Chapter 111: “I Will Protect You.”

"Eh?"

In front of the campfire, Shien who was stuck in the awkward atmosphere suddenly raised his head. He also raise an eyebrow slightly.

At that moment, Shien's [Enemy Detection] skill reacted, telling him that someone in the vicinity had hostile intent, even killing intent, against him.

Shien look a glance in that direction and he seemed to have understood something. His lips twisted into a sneer.

Melika who had been peeking at Shien was somewhat startled by that. After a small amount of hesitation, she timidly spoke up.

"W-What is it?"

After half an hour, someone had finally broken that awkward atmosphere.

"Nothing." Shien shook his head and spoke half chuckling, "I'm just reminiscing on the fact that a certain young master really doesn't have nearly as much patience as I had thought. I was also reminiscing on just how strong his obsession was. As expected of a noble brat from the middles ages I guess."

"Young master? Noble brat from the middle ages?" Melika didn't seem to quite understand.

However, Melika did turn tense at the words "young master" and "noble brat."

"Could it be him again…?"

Melika seemed to have guessed something, and her expressions turned even more uneasy.

Seeing that, Shien couldn't hold back from rolling his eyes at him.

"Just why are you so afraid of him?" Shien spoke derisively, "He might be a noble, but you're an elf, a face known for being loved by the gods. You're level's also much higher than that noble brat's. However, even though you've be bullied by him to that extent, can't you just toss a spell his way and blow him away?"

Actually, Shien had wanted to say those words for quite some time now.

No matter how one put it, Melika was a level 42 elven mage. If they really did fight, even if that rich boy had a complete set of high quality equipment, it's not like his level 38 ass could one sidedly push Melika around, right?

However, every single time, Melika couldn't do a thing against him. That was really unbelievable.

As he thought it over, Shien could only think of one possible explanation for how this situation came about.

That was that Melika wasn't willing to actually act, or rather, that she was too scared to act.

"I-I can't!" Melika shook her head strongly, "Magic is a very dangerous power. I also only use fire and ice magic, which are super high damage type magic. Even the weakest beginner class spells will do a ton of damage against a human body. I can't just randomly use that against someone!"

That seemed to be her thoughts on that matter.

However, Shien didn't understand. Instead, he just got madder.

"They're the one who already tried to hurt you so, and yet you're still considering whether or not that will hurt them? Are you an idiot?" Shien spoke disappointingly, "Look at Diere. She cut off all four of his limbs without even a second word. Isn't that amount of damage far higher than what a single beginner class spell is capable of?"

The meaning behind those words is that if Melika had decisively tossed a beginner class spell out, then the person in question would have actually gotten off lighter.

"Sometimes, a person's kindness may not actually result in a better ending you know?"

Shien was doing his best to convince her.

Melika seemed to be trying to say something in response to that, but in the end, she couldn't actually open her mouth.

It's not like Melika didn't actually understand the reasoning.

It's just that…

(… I was actually just too nervous. Too scared. So I ended up completely forgetting the incantation for the spells. But if I actually told the truth through, it feels way too embarrassing.)

Melika's entire face had turned indescribably red.

That was actually one of Melika's weaknesses.

Meliks'a natural talent as a mage was quite high. When her foes were demonic beasts or even demons, then even when danger approaches her, she should still keep her focus, finish her incantations, and calmly blow her enemies away.

However, when her opponents were people, for some reason, Melika would turn overly nervous. Her chanting and meditation would end up hesitant and broken up, and she wouldn't be able to successfully cast at all.

This kind of issue was actually relatively common among elves.

It was due to the natural kindness inherent to elves. When their opponents were people, they'd end up unconsciously holding back. Even when they were forced to fight seriously, the vast majority of elves will still end up unable to suppress that one instant of hesitation.

And Melika was an especially serious case. Not only was it because she was inherently kind, she also got nervous easily, so the clumsiness she displayed when fighting human opponents went beyond even the timid and shy Lumia.

Lumia might be timid and shy, but she was very much capable of calling up her courage when she needed to fight. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to charge toward demonic beasts without hesitation and send all her enemies flying with her fists.

Melika on the other hand wasn't quite timid when it came to personality. Nor was she particularly shy. However, due to her own excessive caution against others, she ends up getting nervous more easily and thus having issues.

This issue was something that Vivian, Diere and Lumia all knew about. It was only Shien who was ignorant.

Melika didn't want Shien to know either.

There was no deep reason for that. Melika just simply didn't want Shien to look down on her for it.

Thus, Melika could only keep her head down and hold her peace.

Shien didn't want to lecture her highhandedly like a life councilor either. As he saw that Melika had fell silent, he didn't really want to say anymore. Instead, he just shrugged his shoulders and turned back toward the direction where the hostile intent came from with a teasing glint in his eyes.

"[Come on! Do it harder!]"

"[Come on! Do it harder!]"

"[Come on! Do it harder!]"

"Why won't it activate!? Why!?"

Markray was almost in a maddened state. He constantly chanted the so called incantation at the "magic item" in his hands. However, because the "magic item" wouldn't activate no matter how much he tried, Markray was shaking with rage.

"Is this magic item really not possible to activate without that guy? I refuse to believe it!"

Markray didn't want to face that reality.

"My incantation was definitely correct. I'm a prodigy, so there's no way that I couldn't memorize a single line of incantation after all this time."

"Could it be because I wasn't loud enough? It did seem to require a certain volume to activate."

"But I'd get discovered if I was louder!"

Markray was terribly frustrated.

At that point, Markray unconsciously spared a glance over in Shien and Melika's direction.

A second later, Markray saw something that made him nearly go berserk on the spot.

"M-Mr. Shien…!?"

In front of the campfire, Melika's voice suddenly rang out with a slightly panicked tone.

It was because Shien had instead sat down by Melika's side, and not only did he stop acting uneasy and awkward, he instead turned warm and enthusiastic.

"Sorry, I went a bit overboard just now. I didn't really mean to criticize you or anything." Shien showed Melika a smile with shining teeth, "It's fine even if you can't act you know?"

"R-Really?" Melika was close enough to smell Shien's scent, making her face even redder. Her pair of pointy ears also turned scarlet, and even her eyes were slightly teary.

It couldn't be helped. Melika already had the urge to get closer to Shien from the start, so now that Shien had taken the initiative in moving closer, her urges turned completely into satisfaction, which ended up causing her entire body to lose strength and her heart to pound madly.

And then Shien spoke a certain phrase.

"Of course." Shien stared at Melika deeply and spoke, "Because I will protect you."

At that moment, Melika's heart skipped a beat.

And then…

"Gasp…"

Melika finally lost to the embarrassment. Her eyes rolled up, she let out a gasp, and she fainted.

"Ah…"

Shien grabbed Melika without thinking. He finally realized that he might have gone overboard.

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