Chapter 69

Thank you for the bookmark rating m(_ _)m

"…Lily?"

The one who emerged from the darkness was Lily, who had disappeared.

"Huh, why are you here?"

It should be a time when she would normally be dancing, and even if Lily couldn't dance, there was no reason for her to be here...

"Hmm? I thought I wanted to dance with Nest, and then I followed when I saw you go somewhere."

"Oh, that's how it is. Sorry about that..."

"It's okay, really?"

"Um, shall we dance together...?"

Lily says it's fine, but maybe she was looking forward to dancing.

"Really, it's okay!?"

Sure enough, she latched onto my suggestion with incredible enthusiasm.

"Yeah, it's fine."

Here, there's no one around, and even if I say I'm a bad dancer, there's no need to feel embarrassed.

I got up from the cool, pleasant grass to dance with Lily and headed towards her.

"Um, like this...?"

Having never really danced before, I only glanced back at her briefly, and I placed my hands on Lily's waist, almost touching her body.

"Hehehe..."

From then on, I moved my legs in time with Lily's humming.

Honestly, I'm not sure if I'm doing it right, but Lily seems to be enjoying it, and to my surprise, I found it quite fun.

The sky was dominated by darkness, and the neatly trimmed grass grew at our feet.

A comfortable breeze caressed my cheeks, perhaps coming from the hallway.

"Hmm hmm hmm..."

The only sound that could be heard was Lily's rhythmic humming.

If there was any other sound, it would be the small voice I made when I made a mistake.

Lily and I continued to dance happily in the darkness, with no one around, no sound, and no light.

"That was fun!!"

After a while, I finally finished dancing and fell back onto the grass, looking up at the sky.

By the way, Lily was relaxing on top of me. So cute.

"...The party was fun, huh?"

"Yeah! I want to come again!"

In response to my words, Lily looked up at the sky and said.

"…Is that girl, perhaps, a demon?"

At that moment, I suddenly heard Esyck's voice in my head.

And if Lily really was a demon—

—she would be taken back to the demon world.

"..."

Maybe it's better to just ask her outright.

After a moment of silence, I finally made up my mind.

"Hey, Lily—"

I hope she'll say no.

And I want to enjoy ourselves like this again without any worries.

"—Are you a demon?"

I asked while holding Lily on top of me and stroking her head.

"Huh? Lily is—"

Just as Lily was about to answer my question—

"Crack!"

—A loud sound, like something breaking, reached our ears.

"!?"

I think that sound probably came from the party venue.

Lily, startled by the sound, clung to me.

"Be careful, there might be some contact from the demon side during the party."

I remembered Esyck saying that.

"!!"

I quickly picked up Lily and ran towards the party venue where the sound came from.

"Heal!"

I forgot to even say the name of the healing spell as I ran non-stop to the party venue.

The floor of the party venue was scattered with what looked like broken window fragments.

Everyone there was staring at the broken window.

"..."

I ran through the crowd, looking around.

"...You've got to be kidding me..."

And I realized one thing.

Aula and Tore were not there—.