Chapter 1: Counterattack on the Hills of Dilhorne

When I came to, I was staring up at a stone ceiling. As I blinked, it all came back to me bit by bit—where I had just been, what I’d been doing, and what I had seen.

Suddenly, it felt hard to breathe.

I’d fought because I had to. I knew I was the only one who could pull it off, so I was never struck with the urge to run away. But ultimately, my actions had amounted to the deaths of many, many people.

The castle was safe. And we’d managed to save the margrave, at that. Still, I couldn’t find it in me to rejoice that everything had gone so smoothly. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see were corpses, corpses, and more corpses.

“Are you awake, Kiara?” I heard a gentle voice call out.

Someone was sitting beside me. When I turned my head, I found it was Lady Évrard’s attendant, Maya.

The room was dimly lit; the only source of light was a single candle placed atop a small table. The look on Maya’s face, illuminated by the orange glow of the candlelight, told me she was exhausted. Her brown hair was falling loose from the neat bun she always wore to keep it out of the way.

“How...?”

How many hours had I been asleep? Last I remembered, the Llewynian forces still had the castle surrounded. What happened after that? Was everyone okay? I wanted to ask, but my voice was so hoarse I couldn’t get the words out. Upon noticing my struggle, Maya sat me up in bed and handed me a glass of water poured from the carafe at her side. Once I’d quenched my thirst, I finally found my voice again.

“How long have I been asleep?”

“About three hours. It’s past nightfall now.”

“What happened to the Llewynian—”

I opened my mouth to keep firing off questions, but after taking the empty glass from me and setting it down on the table, Maya cut me off with a hug.

“Don’t worry; you saved us. The Llewynian soldiers have fallen back.”

I slowly started to relax. At least I really managed to make a difference, I thought.

But Maya’s next words chilled me to the bone. “You slew their general.”

“Slew...”

“The enemy’s chain of command is in chaos, it seems. They’ve no choice but to cease their attack for now.”

All because I’d crushed him underfoot with my golem.

I had been so terrified of what I had been doing that I hadn’t even looked at the enemies’ faces. I remembered being surrounded by knights, some of them dressed in particularly striking jackets. I’d zeroed in on those men, assuming that if I just took them out, their forces would pull back before I had to kill even more soldiers. Maya knew for a fact that I’d slain him, so Cain must have been watching—since I hadn’t had the guts to make sure of it myself.

“His Lordship has returned safely as well. Thank you, Kiara. Truly.”

Maya gave me one last squeeze, then told me she’d let everyone know I was up and left the room.

Everything felt like a blur.

Apparently, I’d done something commendable. So why couldn’t I feel the least bit happy about it? The only thing I felt at the moment was tired.

There was a knock on my door, but any reply I could have mustered got caught in my throat. I didn’t have the energy to so much as lift my head.

Despite my lack of a response, I heard whomever it was step inside. As they silently walked over to me, I wondered who it could be, but I couldn’t be bothered to look up and see.

The moment they sat down in the same chair Maya had just been sitting in, they wrapped me up in an embrace that made it impossible to keep ignoring their presence. I caught a glimpse of a familiar pale military uniform and a whiff of a scent I recognized.

“Reg—”

“You don’t have to force yourself to say anything. As long as you don’t mind staying like this, that is. Oh, however,” Reggie added, a little mischief in his voice, “I am of the mind to bully you, enough for each year you took off my life. I waited a terribly long time for you to wake up, you see.”

So he said, but given the way he was gently rubbing my back, I didn’t feel terribly bullied. I could almost feel the warmth of his hands melting away the tension that reached all the way to the bottom of my spine.

The touch of Reggie’s hands felt oddly familiar; it brought back memories of when my mother had coddled me in my past life. Perhaps that was why I found myself slumping against Reggie before I even realized it.

When I did, he scooped up my left hand in his.

“It’s too bad you’ve become a spellcaster, but that’s the way it is. In all honesty, I never wanted you to gamble with your life like that, but it was your own choice to make, and you were so sure you could do it.”

Delivering his words almost like a soliloquy, Reggie placed a kiss on one of my fingertips. I jolted at the soft sensation as it graced my forefinger.

“The reinforcements I arranged for aren’t likely to arrive until the day after tomorrow. I never predicted that Llewyne would join hands with Salekhard, given their recent quarrels. I have only my own lack of foresight to blame.”

He lightly nipped at my fingertip in some sort of expression of his frustration. Along with the sweet rush of pain, I grew flustered, at a complete loss as to why he would do such a thing.

“Hey, Reggie!”

Next, he pressed his lips to the center of my palm. I sucked in a breath as he tickled my skin.

Wait a second! We’re supposed to be FRIENDS, right? I’m pretty sure friends don’t do things like nibble each other’s fingers and kiss each other’s hands!

I thought back to what had happened yesterday when we’d held each other close right before the meeting. I’d been so desperate to get Reggie to see things my way, to get his blessing, that I’d ended up getting way too close to him.

With no regard for my inner turmoil, Reggie went on in an eerily calm voice, “I understand your actions up to the point that you saved the margrave. But past that, I wish you’d had a little more regard for your own safety. You spotted me atop the castle walls. Why didn’t you ask me to send out more soldiers so we could rescue him together? Why didn’t you have any faith in me? Am I truly so unreliable?”

Reggie placed a tender kiss on the inside of my wrist.

“Don’t...” A chill ran up my spine.

“You don’t like it?”

Reggie looked so forlorn as he gazed into my eyes, I couldn’t bring myself to tell him to stop. “Um, it’s less that I don’t like it, and more that you’re freaking me out a little...”

“Is it me you don’t like?”

“What? No, of course not. I could never dislike you. Never.”

All the way down to the deepest depths of my heart, I didn’t hold a scrap of ill will towards Reggie. I was simply embarrassed.

“Why must you say things like that? If only you did hate me, then perhaps embracing you would be enough to make you listen to me.”

“Are you saying you want me to hate you? But why?”

“Because I don’t want you to push yourself, but that doesn’t seem to be getting through to you at all. If Wentworth hadn’t been with you, you could have been cast into the middle of the Llewynian army right in the heat of battle.”

He had a point. If Cain hadn’t been there to support me, it would’ve taken all my strength just to hang on to the golem’s shoulder, and my magic would have burned out partway through. If the enemy found the spellcaster who killed so many of their comrades collapsed alone on the battlefield, they might have done a lot worse than skewer me with a thousand swords.

As he watched the color drain from my face, Reggie seemed satisfied that I finally understood what he was getting at and continued, “You need to think before you act. Have you ever imagined what could happen if a lone woman was thrown out into enemy troops, where no one could immediately rush to your rescue? I’ve been thinking of ways to stop you from treating your own life so carelessly.”

Reggie was totally right; I had been too reckless. Thus, I braced myself for a lecture, but what I got was something entirely different.

After repositioning himself next to my foot, Reggie grabbed hold of my ankle from over the blanket. My eyes nearly popped out of my head.

“What are you doing?!”

“Perhaps if I abase myself before you, you’ll finally listen to my pleas.”

Reggie pulled away the part of the blanket covering just the tips of my toes and lowered his head toward the instep of my foot. Oh god, please don’t tell me he’s planning to give it the same treatment as my hand!

“Hey, wait! You can’t do that! You’re a prince, for goodness’ sake!”

Besides, making a guy kneel and kiss my feet is NOT a fantasy of mine!

“But you see, you won’t listen if I ask normally.”

When Reggie cast his eyes downward, dejected, I nearly gave in... But nope! I’m not letting you get away with this one!

“Look, I’m sorry! You’re right and I was wrong, so just don’t do THAT!”

My foot still in Reggie’s clutches, I screamed with all my might. But before the deed was done, Reggie lifted his head, and pointed out with an unfazed expression, “You know, if you keep struggling, you might kick off the blanket and show me your whole leg.”

“So just let go of me! Problem solved!”

As my yells became more and more desperate, Reggie chuckled. “Then how about this? Repeat after me, and I’ll stop: ‘Next time, I’ll be sure to call on your help.’”

“O-Okay, okay. I’ll say it...”

Once he’d let go of my leg, I did as Reggie asked, my shoulders heaving as I tried to breathe again.

“Still, it’s a fact that many of our people owe you their lives. Everyone’s taken to calling you a hero. Good for you, Kiara. You accomplished everything you’d hoped for; you must be pleased.”

“I wouldn’t say that...”

That comment hit me like a sucker punch, and I was so busy catching my breath that I couldn’t even put up a happy façade. But as soon as I said it, I was struck with a realization: I can’t say I’m not happy. I’ll just be putting a damper on everyone else’s joy.

I was clearly the weird one for not feeling glad about it. Yet every time I tried to say otherwise, I couldn’t manage to get the words out of my mouth.

After a stretch of silence, Reggie murmured, “I see. So that’s what’s bothering you.” Given his reaction, he’d probably figured it out on his own. “Maya told me you were behaving strangely, and now I see what she meant. Why aren’t you happy, Kiara?”

“Maybe there’s just something wrong with me, but killing people isn’t something I can just... get over.”

“You feel guilty?” he asked, and I nodded.

I couldn’t shake the feeling I had done something truly despicable. In an RPG, it was easy to “beat” the enemy, but in reality, that action equated to murder.

As a daughter of the count, I’d lived a life far removed from any bloodshed, so my sense of morality was likely a holdover from my past life.

“It’s nothing for you to feel bad about. After all, if you hadn’t killed them, they might have killed you.” Reggie excused my actions for me.

He wasn’t wrong, of course. No matter how much it pained me to kill people, not being able to save Reggie or Lord Évrard would have been even worse. In order to protect them, someone else had to be sacrificed. Only some sort of genius could figure out a way around that, and I was no genius.

That didn’t change the fact that I didn’t want to kill people. I managed not to think about it when I was focused on surviving, but once the danger to my life was gone, I couldn’t take it. My whole body shook with the knowledge that I’d ended another person’s life. And no matter how bad I felt about it, I had no way to take responsibility for my actions. The guilt over the horrible things I’d done felt like a weight bearing down on my chest, ready to crush me.

“If that isn’t enough to alleviate your conscience, then let’s say I’m responsible for the deaths of the men you killed.”

“But I don’t want you to take on that weight, either.”

“It isn’t a heavy burden for me to bear,” Reggie asserted. “It’s my duty as someone who was born into royalty. Whenever we declare war, we must be prepared both to kill and to watch our own men die. I’ve grown used to it, so there’s no need for you to worry for my sake.”

I didn’t know what to say. I had no idea that Reggie had been thinking about war that way. It finally dawned on me that commanding officers weren’t all people dodging responsibility from afar.

A single order of his could send his men to their deaths. Since Reggie had the final call when it came to strategic decisions, if he didn’t think everything through properly, he would be directly responsible if his forces met a grisly end.

Still, just because he’s used to it doesn’t mean it can’t hurt him.

“You see, Kiara? This is why I was so opposed to you standing in the line of fire. You have good intuition. You’re resourceful, too. But for better or for worse, you’re just an ordinary girl. I knew how hard it would be for you to be subjected to the horror of a kill-or-be-killed scenario.” Reggie had anticipated that things would turn out this way, and that was why he had tried to stop me. “You can’t bear the weight of this burden. That’s why I didn’t want you to become a spellcaster... even if your doing so would allow me to survive.”

There wasn’t much I could say to that. After all, Reggie had objected to my ambitions after taking all that into consideration, and now here I was, exactly as overwhelmed as he’d predicted.

Just as I started to get down on myself, I heard a knock at the door.

Reggie softly stroked my head one last time and then stood up. The knock must have been a reminder that he was short on time.

“If you’d like, I can arrange things so you won’t be an active participant in any future battles. Think about it again and decide what you want. So long as you stay in this castle, I’m sure you’ll be expected to use your powers to assist us in some way or another. But at the very least, I can insist that you not be taken out onto the battlefield again.”

After calmly pointing me toward an escape route, Reggie left the room.

What a guy. It felt like I was some runaway kid trying to pretend I wasn’t. Not only had Reggie figured out exactly where I was headed, but he’d smoothly handed me directions on how to get home while he was at it.

“This is almost depressing.” Even more frustrating was that I couldn’t deny that he’d made me feel a little better.

Right then, I heard a small laugh.

“Oh, to be young and in love! Eeeheehee.”

“What?! Is that you, Master Horace?!”

As if that voice could be anyone else. Where is he, though?

I looked around in a panic, and there he was, sitting like an ornament atop the fireplace opposite the bed. I’d been so preoccupied, I hadn’t noticed him there at all.

“Wait, don’t tell me you SAW all that!”

While I was horrified to find that someone had been watching us the whole time, Master Horace laughed with glee. “Now that was a good show! It’s the little things that make life worth living, even as a disembodied soul. Why, back when I had my hands full as an animal handler, I never imagined I’d be having this much fun!”

Ugh... So he really DID see everything. And did I just hear him call those monsters “animals”?

I was so embarrassed, I couldn’t help whining, “You should have said something, Master! You have some nerve, quietly spying on my private affairs!”

“With the way you were jostling me around inside that rucksack, even a doll like me would start to feel queasy; I was quietly recovering. Looks like that got me mistaken for a personal belonging of yours. That little lady who was looking after you took great care in setting me up here. Eeeheehee!”

“Nooooo...”

I would really hate for anyone to think I owned a doll like this.

Maybe it’s strange for the person who made it to be saying so, but no girl should have a clay figurine this hideous. We’re not talking about some quirky little knickknack here! She probably thinks I’m a total weirdo now... I need to remember to clear this up with Maya later.

“I don’t want anyone thinking this is my idea of cute,” I accidentally mumbled aloud.

“Hold it right there, little disciple! Just what sort of form did you make for me?!”

Oh... Oops. I haven’t had the chance to explain to him what his new form looks like. “Uhh, you know, it’s sort of like a miniature version of that golem I made.”

“If that’s all it was, you wouldn’t have such a problem with it.”

He’s too sharp. I couldn’t think of a good excuse, so I just fell silent.

Master Horace indignantly stomped his feet, making little clinking noises as he did. “I can move my neck a little, you know. I’ve caught glimpses of my arms and legs! The intricate pattern looked like it belonged on a piece of pottery, so I figured you’d turned me into a real classy doll! But thinking back on it, everyone who’s seen me gives me a mighty startled stare!”

“Umm, I mean, think about it! Anyone would be surprised if a doll started talking, right?”

“Not that kind of stare! Some of them looked downright revolted! I’ve been trying to brush it off, but what in the world have you made me into, little lady?!” Master Horace grew more and more heated. “Curses! I escaped with my life, and now I’m doomed to spend it in some hideous form...” The little clay figurine pressed both hands to the ground as he lamented his fate.

Oh no. This is really funny.

The whole scene lifted my spirits a little.

Master Horace had died right before my eyes, and without me, he would have been doomed to turn into sand and fade away completely. When I’d watched the defective spellcasters die, I had been so scared that the same fate might one day befall me—but strangely enough, I hadn’t felt that same fear when it was Master Horace’s turn.

Most likely, it was because he had chosen to live on, even as a disembodied soul.

I decided to put my feelings into words. “Say, Master Horace. Thanks for asking to live.”

“Wh-Where’d that come from? No reason to thank me when I more or less forced your hand. What, are you trying to win me over now? You really are a force to be reckoned with!”

“What are you talking about?”

Who else do you think I’ve won over, exactly? There was a chance he was talking about... well... No, there’s no way he would be swayed so easily.

“In this case, my little disciple, I’m talking about your ability to appeal to people’s emotions.”

Does that mean he was a little touched by what I said?

“In other words, I nearly broke through your tough exterior? Please, as if you’re such a hard nut to crack. You’re always very honest when I ask you something, so I’ve never had to resort to torture.”

“T-Torture?! Just what are you planning to do with me?!” Master Horace backed away, his little body quaking and clattering.

This is the funniest clay figurine I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t help but laugh.

I felt genuinely glad that I’d taken on this old man as my master, weird cackle and all. It was a snap judgment I’d made based on a lack of other options, but I felt satisfied that I had left things up to chance and had come out of the gamble victorious.

And thanks to that honest delight of mine... my mood became a little lighter.

After I’d played around with Master Horace for some time, Maya brought some food up to my room. While she was there, I attempted to explain that Master Horace wasn’t actually a trinket, but he chose that moment to do his best impression of an inanimate object. From there, it was a desperate struggle to make sure she didn’t walk away thinking I was crazy.

Eventually, I managed to convey that Master Horace was a magical creation and that the soul of an old man resided in that clay body. “Magic truly is incredible,” she noted, impressed, before dropping the bomb: “But that means you’re the one who came up with his design, right?”

And with that, her unflattering perception of my taste was set in stone.

Why did I have to think of a clay figurine right then? I started to mope, but after listening to our back-and-forth, Master Horace got worked up about his new looks all over again, so I showed him to a mirror and dealt him the finishing blow.

Within that harmonious interlude, I received a summons from Lord Évrard. He wanted me to come to an imminent meeting.

This time, it wasn’t a middle-aged servant lady who came to get me. A knight in service to the margrave himself brought me a formal summons. It served as a reminder that my position within the castle was no longer what it used to be; most likely, Lord Évrard had changed his handling of me in light of my new role as a spellcaster.

When I had been an ordinary attendant, it had been acceptable for a servant to come fetch me. But to call for a spellcaster, who existed outside the bounds of rank and was considered no less valuable than royalty, he must have felt the need to send an appropriately ranked escort.

Upon receiving the summons, I spent the next few seconds zoning out.

I had to show up to a meeting. One where we would once again be devising ways to kill the enemy.

I’d always known war wasn’t pretty, but even after coming this far, I didn’t want to kill anyone. When I inadvertently bit down on my lip, Master Horace whispered to me, “You want your friends to live, don’t you, kid?”

Why had I decided to become a spellcaster even though it meant one day turning into sand and leaving no remnant of myself behind? Master Horace helped me remember my motivation, steeling my resolve once more.

I decided to accept the summons, but I had to change clothes first; I was still dressed in the soft cotton nightgown I’d been changed into while I was out cold. I asked the knight to wait outside my room, then changed into a new outfit with Maya’s help.

When I was on the monster dispatch squad, I’d borrowed small-sized men’s clothes for ease of mobility. I thought about going with the same outfit, but Maya presented me with a dress and cloak, insisting that I wear it. It was a thick, well-made dress, red in color, but it wasn’t one I owned.

“Lady Évrard had this dress prepared for you. She believed it would be more befitting of a spellcaster than ordinary military clothes.”

Apparently, Lady Évrard had prepared this outfit as a sort of congratulatory gift. She’d ordered it way back when I’d first started on my whole “I’m the woman who will become a spellcaster!” thing.

She’s like the mother I always wished I had. Moved by her kindness, I felt salty tears welling up in my eyes.

Per Maya’s instructions, I changed into the dress, but something suddenly occurred to me. “Wait, won’t this make it a little hard to charge in with my golem?”

For a Level 1 spellcaster like me, putting too much distance between myself and my golem would break the magic spell. In order to stick close to it, I’d sat atop its shoulder as if I were riding a giant robot... but if I did that in a dress, the wind could kick up my skirt and put me in a very precarious position.

“She accounted for that,” Maya responded with a smile. “If you’re wearing these clothes, you’ll have to think twice before you engage in any rash behavior. The dress doubles as an admonishment.”

I had no comeback for that. Unfortunately, it seemed both Lady Évrard and Maya viewed me as prone to recklessness.

But true enough, if I didn’t want anyone to see my legs, it meant I’d either have to bring someone along to carry me or consider my surroundings more carefully as I fought.

Lady Évrard is a strategist through and through. Like nephew, like aunt.

Once I’d changed into my new clothes, I grabbed Master Horace from underneath the bedding, where I’d hidden him away until I finished getting dressed. His desperate struggles with the blanket had been adorably reminiscent of a little mole. Despite his grumblings, I held him close like a teddy bear, and together we moved to the meeting room. A few people gawked as we walked by—not at me so much as the doll I was holding—but I didn’t pay them any mind.

When we arrived at the meeting room, the knight who had served as my escort held open the door. Inside the spacious room, which was furnished with a long table, were many of the same people who had attended yesterday’s meeting. The seating arrangements had just been altered a bit.

Reggie was at the head of the table, with Groul standing behind him. On either side of Reggie sat the margrave and his wife. Evidently, Lord Évrard hadn’t escaped the battle completely unscathed. His complexion was washed out from exhaustion, and I spotted bandages peeking out from under the cuffs of his uniform.

Seated next to the margrave was Alan. Like the protagonist he was, he’d seemingly made it through that rough-and-tumble battle—even going out of his way to assist me—without getting a scratch on him.

I wonder what level he’d be in the RPG by now.

The cavalry general had suffered heavy wounds. Between the bandages wrapped around his head and his arm hanging in his jacket like a makeshift sling, he was rather hard to look at. Perhaps because he had been holed up inside the castle walls, the garrison commander didn’t have any obvious injuries, but his expression was grim.

The biggest change of all was that a chair had been arranged for me—the vacant seat between Alan and the cavalry general. Lord Évrard’s knight ushered me towards the chair and instructed me to have a seat.

In other words, this was where a spellcaster fell within the hierarchy.

I swallowed nervously. I was worried I’d make a fool of myself with the way my legs were trembling, but I managed to take a seat without awkwardly stumbling into my chair.

Now that everyone had gathered, Lord Évrard opened his mouth to speak.

“First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to His Highness for his deft command of our troops. Furthermore, I would like to honor the tireless efforts of everyone seated here and pay tribute to those who laid down their lives.” At those words, everyone hung their heads and fell silent.

After an appropriate amount of time had passed, the cavalry general expressed his regret in a trembling voice. “If only I hadn’t been outpaced by the enemy, your men wouldn’t have died in vain.”

“I was no better in that regard, Tremayne. But fortunately, she came to our aid.” Lord Évrard’s eyes turned to me, and everyone else’s gazes followed.

Ugh... Talk about nerve-wracking. Unconsciously, I hugged Master Horace tighter.

“Don’t fret, my little disciple,” Master Horace whispered. “Not going to wither with a mere handful of eyes on you, eh? Your goal here is to come out victorious against a force of tens of thousands of men. Eeeheehee. Once you step out onto the battlefield, you’ll be showered in gazes a lot more vicious than any of these. Why, you already endured that only a few hours ago! This ought to be nothing.”

“Ugh... I know, I know.”

Master Horace was right. At the time, I had been too preoccupied to worry about it; it had taken all I had to avoid thinking about the people I was killing. Still, his words gave me a little bit of courage.

I screwed my eyes shut for a moment, and when I opened them to look back at Lord Évrard, he was smiling at me.

“Thank you, Kiara. You acquired power knowing full well what it could cost you. Your sacrifice saved us all, and for that, I am grateful.”

“Oh, well... I’m just glad I could do something to help.” I could hear my heart pounding in my ears, but I managed to come up with an innocuous response—though like before, I had to wrestle with the word “glad.”

“Henceforth, and in an official capacity, I would like to regard you not as an attendant, but as a spellcaster. Will you accept this offer?”

“Ngh...”

Much like a knight could be appointed as an officer, he wanted to officially employ me as a spellcaster.

I’d become so accustomed to my life as an attendant that my first instinct was to turn him down. No, bad Kiara! If I don’t accept his offer, what was the point of any of this? If I asked to be treated as an attendant rather than a spellcaster, no one would know how to deal with me.

Answering that way would be the same as saying I didn’t want my role as a spellcaster to be public knowledge. I was sure that Lord Évrard would be willing to find a way to make that possible, but all it would do was create more work for him.

I decided I was going to fight, so I can’t go running back to the bourgeois now, I scolded myself, and then gave my answer.

“Y-Yes. Thank you very much.”

Lord Évrard looked relieved at my response.

But there was one person whose expression remained stiff—Reggie.

He was probably worried that serving as a spellcaster would only hurt me. But... there was no going back for me. Now that the situation had changed and I had no idea what was going to happen next, I had to be poised to openly fight in the war if I wanted to protect Alan, Reggie, or anyone else.

I still hadn’t come to terms with murder, but for now I’d just do my best to keep my friends alive. I decided to focus on making sure everyone made it home in one piece, and let myself agonize over what I’d done afterward.

That said, I wasn’t as selfless a person as I may have appeared. Thus, I opted to throw my mentor under the bus to move the conversation away from me.

“But you know, everything is REALLY thanks to Master Horace for taking me on as his disciple. Without him, I wouldn’t have the slightest clue what I was doing,” I stressed.

Upon being thrown into the center of the conversation, the little clay figurine seemed to fluster, stirring with a clacking sound.

Everyone’s eyes shifted to the clay doll I was holding, so I plopped him on the table as if to hide myself behind his little body. Go on, Master! Protect your disciple!

As I cheered him on in my mind, Master Horace glanced back at me. I got the sense that those alien-like googly eyes were staring into my soul, but I pretended not to notice.

“Ah, yes. Alan and the others informed us that the soul of a spellcaster—the one serving as your master—resides in that clay figurine. Sir Horace, wasn’t it? It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Indeed. Horace the wandering spellcaster, at your service. Well! Wanderers or hermits, most spellcasters you meet will be one of the two.” There was Master Horace’s plentiful life experience at work. He handled himself well, considering he’d been thrown into the spotlight with no warning. “And now that I’ve lost my real body, as you can see, I’m nothing more than a fleeting existence relying on my disciple’s power to function. Eeeheehee!”

He let out his usual cackle, which only made the clay figurine exude an even eerier aura. The cavalry general, garrison commander, and Lord and Lady Évrard all looked a little disturbed.

Well, this is just who he is, so I hope everyone can warm up to him eventually. Plus, it IS my fault he looks so creepy.

“About to hold your war council, aren’t you? To assist my dear disciple, I’ll have a listen myself. Eeeheehee.”

When Master Horace urged him to move on with the proceedings, Lord Évrard nodded. “Let’s review the sequence of events.”

First, Lord Évrard explained everything that had happened from his point of view. He had set out from the castle not long after we did. The plan had been to join up with border patrol and the troops from the branch estates on his march forward.

However, he found the border under attack by the Llewynian army. The enemy’s numbers weren’t that great, but seeing as the border patrol had their hands full fighting off the Llewynians, they could only provide us with 200 men as reinforcements.

Afterward, given that he hadn’t heard anything back from his scout, Lord Évrard stopped at an area much closer to the castle than originally planned. There, he met up with additional troops from the branch estates and military volunteers from the nearby towns and villages, increasing his numbers to 2,000.

It was then that his scout finally returned, informing him that the enemy was 10,000 men strong. Due to the stark difference in numbers, the margrave decided a change of plans was in order. He opted to return to the castle gates.

Unfortunately, they were outpaced by the enemy, and after they’d made it some distance to the castle, the battle began. With the added trouble of surprise attacks from defective spellcasters, the margrave ended up losing three-quarters of his men.

It was a miracle that Lord Évrard was still alive by the time we rushed in. I felt truly relieved that we’d managed to save him, though I couldn’t help but think of the people I’d trampled with my golem in order to do so.

No, I can’t dwell on that right now. I’ll miss what everyone else is saying. In an attempt to clear my head, I pinched the back of my hand and perked up my ears.

Next, the garrison commander began his report of what had gone on inside the castle. Preparations to hold the castle had begun the previous night, so they managed to get the castle town’s residents inside the gates before the Llewynian army arrived. But because the enemy’s numbers had been greater than anticipated, they were unable to go to the margrave’s rescue. The moment they opened the castle gates, enemy soldiers would come pouring in.

Apparently, the castle had also come under attack by defective spellcasters, but thanks to Reggie’s awfully merciless strategy, they were taken out right off the bat. Their plan had been to break down the castle gates, so that was clearly the correct course of action. Still, given that I’d wanted to purge the tactic from my memory the minute I heard about it, it was a powerful reminder of Reggie’s ruthlessness on the battlefield.

I’m scared of you, Reggie!

In any case, now that we had successfully rescued the margrave and brought him back inside the castle walls, for the time being, we were standing guard against a Llewynian attack in shifts. Since the enemy had halted their advance, we could get by with only a lookout for the night.

Lord Évrard surmised that the Llewynian army had stopped advancing due to Reggie’s fumigation strategy from earlier that day (apparently, it was poison gas) and my presence as a spellcaster—and above all else because I had trampled their general underfoot. It may have been a little reckless, but it turned out to be a good thing I had attacked the commander’s squad. And it was definitely a good thing that Cain had been around to ascertain the status of the enemy general with his own two eyes to make up for my cowardice.

When I glanced back at where Cain stood behind Alan, his gaze softened, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly.

I would have to apologize and thank him later. I really couldn’t have pulled it off without Cain by my side, and at the very end, I’d even forced him to fight while I drifted out of consciousness in his arms.

“Now, the problem is what to do from here on out.” Lord Évrard’s expression sobered. “We may have defeated the enemy general, but the Llewynian troops have shown no signs of withdrawing entirely. Until they retreat, we can’t recruit any new militia fighters. And without more soldiers, it will be difficult to drive them out of our territory.”

Reggie spoke up for the first time. “I imagine the Llewynians are simply having difficulty appointing a new general. If I had to guess, the men most suited to be his replacement were likewise taken out in Lady Kiara’s attack. But they’ll have established a new chain of command by tomorrow, meaning chances are high that they will resume their attack.”

Hearing Reggie call me “Lady Kiara,” I felt a knot in the pit of my stomach. This wasn’t a setting where we could act like two good friends. I knew that was why he referred to me that way, but it was still an unpleasant reminder of the distance that existed between the two of us.

“If only the other branch estates would take the initiative and gather enough soldiers to overpower their forces,” the garrison commander mused, drawing a laugh from Master Horace.

“Not happening. If we’re lucky, the ones up north decided to keep to themselves. Eeeheehee. If they did try to stand in the Llewynian’s path, they’ve probably been well and flattened.”

“Speaking of which, the Llewynian soldiers did indeed advance from the north... I take it you were informed of their invasion route, Sir Horace?” Lord Évrard asked.

Master Horace laughed. “I never heard the specifics of their strategy. But I do recall a Salekhardian had frequent dealings with the man who hired me. I was told to attack the castle while troops advanced from the north, so I figured the two of them were in cahoots. Seeing as they just let ten thousand men pass through their territory, the whole of Salekhard must’ve been in on the collusion.”

“If it was a bilateral conspiracy, no wonder it was so difficult for us to foresee their movements. And it would explain why Salekhardian soldiers were mixed into their ranks,” the cavalry general lamented, brow furrowed.

Our supposed ally, who initially approached us as a fellow victim, had betrayed us. There was little doubt now that Salekhard had fabricated their entire story about the monster sightings. Originally, Lord Évrard had assumed that the Salekhardian army was on the move to dispatch the monsters, but he now concluded that it was all a ruse.

“To think they were working so closely... I’m sure they’ve already had their talks about territorial cessions,” Reggie reflected.

Lady Évrard sighed. “In the worst case, I would say the envoys who came to us about the negotiations, including the ones aligned with Farzia, were likewise under the patronage of Llewyne. It’s entirely possible that the whole thing was a pretense, and they never scheduled any negotiations in the first place.”

“Are all those at the crux of this loyal to Llewyne?” Alan asked.

“We can’t be certain,” Lady Évrard responded. “Even considering the queen married into the royal family several years ago, there are still far too many nobles with close ties to Llewyne. Her connections to Lord Patriciél and Lord Credias are a given, but I wonder what tactics she used on the others.”

“Eeeheehee. Either they were threatened, or else they were offered a very handsome reward. We’re only human, after all; everyone looks out for number one.”

Reviewing the facts only made the outlook more dismal than ever. Everyone’s expressions clouded over.

What Reggie had to say next only dampened the mood further. “I asked Lord Limerick and Lord Reinstar to send their reinforcements if anything went awry. They did contact me by messenger bird, but based on that information, they’re still over two days away. And soon enough, the Llewynians will realize we’ve arranged for auxiliary troops. If they’re looking to complete their conquest in a hurry, they might send out more defective spellcasters to break open the gates.”

“In short, there’s nothing we can do without our reinforcements, and if they realize those reinforcements are on the way, the Llewynians may try to finish this tomorrow,” Lord Évrard summarized, and Reggie nodded.

“What’s more, knowing now that Salekhard has betrayed us, I can’t imagine Llewyne moved their forces simply to invade the border with a mere ten thousand men. It’s safe to assume that more troops are marching on the royal capital as we speak.”

At Reggie’s prediction, silence fell once more. Everyone was trying to think of a breakthrough solution—most likely, one that involved me.

All I was really capable of, however, was making a single giant golem run around the battlefield. Plus, there was a limit on how long I could keep that up; it would be hard to defeat the Llewynian army with only that going for us.

If we could just draw the Llewynian soldiers a certain distance from the castle and then have them give up their assault on Évrard...

“Forcing them to withdraw is the win condition here,” I muttered, then immediately regretted it. Deciding a “win condition” was definitely thinking in RPG terms.

But perhaps that phrasing was easy to understand, because Lord Évrard responded, “The win condition, hm? True enough, simply holding the castle would feel like a victory for our side.”

“Forcing them to withdraw is certainly our main priority,” the cavalry general said. “We need them to fall back before we can hope to increase our numbers.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. Encouraged by the general air, I decided to take the plunge and say my piece.

“Um, given our current numbers, we currently have no way to stop their invasion of the royal capital. It’s best not to focus on that until we do. And I doubt the troops outside the castle will have retreated come tomorrow, seeing as their goal is to assassinate His Highness.”

In the game’s opening cutscene, the enemy’s main troops only withdrew as quickly as they did because they’d successfully assassinated Reggie and taken Évrard Castle—thus eliminating all heirs to the throne.

“That’s true,” Reggie said. “Llewyne is invading with the intent to seize command of the kingdom of Farzia. So long as I remain alive as the rightful heir to the throne, that task will prove difficult. Even if they successfully occupied the royal capital, I rank higher in the line of succession than the queen; other countries wouldn’t acknowledge their annexation of the kingdom. After all, if they turned a blind eye to a usurper of the throne elsewhere, the same could pass in their own country.” He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, he looked like he’d come to some sort of decision. “We’ll just have to make the Llewynians willingly give up their siege.”

He went on to discuss his plans to utilize the soldiers from the territories sending us reinforcements. With Évrard’s forces and the auxiliary troops combined, their numbers would surpass 10,000. Plus, we had a legitimate spellcaster in our ranks, so Llewyne would want to avoid taking us head-on—even with the defective spellcasters at their disposal.

“Thus far, Llewyne has only sent out two defective spellcasters. That could mean they’re unable to produce them in large quantities. So in order to impress upon them that we have a real spellcaster in our ranks... I’d like to call upon your help, Lady Kiara.”

This was the first time Reggie had actively sought my strength. There was ice in his expression, but since he had objectively judged that he needed my help, this was my chance.

So I nodded. “Certainly, Your Grace.”

Though of course, I knew full well any plan of his would be unbearably soft on me.

◇◇◇

The meeting came to an end, and everyone returned to their respective posts or sleeping quarters.

After most of the others had left, Alan finally stood from his chair. He saw Kiara get up at the same time, hugging the strange clay figurine housing the soul of her master.

Kiara was looking over at Reggie. Reggie locked eyes with her, his expression unreadable.

It couldn’t have lasted longer than a second. Neither of them said a word, yet the two seemed to have a brief conversation through their shared gaze. But whatever that was, it was completely lost on Alan.

Just prior to the meeting, Reggie had claimed he was thinking of ways to keep Kiara off the front lines, but ultimately he had made the decision to let her stand on the battlefield.

And this after he had been so sour about Kiara’s leg-baring episode.

Alan had a thing or two he could say about all that fuss, too. In the first place, everyone there had agreed to keep the incident with the windwolves a secret and coordinated their stories ahead of time. Yet somehow, Reggie had picked up on things like Wentworth’s subtly strange behavior or the knights in the castle being unusually kind to Kiara.

One would think treating a girl kindly would be a good thing. Why, any knight disgraceful enough to pick on a younger girl ought to be forced to resign.

When Alan had protested that none of the men who’d caught a peek of her legs had done anything untoward to Kiara, Reggie had responded, “What would you do if your own mother had done that? If the margrave heard of such a thing, I’m sure he would command all the witnesses to erase it from their memory.”

Alan had immediately apologized to Reggie. Sure, Reggie was probably right that his father would be upset... but he couldn’t take the mental image of his parents fawning over each other. The emotional damage was too devastating.

Deep down, Alan found Reggie truly terrifying. As overprotective as the prince was, he was still willing to send Kiara out into battle.

“Is he pushing her out of the nest?” Alan muttered aloud.

If Kiara was a chick determined to leave the nest, perhaps the father bird—Reggie—had judged that the time was finally right and sent her to fend for herself. The explanation was a little too weak to be convincing, but Alan couldn’t think of anything else.

Regardless, given her eagerness to fight, Kiara should have been pleased with the outcome. So why had she looked at him with such accusation in her eyes?

Watching those two made Alan want to yell, “Stop staring at each other and go talk it out already!” After all, there were things even a father and daughter couldn’t understand without using their words.

At the same time, he also understood that those two were a special case. From the very beginning, there had been a strange sense of understanding between the pair—though at the time, it hadn’t appeared to be romantic in nature.

Then again, if it were just a normal romance, Alan wouldn’t be left feeling so confused.

Whatever the case, there was no point in sticking around. Alan made to leave the room, only to find Kiara following after him.

“Sir Cain, Lord Alan. May I speak with you about our plans for tomorrow?”

Alan glanced over at Reggie, but he was busy talking to Groul, who had been waiting behind him. And so, taking Kiara and Wentworth with him, Alan left the main tower.

“You can just call me ‘Alan,’ you know. So long as they aren’t bound by a master-servant relationship, spellcasters exist outside the hierarchy.”

“I don’t know about that, Alan... I was an attendant just yesterday.” Despite her protest, Kiara had already adopted a more casual tone.

“It’s nothing you need worry over. So, what did you want to speak to us about?”

“Umm, maybe somewhere with a little more privacy?” Kiara glanced at their surroundings. Since the residents of the castle town had been evacuated, the courtyard was lined with makeshift tents, abuzz with people coming and going. True enough, it wasn’t the best place for an involved conversation.

Instead, they found a spot in the parlor of the manor house. After setting her clay figurine on the table, Kiara stayed on her feet, so naturally, Alan and Wentworth also remained standing to face her.

“I’ll make this quick, I promise. I just want you both to be extra careful that Reggie doesn’t get targeted by any arrows or attacked by any enemy soldiers who manage to sneak past our defenses.”

That rang a bell. “Is this about those past-life memories of yours?”

At first, Alan had thought her story ridiculous. However, in becoming a spellcaster, she had proven her claims of clairvoyance. All her predictions about the Llewynian attack had come true as well.

In all honesty, Alan found himself in awe of Kiara. More than once, he had thought about how useful it would be to know the future—though he had been equally sure that if someone with the ability were to truly exist, some part of him would fear them, too.

Kiara nodded in response. “You two are the only ones I’ve told about my past life, so there’s no one else I can talk to about this. So I really need your help... both of you.”

“You only told His Highness that it was a dream of yours, correct?” inquired Wentworth.

“Right. He didn’t press me for answers when I told him about it, so I still haven’t mentioned the past life part.” Kiara hung her head.

Alan understood how she felt. Of course she would be afraid of driving away Reggie, her number one guardian figure.

Initially, she’d even tried to hide it from Alan, but in the end, she had abandoned that approach and confessed to everything. Alan’s attitude had been to blame for that, but there was no other way the conversation could have gone. Unlike Reggie, Alan couldn’t just take everything Kiara said at face value.

At the same time, he recalled there was one other person who had believed her preposterous story.

“I told Reggie there was a chance he could be killed, but since I mentioned it happens inside the castle, he probably believes he’s safe as long as he stays outside the walls; that’s why he proposed the plan he did. Unfortunately, I wasn’t exactly in a position to oppose it.”

“Why?” asked Wentworth.

Kiara gave a strained smile. “I was merely an attendant until just recently, so I was afraid it wasn’t my place to cut into a strategy discussion.”

But this was Kiara. If she truly thought Reggie’s strategy was questionable, she would have said something. Since she hadn’t, she must have deemed his plan solid, devoid of any obvious holes she could poke in it.

Why was he so sure? Because Alan thought Kiara was a fairly decent strategist. Her plan to simultaneously rescue Alan’s father and strike at the enemy had only worked because their side had the unfair advantage of a bona fide spellcaster, but it was a sensible one, and it was one she’d chosen within the scope of her own limitations.

“But now that we’ve reached this point, circumstances have changed from the ones I remember. So I don’t know if arrows are the only thing Reggie needs to watch out for.”

“Alright. I’ll bring it up with my father. I’m sure Reggie will make arrangements of his own, but the more soldiers we have to protect the man serving as our emblem, the better.”

“Thank you, Alan.” Kiara smiled, relieved.

“I don’t believe there’s much I can do to assist with this matter. I have orders from His Lordship to act as your escort again, Miss Kiara,” Wentworth informed her.

Kiara made a face of protest, her eyes falling and eyebrows tilting upward. “That’s really not necessary.”

“If your magic runs out, there’s little you can do on your own—or am I mistaken?”

“No, sir...”

It looked like Kiara had some regrets about collapsing in the middle of her charge toward the castle. If Cain hadn’t been there, there was no telling what could have happened to her.

That reminded Alan of why Cain had begun to accompany Kiara in the first place... and what had come of their ventures.

“Right... Kiara. Have you decided what you want as an apology? Feel free to ask for whatever it is you desire. I’ll do anything in my power.”

“As an apology?! Oh...”

Kiara had completely forgotten about it. Alan figured he could just ask her again later, but after a short pause, she was struck with an idea. She clapped her hands together, beaming brightly.

“How about this? I’d just been thinking that I wanted to repay Sir Cain for his help. So, Sir Cain, you should ask Alan for whatever you’d like, and Alan, you can take care of that as an apology to me!”

In the face of Kiara’s enthusiasm, Alan and Wentworth exchanged glances. Judging by the troubled look on Wentworth’s face, Alan assumed they had similar feelings on this.

“Let me ask for the record: what sort of reward would you want from Kiara?”

“Specifying ‘from Miss Kiara’ could be dangerous here, milord.”

“I supposed as much.”

Knowing Wentworth, after ruling out any requests he deemed too unreasonable, he would settle on the “blessing” one could receive from a daughter of nobility.

In other words, Wentworth would ask for a kiss on the cheek. Of course, if that request were laid at Alan’s feet, it would take on a frightfully different meaning. With the way things were headed, everyone there would be subjected to an assault on the eyes, one which Alan had absolutely no interest in performing.

Kiara’s doll of a master began chuckling deviously. He had likely arrived at the same conclusion as Alan and Wentworth.

Still frowning, Wentworth suggested, “Perhaps we should keep to the initial plan where Lord Alan apologizes, and I receive my thanks separately?”

“Well, if it’s easier that way, I don’t mind.”

While Kiara mumbled about how at least there was no one else around to see, Alan placed his sword on the floor and knelt down before her. The lack of an audience didn’t stop Kiara from panicking.

“Upon the name of Alan Évrard, I once again offer you my most humble apologies.”

“Okay, I forgive you! See, now you’ve apologized twice, so we can all move on!”

Having someone kneel before her seemed to do little but unnerve Kiara. As she was flapping her hands and begging for it to be over, Alan rose to his feet. There, Wentworth cut in, his demeanor unusually playful.

“For my part, I would like to receive your blessing, Miss Kiara.”

“Ngh...”

When she heard the word “blessing,” Kiara grew flustered and avoided his gaze. After all, it meant giving him a kiss on the cheek; she must have gotten cold feet.

“Then would you be more comfortable carrying it out in the manner of two women?” Having anticipated Kiara’s reaction, Wentworth blithely proposed an alternative.

“Oh, that would be much easier... Wait, you don’t mean—?!”

“Hey, Wentwo—”

Although Kiara ought to have had practice with this as the daughter of a count, she didn’t connect the dots immediately. Nor did Alan react in time to stop him.

After taking a step forward, Wentworth drew Kiara close and placed a kiss on her cheek.

Long after he pulled back, Kiara’s face was flushed a deep red, one hand pressed to her right cheek. Wentworth gazed fondly at her in return.

Alan blinked. Had Wentworth always been the type of person to do this? He knew the man had his fair share of experience with women, but he’d never seen him tease a younger girl before.

“That should be thanks enough.” His expression didn’t change, but the knight seemed wholly satisfied.

“Umm, then... I’ll be going now!” Kiara squeaked, then fled from the room.

Without thinking, Alan stared long and hard at Wentworth’s face.

“Is something the matter?” Wentworth prompted, his tone no different than usual.

Alan couldn’t help but ask. “Don’t tell me...?”

He intended to finish the question with “you have feelings for her,” but for some reason, he found himself trailing off. Wentworth seemed to guess what he wanted to say.

“Let’s suppose someone lacked the power to make a wish of theirs come true. If they came face-to-face with someone who accomplished everything they couldn’t, how would they react? Would they be jealous? Or something else entirely...? How would you feel if it were you, Lord Alan?”

Presented with a question that sounded more like philosophical pondering, Alan furrowed his brow. “If I can’t manage it myself, that’s that. I would admit to myself that I didn’t have the aptitude and consider how best to leave things in their hands.”

“Exactly the answer I’d expect from you, milord.” Wentworth gazed out the window. “She was aware she had the aptitude to become a spellcaster, but there was no way to know for certain until she went through with it. Moreover, the situation wasn’t the same as the future she had seen. If the two futures didn’t line up exactly... there was always some chance she could have failed.”

Alan nodded in agreement. If the current reality differed from the future she knew, there was a chance her aptitude was another factor that had changed. Kiara had been so desperate, she hadn’t even entertained the possibility.

However, a normal person would have considered the risk to their own life first and foremost. Was Kiara’s desire to protect everyone so strong she hadn’t even thought about that?

“The moment she overcame that fear so easily, I felt I had lost to her. She was determined to protect Évrard at any cost. In all honesty, I can’t say whether I would be capable of the same.”

“Not that I don’t agree with you,” Alan paused, watching Wentworth closely, “but it’s not respect that you feel for her, is it?”

Wentworth let out a small sigh. “Come, milord, we shouldn’t waste our time loitering about. Don’t you have to patrol the castle walls after this?”

“Answer me, Wentworth! Dodging the question leaves me all the more curious!”

To ask someone a question and then refuse to give your own answer was foul play at its finest. It wasn’t as though it would take much time to answer, either.

Would he hate someone like that? Would he love her? Alan wished he would just come out and say it.

“I’m afraid I’d rather keep my personal feelings to myself, milord.”

“After YOU brought it up?! That’s not fair, Wentworth!”

“Ah, yes. It’s been quite a long time since I last heard you say that.” In a rare occurrence, the edges of Wentworth’s mouth quirked up in a smile. “But too bad. Adults never play fair.”

◇◇◇

The next day, I woke up a little earlier than planned, so I took the opportunity to sew copper coins into the hem of my skirt.

“What are you doing, kid? Is that your own special lucky charm?” Master Horace asked, watching curiously. I had gotten pretty used to seeing that strange clay face of his, so I was more or less able to read his expressions now.

“If I weigh down the hem, the skirt will be harder to flip up.”

I would be climbing up to a tall platform, so I wanted to at least prevent it from fluttering in the wind.

“Aww, now where’s the fun in that? Go disarm the enemy with your womanly charms!”

“Oh, please, Master. What womanly charms?”

Master Horace just laughed his trademark cackle. “You don’t get it, little lady. An underdeveloped figure has its own—URK!”

Sensing that Master Horace was about to say something wildly inappropriate, I shoved him under the blanket. While he struggled with the bedding, I changed clothes off to the side and put on my cloak.

When I was done, I grabbed Master Horace from where he was wriggling underneath the sheets and, using a leather strap, fastened him to the same belt where I hung my self-defense knife. The strap was hooked around his torso.

Once I had fixed him in place, Master Horace acted somewhat disgruntled about the arrangement. “Now listen here, little disciple! Wouldn’t you say it’s rude to treat me the same way as your knife?”

For the record, Master Horace was the one who’d complained it was too dark and boring inside my rucksack.

He continued to grumble and gripe, but I simply ignored him as I headed out of the manor and into the courtyard.

The courtyard, which was usually spacious enough to ride horses around, was still packed to the brim with tents full of evacuees. I detoured around them and made my way to the area near the castle gates, where I found nearly 500 cavalrymen and foot soldiers gathered.

The sky had finally begun to clear.

Following the gazes of the rows upon rows of men, I saw Reggie.

Reggie was wearing a long blue cloak draped over a white uniform. Even his beautiful silver hair glittered in the sunlight, making him all the more... well... eye-catching.

Reggie, please... tone it down a little!

At first, I thought the understated bay coat of his horse was his one saving grace, but once mounted, it only made Reggie stand out even more; it was just the right background color.

His gorgeous figure drew the eyes of many evacuated townswomen, who were staring at him as though entranced. They kept their distance from where the cavalry was gathered but leaned forward to get a better look at him.

Reggie’s dangerously striking appearance made me restless with worry. He might as well have painted a target on himself. I knew it was intentional, but that only made it worse.

After some time had passed, Lord Évrard, who would be staying behind on account of his injuries, stood beside Reggie and addressed the crowd. “I believe you all have a good understanding of our strategy. We shall defend our emblem, His Highness Prince Reginald, to the last, and change fate itself! Glory to our army!”

“Glory to our army!” The voices of the cavalry, along with all those staying behind at the castle, rang out in unison.

I clasped my hands together in a small prayer and whispered to myself, Glory upon us. Please bring us victory.

Alan came to my side and patted me lightly on the shoulder. “I know you’re worried, but for now, why don’t you focus on avoiding any stray arrows?”

“I know. Thanks.”

I knew he was right. If I came all this way only to get shot, I would be a complete disgrace.

When I looked over my shoulder at him, Alan was wearing a cheerful smile—but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. He must have been just as nervous as I was. I felt a little solace in knowing that someone else felt the same way I did.

Everyone was anxious. And unlike me, an ordinary soldier had no supernatural powers he could use to defend himself; charging into a place where swords would be flying from their sheaths must have been all the more frightening for them.

I pinched my cheeks. Unfortunately, I put a little too much power into it.

“Ouch! Pinched too hard.”

“What on earth are you doing?”

“I was just trying to fire myself up.”

Alan cocked his head to one side, then asked, “Isn’t this the way to do it?” The next moment, he slapped me hard on the back.

“Ow! That was overkill, Alan!”

Hello, do I look like I’m suited up to you? I know you’re wearing chain mail under those clothes, mister. Slapping me with the same amount of force you could handle sounds like a sure way to break me.

“Sorry! I nearly forgot you’re not just one of the men.”

Alan’s apology didn’t sound particularly contrite. Meanwhile, everyone else was busy mounting their horses and forming battle lines. When I saw Cain beckon me over from a little ways away, I headed over to him.

Everyone finished their preparations and fell in line. The area outside the castle gates was quiet, filled only with the breathing of countless horses.

After a scout brought word that the enemy had yet to approach the castle, the gates were opened.

Soldiers rushed out of the gates. After waiting for them to pass, I ran to an area just outside the castle gates and placed both hands on the ground.

“Come on out!”

Just like the day before, a golem composed of a jumble of rocks burst out of the earth. After using my magic, I was struck with sudden lightheadedness. Still, it was only the same level of exhaustion I’d feel after a good jog.

I climbed aboard its shoulder, and Cain came along with me.

“Hold on tight. You came close to falling off yesterday.”

I was just about to grip the earthen guardrail when Cain grabbed my left arm, and I felt my face go stiff. I wanted to calm myself down with some long, deep breaths, but I didn’t want him to suspect anything was wrong, so I made do with shorter gulps of air.

My mind kept wandering to the kiss on the cheek he’d given me just yesterday.

I think he was just teasing me. Yeah. That must be it. After all, Reggie did the same thing just to get a rise out of me.

I told myself that in an attempt to calm my unsteady emotions, but then I heard the laugh of Master Horace, who was privy to all of the previous day’s happenings. “Eeekeekee,” he chortled, a new spin on his typical cackle.

Nope, time to tune out Master Horace’s suggestive laughter. If I start thinking Cain likes me and turn out to be wrong, things could get really embarrassing. Let’s just forget about it!

I banished the thoughts from my head and checked my surroundings.

In front of the castle gates, a huge trench-like dent had been left in the ground where I’d created the golem. As a matter of fact, the one who had instructed me to form my golem there had been Reggie. He proposed that the deep pit in the ground could double as a way to protect the castle.

So long as it remained unfilled, there would be no room to set up a large battering ram, and a log small enough to carry wouldn’t be hefty enough to break down the gates. Furthermore, plugging up the hole would take a significant amount of time, so it was a simple and easy way to keep soldiers away and boost the castle gates’ defenses. When I’d first heard the explanation, I had been astonished. Reggie clearly had a much broader perspective than I did—though I suppose that was no surprise, given my experience was limited to games where all you had to do was level up and defeat the enemy.

“Okay, off we go!” I called out to Cain, then started to move my golem.

“Oho, now that’s what I call a walking standard-bearer.” From his place at my waist, Master Horace looked down through the gaps in the earthen fence. Perhaps he was enjoying himself; the way he was wiggling his short little legs was simply adorable.

When I looked in the same direction as Master Horace, I saw the enemy forces were suddenly on the move. They looked like a colony of ants hurrying this way and that as they busied themselves with preparations, all while advancing in the same direction as us.

The enemy soldiers looked up at the golem I was riding, then turned their attention to the pale figure running ahead of me. I saw some people talk among themselves before waving their bannered spears in Reggie’s direction, as if to point him out.

“Oh god, I can’t watch this.”

His eye-catching figure, flanked by several other men, all but screamed, Hey, I’m the prince! I ordered my golem to speed up a little so I could walk side by side with Reggie. I wanted to shield him from the enemies’ eyes, even if only a little.

As soon as he noticed that, Reggie motioned for me to fall back. I feigned ignorance and tried to cut past him, which immediately earned me an earful.

“Remind me: where exactly were you stationed? I’d appreciate it if you would do as you’re told.”

Reggie’s piercing gaze was almost suffocating. A wave of anxiety hit me as I wondered if he was finally done with me. Oh no, I think I’m going to cry.

“You mustn’t disregard orders while on the march, Miss Kiara.”

At Cain’s prompting, I dejectedly hung my head and moved back to my initial position.

“You can’t stray from the determined course of action. It wouldn’t be quite as difficult to recover now, when we only have five hundred men, but once we increase our forces to ten thousand, it will affect our tactics if someone with your kind of influence falls out of line.”

“I’m sorry.” All I could do was apologize.

I understood, of course. Reggie moving forward in the face of danger was the linchpin of our strategy this time... and there was no point if he wasn’t conspicuous.

Our reinforcements were a long way away. But if we just waited around for them, our forces would dwindle over the course of those one or two days, and by the time they finally arrived, we would be in a very difficult situation.

Thus, what Reggie proposed was that we go meet the reinforcements ourselves.

Since Reggie was our enemies’ target, we could use him as bait to lure their army in. Using that to our advantage, we would draw the enemy away from the castle, and then as soon as we joined up with the reinforcements, we’d begin whittling down their numbers.

In order for the plan to work, Reggie had to draw attention to himself. On top of that, we had to make it look like Évrard was allowing Reggie to escape from the castle before the siege dragged on too long.

If the spellcaster was accompanying him, it would lend more credibility to the idea that they were trying to let the prince get away. It was for that reason, and that reason alone, that I had been asked to join Reggie’s forces.

We had to make them aware of my presence, so I began my golem’s march the moment we set out. However, if we never let our guard down, they might give up on attacking us and return to the castle, so I would retire the golem during our breaks.

It was our way of dropping hints that, hey, maybe the spellcaster can’t control her golem all day long! Of course, there was some truth to that.

For the record, if the enemy decided to attack while my golem was out of commission, the plan was for Cain to grab me and escape. I didn’t think that was necessary, but everyone was of the mind to prioritize my protection.

Which, of course, was because Reggie had said, “If I fall to the Llewynians, Alan can still stake a claim as the rightful heir to the throne. Our spellcaster is far more valuable.”

There had even been some discussion of using Reggie as bait if I were in immediate danger. Thankfully, Lord Évrard persuaded Reggie to discard that idea, but I would still be given precedence; there was no way around that part of it.

Reggie seemed satisfied with that. With that one declaration, he had instilled in everyone the importance of protecting Alan and myself if something happened to him.

Never before had I regretted telling him about my past life so strongly.

Reggie knew that if he died, Alan would take command of his troops and triumph over the Llewynians. So in the event that anything happened to him, he wanted to ensure that I would be protected.

Most likely, ordering me to maneuver my golem whenever we were on the march was another part of his strategy. Once the fighting broke out, I wouldn’t be able to take part in the battle for very long, and I would have to fall back to a safe place.

“And after I finally committed to fighting, too.”

Knowing that I was terrified of killing people but determined to fight regardless, he had essentially given me extra time to sit back and get used to the sight of war. I was grateful, but I wasn’t pleased.

Since everything was set in stone, I had no way to go against him, leaving me all the more frustrated.

While I fretted and surveyed the scene below, I saw the enemy forces gradually begin to move in our direction. Apparently, they had opted to prioritize the princely figure and the spellcaster. Only about a third of their forces remained near the castle.

“Their forces are well organized. As His Highness predicted, they must have appointed a replacement for their general.”

Cain posited that the reason they weren’t closing in on us more quickly despite that was because I had overrun their forces the other day.

“Precisely because their new general was chosen as a stopgap, he’s decided to play it safe instead of diverting all his forces from their original goal. However, we still managed to lure the majority into chasing us, so we succeeded in our goal of drawing them away.”

“This should be plenty. Eeeheehee! That prince of yours is more daring than he looks.” Master Horace cackled with glee.

Cain and Master Horace gazed down at the battle lines of the Llewynian army, which stretched out and twisted like a snake. They, too, appeared to be a mix of cavalry and foot soldiers. The speed of their march wasn’t especially fast.

Of course, there was also a limit to how much distance the foot soldiers of the Évrard army could cover. Once we’d gained some distance, we took a short break.

After sending an advance party to spy on us from beyond the hills, the Llewynian soldiers closed some of the gap, then halted their march. Perhaps, I thought, they determined that they needed a bit of rest themselves in order to put up a fight.

Cain’s analysis was different.

“At this distance, there’s still a chance we could go running back to the castle. It would be easier to wait until we’re completely isolated, then overrun us by force of numbers. Let’s come down for now, Miss Kiara,” he suggested.

I had the golem lower us to the ground in his hand like a manual elevator. As silly as it was to say when I was the one controlling it, I felt like I’d been dropped into a giant robot anime.

There, I returned the golem to a pile of dirt.

By that point, I’d been controlling it for a total of thirty minutes or so. I felt the same fatigue as if I’d done a five-minute run.

“Perhaps it’s easier the second time around.”

“The better you get at wielding your magic, the less demanding it’ll be to use,” Master Horace explained.

The day before, I had asked Master Horace if there was some trick to keep myself from collapsing right away.

His first piece of advice was to focus no more than the necessary amount of mana on only the parts of the golem I needed to move. The second was to utilize the mana woven into the golem itself in order to reduce the amount I had to supply it with.

I had practiced a little on Master Horace; his clay body turned out to be very ticklish, so I got to watch him roll around in a bout of giggles. It was incredibly entertaining.

Incidentally, I had also been channeling some amount of mana into Master Horace. But seeing as a piece of the contract stone was built into his clay figurine, regular charging sessions seemed to do the trick; plus, only a small amount of energy was needed, so it didn’t feel like he was much of a drain on my reserves.

Thanks to all that, I avoided the disaster that would be passing out just as the ball got rolling... but still, if it was this bad after just thirty minutes, I dreaded what was to come.

As I fretted over what I could do to extend my hours of operation, I took a canteen out of the bag Cain had been carrying for me and took a sip.

Then, I heard a few voices.

“That girl’s the spellcaster, isn’t she? Incredible!”

“I’ve heard stories of spellcasters setting fire to everything around them, friend or foe... but ours won’t do that, right?”

“She looks like a normal girl to me. If I hadn’t seen what she can do with my own two eyes, I wouldn’t believe it.”

A little ways away, a few squires and soldiers were talking in a group. I could pick out the former because they were wearing the same blue military uniform as a knight.

This was the first time I’d ever heard people gossip about me while I was standing right there. Talk about awkward.

At the very least, I wanted to go assure them that I wouldn’t be shooting spells all over the place, but I wasn’t brave enough to strut over and insert myself into their little rumor mill.

While I was distracted by their conversation, someone whapped me upside the head.

“Bad girl. You disobeyed orders.”

“Oh! Reggie!”

At some point, Reggie had walked up beside me. I figured I ought to apologize.

“Err, my deepest apologies, Your Grace.”

Not only did I avoid eye contact, but I couldn’t stop myself from delivering the apology in an insincere monotone. After all, I still wasn’t happy with his strategy.

Reggie had probably picked up on my discontent, but he didn’t seem to care.

“Follow my orders, and there won’t be a problem. However...”

Reggie brought his lips right beside my ear. Hello, Reggie?! We’re in public! What will people think if they see the prince getting so close to a girl?!

“If you act out in the midst of an emergency, well... you know what will happen then.”

I turned white as a sheet. Great... He totally knows that I’m planning to go rogue if push comes to shove, doesn’t he?

While Reggie had my attention, the whispers started to reach my ears again.

“Hey, is the spellcaster the prince’s... you know?”

“I’ve heard rumors that those two are very close. Back when she was an attendant to Her Ladyship, he’d often take her out on his horse.”

“You don’t think... she’s his mistress?!”

“Surely you jest! Why don’t I ever hear these salacious stories about our Lord Alan?!”

“I suppose Lord Alan’s at the age where his only interest is swinging around swords with his fellow men... Or perhaps he’s just unpopular with the ladies?”

“Hmm... The spellcaster’s small and cute, sure, but I wouldn’t call her alluring.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. It must’ve been the prince who seduced her... but then it’s even more of a mystery.”

“Maybe he was drawn to her aptitude for magic?”

See? Look at all the rumors you just started! And now Alan’s been dragged into it, too.

It was at that inopportune moment that Cain, who had gone to pick up his horse from the soldier looking after it, approached us with Alan in tow.

Alan wore a solemn expression on his face.

Yikes... I’d be upset if I heard people call me unpopular, too. I feel kind of bad for him... Like, come on, he’s supposed to be the protagonist of the RPG! Though come to think of it, the game barely featured any romance... Uh, hold on. Does Alan actually have terrible luck with women? Oh god, I can’t think of anything comforting to say!

I hid my face behind my hand and awkwardly stared at the ground.

Something must have happened while I was looking away. I heard a few screams, and then the voices suddenly stopped. When I looked up again, the soldiers who had been whispering among themselves were gone. The only people left nearby were Cain, making a face; Alan, still looking glum; and Reggie, wearing an icy smile.

What happened? I’m afraid to ask.

Reggie turned to Alan as though nothing had happened. “You ought to move out soon. So far everything is going as planned, so I’d like you to handle the other matter.”

“Of course.”

Alan would be going his own way from here. The groundwork for his task had been laid the previous night.

Pulling himself together, Alan lifted his head, stared up at the blue sky above... and after heaving a long sigh, went on his way.

Oh dear... He’s still stuck on it.

“Come, we should move out as well,” Reggie urged.

Cain let me ride with him on his horse.

And with that, Reggie’s troops once again resumed their march.

◇◇◇

From there, we began a game of give and take with the enemy.

Reggie’s troops set out in a hurry. To preserve my mana, I rode on horseback with Cain.

The Llewynian army chased after us, and because I had yet to summon my golem, the cavalry unit sped ahead to catch up with us. When he saw that, Reggie gave me the signal.

As soon as my golem entered the scene, the Llewynians slowed down and put more distance between us. Reggie had my golem act as our rearguard all the way until we reached our next resting spot, at which point I dispelled my magic again.

The Llewynian forces, once more on their guard, watched us carefully as they followed in pursuit. Then, when they saw that I didn’t bring out my golem after we left our resting place, they closed in on us once again.

And so, I summoned my golem one more time to intimidate them.

In an attempt to make it look a little stronger, I gave it little devil horns this time around. During our next break, Reggie gently scolded me not to confuse the enemy too much.

After I was done getting yelled at, Cain reported what he had seen from atop the golem. Reggie took out a map and adjusted his orders on how fast his men should march.

It took us about half a day before we reached the grassy meadows of the hills.

There, in the tall, overgrown grass, I returned my golem to a lump of earth and mounted Cain’s horse—and that’s when the Llewynian army charged forward.

The enemy had picked up on our rhythm and arrived at the conclusion that I couldn’t bring out the golem unless I’d had enough time to rest. So as not to miss their opportunity, they had the cavalry gallop ahead and catch up to us in one long stretch.

A shiver ran down my spine as I watched the mob close in on us from behind. When I heard the call of the enemy’s bugle signaling for them to advance, my whole body jumped.

“It’ll be alright. Just hang in there.” Cain did his best to calm me down, spurring on his horse from behind me.

In that moment, I felt truly relieved that Cain had come along with me. If I were on my own, I would’ve been rooted to the spot with fear and missed my chance to run.

Throughout our stop-and-go routine, Reggie and the cavalry had brought up the rear, while the foot soldiers had been stationed at the front. The moment they reached the grasslands, the foot soldiers began their mad dash into the grass.

We ran after those foot soldiers, driving our horses towards the left-hand side of the hills, where the grassland stretched further. The grass was tall enough to cover the full height of the horses, but the bodies of the riders were visible above the greenery.

The enemy kept pace with us.

With Cain holding me in place, I glanced behind us to see how close they were. “Erm, Sir Cain! They’re gaining on us!”

“I’m sure they are.”

From atop the horse, I had a clear view of the swarm of enemies drawing closer and closer. I was scared out of my wits, but Cain just looked ahead with an unchanging expression.

“Are you sure I don’t need to do anything?!”

“Would doing something help you calm down?” Cain asked, and I nodded my head vigorously.

It may have been a predicament of our own creation, but one wrong move could spell our total demise. Surely doing something would be better for my peace of mind.

“Then once everything is in motion, I can turn a blind eye.”

“Oh, thank y—”

The moment I opened my mouth to thank him... countless arrows came flying from the grass to our left.

“Eek!” Knowing we’d only been a short distance from getting caught in those arrows’ path, I shrank in on myself.

But this was another part of Reggie’s plan.

Once the Llewynian cavalry came chasing after us, they would be stopped in their tracks by the barrage of arrows—or their horses might be struck, bucking their riders, or the soldiers themselves shot through. The enemy would undoubtedly try to fall back, but fire arrows had been launched at the path behind them, setting part of the grassland ablaze.

Normally, the lush and damp grass wouldn’t catch fire so easily. But for the sake of this tactic, dead grass had been scattered around in certain places to serve as kindling for the fire.

The enemy cavalrymen did their best to push on while maneuvering around the flames.

Once we had sufficiently cut down their numbers, more soldiers sprang forth from their hiding place on the right-hand side of the meadow.

“CHARGE!” came the order.

Thousands of soldiers struck the Llewynians from the side. The Llewynian cavalrymen leading the pack were annihilated, toppled by the human wave.

This ambush was thanks to the efforts of a few knights who had left the castle more than half a day ahead of us and visited the branch estates near the hills to recruit more soldiers.

The knights had also guided the auxiliary troops Reggie requested from the two noble houses to our location. They’d informed the approaching reinforcements of our strategy so we could coordinate a joint attack.

Alan had broken off from our group so he could take up his role as commander of the ambush unit. And of course, Reggie had used himself as bait to lure the Llewynian army to where the trap had been laid.

Our hope was that by alerting them to our reinforcements and eliminating a significant number of their forces in the process, the Llewynians would be forced to give up their siege.

But while we may have been pushing them back with momentum, there were still many more Llewynian soldiers lined up in the rear. If this battle dragged on for too long, they would call for their own reinforcements, and we would be forced to expend a good deal of our forces.

“Our goal here isn’t a total victory, right?” I said to Cain, then hopped down from his horse, which he had stopped a little ways from the front lines.

“Miss Kiara, what are you—?!”

Before he could stop me, I summoned my golem once more.

Perhaps because I had used my magic so many times over the course of the past half-day, I was short of breath—but that wasn’t enough to keep me down.

I lowered the golem’s hand so I could climb up onto its palm. After I willed the golem to wrap me up in both of its hands and lift me up near its chest, we advanced toward the Llewynians.

“Planning to give ’em a scare? Eeeheehee.” Master Horace guessed what I was up to, and I nodded.

Seeing the massive golem must have stirred up memories of the nightmare that had occurred during the siege. Gradually, the Llewynian soldiers started to pull back, retreating to the northern part of the hills.

◇◇◇

Apparently, we’d managed to cut down the Llewynian’s forces quite a bit over the course of the battle. According to Cain’s report, only an estimated number of 6,000 enemy soldiers were left standing.

After that, we spent two days in a standoff.

In order to widen the gap in our numbers, we assumed the enemy would call back the troops they had left at Évrard Castle.

But on the second day, they finally took action.

Several horses from the Llewynian army drew near us. The cavalrymen dumped two soldiers from their horses, and with a wave of their black capes, they backed off to a safe distance.

The soldiers who had been cast away were a young and a middle-aged man, both with bruised faces. They crouched down on the ground, unmoving.

At first, I had no idea what the point of it was. But as the pain in my chest grew, I couldn’t stay oblivious for long.

“Defective spellcasters!”

I bit down on my lip and summoned my golem right away. Since I had a meadow to work with this time, the golem had a softer look than usual, the majority of its body covered in green grass.

Some of the Évrard soldiers panicked at the sudden appearance of my golem, but I didn’t have time to worry about that. After all, if I didn’t stop those men before they went berserk, everyone there would suffer.

I mounted the golem in a hurry, with Cain joining me as a matter of course.

I sat down on the golem’s shoulder, and Cain stood beside me. Below us, we could see the two abandoned soldiers writhing in agony.

Oh god, if only they had the aptitude! They would still have to suffer, I know, but at least they could survive by becoming spellcasters. The thought made me hesitate, wondering if I should wait to see how it turned out, but Master Horace gave me the push I needed.

“Put them out of their misery, little disciple. There’s no pain quite like having your whole body transformed into mana and cast out of you. Eeeheehee. You remember how it goes, don’t you? And if they do become spellcasters, well, that’s just a different sort of trouble.”

Master Horace was exactly right.

I remembered the first time I ever laid eyes on a defective spellcaster—how he had suffered and begged for me to save him.

Suddenly, the bodies of the soldiers before me began to rise off the ground. A whirlwind had kicked up, engulfing all the men nearby. The defectives’ magic had already begun to spiral out of control.

Curling my hands into fists, I charged at the two men with my golem...

And those enemy soldiers, whose futures held nothing but death, were crushed underfoot.

Blood splattered across the ground.

The sight of it shook me to the core, enough that my magic nearly came undone. But I couldn’t let that happen—not with Cain by my side. Instead, I slowly dismantled my golem from the feet up.

The color of blood was gradually buried underneath the flood of earth. Along with a sensation like descending in an elevator, my vantage point moved closer and closer to the ground.

Once it was completely hidden from sight, Cain and I walked away. All that remained was a pile of dirt that served as their grave marker.

From where he hung at my waist, Master Horace murmured, “As it stands, that was the easiest way for them to go.”

“That doesn’t mean it hurts any less.”

“Once somebody ends up like that, they don’t have the presence of mind to feel anything at all.”

As I clenched my teeth together, I felt someone touch my cheek. It was Cain.

His calloused fingers lightly brushed my face, bringing me back to reality and allowing me to indulge in the comfort of the gesture.

He was as expressionless as ever, but I sensed some sympathy in his eyes. “Don’t be upset, Miss Kiara. You protected our soldiers.”

Hearing those words from Cain, it dawned on me: of course the Farzians would see it that way. I was the one empathizing too much with those men.

Finally, I noticed that everyone around me was celebrating.

I protected them. I did something good, I continued to tell myself as I returned to my position.

“Well done.” Alan patted me on the shoulder, then prompted Cain to give his report.

Reggie, who had seen everything from start to finish, walked over to us. His expression was somewhat aloof; perhaps he had to put up a front around his soldiers. “Good work. There’s a chance they may attempt a second attack; you should rest for now.”

Per Reggie’s instructions, Cain took me to my tent. Once I was alone, I let out a soft sigh.

Things may have worked out for today, but what was I going to do if they sent over more defective spellcasters? What if they were getting new ones ready at that very moment, and they were planning to leave them somewhere like a bomb? I grew increasingly anxious, but Master Horace assuaged my fears.

“The enemy can’t just churn out defective spellcasters at a moment’s notice.”

“How do you know?”

“You saw those two men. Those were obviously Llewynians punished for going against their superiors, or maybe a nobleman. They looked like they’d taken a beating, remember? The Llewynians can only use miscreants like that as their sacrifices, and if they start punishing people left and right, their men’ll go running scared. Mmheehee!”

His explanation made sense, and I was finally able to relax.

The standoff continued for a third day when finally, the Llewynian army changed up their tactics.

The troops that had remained near Évrard Castle caught up to us, increasing their numbers. But just as we prepared for them to turn their swords on us, they began to move.

They weren’t marching toward the castle. They were heading northwest, so according to Cain, they were probably aiming to join up with the troops marching on the royal capital.

“So... that’s it?”

This wasn’t an RPG, so there was no victory fanfare—nor had there been a big, dramatic event that marked a turn in the tide. So even as I watched them march off into the distance... it didn’t feel like it was really over.

Maybe that was just how things worked in the real world.

Of course, Reggie and the others suspected that the enemy might be trying to lower our guard, all so they could double back and turn things around.

The enemy disappeared from view, our scouts spent half a day following their troops... and at long last, relief washed over everyone with the news that the Évrard army had won.

◇◇◇

The soldiers couldn’t just relax while we waited for word of whether the enemy would be coming back. There was work to be done burying bodies and gathering up the belongings of our fallen comrades.

It would be impossible to carry the bodies all the way back to the castle. If we brought over all the carriages we would need and slowly transported them back, the Llewynians really would take advantage and attack us again.

Cain told me that in these situations, it was customary to burn the bodies so they could return to the soil more quickly, then bury them on the spot, time permitting.

However, that was still a very labor-intensive task.

“We sure are lucky to have a spellcaster around! Means fewer bodies to bury in the end.”

“If it hadn’t been for her, we might be down there along with them.”

Over where the soldiers were chatting so amiably, there was a large hole in the ground, in which bodies were being burned over a pile of dead grass and trees. I’d been warned that the stench of smoldering corpses was dreadful, but fortunately, it was largely masked by the stifling smell of the burning brush.

To escape the smoke, I walked a short distance away from the soldiers.

I stopped when I came across a soldier in a black cloak, buried under the grass. Pushing down my nausea at the three days’ worth of rot, I dropped a small copper coin near the corpse.

“Ugh...”

Covering my mouth with my left hand, I continued to walk in search of more abandoned corpses, dropping another coin on the ground for each one I found.

“If it’s too much to handle, you ought to step away for a while, my little disciple. Eeeheehee.” Master Horace was still bound to my waist with a leather strap. Following his advice, I put my work on hold and entered a nearby grove, hoping nobody else would be there.

Between the smell of grass and the fresh breeze cutting through the trees, there wasn’t a trace of the putrid scent of death.

As I breathed a sigh of relief, Master Horace teased me again. “You’re too soft, kid.”

“Oh, leave me alone. I’m not used to this.”

At no time in my current life, let alone my past life, had I ever come across a dead body before, and it was certainly my first time getting wrapped up in a bloody battle. I was pretty sure I deserved credit for not throwing up on the spot. Then again, one could argue that I was just making myself sick doing something I didn’t have to.

In any case, I was only halfway done with my task, but my nausea had already reached an unbearable level.

“Bleeeeegh...”

Under the assumption I was alone, I pressed both arms against a tree and looked at the ground. I wasn’t actually going to vomit, but just making the noise made me feel a little better. I’d once heard that the reason people scream when they’re scared is that it reduces their fear; this must have been something similar.

Either way, I was glad Cain wasn’t with me. A girl my age would never want anyone seeing her like this.

On that note, Cain had left my side because the Llewynian army’s retreat meant there were only allies left in the vicinity. Our soldiers were under strict orders from Lord Évrard and Reggie not to let any harm befall the spellcaster, so no one had so much as made a pass at me the entire time.

Nobody wanted to come near the strange spellcaster and her talking doll, anyway. Whenever someone walked by us, all it took was one laugh from Master Horace to scare them off.

Well... maybe the problem was that Master Horace’s cackle was too creepy.

On top of that, the environment had changed ever since the enemy had retreated.

Residents of the nearby town had started to come by. In addition to blacksmiths and merchants selling daily necessities, some people had come to sell food. There were quite a few women going to and from the area now.

Thus, Cain left my side more and more frequently, each time offering some variation of “If something happens, feel free to handle the problem with your magic.”

At least that meant I could do whatever I wanted. But, well...

“Ugh. This is killing me.”

It was harder work than I expected. Still, I had no intention of stopping.

I was going to bury the bodies of the enemy soldiers. That was my reason for wandering all over the place.

For both Évrard and Llewyne, it was customary to leave the corpses of enemy soldiers unattended. Everyone despised these men for invading and killing our comrades; leaving their bodies to the elements was considered a matter of course. Though they would lift their swords and other such equipment first.

If they knew I was out here putting those people to rest... I was sure our soldiers wouldn’t approve of my actions.

I had thought up an excuse in case it came up, though. I would just tell them it was so that the stench wouldn’t bother the nearby townspeople, and to prevent the spread of disease.

In my past life, I’d never thought about the correlation between war and disease. But I had seen mentions of infectious disease following a natural disaster a few times.

I tried explaining to Master Horace that flies could transmit sickness, but it was the first he’d ever heard of the idea; from that, I assumed people in this world didn’t have much knowledge regarding disease prevention. That was why I hoped that if the spellcaster’s explanation went over everyone’s heads, they’d assume it was just some magic thing and let it go.

I was prepared to go into the weeds of my logic, but I was afraid nobody would understand what I was talking about. Hence why I was sneaking around.

“But I can’t stop now. I have to do this while the sun is up, or I won’t be able to find them.”

The sun was already starting to set. Once it was dark out, I wouldn’t be able to see where the corpses were. Even so, I wanted to rest a little bit longer.

As I sat down with my back to the tree, I noticed Alan sitting in the shade of the tree on the left, his face pale.

“Oh, Kiara...”

“Huh? Is that you, Alan?”

What is he doing here?

“Are you feeling sick?” I added.

I thought he might have a cold, but Alan just looked away, like he didn’t want to respond to that. Master Horace cackled.

“Been helping cart around corpses, haven’t you? You could’ve left it to your men, but you just had to make a show of saying you’d help out when you had the energy to spare. Guess the smell of blood was more than you bargained for, huh? And now look—you’ve gone and made yourself sick! Eeeheehee!”

“Ugh...” It seemed Master Horace was right on the money. Alan shot him a baleful glare. “Did you have to say it? Now I sound like a fool.”

“Only those who can afford to keep up appearances should bother to do so. Ohohoho.”

Alan must have run out of willpower because he didn’t even attempt a comeback. I felt a little comforted knowing he was having the same problem I was.

“I take it you’re in the same boat. You looked ready to retch.”

I’d spoken too soon; Master Horace had him at a disadvantage, so he’d just shifted his target. And great, so he DID see that...

“Yeah, I’m having the same problem. The smell is worse than I expected.”

“But why? Nobody asked you to carry any bodies,” Alan puzzled aloud, before he put the pieces together. “Were you trying to bury the corpses of the enemy soldiers?”

I didn’t answer right away. Given the injuries his father had suffered, I worried he would be angry with me for showing compassion to the enemy.

Plus, this was Alan. In the RPG, he was a steely-faced young man filled with regret over losing his father and his friends. Maybe he wouldn’t understand. He probably bore a deep hatred for the enemy. And here I was trying to hold a funeral for them; he might think of me as a traitor.

But it wasn’t something I could keep hidden.

“I’m getting things ready so I can bury them later. It’s hard to watch them sit out and rot,” I answered honestly.

After a brief silence, Alan looked up at the tree with a sigh. “That’s hardly unusual. Who wants to look at a dead body? Whenever you see one lying abandoned, it’s easy to wonder if the same fate might befall you one day. I’m sure plenty of soldiers have thought ‘I don’t want to be left to rot away like this.’”

I stared long and hard at Alan, caught off-guard by his response.

Maybe it was because Lord Évrard hadn’t died. So long as he didn’t lose his friends, so long as his castle wasn’t taken by storm, perhaps Alan was the kind of person who could calmly reflect on the fates of his dead enemies.

Thinking about it like that, I felt like I’d found another testament to my efforts.

“Besides... I heard from Reggie that you were crying about how you didn’t want to kill anyone.”

My eyes widened at the unexpected news. “Uh, hold on... Reggie TOLD you about that?!”

I felt my face grow hot with embarrassment. Geez, why would you tell anyone that, Reggie?! At least leave out the part where I cried!

When I hung my head, no longer able to look him in the eyes, Alan rushed to make excuses. “Ah, he had his reasons for telling me, of course! If you decided you didn’t want to fight, Reggie couldn’t be the only one arguing to keep you off the battlefield. He wanted me to lend a hand if it came to that, I assume.”

“Oh... I see.”

If he was just preparing for what to do if I chose not to fight, I had no room to complain. After all, I was the one making extra trouble.

Then, Alan stood up. “Let me help you.”

“What?”

“You aren’t done burying the enemy soldiers, right? You said you were getting ready to do it later. What exactly do you have to do?”

“I’m marking them. I was planning to do a quick burial after nightfall when no one will notice. Master Horace taught me how to use a medium to help channel my magic. If I use these coins, I can bury everyone at once. I exchanged a bunch of my money earlier, see?”

I showed off a small copper cient. Ten cients are worth one large copper coin, and one hundred cients equal one small silver coin. It’s the smallest unit of currency there is.

Copper could serve as a medium of magic. I figured I could just use copper coins, in that case, so I went to one of the merchants from the town and exchanged as much money as I could.

“Give me a handful. I can offer what I have, too, but it isn’t much.”

“You really want to help me?” I asked.

Alan laughed. “I don’t have any desire to watch bodies weather and decay myself. Once they’re dead, there’s no distinction between enemy and ally. Besides,” he went on, “this is how you’re overcoming your reluctance to kill, isn’t it? If burying these men is what it takes to keep you fighting alongside us, I don’t mind lending a hand.”

I didn’t want to kill anyone, but the war had already begun. If we didn’t fight, we would be killed.

As I tried to come to a compromise with my own feelings, I had come up with the idea to put all fallen soldiers to rest the same way. Once they were dead, they were no longer an enemy, so it didn’t matter if I treated them the same as anyone else.

Thus, when Alan said there was no distinction between enemy and ally, I was shocked to hear my own feelings put into words.

“Reggie won’t say it outright, but I’m sure he would support your decision. It just... mm... could affect the troops’ morale if the prince was overly merciful towards enemy soldiers, so we have to come up with some sort of justification.”

“I’ve thought about that, too, and I did come up with something I could tell him. Insects that spread disease are attracted to rotting matter.”

“Gah! Seriously?!”

“Haven’t you noticed how common sickness is near the battlefield?”

“Yes, I suppose so...”

As we talked, Alan and I walked around the battlefield until we ran out of copper coins.

◇◇◇

At last, night fell.

I carried out the enemy burial a little earlier than I’d planned, once dinner had ended and the soldiers were absorbed in their merry chatter.

As I was sneaking around in the darkness, Cain stumbled upon me, so he ended up tagging along. Perhaps he had heard from Alan, because Reggie showed up as well, his conspicuous silver hair hidden under a hood.

Under Master Horace’s guidance, I manipulated the soil from a distance.

“Don’t think. Feel,” he instructed me. After a few minutes’ struggle within the darkness, I divined the location of each copper coin using my mana, then cast my magic everywhere at once.

Not far from the lantern Cain had brought along, a corpse was sucked into the ground and out of sight, the soil rising up where it had been. It looked like a small lump of ground had popped up in the grass.

I couldn’t check any of the other bodies, but I assumed the same thing had happened to the rest of them. Once I was done, I sunk down on the spot, feeling utterly drained.

“Well done,” Reggie praised me in a soft voice, gently stroking my head. My eyes nearly drifted shut at the soothing motion.

But I couldn’t fall asleep yet.

Finally, I murmured the funeral scripture. “O God, who watches over our eternal rest...”

Normally, when a priest or father held the service, they would chant the verses loud, clear, and full of emotion. For a secret burial, I figured I could get away with a whisper.

“O Heavenly Grace, we ask You to guide their souls.”

Then Alan, who had also learned it at our parochial boarding school, and Reggie, who appeared to be familiar with it, joined in.

Maybe this was a pointless gesture to the ones sleeping underneath the soil. Perhaps they’d even be miffed that an enemy was taking pity on them.

Still, knowing I had given them a proper send-off, I felt as though a stone settled deep in my stomach had melted away.

Such were my thoughts as I stared up at the starry night sky.

◇◇◇

When morning came, everyone noticed that the corpses had been buried. Well, naturally. The source of the terrible odor was gone, and the unpleasant scenery had vanished—it would be hard not to notice.

The soldiers’ reactions were mixed.

I was surprised at the even split of opinion. Given how strong everyone’s grudges were, I’d expected louder objections.

If anyone suspected that the spellcaster must have had a hand in burying so many bodies at once, they didn’t come to me to complain.

“Eheheh. If you get bent out of shape and refuse to show up to the next battle, the number of casualties will double. Who’s gonna complain at the cost of their own life?” That was Master Horace’s explanation.

Geez, they don’t have to act so SCARED of me.

All the complaints were instead directed toward the unit commanders, who then broached the subject to the knights and other higher-ranked officials. In the end, it went all the way to Reggie, who just matter-of-factly delivered my explanation: that it was to avoid troubling the neighboring townspeople with the smell or potential spread of disease.

The soldiers accepted the explanation without a fight. They knew from experience that disease was rampant wherever there were large amounts of casualties, so they must have decided burying the bodies was worth it.

But ultimately, it was framed as something I’d done on Reggie’s orders. I felt a little guilty that I’d forced him to take the heat for me.

◇◇◇

We had a lot more men to account for on the way back with Lord Limerick’s and Lord Reinstar’s troops added to our forces, not to mention all the injured soldiers who needed to be carried. Plus, we weren’t in any particular hurry, so it took us two days to return.

When the castle finally came into view, it felt like coming home after a long journey.

It was a bit silly, considering I’d only been away for a few days. Still, it was a sign that over the course of two years, Évrard Castle had truly become my home.

Something dawned on me at that moment.

“Oh, that’s right. I’ll need to hold a funeral here, too.”

There were bound to be more enemy corpses lying about near Évrard Castle. The Llewynian troops were in the midst of a war, so they had probably left the bodies of their fallen soldiers behind.

Cain took me to task for my mutterings. “Worrying about the enemy again?”

I didn’t have to look back at Cain, holding the reins while I sat in front of him on the saddle, to guess what kind of face he was making. It was probably a faintly sullen expression. That was how he’d looked when I performed the burial on the hills.

Usually, he never interfered with anything I wanted to do, but this one really got to him. His family had been killed by Llewynian soldiers, so he probably couldn’t accept it on an emotional level.

It wasn’t hard to imagine why. If Cain or Reggie or Alan were killed, I was sure I wouldn’t hesitate to kill the enemy, either.

Surely it was sad and painful, and he needed someone to take it out on. Of course he wouldn’t feel guilt over killing the enemy. I understood where he was coming from, so I didn’t want to ask him for too much.

“It really is true that it spreads disease! And it wouldn’t be good if the people in the castle or the residents of the town got sick. Right?”

“Yes... I have heard similar stories before. Once, the carcasses of dead animals were hurled inside a castle’s walls during a siege, and disease ran rampant through the grounds like some kind of curse.”

“Ew...”

I was glad the resentment had vanished from Cain’s voice, but did he really need to share such a nasty story?

“Um... yeah! Just like that!” I did my best to cut off the conversation there. Master Horace snickered from where he hung at my waist.

When we arrived at the castle, Lord and Lady Évrard were standing outside the open gates.

They’d already been informed of our victory by post-horse, so they welcomed us with bright faces. Still, they must have been worried about whether we were hurt. When they saw Alan and Reggie, their beloved son and nephew, they broke into relieved smiles.

After receiving a short report from Reggie, Lord Évrard greeted the two men leading the reinforcements. One was Lord Limerick’s younger brother, a well-built middle-aged man, and the other was Lord Reinstar’s uncle, a grizzled gentleman.

I had Cain let me down from the horse so I could walk over to them.

“Thank you, Kiara. We owe you the lives of many of our soldiers.” Lady Évrard wrapped me up in a powerful hug. Her warm arms and soft chest reminded me of a mother, and perhaps because of that, tears nearly began to well up in my eyes.

Who could blame me? For the past few days, the only touch I’d felt was the earthen surface of my golem; or Cain’s metal breastplate, which I worried would kill me if I bumped my head against it; or Master Horace, in which case I might as well have been hugging an unglazed vase.

When winter comes, I should bundle Master Horace in some fluffy fur. It would make him much more appealing as an emotional support doll, so I decided I’d ask Maya for advice on that later.

As I developed plans for remodeling Master Horace in my head, Lady Évrard finally pulled back. However, she left her hand on my shoulder and looked me straight in the eyes. “It was my own inadequacy that forced you to choose a fate where you can’t even die a normal death. I know... If they use too much of their magic, even a genuine spellcaster can turn into sand. If nothing else, I can promise you every bit of support you deserve for what you’ve done for us. If you ever need anything, all you have to do is ask.”

The expressions of the people standing around us changed. Those who were reminded that I would one day turn into sand and die hung their heads. The rest probably hadn’t known that spellcasters led such a wretched existence.

I heard the surrounding soldiers start to whisper.

“Is that true? I didn’t know being a spellcaster was such a trial.”

“I heard that if they use up too much of their magic, they turn into sand and perish.”

“So that’s why Lord Alan and His Highness go to such lengths to protect her...”

The atmosphere had suddenly become heavy.

It was proof that Évrard was full of good people, right down to the murmuring soldiers. Everyone’s hearts were breaking for me.

I almost wanted to apologize. I felt bad garnering all this pity... considering I had completely forgotten about that until Lady Évrard brought it up.

Therefore, I did my best to smooth things over. “I’m fine for now, really! Plus, I have Master Horace on my side! If I mess up, he can get me back on track!”

“Sir Horace, we leave her in your capable hands.”

Unfortunately, between Lord Évrard’s courtly bow and Lady Évrard’s tearful face, the mood didn’t lighten up one bit.

Master Horace’s half-hearted reply of “Sure, I’ll do what I can” didn’t help matters, either.

What do I do? Wasn’t this supposed to be our triumphant return? Now that the enemy has retreated, I thought we were going to celebrate and make merry! Why do I feel like I’m at a wake?!

My eyes wandered, desperately seeking some help. Luckily, I spotted Reggie and Alan walking over.

Reggie clapped Lord Évrard on the shoulder with a wry smile. “Let’s leave it at that, Margrave. In light of our safe return, we should honor our soldiers and rejoice that the danger has passed.”

“Right you are, Your Highness.” Brought back to his senses, Lord Évrard lifted his head and nodded.

Thanks to Reggie’s intervention, things settled down, and we were able to head inside the castle.

The soldiers couldn’t be dismissed just yet, so, excluding the ones who usually worked inside the castle, they were ordered to wait with the townspeople being sheltered inside the castle walls.

However, we couldn’t ask the same of Lord Limerick’s and Lord Reinstar’s men. The ladies who worked in the castle scurried about, preparing a place for them to stay.

In the meantime, everyone told me to go rest, so I went back to my room. Taking a bath for the first time in days felt like heaven.

Much to my own surprise, I promptly found myself stuck in bed with a fever.

“Must be growing pains. Eeeheehee.” Master Horace laughed at me from where he sat atop the table.

“You think so? But... isn’t sixteen a little old for that?”

How did it go when I was sixteen in my past life? I wondered, but thanks to the fever, my recollection was foggy. If I don’t have any memory of it, could that mean I died at age fourteen?

“Besides, most spellcasters end up bedridden as soon as they make their contract. They’re useless for a whole day, at least.”

“What, really?!”

I had no idea.

“You’re just a weird one,” Master Horace sniped. “Think about it: the process is like injecting poison into your body. Mmheehee. To run around fit as a fiddle after going through that is the exception, not the rule.”

“Oh... I see.”

That made sense. I’d endured so much agony, I had thought all the cells in my body were going to melt. It was strange that I hadn’t felt a single aftereffect. I ought to have run at least a fever or two.

Yet I got off the hook with pretty light symptoms. Why was that?

“In your case, it’s... you know. You’d ingested some contract sand beforehand, right? That probably helped you out a bit.”

I wasn’t sure if I should be happy about that or not. After all, that meant it was a good thing that I’d been forced to drink something to determine whether I had any use as a spellcaster.

Then again, if I’d fallen sick on the spot, it would’ve taken everything I had to contain Master Horace’s soul, and I would have missed my chance to save everyone.

I heaved a sigh, feeling the sweet tendrils of sleep pulling me in.

“After all that running amok, and then making graves to boot, it’s no wonder you’re stuck in bed.”

“Oh, right... I have to perform the burial...”

I’d meant to get it over with quickly; now what was I going to do? Just as I began to fret, Master Horace informed me, “While you were asleep, I asked an attendant girl about it. Since the bodies reeked something awful, they gathered them up and burned them. Sounds like the plan is to let nature take care of the rest, but there’s no rush for you to bury them now. Heeheehee.”

“I see... That’s good...” Relieved by the news, I let out a yawn.

“Got that? So you can go back to sleep, kid.”

“’Kay... I’ll do that...”

I barely remembered to say something back. I couldn’t recall anything between that and when I faded back into consciousness, so I probably fell fast asleep.

The next thing I knew, I was slowly coming to, like drifting up to the surface from the bottom of a lake.

What woke me, most likely, was the touch of a hand stroking my head.

The hand glided from my hair to trace my cheek.

Perhaps because my mind was still in a fog, the touch felt distant, like there was a layer of cloth in the way.

“Good night.”

The faint, husky whisper was so hushed, I couldn’t tell whom it belonged to.

What I did know was that, at the very end, I felt something brush against my lips.

◇◇◇

“Huh?”

By the time I was fully awake, the bright morning sun was pouring in through the window.

I looked around the room in a daze.

I’d been sure it was pitch-black just moments ago... but perhaps that was just because I’d woken up in the middle of the night.

Did that mean the pat on my head was part of a dream? The “good night,” too?

Not to mention whatever touched my lips after that.

Reflexively, I brought my fingers to my lips and gently traced them. The sensation was so vivid, it was hard to tell if it was the same as what I’d felt in my stupor.

Wait, no... It definitely felt like this! But why my lips? Don’t tell me... someone KISSED me?!

I shuddered.

“Was it a burglar?!”

After all, Maya needed to come in and out of the room to look after me, so the door hadn’t been locked. There was a chance a stranger could have snuck in.

However, the margrave’s room was close to mine, so it shouldn’t have been so easy to sneak around in the middle of the night... or so you’d think. The castle was bustling with activity after our triumphant return, so maybe no one had noticed.

The residents of the castle town had been sent home, but that didn’t rule out the possibility that somebody had stayed behind at their own discretion. If they wanted to take advantage of all the chaos to engage in some thievery, they might have snuck inside the lord’s manor.

Still, there were people keeping watch at the front entrance to the manor. And since Reggie was staying here, so were his knight-guards. Could anyone really creep around without being seen?

“Wait just a second, Kiara. In the first place, why would a thief have any business touching you?” I asked myself.

And had it really been a kiss? Maybe it wasn’t a kiss, but someone’s hand accidentally brushing against my lips.

My own idea hit me like a bolt from the blue.

“Somebody’s hand slipped... Yeah, that could be it!”

I had zero romantic experience in both my past life and my present one, so I had no idea if a kiss felt anything like that. Whatever it was, I wouldn’t say it felt different from touching my lips with my fingers. In that case, maybe it was just someone who came to check on me, patted my head, and left.

That made the likely suspects Lady Évrard, Reggie, Maya, Clara...

“Hmm... I think the voice sounded like a man’s, though. Maybe His Lordship? Alan... wouldn’t come see me, I don’t think. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised if Cain made frequent visits to check up on me.”

Those were the only people I could think of who would pat my head and say, “Good night.”

“If his hand just hit me by accident, it might have been someone checking up on me in place of Maya. I really shouldn’t be so paranoid. Oh, I know, I could just ask Master Horace... Wait, what?!”

Master Horace had disappeared from his place on the bedside table beside the pitcher.

What’s going on? Now I have to solve the mystery of the disappearing clay figurine?

“Where did you go, Master Horace?”

“Over here, over here.”

He answered right away. I sat up in bed to investigate where the voice was coming from. Ugh... I think my fever’s still a little high. That made me dizzy.

But I still couldn’t manage to find Master Horace.

I got out of bed and stood up. I was a little unsteady on my feet, but it wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t walk.

Across from the table with the water pitcher, I found a wicker basket sitting on the sofa.

Inside sat the elusive clay figurine. What’s more, he had a full bed set with sheets and blankets of just the right size, right down to a miniature pillow.

I rubbed my eyes. Before long, I couldn’t hold back the laughter slowly bubbling up within me.

“Wow, Master Horace... Hehehe. Nice doll bed you’ve got there. Pfft... Ahahaha!”

“Grr... I’m not exactly happy with this setup myself, little lady!”

“Whose adorable idea was this?”

“That attendant looking after you, Maya.” Master Horace uttered the culprit’s name with the utmost indignation.

“Oh, so it was Maya.”

If I remembered correctly, she came from a merchant family who specialized in textiles. I’d heard she was good at sewing. She probably put this together while we were out of the castle... Ehehehe.

“By the way, do you remember if anyone came into the room while I was asleep?”

Master Horace’s soul was bound to the clay figurine, but he wasn’t a living, breathing human. As such, he didn’t need to sleep. In other words, if anyone came in or out of the room, he should have seen it.

However, Master Horace replied with some bemusement in his tone. “Now let’s see... Sometimes I get lost in the sea of thought, so I can’t say I see everything. But... hmmm. Your prince showed up and did his best not to laugh when he saw me, but that INSOLENT attendant asked his opinion with a hopeful smile, so he offered some hollow praise. Completely ignoring my protests, mind you! Other than that, there was your bodyguard, another attendant, an elderly servant, and the margrave and his wife.”

Darn... That’s a long list.

But that meant someone on that list had patted me on the head... and touched my lips.

Based on what Master Horace said, Maya was here when Reggie came by, so there probably wasn’t much chance for anyone else to sneak in, either.

Not that anyone could have broken in unnoticed with Master Horace here, anyway.

Still, it was a relief to hear. I hadn’t been approached by some nefarious stranger; someone had probably just brushed their hand against me by accident.

Yeah, now that I think about it, there’s nobody who would even want to...

Just then, I remembered—about the time our faces had gotten too close.

But Reggie wouldn’t do that. Somehow, I just knew he’d never do anything to frighten me.

Now that I’d calmed down, I was starting to feel thirsty. After I’d poured myself a glass of water from the carafe, hunger struck. Guess I’ll go get something to eat.

I was feeling a little more steady on my feet, so I pulled on a pale blue dressing gown over the nightgown Maya had changed me into, and then I stepped out of the room.

The kitchen was on the first floor of the manor.

With a pair of soft slippers on my feet, I headed through the hallway and down the stairs. Everyone must have been otherwise occupied because I didn’t run into a single soul along the way.

Thanks to my fever, I ran out of breath pretty fast, but I arrived at the kitchen before too long.

The preparations for lunch had begun; the aroma of meat and vegetable stew wafted through the air. I could practically taste the mild, salty broth on my tongue, and it was all I could do to keep from drooling.

I opened the door to the servants’ dining room, located next to the kitchen. If there were any leftovers, I would ask if they minded sharing.

Inside was a group of middle-aged servant ladies. They appeared to be mending the clothes that had just been washed.

“Good morning! Um, do you happen to have any food—”

I didn’t get the chance to say “left over.”

“Kiara, my dear! What on earth are you doing up and about?!”

“You have a fever! Go back to bed!”

“You’re a spellcaster now, child! You don’t belong among a gathering of servants!”

I was admonished by all of them at once. My words vanished into thin air, drowned out by the tempest of their concern.

“Oh, but I’m so proud of you for becoming a spellcaster! I always knew you were a tough girl!”

“Are they really sending a tiny girl like you into battle? You’re nearly my grandson’s age!”

“Isn’t your grandson two years old?”

“Err, ahem!”

My attempt to get a word in failed, like it had bounced off an invisible barrier.

“You were out on the battlefield, weren’t you? And see, now you’ve come home with a fever!”

“I heard you sent ten thousand soldiers running! Goodness, the girls chosen as Lady Évrard’s attendants are made of different stuff.”

Guess I have no choice but to wait until the storm passes. Just as I hazily resigned myself to my fate, a savior appeared.

“She’s sick, everyone! Give her some space!”

Harris, the chef’s apprentice, stepped between me, still lingering in the doorway, and the servant ladies, who had all gotten up from their seats to crowd around me.

His reprimand brought the ladies back to their senses, and the whirlwind of chatter finally died down.

Whew, I’m saved!

But when Harris turned to look back at me, I was next in line for a scolding.

“You’re just as bad as they are. We left a bell in your room, remember?”

“Well, yes...”

I felt a little bad using it to call for anyone, so I’d decided to just walk down on my own, but Harris wouldn’t stand for it.

“The issue isn’t just that you’re sick. You’re not a regular servant anymore.” As he lectured me, his scowl softened to worry, and he added, “I’ve heard that spellcasters are influential enough to speak freely to royalty. You occupy an irreplaceable position, so you need to act like it. Don’t forget that you have a new job now.”

Harris was completely right, so there was nothing I could do but nod my head. It was true that I was no longer an attendant. I held an even higher position than the cavalry general and garrison commander during official meetings, so I had to act accordingly.

I certainly couldn’t imagine either of those men showing up here to beg for scraps.

“Okay... I’m sorry. Also, I’m a little hungry, so would you mind bringing some food up to my room?”

“I’ll ask Maya to bring you something in a bit. Now go back to your room and wait.”

His expression now much more gentle, Harris agreed to take care of it, so I decided to go back to my room.

As I closed the dining room door behind me, I heard a servant lady say, “You did what you could. Love across classes just isn’t meant to be.”

The head chef added, “You can take the rest of the day off. Nothin’ hurts like a broken heart.”

“WHAT? It’s not like that at all! Where did you all get that idea?!” came Harris’ flummoxed reply.

Apparently, everyone had gotten weird ideas in their head from seeing Harris act friendly with a girl his age. If I went to set the record straight on his behalf, it was likely to just stir the pot even more, so I reluctantly walked off.

Truth be told, it was getting a little difficult to walk upright. I’d been feeling a lot better when I’d woken up, but evidently, that wasn’t going to last.

I climbed the stairs, aiming to return to my room in a hurry. Unfortunately, that was the hardest part of the trip. I only made it to the second floor before I had to squat down on my heels.

“Ugh. I rushed into this.”

If I had known this was going to happen, I would have put up with the hunger and gone back to sleep. Then the kind and caring Maya would have brought me something herself. Why did I decide to move again? The fever must be making me crazy.

While I rested, filled with shame and regret, I heard the sound of a door opening and shutting on the second floor, followed by a surprised voice calling out to me.

“Kiara? What are you doing there?”

When I lifted my head, I saw Reggie rushing over to me, looking unusually alarmed.

Presumably, he was just on his way to another room in the manor because there was no knight-guard accompanying him, and he was dressed in a simple, light yellow tunic over a shirt.

Since I was crouched down on the staircase, he could tell I wasn’t feeling well. He dropped to his knees beside me and put a hand to my forehead.

I jolted at the touch. Probably because it reminded me of how someone had stroked my head while I was sleeping.

Meanwhile, Reggie’s expression darkened. “You still have a high fever. Why did you walk all this way by yourself?”

“Mmm... I was hungry, so I went to beg for food...”

I didn’t want to tell Reggie that I’d been hunting for scraps, but had I tried to keep it a secret, he would have found out later anyway. When I told him the truth, he gave me a helpless smile.

“Oh, Kiara, you’re such a child. Alright, hold on tight.”

“Huh? Oh!”

No sooner had he told me to grab onto his shoulders than he picked me up, one hand under my knees and the other around my back.

Compared to the last time he’d carried me, it felt like I was more snugly wrapped up in his arms... which was super embarrassing. It was probably because he’d grown much bigger than me over the past two years.

What’s more, with how close his face was, I could see Reggie’s lips at point-blank range.

That reminded me of how I’d suspected him of kissing me, and I hung my head, suddenly feeling very shy.

“Umm, just let me rest a little bit longer, and I’ll be able to walk on my own!” I tried to convince him to put me down, but Reggie wasn’t having it.

“It certainly didn’t look that way.”

“Okay, but, uh... what if I start to feel sick and vomit all over you?! That would be a disaster!”

“I don’t care. I wouldn’t get mad over the involuntary reaction of a sick person, so don’t worry. Here, you’ll be more comfortable if you lean a little closer.”

Reggie lifted me up a bit, adjusting the placement of his arm so that my head rested against his shoulder.

Oh nooo... This is definitely more comfortable, but I can feel my fever getting worse!

Reggie promptly began to climb the stairs. Amazingly, he didn’t seem bothered by the extra weight at all.

Wait, Reggie doesn’t think I’m heavy, right? I don’t know what I’ll do if he does.

That was when it hit me.

What about Cain? He definitely knows how much I weigh by now! Nooooo! That’s it, once I’m over this fever, it’s time to go on a diet!

While I quietly fussed, Reggie made it up to the third floor and arrived outside my room.

After giving it a practiced knock, he opened the door. Inside were Maya and Cain, who must have come to check on me.

“Where did you go, Kiara?” Maya asked.

“She was hungry, evidently,” Reggie answered with a chuckle, then laid me down on top of the bed. Maya went to work slipping my shoes off.

Once I was tucked under the covers, I felt I owed everyone there a thank you.

“Um, thanks, Reggie. And it was really nice of you to come see me, too, Sir Cain.”

“Your fever’s gone down a bit. That’s good.” The corners of Cain’s mouth lifted just enough that I could faintly tell he was smiling.

“You mustn’t push yourself, Kiara.”

“It’s just as His Highness says. You have no business walking around when your fever is still so high. Would you like some water?” Maya offered.

Maybe because I’d been walking around so much, or maybe because my fever had gone back up, I was feeling pretty thirsty, so I took her up on her offer. I sat up just a bit, took the glass from Maya, and drank.

The lukewarm water felt nice and cool on my throat. Drinking it cleared some of the fog in my head, and I finally managed to pull myself together.

Once I handed back the glass, Maya set it down on the table, then began soaking a cloth in a tub of water. She must have brought it along to help deal with my fever.

Suddenly, Cain came to my side and extended a hand toward me.

“Oh, Miss Kiara, you spilled a little.”

I must have let a little water dribble past my lips.

Before I could wipe it away with my hand, his fingers brushed against the corner of my mouth.

A shiver ran down my spine.

Because once Cain was done cleaning the edge of my mouth, for just a split second, his fingers wandered toward my lips.

When my eyes widened, Cain asked, “Is something the matter?”

I gaped at his nonchalant expression, as difficult to read as ever.

I had to assume it was just an accident. He’d just happened to touch them. Otherwise, I might never be able to hold a normal conversation with him again.

“N-No, it’s nothing.” With a slight shake of my head, I dropped back down on the bed and pulled up the covers to hide my face.

“You should get some more rest. I’ll come back in a little bit, Kiara.”

Maya, who had been busy wringing out the cloth after soaking it in the tub, placed it on my forehead and gave me a friendly pat.

However, just before she ushered Reggie and Cain out of the room... I noticed Reggie fixing Cain with a questioning gaze, and Cain uncharacteristically returning his stare head-on.

Not long after that, they left.

My condition was steadily improving, so perhaps it was no longer necessary for someone to stay with me all the time; last of all, Maya exited the room, and I heard the sound of the door locking behind her.

I wanted to reflect on why Reggie and Cain had been acting so strangely, but my fever-induced drowsiness made it hard to concentrate.

“I see, so that’s what happens. Eeeheehee!”

For some reason, Master Horace’s trademark cackle felt extra ominous today.