A Well-Hidden Settlement?

"We're slaying the Goblins!"

So it was all a misunderstanding...

Heh, Me and my Dirty mind. I shouldn't jump to conclusions. It was one of Dad's Golden Rules. Sorry for not applying your legacy Dad but I know you would understand. After all, compared to Mom's Orders, your Golden Rules might as well not exist.

I should be disappointed by now but strangely I felt relief. It's better this way. I don't want things to progress so fast. We'll slowly take our time. Get to know each other with each passing day and eventually fall in love. The rest would just follow naturally. A well-founded relationship is easier to maintain than a rushed one.

We need more of those serene moments, like when we first held hands.

Right now, we're following the tracks of the caravan we found earlier. We decided to maintain a slow pace to minimize the noise and to prevent rushing too close to the goblin settlement.

It got darker as the night deepened. The moonlight failed to hit the ground as the thick foliage of the forest absorbed it. Any moonlight that lands on the ground is dimmed by the shadows or surrounding trees cast by Aeulheim's other moon. Elves have a good eyesight but it only applies on well-lit open spaces. Without sufficient lightning and unobstructed vision, an elf's eyesight is as good as a human's.

I could only see at most 3 meters ahead of me, anything further than that is an unrecognizable blur. All I could do is to trust on my partner. Until now, I have been heavily relying on her without doing something in return. I need to grow stronger so I could fight by her side.

I know it has only been hours since we met and that my feelings are too rushed. I don't even know if you love me. But in case you do, I'm a cripple and that is another barrier. Even if you're the type of girl that doesn't care, I might not be able to give you the happiness you deserve. We won't have children and you'll spend the rest of your life taking care of me. I can't bear the guilt of that.

But here, in this game, I have a chance. Even if you don't love me, even if you fall in love with another person, even if it causes my death, I will protect you. I can't let you die on me, you already have a spot in my heart. I rarely have friends but you're special. Seraline, I'll grow stronger for you.

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We've been following these trails for hours by now. We've gone to the deeper parts of the forest but there were still no signs of Goblins. The silence is starting to get deafening so I brought up a conversation. I'll tell her my feelings. I'll tell her that I'll always stay by her side no matter what happens.

"Sera?" I asked her earlier if I could just call her Sera. Seraline is a beautiful name but it's too long. She also thinks the same way and told me that she was totally fine with it.

"What is it Blake?" She replied in a modulated voice.

"About that time, when we held hands, I... I..." the anxiousness of doing my first confession got to my nerves, I got tongue-tied repeatedly and couldn't build up the courage to continue. After a few breaths, I finally steeled myself to tell her how I feel.

"I... " I only got my first word in when i heard her speak.

"I know what you mean, and I'm fine with it" she said as she resumed searching for the traces left behind by the caravan.

She's fine with it? Could it be that she feels the same way? No Blake, haven't you learned your lesson? She didn't reciprocate your feelings. At the very best, she allowed it. Stop jumping to conclusions already. The higher the expectations, the more painful the crash.

"No need for apologies, I consider you as a friend already. I don't know what you've been through but you can talk to me about it." she continued.

Eh? Why do I have to apologize? What experiences have I been through? Did I just get friendzoned right there? She was still not finished as she continued to tell me her thoughts.

"When I saw you sulking in the corner, I wondered how tragic your experiences were. I'm not good at comforting people so I just kept silent that time and waited for you to recover. You sat beside me and kept staring at the void. I looked at you but you didn't even notice me, just like someone who has just recently been through a traumatic experience. I can't find the words to say but I wanted you to know that as your friend, I am here for you. I held your hand so that you could feel that I was by your side. I'm not comfortable with it though so speak to me next time so that I could give you an advice instead. I also thought that maybe, the thing with the goblins has become a demon in your heart, a psychological disturbance. I thought hard about it and realized that going against a force this small could be done so I decided to help you eliminate them. Don't worry about it, it's no trouble at all. We could always escape easily if the battle gets dangerous so cheer up Blake" she said all of those things while she occasionally patted my shoulders.

Eh? When did I sulk? And more importantly, those are my lines! How could you flip the tables and tell me that I'm the one suffering from emotional distress? And what the heck is going on with the heart demon, is this a cultivation novel? Will it stop me from levelling up? Also, don't friendzone me again. The first one already hurts a lot and the second one still hurts too. I was about to complain when, once again, she beat me to it. I'm starting to see a pattern here.

"What's with the weird expression? I got it correctly, right? Only a dumb good-for-nothing degenerate could misinterpret the situation, right? Tell me, I'm certainly not a dumb good-for-nothing degenerate, am I?" She then crouched down beneath the shrubs and I just followed her actions.

Aren't you saying I'm a dumb useless degenerate person? I'm technically a degenerate, I've accepted that so the insult won't work on me. This man is a professional consultant, I bring food to the table! How dare you say I'm dumb? I was never dumb, well, not until I met you.

A trap! She really got me cornered this

time! But how could you even phrase the question like that? I couldn't answer "Yes" or I'll be doomed. I resigned to my fate and replied with my only choice.

"No, you are the most clever lady I've met. Intelligent. I didn't mean clever, you're the most Intelligent lady I've met"

"I knew it!" she looked so happy that her face was full of smiles. That simple smile seemed to brighten up the dark, gloomy forest surrounding us. I hate it but it seems I'm falling deeper for her. And it's not just about her face, the more I spend time with her, the more my feelings get stronger.

I stood up to stretch my legs since all this crouching was starting to take a toll on my knees but all of a sudden, she tackled me and pushed me down on the ground.

If this was a romance movie, the sweet love song would slowly cue in and the characters would stare at each other for 10 seconds before blushing and looking away due to embarrassment. However, I knew better by now that Sera doesn't look at me that way. There's a more logical reason as to why she put me into this awkward position.

I saw her index finger placed above her nose bridge. She then slowly got off on top of me and went back to crouching as she put her back closer to the short but thick wall of plants. She gestured for me to follow her so I quickly imitated her actions. It didn't take long before the sound of footsteps could be heard on the other side of the bushes.

We held our breathes and minimize our noise as the steps sounded closer and closer. It soon passed by us but we still waited about half a minute just to make sure that the goblin won't be back. Seraline then told me that she would tail the Goblin and that I should stay and wait here.

I'm not good at stealth so I left the spying to her. A few minutes later, she came back to me with the news that she found where it is. She lead the way and soon stopped at a riverside. She pointed at the empty space at other side of the river and said.

"This is it. We have arrived"