"Noxy~ Noxy~." I heard an familiar voice whispering, calling my fake name.
I slowly opened my eyes and sat for a moment, drifting in a daze.
Gradually my vision began to recover, and I looked to see who had woken me at this early hour.
I saw Nicolle waving her hand in front of me to make sure I was fully awake.
"Sis Nicolle? What's going on? Um... what time is it?" I rubbed my eyes.
Nicolle answered.
"Ah, it's 3 in the morning. Don't make noise, alright. We're going to make something delicious for everyone from the forest out back."
In a half-awake state, she pulled me along to get ready.
Once I finished getting dressed, I went out to where Sis Nicolle was, and she immediately handed me a large rattan basket shaped like a backpack.
"So what are we going to harvest?" I asked while strapping the basket onto my back.
Nicolle carefully opened the back door, making almost no sound at all.
Once we were outside, she answered.
"There are a lot of edible mushrooms out back, and this should be the harvest season for them."
We then began making our way into the forest.
Accompanied by a fresh morning breeze drifting through the falling leaves.
The grass and flowers around us appeared to sway and dance in the wind.
"How is it? Refreshing, isn't it?"
Sis Nicolle glanced toward me.
I nodded slowly, even slightly enchanted by the scenery around me.
The air was wonderfully refreshing.
I heard a faint sound of laughter being suppressed.
I turned toward Sis Nicolle.
Just as I suspected, she was the one laughing.
"What's so funny?!" I sharpened my expression.
Nicolle held back her laughter after seeing my face.
"Nothing, it's just that your reaction makes me want to tease you."
I looked away, full of embarrassment.
Is it really that funny?
"Forget it! Let's just keep looking for mushrooms." I said it in a raised tone to redirect her attention. Even so, Sis Nicolle was still smiling while looking at me. I could feel it from the back of my neck!
Not long after that, I spotted mushrooms with brown caps and grey stems.
I turned toward Sis Nicolle, approached her, and held the mushroom up in front of her face.
"Sis Nicolle, are these mushrooms poisonous?"
Sis Nicolle suddenly patted her own stomach and burst out laughing very loudly.
"Why though?! I was just asking." I said in an annoyed tone.
"It's just that you were acting so mature just a moment ago, and then you suddenly went all helpless like that..."
Nicolle laughed again.
A short while later Nicolle's laughter finally died down. Looking at her with a fed-up mood, I spoke.
"Done yapping?"
Nicolle pointed slowly toward the mushroom.
"Those are safe to eat. Those are pine branch mushrooms, named for their shape resembling pine tree branches. They taste like savory fish meat." Nicolle explained while holding back a laugh.
"Oh... alright then." I picked up the mushroom, and a black holographic panel appeared.
On the holographic panel was written: "Nox has picked up the item: pine branch mushroom."
"What is this game notification?!"
Then the hologram displayed: "Balance has realized the description of her current behavior."
"HEY, BLACK BOARD, WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU?!" The panel then displayed: "Balance is questioning the function of the description board."
"I GIVE UP."
I furrowed my brow at the mysterious panel, then walked away from it while maintaining the virtue of not punching the description board.
After finding some calm, I continued harvesting mushrooms.
"Nox?" Hearing Nicolle's voice, I turned toward it.
Instantly I saw Nicolle standing right beside me, very close. She was pressing her hand to my forehead.
OF COURSE I WAS GENUINELY STARTLED.
Nicolle let out a sigh.
"Thank goodness you don't have a fever. You've been acting a bit strange since earlier, but you're not sick or dizzy, right?"
Nicolle asked with a gentle, concerned expression.
"Ah... I'm fine." I looked away from her.
"Really? But your face is red, you know." Said Nicolle in a teasing tone.
"D-Didn't you already check just now?" I said in a stumbling tone.
Nicolle gave a small laugh.
"Oh right, I thought you had forgotten about that."
She then smiled.
After picking quite a few mushrooms from the area, we walked back toward the headquarters.
At this moment, it might be the right time to ask about that.
"Sis Nicolle!"
Sis Nicolle responded to my call.
"Sis Nicolle, what happened to your party's first DPS?" I asked.
Nicolle stopped walking, her expression falling as she looked up at the clear sky.
"Nox, why are you asking about that?"
I put on a serious face while explaining to her.
"In the room you gave me... I found a worn and faded photograph of all of you... and... the famous Hero."
Nicolle walked toward a leafy tree and sat down on one of the curves of a large exposed root.
"Come here, Nox. This might be a cliche love story, but it will answer your curiosity."
I followed her invitation to sit beside her, though I kept a noticeably large gap between us.
Nicolle then began her story.
It started when I was 15 years old, about 17 years ago.
Delima High School was where I first met him.
During the opening orientation period, the shouts of each group leader calling their teams rang out in every direction.
I was placed in the apricot group alongside him, the first DPS of our team, "TRODAIRE LUCE." And you probably know him as HERO: a man with brown hair streaked with yellow, bright yellow eyes, and bangs falling across his face. He and I were already like the new stars of the school, so many people supported our relationship, and that was how we came to know each other.
I, Nicolle Kozela, was the only daughter in the well-known Kozela family at the time, and Trodaire was just the son of a newly established businessman with an extraordinary wealth of talent. Given how much news there was about us at school, it would have been stranger if we had not known each other.
In eleventh grade, we passed each other in the hallway after afternoon extracurriculars, beneath the light of a sunset that carried a feeling of longing. Magenta-colored floor tiles, white school walls turned to a blurred orange, and I was daydreaming at the sight of him. At that very moment I accidentally dropped my pen and ran away in embarrassment.
At home, I couldn't settle down because I kept thinking about my embarrassing behavior at school. I rolled back and forth on my bed with a red face, like someone who had lost their mind, until my second oldest sibling and youngest sibling walked in and caught me in the middle of my meltdown.
Of course I threw pillows at them.
"What are you doing in a girl's room?!"
My older and younger siblings teased me relentlessly because of this.
My older and younger siblings were always looking for my faults. Father never saw me as useful, and Mother treated me as though I didn't exist. This was normal for me, and I knew that one day I would be sold off when the family was on the verge of collapse, in order to maintain their lifestyle.
The next morning, I saw my classroom surrounded by a crowd of people.
"Um... excuse me, I'd like to get through."
And there was the Hero, sitting on my desk, then turning to look at me and waving his hand, which left both the crowd of girls and myself completely captivated.
With what courage I had, I walked toward him.
"What brings you here?"
The Hero smiled at me.
"I wanted to return the pen you dropped yesterday evening."
I took my pen back, full of embarrassment.
"Th... thank you."
The school bell rang. The Hero began to get up from my seat and made plans to become friends.
"See you again." That was what he said as he walked back to his class.
This was where it truly began. We grew close over three years. The two of us, Trodaire and I, finally decided to start dating, with Rock, my childhood friend, opposing our relationship.
A cafe where the three of us talked.
"THIS MAKES NO SENSE, NICOLLE! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HIM!" Rock raised his voice.
"What do you mean, Rocky? He's kind to me." Nicolle held the Hero's hand.
"Nicolle, let's talk this afternoon." Rock urged me with a furrowed expression.
Rock stood up from his chair and looked at the Hero.
"You don't need to come along, Trodaire!" He stared at Tro with a cold look.
Trodaire smiled in agreement. I felt guilty and immediately bowed my head toward the Hero.
"Please forgive my childhood friend, Tro. He might be a little jealous."
This was the moment Tro began his move.
"Nicolle, you know about my father's company that's nearly bankrupt, don't you?"
I nodded.
"Please provide some of your assets to support our company."
I was shocked. Of course that should not have been done, but because I was blinded by love, I gave him everything. Everything, to the point where even the thin red barrier that guarded the purity of my body was surrendered.
This continued until we received contracts from our gods. Party SUNFLOWER was named after the flower the Hero liked.
The rifts we fought were consistently level S, yet only the Hero received attention, never us.
After one year of the party's formation, Areta and Riel joined when they were both 19 years old. And when my family was on the verge of collapse, my father forcibly engaged me to the heir of a wealthy family I did not like, to make me more "useful."
I mean, seriously. He was decades older than me!
No one defended me at that time. And that night when the storm came, I fled to the Hero's home.
At the gate of the Hero's home, I was stopped by the guards there.
"TRODAIRE! IT'S ME, NICOLLE! PLEASE LET ME IN, BE... CAUSE IT'S COLD OUT HERE."
The guards who had stopped me finally gave in, but only to push me away.
In the middle of that heavy rain, I saw it.
Through the window of the home he lived in, with a warm fireplace right behind it, I saw him. In the piercing cold, standing outside in the rain, I froze in place with a look of desperation.
At that moment he responded with a sly smile while flirting with a woman beside him.
"Why, Tro...?"
Those were my last words to him, in the middle of the storm that kept raging, with lips that had already turned pale.
With a feeling of desperation, eyes that had gone dark without a single glimmer of hope, wearing wet pajamas that were slightly transparent, no shoes, and a thin wet blanket to cover myself, I kept walking without realizing where I was going, until I arrived at the headquarters in a pitiful state.
My friends were shocked at my condition. Rock quickly embraced me while asking gently and softly what had happened. But my breathing and my chest were too constricted to explain it. When I finally found my voice, my eyes began to glisten as they released their tears of sorrow. My voice was hoarse and difficult to push out, and I held Rock tightly while explaining in broken fragments.
Rock stroked my head calmly while encouraging me at that time. And now, this is where we are.
Sis Nicolle had finished her story. She turned to look at me with a warm smile, against the beautiful backdrop of the rising sun.
"So Noxy, please understand Rock's behavior. He only wants to protect us, just as his class as a shielder calls him to do."
I nodded slowly.
Then I glanced at the mushrooms we had gathered.
"So, Nicolle, how are we going to cook these?"
Nicolle answered.
"How about crispy mushrooms with black pepper sauce?"
"That sounds absolutely delicious!" I answered cheerfully.
We headed back to the headquarters to cook the mushrooms we had gathered.
Nicolle prepared the food while I cleaned the cooking tools and tidied up the seating area.
The smell of the food spread throughout the entire building, waking everyone up in the morning with a wave of surging hunger.
Areta quietly tried to sneak one of the mushrooms, but was slapped away by Nicolle.
"Ow, Sis Nii, why?!" Areta held her stinging hand.
Nicolle stared at Areta with a sharp look.
"Areta, and all of you, you just woke up didn't you? Brush your teeth before eating. You stinky bunch!"
Areta made a disappointed face.
TO BE CONTINUED
The artwork and story are original works by the author. Any resemblance is purely coincidental and the author apologizes for it.
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(This is only a cropped image of the Hero in gender-bender form. The full one-shot is on my Facebook.)