episode_0013

Two days later.

Ellen’s condition has improved greatly.

In fact, it is a natural thing.

It was just that my mana heart was overloaded and I was running hot.

“Congratulations, Your Majesty.”

I set off a firecracker.

Ellin tilted her head as she watched the fireworks flying.

“… What?”

“You survived, right?”

“Don’t die from this.”

“I don’t know.”

Ellen furrowed her eyebrows slightly.

He prepared the meal skillfully and without any worries.

I’m quite satisfied with the chef’s skills as they’ve been improving recently.

Today, too, Elin took a long time to eat with her small mouth.

I wiped the sauce off the corner of my mouth with a napkin.

“I have a place to go today.”

“… Again?”

“Last time, you went out for tourism, right?”

“So where are you going this time?”

“Health checkup… Should I say that?”

Ellen’s eyebrow angle became a little sharper.

It was the first time I had felt unsure about Luke’s voice.

“Anyway, don’t worry, you’re not going to meet anyone suspicious.”

If you say that, don’t you know something more suspicious?

Elin finished her meal with that thought in mind.

* * * * *

“I will open a portal. If you let go, you may end up lost in another dimension, so please hold on tight.”

“… Yeah.”

Ellen held Luke’s hand tightly.

It was so strong that I wondered if it was really that strong.

I just meant to tell you to be careful.

Are you scared?

Well, it can’t hurt to be careful.

It’s true that if something goes wrong, you could end up lost in a dimension.

Woof-

My peripheral vision changed with a short sound.

The place we arrived at was a dark alley with no one there.

As we walk a little further, a square full of people appears.

“There are too many people.”

Ellen snuck up next to Luke’s leg.

“Please be patient, we’ll be there soon.”

“… Who?”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you.”

Just as I was about to say who I was going to meet today.

“Lukeuuuu!!”

I heard someone running towards me from a distance.

There was no need to confirm identity.

“Could you please come out a little more quietly?”

“Is that something you say to a senior you haven’t seen in a long time?”

“It hasn’t even been a week since we last saw each other.”

The name of the woman running with fluttering orange hair was Lanian.

He was the one who came to help uncover the truth behind the curse placed on Elin.

“I didn’t know I’d see it this quickly.”

“That’s right. I thought it would be a few years at the earliest.”

“I didn’t know you’d see me so late?”

Lanian blinked.

Luke blinked too.

“Huh?”

“Ah.”

The moment we realized that our thoughts were polar opposites.

Elin, who had been rolling her eyes, opened her mouth.

“Academy people?”

“How did you know?”

I was a little surprised.

How did you guess when you didn’t even say who it was?

“… My dark circles are worse than yours.”

Elin deduced the identity quite reasonably.

“Wow. Is this the youngest princess?”

Where did the wizard who was making so much noise just now go?

Lanian crouching down with his voice muffled.

“It’s so small… .”

The sparkling eyes contrasted with the dark circles under their eyes.

“Hello, Princess. My name is Lanian Rochefort. I am the tutor’s senior.”

“Senior… ?”

Ellen opened her mouth slightly and exclaimed in admiration.

The Luke I’ve seen so far has been great.

But how great is it that he is Luke’s senior?

It was a simple child’s thought.

“Oh my, oh my. How can you be so small and cute? Didn’t you say you were 12?”

“Yes.”

Lanian put his hands on his waist and made a stern expression.

“What are you doing as a tutor? You have to feed them well!”

“I’m trying to do that anyway.”

He nodded and gave a vague answer.

I think I tried to scold him.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t scary at all.

“… Teacher.”

Suddenly, Ellen hid behind Luke and grabbed his collar.

Surely it’s not like Lanian was scared just now.

I looked around.

Is it because of Lanian’s high tension?

There were many people looking this way.

“Let’s move. The princess has a hard time in crowded places.”

“Oh really? You should have said that before! Then let’s go quickly.”

Ranian took the lead, covering his mouth with one hand.

“I found a cafe with no people and a good atmosphere.”

Following Lanian’s guidance, Luke and Elin moved to the cafe.

* * * * *

“Look. The atmosphere is good, right?”

Lanian’s words were not a lie.

2nd floor cafe.

I guess it’s because time is time.

Or maybe that’s just how it was.

There weren’t many people in the quiet cafe.

The seat was on the second floor.

There’s no one here, but just in case.

“So, you only eat this in the winter? Anyway, it’s a strange taste. Putting ice in your coffee. The people who eat this and the people who sell it are both… .”

Lanian bought three drinks on the first floor.

A warm latte is Lanian’s.

Sweet hot chocolate is Elin’s.

Iced Americano was Luke’s.

“If you know the taste, you will only eat this.”

Because I’m getting a quick transfusion of the familiar caffeine.

Unable to bear it any longer, Ranian began to chattering.

“You’re really cute. Now I understand why you decided to give up everything else and become a tutor.”

“I’ve never thrown anything else away. Don’t be weird.”

“Should I drop out of graduate school and become a tutor?”

“The princess’s tutor is me.”

“… Huh.”

Ellen, who was sipping hot chocolate, flinched.

What you just said sounded like Luke was giving up everything else for Elin.

“Let’s get to the point.”

Luke lowered his voice, ignoring Elin, who was blankly staring at him.

“Ahem, right. So you think the princess is under a curse?”

Lanian, who had calmed down in an instant, seemed like a different person.

“This is the kind of person I am when I work.”

Luke spoke to the dazed Elin.

Only then did Ellin come to her senses and say, “Hot.”

Of course, the reason I was absent-minded wasn’t because Ranian’s atmosphere had changed.

“If it weren’t for this, I wouldn’t have known you as a senior.”

“You said one more thing.”

Lanian slapped Luke on the shoulder.

He cleared his throat and continued speaking.

“So tell me exactly. What kind of curse is it?”

“I can’t say that.”

What do you want me to do by calling a busy person?

The curses that he couldn’t bring himself to say in front of Elin were conveyed through his eyes.

“There are circumstances. Don’t look at it that way.”

“What is it?”

Luke opened his mouth and tapped inside.

And I tried to tell him anything that happened at the duke’s house.

For example, this morning Ellen fell asleep drooling on her stuffed rabbit.

As soon as I tried to convey it.

Hwaruk.

A black flame began to appear at the root of his tongue.

“Wait, wait, wait!!”

Lanian hurriedly stopped him.

“Curse of limited speech?”

“As expected, you are my senior.”

I immediately guessed what kind of curse was on Luke.

“Are you sure you’re working in a safe place?”

“Well.”

I guess I can’t guarantee that.

I don’t think there was anyone who was that friendly to Luke.

“… I changed my mind. I just want to stay in graduate school.”

Lanian took a sip of her latte with a sheepish expression.

“Anyway. Since you can’t speak, aren’t you asking me to look at it myself?”

“That’s correct.”

“Hoo… .”

This kind of thing isn’t usually done for free.

“Lanian muttered like that,” he said.

“I’m doing it specially because it’s your favor.”

“Thank you.”

Lanian reached out to Elin.

“Then, Your Majesty, may I borrow your hand for a moment?”

“… hand?”

Elin raised her hand without much resistance.

“Really small… … .”

Lanian’s voice became quieter.

Soft and smooth hands.

His mangled fingernails caught my eye, not befitting his appearance.

“Senior?”

“Oh, yeah.”

Lanian closed his eyes, pretending not to see anything.

I realized vaguely.

The little-known youngest princess of Bertain.

A curse that restricts speech placed on Luke.

That something bad is happening to this cute princess.

Of course, I didn’t say anything unnecessary.

Because petty interference won’t help at all.

Instead, we started with what we could do right away: diagnosis.

“Hmm… Hmm?”

Lanian tilted his head as he looked around Elin’s body.

“… What is this?”

And he let out a cry of horror.

Luke suppressed the urge to ask what was going on.

If Lanian’s concentration breaks, Elin’s body might explode with a bang.

After a while, Lanian opened his eyes and spoke in a calm voice.

“Ssup… It’s more serious than I thought.”

“How come it is like that?”

I feel uneasy for no reason because my senior, who always acts lightheartedly, is setting the mood.

“I don’t know either.”

“Yes?”

“I understand that it’s a curse that roughly eats up mana. It seems like a curse that eats up all the mana before it becomes magic… .”

Lanian pauses for a moment and touches his chin.

“I know it’s a bit embarrassing to say this myself, but I’m a bit sensitive to curses, right?”

“That’s right.”

He is a man of such broad insight that he was able to immediately recognize the curse placed on Luke.

“But there are only two possibilities for the curse that I don’t know about.”

Lanian held up two fingers.

He said this while stopping the conversation.

“A curse created by an unknown warlock.”

Next, I folded my index finger.

“A curse created by a demon or an ancient being.”

“… … It’s clear that we can’t solve it right away.”

Neither of these was good news.

“What should I do? I want to help as much as I can… .”

“No, don’t you have a lot of work to do, senior?”

If you and Lanian decide to study the curse together, you’ll be able to solve it.

About half a year?

The problem was that neither Luke nor Lanian had that much leeway.

“… Is this a serious problem?”

Elin, who had been listening silently, asked Luke.

“It’s not a big problem right now.”

In other words, it means that it will definitely become a big problem later on.

You can’t become a wizard with such a ridiculous curse.

“First of all, thank you, senior.”

“Huh? No. In the end, it doesn’t help.”

“Still, I guess I figured out the general identity.”

I don’t know if it’s a curse created by a warlock, but if it’s a curse created by a demon or an ancient being, I know how to solve it.

Even that is just a temporary measure.

“I think I should get up now. Your Highness, I can’t leave my seat for too long.”

“Yeah, yeah. If you need any help, just stop by the Academy. I pretty much live in the lab.”

“Where is your senior’s lab?”

“Huh? You don’t know my place?”

“Do I need to know?”

“Huh, you’re from the academy, right? Even the freshmen know… .”

Lanian shook his head.

“I’ll tell you later, so stop by. It would be better if you just come into the lab.”

Hehe.

The corners of Lanian’s mouth go up.

The work status is finished.

It was the return of Ranian to her normal state.

“Yes. If you need my help later, please call me. I will visit you sometime.”

“Huh? Really?”

“It’s true.”

“Really really?”

“It’s really real.”

“No more? Do you remember me? Just come here. I’ll ruin your graduate school. We’ll live together using flasks as pillows and covering ourselves with parchment, hehehe… .”

A sinister smile appeared on Lanian’s lips.

But my desire to go to the academy has completely disappeared.

I received help, so I guess I should repay it.

That’s when I was thinking that.

Hug.

A small, warm hand grabbed Luke’s collar.

“… Are you going to the academy?”

“Yes?”

Unfocused eyes turned to Luke’s face.

“You said you weren’t going to leave?”

A vain voice flowed out.

Although he was clearly holding it in his hand, it seemed like the distance was far away.

Then, “Ah,” Ellin said and turned her head as if she had gone off topic.

“… … What did I say? It’s nothing.”

Swish.

The hand holding the collar loosens its strength.

Ellen sat down and bowed her head.

Like a doll with a broken string, quietly.

A sticky darkness slowly flowed out from Elin, who had become so quiet that you couldn’t even hear her breathing.

Luke and Lanian locked eyes.

Why, why are you doing this?

It’s because of you, senior.

why?!

I don’t know that either.

what?

Anyway, it’s your fault, senior.

After the silent communication ended unilaterally.

He explained it with sweat dripping down his face.

“I’m not leaving forever. I’m just coming back for a little while when I need help.”

“Oh, that’s right, my lady! Luke should continue to be your tutor!”

I received help, so I just need to pay it back.

I will always be by your side, Princess.

Where would a tutor go without his student?

After numerous explanations, Elin raised her head.

“… Really?”

Empty eyes turned to Luke.

“Are you really not leaving?”

“Of course. Where would I go without you, my lady?”

“… Okay then.”

Click, click.

Elin, who was moving her hair around, looked at Lanian.

“… Don’t take my tutor.”

Bam.

Words spoken as if throwing a stone.

“Of course!! I said it was a joke, a joke. Ahaha… … .”

Like a frog hit by a stone, Lannian quickly retreated.

She loved to corrupt promising wizards into graduate school.

She was not such a wicked woman as to take away the only guardian of a poor child.

“Then, shall we wake up soon?”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s a little hot… .”

Ji-

Until we break up.

Elin continued to stare at Lanian.

Lanian averted his gaze, sweating profusely.

It was a day that really stuck with Elin.