Everyone's a Delinquent, Isn't They?
"Hey, what are you guys going to do?"
In the alley, several men lay unconscious and unable to recover their senses. While watching the thugs, Lir leaned against the wall and stared at Ferdan.
Ferdan lay sprawled on the ground, his hand twisted and fingers bent in agony. He couldn't get up right away. Trying to plant his hand on the floor, he couldn't move it at all because of the pain.
"Sigh. Can't even stand up."
It was a bit comical, but also pitiful, so I didn't tease him. I grabbed his wrist and helped him up.
While lifting him, I noticed the bones in his hand were twisted in a strange way, but I figured it would heal quickly with healing magic.
"Thanks. Lir Ostin."
"...It's what a knight is supposed to do."
Even though I said that, I was secretly surprised. I hadn't expected someone to get this helpless like this.
Even though it was a surprise attack and they were inexperienced students, I never thought a few ragtag thugs would do this to us.
If I hadn't noticed the thugs plotting something, Ferdan would have been a cold corpse in an oil barrel by now.
"I didn't know this place was so dangerous. I had a bad feeling, but I never thought it would really be like this."
"You wandered here without knowing that either?"
That's why young masters are like this.
Since they only grew up in protected and safe environments, they don't realize that the places they're walking around in lose people here and there.
Being raised as the successor to the Noche Tower, it makes sense they would think that way. Besides, dangling gold coins on their waists like that.
I get that I'm a money bag, but what's the difference?
"Being a young master and being a mage are both problems. In a crisis, quick response is impossible, right?"
"...I have no argument there."
Annoyed, I raised my voice a bit. Ferdan seemed to realize his mistake and lowered his head.
Mages are worthless if they aren't prepared enough for 'what ifs'—the standard that always comes with that phrase.
They show incredible power when everything lines up perfectly, but life doesn't work out that easily.
In large-scale wars, soldiers and knights die to meet the conditions...
But demanding perfect conditions in a back alley is greed.
"If I had just five more seconds, I could have wiped them all out!"
"If you had held on for just one more minute, we could have vaporized half the enemy!"
I heard these lines many times from drunk mages on the battlefield. Of course, they fought knights every day.
Anyway, the important point here is that mages can't respond quickly in emergencies.
Plus, it requires high concentration. Being cut on the hand and not concentrating because of pain is an incredibly demanding job.
In a word, it's a job that needs to be treated like a hero.
Of course, struggling against humans like this is Ferdan's own problem.
"No. It's fine. What are you going to do with them?"
"I'm angry, but I can't kill them. If I leave them like this, they'll continue their evil deeds later. I'm personally angry about it."
"You're right. Leaving them means being irresponsible."
Guys who don't hesitate to kill people have already gone past being human.
If I leave them alone, they'll eventually hurt someone for some reason.
Or they're the kind who've already killed people multiple times.
Since they swing a knife without hesitation, the odds seem high.
"I'll leave the punishment to you. Can you help? Lir Ostin."
"If the young master says to do it, I have to. I have no intention of letting these guys go quietly."
I sympathize with locking them up. There must be some kingdom patrol in the market area, so I'll hand them over there.
That way, I just had to give them a separate punishment. The men on the ground started to stir a little, so I poked the ground with the tip of my shoe.
Thud.
I stepped on it with full force, stomping down like hitting the ground with all my body weight. The sound of bones snapping echoed, and the sensation was transmitted.
"Ugh... Aaaah!!"
"You guys thought about what would happen if you broke someone's hand, didn't you? Didn't you?"
I ground the sole of my shoe against it, crushing the hand. Before long, one guy's hand was crushed straight through.
He won't be able to use his hand properly for a while. I crushed a few more hands.
"Ah, aaaaah...!!"
And soon the scene turned into a scene from hell.
Big adult men. Some uncles who looked even older than my actual age were crying and blowing their noses while wailing.
In the narrow alley, several adults had fallen. People who passed occasionally just pretended not to see.
By then, we left. We had given them enough punishment, and the next part was up to Ferdan.
We left the fallen guys as they were and stood at the market exit with Ferdan. The sun was setting beyond the horizon.
"Thanks. Lir Ostin. I'll take them to the kingdom army."
"Were you carrying a bodyguard? Or, at least, pay more attention."
"From now on, I need to be more careful. Or I should wear a robe with protective magic. It's heavy, but I have no choice."
"Yeah, I don't want to hear that a school student died."
Even if my first impression was bad, he's still much younger than me.
I didn't particularly want to hear that news. So I gave him some advice from the heart.
The reason I wandered around without knowing how scary the world is... was just because it was annoying.
"I'll pay this back one day. You owed me your life."
"I hope you don't get another debt later."
I ended the greeting with words that weren't particularly warm. We waved at each other appropriately, and the market incident ended.
When I got home, the sun had disappeared beyond the horizon and twilight was beginning to fall.
There was a weird feeling. It felt like I had forgotten something I shouldn't have forgotten.
After thinking about it for a few minutes at that spot, I realized the cause of the weird feeling.
"I left my ingredients."
Ha.
Putting my hand on my forehead, I had no choice but to run back to the market.
***
What is happiness?
Getting wealth that no one can compare to?
Or having the honor that makes anyone admire you?
Finally finding the ancient ruins that I searched for my whole life?
Well, I think that also counts as happiness. Feeling joy from something so great would be more than enough.
But I lowered the threshold of happiness a bit. I thought that if you feel happy about small things, isn't life itself happy?
For example, eating delicious food. Happiness should rise.
But when the subject giving happiness is too much, I realized it turns into unhappiness right now.
"Lir, is it delicious? Would you like more?"
"It was... tasty. Ah, no... it's fine."
"You don't have to refuse. Lir, you look very thin. You look like a skeleton."
Where are you looking at?
Even though I am a bit skinny, saying I look like a skeleton is an exaggeration.
Remediela kept patting my back while constantly urging me to eat.
Another restaurant inside the Royal Capital. It wasn't as fancy as before, but the atmosphere wasn't bad.
She invited me to eat together, so I met... but.
"You need to build a strong body that can endure the side effects of the elixir."
Now the table is piled high with trays. All of them are things I forced down my throat one after another.
The taste is there, but my stomach is so full that it's about to come back up, yet Remediela keeps offering me more food.
"Save me...!"
Cough, cough.
I finally understand what the food torture feels like. I know what it's like to die from a full stomach.
My stomach feels like it's being crushed by organs and not working properly.
At that moment, I sensed someone outside the door.
I was despairing. How many meals did I order? How many times has the waiter brought food?
With the thought that there might still be more food coming, my head spun around.
"As expected, you're here."
But the one coming in wasn't the waiter. It was Professor Helahem.
I had never been so glad to hear that deep voice.
"L-Lir, did something happen?"
"Lir seems to be in bad condition and hasn't eaten much."
"...Oh. I see."
Our eyes met. Helahem looked at me with a compassionate gaze that seemed to understand my suffering.
"By the way, how did you find this place?"
"Intuition. But I wasn't looking for you. I came to find Lir urgently."
With my upper body half-curled, I grabbed the armrest and stood up to look at Helahem.
Urgently? There was nothing particularly urgent to deliver.
'Remediela-sensei is here too. What the...?'
While tilting my head, I looked at Professor Helahem. He had a questioning expression.
"Lir, have you done something without me knowing? Or, no, the word 'done' doesn't fit. Have you accomplished something great?"
"Ah, no? There's nothing that can be called great... but."
"It's still in the preparation stage, but an invitation will soon be coming to you. Though that being said... it is."
Helahem spoke with a full of questions and a subtle tone, as if he himself didn't know.
"The king is praising your accomplishments."
Droopy-eyed, I was momentarily speechless upon hearing that.
"Huh?"