The Bad Premonition Hits
Alan Ludwig had somehow found himself walking through the forest alongside Emilia Silvrate.
Alan led the way at the front, followed by his summoned beast, the light fairy, and then Emilia with her own familiar. Emilia Silvrate herself had somehow lagged far behind, though.
“Miss Emilia, there’s really no need to follow so far behind…”
“Ah… n-no! This feels comfortable!”
When Alan spoke to her, Emilia startled so hard her hidden tail in the shorts beneath her skirt nearly bristled straight up.
“Um… um, Alan?”
“Hm? What is it?”
“Um… do you… ever wear perfume?”
A completely out-of-the-blue question from Emilia made Alan blink.
In truth, Alan had never once sprayed perfume in his entire life. Honestly, perfumes were one of those luxury items that only the upper classes could afford, and even if his father had bought one, it was always meant to be given to his mother. Alan himself had never even felt the urge to try it.
“No, I don’t.”
“R-really?”
The awkward silence between them was broken by a loud howl from Emilia’s summoned beast—the wolf.
Startled by the sound, Emilia shook her head and shouted.
“Alan! There are monsters nearby!”
“Damn it!!”
The monsters had already sensed their group, and the pressure of their presence bore down straight toward them. Alan and Emilia readied themselves to fight.
“You guys got dragged all the way into the outer training grounds.”
Kyou and Riel stepped out from inside. The monsters appearing around here were none other than goblins. Not strong individually, but they moved in swarms like a horde, armed with all sorts of weapons, and some rode on gray wolves.
“Riel! Several broke off toward your side—be careful!”
“Got it!”
Riel answered calmly and began casting her magic the moment she heard my words. A few crude goblins who had tried to sneak up on her loosed arrows, but Riel’s summoned beast, Frey, swatted every single one away with her tail.
That cat really is amazing at her tricks.
“Woof!!”
Baduk, Kyou’s summoned beast, charged over and sank his teeth into the goblin that had shot the arrow at Riel.
Seeing Baduk look up at him with his tail wagging as if to say, “How was that?” gave Kyou a strangely warm feeling.
Yeah… our Baduk really is skilled too.
Kyou used Wind Cutter to slice through several goblins charging at them with weapons and killed them instantly. With Riel’s support covered by Baduk and Frey, and Kyou’s support handled by Riel herself, he could focus entirely on the enemies in front.
Still, Wind Cutter really was a useful spell.
The casting time was short, and the power was incredibly threatening. The only drawback was how hard it was to learn.
In the original novel, a villain who relied heavily on Wind Cutter appeared in the later parts, and the story constantly praised its superiority. Kyou had trained desperately to master it. Fortunately, his family—the Ventus house—had an affinity for wind magic, so combined with his own efforts, he had managed to learn it.
He still remembered the memory of his childhood excitement after first obtaining Wind Cutter and running wild with it.
…Well, in retrospect, that era was quite a black mark, but still.
“Kyou! More on your side!”
While Riel’s explosion of flame bought time, Kyou cut down the goblins that had flinched from the fire with his sword.
Even if Wind Cutter was convenient, overuse drained mana, so there was no choice but to be careful.
“Baduk!”
“Woof!!”
When one goblin tried to flee, Kyou called Baduk. His summoned beast read his thoughts as well as his own and immediately gave chase, tearing the fleeing goblin apart.
If even one goblin survived and escaped, it would summon more of its kind. Of course, if they had the luxury, Kyou might have let some escape on purpose to draw out more prey, but it was time to regroup. He couldn’t afford to miss any.
“Kyou, Baduk caught the last one.”
“Yeah, good work, Riel.”
Riel’s face lit up at the praise.
Riel’s potential had been higher than anyone expected, despite never having experienced real combat before. She hadn’t been flustered by the monsters and had calmly assessed their positions and responded perfectly.
…For Riel, Alan was probably scarier than the monsters.
“Shall we collect the magic stones and regroup, then?”
“Yeah.”
The magic stones used to craft various magic tools in their daily lives. Magic stones could be harvested in two ways: naturally occurring in the ground like minerals, or generated inside monsters.
The first type was naturally generated in the ground. Although not available anywhere, they had extremely high purity and fetched very high prices. One mine alone could let you live comfortably for the rest of your life.
…Just look at how much the Ventus Count’s territory had grown after discovering a magic stone vein in the north.
The second type was generated inside monsters. As magi-infested creatures moved around, magic stones slowly formed in their bodies. These were usually small and low purity, though older monsters could have larger, higher-purity ones, and those monsters were correspondingly powerful.
Well, for a goblin, these stones were barely the size of a fingernail.
“Riel, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, no problem.”
The magic stones were located near the heart area beneath the goblin’s chest, so harvesting them meant slicing open the body. Kyou had worried it would be too tough for the girls, but Riel had been doing it quietly and steadily.
Look at that—no change in expression as she cut open the goblin’s chest.
…Wait, now that he looked closer, her lips were trembling just a little.
Frey stood beside Riel, and Baduk kept watch around them.
After nearly all the goblin corpses had been cleared away, they gathered the magic stones into their pockets.
“Kyou, we’ve collected quite a lot.”
“The instructor said we could take the harvested stones after class.”
“Really?”
Even a goblin-level stone was only enough to make a flashlight magic tool, but still… it added up to a decent sum.
After suggesting Riel take a little rest, Kyou cleared a flat spot on some rocks nearby and helped her sit down. When Kyou pulled out drinks from his bag, Riel spoke up.
“By the way, what kind of people are your family, Kyou?”
“Our family?”
“Yeah, I’ve never heard much about them.”
Kyou realized he had never told Riel about his family either.
“Our family is pretty normal. Dad and Mom, and two younger brothers.”
“You have younger brothers? One older brother? Or younger sisters?”
“Both.”
Kyou realized he hadn’t contacted his brothers since coming to the academy. His younger brother Astar—he didn’t know, but the younger sister Kino had probably been pretty upset.
He might need to brace himself to go home.
“Um… I only have an older brother and older sister, so I don’t really know what having a younger sibling feels like.”
“You probably feel the opposite.”
Astar had always been the one pushing himself forward and challenging him to matches.
Kino…
…Um.
Honestly, Kino’s case was really his own fault…
He still couldn’t shake the anxiety that if she grew up and matured, she might end up resenting him.
“Speaking of which, I’ve met your older sister, Eve, but what about your brother?”
“Your older brother?”
Andrew Ignis—Riel’s older brother.
The heir who would become the next Duke Ignis, yet the original novel had barely mentioned him at all. He was only described as being busy serving the kingdom alongside his father, with no name even appearing.
Now that this world had become reality, and as the heir to a ducal house, Kyou naturally knew his name.
“My older brother… honestly, I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“Yeah. I remember he was really kind when I was young, but he’s been extremely busy ever since.”
I see.
And after Riel grew up and left home, they almost never saw each other anymore.
…Kyou couldn’t imagine what could keep even a duke and duchess and their heir away from the estate for so long.
He had skimmed over that part in the original novel, but he’d need to investigate it later.
His father was still busy, and if he asked for help, it would probably be his mother.
“Kyou? Is something wrong?”
“Ah…! Sorry.”
Too lost in thought, Kyou snapped back to reality when Riel called his name.
Riel was staring at him with wide, rabbit-like red eyes.
“I just thought His Grace must be very busy.”
“…Yeah.”
Riel’s smile was a little forced when talking about her father. The sight looked rather lonely, so Kyou inwardly swore to find out the real reason.
“Well, let’s head back. It’ll be dark soon.”
“Yeah!”
Deeper into the forest, more powerful monsters like black wolves and killing beasts appeared. Still, even these were not particularly strong among all monsters. Students of Gransen Academy could handle them calmly with proper preparation.
With the added support of summons, they weren’t likely to suffer major injuries if they stayed alert.
Though it wasn’t something to brag about, Kyou—who had monster-hunting experience—was more worried about Riel’s safety.
Yet Riel had overcome even the slight nervousness she had shown at the beginning and grown noticeably.
This growth speed… was she truly the main heroine?
Right now, they had returned to the gathering place.
If they didn’t return by the time the sun completely set, all their accumulated points would be invalidated.
Several students had already gathered at the site.
Some were receiving treatment for minor injuries, but there were no cases of severe wounds.
Fortunately, this time they had passed through without incident, just as in the original novel.
Far in the distance, Alan’s figure could be seen.
True to his capable skill, he looked completely clean with not a single injury.
In contrast, the Emilia Silvrate who had accompanied him seemed extremely tired.
“Miss Emilia, are you okay?”
“N-no problem! Please don’t come any closer!!”
When Alan approached with concern, Emilia startled and backed away.
Why was she acting like that again?
It was a bit worrying, but Kyou headed toward the line to hand in the stones they had gathered.
“Ah!”
“Waaah!!”
A sudden voice made Kyou turn. Two figures appeared—Aria Owen and Phelis Valtreia.
Having finished scoring, Aria had come to hand in her papers and spotted them.
The wound from Kyou’s magic on Aria’s cheek was still visible.
…Shouldn’t she have gone to the healing team first?
She was glaring with an obviously irritated expression, but because of what had happened earlier, she simply passed by without saying anything.
After waiting in line for scoring to begin, a loud voice rang out from the back.
…A bad premonition hit.
“Aria, you really should get that treated.”
“Yeah…”
Aria was heading back to the group of students who had scored, along with her friend Phelis, after handing in the magic stones from the monsters they had hunted.
The moment they reached the gathering place, she had been too exhausted to think about healing and had come straight for scoring.
…Well, it was only a slight graze, and the pain had already subsided.
Because it was a wound sliced by a razor-sharp wind blade, receiving healing magic would leave no scar at all.
Honestly, compared to the cheek wound, the severed ponytail might have been more serious.
Most of all, the fact that she had blindly raged and fired off magic, taken a counterattack, and then panicked from Kyou’s staring eyes had been too embarrassing.
…Honestly, when they had met after scoring earlier, she never wanted to think about how scared she had been just looking at him.
“Then… let’s go to the healing team.”
“Okay.”
Yeah, let’s get this wound treated and forget about it.
Honestly, what had happened earlier was literally Kyou Ventos’s fault.
She had been so angry she had fired magic at the person with her back turned, and that was something she should feel ashamed about.
…She really hated the guy, but she would have to apologize to him separately later.
That was what Aria had been thinking as she headed to the medical team with Phelis.
“Aria, Phelis. You’re back too.”
“Ah, Alan.”
Alan approached with his usual handsome smile.
He was already holding the scoring papers, having finished the process.
“It’s good that there were no major injuries, Alan.”
“Yeah, that’s right. You guys…”
As he spoke, Alan’s expression hardened the moment he looked at Aria.
“Aria, what happened to your face and hair!?”
“Ah… um…”
Now that she thought about it, they were on their way to the healing team.
Alan asked with an angry look.
“It’s not a monster wound, right? Who did this to you!?”
“P-please calm down, Alan!”
“It’s not something I can calm down about!!”
Aria and Phelis exchanged troubled looks at Alan’s outburst.