Chapter 68

The scenery flew by as we sped along.

Sammy had picked me up, and I was enjoying the view, but sleepiness was creeping up on me again.

Part of it was due to the trust and sense of security I felt with Sammy, but my body was definitely acting strange.

I had just woken up, yet I was getting so sleepy so quickly... Clearly, this couldn’t go on.

“Lady Rini, are you feeling sleepy again?”

“...Yeah.”

Sammy seemed to have noticed my change and immediately spoke to me.

There was no point in lying, so I answered honestly, and the arms carrying me tightened.

“I’ll hurry.”

With that, Sammy pushed off the ground with a burst of speed. The world seemed to pass by even faster.

Although Sammy had said earlier that this was the fastest speed, it felt like the pace had increased again. Sammy is amazing.

Suddenly, a beautiful voice rang out.

“Hey, you elves! Hold it right there!”

The direction from which the voice came—

“Huh?”

I rubbed my sleepy eyes and looked up at the sky.

The sun was behind them, so I could only see silhouettes. What I could make out were long flowing hair, wings like those of a pterodactyl, and a thick tail.

“Return my gemstone!”

The owner of the voice, which had just zipped through the air, blocked our path. They had landed about 10 meters ahead of us.

I could now see their face clearly, which had been obscured by the backlight earlier.

They had long black hair and sharply upturned purple eyes. They looked to be around 10 years old. The most distinctive features were the black wings sprouting from their back and the thick, black tail extending from their rear.

I hadn’t expected a visitor to appear during our journey, and from the tone of their voice, it was clear they had business with us.

Sammy’s reaction to this visitor was—

“You’re in the way!”

“Huh!?”

—Without stopping, she charged straight ahead.

“Huh...?”

—*Kiran*.

As a result, the girl who had appeared was turned into stardust...

The encounter lasted a mere 20 seconds...

“Sammy... just now...”

“It’s a trivial matter!”

“But... they called us elves...”

“It’s a trivial matter!”

Sammy said with a straight face.

A trivial matter... huh...

“From their appearance, they seem to be a beastkin or something. Even from the air, they caught up to my top speed. I might have blown them away with a bit too much force, but I believe they have the ability to take care of themselves.”

“Yeah.”

The visitor hadn’t expected Sammy to charge straight through. They were clearly caught off guard and blown away.

But Sammy was right; they had wings and seemed capable of handling themselves. I hope they’re okay...

There was something else that caught my attention.

“They knew about the gemstone.”

Yes, the visitor had said, “Return my gemstone.”

This means they knew I had the gemstone and were its original owner. In other words...

“A dragon?”

The gemstone I obtained in the present world was found after defeating the dragon in the 【Cave of Spirit Sense】. I dug a hole in the floor of a hidden room using the 【Pickaxe (God)】. Here, it was said that while Sammy was distracting the dragon in the 【Cave of Spirit Sense】, my father had found it in the hidden room.

The dragon, having lost its gemstone, was incited by Gyral to attack Caries. I turned that dragon into stardust...

“An acquaintance, maybe.”

Of that Earth Dragon.

“They had wings and a tail.”

Black wings and a thick tail. Indeed, it did seem dragon-like. Sammy had suggested the possibility of a beastkin, but could it have been a dragonkin?

I pondered this.

Then, without stopping, Sammy began to speak slowly.

“Lady Rini, let’s think about this later.”

“Later?”

“They might appear again. We can consider it then. For now, our goal is to stop Lady Rini’s 【Magic Surge】. We still have a ways to go to reach the Elven Forest. We’ll take a break for a meal along the way, but I’ll keep running. I can feel that the magic in your body is increasing again. Please rest for now.”

“...Okay.”

Indeed, that was the case.

We had been talking about the gemstone, and I was trying to organize the information, but my head wasn’t working properly. It felt like when I had a high fever from a cold.

“Lady Rini...”

Sammy’s worried voice.

She didn’t slow down, but I could feel the strength in her hands and the effort she was making to keep me from jostling.

Sammy is very good at pampering me.

“Alright. I’ll sleep again.”

“Yes!”

“Sammy, don’t overdo it.”

“There’s absolutely no problem! With the happiness of holding Lady Rini, I can keep running!!”

“Thank you.”

Pampered by Sammy, I closed my eyes and drifted off again.

I repeated this cycle of sleeping and waking. I felt a bit better when I woke up. We took a break for lunch once, resting in the shade of a tree.

Otherwise, Sammy kept running, and we didn’t stop until evening. The orange sunset had set, and the sky was turning purple.

Incidentally—

“Hey, you elves! Hold it right there! How dare you blow me away!?”

“What do you mean, you can’t hear me!? Hold it, hold it—*huh*!?”

“Really... really, please wait... at least, at least let me talk—*huh*!?”

—The visitor appeared several times and was blown away each time by Sammy.

By the end, they were crying. But Sammy kept saying, “It’s a trivial matter!” and charged straight ahead.

I was too sleepy to stop Sammy...

After seeing that they were able to return safely even after being blown away, I started to think it was okay in the later stages.

Thus, we arrived at a place with many tall, large trees.

“Lady Rini, this is the Elven Forest.”

The manga adaptation of *Yonome Days* by Masume Yoshimoto is now available!

It’s very interesting, so please be sure to check it out.