Chapter 4: Shopping in the Little Town

After thinking about it for a while, Cyrus dismissed my proposal. “I can’t.”

“But why?! It’s not like being stuffed together inside a carriage! I’m sure you’ll be fine!” I countered.

“That is true, but it would still be only the two of us. When I’m working, I can focus on that and ignore the rest, but this is a personal errand. Being all alone with such a cute girl would be...unbearable,” he insisted, frowning.

I had invited Maria here so that Cyrus could spend time with her, but he had refused to sit with her inside the carriage and he’d had almost no opportunity to talk to her while helping out at the orphanage.

My proposal was that the two of them go shopping together. Since he came here every year, Cyrus was as comfortable with this town as he was uncomfortable with girls, and as a department director at the Ministry, he was talented enough to take on any kind of mission. He was the perfect man to accompany Maria. Maria also said that having him come along would make her feel safer, but he wasn’t having any of that.

I sighed and looked him straight in the eye. “At this rate, you will grow old without ever managing to speak to a girl. Are you really okay with that?”

“I-I’m not, but...”

“You think that Maria is lovely, don’t you?”

“I do, but being alone with her would be...” he mumbled, unable to find the right words. After thinking silently for a while, his face lit up. “Why don’t you come along too then?”

“What? But then you wouldn’t be alone with her...”

“Exactly. I couldn’t take it if it were just the two of us. But if you were there, I think I could manage it, like when we are working on the fields,” he continued, his eyes sparkling with determination.

Sometimes the three of us worked together on the fields, that’s true, but I would be the only one chatting with Maria, while Cyrus smiled and looked at us like a quiet grandpa watching over his two granddaughters. If that was his definition of “managing it,” then he really had a long way to go before he got comfortable around girls.

I wonder how he and Maria grow closer in the game. Finishing his route must be a pain.

After he insisted so much, I couldn’t refuse. I ended up tagging along with him and Maria. I was disappointed that Cyrus had spoiled a perfectly good chance to be alone with her, but Maria told me, “I’m very happy that you will be coming with us too,” so I figured that it wasn’t that bad of a trade-off.

We took note of how much of each ingredient we would need to cook for everyone, got the money to buy everything from an orphanage employee, and set out. I was told that it would only take a little more than ten minutes to reach the center of the town on foot.

All my other friends, probably thinking that going to shop in this little town sounded like fun, started saying that they wanted to come too, but Maggie sternly declared that three people was more than enough for such a simple errand.

“Being able to go shopping with you again so soon is a very nice surprise,” Maria exclaimed, giggling happily.

“Oh, yeah, we did it back in that port town too. That was fun!” I replied.

That was a nice memory—the two of us had managed to find some free time for a walk during our undercover mission at Ocean Harbor.

“And I also saw the sea for the first time. It was marvelous,” Maria added.

“Oh, it really was. We should go there again, but for pleasure this time!”

“Really?! That would be wonderful!”

Next time I want to go there with all my friends, and actually play at the beach, swim, and have lots of fun.

I turned around to check on Cyrus, and he had his grandpa-looking-at-his-granddaughters face on. I knew that I had to involve him in the conversation, or this whole outing would be wasted and he would make no progress.

“Have you ever been to the sea, Mister Cyrus?” I asked, and he looked surprised that I had addressed him at all.

He tersely replied, “Yes. For work.” And that was it.

Come on, you can’t cut it short like that!

He was way more talkative when it was just the two of us, but right now he sounded like he was on a very strict word budget. Just having Maria around made him too nervous to speak properly. I really wondered how he was supposed to establish a romantic relationship with Maria within the game. At this point, even Dewey, who was just a kid, had managed more meaningful conversations with her—and he was in love with her just as much.

The problem, however, was that when I was chatting with Cyrus, the topic was always farming, vegetables, or something like that. It wasn’t easy to bring up a topic like that under these circumstances.

All of a sudden, Maria asked Cyrus a question.

“If you went there for work, does that mean that your hometown was not on the sea?”

She made a thoughtful remark and gave him the chance to talk more! This girl is smart!

“Yes, since it’s way in the country. Nothing but mountains all around,” he confirmed.

That’s a slightly longer answer than before, huh. Maybe he likes talking about his hometown.

“You were born near the border with Xiarmah, correct? I did not know that it was a mountainous region,” Maria replied.

He only mentioned that once when we were working together on the fields, and she still remembers it... Wow. I just barely remembered that his hometown was close to some border.

“Oh, you remembered where my hometown is?” Cyrus marveled, sounding surprised but looking pleased. “There is a big mountain that lies exactly on the border, and several smaller ones on our side. We were always playing in the mountains when I was a child.”

That must be why I feel this weird connection with him! I also always played on the mountains back in my previous life!

“What kind of activities can children do for play there?” Maria asked, her eyes widened with curiosity.

“All kinds of things! Fishing in the rivers, climbing on trees, picking fruit...” he elaborated.

He looked like he was having fun reminiscing about his childhood, and I got lost in my memories as well. I used to fashion fishing rods out of branches, march around the forest looking for fruit and mushrooms, and sometimes I would race with one of my older brothers, the one who was closest in age to me, to see who could climb a tree faster. Those were the days.

“That sounds like a wonderful place to grow up in,” Maria concluded with a smile, making Cyrus both happy and embarrassed. I was also happy, since it felt like Maria was praising my past-world hometown too.

Right after Maria and Cyrus had finished their most personal conversation to date, we reached the center of the city, where the store we were supposed to shop at was located. The place, which was the most developed area in the vicinity of the orphanage, was bustling with activity.

“It’s way more crowded than I expected,” I murmured, seeing people going around in numbers that rivaled the capital’s downtown.

“It really is. Usually there are fewer people around though...” Cyrus, who had been there several times, remarked. He cocked his head to the side, confused.

We walked all the way to the store, staying close together so as not to lose sight of each other. Once inside, we asked the store clerk why there were so many people around, and he told us, “A troupe of traveling entertainers came into town today, and everyone’s been flocking in from other towns and villages to see them.”

“Traveling entertainers?!”

I had heard of such people, but I had never seen them in person, because just like romance novels, they were not considered a suitable pastime for nobles.

“We need to go back to the orphanage and prepare dinner. We don’t have time to go see them,” Cyrus stated before I could even ask.

Bummer... I guess I knew we were busy to begin with, but still...

We bought the ingredients we needed and we were on the way out when the store clerk stopped us.

“You’d better be careful out there. With all these people around, there’s bound to be an ill-intentioned criminal or two, and you people really stand out,” he cautioned.

“Thank you,” we answered, grateful for his warning, and we left.

That guy had a point. We don’t know what kind of people could be lurking around the corner, and we have a beautiful girl like Maria with us. We must keep our eyes peeled.

By the way, neither Maria nor I had to carry anything back to the orphanage. Cyrus did all the work, saying that he didn’t need any help.

★★★★★★

“Good luck, Sarah,” he called, sending me on my way.

The town was full of people who had come here to see the traveling entertainers. I had thought that this would mean that I had more potential experimental subjects, but things weren’t quite that easy. Maybe it was because of the festive atmosphere, but I couldn’t find anyone who looked like a fitting vessel for darkness.

The main street won’t do, I realized, and I headed for a minor back alley.

The kid I saw walking into the alley by himself was exactly what I needed. The fact that he was alone was already promising, and his eyes didn’t have much life in them either. And of course, the younger the better.

I started running after him, but I felt something hit my shoulder.

“Ouch! Whatcha think yer doin’?!” I heard someone say.

It was a man. I could easily tell that he was the rude type, and he had obviously had too much to drink on this festive day.

I have found the perfect subject... I can’t let anybody stop me before I’ve even tried capturing him.

I ignored the man to chase after the kid, but he blocked me by walking in front of me.

“Are ya ignorin’ me, huh?! Look how much I’m hurt after ya bumped inta me!” the man shouted into my face. A gust of disgusting alcohol stench came out of his mouth along with the words. “Huh? I hadn’t noticed, ’cause of yer hood, but yer a girl! I thought I was gonna ask ya to pay me, but instead I’ll just have y—”

Before he could finish speaking, I had already cast a Dark Magic spell on him. He silently dropped on the ground.

“You made me lose such a fine subject...”

I wish he had chosen someplace else to be drunk.

However, now that I knew who to look for, I just had to find him again. I dragged the man’s body where it wouldn’t be seen, to avoid any trouble.

★★★★★★

Once we left the store, it looked like there were even more people in the streets.

“Those entertainers must be all the rage,” I observed, surprised by the crowd that they’d drawn into town.

“They came near my hometown once, but I do not remember them being quite this popular...” Maria replied.

“And did you go see them?”

“I only saw them in passing; I did not see their show.”

“Oh. We should go together then, when we have the time.”

“I would love to,” she agreed with a smile.

I now had one more promise with Maria that I was looking forward to keeping. The sea, the traveling entertainers... It all sounded like fun.

“I wonder why so many people want to see them though, especially since that wasn’t the case when they came near Maria’s town.”

“Most likely,” Cyrus replied, “coming here is very easy for the people living in neighboring villages, given the geography in this area. And it’s possible that this specific troupe is a very popular one to begin with.”

“There are more and less popular troupes? I didn’t even know that there were that many traveling entertainers in the first place...”

“Of course. There are large troupes and small ones, great ones and mediocre ones. Some of them are just a few people going around Sorcié, while others have many more members and travel all around the world. When one of the latter is visiting, people just naturally rush to see them.”

“I see...!” I was very interested in that explanation, and Maria, who probably didn’t know much about traveling entertainers either, was also listening intently.

Traveling the world as an entertainer... That must be so cool. I really want to watch one of their shows one day.

“Now, let’s go through this crowd and back to the orphanage already,” Cyrus instructed, persuading us to work up our courage and plunge into the sea of people.

“I’m scared that this time, even staying close together won’t cut it. We’re definitely going to lose each other.”

“You’re right,” Cyrus concurred. “Should we tie ourselves to each other with a piece of string or something?”

That sounded like a very bad idea. In the first place, we didn’t have any string, and even if we did, I didn’t want to be tied on a leash.

“Can’t we just hold hands?” I suggested, and I saw him immediately freeze in shock.

Oh, right. Holding hands with a girl would probably make him too nervous. But...

“We must do it. But don’t worry, holding hands is no big deal. I’m sure you’ve had to escort a noblewoman or two before,” I whispered to him.

All nobles had to be accompanied by a member of the opposite sex during their debut in high society, and that definitely involved holding hands. I figured that this wouldn’t be his first time.

“Whenever I’ve had to escort a woman...” he whispered back, looking down at the ground, “I’ve always asked my mother or my aunt to be my partner...”

So he’s only escorted relatives so far... Well, Keith escorts me all the time, and he’s my brother. Cyrus really goes out of his way to avoid young women though... I guess that’s in character for him.

“Do you want to live the rest of your life without having ever held hands with a girl? This is your chance. Just go and take Maria’s hand. It’d be perfectly natural to do so now. Go! I’m sure you can do it!”

“Hng...”

He thought for a bit, then he finally reached his hand out to Maria.

“I-I, um... I am by no means trying to force this on you, but, if you wouldn’t mind, I suggest that holding hands would materially aid in our strivings to avert unintended dissolution of our party as we traverse the crowd...”

I’ve seen tables less wooden than that...

Maybe another girl would have been put back by Cyrus’s stiffness, but Maria was too kind to be bothered, and she also knew how nervous he was around girls.

“I would not mind that at all. Thank you,” she responded, taking Cyrus’s hand and leaving him astounded.

“I think it would be wise for Lady Katarina to hold my other hand, would it not?” Maria then offered, extending me her free hand. I didn’t mind, since by doing so I could avoid getting lost without interfering with those two.

“Thanks, Maria!” I took her hand.

Cyrus, still as nervous as could be, led us through and out of the crowd. We got far enough from the city’s center that there weren’t too many people around, and Cyrus quickly let go of Maria’s hand, saying that we would be fine now.

“Thank you very much, Mister Cyrus,” she said, making him blush once again.

Cyrus got one step closer to being a grown-up! Good for him! I thought before remembering that he was actually older than me.

I was busy watching my friend and my superior awkwardly interacting with each other, but I still noticed a familiar face out of the corner of my eye.

That’s the kid I saw earlier while playing hide-and-seek at the orphanage, isn’t it? I wonder if he’s on an errand. Looks a bit too young for that though.

Before I had time to make heads or tails of it, the kid disappeared into a small back alley. During my mission at Ocean Harbor, I was taught that leaving the large, open streets for small, hidden ones was dangerous, as all kinds of bad people lurked there. This probably also applied to this town, and I started fearing for that kid. That being said, if I went after him by myself, far from being able to help, I would only make things worse, so I decided to get some help.

“Excuse me,” I addressed Cyrus, who could probably manage to do something about it, “I just saw a child from the orphanage walk by himself into that dark alley.”

“What? Are you sure it was one of the orphanage’s kids?” he asked, surprised.

“I could be wrong, but I saw him back at the orphanage just earlier, so I’m pretty sure...”

“I see. But whatever the case, it’s too dangerous for a kid to wander in a place like that by himself. I’ll go check on him. You two wait here,” he ordered, and ran toward the alley.

He can really be cool when he wants to... If only he wasn’t so awkward with girls... I thought, looking at his back as he sped away from us.

“I hope everything is fine...” Maria spoke, sounding concerned.

“Yes, I hope so too,” I replied, and I started wondering what Maria actually thought of Cyrus.

Anyone with a pair of eyes could see that he was in love with her, but did that feeling go both ways? The problem with Maria was that she was so kind to everyone that you couldn’t tell who she actually liked. After all, she didn’t even fall in love with any of the romanceable characters at the academy from FL1, reaching a friendship-only ending instead.

Between her kindness, her beauty, and her strength, she was a perfect girl. Any man would fall for her. On the other hand, I never heard about her falling for anyone. Strangely, that also went for my other girl friends, Mary and Sophia. They liked talking about romance novels, but they almost never talked about any romance of their own. Even if I asked them if they liked anyone, they would just dodge the question by saying that they liked me a lot.

Could it be that they actually are in love with someone, but they don’t want to tell me because I’m too naive to understand love?! I want to think that they would never do something like that... They probably wouldn’t, but if they did, that’d make me so sad. M-Maria would never... Would she?

“Say, Maria...” I started to ask her, but then I felt someone run into me. “Ouch!” I shouted in surprise, and Maria immediately approached me to ask me if I was all right.

I took a look at the man who had just run into me. Judging by how burly he was, he was probably a manual laborer of some kind.

“Oh, s-sorry. I...didn’t see you,” he grunted, not sounding sorry in the slightest. From his red face, slurred speech, and alcohol stench, I could tell that he’d been enjoying some daytime drinking. A lot of daytime drinking, probably.

I thought that it was probably better to get away from this clearly drunk man, but four other men, equally burly and probably equally drunk, joined him. We were quickly surrounded by them.

“What’s the deal? Huh? What’s the problem? Hmm?”

This doesn’t look good. We need to find a way out of this...

“Excuse me, but we have to go,” I stated, trying to sneak in between two of them, but they quickly blocked my path.

“What’s the hurry? Won’t you two have a little chat with us?” one of them drawled. The smell of liquor got worse as soon as he opened his mouth.

That’s why I can’t stand drunks...

“Now that I look at them, huh... These two are pretty, aren’t they?”

“Hey, you’re right! Pretty, yeah. Real pretty. Come and have some fun with us!” one of them leered, after taking a very good look at Maria’s face.

She’s pretty, yeah, and kind too. She is totally out of your league, I thought, taking Maria’s hand.

“We’re really in a hurry right now,” I insisted, trying to get away once again.

“Don’t run away like that. We’re gentlemen, the whole lot of us. We wouldn’t do anything bad to you, y’know?” one of them answered, grinning as he grabbed my arm.

“What are you doing?!” Maria shouted, even though I was the one who’d been grabbed. I could tell that she was trying to look angry, but no amount of frowning could make that beautiful face of hers scary.

“Aw, would you look at that! She’s even cute when she’s mad! I’ve never seen a girl this stinkin’ cute!”

Not only had Maria’s bluff not worked on them, but now one of the men had gone ahead and grabbed Maria’s arm too.

“Now, be nice and spend some time with us,” he smirked, getting uncomfortably close to her face.

I couldn’t stand it. “Don’t you dare touch Mar—”

Before I could tell him off, I saw Cyrus approaching the man from behind with a deadly cold stare.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked, loud enough to be heard over the five noisy men.

“And who are you?”

“Are these girls with you?”

All of them looked at him with contempt.

“Yes, they are. So take those filthy hands off of them,” he commanded, his voice just as icy as his expressionless face.

“Huh? You think you can take all the girls to yourself and tell people what to do just because you’re kinda handsome?”

The way the drunk man had said “handsome” made it clear that he hated Cyrus for it. However, even though he was handsome, he probably didn’t look very strong to people who didn’t know him. One of the men grabbed him by the lapel. The drunk probably thought that he could easily win in a fight against Cyrus.

I had been relieved to see Cyrus come to our rescue, but I wondered whether he could use magic in a place like this. For the most part, only nobles could use magic, and I’d been taught that we weren’t supposed to use it against commoners. But before I was done wondering about what to do, I noticed that the man that had grabbed Cyrus was lying on the ground facedown.

Wh-What happened?

I was confused, but the other men had clearly seen what Cyrus had done to their friend, and they all started shouting at him and running toward him, just for him to throw them to the ground one by one as if they were little kids.

Is this magic? It didn’t look like he was using magic though...

Four of the men were already on the pavement, and only one was still standing. Cyrus, who hadn’t even broken a sweat, fixed his gaze on the last drunkard.

“Are we done yet?” he inquired politely.

“E-Eek!” the man squeaked before taking a step backward. He clearly had no intention of challenging Cyrus anymore.

“You, take care of them,” Cyrus ordered him, pointing at the four drunks on the ground. He then checked whether Maria and I were okay, and, since we were, he quickly dragged us away, as staying there would make us stand out too much.

“That just now wasn’t magic, was it?” I casually inquired while we walked.

“What do you mean that just now?” he asked back, confused.

“The way you beat up those drunks, I mean.”

“Oh, that? I guess you could call it a self-defense art. If you hit someone in the right spots, they won’t be able to move for a while. It works on most people, even if they’re very strong,” he nonchalantly replied.

“R-Really? I never learned anything like this...”

I had learned the basics of sparring to protect myself from Fortune Lover’s bad ends, but I’d never even heard of this technique that Cyrus was talking about.

“Hmm, I learned how to use it back in my hometown. Maybe it’s not common around these parts.”

“You mean they taught that to you at home?” I gasped, surprised. Some noblemen learn how to use the sword as a fancy pastime, but street fighting like this was unheard of.

“Well, my family’s land is near the border with Xiarmah, you know. It’s a peaceful country, but we all learn how to defend ourselves just in case, both with a sword and with our bare hands.”

I see... They’re always preparing in case a war starts, basically.

Sorcié was at peace right now, but back at the academy I’d learned that this wasn’t always the case, and that, during wartime, nobles who lived near the borders would have to lead soldiers into battle. Since I was born and raised in the capital, far away from any border, I had just forgotten all about that.

“So you’re really strong, huh...” I remarked.

“As long as my opponent isn’t armed, I guess I can hold my own,” he conceded, but just like Maria, he had a habit of always being humble, so this probably meant that he’d never lose against anyone unless they had a weapon on them.

I knew that he was a powerful magic wielder, but realizing how strong he was with his hands came as a surprise. Despite the urgency of the situation, his movements during that little brawl were so beautiful that I could do nothing but stare at him.

So he’s handsome, smart, strong, and he’s even a department director at the Magical Ministry... He’s great. If only he could hold his own when faced with girls too, then he’d be perfect. So much wasted potential... I thought, staring at his face, and then he stopped walking all of a sudden. Huh?! Why’d he stop all of a sudden? Could he read my thoughts just now?! I panicked, but that didn’t turn out to be the case.

He entered a shop on the side of the street that we were walking on and spoke to someone inside. “Thank you for looking after him while I was away.”

“Oh, don’t mention it. And make sure you don’t get lost again, all right?” someone replied, and then Cyrus bowed and walked out, followed by a little kid. It was the kid I’d seen earlier—he had found him and brought him to safety.

“Is this the child you mentioned, Katarina?” he asked me.

“Yes, he is. Is he one of the orphanage’s?”

“He must be, since I saw him there earlier. He won’t say a word though,” he replied, looking distraught.

As for the kid, he wasn’t even looking at either of us, and he seemed annoyed to have been found by Cyrus.

“This girl right here,” Cyrus informed the boy, “saw you wander off by yourself, and had it not been for her, who knows what could have happened to you. You should thank her.”

The boy kept looking away from us without saying a word. He didn’t get lost, did he? He was probably trying to run away...

“Now, let’s go back to the orphanage before we run into any more trouble,” Cyrus declared.

“Nobody asked you to find me...” I heard the kid whisper. Just as I had thought, this probably meant that we’d caught him while he was trying to run away, but I couldn’t understand why. I wanted to ask him what he wanted to do all by himself, but as he walked by Cyrus’s side, he gave off a don’t talk to me aura so strong that I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

Hmm? What?

I stopped and looked around. I couldn’t see anything out of place.

“What is the matter, Lady Katarina?” Maria asked.

“I just felt as if we were being watched by someone...but I must have imagined it.”

I started walking again. Truth be told, I didn’t believe that I had imagined it. I had experienced the same feeling back at the Ministry before... I could feel that someone with bad intentions was staring at me, giving me goosebumps.

However, I didn’t want to scare Maria, who’d already had enough scary experiences for today, so I just walked as close to Cyrus as I could. After that, I didn’t feel watched anymore, and we safely reached the orphanage.

“We’re back,” I told one of the orphanage employees once we were inside.

The woman turned around to face us, making her ponytail sway in the air.

“Welcome ba... Liam!” she exclaimed, surprised. Liam must have been the boy that was with us.

She bowed apologetically to Cyrus and asked him where he’d found Liam.

“In a back alley near the city’s center,” he replied.

“Again...?” Sighing to herself, the woman held her head in her hands.

So, not only was Liam trying to run away, but today’s had not even been his first attempt. The employee looked totally exasperated.

“I’m sorry, and thank you so much for bringing him back. I’ll take care of him now, so please go to the kitchen. The children are all waiting for you,” the woman said, snapping out of her moment of desperation.

I’d almost forgotten it with all that happened, but that’s right. We were out to buy ingredients. But even if I went to the kitchen with Maria, I can’t really help her cook. And I want to learn more about Liam too.

“Excuse me.” I turned to the orphanage employee. “I was the one who saw him out there, and I also saw him walking by himself at the orphanage earlier on. I’m kinda worried about him, so I’d like to stay with him for a bit... May I?”

She looked surprised at my straightforward request, but then she smiled at me.

“I’m happy that you would care so much about one of our children. Unfortunately, however, I cannot give you permission myself. We’d need to ask the director. Would that be fine with you?”

“Of course,” I replied.

I could see that Maria and Cyrus only looked slightly confused. On the other hand, Liam’s cold stare betrayed just how much I annoyed him.

“Follow me then. I’ll show you where her office is,” she invited, and I followed her and Liam there.

“Miss Maggie, may we come in?”

“Sure, come inside,” Maggie replied to us through the door, and we walked into her office.

“Oh? Now these are three people I didn’t expect to visit me together.” As she looked at us in surprise, the woman who was with us explained the situation.

“This girl,” the woman then pointed at me, “would like to spend some time with Liam. May she?”

It all came down to Maggie’s decision. If she said that I couldn’t stay with Liam, I would have to give up.

“Oh?” Maggie looked me in the eye, and I returned her stare. After a while, she smiled at me.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine if it’s her. She has my permission.”

“Thank you!” I said, bowing at her. I wasn’t so sure about why she’d been convinced to give me permission just by staring at me, but I was happy about it anyway.

Once that was out of the way, Maggie moved on to the main point of discussion on the agenda.

“Now, Liam,” she began, looking at the boy, “do you know how many times you’ve tried running away already?”

He didn’t reply. He just defiantly avoided her gaze.

“Three, Liam. Thankfully, this time our guests found you right away, but the other two times it didn’t go so well, did it? Everyone in the orphanage had to look for you, and we even had to ask for help from the townspeople. I thought I had already told you more than enough times that you shouldn’t do anything like this anymore.”

So this was far from his first time trying to run away...

“Why are you doing this? Both other times you apologized and told us that you wouldn’t do it anymore, but you didn’t tell us what reason you had for doing it in the first place. Let me ask you the same thing I asked you before. Did anything bad happen to you here? I know that it can’t be easy for you, since you just moved in from another country. If you’d just tell me, we could come up with a solution together. If the problem is that you can’t get along with the other children, we can also think of transferring you to a different orphanage.”

Maggie sounded calm and reassuring, but somehow still authoritative.

“Excuse me,” I whispered to the orphanage employee standing next to me. “Liam is from another country?”

That part had caught my attention.

“Yes. A while back there was some trouble involving Ethenell at an international port, and he was rescued there.”

“I see...” I replied nonchalantly, but I was actually shocked.

Could she be talking about the kidnapping incident that I was involved with?! That was trouble all right.

Cezar and the people at the Magical Ministry had made sure that the public wouldn’t know about the kidnapping incident or the human trafficking, but obviously the rumors of some kind of nondescript “trouble” happening had already spread.

I don’t remember seeing this kid... I wonder if he was there back then? But he doesn’t seem to recognize me, and I heard that, apart from the ones I met, there were more kids who had been rescued, so he must have been one of them.

I was also surprised to learn that those kidnappers—those scum—didn’t just snatch Sorcié kids, but children from other countries as well.

“I can’t help you if you don’t help me, Liam,” Maggie spoke with quiet strength in her voice, but the boy didn’t utter a word.

I could only imagine how sad it must have been for him, being kidnapped, sent into a different country, and then finding himself in an orphanage.

Then, I guess that there’s only one solution...

“Do you want to go back to your country?” I asked.

Liam twitched as if he was startled, and then he stared at me with fire in his eyes. I had probably hit the nail on the head.

“Is that so, Liam? Do you want to go back there? But I heard that you were living by yourself in the slums there,” Maggie asked him, looking at him with surprise, and the boy clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“Yeah, I wanna go back to the slums. So what?”

“But what are you going to do there? Here you are safe, you have food to eat, clothes to wear, and a roof over your head,” Maggie replied.

“I hate this prissy, boring country. It makes me sick.”

“Liam...” The old woman furrowed her brow, not knowing what to say.

“I wanna go back. Lemme go home!” he shouted.

“But that would be too dangerous... You might not make it out safely this time around,” Maggie tried to convince him, but to no avail.

“I wanna go! Lemme go!” he kept shouting.

“Excuse me...” I raised my hand, wanting to do something about this awkward situation.

The orphanage employee didn’t look very pleased with that, as if it wasn’t really a good time for me to talk, but Maggie gave me permission to speak.

“If he wants to go back to his country so badly... Can’t you just let him go then?”

Liam, shocked, stared at me.

“Huh?! What are you talking about?!” the employee sputtered. “Send a child back to the slums?! Do you think you can just say whatever you want because you’re not responsible for him like we are?!”

She was furious, but Maggie gestured for her to stop.

“What do you mean?” the director inquired. Both she and Liam were now staring at me.

“I mean exactly what I said. Just let him go back to his country.”

“Y-You...” The employee was giving me the angriest of looks, but I was so used to being scolded that it barely registered.

“But,” I continued, “he’d need to prepare himself first.”

“Prepare myself?” he asked, confused.

“Yes. Here at the orphanage you can learn a lot of things that you couldn’t learn in the slums,” I explained, walking closer to him and crouching down to his eye level. “One of my friends is from the Ethenell slums, you know. Fortunately for him, when he was still a kid, he met a man from another country who taught him all kinds of things.”

“The Ethenell slums...?” the boy repeated contemplatively. I could tell that I had his full attention; maybe his home country was Ethenell too.

“And my friend, he told me that this knowledge is what helped him survive. You see, Liam, knowledge is a weapon that you can’t do without.”

“Really?”

“Yes. He told me that on a battlefield you need a sword or a spear, but that in daily life you need knowledge. Sounds cool, doesn’t it?” With a smile, I added, “So, if you want to go back, you are going to need a lot of knowledge. You can always go back after learning as much as you can here, right?”

He stared at me wordlessly, but I could tell that the light in his eyes had changed.

It took a while for the silence in the room to be broken by the sound of someone chuckling. I looked up and saw that it was Maggie.

“Ahahaha, I think we won’t have any more problems now,” she declared. She clapped her hands together, as if to place a period on that whole topic, and said, “Well, look at the time. We must go and help with preparing dinner.”

She then led all three of us to the dining hall. Liam remained silent the whole time, and just stared at the floor instead of giving me any more angry looks.

Maggie, keeping her voice down so that only I could hear her, thanked me. “Thank you, Lady Katarina. The rumors about you at the academy were true.”

I knew that she was aware of Cyrus’s identity, but it turned out she knew who I was as well.

But wait, what rumors is she talking about? Good ones? Bad ones?

I wanted to ask her, but she smiled at me and started walking faster, leaving me with no opportunity to do so.

★★★★★★

I, Cyrus Lanchester, was nervously walking toward the kitchen. The reason for my nervousness was that Maria Campbell, a girl I happened to like, was walking next to me.

Had this happened at work, where she also happened to be my subordinate, I would be so focused on my job that her proximity would not cause me any anxiety, but now, finding myself alone with her in my off time, I could barely stay calm. It wasn’t so bad while Katarina was with us, but, now that it was just the two of us, it was much worse. My own reaction made me feel pathetic.

That being said, interacting with Katarina on a regular basis had helped me get used to girls, if only in part. I had never told her, or anybody else, but at the start of my academy years, I was once invited to tea by a noble lady from the same class as me. I still hadn’t learned to hide my accent or to behave according to the local etiquette, and I had been thoroughly made fun of for it. That made my fear of girls even worse.

After that traumatic experience, I started assuming that all the girls living in the capital were refined and fashionable and that they had nothing but disdain for country folk like me. However, meeting someone as unique as Katarina made me realize that not everyone was like the noble ladies who had made fun of me. She had something about her that reminded me of the old ladies who worked on the fields back in my hometown, and that allowed me to talk with her without any problem.

But when it came to Maria, I seemed to be unable to get used to her company. I always became nervous. When I was around her, I couldn’t act in the same relaxed way as I did with Katarina. I definitely didn’t want to show Maria my less cool side.

Today, when we were out shopping and I saw a group of men harass Maria, I felt the angriest I had ever been in my whole life. Seeing them touch her with their filthy hands, I wanted to scare them a little bit, so they’d leave her alone...but I ended up knocking out four of them.

She probably didn’t notice it, but I went so hard on the one who dared lay his hand on her that he wouldn’t be able to get back up for several hours. I considered myself a cool and collected individual, but, to my surprise, I wasn’t immune to rage.

Up until recently, I thought of girls as alien creatures who only existed to make me miserable, and I never spoke with them outside of work, let alone thought of romancing one. I took this situation for granted, until, on that fateful day, I saw Maria’s smile. I wasn’t satisfied with things as they were anymore. I wanted to talk with her, get closer to her.

On the other hand, despite this desire of mine, even just breathing became a struggle when she was close to me.

I wish I could touch her. I couldn’t possibly touch her. But I wish I could touch her...

I wasn’t even sure of my own thoughts myself. Katarina, to thank me for teaching her about farming, made several attempts to help me out, but I didn’t even have the courage to follow her lead. I wished I could start my life all over again.

That being said, today I made a step in the right direction. Heeding Katarina’s instructions, I held Maria’s hand. It was soft, much softer than I could have ever imagined.

I shall never wash this hand of mine again... No, that would be gross... But, if it’s just for a few days...

“Excuse me, Mister Cyrus.”

“U-Ugh! Yes?” I replied as I was startled out of my unsharable thoughts.

“That martial art that you used earlier... Do you think I would be able to use it too?”

“Oh, of course. Even women without much strength can use it.”

“Then...would you teach it to me?” Maria asked, fiercely staring at me. I could tell just how serious she was.

“That may have looked easy, but I assure you it’s not. Just being taught how it works isn’t necessarily enough.”

One needed to apply the correct amount of force to very specific spots in order for that technique to have any effect. Mastering it could be difficult. I asked her if she still wanted to learn it despite this, and she nodded in reply.

“My Light Magic is of no use in situations like the one we ran into today,” she explained.

“That may be true, but it was an exceptional situation. In general, you would always be around someone who could protect you. There is no need to learn to defend yourself to such an extent...”

Maria was a Wielder of Light, which already made her rare and valuable for our country. Furthermore, she was young and kindhearted. There was no shortage of men who would gladly protect her from any sort of trouble. And yet, she demurred.

“I don’t want to only be able to rely on others to protect me. I want to be able to protect those dear to me as well.”

The strength that radiated from her face as she spoke made her appear even more beautiful than usual.

Oh... My heart is racing...again.

I had believed that I was as infatuated with her as a man could possibly be, but this fighting spirit within her made me fall even deeper in love.

Who would have thought that, one day, I’d feel this way for a girl?

“As you wish. I will teach you in your spare time then,” I assented, having to muster all of my willpower to look away from those gorgeous eyes.

“Thank you so much,” she said, elated, and when I looked back at her, I was greeted by a smile too adorable for words to describe.

After that, my head went blank, and it stayed that way for quite a while.

★★★★★★

After eating dinner at the orphanage, it was time for us to leave. Since it was already late, Cyrus arranged for the carriages to carry each of us all the way to our homes. Jeord and Alan headed to the castle, Mary to her home, the Ascart siblings to theirs, Maria and Cyrus (who was once again riding with the coachman) to the Magical Ministry dormitories, and Keith and I to Claes Manor.

Everyone had told me about their day while we were eating dinner, and despite some of them initially saying that they wished they could have just played with the kids too, they all seemed to have had fun in the end.

Even after Nicol was relieved of his teaching duties, Jeord and Keith continued helping the kids with their homework. Their little students said that they were even better than their teachers. That wasn’t a surprise to me, considering how I had relied on those two to get through my Academy of Magic studies.

The same also applied to Mary and Sophia. The children were still asking questions well after their lesson time had ended. They both said that they enjoyed the opportunity to feel like an older sister for once.

I mostly talked about my games with the children, including the details about Alan and Nicol. I skipped most of the details about my shopping trip with Maria and Cyrus, just mentioning how crowded the town was because of the traveling entertainers.

I didn’t want to make my friends worry by telling them of the incident with the drunks, and I still wasn’t sure of what to make of Liam’s story. I did end up telling Keith about him, however, after we had told everyone else goodbye and were riding home by ourselves.

“Why do you think he would want to go back to the slums rather than stay in the orphanage?” I asked my brother.

I had used Sora’s words to persuade Liam, but I honestly still had no idea why he would want to go back to his home country in the first place. Back there, staying alive was already a struggle, while here he had three hot meals to eat every day without fail. The latter looked much better to me. I wanted to ask him directly, but he just had dinner by himself and then quickly went back to his room before I could do so. I noticed a hint of anxiety in his face that had me slightly worried.

“Hmm,” Keith replied after thinking for a while, “maybe he misses his family and friends?”

“He supposedly doesn’t have a family there, but maybe he did have friends,” I agreed. That was certainly a possibility.

“But if it were me, if there were people I cared about who lived in a dangerous place, I’d have them come to safety rather than try to go back to them.”

He was right—even if Liam did have any friends he was worried about, he wouldn’t be able to help them just by going back. I still couldn’t figure out that child’s motivations. I thoughtfully cocked my head to one side.

Keith spoke up again. “I had a rough childhood, but it certainly wouldn’t compare to living in the slums, so I’m afraid that I can’t really understand what goes through the head of someone who was raised there. Maybe you should ask someone who has that kind of past,” he suggested.

“You’re right! Thanks, Keith.”

I decided that the next day, at work, I would ask Sora, who had actually lived in the slums.

As soon as I reached the Magical Ministry, I walked into the Magical Tool Laboratory. Newcomers like me and Sora came in early to prepare the office for the day.

“Good morning, Sora.”

“Morning,” he replied, stifling a yawn, and I lost no time in telling him about Liam.

“He’s lucky enough to be in an orphanage and he wants to go back to the slums? Weird kid,” was Sora’s first reaction.

To be honest, I had to agree with him.

“I thought that maybe you’d understand him, since you also grew up there.”

“Sure, I grew up in the same place, but I’m not him. I have no idea what goes through that kid’s head. I’d be more than happy to stay in this safe, clean place rather than have to go back to that dump.” He sounded proud of himself. It was the kind of thing that I expected him to say.

“Oh, right, I was also thinking that maybe he has some friends back in his home country, and he misses them. Do you think that’d make sense?”

“Hmm... It’s not impossible, but then it’d make no sense to want to go back there by himself. If it were me, I’d get a grown-up to come along. Possibly one who’s easy to talk into stuff,” he mused, as if he was retracing the conversation Keith and I had yesterday.

Even someone like me, who was raised in Sorcié, away from all danger, realized that going back to the slums alone wouldn’t be of much use, so there was no way that Liam, who grew up there, didn’t understand it. But that meant that I didn’t have the first clue about Liam’s reason for wanting to go back home.

I suddenly remembered what he had said about life in Sorcié.

“You know, he said that this place is too ‘prissy’ for him. That it’s boring here. Maybe, more than wanting to go back to the slums, he just doesn’t like the orphanage...”

“Personally, I’d take a boring place over a dangerous one every day of the week...” Sora’s rebuttal was all the more persuasive coming from someone who had experienced life in the slums firsthand.

I realized that asking Sora was probably not going to help me, and my look must have betrayed that thought, since he added, “I’m not good with people’s feelings and other delicate stuff like that. You’d do better to ask someone who is.”

“And who would that be?”

“There happens to be someone like that right in our department, and you’re going to get private lessons from him later today. Sounds like the perfect occasion to ask him,” he responded, making it rather obvious who he was talking about.

“You mean Raphael?”

“Yeah. He’s good at understanding people. If he weren’t, he wouldn’t be able to keep this department running despite Larna and all the other weirdos we have in here. You want to know what that kid feels like, right? Then Raphael’s probably your guy.”

I had never thought of it in that way, but what Sora had said made sense. Raphael had always been a people person, even back at the academy in the student council. It felt like he could read people’s feelings and direct them accordingly, and he was doing something like that during the Dark Magic lessons with me too. He was always thinking of how to make them entertaining and avoid having them be too hard for me. And since I was going to have another lesson with him today, that was, just as Sora had said, the perfect occasion to ask him for some advice on Liam’s situation. Thinking that Raphael was indeed my guy, I tried to finish the morning preparations in the office as fast as possible.

“Shall we start today’s lesson?” Raphael asked after he walked in the room behind me.

“Actually, there’s something I’d like to ask you before that,” I answered, and I told him Liam’s story.

I tried to give him as many details as possible, including how we had gone to the orphanage, how we had found him walking into a back alley while we were out shopping, and what he had told me in Maggie’s office. There was a lot to explain, and I wasn’t very good with words. I jumped around from one part of the story to the other, often forgetting to give enough context, but Raphael never interrupted me and listened carefully to everything I said.

“Prissy and boring, huh... Do you remember what his face looked like while he said that?”

“Yes. It didn’t seem like he was actually disgusted. He looked sad more than anything,” I replied.

That was what worried me so much. There was a weird contrast, a disconnect between what he said and the way he said it. I couldn’t ignore that if I wanted to.

“I see...” Raphael muttered to himself, before starting to silently think about what I had told him.

Even for someone like him, trying to understand the feelings of a child he had never met must have been no easy task. He also had a tendency to worry too much about everything, so I didn’t want to trouble him with extra stuff to think about.

I should take this matter in my own hands. I can’t rely so much on him.

“Actually, you know, you don’t nee—” I tried to tell him as much, but he actually started talking.

“I have never met this child, nor have I ever experienced life in the slums. Therefore, the best I can come up with is a hypothesis based on speculation. Would you still like to hear it?” he inquired, his brows lowered toward his eyes.

I nodded.

“Every once in a while—very rarely, truth to be told—I find myself overtaken by a sudden fear: the fear that out of the blue, the happy life I am living could be completely shattered.”

I was wondering why he would talk about himself to explain his ideas about Liam, but knowing that Raphael wouldn’t say something like that unless he had a good reason to, I kept listening.

“This is definitely because of what I have been through in the past. I lived happily with my mother until the Dieke family took all of that away, throwing me into despair. The only reason I had to stay alive was to find revenge. It was a living hell.”

Raphael’s beautiful face turned slightly darker.

“Until one day, I took the hand that you had offered me and found happiness once again. Now I am surrounded by people that I care about, in a place where I can smile and have them smile back at me.” He emphasized his point by giving me a feeble smile, gentle and sad, that reminded me of that day when I saw him cry so painfully.

He told us that he hated us, that he wanted us to go away, but he cried as one who had been hurt. It felt like a very remote memory, but it had only been a few years since then. In that time he had been able to face his trauma, turn his life around, and get to the point where he could care and worry about other people. Raphael Wolt was truly an incredible human being.

“Despite this present happiness...I can’t shake off the fear. The fear of losing it all, of having it taken away without a reason just like before. Because then, I wouldn’t know what to do,” he added quietly, turning his eyes down.

“I won’t let anyone do that to you!” I shouted without really thinking about it. “If anyone tries to take this happiness away from you, I’ll beat them right up!”

At first, he was surprised by my sudden shouting, but then he started chuckling.

“Thank you, Katarina. I’m happy that you would say that, but I’m not a kid anymore, and if somebody tried to threaten this life that I have built for myself, trust me...this time I’d fight back.”

The confidence in his voice convinced me that there was no need to worry about him anymore.

“I can all say this because I’m an adult now,” he continued, “but it’s different for a child. One day you find a comfortable place for yourself, and the next you lose it because a grown-up has decided that that’s how things should be.”

“So, what you mean is...”

“That maybe this Liam child fears the same thing. That even if he were to find happiness, he would have no guarantee that he wouldn’t lose it all of a sudden. Of course, it’s possible that he doesn’t even fully understand this himself since he’s only a child. But I think that what drives him may be fear of loss, rather than hate.”

Not hate, but fear of losing the happiness that he’s found. That was only Raphael’s hypothesis, but what Liam said and did that day, and the look on his face... It all seemed to make sense.

“I think you could be right, Raphael. I’ll try to talk to him about that the next time I see him.”

“Please do. And if he really is scared...”

“Yes? What should I do?”

“Please tell him that it’s fine to take the hands of those who reach out to you. Tell him that it’s fine to reach out to others for help too. Tell him that there’s always someone who will go through life together with him.” He smiled at me kindly. The sheer beauty of that smile made me understand why everyone was crazy about him.

Asking him for help was the right thing to do!

I fanned my face with my hand, trying to cool off the heat that Raphael’s handsomeness had caused.

“Still, it’s incredible that you’d be able to theorize so much just from what I told you,” I complimented him.

“It’s just that the things he said reminded me of my own feelings,” he calmly explained. He then mentioned that, if I managed to talk with Liam again, I could ask him for more advice. “Oh, right,” he added, trying to bring our discussion of Liam and his situation to a conclusion, “parting with the happiness that you’ve grown accustomed to is dreadful. But...”