Translator: Haruto.

It’s the morning after our visit to the pancake shop and I, Lulune, have woken up rather early. I don’t want to disturb Mia’s sleep, so I leave my bed as quietly as possible and head to one of the castle’s balconies. After all, I’m sure I’d end up making noise if I just stayed in the room.

The cool breeze of the early hours pleasantly caresses my skin, and as the sun hasn’t risen completely yet, the sky remains partially dyed in darkness.  

“…Huh, Lulune-sama…?” I hear a voice behind me. I turn around and it’s Haruka-san.

I bow slightly and say, “Good morning, Haruka-san. You got up pretty early today.”

“You too, I see. I didn’t expect to find you awake so early in the morning.”

“Hehe, I just woke up all of a sudden, and since I didn’t want to wake up Mia, I came here.”

Haruka-san nods in understanding. She then walks up to me, and says “Lulune-sama… You adore Alize-sama very much, don’t you?”

I’m not certain if she’s asking me whether I adore him as a potential romantic partner or as part of my family, however, the truth is that I do adore him, so I nod and answer, “Yes, he’s very dear to me… I love him.”

“Hehe, I’m a bit jealous. I could never be so honest about my feelings,” Haruka-san says, giggling slightly.

Jealous, huh… Well, I suppose it is something to be envious of. After all, caring about someone this much is truly a wonderful thing.

I lean on the balustrade and take in the view of the town before I say, “I’d like to tell you a little more about our past… about our time as slaves and who we were before we became heroes.”

And, little by little, I begin telling her our story.

“We’d all been caught by a terrible slave merchant. However, on a certain day, someone came to our rescue. Our savior extended his hand to us, and said, ‘Hey there! It’s okay, I’m not a bad guy.’”    

Haruka-san quietly listens to my story as the sun keeps rising in the sky, covering the entire town with light.

“Hehe, now that I think about it, that was quite the suspicious thing to say, and yet to us, it was like a ray of light that broke through the darkness.”

I take a short break and glance at Haruka-san. She’s nodding with a serious look on her face as she waits for me to continue.

“…And so, after Alize-san picked us up, we had the chance to experience all sorts of things: we went to dungeons, traveled together, and… had a bunch of little arguments that only came to an end thanks to Alize-san’s intervention.”  

I stop again and take a deep breath. Haruka-san takes this chance to say in a soothing voice, “I didn’t know the Great Heroes had such rough lives. I totally assumed you had always lived surrounded by luxury and comfort.”

I let out a small laugh and respond, “I’ve heard lots of people think so, too. But in reality, it was the exact opposite. We were poor, so we had to spend our days hunting monsters to survive. We only got to enjoy big meals whenever we managed to catch something big and valuable.”  

The corners of my mouth curve into a smile because of how nostalgic it all feels.

We’ve grown a lot since then; we have money and territories to our name, and everyone adores and praises us now. In the past, people would often criticize us for being nothing more than five young girls, and they also mocked Alize-san who was always by our side. And yet, he still never once entertained the idea of abandoning us or even complained about it.

To be honest, despite how much our circumstances have improved, I was definitely happier back then. But now that I’ve gotten another chance to be with Alize-san, I’m sure the happiness we shared during those hard yet bright days will soon return… Well, three of the girls are absent because of me, but knowing them, they’ll surely be able to find us in no time.

I keep thinking about this and that until the sudden sound of someone running snaps me out of my reverie.

“Lulune! There you are! Thank goodness!”

“Aah, Mia. You’re finally awake.”

“Yes! I couldn’t find you when I woke up so I worried you had sneaked into Alize-san’s room like you used to!”

Right, I would often sneak into his room whenever I got scared. And for some reason, Mia would do the exact same thing whenever she’d catch me in the act. Akane and Ayesha, on the other hand, liked to pretend to be more mature than their age so they always refrained from joining in. As for Nina, well, it’d depend on how she was feeling; sometimes she’d sneak in with us and sometimes she wouldn’t.

“Come on now, I’m a little too old to be sneaking into his bed.”

“So you say, but you actually considered it, didn’t you?”

…I can never hide anything from Mia, huh. I guess that’s just what happens when you spend 15 years together with someone.

“What were you two chatting about anyway?” Mia asks.

“Ahh, we were just talking about the past,” I answer.

Haruka-san giggles and says, “Yes, Lulune-sama just shared a beautiful story with me.”

“About the past, huh! Wonderful! I also have many stories to tell you!” Mia exclaims happily as she starts narrating various anecdotes of our time with Alize-san.

It seems our little early morning chat has just begun…

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