Yara could tell that Lucy wasn't exactly thrilled with her explanation, but she couldn't figure out what was bothering her.
"Well, dark elf traditions aren't very well known, so it was only natural that you wouldn't know much about them...", Yara tried to console her, assuming Lucy was probably worried she'd disappointed her with her lack of knowledge.
"Yeah, they really do seem special...", Lucy replied, a hint of sarcasm slipping into her voice. She couldn't help but think that only someone raised among all sorts of strange customs would think it was a good idea to compare their girlfriend to a terrifying creature.
"...Yeah...", Yara hesitated, afraid to say anything more. Judging by Lucy's expression, it was clear she'd taken the wrong approach.
Rina could barely hold back her laughter at the turn the conversation had taken. Unlike Yara, she was well aware that Lucy had a mild form of narcissism, so she quickly suspected what was behind her irritation.
But since she felt guilty toward Yara because when she heard that Yara planned to leave for almost a month, aside from worrying about her, deep down she had been secretly excited at the thought of getting to spend more time alone with Lucy, she thought she'd lend a hand and help smooth things over.
"Come to think of it, lionkins also have legends about a creature called Morwyhar, although we don't have the tradition of him bringing gifts to children. I remember it being said that, although he has the body of a bat, his face is enchantingly beautiful...", Rina winked at Yara, encouraging her to follow her lead. Since Yara was very intelligent, Rina was sure she'd pick up on where things had gone off-track.
Yara was momentarily confused by Rina's words, but as soon as she saw the sudden spark of interest in Lucy's expression, she understood what she wanted to hear.
"Yes, you're right. That's why the tradition says not to try to see him—because there's a risk you might fall madly in love with his face. And even though his body is that of a bat... umm, it's really fluffy...", Yara began to describe the creature called Morwyhar in a way she hoped would appeal to Lucy's tastes.
But the problem Yara faced was that, although she could praise the human and animal parts of Morwyhar separately, it didn't exactly make the whole creature seem more harmonious—after all, it was still just a bat with a human head.
Luckily, Lucy was the kind of person whose intelligence seemed to diminish when she received compliments. Hearing that the creature she'd been compared to had so many extraordinary physical traits, she quickly began to feel proud. True, she couldn't quite imagine how a human head wouldn't look weird on a bat's body, but she blamed that on her lack of artistic vision.
"Oh, I don't think I've ever heard of anything more beautiful. And here I was thinking it was some kind of terrifying creature, hehe...", Lucy started puffing herself up with pride after Yara stopped talking, having already used up all the epithets and metaphors she knew.
Yara breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that she had managed to make peace with Lucy, and discreetly thanked Rina for her help. Of course, now that she understood the reason for Lucy's distress, she didn't think Lucy would have stayed upset for long, even if she hadn't corrected her mistake; worst case (or best), she could have made it up to her with her own body. But since it's always better to address the cause rather than just the symptoms, she felt that correcting the ill-chosen compliment was the best solution—a belief confirmed by the radiant smile on Lucy's face, which filled her with deep inner satisfaction.
To ensure Lucy didn't have time to find anything else to be displeased with in her description of the Morwyhar, Yara suggested they postpone the conversation and head quickly to the explosion site to check on the marquis's subordinates and Silas, as well as to see if anything could still be recovered from the marquis's son's treasure that had been blown apart.
Since Lucy and Rina were even more interested in these matters than Yara, they had no reason to oppose her proposal. So, the three of them headed back to the place from which they had fled.
Lucy could hardly wait for the so-called mission to capture the marquis's subordinates to be over. All this back-and-forth for various reasons had worn her patience down to the bone. Probably the only thing keeping her sane was the fact that she'd gained yet another extremely attractive girlfriend, her professional accomplishments otherwise being deeply unsatisfying.
When they were about a kilometer away from the explosion site and began spotting the occasional gold coin or piece of a magical device scattered through the grass, Lucy could barely stop herself from cursing as the memories of the day's complications came flooding back, from Rina's injury to the marquis's son's treasure being blown all over the place.
'Maybe I didn't make the best decisions, but it still doesn't feel fair to have so many things go wrong. Could it be that the bad luck from my previous life is finally catching up with me? I've never been a superstitious person, but if it was possible for a goddess to reincarnate me in another world, then maybe a lot of things I thought were imaginary actually exist. What if I'm really cursed with bad luck? Or maybe there's a demon or multidimensional creature out there draining my fortune? It could even be some god tossing obstacles in my path for their own amusement... If that's the case, then that god will become my mortal enemy. Lucy, The Godslayer. Yeah... that actually sounds pretty cool. Either way, I think from now on, every time I assign stat points, I'll put an extra one in the Luck attribute...', Lucy began imagining enemies rather than taking responsibility for her poor decisions. After all, aren't human beings supposed to be the masters of their own fate?
When the ungrateful Lucy and her girlfriends arrived at the spot where they had abandoned the marquis's subordinates and Silas, they were unpleasantly surprised to find that not all of them were still alive. More precisely, Gary, the one whose legs Lucy had cut off, had been flung by the force of the explosion headfirst into a large rock nestled among a tree's roots, probably because he was lighter and encountered less ground friction than those who were still in one piece.
"Umm, I guess it'll be enough to prove to the villagers that I was telling the truth if just two of the marquis's subordinates make it back...", Lucy said, scratching her head after realizing Gary was beyond saving.
No medical degree was needed to figure that out; the fact that his head looked like that of a cartoon character who'd just had an anvil dropped on it made it painfully clear he'd already boarded the one-way train to the afterlife.
Lucy was becoming more and more convinced that someone was intentionally screwing with her. How else could she explain that, barely a minute after mentally declaring war on whatever force was bringing her bad luck, she'd suffered yet another loss?
'Poor... err, whatever his name was. He ended up a casualty in a war he had nothing to do with...', strangely enough, Lucy felt more guilty about what had happened to Gary than she would have if she'd killed him with her own hands.
"That's if they survive until then...", Rina finished Lucy's sentence. Considering they'd already lost half their prisoners in just a few minutes, and the journey back to the village would take hours, things weren't looking good for them statistically.
On any other day, Lucy would've told Rina not to worry. But after everything that had happened, she didn't have the courage to tempt fate with optimism.
"...Let's hope your words don't jinx us...", she said at last, her growing obsession with controlling her destiny making her more superstitious by the minute.
She was now firmly resolved: if the Ninja Shop had any kind of luck-boosting talisman, she'd buy it on the spot, no matter how expensive it was.