Chapter 23: Naïve Father (3)

It seemed that Father was very angry with Duke Joachim’s behavior, but it didn’t seem that he intend to keep us in Sarham.

The next day, Father ordered the knights and attendants to prepare for the expedition and to get the carriages ready.

Although he cursed and yelled Duke Joachim’s name, it didn’t seem like he didn’t want to send us to Merohim. After all, if we didn’t depart, Archmage Joachim Edelweiss would have teleported here and taken us there.

Nevertheless, Father still had his reservations. Despite everything being ready, he insisted on departing on the second day, which was Duke Joachim’s given deadline. 

In fact, regardless of my father’s mood, I agreed with him on that.

The distance from the south to the north was considerable, so it would take at least a few days to ride the carriage to Merohim. Furthermore, there were no wizards in Kraus who could open teleportation gates. 

Even going to a place where Joachim could open the gate would take some time, and since Elena had been going out frequently lately, it was obvious that leaving right away would be a burden on her stamina.

Yesterday, when we walked around Sarham’s downtown together, Elena couldn’t resist sleep and leaned on me while we were on our way back, even though it hadn’t been that long since we left. So, she needed some time to rest for at least a day.

The carriage we were going to use to go to Merohim was not our family’s carriage, but the one that Elena had brought, which belonged to Edelweiss. I glanced at it as I passed by, and it reminded me of a modern armored vehicle with all sorts of magic attached to it.

According to Elena, there was also a magic spell that adjusted the temperature inside the carriage to suit the surrounding environment and maintained optimal conditions. There was also a protective magic spell to prevent shocks from the outside.

In addition to that, there was even a magic spell that made it impossible to feel any discomfort from the movement and shaking of the carriage.

“They say that if your head is bad, your body suffers, so magic seems really convenient.”

If I had known it would be like this, I would have been a wizard too. Why did I have to reincarnate as a child of a warrior family?

I didn’t know in terms of power, but there was no doubt that magic was a technology that made life much easier. I asked Elena just in case if I had any talent for that, and as a result, I found out that I had no talent for magic. Well, in the first place, it was said that knights couldn’t handle magic.

The path that a knight walked and the path that a magician walked might lead to the same ‘end,’ but they were like parallel lines that couldn’t meet. A knight couldn’t achieve the feats that a magician can with magic, and similarly, a magician couldn’t follow the path of a knight.

Come to think of it, in the original work, some characters used divine power and aura simultaneously, but there were no characters who used magic and aura together.

Isn’t this romance fantasy setting too restrictive? 

I read it for that reason though.

In the end, I had to give up my dream of becoming a magic swordsman that I had been dreaming of since childhood. Alphonse, who had been quietly listening to our conversation, showed a troubled expression when he heard that the path of magic and the path of a knight were mutually exclusive.

No matter how much he thought about it, Alphonse’s talent was for swordsmanship. 

Alphonse in the original story was an excellent knight, and in reality, Alphonse had a talent for the sword, befitting a man from the Kraus family.

That said, I wouldn’t stop Alphonse from learning magic if he wanted to, but I didn’t have to worry about it as Alphonse quickly put down his attachment to magic.

“It’s been a long time since I haven’t done anything like this.”

Even I, who always kept my body moving, was enjoying a much-needed break today, putting aside both training and studying.

Since becoming Damian, I had never put down my sword for a day, but now that I had, I felt a sense of liberation and an indescribable emptiness.

While my body felt more relaxed than ever before, my mind was not. 

I wondered if moving even a little bit would have been better. With that thought, I left my room.

I wasn’t going to the training grounds to wield my sword. 

I was simply walking to clear my head so that I wouldn’t be overwhelmed by unnecessary thoughts if I just sat still.

A walk around the main building of the Castle was enough to clear my mind. As I finished my walk and was about to return to my room, a single bright light caught my eye.

Looking up, I saw Elena standing on the balcony, gazing at the night sky. Her pure white hair seemed to emit its own light in the darkness.

I had heard that she went to bed early to prepare for the next day, but had she woken up in the middle of the night? 

She stood on the balcony in her nightgown, looking vulnerable. I couldn’t help but gaze at her.

“Ele…”

I was about to call out her name but stopped myself.

Her appearance as she looked up at the night sky was like a star in a different world, one that was far from where I was.

I didn’t want to ruin her moment by interrupting her with meaningless words, so I turned and walked away without saying anything.

However, contrary to my thoughts, I stopped my feet from returning to the room because of her voice calling my name from above.

“Why are you just staring at me without saying a word, Damian?”

Elena’s words sounded like she was questioning why I wasn’t talking, and I didn’t know what to say in response. I couldn’t just burst out and tell her my impressions from that moment, nor could I criticize her beautiful face with embarrassment.

However, Elena seemed to think that her words did not reach me because of the distance, so she started to climb the railing, perhaps to jump and reach me. 

I was surprised at her actions, so I quickly summoned my inner strength and stood up.

I knew better than anyone else that Elena was an excellent magician. A genius magician who had climbed to the 5th rank Tiphereth at the age of 16, there would be no one else in magical history like her except Richard Ertuwen.

So it would have been easier for her to jump down from the 3rd floor. But perhaps it was because of the moonlight, the airy pajamas she was wearing, or the atmosphere that causes anxiety, I couldn’t think that way at all.

And before I could realize that fact, my body moved first.

With just one leap, I reached the railing where Elena was standing and hurriedly took her in my arms, and came down to the balcony.

As soon as the flat floor touched my feet, my heart, which had been beating fast, began to calm down. As a result, the thought of scolding Elena for climbing the railing started to fade away from my head.

I felt a little embarrassed about my unnecessary actions, but I told myself that it was because I was worried about her, so I didn’t need to feel ashamed and tried to calm my face, which was getting hot.

“Damian…”

I heard a small muttering sound from within my arms. It wasn’t Elena’s usual voice that usually stuttered and was always filled with shyness. 

Her breath was long and drawn out, and she had a small smile on her face that made her look calm, to the point where I wondered if it was really Elena that I had seen before.

I tried to put Elena out of my arms, but she was holding onto my clothes, so I had to sit on the railing and hold her until she let go.

The girl held in my arms was so light that it seemed like she would fly away somewhere. How many minutes did I have like that? Elena loosened her grip on me and I slowly lowered her to the floor as well.

Finally, we were able to face each other. Elena, who met my eyes, asked me as if she had been waiting:

“Why did you try to leave without saying anything?”

I couldn’t avoid this question either.

“I thought you were concentrating on looking at the stars, so I didn’t want to disturb you.”

When I answered like that, she didn’t ask me any more questions. Instead, she came closer to me and sat on the railing as I did.

To others, it might have looked dangerous, but a magician like Elena could levitate her body even if she fell. I again realized that I didn’t have to come up here in the first place.

However, despite knowing that fact, I held onto her waist to prevent her from falling backward.

Despite knowing it in my head, I couldn’t shake off the thought that she could get hurt if she fell here. Elena, who seemed to like the fact that I was supporting her, tried to tease me by acting like she was about to fall, and even though I knew her intentions, I couldn’t help but instinctively put strength into my arm that supported her back.

“It’s dangerous, Elena. What if I let go?”

“Hehe… You won’t do that.”

That might be true, but I felt like my lifespan was decreasing because of her actions.

Elena was different from usual. It wasn’t like she had changed as a person, but she seemed to be more relaxed and was behaving according to her feelings. Maybe… that’s why… I felt closer to her than usual.

Leaning on my arm, she looked up at the sky again and, holding the starlight in her eyes, spoke to me.

“Damian, you know what? The stars in the night sky of Merohim and Sarham are the same, but they are slightly different from each other.”

I knew that. Because the planet we lived on was spherical, there were slight differences in the constellations and the stars one saw depending on where one stood.

But when Elena spoke like this, it seemed like she was missing the sky of Merohim so much that I couldn’t look at the stars in the sky straight like she did.

However, this thought was washed away by Elena’s following words.

“So, when I go to Merohim, I’ll tell you everything about that Damian. Just like what you did for me here, I also want to tell you about the sky of Merohim, the place I love.”

After saying that, Elena came down from the railing and turned her back on me, and went into the room.

“Well… I guess I should rest now… Goodnight, Damian.”

Although today, there was a lot less distance between us, her words just now appeared as if Elena felt shy… just like usual, and as if to validate that claim, her ears turned red, which were clearly visible to my sharp eyes in the moonlight.

I waved my hand slightly towards Elena who lay on the bed and jumped down from the balcony, closing the door behind me.

As soon as I came back to my room, I looked at the full-length mirror in my room. The mirror was sparkling in the moonlight coming through the window, and my reflection lying on the bed was also fully reflected in the mirror because of its location.

After seeing my face in the mirror, I turned my head and covered my face with the blanket.

My face, which I saw in the mirror was also red, just like Elena’s a moment ago.

***

The next morning:

A man descended from the sky in front of Lord Kraus’ castle, as the Kraus family was preparing to depart for Merohim. Despite his ability to perform such a feat within Kraus’ territory, he gazed at Count Kraus – who was seeing off his son – with a composed expression that conveyed indifference, before speaking.

“As expected, I knew you would let them depart on this day.”

“You… you bastard!!”

“If it’s your personality, I don’t think there’s any way to start early. You really don’t go beyond expectations.”

“Hey! Joachim!! If you’re coming, you should tell early!!”

“It’s noisy, Arthur. I’m grateful that you prepared even the knights, but I came because I thought it would be better to take them myself. Are there any complaints?”

“You were just trying to annoy me!”

“You know me well.”

The man – Joachim – landed on top of the carriage that belong to the Edelweiss family, and tapped the wand he was holding in his hand once on the wagon, and with just a single gesture, the ‘teleportation’ spell, which moves objects to designated coordinates, activated swiftly.

Arthur, who had achieved transcendence, was able to sense the shaking of the space and could cut the spell even though he was not a magician, but he did not draw his sword because he knew very well that the carriage would not be safe if he did so.

And the current teleportation was also something Joachim did because he knew very well that Arthur would not be able to pull out his sword. That was why Joachim did it on purpose to bully Arthur.

“Then I’ll contact you later. Goodbye.”

With the white light surrounding the wagon, Joachim and the wagon disappeared without a trace, like they weren’t there in the first place.

By the time the remaining mana from Joachim’s spell completely dispersed in the air, Arthur laughed out loud and spoke to his son.

“Didn’t I tell you? That guy would come out of nowhere in the morning and do something like this before disappearing. The bet was my victory, my son”

In response to Arthur’s words, the door of the castle opened, revealing Damian and Elena, who should not have been there with Arthur.

“I should have realized I would lose when Father said that Duke was Father’s old friend…” 

Saying that with a somewhat regretful voice, Damian then turned to Elena. 

“And Elena, you don’t have to be embarrassed… But if you still feel that way… Just think of Duke as my father, not yours.”

Elena, with her face reddening for a completely different reason than yesterday, could not answer as she hid her embarrassed face with both of her hands.

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