“Don’t touch it.”
“Huh?”
“I know it’s pretty, but…… it’s poisonous.”
Mister Leviathan scrunched up his eyes and pulled me far away.
“Sibelita herb.”
“Ah, this is…….”
I stopped myself from correcting him.
Abelita and Sibelita.
The two herbs were so similarly named that they even looked alike on the outside. If you examined them closely, everything was different, but…….
‘Is that how they look to ordinary people?’
The biggest difference was, of course, the blue magical energy surrounding the flower.
Because of that, mages never confused them, but it was difficult for non-mages.
Unless they were extremely knowledgeable about herbs, that is.
“Don’t touch it carelessly. It’ll be big trouble.”
I withdrew the hand I had been about to reach out with and nodded obediently.
Well, it’s not like I needed it right now anyway…….
“Your Grace, the barracks are ready!”
“Let’s go.”
The man extended his hand. I took it and turned around.
“Wow.”
Before I knew it, a row of rather decent-looking tents had been set up before my eyes.
“That was fast.”
Knights moving swiftly and orderly between them.
“Hup two, hup!”
Bulging muscle shows were taking place here and there.
They might look like ordinary muscular men, but despite appearances, they’re all high-ranking knights who made a name for themselves in war.
“As expected of Northern men…….”
I clicked my tongue softly in admiration.
“You’ll be like that soon too.”
“Mmmh…… Ngh?”
“The Jeberts are a knight household. If you’re going to stay with the Jeberts, naturally you must become a knight. You’re no exception.”
Oh, what kind of bolt from the blue is this.
“It would be better for you to build up your strength in the North instead.”
If only you knew, I’m actually a pretty strong mage, it’s just that I have to hide my power…….
I briefly imagined my future.
Running on the training grounds with a body like tissue paper and vomiting, swinging a sword hundreds of times and vomiting, shooting a bow a million times and vomiting…….
‘A vomiting ending…….’
How is that any different from destruction?
“I don’t know what you’re imagining, but your expression is quite something to see.”
“Mm. I’m a weak child whose expressions give everything away, you know. I’m not good with hard work and stuff like that.”
“Only at times like this.”
“I can’t do it properly…….”
“It won’t work even if you say it cutely.”
The man lightly pinched my earlobe.
“Don’t worry.”
When he hoisted me up, my arms and legs dangled like a doll’s.
Inside his sharply curved eyes, sparkling purple pupils met mine exactly.
“For now, I’m thinking of doing something about those flimsy arms and legs.”
It was like a witch’s whisper, plotting to fatten me up plumply before devouring me.
“I’ll train you properly in the North.”
“Please don’t say that while smiling so wickedly…….”
I feel like I’ve ended up chasing after a villain wearing a hero’s mask.
* * *
Taking advantage of the villain going out to check the campsite, I fled to Count Leon’s side.
“Mister, are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
Count Leon was sitting on a rock, in the middle of removing his top.
Even in this situation, the way he folded his clothes neatly while maintaining his crisp edges…… Hmm, there was something vexing about it.
“If you’re fine, then your body is quite colorful.”
Red and yellow and blue…….
How on earth was he enduring all that?
The worst of them was his shoulder, which looked like it had collided heavily with something.
“Uwah, how did you ride a horse with this shoulder? And I insisted you give me a ride without even knowing…….”
I let out a worried sigh as I looked at the swollen wound.
“Sorry, Mister.”
Count Leon flusteredly fumbled about.
“This…… is my fault. It’s not something you should apologize for.”
“But.”
“Don’t…… make that expression. Honestly, I could carry someone like you around for a whole month.”
“I wouldn’t really like tha…… Ugh! Wait!”
A sudden foul stench made me clamp my hand over my nose. It was because of the unidentified object Count Leon had taken out.
“What is thish?”
“……? It’s ointment.”
“It smellsh terrible!”
“It doesn’t smell bad.”
Mister Leviathan, who had approached before I knew it, ruffled my hair and laughed.
No way!
To think he was using such old-fashioned bruise ointment!
These days, there are plenty of ointments that don’t smell and work well. Of course, only in the Mage Kingdom!
“It’s cold, so stop playing around and go into the tent.”
The man wrapped a thick cloak around me.
“Ugh…… Yeah.”
I quickly got up.
Because Count Leon had started madly smearing the ointment on his body like a pig rolling in mud.
He said it didn’t hurt.
He must be hurting a lot.
“I need to go check if there are monsters around Mister. Stay here quietly and rest in the meantime. Don’t cause any accidents.”
“Yes sir!”
After putting me in the barracks himself, the man disappeared on horseback with the dark-clad knights. Thanks to the blazing brazier, the interior was a bit hot.
‘Hmm.’
Without removing the cloak, I pondered before quietly moving.
Toward where the Abelita herb was.
“To think I’d need it right away like this.”
I picked a bit of the herb and put it in my cloak pocket.
Returning to the barracks, I washed it in clean water and separated the stem, leaves, and flower. Then I finely ground them with a flintstone I found nearby.
‘For this much ointment, this much mixture was it?’
I gauged while looking at the bruise ointment I found in the man’s luggage.
Herbology was also one of the basics of a mage.
I was thinking of upgrading the ointment’s function with this herb.
‘It would be even better if I infused mana…….’
Wouldn’t that look suspicious? After all, if I presented an ointment that healed injuries in a single day.
I quietly gathered and mixed only the herb powder.
That was when.
A noise, crackle, crackle, came from somewhere.
[ ……there? ]
A sound like a modern radio frequency.
I stopped stirring the ointment and snapped my head up.
“…….”
The surroundings were silent. Nothing but the sound of the tent flapping in the desolate wind.
What? Was I imagining things?
I tilted my head and focused again on making the ointment.
[ ……! ……! ]
The noise happened again. It was louder than before.
“No way.”
I carefully touched the edge of my ear. Behind my right earlobe was a small magic circle.
A size that could be mistaken for a mole or scar at a glance.
The Oath Seal.
However, I wasn’t the one who made the oath.
I was the one who ‘received’ the oath.
“Callid?”
I touched the pattern and spoke in a small voice.
Then the noise stopped. Soon, as if the frequency had been found, a clear and distinct voice continued.
[ Master! ]
‘Callid, is that you?’
I closed my eyes and focused on communicating internally.
Callid was a child I met on the battlefield.
I had only saved him once, yet he followed me around calling me master.
We had parted when I went to the Kanalan Gorge, though.
[ Do you know how worried I’ve been because I couldn’t read your mana until now? ]
Callid snapped in a low voice.
[ I couldn’t sense you. Anywhere. ]
The oaths of mages had something extreme about them; when an oath was shared, their mana became intertwined like a rope.
Thanks to that, simple communication like this or checking whether the other was alive wasn’t difficult, but…….
In other words, it was the same as having a very annoying tail attached for life.
[ Where are you? ]
‘I’m…….’
[ Ah, you’re in Babillon. ]
Callid didn’t even give me a chance to answer.
[ Just wait right there. I’ll come soon. ]
‘What? How are you going to come? It’s far!’
[ Don’t be surprised. It’s cute. ]
‘What?’
[ Press beside your ear. I said press it hard. Can’t hear you. ]
I pressed my earlobe again.
‘I said how are you going to come? Weren’t you at the southern end of the continent?’
Callid only laughed lowly.
[ Where is there a place a runaway mage can’t go? ]
Ah, come to think of it.
He was the mage who fled the Mage Kingdom before me. To be precise, Callid’s mother was pregnant, and she hid her pregnancy and escaped the kingdom.
And she secretly gave birth to Callid somewhere on the continent.
So Callid was an unregistered mage of the Mage Kingdom.
[ See you soon. ]
‘No, that’s not it. If you get caught doing that, I’ll be…… Hey. Hello? Cal!’
Before I knew it, the connection had cut off.
No matter how much I called, there was no answer.
‘Callid? Callid!’
He must have intentionally cut the magical circuit. In other words.
He blocked me!
That arrogant Callid Riorke!
“Just you wait.”
I ground my teeth. When we meet, I’ll bite the back of your hand!
* * *
Late at night.
Leon Shujerk was about to enter the barracks after finishing his inspection around the campsite.
“Mister, Mister.”
Leon stopped walking.
A tiny hand reaching out from the left side of the tent. At its fluttering gesture, he moved without realizing it.
“…….”
There, a child who barely reached his waist stood with hands behind her back, grinning slyly.
Blue eyes sparkling brightly in the moonlight and fluffy-looking silver hair stood out.
The back of her head was terribly crooked, having been cut somewhere, but…….
‘It looks incredibly soft…….’
Leon remembered the small head that had swayed before his chest during the day.
He had once been shocked by the feeling of a white skylark’s breast feathers in the forest.
‘Would it feel like that?’
He had to stiffen his body several times to stop his hand from reaching out without realizing it.
“Are you a bit better?”
The child asked abruptly, beaming with puffed cheeks.
While choosing his words, Rubian revealed the object she had hidden behind her back with a ta-da!
“A gift!”
“……What is it?”
Leon took it in a daze. Upon opening it, it was a translucent-colored ointment with bits of powder stuck in it.
“Ointment?”
“Yeah. The smell was so terrible, so I ground some nearby flowers and mixed them in.”
Leon burst into a short laugh.
Was this what a child’s idea was like?
To think that if the ointment smelled bad, you could just cover it with flower scent.
‘But somehow, it seems a bit fragrant too?’
He had used bruise ointment so often it was like breathing, so he had grown accustomed to that foul smell.
More than that, he couldn’t understand why she was giving this to him.
Leon looked down at Rubian.
“Why this…….”
“Thank you for letting me ride the horse earlier.”
A clear voice spoke crisply.
Leon Shujerk was ignorant about children.
But at least he could feel that the child before his eyes was somehow a little different from the children he had seen in the capital.
The children of the capital were simply bright.
The laughter of children running around the central plaza was like bells.
That was his pride.
The pride that he had protected that laughter.
He looked at Rubian before him again.
“I won’t be a burden. Don’t worry.”
There was no child who spoke with such a determined voice.
At least not in his knowledge.
Leon was regretting what had happened during the day.
He reflected on whether his words had been a bit harsh. But he didn’t know how to choose his words or speak gently.
It had been 10 years since he wandered battlefields.
Naturally, his way of communicating had changed.
‘Even though I said such terrible things…….’
To hear words of thanks.
“You know. The war is over.”
How did she know that he was still clinging to the war?
Leon suddenly felt his mouth go dry.
He felt he had to make up for his earlier mistake.
This time, a bit prettier, a bit better.
“I…… that is.”
“……?”
“I didn’t think you were a burden.”
What burden could something like downy fluff be?
More than that, what he had wanted to say was…… that a small and soft child like her should be in the peaceful capital, like the other children who ran around the plaza like foals,
“So what I mean is…….”
That he wished she would smile like that.
“Sigh…… It’s difficult.”
But the words wouldn’t come out at all. Leon decided to just say it outright.
“I was sorry, and thank you.”
Rubian had a face that seemed to understand everything somehow.
“Yeah!”
Without realizing it, Leon reached out and stroked the round head.
At his clumsy touch, Rubian pursed her lips like a bird and laughed.
It felt like a warm breeze was blowing somewhere.
As expected, it was an incredibly soft sensation.
* * *
After Count Leon had recovered to some extent, the journey resumed.
There were no delays in the resumed procession.
The knights had somehow procured a new carriage. It had such large windows that it felt open on all sides.
I had very slowly grown accustomed to riding in carriages.
Whenever I spent a long time in the carriage, Count Leon seemed to make a somewhat regretful expression, but……. Surely not.
In any case, we ran for a few more weeks and arrived.
At the Jebert Duchy!