episode_0004

Arthur’s banishment forced Alice to return home.

Alice entered the room and lay down on the bed with her face buried in the pillow.

‘Uh… Surely Arthur won’t keep refusing to see me?’

Alice was worried that she and Arthur would fall out. Normally, she would have tried to reconcile right away by any means necessary, but in this case, she thought it was her fault, so she decided to listen quietly.

‘Haa~ I want to see Arthur’s face.’

From the beginning of her earliest memories, Alice had always lived with Arthur. And she was very happy about that fact. Because she was the only one who knew all about Arthur’s cute appearance that no one else knew. His pretty appearance that could be mistaken for a girl by someone who didn’t know him, his considerate personality that made her think he was sent down by a goddess herself, and his courageous appearance that protected me.

Come to think of it, I fell in love at first sight when I was younger than I am now.

At first I thought it was just a ‘favor’ as a family, but now I know for sure.

The fact that he had a romantic interest in Arthur.

That’s why I thought Arthur was going to die.

I was so sad that I thought my heart was going to break apart.

Because I said I wanted to go fishing for no reason, because I couldn’t run away quickly, because I couldn’t protect Arthur from being killed by the wolf.

What if Arthur died because of me? I don’t even want to imagine it. Because I can’t live a single day without Arthur.

When Arthur slapped my hand away from his cheek earlier, I thought my heart stopped.

He never resisted when I touched his face with both hands, but he made such a cold face and pushed my hand away, telling me to leave. It was the first time I saw him like that.

Arthur’s sudden change in attitude made me feel like crying, so I said something vague and quickly left the house.

“How can I return to the original Arthur..?”

Hilia asked Arthur for time, but Alice didn’t even want to wait for that time.

What should I do to make Arthur happy? Should I sneak up next to him and give him a surprise kiss? No! My dad said that’s something you can do when you grow up!

Hmm… What can I do for you? Yes! Arthur protected me, so this time I will protect you!

But I don’t know how to fight… Should I ask my mom?

The thought didn’t last long, and Aris went straight to the living room to find Millia.

“Mom!!!”

“Huh? What’s wrong, Alice?”

“Teach me how to fight!”

“Who’s bothering you these days?”

“That’s not it! From now on, I will become strong enough to protect Arthur.”

“Oh my. This is where the kid shows his feminine side. So did he confess?”

“That… That, I haven’t done it yet. No!! Teach me how to fight faster than that, Mom!”

Milia smiled at the sight of the innocent Alice.

“Hmm… It feels a little early, but is that okay..? But even though my mom was a silver-clad adventurer, there’s someone who seems like they can teach her better than me. What do you think?”

“Huh! Alright! Who is it? Is it dad?”

“Jade..? No, I’m talking about the neighbor, Hillia. She’s the only gold-plated adventurer in the village. And your father was so weak that I had to protect him all the time. Just like you are now.”

“Mom too?! How did you confess? Huh?”

“Why? Are you trying to listen and follow along? I won’t tell you, right? Daughter, love is something you have to win for yourself.”

“Profit! I hate you, Mom! I’m going to Hilia!!”

Aris shouted at Millia and ran out of the house, heading towards Hilia’s house.

dripping.

“Hilia! It’s Aris, please open the door!”

“Come in first. And you know I can’t meet Arthur, right?”

“Don’t worry! This time it’s for a different reason!”

* * *

“So you want me to tell you about the fight?”

“Yes! I want to protect Arthur too, and I heard that Hilia is the strongest in our village.”

Hilia began to think seriously.

Hmm… What should I do with this? Since I won’t be able to protect Arthur later when I die, should I make Alice stronger and have her protect him instead?

Yeah, since when did I start thinking about it? I don’t have much time left anyway, so I can trust and leave Arthur to someone like Alice.

If I want to make Alice as strong as I want, I’ll have to start working hard from now on…?

“Ahem… Aris? I will accept you as my disciple, so from now on, call me Master, not Hilia.”

“Yes! Master!”

Alice looked at Hilda with bright eyes.

“Then the first homework I’ll give you is…”

“Right…?”

“Run 100 laps around the yard in front of your house.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t pretend not to hear and go! Arthur, you don’t want to guard?”

“Ah…no…I’ll come back…Teacher…”

With a disappointed expression, Alice went for a run.

* * *

“Hehe… Heuk… Gah… Master… I’m done..!”

“Really? Then come here, disciple.”

‘Are you finally teaching me how to fight?’

“See here on my shoulder? Rub it there.”

“Huh? Master? What does this have to do with getting stronger-”

bean!

“How can this be from a teacher as great as heaven! If you are a disciple, you should do what the teacher tells you to do and stop what the teacher tells you to stop!”

“Ugh…”

Alice, who had been hit with a nuclear bomb, groaned while touching the area she had been hit with both hands.

“Don’t pretend to be sick and start quickly, disciple.”

“Yes, Master. Sniff.”

“Are you crying? If you cry, you’ll get hit with a honey chestnut again?”

“Eek!!! Ah, I didn’t cry!!”

Hilda thought. From today on, I should work hard and use her a little, of course.

* * *

A year has passed.

As usual, Alice was at her master’s house, training to get rid of the dust in the house.

I think I can start teaching you little by little.

“Disciple, I have something to tell you, so come out into the yard.”

At Hilda’s voice, Alice quickly ran into the yard.

“Disciple, how much do you know about Mana?”

Mana? I’m sure I heard that somewhere…?

“Ah! The power that wizards use!”

“That’s true, but what I’m going to teach you is how to use a warrior’s mana. It’s very different from the magic that is expressed through an equivalent exchange through a star contract.”

“…?”

“Was it too difficult? Anyway, you don’t need to know magic, so I’ll teach you the theory first. What do you think is the most important thing to become stronger?”

What’s important to become strong.

Since it still felt so far away to Alice, she had no choice but to find the answer in the stories she had heard from her mother about her days as an adventurer.

“Um… When you receive a blessing, you receive a good blessing..?”

The correct answer that Alice decided was a blessing.

I’ve heard from my mother that most skilled adventurers have good blessings.

But Hilda’s thoughts seemed different, as she looked slightly disappointed.

“Ding! That’s not the right answer. Of course, if you receive a good blessing, you can easily become stronger than others. However, the truly strong do not rely on blessings, but train their mana. Of course, that doesn’t mean blessings are meaningless… Anyway, among the people I know, there were two people who were stronger than me without receiving blessings.”

“Who is that?”

“One of them was a warrior. At first, I couldn’t believe it either. It was the first time I learned that a human could become so strong with just pure mana.”

Hilda naturally recalled her days at the warrior party, but realized that she had made a mistake when Alice asked her the following question.

“But how do you know that, Master?”

“…I’ve seen that a few times while working as an adventurer, and since he’s such a famous person, I’ve heard stories about him here and there…”

Hilda, who had been vaguely vague, spoke while avoiding Alice’s eyes.

“Ahem.. Anyway, that’s not the important part. You’ll receive the blessing at 10, so you still have 2 years left, right? Since you don’t know what kind of blessing you’ll receive, it’s better to just train your mana.”

Even if Alice’s head had grown just a little, it wouldn’t have worked. But since she was still just a kid, the topic easily changed to curiosity about blessings.

“What blessings did you receive, Master?”

“I was blessed with fire. Thanks to that, my mana has fire properties and my resistance to fire is slightly higher?”

“Wow! I want to receive a good blessing too! I want to receive a blessing where lightning shoots out of my hand and I can fly in the sky!”

Hilda smiled slightly at Alice’s innocent idea of flying through the sky and shooting lightning, then told her the reality.

Because I wasn’t the type of person who liked to give false hope.

“…. Disciple, such a blessing does not exist.. And don’t expect too much. You might just receive a blessing like a slightly healthier body.”

“Oh… Is there such a blessing? I’m suddenly so worried…”

“I’ll make you strong enough that you don’t have to worry about that, so just train hard from now on. First, I’ll teach you how to strengthen your body-”

* * *

“Aris! Are you done with training?”

“Yeah, I just finished.”

As you can see from their conversation, Alice was able to reconcile quickly after Arthur’s banishment.

However, Arthur did not leave the village, perhaps because of the trauma, and spent most of his time at Hilda’s house reading or studying the books she brought while Alice was training.

“Arthur! What did you do today?”

“Huh? Today I read a book called ‘The Connection between Magic and Circles’. It was harder than last time, so it took me longer to read.”

“Ugh… This is already boring… Arthur really likes magic?”

“Yeah! Isn’t it so amazing? You can do anything you imagine with mana! Someday, I want to try using magic too-!”

“… But you know you shouldn’t use magic, right? Your teacher said it’s dangerous for you to use it because you have too little mana.”

“I know.. That’s what they say…It’s nice to just look at, if only I could see magic right before my eyes every day…”

‘Ah! It’s gloomy Arthur. He’s so cute!’

“Okay, Arthur, I’ll be going now! Tomorrow’s training is only in the morning, so let’s play together during the day hehe.”

“Okay! See you tomorrow, Alice. Bye!”

Every day was a happy day. But Alice had no idea.

That Arthur’s days of happiness were numbered.