A Debt of Gratitude
I stepped out of the blacksmith’s house alongside Warren, each of us carrying the rewards we’d received. We split the payment money exactly in half. Warren still looked somewhat dazed.
“Hey, Kael.”
Warren stopped walking for a moment and called out to me. With a look of firm resolve on his face, he held something out. It was the bundle of money that was his share.
“I think the person who worked harder should take more. I was there too, but today’s work was entirely your doing, Kael.”
I’m satisfied with just the sword I received. Warren added that with a smile.
It wasn’t hard to understand what Warren was thinking. Anyone could see that I had contributed far more and gone through more trouble, so he believed I deserved the larger share of the reward. For someone like Warren who had nothing, this was probably the first large sum of money he’d ever held. Under normal circumstances, anyone’s eyes would’ve gone wide with greed, yet he offered it to me without hesitation.
Given Warren’s personality, even if I accepted the money, he would simply think it was only right. I reached out without a second thought, but instead of taking the whole bundle, I plucked out a single coin.
“Kael?”
“This is for the potion I lent you earlier.”
His sincerity was admirable, so I decided to accept only the sentiment. It was a decent amount of money for the early stages, but there was no need to greedily take it all. The funds I needed right now were already covered, and there would be plenty of opportunities to earn far more later.
“Compared to all the help you’ve given me, this is nothing. Think of it as me repaying a debt and accept it comfortably.”
Even so, Warren pushed the bundle of money toward me again.
Pretty persistent, huh.
“Why would you repay it with money?”
“Huh?”
Warren gave me a puzzled look.
“You can just help me out later when I need it.”
“Ah……”
Warren had the potential to grow into someone I could rely on for help depending on how things went. I didn’t spell it out explicitly, but it seemed he vaguely understood what I meant.
“I’ll definitely do that.”
Warren spoke in a determined, resolute voice. Then he added with a bright smile,
“Thank you for helping me.”
Now that I thought about it, those were the exact words I had told him to say after we finished when we first met that afternoon.
“See you back at the academy.”
Warren walked ahead, promising we would meet again. But we were heading in the same direction. After all, we had rooms at the same inn.
“Do you have somewhere else to go?”
“No. I was just going back to the inn to sleep… Ah!”
It seemed Warren had only just realized that I was staying at the same inn. He had tried to part ways in a cool manner, but now it just felt awkward. The sight made me chuckle.
Together with a visibly embarrassed Warren, I returned to the inn.
The next day was the day we had to return to the academy. Since I had gone out under the condition of accompanying Ophelia, we were supposed to head back together in the carriage.
Ophelia and Blair had arrived early at the café where we had agreed to meet and were passing the time. However, Blair was clearly displeased with the entire situation.
How dare this guy make the young lady wait again.
Unable to show it on her face in front of Ophelia, Blair grumbled inwardly and glanced at the wall clock in the café. She knew the appointed time hadn’t arrived yet. She was also aware that they had come here earlier than scheduled. Still.
He should have arrived early and waited for the young lady.
Because he had already earned her dislike, every little thing about him irritated her.
Across from her, Ophelia sat comfortably with her usual serene expression, despite not being accustomed to waiting for others. The way she sat gracefully in the corner of the café with a teacup before her looked like a painting no matter how many times Blair saw it. It was completely different from Blair, who was already starting to feel restless from boredom.
Her poise never faltered no matter the time or place. As expected of the young lady she served.
“……”
At that moment, Ophelia’s gaze briefly turned toward the window. It looked as if she were lost in thought. Or perhaps searching for someone on the street. Could it be…?
No way. It can’t be.
It was probably just because the weather was nice and she was enjoying the view. Blair took pride in being the only one who could read the young lady’s expressions, but lately she had been struggling to understand what was on her mind, which worried her.
Ever since entering the academy. Or perhaps ever since completing the first task.
Blair felt anxious because it seemed like the young lady now harbored thoughts she knew nothing about. This outing was the same. Ophelia hadn’t seemed to have any particular reason to leave the academy this weekend. After parting with Kael, she had wandered around the village with Blair, but she hadn’t had any specific business anywhere.
The fact that they had arrived at the café so early was simply because they had plenty of time to spare. Blair didn’t dislike spending leisurely time with the young lady outside the academy, but she couldn’t help wondering why they had bothered to go out if this was all they were going to do.
If it weren’t for Kael’s request, we probably wouldn’t have come out this week.
Such thoughts kept crossing her mind. If that was the case, then this was all because the kind-hearted young lady was being too considerate of that arrogant boy. Did he even realize it? Or rather, was he even worth this level of consideration from the young lady?
As time passed, Blair’s expression grew increasingly distorted.
Where is he and what is he doing that he still hasn’t shown up?
Ding.
Just then, the sound of the café door opening rang out, and someone entered. Both of them turned their heads toward the entrance at the same time.
It was Kael.
The look in Blair’s eyes as she watched him approach was anything but friendly.
“You’re already here.”
Kael, who had come over to their table, raised his hand in greeting toward Ophelia. She returned the gesture in the exact same way. An identical exchange of greetings. As expected, Blair really didn’t like Kael.
“Did everything go well?” Ophelia asked as Kael took his seat.
“Thanks to you.”
Kael answered with a wide grin, clearly in a good mood. His complete lack of politeness made Blair squeeze her eyes shut. She desperately needed to calm her already boiling emotions. She didn’t want to be scolded by the young lady again.
“You didn’t come out just because of me, right?”
And yet he still made that request knowing this.
“No, not at all. I wanted to explore the village with Blair too.”
Young lady…
It was such a perfectly Ophelia-like answer. The young lady always treated everyone with impeccable manners and grace, and in turn, others responded to her with even greater courtesy. Yet this boy was the only one who never showed her proper respect. If anything, it felt like the young lady was the one being more polite. This absolutely needed to be corrected. Such insolence could not be tolerated.
But she couldn’t do anything about it while Ophelia was present. She would make sure to set him straight when the young lady wasn’t around.
Blair, sitting neatly beside Ophelia, looked even more stern than before.
“Were you busy?” Ophelia asked, noticing that Kael’s bag looked noticeably heavier than when they had left yesterday.
“I just helped out a bit at the village blacksmith’s place.”
Kael answered casually, as if it were no big deal. But his answer caught Ophelia’s attention.
“Blacksmith?”
“Yeah, just the blacksmith from this village. Why?”
“I was thinking that if he’s skilled, I might commission a custom sword.”
Blair knew exactly why Ophelia had shown interest in the blacksmith story. Before entering the academy, Ophelia had wanted to gift Blair a new sword personally commissioned from a renowned blacksmith famous for his blades. They had looked into quite a famous one that even Blair had heard of. While feeling burdened by the young lady’s excessive kindness, Blair had secretly hoped to have a sword made by him. But the blacksmith had refused Ophelia’s request, saying he didn’t accept commissions from just anyone. Since Ophelia never flaunted her family name recklessly, they had ultimately returned empty-handed.
It seemed that had been weighing on Ophelia’s mind, and she was now checking if there were any other skilled blacksmiths available.
“There’s no need, young lady. The sword I have now is perfectly serviceable.”
“Still, a custom-made one would be better. We can at least meet him and see.”
Despite Blair’s attempts to dissuade her, Ophelia replied calmly. Once again, Blair was moved by the young lady’s thoughtfulness.
“But that uncle probably won’t be able to use his forge for a while. It’d be better to look for another blacksmith.”
At Kael’s answer, Ophelia’s expression darkened ever so slightly, a change only Blair could notice.
“I already visited a few places. It seems the famous blacksmiths don’t accept commissions from just anyone.”
Ophelia briefly mentioned how she and Blair had gone to see a blacksmith before the entrance ceremony.
“Who did you go to?”
At Kael’s question, Ophelia quietly spoke the name of that blacksmith.
“Uh…?”
Kael’s face showed a flash of surprise when he heard the name. Then he suddenly began rummaging through his pocket. What he pulled out was a small piece of paper.
◈ This letter grants the bearer permission to commission any work.
◈ The recipient may place any order without restriction.
“This person?”
Kael placed it on the table. Blair’s eyes locked onto the paper. Written clearly on it was the name of the eccentric blacksmith Gavin—the very one who had dared to refuse Ophelia’s request. It was a recommendation letter that would allow anyone to commission work from him.
This was impossible. This was something that couldn’t be obtained with money.
“How did you…?”
A stunned Blair couldn’t even finish her sentence. The annoying boy was in possession of an incredibly coveted item.