Nurturing the Hero to Avoid Death

Ch 26.2

Alfred climbs over me, looking down at me with his trembling indigo eyes. He smoothes out my bangs before lowering his hand to stroke my cheek.

Then my eyes shoot wide open. “Ouch!”

My hair clips are tugging at my hair. So painful that I jerk my head away from the surface of the bed out of reflex.

“The hair clips—it hurts! I want to take them off. Let me go—”

I reach for the hair clips to remove them, but Alfred beats me to it. Afterwards, he takes off my earrings and choker, setting them down on the side table.

He then touches my neck and flashes me a smile. “You’re a little red here.”

“That—that’s because you—”

He licks the place where he had bitten earlier. My breath hitches.

“Ah… Alfred, wait…”

A sense of foreboding arises within me.

Alfred looks at me with a trembling gaze at me. “I want to touch you. Can I? Just a bit is fine…”

“Uhhh…”

“Just a little.”

“A little…”

“You can touch me too,” he says, grabbing my hands and placing them on his cheeks.

His skin is smooth and warm to the touch. And unlike my soft, tender cheeks, they’re firm and solid. I know that his features can be owed to his excellent gene pool, something which Alfred has no control over. But I still can’t help my desire to exchange bodies with this brat.

In the midst of this, our shoes bump against each other with a loud tap.

Alfred straightens his upper body and proceeds to take off my boots without asking for my permission. He also takes off his own shoes, which he haphazardly throws to the floor.

After that, he removes his sheathed sword from his waist. Takes off his jacket before throwing it to the floor too. Then he starts unbuttoning his shirt, revealing his chest.

“…Ah.”

It is then that I catch sight of the necklace pendant hanging from Alfred’s neck, swaying right in front of my eyes.

“You’re still… wearing that thing?”

It’s the amulet I gave him a long time ago.

Hanging from the thin but sturdy necklace strap is a long and thin stone, transparent and the size of a thumb’s. It looks like a crystal ball with no value, but a spell has been finely engraved onto its surface. If you press the flat part of the stone’s surface and say the activation phrase, “flash,” the amulet will emit a white light that demons abhor.

After giving Alfred that amulet, I made the succeeding ones smaller. That way, I can mass produce them and distribute one to each of the villagers. With the intensity of the light, it should be able to blind enemies to some extent during battles.

Because I knew how difficult it would be to make them myself, I commissioned a magic tool shop to accomplish that job for me. Of course, on my own. I can’t just let people know what I’ve been making for such a long time. And since I can’t explain the exact reason as to why I need them made, it’s difficult for me to lessen my expenses.

I just received the entire order the other day. Later, I will distribute them to all the villagers, along with the map showing the escape route from the village to the evacuation site.

As I reach my hand out to touch the amulet, a bit of nostalgia fills my heart. I’m happy that he’s still wearing it. Then Alfred removes the amulet over his head, causing the stone to slip from my fingers, and places it on the side table.