It was another sunny day at the young lady's mansion.
As I returned to the mansion after a long ti, I looked at Gomtangi playing with Hans in the doghouse and couldn’t help but wonder.
"What’s going on?"
I had clearly found a decent hiding place for him in the back mountain, so why was he living in a doghouse?
I tilted my head as I noticed Hans's bowl next to Gomtangi. Thankfully, he wasn’t eating dog food, but I couldn’t understand why Hans was choosing to live like this.
He was supposed to be an important villain in the novel, after all.
Hahaha!!! Power...! I feel the power!
Hans, showing behavior I couldn’t quite comprehend, had his butt stuck in the doghouse while he looked up at .
"You’re back?" "Ah... yes." "It’s been a while, Master." "Why do you keep changing the way you address ?" "I’m sorry. If it bothers you, I can call you ‘Lord’ instead." "No, that would bother even more."
Hans laughed brightly as he dusted himself off and stood up.
"Have you been well?" "Yes." "Anyone you wanted to kill? Or perhaps soone who blasphed... no, caused you any trouble?" "No, none at all. Well... there was one person...."
Hans’s eyes lit up with a crazed look as he leaned in closer.
"Who is it?! Who dared to commit blasphemy?" "Wolfgang... No, Hans, didn’t you just change your title again?" "Wolfgang... Wolfgang... Got it."
Hans nodded with a bright smile, seemingly committing the na Wolfgang to mory before turning back to with a joyful expression.
"Anything else?" "No." "That’s unfortunate."
I gave Hans an awkward smile and asked him,
"Has anything unusual happened at the mansion?" "There have been no intruders, and I’ve taken care of all the cleaning." "You could have taken a break." "This is the joy of my life."
Hans had turned into soone quite peculiar.
He carefully removed Gomtangi, who was nibbling on his head, and then entered the doghouse, saying he had sothing urgent to attend to.
As I watched Hans disappear into what seed to be a tunnel he had dug inside the doghouse, I bid him farewell and turned to Gomtangi, who was scratching his head with his hind leg.
"Gomtangi."
Grr. "Do you like your new roommate?"Grr grr.
Gomtangi nodded in affirmation.
As expected, with a big head like his, he understood things well. I couldn’t help but wonder if he saw Hans as an ergency food supply, but I decided not to dwell on it too much.
"Then keep guarding the house well. I’ll go fetch the young lady."
Grr. "What?"
Gomtangi ambled over and grabbed my ankle.
Like a proper pet bear, he gently bit my ankle and nudged with his head. Honestly, it was a bit scary, as it felt like he might eat .
Gomtangi then placed a letter he had been carrying in his mouth on the ground and looked up at .
Grr.
It was a white envelope, likely sothing he had picked up from sowhere, and Gomtangi urged to open it by nudging it with his head.
"Scary... Can you back off a bit?"
Smiling awkwardly, I picked up the letter and patted Gomtangi on the head with a small smile.
"A letter? Who sent it?"
Grr. "Who’s it from?"Grr grr.
Of course, I couldn’t understand animal language.
I lightly patted Gomtangi’s head again and then carefully opened the letter.
A floral scent wafted out.
It was the sa scent of flowers I had encountered recently in the capital. The scent inside the envelope was subtle yet familiar.
If I rembered correctly, the flower was Edelweiss. It wasn’t flashy, but it had a refreshing scent. That must be it.
The familiar scent made it easy for to guess who had sent the letter.
"So impatient."
With a curious expression, I carefully unfolded the letter.
[Hello.] This is Misa, whom you t last ti. I hope this sudden letter doesn’t startle you. I apologize for showing you such an unbecoming side of myself last ti. Though I can’t share the details, I received a lot of help thanks to you, Ricardo.
Omitted Could I receive the swordsmanship lessons you ntioned?
The letter contained a polite greeting and the location where they were hoping to receive a reply. The handwriting was elegant, quite different from soone else’s.
I nodded slightly as I read the letter.
"They must be in a hurry."
Perhaps it was related to that.
The Academy's missing person cases.
The student council had begun investigating the string of disappearances, and maybe that was why they had urgently sent a letter.
Recently, there had been an attack by the Archbishop at the Academy, so they probably needed to bolster their strength, and that’s why they were seeking my teaching. If that wasn’t the reason, Mikhail wouldn’t have co to find for help.
Although Rowen was his teacher, he didn’t have endless ti, and it was probably challenging for Mikhail to improve his skills alone.
"Hmm..."
Understanding Mikhail’s situation, I nodded slightly and then crouched down in front of Gomtangi and asked,
"Gomtangi, do you know how to write?"
... "My handwriting is terrible, and I don’t want to ask the young lady to do it. Could you write the reply for ?"Grr?
Gomtangi looked at with an exasperated expression, as if he were looking at a fellow creature in disbelief. ‘Gomtangi 2.0’ scratched his head with his hind leg and yawned, as if this was the first ti he had been asked to do sothing beyond his species' capabilities.
Grrrrr~
"I’ll give you so at."
Gomtangi nodded and sat down on the dirt floor with a heavy thud. Sitting with his massive rump on the ground, he lifted one well-proportioned paw and gestured for a pen.
"What?"
Grr. "Oh, you want a pen?"Grr grr. "Thanks, I’ll give you lots of treats later."Grr grr.
As expected of this house’s pet... or rather, pet bear, he was a smart one.
Gomtangi gripped the pen between his giant paws and began to move his wrist. The pen was too small to hold with his paw, so he wrote using just two of his claws.
Focusing on Gomtangi’s concentrated expression, I couldn’t help but clench my fists and focus on his movents.
"Tomorrow at 2 PM."
Grr grr grr grr grr.
"Please co to the plains of the Hal Mountains."
Grr grr grr.
Gomtangi wiped his snout with his paw and showed the letter.
"Oh...!"
[Gr grr grr. Grr grr grr grr.]
"Oh...."
It seems I had asked too much of him.
I patted Gomtangi’s head, knocked on the doghouse door, and called for Hans. I should have done this from the start instead of making such an unreasonable request.
"Ricardo, I’m hungry!"
Hearing the young lady’s voice from beyond the wall, I handed the letter to Hans and left the area.
The Academy’s missing person cases.
‘...This isn’t going to be easy.’
For the first ti, I wasn’t confident if Mikhail would handle the episode involving the Apostle well.
Under the warm sunlight in the plains of the Hal Mountains.
Mikhail arrived an hour earlier than the agreed ti, brushing his long hair nervously.
He worried about whether the magic he used to grow his hair looked strange. Whether his makeup was off. Whether he might be disliked.
The only thing certain was that he hated the na ‘Mikhail.’
Mikhail sighed deeply as he looked down at his sword. It wasn’t the usual sword he carried but a smaller one that Ricardo had recomnded.
Mikhail repeatedly gripped and released the unfamiliar sword’s handle.
He worried about whether he could do well, whether deceiving that boy was really the right thing to do, and lowered his head under the bright sunlight.
"...I don’t like this."
Mikhail hated lying.
The weather was nice, and his body felt light, but his heart was heavy. His chest throbbed with an inexplicable pain, even though he felt happy about seeing that boy.
"Why am I feeling this way... Get a grip."
An overwhelming wave of emotions washed over him, emotions he couldn’t understand. He didn’t know if it was excitent or fear that he was feeling.
For countless days, he had cried. He had locked himself in his room, replaying in his mind all the things he had said, all the tis he had ignored Ricardo’s advice, crying through the night.
Please, just listen to .Why should I listen to you? You’re just trying to make like you, aren’t you? Isn’t that right?Wouldn’t it make my job easier if you did? I hate working overti.
Mikhail clenched his fist tightly.
The countless words he had thrown at Ricardo had beco sharp knives, and now he realized just how much they had hurt him.
If only he had been a little kinder. If only he had listened to him once. Things wouldn’t have turned out like this.
Mikhail lowered his head and swallowed his sorrow.
From a distance, he heard soone mumbling. It was a small voice, but it reached his ears clearly, carried by the wind from ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) the forest.
"If I stand here, I should be visible."
It was Ricardo.
He was cutting down the surrounding grass to make his position more visible as he approached.
There were still 40 minutes left.
Ricardo was approaching him with light steps.
With his usual red hair. With his carefree smile, he was walking toward him.
Mikhail’s fist tightened. He clenched his hand even harder than when he was standing alone. The pressure was so intense that he worried it might cut into his palm.
"If you make that face...."
He didn’t want to cry.
"If you make that face, what am I supposed to do...?"
The boy’s innocent smile was squeezing Mikhail’s heart, making it hard to breathe.
"What am I supposed to do...?"
His chest tightened.
Ricardo smiled brightly at him.
"Oh? Miss Misa!"
He lightly waved his hand as he slowly walked over, hurriedly sheathing the sword he had been holding in his right hand. His pace was neither too fast nor too slow as he approached.
"How long have you been here? It’s hot out." "..." "You must have overheated. You’re not speaking."
He raised his hand to shade Mikhail’s forehead, and Mikhail couldn’t help but feel how sweet this gesture was. He felt a bursting sense of guilt as he remained silent.
Ricardo, creating a shade over Mikhail’s head, spoke gently.
"Shall we sit in the shade for a bit?"
Mikhail finally opened his tightly shut mouth and spoke cautiously.
"Um..." "Yes?" "By any chance..." "By any chance...?" "The sword I brought." "Yes?"
Mikhail showed the sword to Ricardo and asked,
"Did I bring the right one? It’s different from the one I usually use."
Ricardo smiled brightly and nodded.
"It’s perfect." "...Really?" "Yes."
Ricardo gave Mikhail the brightest smile he had ever seen and said,
"It’s the perfect sword for soone of your stature, Miss Misa."
Ricardo thought to himself.
‘You finally brought it.’
He felt like a weight had been lifted from his chest, sothing that had been bothering him for a long ti.
And then he hesitated.
As he pondered how to tell Mikhail about his mother, a bitter smile crossed his face.
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