Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash vol. 1

16. When You Aim for the Top

When he left the lodging house the next morning, Shihoru suddenly apologized to him.

"U-Um! I... I'm sorry! I was convinced you two were in that sort of relationship... I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions! Yume explained what had happened to me, so..."

The apology was fine, but he did think he'd have been happier without her bringing it up in front of Ranta and Moguzo.

"Relationshiiiip?" Ranta's nostrils flared as he drew in close to Haruhiro's face. "What? What is this about a relationship? What kind, and between what people? Hmmmm?"

Haruhiro leaned back a little. "...It's nothing."

"It's not nothing, now is it? Tell me. Talk! Spill it!" Ranta shouted.

"Listen, Shihoru said herself that she'd jumped to conclusions, didn't she?" Haruhiro defended.

"Yeah, and I'm asking what happened that would make her jump to conclusions."

"Now, listen," Yume interjected.

She'd better not be about to say something she shouldn't again! He would have liked for his fears to be for naught, but things went about the same as always.

"So, yesterday, Yume, she was having Haru-kun hug her, you see, and Shihoru saw that. That's all it was."

Moguzo's eyes bulged out. "Whaaa...?!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoaaaaaa!" Ranta's eyeballs nearly flew out of his skull. "What, seriously, how did that happen? Are you serious?! When did you and Haruhiro get to second base?!"

"What's second base...? No, whatever second base is, Yume and I didn't go there. That's not it, we were—"

"How is that not it?! You were trying to do her, weren't you?! You two were getting hot and busy when Shihoru walked in on you and you panicked and stopped, right?! You stopped halfway!"

"Haru-kun was crying, see," Yume explained.

"...Yume, you don't need to tell him that," Haruhiro said.

"Huh?! Crying—" Ranta looked from Haruhiro to Yume, then scratched his curly hair. "...Oh, that's all. That's how it is. So, what, let me guess. It was a tearful parting, huh. Stupid Haruhiro got himself rejected, and Yume was doing it to console him out of pity. So, that's how it was. I see now."

"You're totally off-base, but I don't want to waste any more time explaining it to you..."

"Well, anyway," Yume continued, with her usual laid-back attitude. Haruhiro envied her for that. "Yume, she's decided she's gonna try and be friends with Merry-chan. So, Shihoru will too. She said she'd try to cooperate."

Shihoru looked down at the ground, clasping her staff tightly. "...I have zero confidence that I can do it. But I'll try to do what I can, I guess."

"Be friends?" Ranta frowned as hard as he could. "With Merry? That's not possible. I mean, come on, you know she has no intention of being friendly, right?"

Moguzo hung his head. "...B-But it's a bit tough the way things are. I wish we could just get her to at least heal us properly, you know...?"

Merry wasn't just lacking in cooperation; there were issues with her performance as a healer, too. As Moguzo had said, she wouldn't heal them normally. More specifically, she would leave minor wounds untreated.

Even if they asked her to heal them, it was no good. They would either get ignored, or flatly rejected. Obviously, if a wound impacted their ability to move around, or was life-threatening, she'd heal it for them, but they had issues with her willingness to leave a comrade in pain.