—–
Blake felt relieved Elizabeth was back with all her energy, it meant she could be a useful healer in the backlines and perhaps heal more wounded soldiers in the frontlines as well. However, she wouldn’t stop getting clingy with him, and Erika who was right there, watched as this happened while her face increasingly grew darker… she was making a rather bizarre face, and even gritting her teeth.
“W-What the…? Erika, are you alright?” Asked Eric with a bit of surprise, he had not seen her make this face in his entire young life.
“S-She’s scary all out of the sudden…” Said Chris.
“Elizabeth you can hug me later if you want it so badly, for now get serious, we have to advance.” Blake said with a rather expressionless face, trying to have patience with children.
“Hug me a bit more! I missed you!” Cried Elizabeth, rubbing her face over Blake’s chest.
“Sigh…”
“Who is she, Blake?”
Erika quickly reached Blake’s back, as he slightly felt a menacing aura coming from her. Of course, he was not afraid, but merely surprised. He looked back at Erika, as he had already assumed this would happen.
“She’s a friend from the church.” He answered rather calmly, without showing any weakness before the jealous Erika. It seems that with Eleanora she was alright, but when it came to another girl that wasn’t his spirit… then things became strangely different.
“H-Huh…” Said Erika.
“Her name is Elizabeth.”
Blake quickly stood up and helped the beautiful blonde girl stand up as well, as she quickly directed her gaze at Erika. Unlike Erika, she wasn’t jealous and smiled innocently back at her.
“Nice to meet you! Are you a friend of Blank? Eh? Why did you called him Blake?” Wondered Elizabeth curiously.
“That’s his name!” Said Erika while crossing her arms, as Elizabeth stepped back a bit in fear of the aggressive reaction of Erika.
“Eek…! D-Don’t scream so loudly…” Sighed Elizabeth.
“W-What kind of relationship do you have with Blake?” Asked Erika. Blake had noticed that, as she grew up, she changed a bit mentally, and the more her growing obsession with marrying him increased, the more jealous she often became.
“Relationship?” Asked Elizabeth while tilting her head. “Ah! I’ll marry him!”
“…?!” Blake didn’t expected that response out of nowhere. He only remember this being a mere joke by the other priests, but this… was truly surprising.
“M-Marry?!” Asked Erika, her face was quickly twitching a bit, and all her dolls were getting increasingly angry…
“Yeah!” Said Elizabeth with a smile.
The two girls, one too innocent to understand, and the other too jealous to gain her composure emanated equally strong auras, which clashed against one another.
“Ahem! Can you two stop fooling around? I will not marry neither of you.” Said Blake. “Let’s stop this childish play and let’s move to more serious things. Erika, remember that my father is in the war, I came just to save him. Don’t distract yourself with the nonsense a friend talks about.”
Blake immediately broke the ice and calmed down Erika while at the same time slightly breaking the heart of Elizabeth, all while Erika, being too stubborn to give up on Blake, nodded, thinking that she’ll marry him eventually anyways.
Meanwhile, literally everybody else was watching the trio while containing their laughter, especially the trio of priests, Jack, Seth, and Ellergest, who had been shipping Elizabeth and Blank for a while. Now that a new rival had emerged, the tension was rising!
“You never told us you had another girl, you Casanova!” Laughed Jack.
“This kid really has it for him.” Said Seth while readjusting his glasses.
“Ohohoho! Well, nobles often have multiple women…” Said Ellergest while caressing his beard. “As long as my girl is your favorite, I am not mad for this. Little Erika is a promising fighter as well-”
“Shut up.”
Blake’s words resonated, in seconds, everyone shut up. His aura was so intimidating everyone felt a slight chill down their spine. He was truly pissed off now. Unlike an unexperienced child might react, Blake reacted the complete opposite, incredibly overly serious, and without a speck of embarrassment in his voice at all. He was way too old to go around fooling around in such manners anyways.
“O-Okay, you don’t have to get so mad, calm down!” Sighed Chris, patting Blake’s back.
“Y-Yeah, cheer up buddy!” Said Eric, immediately trying to calm down Blake. He knew very well how serious he could get sometimes. It always felt like he was dealing with an old man with little patience for children’s shenanigans.
“As you said, we gotta move on, so let’s do it! F-Friend!” Erdrich quickly joined the other two boys, who nodded back at him, without even exchanging words, the three quickly seemed to relate with one another in dealing with an overly serious and expressionless friend.
“Well… You’re right, let’s organize quickly before that.” Blake said.
He quickly decided to present everyone with everyone to not make things more confusing, explaining a tiny bit and that’s it. Mostly telling his friends about the priests and the priests about his friends. And well, the two-name thing was going to be left for later to resolve, as that would take too much time. Blake also decided to distribute the jerky he had, sunflower seeds, and also fruit juice which he mixed with water and honey to boost everyone’s stats through the [Cooking] Skill effects.
“I-I had never drank such a refreshing and sweet beverage before!” Said Ellergest. “And this jerky… why is it so strangely tasty and addictive?!”
“I feel like my stamina is coming back to my body in an instant!” Celebrated Erdrich.
“Hm, these sunflowers are nicely washed and taste fresh and oily.” Said Seth.
“It’s mere food everyone can prepare, stop with this nonsense.” Sighed Blake. One of the side effects he disliked about the [Cooking] Skill is that it artificially made anything he prepared… quite tasty, so much that everybody praised him.
That, for someone that never cared about cooking, was quite annoying.
—–