“Are you alright? You seem to be sweating a bit.”
“Uh, no. It’s nothing.”
Just like in the carriage, I found myself alone in this room with Maria. And she was glaring at me with a gaze that felt powerful.
However, unlike last time, there was no escape route this time. In the carriage, I managed to slip away by providing decent answers, but this time, there was no such option.
I had naïvely followed her, thinking we were just going to grab a bite, only to walk straight into a trap.
‘There’s no escape…!’
If we were in a crowded square or even the marketplace, I could have relied on my physical abilities to make a getaway. But in this confined space, Maria had the upper hand.
It wasn’t a matter of me being an Expert swordsman.
The issue lay in the fact that Maria was a wizard who had already reached the 6th tier at her age.
“Maria.”
“Yes?”
“Have you made any progress in your magical training lately?”
Maria slightly furrowed her brow.
“No… To be honest, I haven’t made much progress since reaching the 6th tier. Of course, I would need to enter the Magic Tower to find someone who can teach me beyond this point, so I can’t really complain…”
In this world, magical power was a substance that existed everywhere. Wizards and knights were all individuals who trained themselves using that power. The difference was in how they utilized it.
Knights, fundamentally, couldn’t sense magical power. Of course, people like me who could use magic could feel it, but that was about it. Their method of employing magical power was more about building a practice from years of experience in saying, “If I do this, then the magical power seems to move.”
Reaching the Expert tier didn’t change that. For me, magic amounted to no more than lighting a fire in my hand, which meant that when it came to dealing damage in battle, I ultimately had to rely on swinging my sword.
But wizards were the ones who actively manipulated the magical power within themselves. Naturally, the number of such individuals was overwhelmingly small.
“But, well, I’m not going to become a grand wizard or anything, so this is enough for me. Right now, I’m focusing on repeating what I’ve achieved so far and working on my proficiency.”
“Really?”
“Hehe, I’m no longer the trembling child who couldn’t do anything like before.”
And even then, magical spells below the 3rd tier weren’t recognized as proper spells by wizards. Regardless of the type of magic, spells below the 3rd tier didn’t output anything worthwhile beyond trivial benefits in everyday life.
The 6th tier was regarded as a level approaching the threshold of the 7th tier, which classified someone as a grand wizard.
Considering that most wizards ended their lives at the 4th or 5th tier, it became clear how remarkable Maria’s achievement truly was.
However, there was a slight flaw in her statement.
“You were already at the 5th tier back then.”
“Ugh.”
Maria hadn’t been overwhelmed by the Empress’s onslaught due to a lack of magical achievement or power. While it was hard to imagine now, the real reason was likely her resistance to killing people with magic.
No, it probably hasn’t changed much even now.
Maria was afraid of witnessing death itself.
Trauma isn’t something that can be easily overcome.
“Well, it doesn’t really matter now, does it? You’ve got the Iron Cross Order with you.”
I casually shifted the topic. Any prolonged conversation would only serve to trigger her trauma further.
“To be honest, I feel a bit uneasy.”
“What?”
That was something I couldn’t let slide.
Could it be that those guys have been slacking off, taking money and not doing their jobs properly? Then we need to tighten the reins once more—
“You made me feel the safest when you were by my bedside while I was still inexperienced.”
What.
No, saying it like that makes me seem suspicious. I’m not a peasant. My preference is well-cooked bread.
Though I wanted to refute, there was no one around to hear it, and with the playful smile on Maria’s face, it was obvious she was teasing me, so I could only let out a sigh.
“Seriously, every time you say stuff like that, my heart feels like it’s going to drop, so please don’t…”
“It seems that your reaction is so entertaining that I want to do it more often, you know?”
I shook my head.
At this rate, I felt like I would be subjected to such jokes for my entire stay in the capital. But still, it was enjoyable. After all, aside from my family and the people from the Duke of Pomeran’s household, Maria was probably the person I had spent the most time with, so there weren’t many others I could banter with like this.
Of course, hunting monsters and playing the role of a wandering scholar while helping people was the most enjoyable thing, but honestly, where would I even find monsters to hunt in the capital?
“Anyway, so there are no major issues with your escort, right? I was worried they might have gotten lax—”
“No.”
Just as I was about to reassure myself, Maria cut me off.
“I’m being serious here.”
Maria’s expression was stern. She looked at me as if to say, what on earth are you talking about?
“The fact that I felt uneasy isn’t a joke.”
Tap.
She poked the table sharply with her finger.
“Do you have any idea how flustered I was when you disappeared, leaving only a single letter? I wondered if you had abandoned me, or whether the Empress had seduced you too, or if I had disappointed you. I was gnawing at my nails and bled from this finger, all while worrying about various things.”
Her finger drew my attention. She may have panicked in combat situations, but no one could match Maria when it came to her ability to protect herself; yet, there was a scar at the tip of her finger.
Though magic could accomplish many things, healing was incredibly complex and difficult, an area only the grand wizards could attempt on their own, so she couldn’t heal herself.
However, priests could heal, so why had she left a scar?
“When you vanished, and again, every night, I feared that assassins would enter unnoticed. I worried that the maids who had been with me since childhood, like Matilda, might get hurt or even die, or that I might close my eyes and never open them again, trembling and unable to sleep.”
Tap.
Now she stood up and leaned toward me, poking my chest firmly with her finger. Physically, she was average, so there was no way she could hurt me, yet somehow, that finger felt incredibly painful.
“Even when I fell asleep using magic and sleeping pills, I would wake up in the middle of the night from nightmares. I would use magic and sleeping pills to try to sleep again, but eventually, my body adjusted, and I found I couldn’t fall asleep with sleeping pills anymore, and before I knew it, I often spent the night wide awake.”
There was a different kind of flame, tinged with anger, flickering in her eyes now.
“Do you know how I achieved the 6th tier during the brief moment you were gone?”
With her casual switch to informal speech, I found myself at a loss for words.
I hadn’t known.
Not at all.
Well, I had known that she considered me an important person, but I thought it was merely a matter of deep friendship. I had no idea she was dependent on me to the point of psychologically tormenting herself.
Honestly, I felt a bit wronged.
It hadn’t even been a year. In just a few months, how had a person become so reliant on someone else?
“After losing my mother and seeing you disappear, I’ve come to realize that I am more dependent than I thought. So I thought, it would be a problem to just rely on others like this.”
“W-Well, if that’s the case, I’ll stay with you for a while to help ease that dependence—”
“So, I thought I should capture that person and tie them to my side forever.”
What.
…Did I just hear that wrong?
No matter how I thought about it, this felt less like a sweet partnership and more like a heavy, sticky obligation…
“Do you know? I’m now a proper adult. Soon, once I receive my title from Your Majesty, I’ll be able to claim a respectable status as royalty.”
Her gaze, the atmosphere, and everything she said pointed in one direction.
I had just walked into a trap she had been preparing for a long time.
“Do you remember what you told me back then?”
“I… What did I say…?”
Ah, what was it again?
Damn, I had spewed out so many borrowed words that upon such a question, too many came to mind.
“You said to save these kinds of discussions for when I was of an age to take responsibility for my own life, after the impulsive moments had passed.”
Was that so?
It seemed like it might have been, though I was sure I had said that. When I first met Maria, she was just on the brink of adolescence, so I had given her that advice back then.
“…But wasn’t that a remark made during a discussion about topics like marriage or suicide?”
“…Anyway.”
Huh, is she deflecting the conversation right now?
“Putting aside such trivial matters…”
“That doesn’t seem trivial at all.”
“The important thing is that after today, you won’t be able to squirm your way out of this anymore.”
Gasp.
Suddenly, all sorts of images raced through my mind, mostly involving excessive amounts of red marks and flesh-colored bits overflowing, something heavily pixelated and very adult-themed.
“Fufu, after we finish eating, how about you and I—”
“Ah, I think it’s a bit early for anything raunchy between us?!”
We both opened our mouths at the same time and then immediately clamped them shut.
“Eek.”
“…Oh?”
Is this going to be one of those moments where I end up as the only scumbag?
—
The meal came to an end.
An incredibly awkward atmosphere filled the room. Maria’s face was beet red, and she couldn’t say a word. I felt like crawling into a mouse hole, but sadly, such a hole wouldn’t exist in a high-end place like this.
“I never imagined you’d be thinking that way.”
“No! No matter how I look at it, your comment led here!”
“Do you usually think about things like that?”
“That can’t be…! Well, I guess it isn’t entirely impossible…”
“Pervert.”
Oh, dear.
My vision went dark.
Unable to meet her gaze, we instinctively stepped back from each other. I moved in sync with Maria out of sheer instinct. Now that I had said something like that, I knew I would be stuck following her around for at least a few days.
“Still, even if that’s the case, we aren’t engaged yet; a ring seems a bit…”
“…Have you done things like that with anyone else besides me?”
“Absolutely not…”
Even if I wanted to protest, I had to lower my tail under Maria’s glaring eyes. Making a sexual innuendo towards a princess was indeed a serious crime. If we got into an argument over this, I would definitely lose.
So, I obediently let her lead me to the only jewelry store located underground.
“Gasp.”
And as I looked at the prices, I couldn’t help but gasp.
“How much is all of this?”
“Hmph, if you hadn’t run away back then, I would’ve easily given you this much.”
“No, I really did need the money to work… but I didn’t expect it to be necessary to this extent!”
As I marveled at the prices that could probably buy a whole house, Maria called out to me while talking to the shop owner.
“Bill, come over here.”
“Uh… okay…”
I felt a sinking realization that my future was about to be mortgaged. The two rings in front of Maria somehow felt like handcuffs prepared just for me.
At that moment, someone halted me in my tracks.
“Isn’t that Princess Maria?”
“…Hah.”
Maria’s expression crumpled right then. She turned her head, clearly expressing her displeasure.
I scanned the room, wondering if the person who spoke might potentially rescue me from this situation.
“Just to confirm, is that ring meant to be shared with the gentleman beside you?”
And then, I realized why Maria’s expression had soured.
The peculiar rhythm in their speech, the odd intonation they raised at the end of their sentences, that high-pitched, grating voice that was unpleasant to hear, and their insistence on asking about something so obvious…
This person was like the embodiment of ‘trouble’ walking around in human form.
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