The child's red eyes dropped downward.
I hurriedly pulled my hand away, like someone caught doing something naughty. As Noelier's hand let go, the warmth drained away in a flash.
As I rolled my eyes and looked back and forth between Rachel and Noelier, Rachel narrowed her eyes and asked.
"...What are you two doing?"
"Huh? I didn't say anything special!"
I quickly approached Rachel's side.
Beyond Rachel's back, Zion was hopping around, saying, "I want to see too!"
Rachel stared at Noelier with an intrigued expression. Her eyes, which were exactly like Noelier's, were constantly sparkling.
Has she let her guard down even a little? I followed Rachel and looked at Noelier.
In the meantime, Noelier was repeatedly clenching and unclenching the hand he had been holding with me.
Looking at his hands, he wore a complex expression that was difficult to describe in words. His face also seemed to have sunk into a dark shadow.
Noelier raised his head. With a pleasant smile, he spoke to me.
"...I will be heading back now."
"What? Are you just going?"
"I came here without a plan, so I left a lot behind. Of course, I thought we would go back together, but..."
Noelier said that and approached me.
Before I knew it, Rachel was clinging tightly to my leg.
Noelier bent his knees to meet Rachel's eye level.
Rachel looked at Noelier with a sulky face, as if something was bothering her.
"I have a rough idea of what you're thinking, but..."
"..."
Noelier slowly trailed off. However, Rachel clamped her mouth shut and hid behind me. She was avoiding an answer.
"...I understand for now."
Noelier nodded and stood up again.
"Please take good care of my younger sibling."
Noelier greeted me with a slightly stiff expression. I returned the greeting in an awkward posture.
Rachel was still just clinging to me with a sulky face.
I let out a sigh of relief as I watched him walk away.
At least my life was saved.
Of course, Rachel didn't leave my side, but since I had already deceived the leader, I felt like I could easily deceive any other dragon that came looking for me.
It was when Noelier had moved a little distance from the cabin. People wearing black cloaks approached him.
I saw some of them glancing at me. I felt sharp stares from behind their hoods. I think I also heard someone talking about hitting my head with an apple. Eek! I quickly grabbed Rachel and Zion and rushed inside. Dragons are dangerous, after all. I hugged Rachel, who was trembling and clinging to me, back tightly.
***
“Chief.”
The dragons bowed their heads toward their leader.
"What happened? Is the young lady not coming with you? Besides, that woman..."
"..."
Noelier did not answer. The smile he had shown Eve was long gone.
Noelier looked down at his hand.
The heat that had seethed when it touched her vanished in an instant. Twice, in fact.
It was no coincidence. No, it could not have been a coincidence.
Since everyone who came into contact with him could not withstand his heat, his family member, Rachel, was no exception.
'This may be...'
Noelier slowly raised his head. His blood-red eyes reflected the cabin on the snow-covered field.
"...I will watch a little longer."
At the leader's words, the dragons bowed their heads to show their loyalty. No one would not obey before his fire.
***
I lay flat on my back while hugging the children.
All the strength drained from my body.
It felt like even a passing storm would be calmer than this.
I stared blankly at the closed door, then turned my head toward Rachel. She still had a serious expression on her face.
'Of course I was surprised too, but I'll be better than a child.'
I opened my mouth to lessen Rachel's fear.
"Rachel."
Then Rachel shook her head, her voice trembling. It meant she didn't want to be called by that name.
"...So, Ruby, was that person just now really scary?"
Rachel nodded at my question.
"Yes. It was so scary. Things like that were coming out of my hands..."
"I see."
I patted the child's back. Rachel, who had snuggled into my arms, looked up at me and asked
"...Sister, weren't you scared of my brother, no, that person?"
It was scary... incredibly scary.
I swallowed the words swirling in my mouth.
My own fear was secondary. My priority was to soothe Rachel and increase her affection for my brother.
"That may be true, but, um, wasn't it really cool?"
“Was it cool?”
"Uh?"
Rachel tugged at the hem of my clothes, her eyes shining.
"What exactly? Please be specific."
Rachel demanded an answer from me like an agent trying to uncover important information.
"Hmm... first of all, he's really tall. I have to look up at him so much that my neck is starting to hurt."
“And?”
"And his shoulders are huge, too. I've never seen anyone with shoulders that wide before."
"So you like men with broad shoulders."
“Yeah, that’s my style.”
"Then was his face not very good?"
"His face is just insane."
I tried to change Noelia's image into a positive one, but the conversation started to go in a different direction.
Rachel asked me this and that with sparkling eyes, and I answered with all my heart.
"Is that kind of guy your ideal type?"
"Rather than an ideal type, I just really like that kind of thing. Something like this?"
At my words, Rachel spoke, her big, jewel-like eyes shining.
"Then is that older brother your ideal type?"
"Ideal type...?"
I tilted my head.
He was a man who was completely infused with my taste, without exception, but no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't place the dragon, my sworn enemy, in the category of suspicious.
I shook my head.
“It’s not like that.”
"...Okay."
Rachel nodded with a gloomy expression. Does she not like my answer?
I even said the two of them look alike, so is it a bit much to say he's not my ideal type? Should I have just gone along with it?
Seeing me flustered as I looked at the sullen Rachel, Zion blinked his eyes.
"What are you two talking about?"
It was only then that I came to my senses at Zion's words.
I smiled awkwardly and looked at Zion. At the sight of my gaze finally meeting him, Zion pouted.
"Sister, so is that guy coming back to our house? He's not living with us, right?"
"We're not living together..."
"Then?"
"I will stay by Rachel's side for the time being, only until she regains her memory."
At my words, Zion inflated like a spring-loaded balloon. He seemed to dislike Noelier very much.
"I hate that guy."
"Zion?"
"That older brother hurt my sister. That's why I hate him."
Zion burrowed into my arms with a sullen face, throwing a tantrum.
"But…"
"You said there are only dangerous people outside. That older brother is an outsider, too."
“Yes, but..."
I trailed off. I never imagined that what I had taught Zion until he was sick of hearing it would come back to haunt me like this.
"Zion."
While I was at a loss and unable to say a word, Rachel called out to Zion.
Rachel was gazing intently at Zion with a calm expression. Zion flinched briefly at that look.
“Why, why?”
"..."
Zion asked, but Rachel did not answer.
I watched the children with a nervous heart. Even so, Rachel seemed angry that I had spoken ill of her older brother.
It was just then that I was wondering how to mediate this.
"Everyone is bored. Let's go have a snowball fight."
Rachel said with an innocent smile.
As I saw that face, it felt as if the tension that had been constricting me just melted away.
The sigh of relief was short-lived.
"Wait a minute, I bought it."
"Huh?"
"Have you ever gone out for a snowball fight?"
Zion flinched and trailed off.
"That is..."
"Did you go out without telling me?"
"..."
Zion kept his mouth shut.
I told him so many times not to go out! It seems he wandered around the forest with Rachel and played while I was out.
I let out a small sigh.
Getting angry would only exhaust me. Above all, nothing had happened. Besides, now that we had already met Noelier and Rachel, our seclusion was useless.
While I was collecting my thoughts, Zion looked at me with an anxious expression. He seemed to think that he was going to get into trouble.
I chuckled and stroked Zion's head.
"Don't go too far. Just play around here."
Zion's face lit up at the permission rather than the scolding.
His ears used to pop out whenever he laughed like that, but seeing that they were quiet, it seemed like he had practiced a lot.
'Besides, even if we meet other wolves, it should be fine since Rachel is here.'
Our final boss heroine, the heroine who likes me so, so much...
I raised my other hand and gently stroked Rachel's head. Her fine hair scattered through my fingers.
At that pat on the head, Rachel lifted her head and looked up at me. Her face was full of worry, wondering what would happen if Zion got scolded because of what she had said.
I shook my head to indicate that I wouldn't scold him.
"I'll prepare something delicious for you. Have fun!"
The children's faces bloomed like flowers.
"Yeah! Let's go, Zion!"
"Yes!"
Rachel and Zion left the house hand in hand. I stood up as I looked at the house, where a commotion had just passed.
There was a mountain of work to do. I let out a familiar sigh and rolled up my sleeves.
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