The Icy Hero is Yearning for LoveCh20 - Extra 7 – Are you sulking? 〚Ilya〛

Translator: mii

Editors: ASplashofMusic, Katie_WanderingFujoshi Dm1M9I

After leaving the Knights’ Order, Riley and I walked down the main street, going past the tavern and heading towards the market. Recently, it had become quite common for me to go shopping with Riley. And if you were wondering how often we did this, the fact that the aunts in the market would ask me, “That lad didn’t accompany you today?” whenever I went to the market alone said it all.

I wondered why no one seemed to recognize Riley. After all, he, the Hero, was just leisurely walking around the city alongside me, not even hiding his face. But upon deeper thought, he probably used some simple magic to disguise himself. 

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When I asked him about it, he told me it was a kind of magic that prevented other people from recognizing him. Apparently, it didn’t work against people who possessed magical knowledge, but it was quite effective against ordinary civilians.

Though, no matter how I looked at him, I could only see the normal Riley. So I didn’t really understand the whole concept of this magic. cohYjN

I shot a glance up at Riley, and our eyes ended up meeting. Riley gently squinted, his pomegranate eyes trying to ask me what was wrong. 

While trying to hide my rapidly quickening heartbeats, I flashed him a grin and said, “Mister Dee is surprisingly strong. I never expected Riley to lose against him.”

“Yeah. If Kenneth’s fighting style is orthodox, then Denard’s can be classified as sneaky and sly. He rarely displays the full extent of his abilities, but he can be unyielding when he really wants to win.”

Riley grasped my hand and shifted his gaze towards the road. He was surely recalling the training session he had just participated in. As an ordinary person, I didn’t understand some of the things that had happened in their match, but I could clearly see how Mister Dee’s swift flurry of attacks and movements had given Riley no chance to counterattack, causing him to lose. Of course, Riley hadn’t utilized his full power during their match since he wasn’t allowed to use magic. Nevertheless, a loss was a loss. 

A loss for the strongest Hero who had been victorious in so many arduous battles. Who was able to defeat even the Demon King.

…So even Riley could lose sometimes, huh.

Delving deeper, I asked, “Are you frustrated?”

Riley lightly shrugged his shoulders and said, “…A little.” bg9izP

The moment I saw the expression on Riley’s face, with his slightly pursed lips, I suddenly recalled my memories of the past.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Every time I got hurt in the process of protecting Riley, his face would twist in a frown and his eyes would water. Then after casting healing magic on me, he would sink into silence, a gloomy aura arising from him.

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“I wonder if Mister Dee will agree to teach me swordsmanship.” QjpYTa

Confused, Riley asked, “…Why?”

“Well, I’m a man after all. And since we’re going on a trip soon, it would be pretty useful, right?”

“I’m not referring to that. Why Denard?”

“Because if I were to ask Mister Kenneth, he would just focus on building my physique.” rdQLu6

Back when I was Allen, it had taken a considerably long time before I was allowed to hold a sword. He had insisted on building and improving my physique for many many months before letting me touch a wooden sword. Actually, I was first made to wield a dagger before getting the long-awaited permission to train with a sword.

Mister Kenneth’s swordsmanship was clean enough to have Riley call it orthodox, but his training was laborious. A strong body and mentality were needed to avoid the sword being the one swinging us around. Mister Kenneth had told us this, and I still remembered it clearly even until now.

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My current body had a hard time building muscle, so it would be tough if I were to go under his instruction. On the other hand, Mister Dee had an unorthodox style and was less uptight. So I felt like he was perfect if I wanted to learn swordsmanship in a short time. He could surely think of a novel training regimen suited to me since his swordsmanship wasn’t as reliant on a strong foundation compared to Mister Kenneth’s.

“…Then what about me?” VNpfgG

I blinked. “Hm? What about you?”

Riley shifted his gaze away. “…Nothing.”

I tilted my head in confusion, but Riley stubbornly refused to look at me. He definitely didn’t look like nothing happened. What was it?

He pursed his lips even more, slightly frowning. When I looked at him from the side, his expressionless facade looked almost perfectly in place, but I could perceive that he was not in a good mood.  hrUl4o

Riley’s countenance had completely changed from the past. It was difficult to read his expressions now, but this face was certainly ‘that’, right?

He had sometimes made this exact expression whenever I had been too busy taking care of the little kids in the orphanage and had inadvertently ignored him.

Ah, then that meant he might be…

“Are you sulking?” I guessed. UYWsy3

His slightly twitching eyebrows and even more awkward face indicated that I was right on point. But why was he sulking? Did I do something that would make him sulk? I mentally sifted through my recent conversation with him. I told him that I wanted to learn swordsmanship and mentioned Mister Dee instead of Mister Kenneth. Then he asked, “Why Denard?” and I told him my reason.

Ah, when he said “What about me?”, was Riley questioning why I didn’t ask him to teach me instead? Why would I go so far as to request someone else to teach me, when he, who I had a special relationship with, was the strongest hero in the world?

…Wow, how cute. That reason was too cute.

It wasn’t like I purposely never considered him to be an option. I just couldn’t imagine him to be my teacher… but if I said that, he would sulk even more. 94rRLc

But honestly, no matter how much I thought about it, Riley acting as my teacher was simply something unimaginable to me.

I knew that he was strong. Naturally, I also knew that many people clamored to become the Hero’s disciples, offering exorbitant gifts and privileges in exchange for his guidance. However, Riley unyieldingly refused all of them. Even Mister Elmer kept complaining that it was such a shame.

I knew that Riley would surely think of a suitable training regimen for me. Although we had a very wide disparity in our abilities, he would surely guide me in a way that I could easily understand. And since we would soon be leaving for a trip together, he could still teach me during our travels, which was a big plus.

Even so, I didn’t think it would be possible for him to be my instructor, even though he was the Hero. There was a bigger problem at play here, okay? 5EMuNV

Just before we reached the market, I pulled Riley into a narrow side street, saying, “Riley, come here.”

At first glance, it looked like a small, normal path. But after passing several intersections, there was a vacant plot right at the corner. To put it simply, it was a dead end.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Riley followed me, not knowing that we were going to a dead end. I steadily walked ahead of him, only turning back to face him after we had passed two intersections.

I gripped his collar and pulled him over to the vacant plot before stretching my back nimbly and brought my face closer to his. I slightly tilted my head to avoid bumping his nose and pressed my lips softly to his. I learned all of this from Riley. WrCJO6

Riley taught me everything. The warmth of our overlapping lips. The passion that could sear away my thoughts.

After languidly savoring his lips, as if we had all the time in the world, I slowly peeked at him through my eyelashes. Riley’s crimson eyes widened as he stared at me with pure surprise. Not a trace of dissatisfaction remained in them.

Don’t look at me like that, okay? How embarrassing… 

But I was going to say something even more embarrassing now. tSNwb9

“Do you understand now? The reason why you can’t become my teacher.”

Still bewildered, Riley asked, “Reason…?”

“En,” I said, before kissing him again. After a while, I parted with a lick of his lips.

Upon seeing Riley’s furrowed eyebrows, I was sure that he didn’t catch what I was trying to convey at all. While accepting my kiss, he couldn’t completely hide his confusion. GfljpC

I gently whispered the correct answer to him. “I always get the urge to touch you, so we won’t be able to train together properly.”

After I closed my eyes, I recalled Riley’s sword match with Mister Dee earlier. To say that he had looked cool would be an understatement. The Riley during that match didn’t act like the one I was familiar with, but like the strongest hero in the world.

But it was incredibly embarrassing to tell him that I was charmed by his battling figure. So I decided not to. My face was already this hot now. I don’t think I could do something even more embarrassing.

I tilted my head up to face him and said, “It’s embarrassing, but I’m right, aren’t I?” Riley’s expression eased up at that.  4TB0WN

He kissed me deeply, drawing me into his arms for a tight embrace. After we separated, he showed me a small smile. A silent affirmation. In response, I squinted my eyes as a burst of joy filled my heart.

We had to go to the market soon, but for quite a while, we couldn’t seem to stop planting fervent kisses on each other.

And it’s the real end! AAAAAAAAAAA I FINISHED ANOTHER NOVEL!!!!!!!!!! Or actually no… QAQ Author-sama said that she’s planning to write extra chapters from time to time >_<)/  If I’m still kicking when she releases them, I’ll consider translating the other extra chapters! But we’ll have to say bye-bye now~ Thank you for everyone who has been reading this novel until the end!!! *muah muah*

Support the author! Here’s the tutorial made by “Shido Within” on how to buy digital books at CMOA. The tutorial specifies on how to buy digital manga, but I think it should work for novels too. After registering, you can click here to go to Icy’s CMOA page. Apparently, you can also buy this book at Bookwalker Japan! You’ll need to create a Bookwalker Global account first, then connect to VPN before clicking here to go to Icy’s Bookwalker page (or you can go there from the RAW Page on Icy’s ToC!). Here’s the guide on how to purchase books on Bookwalker JP Store! After the purchase, you can turn off the VPN and download to read the book on any device! (Thank you Shadow-san for telling me about this! ˭̡̞(◞⁎˃ᆺ˂)◞*✰) The difference is that if you’re using CMOA, you need to pay using your credit card, but with Bookwalker, you can pay using PayPal! Very efficient! RKHdy5

Support the translator! How about buying this translator a cup of bubble tea to give her a pat in the back?  ₍₍ ◝(●˙꒳˙●)◜ ₎₎

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