PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

′′ Did you enjoy dinner Sasha? ′′

′′ Ah? Oh, sure it was delicious. . . wait, why the hell are you asking about dinner? Although I had clearly enjoyed it, I think we have more important things to talk about. ′′ At first, Sasha replied somewhat distracted but as soon as she finished processing my question she lunged at me.

′′really? What do you think? ′′ I asked with some mockery at her exasperation.

′′ We could start with that you are from another world, we could also talk about your mission in my world or we could talk about what you plan to do when you finish that mission. ′′

′′ The first thing I think speaks for itself and I really don’t see what else to add, as for the second the truth is that my mission is quite simple: to collect a large number of mineral materials from the area.

Regarding the third. . . well, I guess I would collect my payment and go back to my world to deal with my own circumstances there and before you ask the answer is yes. ′′ That simple I answered all the questions she had asked and even added the answer for what would surely be her next question.

′′ Yes? ′′

′′ You can come with me, the next question was what would you do, right? I can see that you don’t like people very much in this world, but you don’t enjoy living alone in this forest either, and even though you have a lot of affection for this house; What you loved most about this place was that your teacher was always here to welcome you with open arms. . . But that’s no longer true. ′′ Although it was not entirely nice of me to put things that way, I did not want to have to think about the same issue over and over again so I explained my reasoning to Sasha.

.....

′′ Is it so obvious that I feel alone?′′ This time her question was not prompted by curiosity and a tone of sadness was clearly perceptible from Sasha’s words.

′′ Everything else aside, the simple fact that you invited a stranger to live in your house speaks for itself. ′′

Unfortunately, although I wanted to comfort the girl in front of me, I also felt the need to scold her for her own naivety; God only knows what might have happened if she had invited another stranger to her home. Although to be honest I also cannot be considered a person that a girl should invite to come through the door, especially if you consider that it only took me a couple of days to get my hands on the vermilion-haired girl scold.

′′ Can I really go with you? ′′ Sasha asked this time looking at me with those beautiful eyes of hers full of longing.

′′ of course. ′′ I answered with confidence.

′′ Will Claire not be angry?′′ Despite my positive response, Sasha still asked a second time only this time she referred to a particular problem.

′′. . . I hate to admit it, I really do. . . but the truth is that she has forgiven me for even worse things, she is also a good girl, if she knows what you have been through I am sure that she will not hesitate to open the doors of our home and knowing her I am sure that you should be able to take good. . . as to whether it will be okay for her to have more than friendship between you and me. . . we’ll worry about it later. ′′

This time I definitely did not sound as confident and dominant as before, but who can blame me, Claire was special to me and she knew it, but it was also true that my past as a womanizer did not set a good precedent; the only point in my favor was that it was Sasha who said I could bring girls home. . . Of course, God only knows if that will be enough to prevent her from killing me.

As for the rest of what I said, well that was true, Claire was a kind-hearted girl so I’m sure she wouldn’t close the doors on a girl like Sasha, but that was also the only certainty I had about how she would react.

In my defense, this situation took me by surprise as much as it would do to her, after all, although I was a career womanizer, the reality is that I had never felt truly fond of any woman in my past besides Claire; so the whole thing with Sasha was a bit unexpected even for me.

The only reason I could think of was that for the first time in a long time I felt more myself than I have ever felt, this might seem a bit strange to many, but I had spent my entire life living to fulfill my promise to Claire at the same time that I tried to escape my past.

After accepting that part of me that I had repudiated so much and having confessed everything about my past to Claire, I felt that a huge burden on my shoulders had been lifted and after that conversation with Claire where she told me that I should also start thinking about what I wanted, I realized that in all this time that had passed I had been faithful to my promise at the cost of being true to myself.

Of course, all these events had brought a change to my mentality that resulted in a change in my behavior, but of all the possible results of this, the one I would have least expected was that I would end up falling in love with another girl besides Claire.

Not that anyone in my position could deny that Sasha was a girl who was hard not to love, after all her exotic beauty was accompanied by a great personality rare to find in my world as well as an exceptional talent in alchemy.

Although there could be even more reasons behind all this, I think all those that are of importance have already been mentioned, as for why I invited her to come to my world and live with me, well that was quite simple: she felt alone and it seemed to me That leaving aside the love triangle, I thought that she would feel better living in a place where she could at least have one friend, which in this case would be Claire.

After chatting a bit more with Sasha about what my world was like, she started asking me a few things about Claire, when I asked her why Sasha said it was because she wanted to be able to make a good first impression on Claire so she could get along with her; I must say that Sasha took this matter very seriously because she even took a notebook and started taking notes.

Although I found it a bit funny, I decided not to comment on it, at least Sasha was preparing the best she could to please Claire and be able to have a friendship with her; meanwhile, I could only smile bitterly at a cruel deed. . . I was in trouble, no matter what was said in the past or how things ended in the end, there was no way it would save me from a cruel fate when I got home; after all, nothing changed the fact that I would arrive home where a woman who loved me greatly awaited me and the first thing she would see would be that I came with another girl behind me.

And although Claire would already have some resistance to these types of scenarios given my past, things were different now, we were supposed to be in a relationship now and therefore I really had no idea how Claire would react. . . I just hope she doesn’t get too mad.

′′ I really have to be the biggest idiot in the world. ′′