It took a while and it was tricky to get to the branch where Ghena the maid was hanging. Nevertheless, Key managed to get her down safely without having any trouble.

“Thank you so much for saving me!” cried Ghena hugging Key’s waist while on her knees. “I thought that I would become food for the crows!”

On the receiving end, Key doesn’t like the feeling of being cried on. Though he doesn’t like it, he doesn’t hate it also. Rather than pushing her away, he just let her cry her eyes out.

“She sure can cry huh.” Louise commented.

Unable to bear it anymore, Key grabs Ghena on both shoulders and pulls her up to make her stand. He feels a bit annoyed, but since Ghena’s a girl, he’s holding in his anger and chews his jaw instead.

While looking straight into her eyes, “Stop crying.” He said with a stern look.

Seeing such scary eyes, Ghena shuts her mouth with a ‘hick’. But instead, of getting scared, she could feel her cheeks heating up which is caused by Key whose face is near hers.

Noticing that, Key gets slightly embarrassed and pushes himself away while saying “Sorry, my bad.”

Since it got a bit awkward between them, Louise knows that she should intervene to destroy the awkward atmosphere.

“So, what were you hanging around there for? Surely you weren’t playing monkey, were you?” she said while stepping in front of her brother.

Ghena got surprised a little from her sudden question, but she understood that she was just trying to help so she felt a bit thankful about it.

“I was requested to collect a plant by my mistress.” She said with a gentle tone, and then she added “It just happens that the plant only grows hanging from the trees so I had to climb up there.”

“So it’s an orchid then. Are you talking about that one with the pink flower?” said Key while pointing up the tree.

“Ah! Yes, that. My mistress called it ‘Lumerosa’. It’s supposed to be an ingredient to what she’s making at the moment.” She said while looking droopy.

“So, you’re mistress is a witch? Well, anyway, I’ll get that for you as an apology for looking at your underwear.” Key said while trying to cheer her up.

Because of what he said, he gets a smack from the back of his head from Louise. That’s because what he said was embarrassing for Ghena.

“You pervert! You’re such an insensitive of a brother. Just finish your mission, you already got the reward.” She said then kicks her brother to the tree.

Key couldn’t fight back because she’s right. So instead, he glares at her then climbs up the tree while saying curses in a low tone.

“Please don’t mind my brother. He’s an idiot even though he’s a genius. He’s also insensitive, but he’s a good guy.” Louise apologizes to Ghena in her brother’s stead.

From Ghena’s point of view, she’s confused as to whether their relationship as siblings is good or not. Though she’s saying bad things about him, she’s also backing them up with good ones too.

“You like your brother?” she asked

Louise raises an eyebrow to her question. After that, she looks at her brother that’s reaching out for the Lumerosa hanging from a branch.

“Well, as a guy, I hate him. But I guess I do like him as his sister.” Louise said while sounding unsure. “It’s confusing, but our relationship is a love-hate one.” She added.

*OOF!*

“Nya!”

All of a sudden, a sound of something heavy and branches breaking reverberated behind Ghena. It surprised her so much it made her make a cute scream. On the other hand, Louise doesn’t seem to be surprised or anything.

Immediately, Ghena turns around to see if it’s Key who fell from the tree judging from the sound she heard. However, she only sees Key standing like nothing happened.

“I got the orchid.”

He then hands them over to Ghena who became dumbfounded seeing such scene. Not only that he was unhurt, he’s acting like he didn’t do anything.

“Don’t be too surprised. That’s normal for me.” Louise said while sweeping away the leaves that landed on Ghena’s hair.

***

Key, Louise, and Ghena are walking together towards the east. Luckily for Key and Louise, Ghena is also heading east after getting what she came for in the forest. As token of gratitude for saving her life and getting the flower she was tasked to collect, she becomes their guide when they get to the capital.

“Wow! This chocolate thing is good! What kind of fruit is this?”

“… It’s not a fruit.”

Currently, Ghena is holding a bar of chocolate while walking nonchalantly. Her full attention is the chocolate she is holding with both her hands. For her, what she’s eating is something she never have tasted nor seen before. Her reaction can only be described as ‘fascinated’ which is cute at the same time.

But because of cultural differences, her reaction felt a bit weird for Key and Louise. Even so, they’re not too harsh to point it out so they’re ignoring her.

“This food’s skin is weird. It doesn’t smell anything nor taste anything.” Ghena said while holding a piece of the chocolate’s wrapper.

Immediately, Key snatches the piece of plastic from Ghena’s hand and then flicks it away.

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“The thing you called skin is called…” he suddenly paused half-way. Key can’t think of a word that would translate the word ‘wrapper’.

“You see, this skin is called a ‘Wrapper’. It’s something that’s made to preserve the chocolate.” Key said while scratching his head.

Unable to understand the word, Ghena tilts her head in puzzlement. Nibbling on the chocolate, she answers, “I don’t really understand, but it sounds amazing.”

“It’s not amazing though.” He retorted lightly.

Continuing their journey, Ghena kept asking questions about who they are, what they do, where they came from, and why are they here. Of course, they answered vaguely. Though, Louise is the only one answering her. She was told beforehand not to give answers related to earth.

“Why are nobles like you here in the forest? It makes me curious.” Ghena asks while looking at Key.

“Oh, we went to meet someone along the way in the middle of the forest while going to the duchy capital. We got lost since we don’t know this forest.”

Since Louise was taught what to answer by her mom, her lies didn’t sound like lies at all.

“Meeting someone in the forest… Gasp! You’re not ass-”

“It’s bad making random assumptions, Ghena.”

Because Ghena assumed they were assassins, Key had to erase that misunderstanding while it’s still fresh.

With a thankful expression, Ghena lets out a sigh while holding up her hand on her chest. “Hah! I thought you would kill me if you were assassins. I’m so glad you two are nice.”

“Please, doubt us at least.”

Key felt a bit worried by her quick change of heart. Not only that she trusts him, she doesn’t doubt him too. That made Key’s opinion of her go down a bit.

“I think she’s too relaxed around strangers.” Louise whispered to Key. But when she added, “You’d probably jump on her if it’s only you two here.” She gets a vertical karate-chop on her forehead.

“Say another stupid word and I won’t give you a share of my paper.” Key threateningly warned her.

Ghena looks at the siblings’ interaction with each other. Seeing how they treat each other, she felt a warm feeling inside.

“You two sure are close.” She commented.

Hearing that, Louise and Key turn towards her with angry expressions. “No, we’re not!” they denied.

Their denial made Ghena giggle since they did it in the same tone and timing.

In the middle of their conversation, all of a sudden, Key falls quiet while looking at a certain direction.

From the far end of the forest, Key could hear different sounds. Mostly it’s the sound of hooves hitting the ground, but he can hear some clamoring of people from there too.

“You hear that, Lou?” Key asked while stretching his neck to that direction.

“I can hear it, but it’s too far.”

“It’s not that far though. We’re already near the main road.” Ghena said while walking past Key.

Since she’s picking up her pace, Key and Louise followed her.

While looking at Ghena’s back, Key continues their conversation earlier. “So, did you come here alone?”

Without stopping, Ghena looks at Key for a moment. Though it’s not obvious, she thought about how to answer his question.

“Ah, yes. I came here alone. The mistress wanted to come with me, but she can’t go out of the capital for various reasons.” She gave a monotonous reply.

Louise noticed the oddness in her words. So, she lightly poked her brother to get his attention. “Sounds like this ‘mistress’ of hers is in trouble.” She whispered.

Immediately, Key grabs her nose and lightly pulls it.

“I know you want to help, but we’re in no position to do it. It might get us wind-up in unnecessary problems.” He sternly said so.

He already noticed it himself too. Yet even so, he gave his little sister a logical answer. Not only it would be dangerous to do something in a foreign world, jumping into a place where trouble awaits is way more dangerous. That is what Key is thinking.

“But…”

“No ‘butts’. Helping or not, we need to stand in a good position first. Remember, we’re in a world where everything revolves in relation in politics. We are nobles.”

“Okay…”

After getting a piece of his mind, Louise’s face drops with her shoulders. Seeing her brother being serious made her feel that she should follow his words.

Then, all of a sudden, a sound of wind swooping went through Key’s ear. Before he noticed it, it disappeared and struck unto a tree. Because of such surprise, he immediately froze while Louise and Ghena froze while looking at him.

Tracing where the sound stopped, their eyes grew in surprise seeing what it was.

“…an arrow?” Key muttered.

With an iron tip, wooden body, and a feathered end, there’s no mistaking it. It is an arrow. And because it nearly hit Key’s ear, the three of them started looking around to see who fired it.

“Are we under attack!?” Louise cried.

“I-I don’t remember the bear hunting season this early! We’re under attack!” Ghena also cried.

However, instead of also panicking, Key drops down a bit and pick up two long branches like dual-wielding them. Though he doesn’t have experience with any weapons, he’s still calm enough to think about how to protect his sister and Ghena.

“You two, get behind me!” he commanded.

Immediately, Louise and Ghena run behind Key.

Not seeing any enemies, Key grits his teeth while tightly holding the branches in frustration. He kept looking around while being weary of the direction where the arrow came from.

“It’s just an hour after we’ve arrived here, and now we’re in trouble? This isn’t even funny as a joke.” Key complained.

But just when Key thought that it was the end for them, all of a sudden, he could hear a voice not too far from where the arrow was shot.

“It would be bad if it’s a bear. I wish it’s not a bear!” it muttered.

Seeing a huge bush suddenly moving, the three of them nervously looked at that bush. Key held his branches tightly and is ready to fight back to whatever it is.

Because of the violent movement of the bush, Key couldn’t hold in his panic and charged towards the bush with his branches while letting out a yell.

“Die!”

“What the!?”

But before Key could land a blow on the bush, all of a sudden, a head of a small girl pops out while looking at Key. Seeing such, Key stopped himself and stares back at the girl.

Looking closely at her, she has a long brown-orange hair that’s tied up to the back in two directions. She also has big brown eyes that seem to sparkle because of the daylight going through the leaves of the trees. Not only those, her face doesn’t seem to be of a little girl’s. Instead, she looks like in the boundary of teen and grade-schooler. In short, she’s cute.

Both of them stared at each other for more than a minute like trying to process what just happened, only until Ghena gasps that startled all of them.

“Uhm… I didn’t hit a bear did I?” the unknown girl asked.

Slowly lowering the branches, Key awkwardly hides them behind his back. “No, you didn’t.” he replied feeling embarrassed.

When he looks behind his back, he could see Ghena and Louise trying to cover their grins. It’s like they weren’t scared just a while ago.

Seeing that, Key couldn’t help but feel embarrassed with his ears going bright red. So in order to avert the feeling, he turns his attention back to the girl instead.

“So, what are you doing in that bush?” he asked.

“I was looking for the arrow I just shot. I thought there was a weird shadow going to jump on us so I thought of shooting first.” She said while going out of the bush.

As she removes the leaves that stuck on her clothes, Key looks carefully at her attire. He got interested since it’s the first time he has seen a real chest plate in front of a leather shirt. Though it isn’t something like a sight for sore eyes, seeing something new and primitive piqued Key’s interest.

She noticed that Key is ogling at her body. “So… what are you guys doing here?” the girl asked while giving Key an annoyed glare.

Key averts his eyes immediately while dropping the branches. “I-I should be asking that though.”

After fixing her posture, the girl looks at Key’s companions. And suddenly, her eyes grew in surprise while looking at Ghena. “Where were you!?” she yelled.

“Wait, you know each other?” Key said while looking confused.

While turning to Key’s direction, Ghena makes a gentle smile while opening her hand to the girl. “This girl here is Alamy. She’s one of the people who accompanied me here.” She introduced.

“Skip the introduction. We’re going to miss daylight if we stay here any longer.” Alamy interrupted. “What took you so long to come back?” she added.

Alamy, the short girl, looks furious about her being late. Though crossing her arms while puffing her cheeks expresses it, Key can only look at it comically because of her short stature.

With blushing cheeks while scratching the back of her head, she answered “I got stuck on a tree.”

-End of Chapter-