Y/n's pov

The morning came and went quickly. After waking up I carefully got out of Fitoria's hold without waking her up, then I made a small fire to cook something to eat. By the time I finished cooking, Fitoria had woken up. Once we ate, we cleaned up the area and snuffed out the fire and buried the coals, then we started travelling. There was another dragon hourglass on the lands Fitoria had taken us to, however we decided to travel by foot instead of teleporting so that we could earn experience and get a general lay out of the land. The area was covered in trees but it wasn't dense forest. However, without any clear paths we had to travel carefully. As we traveled, I made sure to map out the area's we traveled, a skill that I picked up from my time in the other world. By the time the sun was above our heads, we had found ourselves at the edge of a cliff, looking down at the land.

At the bottom of the cliffs, there was an empty plains field, in the distance, the plains led into a valley with a large snowy mountain visible at the end. On one side of the plains there was a bunch of hills with trees that looked like cherry blossoms in the spring, however in the middle of them all there was one large tree that was several times larger than any other tree around. On the other side of the plains, there was a beach with large rocks forming a half ring out into the water. I sighed and sat down, taking out the map i'd drawn and started mapping what I could see. Fitoria looked over at me as I was making the map and spoke "What are you doing?" "I'm making a map of the area. If I understand the layout of this area and what monsters appear around here, I can take advantage of the terrain and come up with strategies in case there is monster I cant handle" Fitoria nodded and sat down next to me, watching as I finished mapping out the area.

After I finished, I stored the map away and pat Fitoria's head "alright, we are set to go. Which area is the dragon hourglass at?" Fitoria pointed over at the large tree in the cherry blossom like forest "It's inside the base of that tree." I nodded and stood up, stretching a bit "alright, lets find a way off this cliff then we can make our way towards that tree. We might have to camp for one more night before reaching it though." Fitoria nodded "that's fine" I held a hand out and helped her up, turning to start walking only to notice that she hadn't let go of my hand. I looked back at her "Are you gonna let go?" She shook her head "No, I will hold onto this" I sighed and started walking. Fitoria followed by my side, holding my hand as we walked. After a while I spoke "someone might think you like them if you hold their hand like this for no obvious reason" Fitoria frowned and spoke up "I'm just doing what I feel is right. . . and it feels like this has happened before." I looked back at her "You are trying to remember your past then." She looked down in thought before speaking quietly "Maybe.." "That's fine, just try not to get your memories and emotions mixed together." she looked up at me "Why" "you will start mistaking people for others. Then you get too attached, or let yourself relax around someone you don't really know." Fitoria frowned "Would it be wrong for me to trust in you?" "I can't even trust myself."

The walk was silent for a while after that, we continued walking nearby the cliff side until we found ourselves at a slow incline where the forest began to thin out and lead into the beginning of the hills covered in the cherry blossom like trees. I stared at the trees as we walked "Fitoria, what kind of tree is this?" Fitoria looked at the tree as well "They are called Fairy Willows, Elves and Fairy make their homes out of the wood of these trees. It's sap keeps weaker monsters away, but some strong monsters like to eat it." I nodded and carefully pulled a twig off the end of one of the branches, feeding it into the gem on my bracelet and watching as 4 new things unlocked. [Fairy willow charm bracelet], [Fairy willow wicker chain], [Shaped Fairy willow endings], and [Fairy wood shaping knife end]. I sighed and looked over at Fitoria again "Now would be the best time to set up camp for the night. Can you set up a fire?" Fitoria nodded and started getting stuff to make a fire. While she did that, I took out my map and added the areas we passed on it. Once I finished that, I took out 2 bedrolls from my inventory and laid them out with blankets on them. After taking out other things for the night, I went over to one of the trees and climbed up into it. I took some seeds from the tree and stored them in my inventory before using a tapper to collect some of the tree sap in bottles for later experiments. I then broke off a branch and equipped the [Fairy wood shaping knife end] to the end of my chain. I opened up my menu and looked through what the knife end would allow me to do. It allowed for me to use skills to make accessories out of any kind of Fairy wood; including Fairy willow, Fairy Birch, Fairy oak, and Fairy bark.

I took out a few stones and gems then tried to use the crafting skills to make an accessory. The result was a single accessory item, unlike the usual 3-5 items that the skills make. I looked over it to check it's quality. It was a wooden crown shaped by twisted twigs similar to the shape of a flower crown, however some twigs branched out above the main circle to form the spikes of a crown. The stones and gems that were used to make it formed a vague shape of a fairy's wings. When using and observation skill, I gathered extra information about the crown. It had a name which was probably why it was the only accessory made using the skill. [The Fairy Crown] when worn allows the wearer to use the skill [Air step]. If supplied with constant mana, grants the wearer wings to fly on. If the wearer cuts a finger using the spikes of the crown it was temporarily become the unholy artifact [Thorny Crown of The Guilty]. I stared at the crown for a while before putting it in my inventory, along with any left over materials.

I returned to the area I set out the camp supplies and saw Fitoria sitting by a fire. She looked up at me and stared blankly before speaking "Food." I sighed and took out things for cooking, quickly setting up over the fire and starting to cook food for me and Fitoria. The whole time I cooked, Fitoria stared at the food. Once Finished, I handed Fitoria her food and she quickly began eating. I chuckled softly and began eating my own portion of the food. As we ate, the sun set and revealed another wonderful quality of the Fairy willow trees. Once light of the sun had dissipated into dark, the leaves of the tree slowly began to glow a soft pink color. I could only stare as bulbs once hidden by the leaves began to spread out into blue and violet flowers were revealed.

After a while of staring, I felt something press against my shoulder. I looked over and saw a head of silver hair leaning against my shoulder. I stared a bit and spoke "Fitoria, what are you doing?" She stayed silent for a bit before replying "leaning on you" I sighed "I know that, but why are you leaning on me?" Once again, it took her a while before she responded "Tired" I pat the top of her head with my opposite arm "I set out bedrolls, you can go lay down and get to sleep." She wrapped her arms around my arm and spoke quietly "no" I frowned a bit "why not?" She held my arm tightly "I want to sleep next to you" I pat her head more, frowning still"any reason for that?" "you are warm and it feels nice to sleep next to you" I sighed once more and looked at her "alright, fine. let me put out the fire and then we can go to bed" She got off my shoulder and watched me as I stood up and snuffed out the fire. After that I put away one of the bedrolls and looked at Fitoria "come on" She shook her head "carry me" I stared blankly at her "Really?" She nodded and said once more "carry. me." I sighed and walked over to her, picking her up and carrying her with me to the bed. Despite her being a fully grown person, she wasn't heavy at all, surprising light in fact. I carefully laid her down on the bedroll before laying down on it next to her. After pulling the blankets over us, I stared up at the night sky and watched the stars as I waited for my body to drift to sleep.

I opened my eyes in the morning, feeling a weight on my chest. Looking down, I saw Fitoria half laying on me, sleeping. I sighed softly and pat her head gently before carefully moving her off me. I slipped out of the bedroll and stood up, stretching a bit before taking out stuff to eat for breakfast. I decided to just eat jerky since I didn't want to start another fire. I ate a few pieces while staring at Fitoria. She was curled up in a ball as she slept with a smile on her face, unlike her normal stoic expression. I finished eating half the jerky and closed the bag, cleaning off my hands before sitting down by the bedroll, petting Fitoria. I kept petting her until she eventually she woke up. She stared up at me as I stopped petting her. After a moment of silence, she spoke up "Why'd you stop?" I stared at her "If I keep petting, you wont get up" She huffed and stood up then sat by me, staring at me "There, I'm up." I handed her the bag of jerky "Here, breakfast." She took it and opened it, after seeing what was inside she started eating. She glanced over at me while she ate, staring at my hand. I sighed and started petting her as she ate, and she closed her eyes as she ate.

Once she finished her food, I packed up all the stuff into my inventory and we began walking again. The walk was silent for a bit until Fitoria spoke up "y/n, do you believe that the heroes will be able to reconcile?" I sighed and shook my head "No, even if Naofumi is proven innocent, the heroes are all on different mindsets. Motoyasu will never trust Naofumi no matter what, especially when he is being manipulated by the girls he surrounds himself with. Ren thinks this is all a game, expecting skills and power to be handed to him if he asks enough. Itsuki wants to play as a rouge hero that helps the unfortunates, but he doesn't think everything through. And Naofumi is stubborn, he wont treat them kindly unless they shape up to his standards, and even if they do he will be suspicious of them because of how they've treated them." Fitoria frowned and nodded "So you think there is no hope for the heroes?" "No, I think there is no chance they will get along with another. It might still be possible for them to work together if there is a threat that endangers all of them." Fitoria scoffs "The calamity is not a big enough threat for them?" I sighed "They think that because they are chosen heroes, they wont have to fear it. They haven't seen the whole picture, and they are still fighting to be heroes to the people. Unlike you and me, they don't completely understand what happens if they fail."

Fitoria stares at me "We can't be the heroes of this world, we might be able to hold off the waves for now, but eventually we wont be able to handle it alone." I nodded "I've come up with a simple but stupid idea that might help the heroes fight together." Fitoria stared "What is it?" I looked down at her "When the Pope of the three hero church threatened all of them, they were able to overcome their differences and fight together. They see the monsters spawned for the calamity as simple enemies so they saw no reason to improve together. It's obvious that the only thing they are missing if a villain." Fitoria nodded a bit "What are you suggesting we do then?" I stared into her eyes "This is going to sound edgy and stupid, but Fitoria, would you like to become a villain with me and defeat the heroes?"

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A/n:

until next time.