Chapter 1749 - 243 - Akane and Tsubasa (2)

Leon's POV

Three days had already passed since we left, and we finally arrived at the island we had planned to stop at before continuing toward the mermaid kingdom. The island itself was surprisingly small, and there weren't many proper buildings scattered around the place. Most of the structures were simple little houses, while the rest seemed to be small shops and stalls gathered around the same general area. Honestly, calling it a village felt like giving it a little too much credit, because the entire place looked more like a marketplace that happened to have people living around it.

Still, it was better than having absolutely nothing.

Serune was walking beside me as we moved through the marketplace, and she seemed to be looking around at practically everything we passed. Her eyes kept moving from one stall to another, and whenever she noticed something that caught her interest, she would slow down slightly to get a better look at it.

She wasn't really looking for anything specific, either.

At least, that's what it seemed like.

She simply appeared curious about the place, and honestly, it was kind of cute seeing her act that way. She had always been fairly composed, so watching her become interested in random things around the island made her seem a little more carefree than usual.

"We should probably stock up on food while we're here," I said as we continued walking through the marketplace. "After leaving this island, we're going directly to the mermaid kingdom. Judging from the distance we'll have to travel, I guess it'll take us at least a week before we actually get there, wouldn't it?"

"Stock up?" Serune looked at me with a slightly confused expression. "But we still have plenty of food in storage, don't we?"

"Well, I'm just trying to make sure nothing goes wrong," I explained while glancing toward one of the nearby stalls. "Right now, I think it's better for us to have more resources than we actually need rather than suddenly realizing that we're running low halfway through the journey. If something unexpected happens along the way, having enough supplies could make things much easier for us."

"I see..."

Serune seemed to understand what I was getting at, and she gave a small nod before looking around the marketplace again.

Then, almost as if she had suddenly remembered something completely unrelated, she turned toward me.

"By the way, Leon... Have you and Shredica got something going on between you?"

She changed the subject so quickly that I almost didn't have enough time to process what she had just asked.

For a moment, I simply stared at her.

It felt like she had somehow looked straight through me just by observing my expression, which was slightly uncomfortable considering I hadn't even realized that I was giving anything away.

"Why do you think that?" I asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"Well, you two seem to look at each other quite often."

Were we really doing that?

I knew that Shredica had been looking at me from time to time. That much had already become fairly obvious to me, but I hadn't really considered the possibility that I was doing the exact same thing toward her.

Now that Serune had pointed it out, however, I couldn't help but think about it.

Thinking back on it, she might have actually been right.

There had been quite a few moments when Shredica and I had exchanged glances, and while none of them had really lasted long, they happened often enough that someone observing us from the outside could probably notice it.

Well, that certainly made things more complicated.

At this point, I wasn't entirely sure how I was supposed to approach the situation. I didn't want to move too quickly because I could still be wrong about everything. Assuming something without enough evidence would only make things unnecessarily awkward, and I really didn't want to create a problem where there wasn't one.

Still, there were already multiple clues suggesting that Akane and Shredica were actually the same person.

I hadn't completely confirmed it yet, but the pieces were slowly starting to fit together.

Because of that, I figured it would be better to establish the connection gradually rather than immediately jumping to a conclusion and making a fool of myself.

"Well, we're not exactly fighting, you see," I said after thinking about my answer for a moment. "We're just usually quiet around each other. That's basically how things have always been between us, so you don't really have to worry about anything."

"You say that, but wouldn't people who are always quiet around each other normally avoid looking at each other this much?" Serune asked.

Well, she had a point there.

I couldn't exactly argue against that.

If Shredica and I genuinely had nothing to do with one another, then there shouldn't really be any reason for us to keep looking at each other whenever we happened to be nearby.

It was such a simple observation, yet somehow hearing it from someone else made the whole situation feel much more obvious.

"I don't think it's healthy for the two of you to keep acting like this, you know?" she added.

Was she actually right about that?

After thinking about it for a while, I supposed she probably was.

Having a relationship like this certainly wasn't particularly healthy, although calling it a relationship in the first place might have been stretching the meaning of the word a little too far.

Shredica and I weren't lovers.

We weren't exactly close friends either.

There was simply something strange between us that neither of us had really addressed.

At least, that's what I wanted to believe for now.

"You don't have to worry about it for the moment," I said, giving her a small smile.

"If you really say so," she replied.

Her tone made it fairly obvious that she wasn't completely convinced, but she didn't push the subject any further, which I appreciated.

After walking around the marketplace for a little while longer, we eventually bought everything we needed. We picked up additional food, meat, and several other supplies that could be useful during the journey ahead.

Once we had finished shopping, I felt a little more comfortable about our situation.

As long as we continued moving forward like this, everything should be fine.

At least, that's what I hoped.

Afterward, I began putting the additional food and meat into our storage while keeping track of what we already had. There was plenty of room left, so organizing everything wasn't particularly difficult.

While I was doing that, however, something suddenly caught my attention.

At first, I thought I had simply seen someone wearing an outfit that looked vaguely familiar.

Then I looked again.

I had just spotted a Republican soldier sitting nearby and casually eating his food.