episode_0069

Killua, who had vented all her pent-up frustration for a while, let go of the hem of my clothes she had been clutching tightly, her face looking a little refreshed.

Wiping her eyes with her hand, she stepped back a couple of paces and glared at me for a few seconds with dull eyes that seemed to hold emotion.

“Are you alright?” I carefully asked about her condition.

Killua sniffled once, then glared at me with eyes that still held a hint of moisture, and replied.

“Do you think I’d be alright after losing a loyal and dependable secretary?!”

“Well… I’m incredibly grateful and also sorry.” I didn’t know how to react to a reply that praised me as loyal and dependable while simultaneously reprimanding me for leaving her, so I awkwardly burst into laughter and scratched my cheek.

But seeing my reaction, Killua snorted as if she had expected it, then took a deep breath as if to calm her emotions.

“The journey to find the fragments… how do you plan to handle it?” I carefully expressed my concern for her journey.

Her original plan was for the two of us to travel together to find the pendant. But since Ariel and I had become lovers, I couldn’t promise to accompany Killua without hearing Ariel’s stance or opinion first.

In response to my concern, Killua looked at me with eyes full of disdain, as if I was worrying needlessly, and replied.

“Actually, it’s a journey I can manage perfectly fine on my own. I just needed a porter or someone to talk to so I wouldn’t get bored during the trip.”

Although she had restored one pendant fragment, the magic she restored was only about that of a single ordinary person. Despite this, I couldn’t help but look at the bluffing Killua with worried eyes.

“Tsk…!” Perhaps displeased by my worried gaze, Killua frowned and lightly clicked her tongue.

Then, the magic that had been softly swirling around her body swiftly and sharply burrowed into the ground where my right foot was resting, like a fierce snake.

“Whoa!?” The moment I felt the movement of her magic, it had already burrowed into the ground where my right foot was and turned it mushy like mud.

In an instant, my right leg sank into the ground up to the knee, and my body’s balance crumbled.

“End.” Killua brought a small fist to my chest as I sank to the ground, my leg still buried.

The magic swirling inside her fist was slowly rotating in a spiral. If she had swung that fist at my chest with killing intent, the spiraling magic would have instantly accelerated, creating a shockwave powerful enough to burst my chest.

“Oh… my goodness…”

I knew well from witnessing it with my own eyes that the White Mage-nim, who overwhelms all beings in this world with her immense magic and control ability, was formidable. However, the fact that there was such a creative and effective way to utilize even a small amount of magic was something I realized for the first time today.

“Do you think you lost because you were careless? Want to try properly once?” Killua triumphantly smiled as if to say “How about that?” and extended her hand toward me, who was slumped on the ground with my right leg buried.

I took her hand and, relying on the strength she provided, pulled out my right leg buried in the ground.

Then, after taking a deep breath and calming my startled heart, I replied to her suggestion.

“I’ll try once.”

In the past, I would have just been overwhelmed and nodded in acceptance, surprised by her ability and talent. But now it was different. If I could see Killua utilizing magic, I felt like I could learn something, even if just a little.

“Oh? Really? You’re actually going to try?” Was my courageous answer unexpected? Killua was slightly surprised and burst into laughter as if intrigued.

“Then let’s do this properly. Pick up your weapon.”

“We… weapons too?” I couldn’t help but be surprised by Killua’s words to do it properly, even with weapons.

Killua then said she knew I’d react that way and threw my logging axe, which was leaning against the door, to me. She, in turn, firmly grasped the wooden laundry bat next to it.

“Are… are you serious!?” I held the logging axe with its sharply honed blade, given to me by the Hero. To face such an axe, Killua picked up a crude wooden laundry bat used for pounding wet clothes.

“It seems you’ve temporarily forgotten, since you always call me a mage…” Killua snorted at my worried cry, then grasped the wooden bat with both hands and aimed it at me.

“I am a person who has mastered all knowledge in the world. Swordsmanship, martial arts, physical combat—all of it. I just didn’t need to use them until now, so I didn’t.”

The tip of the bat pointed towards me… and her body, with slightly bent knees, became stable.

Then, Killua’s expression, which had held a playful, faint smile, became utterly serious.

“Ugh…” I felt the hair on my entire body stand on end from the aura that emanated from Killua—an intensity one would only feel from high-level swordsmen.

“Waist, leg, head.” At Killua’s declaration, which pre-announced her attack, I too, with a deeply tense expression, gripped the axe with both hands and prepared for her attack.

“Here I come.” With that short signal, her body moved right in front of my nose without any warning.

“U-Uh!?” Killua swiftly closed the distance with me and, with movements as fluid as flowing water, horizontally swung the bat in her hand towards my waist.

Thanks to her pre-announcement, I stood the axe vertically and blocked the bat swung at my waist.

Thwack! With a crisp sound of wood hitting wood, the axe handle and the bat interlocked and stopped.

The moment I slightly relaxed, at the fact that I had easily blocked her attack.

Thump! “Ugh!” Killua struck my unguarded knee with a low-sweeping kick, not the bat.

Though it was a small force, as the impact precisely hit my knee, it naturally buckled, and I sank to the ground right in front of her.

“End.” At the very top of my head, the bat, which had been striking down from above, was precisely halted.

“A-Amazing.” Although I had no deep knowledge of martial arts or swordsmanship, I could instinctively tell at a glance that Killua’s movements were extraordinary. If she combined such movements with creative magic, it seemed Killua could handle even Knight-class individuals alone.

“See? I told you there’s no need to worry about me.” Appreciating my surprised face, Killua wore her usual playful smile and lightly tapped the top of my head with the wooden bat, as if asking, “How about that?”

I, who came to my senses from the small tap on my head, awkwardly smiled and stood up from my kneeling position.

“Alright… there’s something you need to do before Ariel comes back.”

“Something for me to do?” At my question, Killua pointed with her hand to the herb drying room set up behind the Hero’s house.

“Do you intend to keep your beloved lover sleeping in such a cramped and dry place?”

“Then…”

“Before Ariel returns, move her bed to your room.”

At Killua’s blunt and audacious instruction to cohabit, I, flustered, stared blankly at her with my mouth agape.

“After getting so tangled up in the lake like that, you’re not going to act innocent now, are you?”

Killua frowned sharply as if my reaction was pathetic, and snapped out a sharp retort.

“Y-You knew all along!?” My small hope that she hadn’t realized our intimate moment was shattered into pieces, as she hadn’t mentioned what happened in the lake until now.

“Only an idiot wouldn’t know that! You were splashing noisily in the water and whimpering loudly enough to shake the already quiet forest – does it make sense that I wouldn’t notice?!”

“Ugh…” As she bluntly brought up what happened in the lake, it was actually my face that turned beet red.

Killua chuckled at my reaction and gestured as if telling me to hurry and move Ariel’s bed.

“I’ll prepare a modest celebration party to commemorate you two becoming lovers. So finish your work quickly and come back.”

“Understood!”

And so, that night.

Killua brought some alcohol and snacks from the storage room and celebrated Ariel and my becoming lovers. It was an enjoyable time, with honest and simple congratulations and grateful replies, exchanged drinks, and various questions, advice, and well wishes exchanged.

And the next morning.

“I’m not doing laundry.” Killua, who had personally handled chores like laundry until now, not leaving them to Ariel, discovered our bedding – which had to be laundered after we were entangled until late at night to celebrate our cohabitation – frowned at the sight of the disaster, and declared her abandonment of housework.