Chapter 12
Prepare for the Predetermined Demise (4)
“……”
“Y-you, do you dislike me that much…?”
A shocked voice was heard.
Thanks to quickly covering my mouth with my hand, I avoided the worst situation of what was boiling up inside me soaking this coward’s chest. Instead, a fishy taste filled my mouth.
But what nonsense is this guy talking about? Irritation welled up and I pushed his shoulder hard.
My dry heaving must have been quite shocking, as he staggered back easily.
‘Dislike?’
“Of course. Cain. Think about all the things you’ve done until now.”
Crybaby, who had brought me here, surprisingly took my side while watching my reaction.
Right. Cain… that was his name. I had forgotten because calling him coward suited him better.
I nodded half-heartedly towards him.
“Cain. I feel a bit nauseous from riding the horse continuously. I overdid it, so I’ll be going now.”
“W-Wait…”
Weren’t you and your gang the ones who picked on me for not being able to ride a horse?
You reap what you sow. I quickly mounted the saddle, put my feet in the stirrups, grabbed the reins, and turned the horse around.
“Well then.”
Glancing back, I saw Cain still staring blankly at me on the horse.
His expression was quite stupid, so I smiled with one corner of my mouth and left.
I could faintly hear the murmuring after I left.
“Cain Guinevere, what’s with your expression?”
…Guinevere?
So Cain was ‘Cain Guinevere’.
Perhaps saving him might work out well for other reasons.
As I recalled the ‘other Guinevere’ vaguely floating in my memory, after moving some distance from the cliff and it became quiet, I lowered the hand I had been holding to my mouth.
“…Hah.”
I felt my sleeve wet with a fishy smell. It’s fortunate the clothes are black.
I spat out the blood clot I had been chewing in my mouth onto the ground and rubbed my mouth hard to clean it.
“Ugh…”
Why am I like this? My stomach is completely messed up.
There’s no way my body would break down this much just from using magic a few times.
This is a common symptom of overexertion when forcing the body to move.
An ominous premonition flashed through my mind.
There was nothing in this world I didn’t know. At least until the regression point was fixed to ‘the day after being cursed’.
And now…
…I urged the horse to run.
The marching silhouettes began to appear hazily in the distance.
🥀
“…That Edith Crowell, it’s my first time seeing her in person.”
Emily Sagier murmured blankly, cupping her freckled cheeks with both hands. Her cheeks were red.
She had never seen anyone use magic so fantastically before. She must be around my age.
“I didn’t even know she was using magic because she wasn’t holding a staff.”
Emily regretted dismissing the rumors about a tenacious genius named Edith Crowell among the academy’s new students.
After all, Edith Crowell was more infamous than famous.
She had thought, what great achievement could a mere sixteen-year-old have made to cause such a fuss?
But upon actually meeting her, her skills were worthy of admiration.
Such smooth and fast spatial transfer magic?
Spatial transfer magic was known to be difficult in terms of mana calculation, so even among skilled mages, few could use it.
How much painstaking effort must have gone into acquiring such skill?
And yet, she didn’t even show a hint of arrogance.
“Just now, Edith Crowell only estimated where Cain was hanging on the cliff by eye and immediately transferred the space. Without even touching his body!”
Emily spoke excitedly in a long stream.
She was extraordinarily impressed by Edith Crowell’s beautiful magical abilities. Being a mage herself made her even more so.
Regardless of this, Cain couldn’t pay attention to Emily’s words and was just muttering the name of the person who saved him in a daze.
“…Edith Crowell…”
It was a passionate voice, as if he had completely forgotten about being rejected from the hug just before.
“Come to think of it, even that gruff voice was quite charming.”
Cain Guinevere’s face was even redder than Emily’s.
He hurriedly hugged himself with both arms and fumbled. It felt as if Edith’s touch still lingered in his arms.
“…?”
“What’s with that guy?”
The few knights who hadn’t withdrawn glanced at him as if wondering if he had eaten something bad.
“Haah…”
Cain Guinevere was currently experiencing something akin to first love.
Of course, he was a bit confused himself. Why am I like this?
He was by no means a bad knight, but due to severe pranks from his sister when he was young, he had developed a serious fear of heights.
Because of this, he was extremely afraid of cliffs, and thinking Edith would be the same, he had tried to tease her at the cliff.
But Edith Crowell didn’t seem afraid of cliffs at all.
Right. I don’t know if Edith Crowell has a fear of heights or not…
This was a point where Cain Guinevere’s slightly lacking intelligence was clearly revealed.
“Hey. Do you know how many people came running because of you?”
“Ah!”
Wood painfully hit the back of Cain’s head, who was still not coming to his senses.
Cain turned to look at Wood, screaming as if his head was about to crack.
Although Wood’s demeanor was threatening, Cain didn’t back down and acted cheeky.
“Speaking of Edith Crowell. I only thought she was unlucky…”
Cain recalled Edith Crowell, whom he had looked up at while sprawled on the ground.
Her outstretched pink hair swayed near her cheeks along her slender jaw, captivating his gaze for a moment.
And those golden eyes…
She was such a beautiful girl that even the white bandage on her cheek, supposedly put there by that idiot Chester, looked pitiable.
It felt as if she alone existed in a different space.
Cain mumbled.
“…Could she use mental magic too?”
“Who?”
“Edith Crowell…”
“Would she?”
“I guess not…?”
Then what is this? Cain Guinevere placed his hand on his pounding chest.
Was it because he had been hanging off the cliff for so long? His heart seemed to have gone mad.
As Cain Guinevere was wallowing in self-pity, a low, monotonous voice was heard along with the sound of hooves.
“I heard someone fell off the cliff.”
“Young Lord Behemoth!”
It was Ethan Behemoth.
He had arrived quite quickly for someone who was at the front.
However, the person who needed help had already been rescued.
His friend, Ian Gardwin, despite clearly seeing the already rescued Cain Guinevere, stuck his head out over the cliff.
“What? There’s no one down there? Oh, don’t tell me~”
“Ah, no. I’m right here.”
Cain Guinevere belatedly came to his senses and sheepishly raised one hand.
While Cain had been cheeky with the young Edith Crowell, he couldn’t act that way towards his seniors like Ian or Ethan.
“Anyway.”
Ian dismounted from his horse and ruffled Cain’s blonde hair. The two seemed quite close.
“How did you get up? Your sister said you’re such a coward that you’d be trembling if you were anywhere high.”
“Camilla said that?!”
Cain bristled at Ian’s playful words, but soon admitted it with a mumble.
“Geez. Whose fault is it…”
“Well, I don’t know which student helped, but I’m glad you were rescued. Let’s head back…”
Ethan Behemoth was about to return to the front with a calm face, saying “Let’s head back,” when his words were briefly interrupted by Cain’s response.
“Ah. It was Edith Crowell who saved me.”
“Edith Crowell?”
Ethan Behemoth turned his head to look at Cain and asked again.
“You’re saying Edith Crowell came?”
“…Uh, yes. She’s gone now though.”
It was such a noticeable reaction that even Cain found it strange. After a brief silence, Ethan asked,
“Did she look alright?”
He had been curious, unable to see her since yesterday’s duel. She had seemed fine right after the duel ended.
Yesterday at dawn, a sharp pain had struck Ethan Behemoth’s wrist as he was focused on tending to his sword.
Only then did Ethan Behemoth realize how delicately and efficiently Edith Crowell had handled her magical power.
And naturally, his thoughts turned to Edith Crowell’s physical condition.
Was she also feeling the aftereffects of the duel, like himself?
“Um. Yes. Well… She did say she felt queasy because she wasn’t used to riding a horse.”
Cain’s voice trailed off for a moment.
He remembered how he had been mocking Edith Crowell the whole time.
Cain added with reddening ears,
“But from what I saw, she rode well.”
“I see.”
“Ah, but she really didn’t look well inside. When I hugged her, she suddenly felt nauseous…”
“You hugged her?”
“She felt nauseous?”
Ian focused on the hugging part, while Ethan focused on the nausea.
Patting the shoulder of the pensive Ethan, Ian said cheerfully,
“Crowell feeling nauseous… I guess she really disliked being hugged by Cain?”
“Ah, that’s not it, I’m telling you!”
“…She didn’t.”
“What?”
“What do you mean?”
Ian and Cain simultaneously asked in response to Ethan’s sudden remark. Lost in thought, Ethan raised his head and said something even more unexpected.
“When I hugged her, she didn’t react that way.”
“What’s he saying?”
The gazes of the students who hadn’t yet left the cliff area all focused on Ethan.
What was ‘the’ Ethan Behemoth saying now?
Ian and Cain also immediately latched onto his words with incredulous expressions.
“Are you bragging right now?”
“A-are you keeping me in check?”
🥀
Thank you for reading! ♡
