making his heart rush.
‘I shouldn’t have just ended with saying I like you, I should have clearly said what kind of relationship I wanted to have.’
Hah. Swallowing his belated regret, Ren swept both hands over his sullen face as if rubbing it.
Then he clicked his tongue.
He knew he needed to have composure and act as usual, but it was useless.
‘If I were the kind of person who could do that in the first place, I wouldn’t be having these worries.’
What composure could there be for someone who forgot the past along with himself and to whom the entire world was unfamiliar?
The appearance he showed in front of Sharti was nothing but bravado.
He had no knack, was utterly clumsy, just an ordinary…… no, just a pathetic man.
Ren laughed with a sneer.
‘Am I even worthy of Sha?’
Sharti wouldn’t know.
Behind the obedient and kind appearance he showed only to her, Ren was twisted somewhere.
More than she imagined, his feelings toward Sharti were blind and obsessive.
If Sharti found out, she would surely be horrified and run away.
“……I’m thinking all sorts of random thoughts.”
Since his broken head wouldn’t come up with any groundbreaking ideas no matter how much he racked his brain, Ren shook off his thoughts at this point.
After calmly taking a deep breath, Ren looked around.
Perhaps because it was winter, the scenery was bleak, but Ren quickly examined the bushes here and there.
“All I have is my body, really.”
Ren was at least good at being objective.
Then he faintly heard a voice calling for him from afar.
“-Ren? Where are you?”
It seemed she had been diligently climbing the mountain alone looking straight ahead and belatedly noticed his absence.
Ren brushed the dirt off his hands and stood up.
‘If I start comparing what I lack, there’s no end.’
But what more would he do besides digging in the ground if he just moped about it alone?
Ren headed toward Sharti as if running.
The dark red eyes that spotted him widened and then smiled with her eyes.
‘Really……’
With just that one defenseless smile, the worries and concerns that had been tightly constricting his chest became useless in an instant.
The anxiety he’d felt all night was so futilely replaced, his heart filled with affection for her.
“Sha-.”
“Hm?”
Ren held out what he was holding in his hand.
It was a very small flower.
Seeing Sharti’s eyes widen in surprise, Ren smiled as if satisfied.
“I like you.”
“……!”
Sharti, who had been off guard at the flower gift, was startled and blinked her eyes rapidly.
“Th, thank you.”
Sharti, who shyly cast her eyes down, moved her lips and nodded her head.
The small flower, the hand holding the flower, and her face were all dyed the same red color.
It was a sight only he could see.
“From now on, every day I’ll give you flowers and tell you, Sha. That I like you.”
If she received flowers day by day like that, she would naturally come to think about it.
What kind of relationship exists between a man who confesses and a woman who receives confessions.
‘Then people around us will notice too.’
It would also be good for those around them to first recognize that they weren’t an ordinary man and woman.
So that guys like Ashu wouldn’t harbor futile hopes and loiter around Sharti.
Meanwhile, Sharti, who heard Ren’s confession plan, felt a sense of crisis.
At this rate, her heart might explode before she could make a wonderful confession to Ren.
-So she had no choice.
“N, no.”
“What?”
Sharti shook her head with a determined face.
“Don’t say it.”
“…….”
At the unexpected reaction, Ren was at a loss for words.
Sharti strode up to the frozen Ren and reached out her hand. Then she placed the small flower he had given her by his ear and squeezed her eyes shut.
Smooch-.
“Li, listen to my confession first.”
“…….”
Ren couldn’t even blink and blankly raised his hand.
Something had just touched his cheek and then left.
But he couldn’t touch it.
He couldn’t even rub it for fear that the tickling sensation of that brief moment might disappear.
……Was this a dream?
“Ren……?”
At the strange sign, Sharti cautiously called to him.
Gasp, finally letting out the breath he’d been holding, Ren reflexively stepped back two steps.
“C, confession?”
Ren, whose face had turned so red you’d wonder if his skin was originally that color, swallowed dry saliva.
“Why, why are you doing it again?”
“……Huh?”
“And what kind of confession is with, with your mouth……”
With just one cheek kiss, Ren’s legs were trembling.
At the intense reaction, Sharti blinked her eyes and her face also heated up.
“Y, you remembered my confession?!”
He had been pretending not to know about the confession in the rain!
Sharti fumed.
In her excited state, Sharti’s body trembled as she shouted.
“And! What kind of confession is a cheek kiss!”
Both Ren, who had been hit in the heart unexpectedly, and Sharti, who had postponed her plan and gathered courage, were in a state with their heads full of heat.
Perhaps that’s why.
Sharti couldn’t hold back the surging emotions and ended up bringing up the past incident she had been hiding all this time.
“W, we already kis…… kissed on the lips!”
“…….”
A cold wind blew strongly between the two people whose heads were heated.
While clothes and hair fluttered, silence flowed for a moment.
“…….”
The seemingly long but short wind passed, and disheveled hair fell down. Sharti clenched her trembling hands.
Having burst open the memory that even she had forgotten, that she had tried not to recall and had buried well, her heart pounded like crazy.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a kiss but artificial respiration, but still, they had touched lips, hadn’t they?
Sharti cautiously raised her gaze with a tense face.
“…….”
Ren was only slowly blinking with a face she’d never seen before.
His expressionless face looked as if he doubted his ears.
The moment Sharti closed her mouth, Ren frowned.
“……We kissed? ……I did?”
Surely he wasn’t pretending not to remember again?
Sharti was about to move her lips but closed them again.
His expression, turning pale in real-time, was telling her it was true.
“By, by any chance that rainy day I……”
“…….”
Sharti let out a hollow breath and cast her eyes down.
At her complexion turning cold, Ren belatedly came to his senses and sprang up.
“Sha!”
“……Let’s go.”
Sharti just turned around sharply and left, leaving Ren behind.
Ren chased after her urgently, but in the end, all he could do was keep his mouth shut.
Since saying he was sorry for not remembering would only hurt Sharti more, only silence lingered between the two.
****
Sharti was complicated.
And serious.
‘It seems like poisoning aftereffects.’
On a night when she was lying against a large tree, Sharti fiddled with the bag she was using as a pillow.
The purple poisonous herb inside the bag kept bothering her.
‘Since I didn’t use a proper antidote, there must be aftereffects.’
For the past few days, Sharti had been preoccupied with the purple poisonous herb all along.
Her mindset when she accepted the purple poisonous herb for a relatively simple reason had completely changed through the conversation with Ren last time.
‘Let’s say back then I suddenly showed seizure symptoms so Ren was flustered and can’t remember. Let’s say Ren’s strange behavior on the rainy day was also due to a mental problem he’s had for a while. ……Could this really be a coincidence?’
Moreover, Ren was a patient suffering from amnesia.
If problems related to memory kept occurring, this wasn’t a coincidence but a symptom.
‘Does he lose memories when his mental state becomes unstable?’
Sharti coolly and sharply retraced Ren’s symptoms one by one, examining him as a doctor would examine a patient.
Since the Illusion Herb was related to the mental system, if she forced a fit, a plausible hypothesis was established.
Though it was of course shocking that Ren didn’t remember kissing her for artificial respiration, more than her turbulent emotions, she was most worried about Ren’s condition.
Once they arrived home soon, Ren wouldn’t be greatly shaken mentally, but since they had decided to travel together, she couldn’t be certain.
‘There probably won’t be any big problems, but I need to eliminate anxiety factors. Especially if they’re aftereffects from poisoning.’
Sharti looked up at the sky without a single star visible and meticulously examined the medicinal herb combinations that had reacted to the purple poisonous herb in her mind one by one.
And based on this, a new antidote combination slowly began to take shape.
“…….”
On the dark night, Ren, sitting against a tree keeping night watch, soothed his aching insides while watching the dark red eyes glaring at the sky.
Since that day, far from confessing every day, Ren hadn’t been able to exchange more than ten words with Sharti in a day.
He was afraid to carelessly speak to Sharti, who was thinking deeply about something.
The only consolation was that she let him hold her when they moved, even though he hesitated.
……The night felt too long as he spent it with gloomy feelings.
As Ren withered day by day like that, he finally encountered a welcome face on the mountain.
“Doctor!!”
Tein, whose face had gained weight since they last met, ran to Sharti with dirt on his nose.
“Tein!”
“……Hup!“
When Sharti smiled brightly and lifted Tein up forcefully, the child’s round eyes blinked repeatedly.
Tein brought his ear to Sharti’s mouth.
“Doctor, your voice has changed. I definitely heard it just now.”
“Mm, how does it sound to Tein?”
“It sounds like Sister Virena!”
Tein was greatly surprised and happier than Sharti herself.
It was when Ren was silently watching the harmonious master-disciple relationship from two steps away.
Tein spotted Ren beyond Sharti’s shoulder and tilted his head.
His somehow familiar gaze looked like he was watching a bear cub whining toward its mother bear.