“Yeah, I don’t need it.”
And with that, I was cleanly rejected.
So cleanly, in fact, that I was left speechless.
“Shiiing…”
“Sh?”
Leviathan flicked my lips.
“I thought you were the silent type, but you’re just a foul-mouthed little brat. You had me fooled.”
Deep purple eyes stared straight at me. When I pouted sullenly, who knew how he interpreted it, but he consciously relaxed the tension in his eyes.
“Suddenly this youngest one is saying things I can’t even understand.”
“Ha…”
Well, I had been a bit hasty.
To Leviathan, I was probably nothing more than a brat he’d met a few hours ago.
*I must’ve been chewing over the original story without realizing it.*
I smiled awkwardly and looked straight ahead. The horse carrying us was slowly heading toward the capital of the Babilon Empire.
*But I couldn’t help it. If I dragged my feet and ran into pursuers, it’d all go up in smoke.*
Because the truth was, I had a secret… no, quite a few of them.
“But are you really an Iosian?”
Ugh. What a direct question.
I moved my head ambiguously. Somewhere between a shake and a nod.
Perhaps because of the lie, my chest prickled.
Because, of course, I wasn’t an Iosian.
“So you are an Iosian. But here you go, shutting your mouth again.”
“Ow.”
Bonk. Light punishment followed.
“I told you not to just nod your head when someone asks you something.”
“Sh—… That hurts!”
“Sh again?”
I clutched the back of my head and whirled around. When our eyes met, the handsome man with a cold expression let out a smirk.
“You’re a boy… making a fuss over something like that.”
“…?”
Hold on. Stop right there.
I think you’re gravely misunderstanding something right now.
“Mi—…?”
But in that instant, words failed me and I couldn’t respond at all.
*For some reason, gradually…*
It was because breathing was becoming difficult.
Looking around, I easily realized what this sensation was.
“…I guess we’re getting close to the Empire.”
The mana in the air rapidly thinning out was proof of that.
Because the capital of the Babilon Empire was a place practically devoid of mana.
“Have you ever been to the Empire?”
“No?”
“Then how do you know we’re getting close?”
“Just a feeling. It feels like we’ve been riding a long time…”
The truth was that I could read the flow of mana, but I couldn’t say it outright.
I was a mage.
A mage who had joined this war at the Magic King’s call from the Magic Kingdom of Arcadia.
The king of the Magic Kingdom had sent even undergrown children like me to the battlefield, as long as they had mana. At the time, other allied nations had harshly criticized the Magic Kingdom, calling them child soldiers and whatnot, but the Magic King—the shadowy mastermind and corrupt head of state in the original story—wouldn’t listen with so much as the back of his ear. Of course, thanks to that, I’d ended up performing rearmost support roles like magical equipment management, but as the war dragged on, that issue had been conveniently buried as well.
Anyway, I’d enlisted two years ago, and the moment I realized this place was a world inside a book was after spending a year on the battlefield.
*I endured all that suffering, and now we’re all just going to die together?*
I can’t close my eyes with that kind of resentment!
I decided to stick to this man like a cicada to an old tree.
*To do that… I have to hide my secrets well.*
First, the fact that I’m a mage.
The Magic Kingdom where I was born and raised was an extremely closed-off nation. Because of that, it didn’t permit mages to migrate without authorization. If I were found out, it’d be forced repatriation.
*Besides, Leviathan utterly loathes mages…*
Because of an incident ten years ago, he trembled at the very thought of mages. So he’d never keep a mage by his side.
Next, my past.
I was also a deserter who had arbitrarily left the mage unit before the war even ended. The reason I’d run away was, of course, to meet Leviathan in that village earlier.
*They probably think I died in a demonic beast attack.*
That made my identity even more impossible to reveal.
To sum it up,
*A child-soldier-turned-mage who deserted the Magic Kingdom.*
…Nothing about me is normal, is there?!
On top of that.
“A boy making a fuss over something like that.”
*No wonder…*
*I had picked up and put on a boy’s clothes from Iosia, but…*
And my hair was a mess too, but!
*I didn’t mean to hide my gender too.*
I briefly wondered whether to clear up the misunderstanding, but decided to leave it be. From the standpoint of someone hiding their identity and fleeing, that was better.
Anyway, thanks to that dimwit hero, the list of things I had to hide seemed to have grown unintentionally.
“Hng.”
*I can do this, right?*
My shoulders slumped with worry about the road ahead.
Whether from overthinking or because the surrounding mana was too thin, even staying still felt like my stamina was being chipped away.
*I’m tired.*
I rubbed my heavy eyes with the back of my hand.
*I’ll rest for now and think about it later!*
* * *
Leviathan looked down at the swaying crown of the child’s head.
Before he knew it, the child had fallen asleep right there.
*Did he tire himself out chattering?*
He’d been so wary at first.
A smirk slipped out.
Perhaps the wall around his heart had crumbled during their short journey together; the child had asked about all sorts of things. In a chirping, chick-like voice.
“Mister, when we get to the capital, where will you go first?”
“The Imperial Orphanage.”
“Ooh… Can’t you just take me with you, mister?”
*Take him with me?*
Leviathan laughed with an absurd expression.
From the very beginning, it was preposterous that the child had followed him.
It was only natural for children to fear him.
He was someone who had rolled around the battlefield for ten years. Children detected the gloomy and savage aura unique to those who reeked of blood like ghosts.
*This is troublesome.*
He roughly ruffled his black hair and chose the flattest terrain he could to drive the horse.
*I shouldn’t pay him any more mind.*
Leviathan gripped the reins tightly and forcibly fixed his gaze forward.
They would part ways soon anyway.
He wanted no part of developing needless feelings.
But for some reason, his eyes kept drifting to the bouncy crown of the child’s head.
The round crown had tilted to the right.
Leviathan swore he’d never seen such a tiny crown before.
Strength surged into the hand gripping the reins.
Damn it.
That’s… kind of cute.
* * *
After a deep sleep, I woke up feeling better than before.
Hmm, looks like my body’s adapting to the mana deficiency too! Great!
Since earlier, mister had been strangely fixing his gaze on my head and pestering me to sleep more.
“Am I a newborn? Sleeping all day…”
Gasp.
Then, my head turned sharply on its own.
*This mana!*
“Mister!”
At the same time as my shout, demonic beasts hidden in the bushes burst out.
“Uwaa!”
“Don’t move. Don’t open your eyes.”
Almost simultaneously, a firm hand shot out and covered my eyelids. Hugging me tight to his chest, mister controlled the horse and swung his sword. It was an incredible speed—one where I couldn’t even tell when he’d drawn his blade.
Shhk.
Through the gaps between his fingers, I stared blankly at the demonic beasts scattering like fallen leaves.
*It really… hits home again.*
The continent’s greatest swordsman, the man closest to the Sword God of legend, the head of the prestigious Jebert swordsmanship family that commanded the north.
The perfect munchkin who possessed not only all kinds of strongest titles but also wealth, honor, and looks was right before me.
“You okay?”
Mister asked, flicking his sword clean.
“Eeng… Blood…”
It splattered…
Demonic beast blood smell doesn’t come out easily. Ha, I’m so depressed…
Falling silent, mister carefully lifted me down to the ground.
“We’re quite a sight.”
Both of us were drenched in demonic beast blood.
“Uugh…”
“We’re near the imperial border, so hold on a bit.”
Mister barely found a clean spot on his hem and scrubbed my face roughly.
“Ow! It hurts!”
“It doesn’t hurt.”
At the momentum that suggested he’d spit and scour it hard, I quickly ran away.
Vinegar water and moonflower herb soap are the perfect combination for removing demonic beast blood smell, but…
*I’ve really become a complete mess.*
Swallowing a sigh, I sniffed my own body scent when I felt a gaze from above.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“…You.”
I turned and met eyes with mister, who was sitting plopped on the ground, staring intently at me. Perhaps due to the blood splattered on his face, a strange gleam flashed across his purple eyes, which looked unusually dark.
“Why don’t you cry?”
Blinking my eyes, wondering what he meant, he rested his chin on his arm atop his knee.
“Now that I think about it, you’ve never cried.”
Even looking at me.
*Crap.*
I suddenly felt like ice water had been dumped on me. I recalled that in the original story, there was a description of children bursting into tears upon first seeing him.
Ah, this is bad.
Of course, I had teared up seeing Leviathan too.
Because I was so glad.
But I had never thought of him as scary. After all, he was the protagonist, the hero who had saved this world.
Did that make me not seem like a normal kid?
“Even just now, you didn’t seem very scared.”
“That’s…”
“That’s?”
“I was scared. But crying wouldn’t change much…”
I mixed truth and lies appropriately.
Memories of crying? Truthfully, I didn’t have many.
I’d cry if crying solved things, but most problems weren’t solved by crying.
In my previous life, and in this one.
Wouldn’t it be better to shake it off quickly and use my energy solving the problem instead of crying?
But Leviathan somehow looked displeased.
“Who said that?”
“Huh?”
“That crying doesn’t change anything.”
“My… mom?”
Truthfully, there was no one I could call mom in either life, but I glossed over it.
Leviathan’s Adam’s apple moved heavily as he stared at me intently. He seemed to have something to say but swallowed it.
“You know, holding it in all the time makes you sick.”
“Ow.”
Mister flicked my nose.
“Tch, it turns red so quickly.”
Rub rub. The clumsy hand continued.
That warmth seemed to spread like ripples.
I felt somehow indescribable.
This was the first time an adult had told me not to hold it in.
“Let’s go. We’re almost there.”
We roughly cleaned ourselves and got back on the horse.
Clop-clop, clop-clop. The horse galloped at a different pace than before.
Not knowing where more demonic beasts might spring out, mister held me even tighter than before. The inside of those firm arms somehow felt like an incredible safe zone.
The wind quickly brushed my cheeks.
A red sunset was spread out above our heads.
Swish, swish. Trees brushed past us, and somewhere a bird took flight with a flutter.
The terrible smell of blood stinging my nose was still there, but suddenly… very suddenly.
I felt it was peaceful.
Drenched in blood, and yet peaceful. What a funny thing.
“Hey, no more monsters now?”
“Yeah. I killed them all.”
“Mister, you’re really strong.”
Mister Leviathan, who brought this peace.
It must have been hard for ten years. I had a hard time enduring just two years…
“Thank you for saving me, mister.”
“…”
“And the war… good work. It must have been hard all this time.”
So please don’t die, mister.
“Thanks to you, it’s peaceful.”
Because mister deserves to enjoy this peace longer than anyone.
* * *
And I have the right to that too!
“Ugh! It’s loud! Give me back my peace!”
I plugged my ears tight.
“What. Don’t act like some country bumpkin.”
The imperial capital was like a birthday cake!
Ba-boom! Pop! Pop!
Celebration cannons fired without cease.
People chattering noisily, musicians pouring out frantic performances, children running around laughing loudly, and merchants hawking at the top of their lungs…
My eyes were truly spinning in my head.