Timing (1)
“…What did you just say?”
Erinn stared at Agresia as if she must have misheard. For a split second, a silent killing intent flickered in her eyes—the unspoken promise that if this was any kind of joke, she would murder her on the spot—and Agresia flinched, her composure cracking.
“I-I’m not lying. I don’t know the full story, but they really did look close.”
“…And how can you be so sure?”
“Well…” Agresia answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “She tried to feed him right in front of everyone. Wouldn’t that do it?”
“…!”
“Sh-she fed him!?”
Erinn’s shock was only natural—but Letisia reacted just as violently.
“C-Clara fed him food? Albrecht?”
Her outburst was so intense that Agresia, the one who’d brought it up, grew even more flustered. The look in Letisia’s eyes was dangerous enough that a cold sweat nearly broke out on her brow.
“Y-yes… Of course I stopped her before she actually did it, but she was clearly about to.”
“….”
“…It’s true that Clara followed Albrecht around quite closely,” Freya added, her expression turning a little serious. “He even gave her her name… and they got along really well.”
At Freya’s words, Erinn and Letisia both flinched.
If all of that hadn’t been simple camaraderie—if it had come from romantic feelings instead…
Albrecht might still be oblivious, but Clara’s heart was already all but certain. Realizing it, Erinn and Letisia’s eyes went round.
“Ah…”
Erinn opened her mouth without meaning to.
“N-no… that can’t…”
Feelings she hadn’t even fully recognized herself spilled out on their own. There was a reason Erinn was this shaken.
Elves lived for so long that they rarely gave their hearts away—but once they became aware of love, their desire was said to be overwhelming.
And Clara wasn’t a pure-blooded elf, but a half-elf with dark elf blood mixed in. Which meant…
“H-his chastity…!”
“…W-we have to go right now!”
Listening to the two of them, Agresia was left speechless. Hadn’t they said they needed to ask her something important at the start? Yet they’d completely forgotten about that and were fixated solely on Clara and Albrecht’s relationship.
“If it’s Parvata, it’s not that far! Two days by carriage!”
“Right, let’s hurry…!”
“Aria, come on!”
“Huh? O-okay! Thanks for telling us, Tower Lord!”
Erinn’s party left at once—to protect Albrecht’s virtue.
Watching the Hero’s party vanish with such startling speed, Agresia let out a small note of admiration even as she looked puzzled.
“Wouldn’t it be better to just take another teleportation spell…?”
Especially when the Tower Lord herself was right here. People really did stop thinking when they panicked—Agresia felt that truth keenly as she heaved a deep sigh and prepared to return to the tower.
“W-wait a second!!”
The owners of the voices that latched onto her came running back a beat too late. It was Erinn’s party, the same ones who’d just bolted away.
The moment she saw them, Agresia already knew what they were about to say.
“J-just one teleportation spell…”
After the banquet ended, we were surprisingly able to head back right away. For all the interest Raynes and the other mages had shown in the rare properties of my mana, things had gone smoothly.
Agresia had probably covered for us. She herself planned to start her research only after installing a teleportation circle on our end, so she’d told us to go home and rest in the meantime.
Using the teleportation magic Agresia cast herself, we returned to Parvata—and it was already night. The tower’s interior had been so brightly lit that I hadn’t even noticed evening falling.
The gold coins waiting for us at the Adventurers’ Guild would have to wait until tomorrow.
“Shall we head home?”
“…Yeah.”
“Mm. I ate well.”
…Yeah, I’ll bet you did.
Honestly, I felt a little bad for Agresia and the tower. The amount Caesius had polished off was beyond imagination. Even with all those delicacies laid out at the banquet, it still hadn’t been enough—they’d had to bring out more.
A dragon’s appetite was clearly more than any mere human could handle. If I was going to keep this glutton fed, I was going to have to make a lot of money…
A short walk later, our house came into view. Seeing it made all the fatigue I’d been carrying hit me at once. I’d sleep well tonight, then cut back on the lectures at the martial arts academy tomorrow. In exchange, I’d keep access to the training grounds.
Now that I’d committed to going in and out of the magic tower for a while, the academy’s class schedule simply wouldn’t line up. And since I was going to be taking magic lessons from none other than the Red Magic Tower’s lord herself, I wouldn’t have time to focus on much else.
Still, handling the Geumswaebong didn’t require specialized instruction, so I figured I’d just practice with it now and then while learning magic.
The moment I unlocked the door, Caesius darted inside first and flopped flat on the floor.
“Ugh, I’m exhausted. Did I eat too much…?”
…So she does know. Patting her own belly with one hand, Caesius looked stuffed by any measure.
“That’s why you should’ve eaten in moderation.”
“But every delicacy under the sun was right there. How was I supposed to hold back?”
“Aigoo.”
While I was scolding Caesius, who had face-planted straight onto the floor, Clara—who’d come in behind us—stood blankly in the entryway.
“What’s wrong, Clara?”
“…Ah.”
Clara gave a small shake of her head as if it were nothing, then smiled softly.
“…I was just thinking how nice it is to have a place to come back to.”
“….”
Seeing that pure, happy smile made my chest ache a little. She must feel this way because she’d once had no home to return to.
“…Albrecht, you look tired.”
“Ah, I’m… well…”
The mental fatigue had piled up, but I hadn’t done much physically, so my body wasn’t that worn out. I wasn’t sure whether to call it tired or not, so I hedged—and Clara smiled gently.
“…Go wash up and sleep first.”
“I haven’t even done the laundry today.”
“…I’ll take care of it. Caesius will help too.”
“Hm? Me?”
Caesius, still sprawled on the floor, pointed at herself. Clara kept her smile as she answered.
“…Yeah.”
“Hmm… and if I say no?”
Caesius let a hint of mischief into her arrogant tone. Clara’s gaze cooled just a fraction as she asked,
“…You’re not going to?”
At Clara’s question, a chill ran straight down my spine. I wasn’t the only one—Caesius’s face had gone deathly pale.
“…N-no, I’ll do it! It was a joke!”
…Even an arrogant dragon was afraid of a thief with skill at the peak of humanity.
Having secured Caesius’s agreement, Clara turned back to me.
“…Albrecht, you have to go to the tower again tomorrow. So it’s better if you sleep early.”
She was right. Even if I didn’t feel tired right now, if I was going to learn magic at the tower tomorrow… it would be better to show up in peak condition.
“Mm. Then I’ll leave it to you?”
“…Yeah.”
Clara nodded lightly, then took a careful step closer.
“…Good night, Albrecht.”
As she approached and said good night, a pleasant scent reached me. We lived in the same house and used the same soap… so why did she give off a sweet fragrance I never noticed on myself?
“…Yeah.”
The scent left my head spinning, and my reply came a beat late. Clara didn’t look puzzled by that—she simply smiled and saw me all the way into my room.
I went in and collapsed onto the bed. If anyone asked why I hadn’t washed first, it was because my room had its own bathroom—I could just wash here.
I knew I should clean up and sleep, but my body wouldn’t move easily. My mind was too tangled.
The scent I’d caught from Clara just now had probably been my imagination. After being outside for so long and only coming home at night, there was no way soap fragrance would still be lingering.
“Haa.”
So why had I imagined it? Anyone who wasn’t a child—or a complete idiot—would know the reason.
“I’m going crazy…”
…It was because the way I looked at her had changed. The things Clara had done at the tower had probably amplified those feelings even more.
Especially the way she’d tried to feed me meat with her own hands…
“….”
I sat bolt upright. This wouldn’t do. I needed to douse myself in cold water if I was going to forget these thoughts long enough to sleep.
Just wash up already…
Once Albrecht had gone into his room, Clara’s smile faded. She glanced at Caesius and said,
“…Clean up a bit first.”
Then she added,
“…I’m going outside for a moment.”
“Mm. So you noticed as well?”
Caesius sprang up from the floor, speaking as if she understood exactly what Clara intended.
“I don’t know when they latched on, but they’ve been watching for some time.”
“…Yeah. I’ll handle it and come back.”
Clara’s hand closed around the dagger hidden at the small of her back. Then Caesius suddenly asked if she would be all right.
“Will you be fine? You may not know this, but looking at their mana waves…”
Caesius lowered her voice to a near-whisper.
“The ones watching us—they’re all elves.”
“…Elves?”
Clara was briefly taken aback. Elves? Why would they be watching this place?
“It’s the truth. I have no reason to lie about something like this.”
At Caesius’s firm confirmation, Clara grew uncertain. She held off on drawing her dagger for now—she should at least find out why first.
“…I’ll just find out what’s going on.”
“Go carefully.”
Clara slipped out through the front door so quietly that Albrecht wouldn’t notice. And though ordinary people would never have seen them, to Clara—whose senses were sharp enough to rival a dragon’s sensitivity to mana—the ones hiding in plain sight were clearly visible.
Thief Clara activates [Shadow Step]
Clara took a light step forward—and in an instant appeared right in front of the nearest watcher. More precisely, she rose out of his own shadow.
“Wha—!?”
The watcher noticed immediately and tried to draw a weapon, but nothing came to hand.
Confused, he looked down—and found every weapon he’d kept at his waist and hidden on his person already in Clara’s grip. Even the tiny poison needle he’d concealed at his ankle.
“…!!”
“…Tell me why you’re watching this place.”
Clara’s voice was flat.
“…My response will depend on your answer.”
Cold killing intent rolled off her.
Faced with that razor-edged aura, the watcher swallowed hard. Then, showing both empty palms in a gesture of surrender, he spoke.
“That skill… You’re the thief adventurer No Name.”
“….”
“Don’t misunderstand. We didn’t come to track you. It’s just that with skill like that, it could only be her—so I recognized you.”
The elf said this as he unfastened a token from around his neck and tossed it over. Clara caught it lightly—and her eyes went wide.
“We are the Forest’s Shadow, moving under His Majesty’s command.”
“…What’s your purpose?”
“Nothing that grand. We were simply investigating movements.”
“…Movements?”
At Clara’s question, the Forest’s Shadow operative nodded.
“The Princess wished to know where that man had gone.”
“….”
Clara’s eyes rounded. “Princess” could only mean the High Elf princess. And the only High Elf princess Clara knew was…
“…Aria?”
Ser-Aria. Hearing that, Clara spoke as if she couldn’t make sense of it.
“…Why would Aria suddenly be looking for him? That’s hard to believe.”
The Forest’s Shadow operative didn’t deny her reaction—he seemed to understand it.
“Well, we thought the same.”
“…So it’s just an excuse…”
“But it’s the truth. Can’t you tell from the fact that I’m telling you this straight? It’s not even classified. Really just a simple movement investigation.”
Clara’s brow furrowed slightly. Yet there was no flaw in the operative’s words, and to her eyes it didn’t look like a lie.
“…How much have you reported?”
“We haven’t reported that we’ve arrived here yet… but we did inform her that he went to the Red Magic Tower.”
“…!”
Clara’s eyes went wide. If they knew he’d gone to the Red Magic Tower, they would naturally learn about this place soon enough.
To Clara, her party members were still precious comrades. They had taken in a wandering loner like her as a party member and never spared kindness or consideration.
But at the same time, no one was a more threatening rival to her right now than those same women. Clara knew full well how formidable their charms were.
Clara’s brow knitted tightly as she issued a warning to the Forest’s Shadow.
“…Disappear. Now.”
“…As you wish.”
At Clara’s curt warning, the operative in front of her vanished—and at the same time, every other presence that had been hiding nearby disappeared as well.
Clara stood still in that spot for a moment. Then she slowly turned her steps and went back home.
At the sound of the door swinging open, Caesius—who had been cleaning inside—looked up.
“Looks like you drove them all off. So what were they watching for?”
“….”
But Clara didn’t even register Caesius’s question as she walked forward. Caesius seemed to sense that she wasn’t being deliberately ignored; instead of taking offense, she only tilted her head.
Then, seeing where Clara was heading, she said,
“That is Albrecht’s room.”
“…I know.”
With that short reply, Clara quietly stepped through the open door.