It"s My Choice, but… The moment I returned to the mansion, Ludo-san and Lunsan talked briefly about Ellie.
They simply said that Ellie fought Gram in a mock battle and got injured and she"s undergoing treatment in one of the rooms in the mansion.
“and then it seemed like Ellie-sama was raging about, so we sent her to a room in the bas.e.m.e.nt.”
Ludo-san stated that with indifferent composure in his eyes behind his monocle.
“The bas.e.m.e.nt? Why there…?”
“Arissama had been asking to keep her there to not bother us, even though she doesn"t need to mind that…”
Lunsan said thus as she thought deeply while putting her hand on her cheek.
I roughly understood the situation.
(Ellie was frustrated that she lost against Lord Gram, and she went rogue so they had to keep her in the bas.e.m.e.nt…?)
Lord Gram himself said that he was looking for a good doctor.
Perhaps taking responsibility of what he"s done is something that the hot-blooded Gram would likely to do.
Lastly, Ludo-san told me that Arisa was calling for me.
I gave a simple thanks to Ludo-san and Lunsan and headed for Arisa.
Knock, knock, I lightly knocked on the door.
“—Who is it?”
Arisa"s voice came from inside the room.
“It"s me.”
The lock opened with a click.
Arisa"s face emerged from beyond the door.
And then I was taken aback by her appearance.
Arisa had lost her composure in a way that"s a lot worse than I imagined.
“Hurry and get in.”
“…? Alright.”
I entered the room as I was told.
Ellie and I sat next to the bed, and immediately, Arisa began to talk.
“…You know that Ellie is a runaway slave, right?”
“Y-Yeah. What about it? Ellie is resting now, right?”
(Is it because Ellie was hurt a lot more than we expected? Or…)
I was left uneasy with how little I know about Ellie"s situation.
—I suspected something.
That this is not the only problem.
No, I suspected that this is notthe problem.
My voice gradually start to shake.
We were silent for a while.
And then, Arisa"s voice echoed in the room.
“…Gram is Ellie"s current master.”
“……huh?”
My brain froze for a moment.
“O…Oi, oi, what are you talking about, Arisa? Did you realize what you just said?”
That old man?
That guy who looks so pure that had nothing but fighting in his head?
Yet Arisa shook her head and answered.
“Unfortunately that"s the truth.”
Then that means…Ellie"s condition right now is way different than what I had imagined.
“Did Ellie perhaps…”
“She"s currently confined by Gram.”
“What would happen to Ellie from now on?”
“She"ll spend the rest of her life as a slave.”
“She would…wait—can"t you do anything about it? Hey, Arisa!”
Before long, I caught myself grabbing onto Arisa"s shoulders and yelled at her.
“I"m thinking about that too you know!”
It turns out Arisa was in the same position.
We were both confused, worried, and we were just venting out.
…we won"t be able to move forward at this rate.
Quarreling is not what we"re supposed to do.
We don"t have time for that.
“…sorry, Arisa.”
“I"m sorry too…”
We took a deep breath.
Thus, we calmed ourselves.
“So what are we going to do from now on?”
“…right. I feel bad to Ellie for saying this, but right now, Ellie is Gram"s possession, and we want to steal her away from him. What do you think we should do?”
Arisa asked me.
Perhaps she was scared in knowing what answer I"ll come up with…but her eyes showed her worries.
But we couldn"t pick a way to do that.
We mentioned every single methods that we could think of.
“Buy her with money.”
“I don"t think he wants money.”
“Exchange her with something.”
“I don"t think we have anything that can worth Ellie.”
“Negotiate and get him to hand her to us.”
“…Not possible.”
“I don"t really want to do this, but…we steal her away.”
“That"s what they would expect us to do. They"ll also probably do all they can to prevent us from doing that. Besides, they could also possibly hinder our lives from now on as well. We"ll be criminals after all.”
“…Then what should we do, Arisa?”
“…there is one way. If we could do it, then there won"t be any harm in our end, and it"s likely that they"ll accept its outcome.”
“Isn"t that perfect? Let"s go with that.”
“…but there"s a major demerit for this method.”
After that, Arisa shuts her mouth altogether.
Arisa"s cheerfulness had completely disappeared.
Arisa was insecure.
“Arisa, tell me.”
“……”
Arisa kept quiet and averted her gaze from my direction.
“…I"ll go and get some air outside.”
I unconsciously grasped Arisa"s arms who just stood up from the bed.
“Arisa…!”
And then I hugged that lonely, weakly trembling girl.
“Arisa, don"t worry. I"m not going anywhere…”
I whispered into her ear.
And Arisa replied by giving me an even tighter hug.
“Ed…you can"t do this. I really can"t let you do this. You have to separate with Ellie here.”
“And I can"t do that.”
“You can. See, Ed, the last method is—to duel with your life at stake.”
A duel.
A duel, huh.
A fight to the death, huh.
“Then I"ll fight.”
I have zero hesitation.
“—You can"t!”
Arisa"s scream echoed around the room.
“Listen Ed! You"ll have to bet your life on that duel. You might lose your life you know!? And that man is a battle junkie! He also would"ve noticed that this is the only way we can get Ellie back! They"ll probably be against any other method as well!”
“Then that"s easy. I"ll just have to win against him.”
Arisa shook her head to what I said.
“No no no NO!
You absolutely can"t do that!
I won"t forgive you for that!
You can"t risk your life for such absurd thing!
Please, Ed.
The two of us had fun earlier this afternoon, right? We had been spending our times with just the two of us, hadn"t we? Let"s live with just the two of us again like before, okay?
Ellie is unfortunate. We were too slow, and we were too late.
Forget about that girl and let"s go back to just the two of us…!”
“Not yet, Arisa. We"re not too late…!
I want to save that girl! I want to save Ellie!”
I first met her at that disaster in that village.
That girl was crying in solitude.
Just like I was in my previous world.
I was painfully aware of how she feels.
That"s why I want to save her.
I must save her.
“…you can"t, Ed.
You"re my most important person.
I have no one but you, Ed.
You understand, right? You understand how much I treasure you, right?
I"ll do anything to save you, Ed.
Literally anything. I"ll even kill people to do that.
But are you okay with that? Can you forgive me for that? Can you love me for that?
Can you love a human who lost all reason just for you?
Why is it? Why is it that you can"t understand? Why can"t you understand how much I think about you and how much I love you, Edgar!?”
Arisa glared into my eyes.
Her eyes longed for salvation and love from me.
From the depths of Arisa"s heart that thought of nothing but me,
I felt something clotting from within me.
That feeling started to well up and formed into words.
Slowly, and very slowly,
My heart starts to violate,
And it starts feeling violated.
There were almost no distance between us as we hugged each other—yet why do I feel that the distance between our hearts is so far away?
“…If you insist that you want to save her…can you listen to my one request?”
“…Yeah, I will.”
I"ll listen to anything you say.
As I replied, the corners of her mouth rose, and then she said;
“Embrace me. Right here, right now.”
The feeling that rose in my heart when I heard that was neither joy, embarra.s.sment nor excitement.
(…under this condition?)
—Instead, it was sadness and dreariness.
(You"re telling me to embrace you who was suffering as you"re enveloped in darkness—?)
“…Arisa, are you serious?”
Finally, Arisa raised her face and looked at me with a smile.
“I am serious, Ed. Come, embrace me…”
Arisa laid her hand on my chest and brought her lips closer.
This bewitching yet suspicious smile was…leagues different with the usual Arisa.
“Wait…Wait, Arisa……I"ll listen to any other requests. How about a date? I"ll plan a date course, and I"ll give you a good time. We"ll go out and eat more delicious food. I"ll also choose accessories or clothes that would suit you best.”
“That"s nothing compared to this.
Don"t worry, I won"t ask you to take responsibility or anything>
It"s just for this moment. It"s okay if you just satisfy my desire right now.
It"s easy, right? Of course, you can do whatever you want to me, Edgar.”
Arisa pushed me down.
She then got on all fours above me.
Her eyes were moist from her desires.
I felt like Arisa"s sweet smell is stronger than usual.
She was serious.
She wasn"t joking around.
(—But why? Why do you look so pained? Why do you look like you"re about to cry?)
“Ed, what will you do? Do you embrace me and save Ellie?
Or do you want to not do anything and return to our lives like before?”
I have two options.
Do I change our relations.h.i.+p,
Or do I keep them.
Arisa"s hands slowly started to unb.u.t.ton my s.h.i.+rt.
And afterwards, Arisa"s hands crawled on my bare chest.
Her thin fingers crawled around, as if confirming the sensation…as if it"s having fun.
“Hey…what do you do, Ed? We have to choose.
After this, we had no choice but to move forward.
We either move forward, or we stop. What will you choose?”
Arisa whispered alluringly in my ear.
Under her words and her alluring sweet smell, she starts to rob me of my thoughts.
“Come and choose. My beloved, beloved Edgar…!”
I"m…
“I"m…!”
Chapter 33 >
TLC:
I"m trying my best not to make a goofy goober joke with the last two lines.
I feel like Arisa is not yandere enough. If she is, then she"d probably be confining Edgar and mutter something like “No way I"m going to let Edgar go, Edgar is mine and mine alone” with an evil giggle.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter and have a nice day!