A Calculated Risk
“I’ve got a good idea!”
I barged right between Enk and Gail, who were studying the map.
“Lady Jeanie.”
“Instead of wasting time here, let’s follow the canyon. We might run into Chad around this point. If we meet up in the middle, heading to the capital will be much easier. Look, there’s even a bridge here.”
“It’s a solid plan, but… are you sure? I thought your internal injuries were serious. That’s why Chad went to fetch a doctor.”
“I’m fine. My recovery isn’t bad, so I should be able to ride by tomorrow.”
“That’s a relief, but moving already… You looked perfectly fine while eating earlier.”
“Exactly! So instead of sitting around doing nothing, let’s leave tomorrow. What do you say? If we waste another week, we might miss the duel.”
The distance from here to Helicke, the capital of Heidricke, was considerable. Even riding hard, it would take ten days, so we needed to allow two weeks to be safe. With less than three weeks until the duel, time was tight. We would also need a few days in the capital to secure lodging and tickets. The city would be packed, and if we were unlucky, we might spend an entire day just waiting in line at the gates. The capital’s gates didn’t let people through without thorough identity checks.
If one of us were a noble, things would be different, but none of us could openly declare noble status right now. Wasting at least a week waiting for a doctor who might never arrive was unacceptable to someone as impatient as me.
“The schedule is tight, but Lady Jeanie’s health comes first.”
“Right. We can’t push you. Rest is the priority.”
“Of course. Missing the duel is one thing, but Lady Jeanie is more precious to us than our own lives.”
What was with these guys?
This wasn’t the reaction I’d expected. The same people who once joked about dying if they missed the duel were now fussing over me like overprotective mothers. It made my stomach churn. I hated this kind of thing. It felt nauseating.
“Shut up. I’m the patient here. If I say I’m fine, then I’m fine. You all want to see the duel too!”
“Patients and doctors are different, Lady Jeanie. A proper diagnosis should come from a doctor.”
“Leaving before you’ve recovered? Absolutely not!”
They’d barely escaped death, and now they’d gone mad. I was glaring at them when I noticed Enk and Gail frantically signaling with their eyes toward something behind me.
Behind me? What about behind me?
The only thing back there was the abandoned house we were using as shelter—and Ash was inside. Ah.
Without a word, I pointed at the house and raised one eyebrow.
Enk and Gail immediately nodded, their eyes pleading.
So that’s why they were acting so out of character. It was because of him.
Ash had a habit of making a fuss over my affairs. Despite his unassuming appearance, he was surprisingly difficult to persuade. He usually stayed neutral and listened to everyone, but when something went against his beliefs or sense of justice, there was no room for compromise. Not even Lox or Chad could change his mind once he decided something was wrong.
Getting Ash to do something he believed was wrong was harder than killing him.
At least, until he kissed me.
After giving in to temptation and kissing me, he’d seemed tormented by guilt for a while.
‘Just trust me.’
After flashing the two of them a victorious thumbs-up, I headed toward the house with a light step.
“Ash?”
“I heard everything.”
“Then this’ll be quick! Let’s go, okay? Let’s go! Let’s go.”
Ash was sitting with his back to the door, but he’d clearly heard it all. Enk and Gail had known that and said what they did anyway.
I immediately clung to Ash’s back.
“We’re going, right?”
I pressed my weight against his shoulder and kept pestering him to leave.
Ash let out a small sigh and rubbed his forehead with a large hand—the gesture he made when he was thinking.
“…It’s nearly impossible to break your stubbornness.”
“That’s my Ash. Smart and reasonable. We understand each other.”
I whispered into his ear from behind, still clinging to him. Even that counted as praise, and I couldn’t help but find it adorable how easily he got embarrassed. I gave his neck a tight hug, and it seemed he had already surrendered.
“As long as we don’t push ourselves too hard, it’s fine. But we’re not leaving tomorrow. We leave the day after.”
“What! Every day counts!”
“You only woke up yesterday.”
“Didn’t you see me eating earlier?”
I’d single-handedly finished three bowls of soup, a whole bird leg, a rabbit leg, a pig leg, and sampled every type of fruit available. The pig leg had been so large that eating it alone had been a struggle.
“That’s exactly why I’m allowing us to leave.”
“…Fine. I’ll settle for that.”
Without Lox around, decision-making was definitely easier. Whether because I’d saved their lives or not, Enk and Gail had become remarkably obedient, and Ash was obedient in an entirely different way. Even now, he’d given in to me far too easily. Maybe he’d simply realized he couldn’t stop me.
“Jeanie, do you really want to see that duel that badly?”
“If I miss seeing Robenin lose, my injuries might flare up again.”
“Hah, surely not.”
“I’m serious! Besides, there’s nothing to do here. It’s so boring. I like cities. I want to get to the capital already.”
As I grumbled, Ash gave a small laugh and held out the thing he’d been fiddling with since morning. He seemed to have been sorting through some worn papers in order. Now that I thought about it, he’d been doing that ever since yesterday.
“We’ll leave the day after tomorrow. And this…”
“What’s that?”
“…It’s yours.”
“Mine?”
I’d never seen it before.
When I took it, I realized it was a bundle of papers that had been dried and re-bound one by one. I had no idea what it was. I’d truly never seen anything like it.
When I stared at it blankly, Ash looked slightly hurt.
“You gave it to me to hold before the dungeon collapsed.”
“Ah…? Oh, that!”
Right. There had been something like that.
With everything happening so fast, I’d completely forgotten. I’d picked out a few books from beside the dungeon master’s skeleton and had Ash and Chad carry them, but they hadn’t seemed particularly important. I couldn’t believe he’d managed to bring them out during all that chaos.
This man really wasn’t ordinary. Had he gone out of his way to save them just because I’d told him to?
“Given the situation, I couldn’t save many. They were all soaked, so I dried them while you were resting, but… there isn’t much left that’s readable.”
“Ash…”
“It would’ve been nice if the books had protective magic on them.”
“No, thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“I’ll give you a kiss.”
“That’s not necess—”
“Or should I kiss you on the lips?”
“…A kiss on the cheek is fine…”
How adorable.
Why was Ash so lovable? This feeling was dangerously close to actual affection.
Smiling, I pressed a kiss to his cheek and quickly ran back outside. I caught a glimpse of him reaching for my hand and missing, but asking why he’d tried to stop me would’ve been too embarrassing, so I left without looking back.
“Guys! He said we can go!”
“Oh!”
“We got permission to leave!”
I immediately shared the good news with Enk and Gail. The three of us danced around excitedly for a moment, cheering, before spreading the map out again. We needed to decide where to wait so we wouldn’t miss Chad.
“Let’s follow the canyon! We should meet up around here. There’s only one path, so if everything goes smoothly, we’ll run into him on the third day.”
“Here! We can wait at this rest stop.”
“Meeting up shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
“This is the only road leading to Hirilyke. It’ll be hard to miss each other.”
I was very satisfied.
This was more like Enk and Gail. Kids should grow up doing what they want.
“Ah, there’s something I need to tell you before we leave. I’ll only say it once, so listen carefully.”
“What is it? Something important?”
“I already told Ash. Right now, I need protection, so guard me with your lives. If anything happens to me, he’ll kill you. So either way, you die.”
“Back down and you’ll be devoured!”
Rai had been released from the cauldron state. I would’ve preferred to keep him that way a little longer, but since he was currently my only weapon, having him nearby put me at ease.
“Protection? Who? Us? You?”
“Have you ever seen a dog guarding a tiger? Or should I say an ogre?”
“Could you make it a dragon instead?”
“…I’ll acknowledge your confidence… It was impressive, after all. Seeing that made me wonder if you might actually be quite humble.”
Gail was finally seeing me properly.
“It’s because of the internal injuries, right? We can still swing our swords even with injuries, so it’s different for us.”
Gail seemed a bit smarter than Enk. I nodded.
“Something like that. For someone with my class, being unable to move mana is fatal. It blocks even basic attacks.”
“Hmm…”
“I overdid it that day, so I won’t be in normal condition for a while. It’s because of you two that I ended up like this, so for now, you’ll have to protect me. I don’t usually trust people this much, you know? Consider it an honor.”
I should be able to summon Undine by tomorrow at the earliest, but it would be better to hold back as much as possible. It would help with overall recovery.
“So you really did push yourself. Hearing that makes you seem a little more human.”
“…I still don’t get that feeling? Even without knowing much, that level of power is something only archmages can achieve, right? You’ve long since surpassed the level of an ordinary human.”
“Mages can’t do that, can they? There’s no such magic. Lox said magic requires a formula, which makes it different from spirit magic.”
“…What’s a formula?”
Enk really was only good for his face.
“Well… it’s like… the method for making a pulley… or something?”
Even Gail, who seemed relatively well-educated for a commoner, looked like he was struggling to explain.
Understanding an unfamiliar type of ability was difficult. It was similar to encountering an unfamiliar food. When you taste something for the first time, you don’t know if it’s good or bad, or whether all food tastes like that. Without knowing the average, you can’t tell if something is well-made or unusually tasteless. Because there was no standard, they couldn’t grasp what a Spirit Master was.
Classes like swordsmen had enough examples to form a baseline, but mages didn’t. And Spirit Masters were even rarer, so unless someone was in the same profession, it was better not to expect them to understand properly.
“I learned a bit from Lox this time. He’s met mages before, right? He said someone at your level might appear once or twice in an entire country. Even among mages, they’re hard to find.”
“Oh, that’s an exaggeration. I’m not that impressive.”
“Meeting you was incredibly lucky for us. He also said that even though you’re traveling with us now out of some whim, we shouldn’t get too attached because we don’t know when you’ll leave. In the end, you’re not one of us.”
Gail spoke calmly, but he looked somewhat bitter.
Lox, that bastard. He really said that about me?