Chapter 18: A Single Bed

So Corollis walked into the tavern. Her inner self wasn’t as naive as her appearance suggested, so she saw nothing wrong with entering a place like this. Besides, she had strength of her own.

The patrons looked surprised when she came in. A few recognized her and started murmuring.

“Is that… the Saint of the Holy Church?”

“Why would she come to a place like this?”

“She’s the Saint? She’s so pretty…”

The chatter reached Corollis’s ears, but she walked straight toward her boy. The big burly man watched her approach and asked:

“You know him?”

Corollis nodded. Lane was clearly a bit tipsy, but not to the point of blacking out.

“I came back from the ruins, and he asked me for information about the deeper parts. My condition was that he drink a few rounds with me.”

Corollis glanced at Lane. Seeing how dazed he looked, she thought, ‘That doesn’t seem right… Lily remembered Lane’s tolerance being much better than this. There’s no way a few mugs would get him this drunk.’

“Then I played a game with him. If he could finish six pitchers of beer, I’d give him a silver coin… and he actually finished them all. It’s been a long time since I had that much fun drinking, haha.”

The big man laughed heartily and slapped his thigh. Hearing that, Corollis understood why Lane had drunk himself into such a state.

She gave Lane a complicated look and thought, ‘No way… how did you end up like this after we parted?’

‘Back when we were together, Lily the craftsman always made sure he was well fed. Now he’s down to drinking with people for a single silver coin?’

Though she knew Lane was after the “information” the big man had mentioned.

“Since you know him, I’ll tell you what I know, Saint. Once he sobers up, you can pass it along to him.”

With that, the big man lowered his voice and told Corollis the information. He also handed her the silver coin Lane had earned.

After the handoff, Corollis looked at the half-drunk Lane and took his hand, drawing surprised looks from the crowd.

“Time to go…” she said gently.

Lane’s mind was too sluggish to notice anything odd about her gesture, let alone the faint hint of “intimacy” in it.

Lily was also glad Lane wasn’t dead drunk.

That made sense, really. Someone who traveled alone like him wouldn’t be stupid enough to drink himself senseless.

Otherwise, he might wake up to find his underwear stripped clean off.

Don’t be fooled by how drunk he looks. If any danger or big shock came along, he’d snap back to his senses in an instant.

After pulling Lane out of the tavern, Corollis suddenly remembered a question: where did he stay?

An inn? But she had no idea which one. There were plenty of inns in this city, and she couldn’t exactly check them one by one.

“Hey, hey, G… Nameless Hero, which inn are you staying at?”

“I… stay at… forgot…” Lane was still too dazed, and his answer made Lily want to punch him in the gut.

‘That would definitely wake him up! This vague, sloppy answer was way too half-hearted!’

In the end, though, Lily couldn’t bring herself to be rough with Lane, like jumping up and kneeing him or something.

“Then just follow me.”

“Like before. Don’t fall behind, don’t get separated…”

Corollis held Lane’s hand. Her hand was small, but she gripped his tightly. She had held his hand like this years ago.

He had saved Lily back then, saved her from the depths of despair.

Lily, who had once been Fayrol, had held his hand countless times like this. They ran, they fled, they encouraged each other.

Though the one beside him now wasn’t “Fayrol” but “Corollis,” Lily was still Lily.

Her heart had never changed. The memories they shared hadn’t vanished.

Even if the Corollis of this moment was a Saint who had only met him a few times, what that body contained was a soul that loved him.

Still dazed, Lane naturally couldn’t respond to Corollis’s words. Whether he’d remember any of this after waking up, and how much, was a matter for later.

“Don’t disappoint me… you idiot…”

Corollis smiled gently.

“I still haven’t gotten my answer from you. The answer that isn’t about running away from me.”

“No matter what the misunderstanding is.”

“I hope you haven’t forgotten me.”

As she said this, Corollis held Lane’s hand and walked step by step toward the church.

Lane’s body swayed, and Corollis had to steady him from time to time. The occasional contact between them carried a faint warmth.

In Lane’s current state, there was no way to continue discussing the disaster. By the time Corollis quietly led Lane around the back and into her room, it was almost midnight.

Corollis struggled a bit to lift Lane onto her bed. Since she’d never considered having anyone else stay over, the room only had a single bed.

After covering Lane with the blanket, Lily suddenly realized… didn’t that leave her with nowhere to sleep?

She glanced at Lane and thought, ‘Should I just kick him onto the floor? He’s so drunk anyway… ahem, he probably wouldn’t mind, right?’

Turning around, Corollis noticed several documents on her desk. These were clearly the official documents from tonight.

They’d been left here because Corollis had stayed out so long. If she hadn’t had to support Lane all the way back, she might have caught the person who delivered them for a chat.

The documents might be a bit formulaic, but some sections would have more detail.

‘Maybe… read for a bit?’

‘I’ll kick him off the bed when I’m done.’

Corollis began flipping through the files on the desk, piecing together the events that had unfolded after the ruins erupted. She finally understood just how troublesome this disaster was.

She got absorbed in reading and barely noticed the time.

On the Fayrol side, she’d been swinging a hammer for nearly a whole day, burning through mental energy. So Corollis, on this side, felt mentally drained after reading for just a short while.

She yawned and slowly walked toward the bed.

“Haah… time to sleep…”

***

When morning sunlight streamed through the gap in the curtains and lit up a small patch of floor, Lane finally woke from his dreams. He vaguely remembered drinking with a big man yesterday for a silver coin and information.

He’d somewhat overestimated his drinking capacity, but he hadn’t drunk himself into passing out.

He instinctively checked his body. Nothing was missing.

So where was he now?

Lane looked around and realized this wasn’t the inn he was staying at. Then where was he?

He felt something brush against his thigh. His gaze instinctively moved toward it.

And there he saw a girl curled up, her hair disheveled.

Gently snuggled against him…

?!

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