Chapter 16 First Friend

“I’m coming in.”

“Please do!”

As I opened the door to the hut, Lily greeted me with a smile. With just that, I felt healed. But I’m currently wearing nothing but wet underpants; it’s not the time to be lost in thoughts.

“Kurono, take this.”

“Hm?”

Lily gave me a rectangular piece of soft cloth. Is this a towel?

“Is it fine to use it?”

“Yes.”

“Thanks.”

For now, with this I didn’t have any need to wear those wet underpants till they dried. Wrapping the towel around my waist, I took of my pants and hung it beside the rest of my clothes on the branch of a tree outside. Drying my head with the towel, I thought.

“Well, first I should get some clothes from somewhere.”

Lily doesn’t wear anything, she won’t know much about it anyway. If I go to the village where she sells the medicines, I should be able to get some clothes for myself.

“Say Lily, does the nearby village have any shops selling clothes? If there are, how many are there?”

“?”

She looks at me blankly. Was it too much to ask two questions at the same time?

“Well, I think the second hand shop was selling some.”

“Huh what do they sell usually?”

“Well anything! I don’t know about clothes but they did have armour!”

“Even armour? Wow, they really do sell anything.”

I thought it might have been something like a convenience store, but this is a world where monsters are a daily occurrence. Weapons are more important here than in my world. Even villages have shops dealing in them it seems.

“Kurono, come in!”

“ah, it’s weird to talk while standing at the entrance after all. Then I’ll accept your offer and come in.”

Well this is a western style house so there is no space for removing shoes before entering the house. I have never gone abroad, but never did I think that my first experience of moving with shoes in someone’s house would be in a different world.

Just in case, I wiped the dirt off my feet and then stepped inside. Lily is also walking inside the house with bare feet.

For Lily who barely came up to my knee, this must feel like a huge house but for me who had grown into a uselessly big body, it still felt a bit cramped.

The house itself feels pretty big but, due to huge bookshelves lined beside each other along with boxes and mysterious sacks lying around, I felt a little oppressed.

The bed and the small table were the only things that made it feel that someone lived here. Even though only Lily lives here, there seem to be a lot of useless things. Although, it might be too much for her to remove those big bookshelves by herself.

“Come sit!”

As I was looking around the house, Lily called out to me.

Lily had jumped upon her bed and was patting the white mattress with both her hands. Since there seems to be no chairs, certainly that is the only place to sit.

As I sat down on the bed, I was instantly entranced by the fluffy sensation of the mattress. Since I had been sleeping on nothing but the hard floor up till now, this softness was an extreme luxury.

As I was immersed in that,

“I’ll go make some tea!”

I was about to ask her not to trouble herself, but as soon as her motivated glittering figure came into my view,

“Thanks.”

That was all I could say in the end.

I had already taken her towel. If I keep sitting here I feel that my debt towards Lily would keep on accelerating starting with that tea. Sorry Lily, at this time I only have my body and my black magic with me but one day I’ll return this favour to you tenfold! I promise!

As I strongly swore this inside my heart, I looked towards Lily.

“fuuuu!!!”

Lily was breathing fire.

Are you a dragon!? I almost stood up and tsukkomi-ed. Calm down, it’s just magic.

As I said, Lily was currently blowing out fire towards the big kettle (?) from that small mouth of hers. There were many who could use fire type magic, but this is my first time seeing a humanoid person breathing fire literally. Is that also fairy magic?

I had many doubts, but looking at Lily working so hard just to make tea, I was unable to call out to her.

I’ll just quietly wait here—-

“It’s done!!”

With that voice, I was pulled back to reality from the shallow sleep called thinking.

On the table stood Lily with a daunting pose, and beside her a teapot and cup giving off a sweet fragrance were lined up.

“oo, Thanks a lot!”

I was bit worried whether Lily who looked like a small child would be able to make tea properly, but is seems my worries were useless.

The cup was filled with Black tea? It should be something close to it going by its colour.

“Drink, Kurono!”

I received a gaze full of expectation from Lily—

“Ou, Itadakimasu—-“

As I reached towards the cup, I suddenly realized.

“Huh? Where’s Lily’s share?”

On the table, beside the cup, there was only the teapot. Did she forget about herself, the owner?

“There is only one.”

“Eh, what?”

“Cup.”

“Is that so? Why—-“

Could it be that she had no money? If that was so, I regretted that I ended up asking something so stupid.

“Because nobody ever comes. But Kurono came, for the first time ever. Lily is very happy.” (T/L: Lily talks in third person. Instead of ‘I’ she uses her own name.)

I regretted even more now. I see, so this is what it means to be expelled from the fountain of light.

If she lived in the village it wouldn’t have been like this, but since she is a fairy, she didn’t want to leave the forest either.

That is why, if she had not been expelled, then like a normal fairy, she could have had fun everyday with her friends. She would have been able to live without any sadness or pain—-but this isn’t what I’m supposed to say right now.

Accepting the fact that she was expelled and also living here rather than in the village, was both done by Lily herself. I have no right to deny it.

“That means I am the first friend to have ever been invited to your house? I’m honoured.”

“Friend?”

“Yeah. After all we fought against the goblin army together entrusting our backs to each other. We are already more than just some normal friends!”

That is why I will become the first person to give a helping hand to Lily who had always been alone till now. In this different world, I may be ignorant and lacking commonsense, I am not even that strong. Still I can at least fight monsters.

“Yeah, Lily is Kurono’s friend!”

This day I saw Lily’s best smile. But in this world full with nothing but my enemies, I was the one who was actually happier to have finally gotten my first friend.

That’s right, just by meeting her, I felt glad to have come here.