Will was in a bad mood since the morning.
“…..Did you use a drug?”
“I only burnt incense with a relaxing effect. Though I added a slight amount of magic to it…you were sound asleep, right?”
I felt bad for Will not being able to sleep and I also think it was necessary for my peaceful rest. I fully enjoyed your sleeping face~
He silently punched the wall. It must"ve been frustrating to expose his defenseless figure to me.
“It was my handmade incense. There aren"t any aftereffects, right?”
” By any chance, when you said that you were a pharmacist…”
“You thought I was lying? I"m a magical drug specialist, with a renowned reputation for beauty medicines.”
Though, it took quite a while for Will to fall asleep soundly. As the Prince"s attendant, one must probably need to train to build up the tolerance against poisons.
I can understand because I"ve also experienced it, but it"s quite painful. To drink poison with your own hands.
I was waiting for Will to get up, so we ended up leaving the room rather late.
At the reception desk, the innkeeper kept looking at Will very enviously. I can imagine the reason, but let"s pretend not to notice.
Along with the servant who was becoming continuously wary of me, I advanced on the way to my hometown.
As we got close to Cucurouge, Will"s body started to get stiffer. It doesn"t look like he got much sleep even though we stayed at different inns. His complexion gradually got worse and he started to give out a tingling aura.
Going into the den of the witches he loathes must be making him feel nervous.
At noon on the 4th day of the journey, we arrived at the last town.
From here on, Cucurouge is only about a full day away. There are only small villages and settlements in between, but instead of stopping in this town, I"m planning to depart as soon I"m done with the preparations.
I expect that today will be the turning point. Even if wasn"t the extent of Will, I was still a bit nervous. I can"t let me guard down till we reach Cucurouge.
I went to the market with Will to do some shopping.
“We will reach Cucurouge in one more day, you know? We don"t need so many things, right?”
“No, they"re necessary. I can"t go on if I don"t eat.”
While I was discussing how much dried meat to buy with the carnivorous beast… I mean, with Will,
“Will-saーn! We finally found youー!”
Blond boy holding a huge book ran up to us. Behind him, there was were a pair of a boy and a girl with an eye-catching appearance.
“Citrine? Also, Moka and Chalot….”
Oh dear.
I concealed my inner disturbance and kept my head tilted.
Citrine, blond boy who"s around 12 years old.
The pair of a boy and a girl who are around my age, Moka, the girl in maid uniform and Chalot, a boy who"s wearing a big silk hat like a street performer.
These three and Will are the 4 comrades which Miss Emerald found.
…..meeting the Prince"s allies here is bad. Though it"s already too late now.
I held down the desire to click my tongue and bet on the development.
“Why are you guys here?”
Citrine looked at Will with sparkling eyes.
“I was sure that you would definitely pa.s.s through this town so I overtook you on sky dragon.”
“No, not that…why did you chase me?”
“Well, it"s because I was worried about you, w.i.l.l.y! Are you okay? you haven"t been eaten yet, right?”
Chalot large-heartedly hit Will"s shoulder and Will too, as if annoyed, warded it off. It seems that the relationship between these two is also the same as in the original work.
“It"s an unnecessary concern. Quickly go back to the capital. I already said that right now you"re supposed to protect the Prince and Emerald.”
“I was asked by none other than Emerald. I"m worried about Will-kun so go and take a look, she said.”
“Emerald did….”
Hearing the words Moka said dispa.s.sionately, Will"s face brightened up right away. What a simple man.
Looks like she"s still allowed to converse with her comrades even though she"s confined. Miss Emerald, a nuisance till the end.
I was starting to get fed up with having my existence ignored, so I took one step forward. Jeez, are there only rude people at the Prince"s side?
“From what I have heard, you people are Rain-sama"s allies, right? Thank you for worrying about my servant. You might already know, but I am Sonia Carnelian. Pleased to meet you.”
Gazes of all three gathered on me.
It wasn"t to the point of hostility, but their eyes were carrying some hints of caution.
I pretended not to notice that and softly smiled, after what all three corrected their postures.
“That was rude of me. I"m Chalot Airm. Sonichan….is still great looking closely. What a beauty. I"m envious of w.i.l.l.y!. Nawawa!”
“Thank you. I"m happy even if it"s only a flattery. Are you perhaps a person from Airm company?”
“That"s right, that"s right. I"m surprised you knew. Our products still shouldn"t be circulating in the western region.”
“It"s not like that. Tableware sold by Airm company is popular, you know? Everyone wants it exactly because it"s hard to obtain. I also love and frequently use the ones I got from the lord of Azurite.”
“I see! Thank you! I"ll give you some present next time then!”
Chalot is a bottomlessly cheerful jokester Even though he"s like this, he"s the successor of one of the 5 biggest trading companies in Mistria. If I remember right, he was saved by Emerald"s predictions when he fell into crisis due to a huge loss because of gambling and then became her comrade.
He doesn"t possess ‘Creative Brain" or core, but he fights with an unusual magical gun. Magical crystals that become the bullets are very expensive, so it"s the weapon he can use exactly because he"s rich.
….By the way, the traitor from the original “Anime” is him.
Though even if I say that, it"s not like he betrayed Emerald out of his free will. He has a younger sister who"s suffering from an incurable disease. He was told by Sonia to become her ally in exchange for the medicine, at the end of a fierce conflict he started leaking the information to Sonia.
Pushing Chalot who was asking for a handshake from me aside, the girl in maid uniform came in front.
I am named Moka Serius. I serve Rain-sama as a maid.”
“Serius…it"s the same name as the Viscount family that fell several years ago, isn"t it?”
“Yes. I am from the direct line of Serius House….what if it?”
“No. I didn"t particularly have any ill intentions. My apologies if I have somehow hurt your feelings.”
“………..”
Moka is a former aristocrat cool beauty.
She was saved by Prince Rain after her family fell into ruin and she lost her place to return, so in exchange, she swore absolute loyalty to him.
She has a ‘Core". She"s been practicing spearmanship for self-defense and uses a big magical spear. In other words, she"s a battle maid. She"s in a similar position as Will, but she"s secretly in love with the Prince.
That"s why at first she acted coldly towards Emerald, saying that she 「wasn"t suited for the Prince」and tried to separate them, but gradually she acknowledged Emerald"s efforts and in the end became her best friend. I wonder if there also was a scene when she confessed to the Prince in order to settle her feelings.
After a heartbreak, she starts having a good vibe going with Chalot.
When it gets found out that Chalot is a traitor, she gets furious and they both end up fighting each other to death.
In the end, Moka ends up winning without being able to make Chalot fight seriously. Chalot fell unconscious and Moka, who later found out the reason for his betrayal was shocked and left the front lines in order to nurse him.
A tragedy, isn"t it?
“I am, um…Citrine Nuipure. Emerald-san and the others helped me to find my mother.”
Citrine said shyly while hiding behind Will"s back.
The child, who was traveling in order to find the mother he separated with. Ever since he was saved after being chased by magical beasts, he"s been attached to the “strong and manly” Will.
The character who gets played around by the geniuses with ‘Creative Brain". He can use simple magic, but his offensive attack is low so he"s an existence akin to a mascot.
However, he starts training during the middle stage of the story. He even took on a role of the bait during the last battle when they were surrounded by magical beasts. “I"m also a man! I can fight! Please leave this place to me and go ahead!”, like that.
Whatever happened to Citrine in the end isn"t specified in “Anime”. The scene ends with his precious book, bloodstained, burying in the corpse of the magical beast. It"s unclear whether he"s alive or dead, but most likely…
The woman from previous life cried “Precious shota!!” with foam in her mouth. Because Will also dies the next week after that, the mentality of the “viewers” received heavy blows one after another.
“Um…is there something?”
I quietly stared at Citrine"s face.
I felt it quite a bit when I saw the Prince, miss Emerald and Will, but it feels kind of weird when you compare actual people with their “Anime” counterparts.
Especially Citrine, who had many “deformed” faces in “Anime”.
“Stop it….! Please don"t look so much, it"s embarra.s.sing!”
Citrine covered his blushing face.
Yup, this shota or whatever isn"t bad either.
Will hid Citrine as if to protect him from my eyes.
Let"s stop messing around now, shall we? Gathering together with those people attracts much attention towards us.
“I would love to give you some time to have a pleasant chat between the friends, but I"m, sorry, we"re supposed to leave immediately.”
They couldn"t possibly be planning to follow us till Cucurouge, right?
It"ll be super annoying.
Moka slightly bowed her head while still maintaining her expressionless face.
“I am sincerely sorry for holding you off. We really only came to catch a glimpse of how Will was doing, since he can be quite dim-witted at times. He hasn"t been creating troubles for you, has he?”
“Hey!”
“It"s fine. He has been working quite well. He hasn"t warmed up to me fully yet but I"m sure we will get along well. Isn"t that right, Will?”
Will looked away without replying.
“Haa….it seems like she is much more mature than you. Will Obsidia, you became her servant as the compensation for her broken engagement. Even if it"s for the sake of protecting Mistria"s dignity, in public… you must properly carry out your duties. Please try not to forget about it.”
Will didn"t look very pleased after being scolded by a younger maid, but he still reluctantly nodded back.
That"s right.
You must still keep up the appearance even if your real intentions are different.
Especially tonight…
“Once we settle down, I"ll invite you guys to Cucurouge. Please come to visit us by all means. Hopefully next time we"ll be able to talk more leisurely.”
The trio more or less thanked me for my courtesy,
and then we parted after wishing each other safe journey.
I truly hope that the miserable future you guys were supposed to tread will not come true.
Next Chapter —
Notes
This was shady, just too shady.
Emerald asking people to check up on Will? was she trying to “remind” Will of her existence? or maybe she saw some kind of prediction about Will getting attracted to Sonia…hmm
“Did you use X?” – The word he uses is 薬 which can be taken both as a medicine or a drug but I decided to go with the drug because it sounds more fitting for the situation (in a “did you drug me so I could sleep deeply?” kind of way)
Chalot"s name is チャロット・エアーム so he might as well be Chalot Ahme or Chalot Airm, hmu if you know the right reading
The word used to describe Chalot was お調子者 and I honestly couldn"t think of a one-word t.i.tle that could work better.
Please tell me if you spot any mistranslation, weird/incorrect grammar and typos, I"ll fix them rightaway
P.S I"ve been thinking that I"m jumping between chapter of several novels a bit too much so I"ll to concentrate on the Witch for a while (like 5 chapters this, 5 chapter Cinderella, then the rest of the novels/teasers so I could go forward the story at last)