Chapter 55: The Swordswoman’s Two Sides and a Campfire Tale

That night, a bonfire once more illuminated the Xigelili plains.

Eve held the map, mentally calculating the distance. She glanced at the two other girls seated by the fire.

“Given our current position,” she announced, “if we maintain our daytime pace, we should reach Xielan by tomorrow noon.”

“Hooray!”

“It truly was the right choice to have you, Luosha, lead the way!”

Anna, overcome with excitement, flung herself at Eve, enveloping her in a crushing hug that served as a rather ‘generous’ facial massage.

A faint smile also graced Yulim Wilivia’s face, hidden beneath her hood, indicating her good mood.

After considerable effort, Eve finally managed to push the blue-haired girl off her, gasping for breath.

Recalling the overwhelming ‘generosity’ she had just experienced, Eve couldn’t help but ask, a hint of regret in her voice, “Anna, as a swordswoman, don’t you find… being so well-endowed… a bit of a hindrance to your movements?”

‘Though perhaps not quite reaching the levels of a certain Saintess, that Saintess is a proper healer, not someone who needs to charge into close combat,’ Eve mused internally.

‘But Anna, as a swordswoman, carrying such ‘burdens’ in her core region… wouldn’t that easily impede her sword swings?’

‘They’re just dead weight anyway. Wouldn’t it be better to share some with me to, you know, fill out my figure a bit…’

The little undead girl thought with a touch of envy.

Upon hearing Eve’s words, Anna cupped her ‘assets’ with both hands, muttering innocently, “Huh? Is that so?”

“But I feel perfectly fine,” she continued. “When I wield my sword, I usually imagine myself as the sword itself. It doesn’t hinder my movements at all, you know.”

As she spoke, Anna drew her ‘eggplant’ from behind her back, rising to her feet and moving to an open space.

The moment she grasped her ‘eggplant,’ Anna’s entire demeanor transformed.

All traces of her usual naive wisdom vanished.

In their place was the sharp, undeniable edge of a drawn sword.

Before Eve’s eyes, Anna demonstrated only a few basic sword techniques.

Cleave, sweep, thrust, parry.

Though these were simple and easily understood moves, each swing of Anna’s sword produced a whistling cut through the air, sending a shiver down Eve’s spine and an unsettling sense of danger straight to her soul.

Eve had no doubt that if those strikes landed on her, she would certainly be dead!

Sheathing her ‘eggplant,’ Anna’s formidable aura dissipated. The light of intelligence returned to her eyes as she bounced back to Eve, adopting a proud, ‘praise-me-I’m-amazing’ posture.

“How was that, Luosha?” she chirped. “See? Absolutely no hindrance!”

Eve nodded stiffly. “Y-yes, indeed…”

Anna was about to say more when she suddenly sniffed the air, then turned her head towards the skewers of green grass and leaves roasting over the fire.

“Hey! They’re cooked!” she exclaimed excitedly. “Time to eat!”

With that, the blue-haired girl skipped over to devour the ‘grass,’ only to immediately start flicking her tongue frantically, scalded by the heat, her tongue spinning like a propeller.

Watching Anna’s disheveled form, Eve found it genuinely difficult to reconcile the Anna before her with the Anna who had just wielded the sword.

‘A split personality? Or perhaps possession?’

‘Yet that transformation, so natural and like a battle instinct, didn’t seem like either of those…’

“Come on, Luosha! Here’s a skewer for you! Yulim’s grilling skills are really good!”

Anna returned, offering Eve a skewer of roasted leaves.

The presentation was indeed appealing. Eve took the skewer, but rather than immediately trying it, she fixed her gaze intently on Anna’s clear blue eyes.

“Anna,” she asked, “do you have some kind of switch hidden on you?”

Anna, still chewing on grass, blinked her eyes and mumbled indistinctly, “Munch, munch… Huh? What kind of switch?”

“You know, a one-touch idiotic button,” Eve explained. “Press it once, and your IQ drops by one point, turning you silly.”

“Gulp…”

Anna swallowed the grass in her mouth, then raised her arms and looked all over herself in confusion.

“Huh? Do I really have such a magical switch on me?” she wondered aloud. “Luosha, don’t worry, I’ll try to find it…”

Eve was speechless.

‘Oh no, this feeling of déjà vu, teasing an innocent simpleton… the guilt is setting in…’

Eve quickly stopped Anna. “Stop, stop, wait a moment, Anna. Don’t look for it; there’s no such switch in the world.”

“I merely commented because the contrast in you, before and after wielding your sword, was simply too vast. It was as if you transformed into a completely different person. I apologize for saying such a thing…”

Anna paused for a moment at Eve’s sincere apology, then burst into hearty laughter. She sat down beside Eve, casually slinging an arm around her shoulder, and waved a dismissive hand.

“What’s there to apologize for over such a small thing!” she chuckled. “We’re sworn sisters! And I’m not someone who can’t take a joke!”

“Anna…”

Leaning against Anna’s side, Eve looked up at the genuine, flawless, radiant smile on her face. Moved by her words, Eve found herself enveloped by the blue-haired girl’s open and cheerful spirit.

Beneath the mouth of her broken, chipped white mask, Eve’s lips curved subtly upward, revealing a smile of her own.

“But, on a side note, Luosha,” Anna asked, “is there really no such switch in this world?”

“No, there isn’t.”

“Oh, that’s such a shame…”

“Why is it a shame? Anna, do you actually want to become foolish and dim-witted?”

“Mm-hmm! Because my father often told me that ‘fools have good fortune,’ so I was thinking, if I pressed that switch a few more times, wouldn’t I get even more good luck?”

“My goodness, Anna, you truly have a unique sense of logic. Though I suspect your father was probably just trying to comfort you at the time…”

“Is that so? But I thought Father was mostly praising me, tee hee hee~”

Under the moonlight, by the bonfire, the three girls sat close together on the grass, their laughter occasionally echoing through the night.

‘Perhaps, more than exploring and expanding the world, *this* is true adventure,’ a thought suddenly bloomed in Eve’s mind.

Chewing on the roasted leaves in her mouth, Eve glanced at Yulim Wilivia, who had been largely silent since they began.

“Anna truly wasn’t wrong,” Eve praised without reservation. “Yulim, your grilling skills are indeed excellent.”

To be able to roast leaves, which didn’t look like suitable grilling ingredients at all, into something fragrant with a uniquely chewy texture and flavor… Yulim Wilivia was truly a marvel!

‘Of course, my own little maid, Wennya, is also a culinary marvel, albeit in the opposite direction…’

Anna, ever opportune, chimed in. “Right, right! I told you Yulim’s skills were amazing, didn’t I? Hmph hmph~”

Hearing their praise, Yulim Wilivia, seated before the fire, trembled slightly. She huddled her body, casting a quick glance at Eve before lowering her head again.

She pulled her hood further down, obscuring half her face, and in a remarkably soft, tiny voice, she uttered a rare thanks. “Th-thank you…”

Eve smiled. As a team of three, she didn’t want Yulim Wilivia to feel neglected, a quiet presence on the sidelines, simply because she and Anna were constantly chatting.

Therefore, she made sure to mention Yulim Wilivia at opportune moments during their casual conversation and jokes, hoping to give her a sense of inclusion and let her know that she and Anna cared about her.

‘However, for someone with social anxiety, moderation is key. Being the center of attention once is enough; any more would likely have an adverse effect.’

Soon, Eve steered the conversation elsewhere. “Actually, I’m quite curious: before I joined, how did you and Yulim Wilivia meet and come to travel together?”

Hearing this, Anna tilted her head back, a thoughtful, reminiscent expression on her face.

“Yulim and I, you know,” she began, “our meeting was actually quite similar to how I met you, Luosha…”

“Oh? How so? Do tell!”