Chapter 1: Far from home
To cut to the chase, my request was approved without any fuss.
The Boundary City of Termwills. Or the Labyrinth City of Termwills, if you prefer. Regardless of what you called it, I was currently on a carriage headed straight for it.
My father had arranged a considerable amount of funds for me, as well as connections in the city and guards for the journey. I didn’t exactly want to rely on his goodwill. Or rather, I didn’t want to strengthen my ties to the Gartner family any further. Personally, I was treating it as severance pay.
As for the Gartner Earldom’s villa in Termwills… I flatly refused to use it. If I ended up running into someone from the family there, it would defeat the whole purpose of leaving. Besides, it was obvious they’d nitpick about every little thing regarding how I used the place.
Since my father had acquaintances in the city, I wouldn’t be completely cut off from the family, but the less I was shackled to my origins, the better.
Now, the labyrinth in Termwills was said to be connected to another world.
A living labyrinth that altered its layout and connected paths based on the waxing and waning of the moon. That was the Great Labyrinth of Termwills. If you delved deep enough, you might even stumble upon precious treasures that had drifted in from another world. However, the deepest depths remained entirely unexplored. To date, there was no record of anyone ever reaching the bottom.
The same had been true in BFO. The deeper floors were implemented gradually through game updates, which meant that even I naturally had no idea what lay at the very end of the labyrinth.
That being said, the shallow floors didn’t pose much of a threat. It was the perfect place to run a few experiments and hone my skills. Conversely, if I couldn’t even manage that much, I wouldn’t have a place in this world anyway.
Well, I’d cross that bridge when I came to it. Either way, it beat living in the Gartner household.
There were a few reasons why I had chosen Termwills as my destination, but one of them was that a child who could use magic wouldn’t stand out nearly as much there. Because of the labyrinth, the city drew in all sorts of races and individuals. A magician’s apprentice wasn’t an uncommon sight, and since they highly valued martial prowess, you would naturally earn respect as long as you were capable. I figured I could easily blend in.
But the real issue lay elsewhere.
The problem was the timeline. The setting of BFO’s world, Runegard, took place exactly seven years from now.
Assuming the game’s main story—specifically the events involving the Grand Quest that was released midway through the game’s lifespan—was treated as the official history, there was a very high probability that this world would eventually plunge into absolute chaos.
Even so, I had no intention of shouting that from the rooftops right now. It was merely a possibility, and I didn’t have any concrete proof. Even if I did try to warn people, the most likely outcome was that they would just think I’d lost my mind.
This country, the Verdgal Kingdom, was located far from the epicenter of the impending turmoil. It was one of the more peaceful regions even in the main game, but depending on the direction the Grand Quest took from here, there was no telling what might happen.
In short, I couldn’t afford to waste my time in the countryside. No matter what the future held… No, because I didn’t know what would happen, I needed to gather my strength. I needed to carve out a place for myself and establish a solid foothold.
I would much rather venture out into the world and live on my own terms than stay in that house, choking on my own misery. I wanted the power to protect the things I held dear. I was absolutely done bowing my head and suffering in silence just because I was a child.
And for that reason, I was heading to the Boundary City of Termwills, the royal capital of the Verdgal Kingdom. Although, part of it was also because I could best utilize my past experiences there, seeing as I used to ignore the main story in favor of spending all my time on PvP and diving into the Termwills labyrinth during my gaming days.
Well… what I told my father about wanting to learn magic wasn’t exactly a lie, either. The spells Kagehisa had learned were heavily skewed toward combat and exploration. Honestly, they were pretty inconvenient for everyday life, so I was hoping I could learn some more practical magic as well.
“Are you really sure about this, Grace?” I asked, looking across the carriage. “This was your chance to leave the household and finally be free.”
My father had always been too busy with his duties as a feudal lord, while Kathryn and the others treated her with cold disdain. Honestly, I wouldn’t have blamed her if she had abandoned the Earl’s family altogether. She had her own complicated circumstances, but she wasn’t a helpless child anymore.
“I am your personal attendant, Theodor-sama,” Grace replied softly. “From the moment Lisa-sama took me in, I resolved to serve both her and you for the rest of my life. Or… am I perhaps a nuisance to you?”
Grace cast her gaze downward as she spoke from the seat opposite mine. Lisa was… my biological mother, who had passed away from an illness.
Apparently, my mother had taken Grace under her wing when she was in a difficult situation. Because of that, she felt a profound sense of indebtedness to her.
Given that history, Grace possessed a strong attachment to both my mother and me. When I announced my decision to head to Termwills, she had vehemently insisted on coming along.
“No, I didn’t mean it like that,” I reassured her gently. “I’m relying on you. And I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you about my magic.”
“Not at all,” Grace insisted, shaking her head. “I am the one who must apologize for failing to properly protect you from those two. Despite my shortcomings, I am deeply grateful that you allowed me to accompany you.”
Properly protect me, huh? Given Grace’s nature, that was a tall order. Holding someone back simply wasn’t her strong suit. She only had two modes: completely on or completely off. That was especially true when the people she was dealing with were her employers and their children.
Even so, if she had tried to directly shield me, her only option would have been to act as a physical meat shield. I never wanted that for her.
Kathryn and the others seemed solely focused on tormenting me, so I was just relieved they hadn’t turned their ire on Grace. I had intentionally kept her at a distance to prevent her from getting caught in the crossfire, too.
Part of it was just childish pride—I hadn’t wanted the person I viewed as an older sister to know I was being bullied… but for some reason, those feelings seemed like a distant memory now.
Then again, Kathryn was secretly terrified of Grace in her own right, so my worries might have been completely unfounded.
“I will prove my usefulness to you this time,” Grace declared with unwavering conviction. “Please, allow me to remain by your side.”
The contract magic binding her to my father and Kathryn had been annulled, and now, having forged a new contract, I was the sole administrator of her Seal Ring. I was the only one who could issue orders to her.
Grace was eager to prove that she could fight if I lifted the restrictions of the Seal Ring. I had never actually seen her in combat before, but I figured I should at least ask what weapon she used.
“What kind of weapon do you use anyway, Grace?” I asked.
“An axe,” she replied bluntly.
…An axe?
“An axe?” I echoed in disbelief.
“Yes. It is an item such as this.”
The item she heavily dragged out from beneath the carriage seat was a double-bitted axe known as a labrys, wrapped in cloth.
It had a disproportionate shape, featuring a large, thick pair of blades affixed to a rather short handle.
A thick chain extended from the pommel. Was it meant to be swung around at close range with sheer physical strength, and thrown at long range using the chain?
And there were two of these peculiar weapons. Did she plan to dual-wield them?
Talk about… wild, or whatever you want to call it.
Despite looking like a demure and beautiful young girl, Grace could unleash an unbelievable amount of superhuman strength once her restraints were lifted. Thus, she only had two states of being.
While bound by her Seal Ring, she possessed the physical capabilities of a normal girl her age. Once released, however, she could exhibit strength on par with a vampire.
If I told her I was going to dive into the labyrinth, she would probably follow me… I still didn’t have a good grasp of her combat skills, and she didn’t know much about my magical prowess either, so it was hard to say how things would play out at this stage.
But considering she brought weapons like these, it seemed she was fully prepared to fight if push came to shove.
Even with her limitations, she had indirectly covered for me in various ways up until now. Setting the whole labyrinth thing aside, she likely thought it would be too risky to let me head to Termwills alone. Or rather, that was likely the consensus between both Grace and my father.
Being treated like a child was slightly annoying, but people’s impressions of you didn’t change overnight, so I just had to accept it for the time being. After all, I had intentionally made it seem like I snapped and went completely off the rails with my sudden change in attitude toward my father.
I would just have to gradually overwrite their previous evaluation of me.
◆◆◆◆◆
“Young master. Lunch is ready~”
Lucian, one of the adventurers hired as our escort, came over to call out to us inside the carriage.
At first, it seemed like they were going to prepare separate meals and have us eat in a different location. However, when I asked if it wouldn’t be too much of a hassle to make a completely separate menu just for us, they replied that it was because I was the son of a Earl. I told them that it was too inefficient and that eating the same food as them was fine, leading to our current arrangement.
For them, it seemed completely unexpected for a noble to say something like that.
If anything, most nobles were probably like those idiot brothers from my household, so in that case, eating separately would be the norm. In more ways than one.
“Lucian. If possible, could you please stop calling me ‘Young master’?”
“But you see~ You are the son of a Earl, after all.”
“I’m not anyone that important.”
In reality, I was nothing but a shadow in that household.
Sure, I was currently wearing a waistcoat and a cravat, a somewhat formal attire… so I probably looked the part of a noble, but these clothes were just a uniform forced upon me. On the inside, I was as far from a noble as one could get.
Our escorts for this journey were officially hired by the Earl family, so I planned to act the part as best I could. But once we arrived at the Boundary City, I wanted to quickly gather proper equipment befitting a mage. I had even been forced to compromise on my magic staff since I could only get my hands on a cheap one.
Well, putting the future aside, it was time for lunch. The view from this gently sloping, hilly region was beautiful, which was why we decided to stop here to eat.
Led by Lucian, we sat down to eat under the blue sky alongside our adventurer escorts. The weather was lovely and the atmosphere was incredibly peaceful.
Today’s menu consisted of vegetable soup seasoned with salt, black bread, and dried meat. It was a simple meal, but the wonderful scenery made it taste all the better.
Best of all, there was no one nagging me about proper table manners. The fresh air and the food were fantastic. It was a truly wonderful sense of liberation.
Our escorts were an adventurer party called Forest Bird, quite well-known in the Gartner Earldom and its surrounding areas. Their vanguard consisted of two warriors, Robin and Fitz. Then there was Monica, who excelled with a knife and a bow. And finally, Lucian, who could handle both healing and offensive magic, rounding out a well-balanced composition. Even the ratio of men to women was exactly half and half.
Lucian had a somewhat gentle and languid vibe, and the rest of them seemed like genuinely good people too. They didn’t really give off the impression of rough-and-tumble adventurers who lived for violence, but I was certain they were still quite skilled.
“Come to think of it, why are you heading to Termwills, Young master?”
Robin, a young man with brown hair and freckles, suddenly asked. You too?
“I told you to drop the ‘Young master’ stuff. It really doesn’t suit me.”
“Sorry about that.”
“Hehehe.”
I really wished they would stop looking at me with those warm smiles that seemed to say, It’s so cute how he’s trying to act like a grown-up.
It’s an internal emotional issue for me. That’s not what’s going on at all.
“…Just Theodor is fine.”
Though there are people who abbreviate it to Theo.
“You’re going to live out there, right?”
“Are you aiming to strike it rich after all?”
Monica and Fitz chimed in with their own questions.
“No, it’s just that Termwills sounds like a fun place. Plus, I hate my family’s house.”
“I see…”
“Ah.”
At my reply, they nodded in understanding. After doing so, they each seemed to sink deep into their own thoughts.
Well, they were adventurers. Everyone had their own reasons for choosing this lifestyle, so maybe my words hit close to home or gave them something to think about. In any case, I really appreciated the fact that they didn’t look down on me and assume it was just some noble’s idle hobby.
I was the one who chose Forest Bird as our travel companions. Several adventurer groups had applied for the job, but I selected them out of the bunch. I asked them why they took the request, and I liked their answer.
They said, “What could be better than getting paid to head to Termwills?” It was a very adventurer-like reason.
Apparently, after escorting us there, they planned to dive into the labyrinth themselves.
I had fully anticipated the possibility of unwittingly hiring assassins sent by Kathryn. While Forest Bird’s motive might have seemed completely frivolous at a glance, that very reason made them seem the safest. More than anything, I could sympathize with them.
My own feelings towards Termwills were perhaps quite close to what these adventurers felt towards the Boundary City. We were similar in the sense that we were all deeply attached to that city and harbored dreams and hopes for it.
Personally, I wasn’t too fond of my life back in Japan either.
Perhaps because society was so mature and fully developed. It was hard to live, but also hard to die… Thinking back on that suffocating sense of stagnation honestly made it hard to breathe.
I refused to live the rest of my life cowering in fear like I had up until now. I also couldn’t bear the thought of having my life snatched away so suddenly and unreasonably, like how my previous life had ended. I was going to live by my own strength, without shrinking back from anyone.
The journey was proceeding relatively smoothly. With escorts present, weak monsters kept their distance, and we avoided being needlessly harassed or targeted just because kids were traveling on their own.
Leaving our surroundings to Forest Bird, I spent the trip practicing and experimenting with my magic to my heart’s content, while also taking the time to review and prepare myself for this world.
I scoured the books I had brought from my family home, constantly cross-referencing the information I had seen, heard, and learned in my life as Theodor with the knowledge Kagehisa had gained of this world through BFO.
That said, there were no major discrepancies or gaps between reality and the game. There didn’t seem to be any issues regarding magic either. For me, as long as I could skillfully handle Mana Circulation, the core skill of a Battle Mage, I could just wing the rest for the most part.
I didn’t know how other mages in this world operated, but at least in my case, I could wield magic with the exact same sensation as in BFO. My body literally remembered how to perform the circulation process.
Back in the VRMMO era, activating martial arts or magic as a skill would cause your avatar to move automatically, but even then, the VR machine provided solid sensory feedback.
The minute steps of martial arts techniques, the contents of chants, and the sensation of mana manipulation and control—I had memorized all of it through endless repetition. In PvP, relying on the auto-assist meant you couldn’t make fine adjustments or improvise, leaving you as easy prey against certain opponents. Stepping away from the auto-assist and manually controlling your skills and magic was the bare minimum required to even stand in the competitive arena.
“Theodor-sama.”
While I was playing around by deploying a tiny Magic Circle on my fingertip, Grace tilted her head and called out to me.
“Hmm? What is it?”
“I am not overly familiar with the intricacies of magic, but…”
“Yeah?”
“I have heard that drawing a Magic Circle is an incredibly advanced technique.”
Ah… is that right? I can cast with normal chants too, but doing that in combat comes with several major drawbacks. The biggest issue is that if you stumble over your words, you fumble the spell.
On the other hand, Chantless Casting generally lowers the spell’s power. It’s only really practical for basic spells… meaning the 1st through 3rd tiers. If you try to cast intermediate spells—tiers 4 through 6—chantless, the activation speed actually slows down.
To overcome these issues, a technique was developed where one draws a Magic Circle with mana to construct the spell formula. It’s faster than chanting and guarantees the spell’s completion without fail.
It has the slight demerit of increasing the mana cost of the spell, but the benefits far outweigh it. In BFO, you could acquire it as a skill… and it was so convenient that basically every magic class user learned it. The only exceptions were players who only used magic for crafting or those who were dedicated roleplayers that found chanting romantic.
“…W-Well, those who can use it just can, I guess? I’ve never really struggled with it.”
“Is that so? Your talent for magic must surely be a heaven-sent gift, Theodor-sama.”
When I answered with a returning smile, Grace looked just as happy as if it were her own accomplishment.
Well, if asked whether it’s a heaven-sent gift, I can only really answer ‘yes.’
While I was flashing her a vague smile, the carriage suddenly ground to a halt.
“T-Theodor-san! It’s a disaster!”
Lucian, who was sitting in the driver’s seat, frantically called out to me. Suspicious, I peeked out the carriage window.
The situation was glaringly obvious without needing any explanation. From further down the highway, deer, monkeys, wolves, and all sorts of animals were fleeing in our direction.
The fact that even goblins and kobolds were mixed into the stampede, running with desperate looks on their faces, made things highly alarming. It truly was a disaster. Swallowed up by the herd of animals, our horses neighed in terror, utterly paralyzed.
After assessing the situation, I immediately began preparations to cast the 4th tier intermediate Light spell, Life Detection. A radiant Magic Circle expanded at my feet, constructing the spell formula.
The spell made the aura of living beings visible to the naked eye. The color of the aura differed broadly based on the category of the creature, such as plants, mammals, insects, reptiles, or fish. Basically, the brighter the glow, the stronger the individual. Naturally, it was useless against undead.
Now then. Let’s see what we have here.
…Purple light. Insect-type monsters, then. Every time the purple lights pounced on an animal’s silhouette, a red glow would extinguish. There were so many overlapping lights that it was hard to make out their individual outlines, but—they looked like ants the size of large dogs.
A swarm of Killer Ants. They had a tendency to spawn in massive numbers due to certain factors and cause widespread devastation… and they were definitely heading this way. I really wished these wild animals hadn’t trained them right toward us.
“…That’s a swarm of Killer Ants.”
“A-Ants?! An entire swarm of them?!”
“W-We should run too!”
Lucian was panicking, and the rest of them seemed like they were about to bolt as well. But even if we tried to run, we were bound to be overtaken in this situation.
For now, no matter what we end up doing, I need to make sure Grace can defend herself.
“Grace. Your ring.”
“Yes, Theodor-sama.”
Biting my lip to draw blood, I pressed my mouth against the ring she held out to me.
“—Constraint Release.”
◆◆◆◆◆
“—Here I come.”
With that declaration, Grace stepped forward. The sheer force of that single step made the ground erupt beneath her.
Shooting forward almost parallel to the highway with the momentum of a bullet, she swung her axe, slicing an ant completely in half at the torso and sending its body flying high into the air.
Contrasted with Grace’s slender figure, it was quite a surreal sight to behold.
Grace’s fighting style was pure and simple: she pushed through with brute force, relying entirely on her astronomical physical strength.
The trajectory of her swings was completely linear and easy to read, but her initial acceleration was universally absurd. If someone tried to block her head-on, whether with a weapon or a shield, they would undoubtedly be crushed right along with it.
She crushed an ant’s head under her foot and effortlessly ripped off another’s head with a single hand. Every time she swung, threw, and brandished the axes in both her hands, ants were literally pulverized.
And to think her strength would be even more amplified if it were nighttime or if we were indoors… truly frightening. She’s a prime example of how pure, monstrous strength is a terrifying threat all on its own.
Her crimson eyes, the color of fresh blood, narrowed.
As Grace swung her axes to her heart’s content, a pair of fangs peeked through her lips—and she even wore a smile. The Gartner household had forced her to endure quite a lot of stress, and since her opponents were just ants, she could run totally wild today.
Realistically, I don’t need to worry about her against these ants. We decided to watch each other’s backs, but honestly, these enemies aren’t even much of a threat.
As for me, this is technically my first real battle, so I need to observe how things play out. I won’t let my guard down.
I readied my magic staff, which was taller than I was, and scooped up an approaching ant with it, launching it into the air. At the same time, I deployed my magic. I fired a Fireball at the airborne ant. In an instant, its entire body was engulfed in flames, leaving nothing behind but cinders.
When I swung my staff, a tornado spell gathered around it and swept away the approaching column of ants, completely wiping out everything within my attack range.
Having created some distance, I slammed the butt of my staff into the ground. A magic circle expanded from my feet, and countless earthen spears erupted from the earth a short distance away, skewering a whole swarm of ants.
“…This is a bit of overkill for just ants,” I muttered.
And I was only using beginner-level spells that required no charging time.
Drawing my staff like a sword, I unleashed blades of wind that sliced through the ant swarm at will.
The main selling point of a Battle Mage is the ability to cast magic while engaged in close-quarters combat, utilizing staff techniques and martial arts.
Acquiring the exclusive skill “Mana Circulation” and activating it provides two main benefits: strengthening one’s physical abilities and drastically increasing the firepower of magic.
However—the magic power refined within the body through circulation is used to increase firepower at the cost of sacrificing attack range. Therefore, it’s necessary to also train in the martial arts unlocked by the physical enhancement, refining one’s close-quarters combat skills alongside their magic.
High firepower and paper-thin armor. It’s definitely a peaky class that demands high player skill.
While you can play as a bombardier like a normal magic class, you can’t activate circulation in that case. In a straight-up shootout, other magic classes that have learned skills for long-range combat would undoubtedly come out on top.
Even so… ants feel just right for a warm-up.
They attack fearlessly, relying purely on numbers, but that’s all they have going for them. They don’t coordinate their attacks in any particular way, so as long as you have the firepower to take them down as soon as they get close, they’re actually rather easy to fight.
“Monica! One slipped past on your side!”
“I’m on it!” Monica shouted back.
The arrow Monica nocked flew through the air, leaving a trail of pale blue light, and pierced right through the ant’s head. It was a martial art.
The members of Forest Bird were also skillfully utilizing the defense barrier, destroying the ants one by one as their movements grew sluggish while trying to force their way inside. At this rate, we should be able to repel them before long without much of a struggle.
◆◆◆◆◆
“I-It’s finally over…”
The swarm of ants pouring out of the forest became sparse, then sporadic, until finally, only one remained.
As they thrust a longsword into its head to stop it from moving, the members of Forest Bird collapsed onto the ground.
Grace and I still had energy to spare.
I was reinforced by my circulation, and I also had a means of converting magic power into stamina. As long as my magic power didn’t run out, neither would my stamina. Besides, the spells I had been using for my attacks weren’t of a particularly high tier.
The strategy we came up with was simple and straightforward. Grace and I would go out front and crush the ants, while Forest Bird protected the horses by dealing with any ants that slipped past us to the sides and reached the barrier. That was it.
It would be a huge problem if we managed to survive, but the horses got eaten. We wanted to avoid any hindrances to our future journey.
That’s why I used the 7th Tier Light Magic, Defense Field—a spell that creates a hemispherical defensive barrier—to hinder the movements of the approaching ants, while we split into offense and defense to deal with them.
If we base things on the background lore inferred from conversations with NPCs in BFO… being able to use around 6th Tier magic would be enough to be called a first-rate magician. Skipping past that to the 7th Tier is about halfway between intermediate and advanced magic, and there are very few people who can use it. The reason I used it was simply to demonstrate my abilities so that everyone would agree to let me take the offensive role.
Exposing my power does make me stand out in a bad way, but I’ve already decided that I’d rather fight my way through than hold back and run away. Even if it’s a swarm, there’s no reason to turn my back on mere Killer Ants.
“Today… I saw a lot of unbelievable things…”
“I guess geniuses really do exist, huh…”
…I suppose I’ll just have to accept being looked at with those kinds of eyes.
“Theodor-sama,” Grace called out to me.
I turned to look at her.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
“Yeah, you too,” I replied.
I took her hand and touched her ring, restoring its restrictions. Grace swayed slightly. I instinctively supported her body.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“—Yes. Since our opponents were just ants, I didn’t get too intoxicated by the blood, so I managed to avoid showing you an unsightly appearance. I don’t feel hungry, either.”
Looking just a little bashful, Grace nodded, pressed a hand to her chest, and let out a deep breath.
…Apparently, when she’s released from the ring’s restrictions, Grace gets “intoxicated” by the act of fighting and the smell of living blood. She was smiling a bit during the battle today, too, so she must have been leaning slightly toward her vampire side.
Grace calls this “shameful” and doesn’t seem to like it herself, though.
Her bloodlust as a Dhampir can be suppressed with the cursed tool like this, but tilting her toward her human side using the curse apparently converts those urges directly into human sensations—namely, hunger.
I carefully observed Grace. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, but that was probably just from moving around so much. The axe she had been swinging around so effortlessly just moments ago now looked heavy in her hands.
…Since she didn’t seem to have any real injuries and her hunger wasn’t too severe, I suppose Grace was fine. In that case, the only thing left to do was—
“I guess we’ll be camping out tonight,” I said, looking up at the sky. It didn’t look like it was going to rain, which was a relief.
“Huh? If we hurry, we might just be able to reach the next town—”
There was a reason we couldn’t do that. I turned to them and spoke.
“Once we’ve rested… let’s get to stripping these materials, shall we?”
Behind me lay a mountain of ant corpses.
Monsters store magic power in specific parts of their bodies, which can be processed into materials or sold for money.
In other words—we have to collect these Killer Ant mandibles, right?
Don’t worry. We’ll split the profits evenly. You can rest assured on that front.
Though their smiles were strained, they nodded, looking somewhat pleased. Considering there wasn’t a single objection, they really were adventurers through and through.
◆◆◆◆◆
We somehow managed to finish collecting the mandibles before sunset, and then we burned the ant corpses to clean up.
During the night, the probability of encountering relatively nasty monsters like Wisps and Ghosts increases, so we decided it would be better to set up a barrier and wait until morning to depart rather than trying to push through.
We really didn’t want to camp out right where we had just fought a battle, so we traveled a little further down the road and set up camp in an open area.
However, since the barrier was ineffective against bandits and the like, we couldn’t just go without posting a watch.
Since today was a special case, Grace and I, who still had plenty of stamina to spare, offered to take the first watch and let them rest first.
We could just relax in the carriage reading and experimenting during the day anyway, so this much wasn’t a problem.
Or rather, I personally wanted to take a good look at the condition of my magic staff tonight. It had made a rather nasty sound during the battle…
“Hmm.”
Looking at the staff, I could see tiny cracks running along it. It seemed it couldn’t handle the overload of the circulated magic power.
…This happened after just one real battle. I suppose this means even a brand-new, makeshift staff just won’t cut it.
“Is something wrong?” Grace asked, tilting her head as I held the staff up to the light of the campfire and groaned.
“Look at this,” I said.
“…It’s cracked. This was supposed to be brand new, wasn’t it?”
“It seems the staff couldn’t handle the strain.”
Even so, it was one of the better ones we could get our hands on right away in the Earl’s territory.
I’d probably need to buy a new one, but if it’s of similar quality, it wouldn’t be strange for it to shatter in a single hit if I fired off an intermediate or advanced spell while using Circulation.
I could fight bare-handed, but my main focus was originally on staff-based skills… I really, really want a better staff.
“It will be fine. I’m sure you’ll be able to find a good one in Termwills,” Grace reassured me.
“Yeah. I hope so.”
“I’ll be with you, too. So please don’t push yourself too hard until then.”
“…What about you, Grace? Are you sure you’re okay with releasing the restrictions so frequently? You better not be hiding any ailments out of consideration for me, alright?”
“You really have no need to worry about that. The only burden it places on me is the backlash when I put it back on, and even if the backlash is severe, it’s only temporary and doesn’t drag on for long. As long as I eat normally, my hunger and other symptoms will go away.”
Grace tilted her head slightly and continued.
“Today… I suppose I just felt a little restless, maybe?”
“Restless?”
“No, it’s already subsided. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling, so I think I’ll be fine. I’ve been dealing with this constitution for a long time, after all.”
Hmm… I guess I’ll just have to keep an eye on how she’s doing from here on out.
As I watched her striking profile illuminated by the flickering flames, she shot me a seemingly happy smile.
◆◆◆◆◆
“Nnn…”
When I woke up, Grace was nowhere to be seen. Outside the carriage, the sky was just beginning to lighten.
Let’s see. We swapped guard duty with Forest Bird yesterday, and we should have gone to sleep in the carriage together, but…
I slipped out of the carriage and walked over to the campfire, where I found Robin poking at the embers with a stick.
“Oh. Morning,” Robin greeted me.
“Yeah, morning. Have you seen Grace? She’s not around,” I asked.
“Hmm? She went for a walk that way with Lucian and Monica. I’m on guard duty, so I have to stay here, though.”
“Ah, got it. Thanks.”
I was a little worried about how Grace was doing. It had been a while since she had released the ring’s restrictions, so I wanted to ask her if she was feeling alright now that a night had passed.
And also… considering the ring’s restrictions were back on, I didn’t want her wandering too far off in a place where monsters might appear.
As I walked in the direction Robin had pointed out from our campsite, the sound of flowing water grew louder. There was a river flowing nearby.
I skirted around some bushes and saw the river. As I walked along, scanning the area for Grace, I turned around and something caught on my head.
“Hm?”
I took it in my hands and looked at it. It was… a black piece of clothing. For some reason, the shape of these puff sleeves looked… very familiar, but…
A morning stroll with only the women. A river flowing nearby. And clothes hung on a tree branch.
Various pieces started clicking together in my head. Why had they come out here for a walk without clearly stating their purpose? The reason was obvious, wasn’t it?
…Time to retreat.
Just as I hung Grace’s apron dress back on the tree branch and was about to leave.
“Ah—”
“Eh—”
From beyond the bushes growing thick along the riverbank, Grace casually stepped into view and let out a small voice. We instinctively froze, staring at each other.
Her long, beautiful blonde hair clung to her dripping wet, naked body.
Her slender, supple limbs and snow-white skin, illuminated by the morning light and the sparkling surface of the river, possessed a beauty akin to a work of art.
It seemed Grace… was the type to look surprisingly slender in her clothes. She usually wore a stiff maid outfit that didn’t show much skin, so seeing her like this, she was surprisingly—
“A-Ah, sorry!”
Now wasn’t the time to be analyzing her! I hurriedly averted my face and squeezed my eyes shut. I think it was only for a split second, but the image was already burned vividly into the back of my eyelids.
Those pure white twin peaks. The gentle curves from her navel to her waist… Ah, no, stop thinking about it.
My head was spinning. This wasn’t the kind of sight you should be seeing first thing in the morning under the sunlight. It was a shock on par with taking a hammer to the head.
“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I’ll leave right now.”
I heard the rustling of branches. She was probably grabbing her clothes.
“N-No. There’s no need to apologize so much… Well, if it had been anyone else, I think I would have hated it, but… U-Um. T-That’s right. We’ve seen each other naked before, haven’t we?”
…I have absolutely no memory of that. Besides, that was from back when we were much, much younger. Seeing her now is a problem. A huge problem.
Anyway, I need to get out of here right now—
“Ah, Grace, it was caught on a branch on the way. I finally managed to grab it,” a voice called out.
From another direction, Lucian and Monica’s voices, along with the sound of splashing water, drew closer. Judging by the situation, those two had probably been bathing just like Grace.
“Oh, Theodor,” Monica said.
“Oh my,” Lucian chimed in.
“No, I’m sorry…”
I had no choice but to cover my face and look down.
“It’s fine. You’re standing right out in the open, so it doesn’t seem like you were peeping, and we were being careless, too.”
“But make sure you keep your head down and your eyes closed, okay?”
Monica and Lucian spoke. I thought I was going to be sentenced to death on the spot, but perhaps they were letting me off the hook because of my age. If it had been Kagehisa, he probably would have been dead.
Wait… if they were saying that, why were they walking closer?
…Ah, their clothes are over here.
“Well, you see, we had ant fluids and stuff on us, so we really wanted to wash it all off. We figured it would be fine since the men were sleeping and only one person was on watch. We really should have told someone where we were going and what we were doing, though.”
“But maybe it would have been safer from monsters and peeping toms if we had just asked Theodor to stand guard for us from the start?”
“Should we just keep bathing for a little while longer, then?”
“I suppose we could. Lucian’s hair tie got washed away, so we stopped halfway through.”
…No, please spare me. I know I was in the wrong.
—Or so I thought, but since I was the one at fault in the end, I obviously had no right to refuse.
Listening to their joyful voices behind me, I obediently stood guard for them until they finished bathing.