The night before (2)“Well, it’s not like I’m complaining, but…”
A person clad in a black hooded coat let out a frivolous voice — from his voice, he seemed to be male– while his tall figure was crouched on the ground, drawing a pattern on the ground.
“Even though our plan is being put into motion, everybody is all gloomy like this. Cheer up! Be more enthusiastic! Even if it succeeds, it won’t be a success because of your thoughts.”
While muttering and grumbling, a faint light was emitted from his fingertip as he slowly etched the complex pattern.
“In the first place, is such a big magic formation really necessary? With this Seven-fold barrier formation using our power, what type of monster are we trying to confine?”
“A monster that destroyed your boss.”
The man referred to as ‘His Excellency,’ answered the robed man, with a shade of sarcasm in his voice.
However, the robed man ignored the sarcasm, and snickered.[1]
“Are we trying to confine the saviour of humanity? Hard to help aren’t you, you guys.”hard to please?
“You b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are said to be unreasonable. You have asked for help…”
“Well, we are just working according to the contract. However, the Brave… Surely, it will be a feast, the flavour of despair.”
“Let’s shut up and finish our work quickly.”
Despite the voice of the old man, which was filled with impatience, the robed man whistled a tune as he slowly stood up.
Suddenly emerging from the darkness, he began to glide.
“Well, don’t be fl.u.s.tered. With rushed work, if the Brave notices, we will be finished right? The scary, scaary Brave will come running, Zunbararin![2] Well, if you want to die, then it’s okay to rush it…”
“As long as it is unnoticeable, hurry up.”
“Yeah, yeah, even demons… you use roughly.”[3]
While grumbling complainants, he sighed while looking at the working demon.
The couldn’t not rely on this bunch.
“This guy, can he really be trusted?”
One of the subordinates in the rear asked the man.
It wasn’t unreasonable.
They had always fought against the demons
For a demon, that was once a menace, to be an integral part of the plan was inevitable.
He understood his subordinate’s complicated feelings.
However…
“Don’t worry. The demon is under a contract.”
The seven-fold barrier magic formation.
It was a barrier that could even contain the magic of high-ranking demons, dragon-kind, and fairy-kin.
One of the empire’s defensive trump cards, it was a high-level barrier magic.
It took an enormous amount of time to cast, with a ritual that required many expensive catalysts, that even with the magic amplifiers installed in the six fortresses surrounding the empire, he couldn’t use it with the magicians he had on hand.
He had used his substantial fortune to gather the catalysts, and the activation of the fort’s magic amplifier was left to his subordinate.
However, even with the magic amplifier, there was still not enough magic to cast the spell.
There was no choice but to borrow the power of their mortal enemy, a demon.
All for containing the Brave. [4]
“The demon is bound by a contract. As for the compensation, it is not a problem.”
“That’s right. We demons are not like humans, we do not renege on promises.”
The demon affirmed the man’s words with a light tone.
At those words, he smiled wryly.
‘How unexpected, those words from a demon.’
While following the demon’s working figure, the aged man reflexively smiled bitterly.
Though the barrier couldn’t cover the whole school, if they were able to focus on one part, the Brave would be able to be contained.
Her intervention in the plan would mean the very failure of the strategy.
This plan would definitely cause much bloodshed.
It would be good if she turned a blind eye, but they couldn’t count on it.
However, this surely was an unforgivable act.
The aged man knew that he had earned a degree in mistakes.
Nonetheless, he had no more time.
For example, there are times where it is necessary to trick the Brave who saved the world.
From now on, his sympathizers and accomplices, his subordinates, would not be caught in this.[?1]
For that, he wouldn’t mind bearing the stigma of dishonor.
The plan has been polished, and all that is left is to put it into motion.
The aged man drew the sword which had accompanied him for half a lifetime near.
Now, there is no going back.
In the knight school’s dormitories for high ranking n.o.bles, there, was Leticia’s dorm room.
There, where she and the other high ranked n.o.bles live, was once where the emperor’s favorite concubines lived.
If she had to say, due to Wynn influencing her commoner mindset, she had no positive thoughts about the dorm.
If one thought about how she had stayed in many cheap inns throughout the journey, the luxuriously built dormitories made her feel restless.
Though she had wanted to change her dormitory (if she could it would be one like Wynn’s inn), and had requested it, the faculty rejected the request, and she had to stay in that dormitory.
However, being unable to calm down anyways, she decided to read books until she was sleepy.
After reading a library book on her bed, Leticia got up.[5]
For just a moment, she felt an uncomfortable feeling.
This was the Brave’s sixth sense, honed across many battlefields.
Rising from the bed, she looked out the window.
Designed to be visible from the former imperial concubine’s building, was the knight school’s courtyard, formerly a flower garden filled with seasonal flowers in bloom all year-round.
When it was a palace, it was constantly lit by lamps, but now that it became an educational facility, among other things, the courtyard was covered in darkness in the night. but even with her extraordinary senses, she was unable to see the source of her unease in the darkness.
‘Is it my imagination?’
She continued looking, but couldn’t sense anything in particular.
She stopped feeling the unease she felt a moment ago.
Her gaze moved from the courtyard to the silhouette of the distant mountains.
Where that gaze fell, in those mountains, Wynn was probably there.
It was the periodic patrol subjugation mission.
Though they were low cla.s.s, they would be fighting actual demonic beasts.[?2]
Leticia was worried about Wynn fighting against monsters.
Low-level monsters such as goblins in the beginning, and beasts corrupted by miasma and turn into demonic beasts, one would be able to defeat them alone.
When they were young, while the two of them worked together to fulfill the herb gathering requests from the adventurer guild, they had experience fighting the monsters several times.
Leticia had used a short-sword that she borrowed from her house.
Since they were still young, she had wielded it like a longsword.
Now that she thought about it, when she had carried the short-sword, her Onii-chan was surprised.
A smile leaked out as she recalled those times.
It was the old, ordinary times, when they ran around the town.
One day, in that same place, Leticia had noticed that Wynn’s running speed had slowed down.
They were in front of a run-down store.
Since it was early in the morning, every time they pa.s.sed by, it was closed, so what kind of shop it was, Leticia didn’t know, but that day, accompanying Wynn on an errand from Hanna, she finally found out what it sold.
It was a weapons store.
Though he was on an errand, Wynn had slowly, unsteadily, as if he were being pulled in, stepped towards the blades lined up in the weapon shop, gazing at them.
Leticia got bored, and urged him, “Come on, let’s go,” but he was so absorbed that he didn’t answer.
The old man running the store, possibly because he recognized Wynn, merely gave them a fleeting glance.
The fact that he had selfishly pa.s.sed through here, the young Leticia understood it well.
Rather than Wynn, the old man was interested in the well dressed girl beside him, who stood out like a sore thumb.
After observing Leticia for a while, she soon started nodding off.
Meanwhile, Wynn was staring at the swords, motionlessly.
In his gaze, was a shabbily built short-sword.
Among the swords sold in the store, it was the cheapest one.
It wasn’t a magic sword made for fighting monsters, just a regular, ordinary, short-sword.
Even so, with the wages Wynn earned, no matter how hard he tried, he didn’t have enough money.
In the end, the detour caused him to return late, and Wynn was scolded by Hanna.[6]
Leticia didn’t see that incident, and immediately returned from Wataridori Pavilion to her mansion.
Routinely treated like air, she was surprised after having returned so vigorously.
Ignoring the wide-eyed servants, she had leapt into her room, and rummaged through her storage box.
After overturning several boxes, she finally found the item she sought.
Made with small ornaments, like a work of art, it was a short-sword.
Having grown old enough, her father, Duke Mavis, had given it to her.
Holding it to her chest, she had once again run out of the mansion
The people at the mansion didn’t stop her.
The had already treated her as an outcast, being the eccentric princess of the ducal house.
Though she more or less was allowed to live like a princess, if she were kidnapped for ransom, it had been decided that they would ignore it.
She truly was treated like air. [7]
To them, the short-sword was unique, given to her by her father, but to her, giving it to Wynn was not a problem.
Rather, if he were delighted when she showed him it, Leticia would be glad to give it to him.
While running back towards Wataridori Pavilion at full speed, the young girls thoughts were filled Wynn’s figure, happily wielding the the short-sword.
‘In the end, he never took it, until I had to leave.’
She had held the short-sword out to a speechless Wynn with a smiling face.
It was clear that, compared to the short-sword in the store– no, all the weapons there, it was much more expensive, upon looking at the short-sword for a while. However, Wynn couldn’t accept it, and returned it to Leticia.
Leticia, who had thought that he would surely accept it, asked “Why?” And though she had held it back out for him, he stubbornly refused.
After a short argument, Leticia ran out of patience, and they decided to compromise, borrowing the sword while out doing herb collection requests.
In the end, in her final attempt to give him the short-sword, right before she left on her journey as the Brave, Leticia had used reinforcement magic on her sword with all her strength, and defeated Wynn for the first time ever.
Pulling back her wooden sword from Wynn’s throat, she unwrapped the sash around her waist, and silently held out the short-sword.
He simply let out a slow sigh, and accepted the sword.
That time, he didn’t refuse.
Mumbling one word, “Thanks,” he accepted the sword.
With only that, Leticia’s small chest was filled with happiness.
Though she was to be separated a long distance from him, the feeling she felt at that time boiled within her with an infinite power.[?3]
The me of that time, I can still remember it even now.
The euphoria of that time.
From then on, she most likely had already fallen in love.
She had shifted her focus to the ridges of the distant mountains.
There, in that place, was the same, unchanged Wynn who persevered in his dream of becoming a knight.
‘Do your best.’
She whispered in her mind.
He decided to aim for his dreams, without turning back.
Watching his back since they were small, Leticia would give small words of encouragement.
If she raised her eyes to the sky, she would see a starry sky filled with stars.
It was time to go to sleep.
Tomorrow, during special training, all the students were instructed to gather outside.
Though she is the Brave, Leticia is still a student.
Furthermore, she was still expected to attend the lecture
She looks at the mountains once more, then wistfully crawls into bed.
‘If I see a dream of that time, it would be good.’
She closed her eyes with those thoughts.