You Say This Child Isn't Yours!? - Chapter 3

It was when she was running down the hill in a panic, not daring to look back to check the distance.

“Ah!”

The tip of her cane caught on a rock. As she lost grip of the cane, her body tilted forward. As soon as she fell face-first on the slope, rolling down the hill, Erica thought.

‘Well, rolling is faster than running.’

Though that thought changed the moment she stopped at the bottom of the hill.

When she lifted her head buried in the grass, she found herself politely bowing to the wolf that had instantly caught up. She quickly got up but her legs gave out and she collapsed again.

“Oh, don’t come. I’m too tough to eat.”

Mother used to say I’m so stiff and tough like tendons that even bears would spit me out for being tasteless.

The wolf, unable to understand her strange warning, sniffed “sniff sniff” and approached with its calf-sized body swaying. As Erica backed away on her bottom, feeling behind her back, her hand grabbed something.

It was the self-defense hand axe she wore at her waist.

Having not forgotten dying at the hands of kidnappers in her previous life, Erica had carried a self-defense axe since before she could walk.

Precisely for moments like this.

“Hiyah!”

The moment it pounced, Erica drew the axe and swung. She managed to strike its snout well, but when it jerked its head, the axe bounced off and flew far away.

“Aah…”

Grrrr.

The fierce beast bared its sharp fangs and growled right in front of her face. She had only managed to anger it without leaving even a scratch on its tough hide.

Ah, was I reborn just to become a happy meal for a hungry wolf?

The wolf opened its mouth wide. Erica tightly shut her eyes and blocked her face with both arms.

“I don’t want to die like this!”

In this complicated world, I want to die comfortably!

As she made this strange wish, flash! A light flickered above her closed eyelids. There was a crushing sound, followed by…

Yelp!

A death cry.

‘That wasn’t me?’

After that, there was no sound. Only when she heard footsteps in the distance did Erica open her eyes.

‘What happened?’

The wolf that had been about to tear Erica in two just moments ago now had its head split in two. Stuck right in the middle was none other than Erica’s hand axe.

She looked up. A figure was approaching from the distance. With the sun at his back, she couldn’t see his face clearly, but he was definitely a tall man with broad shoulders.

A wandering mercenary perhaps?

The man who had been walking casually suddenly paused, then started running toward her.

“Erica?”

‘…You know me?’

“Is that you, Erica?”

‘Who are you? I don’t have any connection with such a handsome man…’

The stranger who ran up close spoke in a familiar tone and bent down, extending his hand to her.

“Are you alright?”

“……”

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

Erica stared dazedly at his now clearly visible face and hesitantly placed her hand in his large one.

This man wasn’t a stranger.

Of all the surprises in this short time, the most surprising was that this man who appeared without warning to save Erica…

“…Roderick?”

Was her childhood friend who had vanished five years ago.

***

Is it really Roderick?

“Erica, why aren’t you answering? Did you hit your head?”

The friend who had suddenly disappeared had suddenly appeared. As she stared blankly, scanning him from top to bottom in disbelief, two hands suddenly appeared and cupped her cheeks.

“Look at me.”

Her head naturally lifted and Erica’s eyes met his. They were the same deep blue she remembered.

Roderick examined her face closely with slightly furrowed brows. Erica took this chance to carefully study the face she hadn’t seen in so long.

‘Is it really Roderick?’

The cool gaze. The high, straight bridge of his nose that looked sharp enough to cut. And decisively, the tiny mark at the corner of his lips that you could only see up close.

While his eyes, nose, and mouth were the Roderick she knew well, he gave off a much more mature and masculine air than she remembered. But that was probably natural.

Five years was enough time to transform a pretty boy who used to measure heights against acorns with a shepherdess into a young man much taller than said shepherdess.

Roderick, who had been checking for injuries on Erica’s face, suddenly startled when their eyes met and…

“Ah.”

He quickly lowered his gaze and pulled his hands away from her cheeks as if burned.

“I apologize for my rudeness.”

“Ah, I’m sorry too…”

Erica suddenly realized and hurriedly pulled her hands away. When had she also cupped Roderick’s cheeks with both hands?

‘That was an awkward position for grown adults.’

They had been holding each other’s faces while looking at each other. If someone had seen them, they might have thought they were about to kiss.

A breeze tactfully blew through, but the awkwardness lingering between the two who had stepped away from each other didn’t disperse.

In the strange silence, Erica slightly raised her eyes. Roderick was running his gloved hand down the back of his neck with his gaze cast diagonally down. The spot he’d touched was as red as wild strawberries in the field.

“Ahem…”

Erica suddenly cleared her throat while brushing off grass and flower petals from her skirt.

“I’m not hurt anywhere.”

“Really?”

When Roderick looked at her skeptically, she marched in place while swinging her arms wide like a soldier.

But why did she move the same side arm and leg together? Roderick chuckled at the silly sight.

The look in his eyes that had seemed ready for her to collapse and die any moment was gone, which was good, but for some reason, now Erica’s nape was burning.

“Thank you for saving me. If it weren’t for you, I would have been the wolf’s lunch.”

Erica tried to act casual.

“But…”

As her shocked mind slowly started working again, questions began popping up one after another.

Why are you here? No, where have you been and what have you been doing?

The friend who had suddenly disappeared had suddenly appeared, right when she was about to die, like a prince on a white horse with a ‘ta-da!’

Prince on a white horse?

Knight on a white horse.

No, wait. He couldn’t be a knight.

Not because Roderick’s swordsmanship was poor, but because in this world you couldn’t become a knight unless you were nobility, so the thought came naturally.

‘But what about that horse?’

A white horse that had been leisurely approaching from the distance started rubbing its nose against Roderick’s shoulder. This wasn’t just some random horse, but Roderick’s horse.

‘Horses are expensive. And a white one at that.’

But what was most surprising was something else.

Erica pulled her axe from the wolf’s corpse and asked.

“How did you do that?”

It was amazing enough to throw the axe from far away and hit the wolf accurately, but to kill it in one strike…? And with this dull axe?

When Erica had struck with all her might, it hadn’t even left a scratch on the thick hide before bouncing off.

“You must think I’m still that weakling Roderick from back then…”

“No.”

She could tell that wasn’t the case just from his broad shoulders and the assertive muscles visible even through his shirt.

“That’s not it, this shouldn’t be possible no matter how strong someone is…”

Roderick suddenly reached out and quickly snatched the axe from Erica’s hand.

“That’s my line. What is this axe made of?”

“Huh? I bought this from the blacksmith in the next village three years ago.”

“Want to trade for mine?”

When Roderick took out the hand axe tied to his horse, Erica quickly snatched back her axe from his other hand and hid it behind her back.

“No. Why would I trade something this good?”

“Then how about trading it for one gold coin?”

“Oh my, the axe has finally found its proper owner.”

The exchange of the old axe for one gold coin and a new axe was promptly carried out.

‘I thought he was just buying my old axe, but why is he giving me his new axe as a bonus?’

And it was a much sturdier and more finely crafted new item at that.

‘It must be quite valuable.’

There was even a leather strap at the end of the handle to wrap around her wrist, so it wouldn’t fly out of her hand like before.

“Wow, this is nice.”

As Roderick watched Erica chopping away at a nearby tree, a bluish light leaked from behind his back. However, the moment he let go, the object that had been emitting the blue light returned to being the old, dull axe.