De-Bugging Another World

VOL.2 Chapter 13: The Cardinal Tree.

Having rolled onto his side, Kanrish felt the bare skin of Akane against his.

She softly pressed her lips against his and he could see a brief flicker of light from her dark brown eyes. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close to her, not letting go until the sun rose again.

Her warm body had kept Kanrish warm and sweaty all night.

When he woke in Akane's arms, he truly longed for a bath again, or at least a shower but those would be difficult to find on Liria.

And so he asked where they could find a small stream nearby.

"...Please don't..." Was Pharana's nervous reply when he asked for a nearby stream or creek to wash himself in.

Confused, Kanrish eyed the princess.

What reason could she have for wanting to sit an entire day in the stench of his sweat.

"Hime-Sama, like that it's confusing for Otosan." Ayame's cheery voice rolled through their camp.

A slightly startled glance to her side, and Pharana indeed saw the dark elf girl with a beaming smile.

"S-s-sorry, I meant b-be-b-because it's dangerou-..." She stammered on the words and fell silent as she seemed to have realized what her sudden call must have sounded like.

With a silent nod, Kanrish ended the confusing discussion and simply slid into his pants and pulled his shirt over his head.

"Lady Alpenwood, isn't there a foothold town about a day from here?" One of the princess' guards voices called out while Kanrish's eyes were obstructed by his cotton shirt.

"A foothold... town?" His confused voice came as he pulled the shirt down over his head as the collar briefly caught behind his elongated ears.

A sharp sting filled his ear as he pulled a rough piece of string that had gotten loose over time along the length of his elven ear, folding it violently.

"Ouch, that still is something I need to get used to... those ears..." He muttered as his fingers rubbed the pointed part of his ear where he felt the roughened skin that he had clearly scraped open.

"Your ear again, Baby?" Lyya's voice came from closely behind him, as did her arms that pulled him close to her around his waist.

"You clumsy little elf..." She teased him, knowing that Pharana and her guards were unaware of Kanrish's position being from another world other than Liria.

It was a slight attempt to cover the fact he had not grown entirely used to the fact his ears were about two to three inches longer than he was used to.

Within their group they already rarely spoke about his old world.

One of the last talks about that, had been one that angered both Akane and Misuki.

The misunderstanding that his old world 'had no gods'.

Which turned out to be, their presence around the people of the world had faded from memories of the populace.

After that, they had never really spoken about it anymore.

No real need for that either.

He knew there was no way back, so Kanrish had settled with part of his mind on letting the past be.

No matter how much it hurt him, he would never see his parents again, his grandparents in Japan or any of his old friends and his siblings.

He did briefly wonder what they had done after he left them.