‘Brutal.’
That was his brief impression of the count.
The lord who ruled the city of Sauer.
A grotesquely bloated body that did not match his sharp features.
That arrogance as he greedily stuffed meat into his mouth and gave a perfunctory gesture toward the viscount and Hio.
The word that condensed all of those actions was brutal.
“He is the self-proclaimed mage I mentioned before. I thought he might bring even a little amusement to Your Lordship’s meal...”
“Enough.”
Cutting off the viscount, the count pointed at Hio with a hand glistening with grease.
“So you’re the one who calls himself a mage or whatever.”
Hio lifted his hat slightly and bowed politely.
After all, even a brutal pig like that was still a noble.
“Yes. I am Hio Pavlenko of the Pavlenko family.”
“Pavlenko... Never heard of that house.”
He set down the meat bone he had been gnawing on with a clack and stretched out his hand. A maid quickly approached and wiped the grease from it.
“Show me this magic of yours.”
Even at the count’s arrogant command, Hio did not so much as frown and immediately set his circle rotating.
‘Maybe... I should drag it out a little.’
The spells he had now were all low-grade magic, and he had mastered them perfectly, so he could cast them one after another without delay.
But where would be the fun in that?
What the count wanted was amusement.
And what Hio wanted was the patience that would create a highest-tier skill.
So Hio decided to put on a bit of a show.
“Huuup!”
He needlessly furrowed his brow, pretended to concentrate, and drew everyone’s attention.
“Haaap!”
He exaggerated his movements, making them grand, and struck his staff down with a thud.
He felt every gaze in the room gather on him.
Was something truly incredible about to appear?
They stared at him with eyes half filled with expectation and half with suspicion.
“O flame that burns all things...”
To answer those gazes, he began reciting an incantation he did not need to make up at all.
“Manifest before me! Fire!”
Once again, he struck his staff down with a thud and shouted the spell with all his might.
Despite all that commotion, he invested only a tiny speck of mana.
And the result was—
“...Hm?”
A small, adorable flame popped out like a matchlight.
After a brief silence.
“Wahahahaha!”
The count’s laughter rang out thunderously.
“What sort of worthless nonsense was that! Hahahaha! It’s so shabby I can hardly speak!”
Hio had expected and intended for this to some degree, so he was calmer than he thought he would be.
However...
“Wahahahaha! Now that I look at you, even your expression is downright stupid! Don’t just stand there like that. Why not shake your backside too! Hahahaha!”
As if something were unbearably funny, the count slammed the table again and again, laughing as though he might stop breathing.
“So stupid... so pathetic that I can’t stop laughing! Wahahaha!”
Seeing that, even the viscount beside him joined in obsequiously.
“When I first saw him, I too thought he was terribly pathetic. I am truly glad Your Lordship enjoys him. Hehehe.”
“Ah, yes, yes. You were the one who brought this blockheaded mage here, weren’t you, adjutant?”
“Yes! Hehehe. I knew at first glance. This stupid-looking self-proclaimed mage would surely entertain the count! That was what I thought.”
Listening carefully to the conversation between the two, Hio stared blankly into the air.
‘These bastards...’
Was there nothing they wouldn’t say right to a person’s face?
Well, it was true that he had acted with precisely this kind of conversation in mind... so he had no room to complain.
[Hidden Trait: Violence Is Not Okay! (Patience: 892 / 1000)]
Thanks to that, his patience was steadily rising.
The patience attached to the hidden trait did not necessarily have to be patience toward violence.
All he had to do was endure.
No matter what it was, no matter what emotion it was.
Ah, of course, what he was enduring right now was patience toward violence.
Because he wanted to rush over right this instant and smack that fat-filled head with his knuckles.
“This is amusing, self-proclaimed mage. Show me a few more of those spells of yours.”
“Yes.”
After that, what unfolded was a comedy show disguised as Hio’s magic show.
Whenever he smoothly cast a spell, the count and viscount would clutch their bellies and cackle as if it were the funniest thing in the world.
[Hidden Trait: Violence Is Not Okay! (Patience: 911 / 1000)]
The fact that his patience was rising at a decent pace meant he was enduring that much.
It would have been difficult not to be irritated when they were making such a fuss right in front of him.
“Hahaha! Rather than leaving it at this, some honored guests will be coming in a few days. Perform once more before them.”
Before he knew it, Hio’s magic show had become a performance.
‘You want me to do this again?’
He did not think there was any reason to stay several more days just to do this, so Hio was about to refuse.
“Ah, bring that to our amusing mage over there.”
But when he opened the wooden box the butler handed him, he had no choice but to nod quickly.
Because the inside of the box was filled with glittering gold.
“I will do my best! My lord count!”
It was far too much money to refuse.
* * *
“Mr. Mage isn’t here either... What should I play?”
Hio had been called away by the count.
Rolling around on the wide bed, Irina was wholly absorbed in thinking about what she should do today.
A few days ago, when she had first been guided to this spacious room, she had been so shocked.
A large room and clean bedding.
A warm bath for the first time in her life and soft cloth that was not rough against her skin.
“C-Can I really stay here...?”
Delicious food and a warm place to sleep.
Was it really all right for her to enjoy such things?
The first thing that came to mind was the children who would still be wandering the streets today.
If possible, it would have been nice if the other children could enjoy these things with her...
“We caught those bad thieves thanks to you, Irina. This is a proper reward for that.”
“A reward...”
Unlike Irina, who wandered around as if the splendid, spacious room felt awkward, Hio sprawled peacefully on the bed and nodded as if it were only natural.
“If you catch bad people, a reward like this is only to be expected. So don’t think about anything else and enjoy the moment.”
“Yes!”
Whether she had properly understood those words or not, from that day on, Irina began to enjoy herself properly.
She ate piles of delicious food, rolled around all day on the wide bed, and excitedly ran up and down corridors wider than the back alleys.
“...Her adaptability is insane.”
The fact that she had approached him without hesitation had already seemed unusual, but her sociability was tremendous.
To the point that she was already exchanging greetings with the maids and guards she often saw.
After playing and running around for a long while like that, she would return to the room and chatter away.
“Among my friends, there’s Tom, and Hardy, and Jardin, and also...”
As if she never got tired, she would not stop talking even while eating or resting.
What she mostly talked about were the friends she had grown up with on the streets.
“Tom has been hanging around bad grown-ups lately, but Tom is still a kind friend!”
“I see.”
“Wow! This is delicious! Mr. Mage, you should hurry and try it too!”
“Mm...”
Several days passed that way.
“Hio Pavlenko. The viscount is looking for you.”
When Hio was called away, Irina suddenly grew terribly bored.
Even if she opened the book Hio read every day, she could not understand a single thing written in it.
As expected, she would have to go out and find something to play with.
“Sophie said she couldn’t play with me today, so should I go see Mister Jeff?”
During the few days she had stayed in the lord’s castle, Irina had become friendly with several maids, servants, and guards.
“Mm! I should go see Mister Jeff after all!”
Having made up her mind, she energetically left the room.
The corridor was broad as always, and because this was an annex beside the main castle, Irina could run around to her heart’s content.
From what she had heard, it was a building constructed separately for receiving guests.
“I wonder where Mister Jeff is?”
Irina wandered here and there through the annex.
And because the servants seemed used to her, they paid her no mind.
“Huh? He’s not here either?”
He was not even at the entrance of the building where Jeff usually stood guard.
Perhaps it was shift change, because guards with unfamiliar faces were gathered there, quietly chatting among themselves.
“Mm... Should I go over there?”
In the end, Irina left the annex and began wandering around inside the castle.
Hio had been called away by the viscount and had not returned.
The people she had become friendly with also seemed strangely absent today, so she was thinking of finding a new friend.
How long had she wandered like that?
Just as unfamiliar scenery began to appear—
“Huh?”
A familiar back came into view.
“...Tom?”
It was a back she had never imagined she would see here, but she was certain.
Was he not her precious friend, one she had grown up with on the streets since she was very young?
There was no way she would fail to recognize him.
“Tom! It’s you, isn’t it, Tom!”
And so Irina ran toward Tom with a bright smile.
“Tom! How did you get here?”
“W-What? Irina?”
Tom also seemed to have never imagined he would meet Irina here, and he flinched in an almost bizarre panic.
“Yeah! It’s me, Irina!”
“Shh! You c-can’t act like you know me here, idiot!”
“Huh? What do you mean...?”
“I don’t know! Go away. Stupid Irina.”
Before she could stop him, Tom shoved Irina away and fled into a dark place.
“Tom!”
Irina tried to chase after him, but Tom vanished without a trace in an instant.
* * *
[Hidden Trait: Violence Is Not Okay! (Patience: 913 / 1000)]
“It’s not bad.”
His patience was filling at a fairly decent speed.
Of course, the fact that he had to do that nonsense again annoyed him, but what could he do?
The completion of his patience was right before his eyes, so he could endure that level of humiliation for a little while.
‘Which spell should I evolve...?’
That was what troubled him.
In truth, he had something in mind.
‘It’s probably right to evolve that one, isn’t it?’
Since he had to think about his future route as well, he could not help but be cautious.
“Hmm.”
While Hio was deep in thought like that, strange sounds kept disturbing his contemplation.
“Hmmm...”
He already had plenty to think about, yet Irina was letting out bizarre sighs with the most serious expression in the world, as if Hio’s worries were nothing at all.
Since she had also been picking at her dinner rather than eating properly, Hio eventually had no choice but to ask.
“Irina. Did something happen today?”
“No, you see, Mr. Mage...”
As if she had been waiting for that very question, Irina shot to her feet.
“After you left, I was bored today, so...”
Irina’s explanation, which began with just how bored she had been, was extremely detailed.
She had been bored, so she flipped through Hio’s book, but the letters were ones she had never seen before in her life, so they were fascinating. What letters were they?
When he told her they were an ancient language, she said, Wow, amazing. Incredible. As expected of Mr. Mage, and so on.
And then she had tried to play with Sophie, but today was her day off, and she went to look for Mister Jeff, and Mister Jeff was this kind of person, and the other day they had played this and that together...
Only after chattering on like that for a long while did she finally get to the main point.
“I met Tom!”
“Tom? That friend of yours, Tom?”
“Yes!”
As if recalling the situation at the time, Irina’s face became gloomy.
“But Tom shoved me and ran away. He said I couldn’t act like I knew him here...”
“Mm...”
She had looked rather serious, so he had listened earnestly, but was this not just a small quarrel between childhood friends going through puberty?
“But Tom’s face was a little strange.”
See that. Judging by the fact that she had even started habitually insulting his face, they must have been very close.
“When you see a friend’s face for the first time in a while, it just looks strangely different and uglier for no reason.”
“...Really? But it didn’t feel like that... His skin color seemed strangely darker, and it looked rougher too.”
“His skin got darker and rougher?”
“Yes! There’s no way I saw wrong. It felt like Tom ran away because he wanted to hide that too.”
Darkened, roughened skin.
One possibility immediately came to mind.
‘...A demonic human?’
It was somewhat out of nowhere, but it was not an entirely impossible thought.
Their appearance was absurdly early, but if it were the possessors who had joined Black Fang, they would more than likely create them for the sake of their own infamy.
However...
“Even if Tom pretends not to, he actually cares a lot about his looks. He must be terribly stressed by now...”
How could he say such a thing to Irina?
‘For now... let’s watch a little longer.’
For the moment, it was still only a slightly unsettling assumption.