Chapter 556 Thick Soup

The morning breeze swept past, gently stirring Syr's gray hair.

"Syr, why are you here?"

Bell sidestepped the pointed question.

First, he had spent the night with Chloe, and now he had done something indecent to Lunoire in this clearing. Explaining both incidents clearly would be far too complicated.

"I just came out to buy some groceries and happened to pass by."

Syr replied with a smile.

"No, this isn't even remotely the kind of place you'd come to buy groceries, is it?"

Bell quietly exposed his lover's lie.

They were currently near the edge of the northwest district. Forget buying groceries, even coming to such a rough, mixed neighborhood would be highly unusual for an ordinary tavern girl.

"Hehe, you caught me?"

Syr held the basket in her arms and stuck out her tongue.

She walked over to Bell and explained with a smile, "Since a certain someone fell into the River of Desire with a thieving cat and stayed out all night, the other girls were bound to worry. So I told Airmid-san and the others that you were spending the night with me and that they didn't need to keep waiting for you."

Bell had left halfway through the banquet after saying he would be back soon. An excuse like that was the only way to put the girls' minds at ease.

Hestia had been completely drunk and had not heard Syr's explanation. Even so, Syr still had to endure complaints and criticism from the other girls.

"Seriously, my boyfriend sneaks off to meet another girl, and I'm the one who has to come up with an excuse for him and get scolded by everyone else. If this boyfriend of mine realizes he did something wrong, he'd better make it up to me properly."

Syr pouted and looked at Bell with a spoiled, coquettish expression.

In the deserted clearing, her sweet voice reached Bell and Lunoire, completely dissolving the tense atmosphere between them.

"..."

Lunoire did not interrupt.

She was not good at dealing with matters of romance. Since Syr's honey-sweet words carried a few subtle thorns of their own, there was no need for Lunoire to keep pressing what had just happened.

Perhaps the boy really had done it deliberately, which was why he could not simply dismiss it as an accident. To Lunoire, the incident was both humiliating and infuriating, but at the same time, it was also a rare opportunity.

The breeze stirred her brown hair. Lunoire composed herself and quietly waited for the conversation to move on.

"Syr, did you already know about Chloe-san?"

Bell had not stayed silent earlier because the atmosphere was awkward. He had been thinking about Syr's intentions.

His lover would never make trouble without reason.

Even if Bell did something embarrassing with another girl right in front of Syr, she might sulk, claim more of his time in her own way, or, depending on who the other girl was, even do something extreme like joining in herself.

But no matter what happened, Syr would never do anything that would harm the boy.

Her love for him was simply that pure and intense.

Viewed from that perspective, there had to be a deeper reason for Syr to appear here.

Bell did not know how she had managed to hide the lie she used to cover for him from Artemis.

Normally, a God should have been able to see through something like that.

Of course, that was not what Bell was concerned about. The fact that Syr was hiding secrets was already an unspoken understanding between them. What mattered more to Bell was which side she was taking now.

"I only started suspecting something yesterday. After all, Chloe suddenly started acting strangely. Not only did she pack her things, she even asked me some weird questions about her first night..."

Syr answered openly.

Completely ignoring Lunoire's somewhat embarrassed gaze, she continued, "Hmph, Chloe was playing dirty. She looked at me like she was about to cry. Of course I had to help her. It looks like you two properly said your goodbyes last night. I brought some nourishing soup, so drink this first~"

Syr lifted the basket and held it out toward Bell.

There was no resentment in her gray eyes, only an unbroken tenderness.

"Syr..."

Bell understood his lover's position now.

Syr believed that the boy would never allow Chloe to shed endless tears.

The two of them would embrace beneath the cover of night, part ways at dawn, then each set out on the path they had chosen.

And so Syr had endured the loneliness and brought him a bowl of rich soup filled with her doting affection.

"Hurry up and drink it while it's hot. And don't thank me. Once you finish, you still have something else you need to do, right?"

Syr hung the basket over her arm and urged the boy to drink the soup.

She knew better than anyone that the boy she loved would never let Chloe face danger alone.

"..."

Lunoire stared blankly at the two of them.

The trust and warmth between them stirred something in her heart.

Making soup for someone, working for someone else. Those were exactly the kinds of things Lunoire had always resisted, yet somehow she found herself feeling envious.

That atmosphere lasted only a few moments.

Bell put down the bowl and remarked, "Syr, there's no way you made this soup yourself."

"Hehe, you got me."

There was not the slightest trace of shame in Syr's smile. "Heith-san from Freya Familia happened to be looking for you, so I took the opportunity to play a little prank on her and had her make this nourishing soup. Well? It tastes good, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. This must have taken a long time to simmer. You really are a devil..."

Bell silently offered his thanks for Heith-san's hard work.

He was highly skilled at cooking, so he could tell that this soup had not only been simmered through the night, but also carried the pink-haired girl's meticulous care.

"Once Heith-san gets some rest, she'll probably come looking for you. Honestly, I wasn't trying to play a prank on her either. It's all Chloe's fault for not being around. Now there's no one left to taste my cooking. Bell, you absolutely have to bring her back."

Syr placed all the blame on the Catgirl.

As their conversation finally began to wind down, Lunoire found her chance to speak.

"Syr, Bell-san just rubbed my brea... my chest. He definitely did it on purpose!"

Even after rehearsing the words several times in her head, Lunoire still stumbled over them.

"Huh? So that's what you meant by 'pervert'?"

Syr kept her gentle smile, making it impossible to tell what she was thinking.

"..."

Bell answered with silence.

He felt like a criminal dragged before a judge, with nothing left to do but await his lover's verdict.

"Exactly! It's unbelievable! Syr, you know how conservative I am about this kind of thing. If anyone ever did that to me, I'd chase them to the ends of the earth and beat some sense into them!"

Lunoire shook her fist.

"That really is a problem... I'll tell Mama Mia about it."

Syr smiled, rose onto her toes, and flicked Bell on the forehead.

"Lunoire, I'll figure something out about your absences over the next few days. In exchange, make sure you give my boyfriend a proper beating. Even if he runs somewhere very, very far away, you have to chase him down."

***

...

...

If you'd like to support my work and unlock advanced chapters, you can follow me on p-@-treon.

[email protected]/PinkSnake (70 Chapters Ahead).

You can also follow as a free member to read a few advanced chapters.

***