Episode 47. Thornwinter Wetlands
“Just a little, just a little more….”
Binaeril walked, dragging his faltering steps.
Every muscle in his body was screaming.
It was because, after the fight with Dominique, he had driven his body and mind to the limit without a moment’s rest, rushing northwest.
In his current physical condition, he could not face Dominique Siller again.
His opponent was not one who would fall for a trump card utilizing a spirit twice.
His forcibly wrung-out mental strength was exhausted, and his clothes, reduced to rags from the fight with Dominique, hung in tatters.
—See, I told you from the beginning not to catch his eye, didn’t I?
“Shut up….”
But thanks to that, Binaeril was already walking through the reeds.
The reed bed was proof that he had entered the Thornwinter Wetlands.
He needed to come to his senses and find Priya, but he had reached his limit.
“Just a moment… I need to rest….”
Binaeril collapsed among the reeds.
The insects and plants of the wetlands circled around him, buzzing.
A massive shadow was cast over the collapsed Binaeril.
The owner of the shadow flicked its long tongue.
A monster resembling a frog—it was a Bullfrog.
It had been resting while enjoying the midday sun, but lo and behold, what was this windfall?
Hadn’t a delectable prey fallen right before its nose?
The Bullfrog smacked its lips greedily.
When the creature opened its mouth wide, a space large enough for a person to fit comfortably appeared.
Rejoicing at its fortune, the Bullfrog tried to swallow the boy in one gulp.
Just then, a firm command rang out from the bushes.
“Die.”
The Bullfrog bit down on its extended tongue.
Strong venom flowed in the Bullfrog’s blood.
The severed tongue writhed on the ground, and the Bullfrog, its mouth closed, drank its own blood.
The creature’s massive body toppled over just like that.
The Bullfrog’s corpse disappeared into the ground as if sucked in the moment it fell.
Soon after, a woman emerged, parting the bushes where the monster had stood.
“Ugh, really. I shouldn’t have set up base in a place like this for no reason. I’m so fed up!”
The woman waved her hands, chasing away flying insects.
“…What is this now?”
Binaeril, stuck in the mud, his stomach rumbling.
His body was a mess, caked with sweat and mud.
She was someone who pathologically hated dirty things, but since it had been a while since she had seen a person, she patiently examined the collapsed boy carefully.
She could detect traces of mana from the fainted boy.
“…A mage.”
She was the type who didn’t care if a stranger fell over and died somewhere.
But on this land where mages were rare, seeing a young boy collapsed there, she felt a little reluctant to leave him be.
The woman held her nose and lifted the boy with magic.
The mud caked on Binaeril’s clothes squelched and splashed dirty water.
“Argh! How annoying!”
She took the upside-down boy and headed home.
‘Agh… my arm feels like it’s going to fall off…….’
His shoulders hurt terribly, stiff and sore.
As the pain surpassed his exhaustion, he had no choice but to wake up despite himself.
“Oh my, you’re awake.”
‘…What is this situation?’
Binaeril was hanging on a clothesline.
Judging by how unbearably hot his back was, there seemed to be a fireplace right behind him.
Hot, painful, and exhausted.
Moreover, the strange woman he found the moment he opened his eyes did not look like an ordinary person.
White hair, white eyebrows, and a tight white dress that precariously revealed the curves of her body.
The only red thing on her entire body—her lips—held a long pipe like a flute.
“Who are you?”
“…Could you please let me down first?”
“But you haven’t dried yet?”
Only after hearing the woman’s words did Binaeril realize his entire body was soaked.
‘Wait, am I some kind of doll……?’
“My shoulders hurt too much, noona.”
“Hmm… yes, good.”
The woman gave a strange, suggestive smile.
Binaeril quickly read the room and memorized the fact that she liked being called noona.
The woman lifted Binaeril and set him down without changing her seated posture. Several layers of cloth were spread on the floor.
It was magic.
The place where Binaeril had lost consciousness was the Thornwinter Wetlands. Upon waking, an extraordinary woman was using magic before his eyes.
“Are you Priya Meureujina?”
“How do you know my name, little one?”
“The spirit Jilp introduced you to me. Told me to find the mage of the Thornwinter Wetlands.”
“Ah, that rude spirit.”
When Binaeril tried to stand up with his clothes still dripping wet, Priya shouted urgently.
Priya’s mana forced Binaeril to sit back down.
“???”
“Please just sit still. Don’t splash water.”
—She was a mysophobe.
‘Ah.’
Her pure white attire from head to toe finally made sense.
When Binaeril obeyed quietly, Priya calmed down and asked.
“Why, did that spirit tell me to take in a young servant and feed him?”
She said so and licked her lips.
“Certainly.”
A piece of cloth grabbed Binaeril’s chin and turned his head this way and that.
“Now that he’s washed, he’s my type. I like cleanly-looking boys. If only I bleached his hair…….”
Binaeril couldn’t find any words to respond to this reaction he was experiencing for the first time.
Priya was a woman who seemed dangerous in a different sense than Dominique.
“That’s not it. Jilp advised me to find you and learn magic.”
“That guy? You? Why?”
Binaeril explained to her what he had experienced crossing Hohenberg.
But he couldn’t tell her everything. Jilp had ordered Binaeril to be wary of the shard.
Because he couldn’t reveal that in front of Veritas, who was listening.
Veritas did not want Binaeril to know about the “shard.”
Priya, who had been listening quietly to his story, asked back in surprise at one point.
“A spirit?”
“You handle spirits?”
Binaeril summoned Eden and showed her.
A mage, and he handled spirits?
This was no ordinary talent.
But from the energy that followed, Priya forgot everything else.
From the ring Binaeril extended to summon the spirit, she could feel something very familiar yet ominous.
“Your hand, give it here.”
Priya, examining Binaeril’s ring up close, could be certain.
This was the aura of a shard.
Priya resolved not to get involved with the boy.
“I understand your situation. But I can’t help you. I’m going to leave the Thornwinter Wetlands soon.”
“Huh? Why?”
“If you stay in one place too long, rats start swarming. I hate filthy creatures.”
Then Binaeril recalled what Dominique Siller had said.
‘The target is the Witch of Allure. A mage named Priya Meureujina living in the Thornwinter Wetlands.’
He had been chasing the snow-white mage before his eyes.
Binaeril informed her that Dominique Siller was chasing her.
“Ah, that obsessed man. I thought it was about time he picked up my scent. Men who are too obsessed are unpopular, you know? Understand, little one?”
It would have been fine if dozens or hundreds of soldiers who didn’t know how to deal with mages came looking.
But the hunting dog of Count Siller, called the “Witch Slayer,” was a troublesome opponent.
“But he won’t be able to come right away.”
Binaeril also explained about the fight with Dominique near Ayaksen.
“You beat that son of a… ahem, that guy?”
“Yes, well…… I was able to escape while Dominique let his guard down.”
The boy before her was very young. He was also at that tender, downy age that suited her tastes exactly.
And yet he was a mage capable of making Dominique Siller back down?
Priya thought she should remember the boy’s name.
“Hey, little one. What’s your name?”
“I’m Binaeril Dalhaim.”
Priya let out an empty laugh at this incredible coincidence.
‘Dalhaim.’
Now that she thought about it, she remembered.
Her former lover had said he had a younger brother around this boy’s age.
The puzzle pieces in her mind clicked into place.
Why this strange boy possessed a fragment of the shard.
Why she kept getting entangled with the men of House Dalhaim time and again.
Priya came to realize that the meeting she had thought was coincidence was fate.
Her former lover, Nunnaeril Dalhaim, had once said there was a younger brother in his homeland who hated him.
Priya had no choice but to reverse her recent decision.
“If you repelled Dominique Siller, there should be a little time left. Until then, I’ll take a look. At your magic.”
But she added one condition.
“In exchange, you have to attend to this noona at night?”
“Sir Knight, u-uh, your face!”
Dominique crossed the Siller family mansion with venom in his eyes.
It was to report that the expedition would be delayed due to unexpected injuries.
Bloody water seeped through the bandages wrapped tightly around his entire face.
His glossy silver hair was tangled messily and stuck here and there in an unsightly state.
Were it not for the attire he wore, no one would have recognized him as the Knight of Platinum.
Knock, knock knock.
“Who is it?”
Count Siller was not flustered even seeing Dominique’s wretched appearance.
He asked calmly.
“The work of a sewer rat?”
“…Yes.”
“To have reduced you to such a state, it seems it was no common rat.”
“I have no excuse.”
“Very well. Let us set aside the matter of the rat escaping. What business brings you here?”
“I have been injured more severely than expected, and came to report a delay in the expedition for a few days…….”
Count Siller set down his teacup with a sharp clink.
“A report?”
“A report? Commander Siller. Stand up.”
Siller rose from his kneeling position.
“Draw your sword.”
“Quickly.”
It was a puzzling order, but he did as told for now.
“Swing it once.”
Dominique carefully swung his sword so as not to touch the furnishings in the office.
Count Siller nodded with a calm expression, appreciating his swordsmanship, and opened his mouth.
“What is the problem?”
“The only report I can accept from you is one. ‘I have captured the Witch of Allure alive. All preparations are complete.’ Whining that it hurts while swinging your sword with perfectly fine limbs is not a report, but a tantrum.”
“Delayed because of injury? Fine. You look terrible, so I shall permit it. Your unexpected injury. If the expedition to the Thornwinter Wetlands is delayed due to an injury caused by your negligence, and if the witch is lost as a result. Well, it can’t be helped. Because of the injury, after all.”
“What is there to apologize for? If it hurts, go in and rest. You can catch the witch later. You can swing your sword with perfectly fine limbs, but since that pretty face is wounded, how could you appear before people? Now, leave.”
“……Yes.”
Count Siller had not raised his voice even once.
Dominique bit his lower lip hard with shame and rage.
Blood seeped through the tender skin.
A subordinate knight waiting in front approached and asked.
“Commander, what shall we do with the expedition plans?”
“Proceed as planned. Assemble all the soldiers.”