Chapter 54

When I returned to Iiria’s mansion, Gerario was deep in discussion with Tsatsaru, Dodol, and Kengo.

Apparently they were working out a plan to drive the dragon out.

And when Balan joined those four, the sheer male intensity was overwhelming. Looking at them, seeming as though they could face any hardship, made me lament my own weakness. I was just thinking that maybe I really ought to train after all when I got a small jab in the side.

When I looked, it was Kururu, apparently back from the church, having already removed her disguise.

Without a word, Kururu jerked her chin and signaled for me to come over.

Thinking once again that she really was like a delinquent, I followed her, though from the state of her ears and tail, I could tell she was not in quite such a bad mood.

“How is Lady Iiria?”

At that question, her cat ears twitched as though a butterfly had landed on them.

“She burned herself out and fell asleep.”

Iiria had probably already gone through all kinds of hardship in her life, but what she had been through today must have been especially severe.

Her speech at the church must have taken a tremendous amount out of her too.

“It looks like what happened at the church was effective.”

I had been able to tell that on the way back from the guild. Everyone had still looked anxious, but at least they had been heading home with some degree of order.

“Sorry about that.”

“Huh?”

When we stopped beside the stairs leading up to the second floor, Kururu said,

“I couldn’t have shaken off Lady Iiria by myself.”

Gerario had praised me for that too, but it still made me itch with embarrassment.

“That’s because Lady Iiria already hated me once before.”

When I had revived in the mine unable to use magic, and on top of that had become a lackey of the Nodon Company, which had been stealing the wealth of Jirenu Territory, Iiria’s treatment of me had indeed been cold.

That was why I said it, but Kururu gave a sort of bitter, bitter, bitter smile.

“Don’t you dare say that to Lady Iiria. She’s really bothered by it.”

While I was standing there surprised, thinking, Is she?, Kururu let out an exasperated sigh, then grabbed my arm and lifted it.

“Yeah, this really is bad. Sit there.”

Once she made me sit down on the stairs, Kururu headed for the kitchen at the far end of the hall.

When she returned, she was carrying a basin filled with hot water, and hanging from one arm were several pieces of linen cloth and a basket made of tree bark.

“Lady Iiria is actually pretty strong.”

It was a little hard to call these mere scratches.

Even though it had been through my clothes, it had left something more like a much worse version of abrasions, and there was a fair amount of blood on the fabric too.

“Don’t resent me even if it hurts.”

She wiped the wounds with cloth soaked in hot water, but the one who looked like she was in pain was Kururu. Watching her face twist with soft little groans and her cat ears flick back and forth busily, I ended up smiling a little instead.

“…Why are you the one smiling?”

I answered the puzzled-looking Kururu.

“You seem like you’d be used to things like this, so it’s surprising.”

For a few moments Kururu did not seem to understand what I meant, but once it dawned on her, she dug her nails into my wrist.

“Are you saying I’m violent?”

“Um, right now, this is really painful…”

After glaring at me with a steady stare, Kururu snorted and resumed wiping the blood from my wounds.

“As if I’m good at this.”

Kururu muttered that quietly, then carefully wiped away the clotted blood on my arm while avoiding the open cuts.

When she lowered her face like that, her long eyelashes fell over her downcast large eyes, and it made me think how beautiful she was. If she had been born as an ordinary attendant in an ordinary noble household, maybe she might have been a surprisingly demure girl… but even trying to imagine it, I still could not picture it.

“You’re a strange one.”

Inside the basket made of tree bark were clam shells, and when she opened one, it was filled with ointment.

Kururu scooped some of it up with her little finger and began applying it to the cleaned wounds on my arm.

“You’re weak and always look like you’ve got no confidence, but in weird moments you can be dependable.”

She was praising me, right? I only asked myself that because every now and then she put in enough force that it felt like she was rubbing salt straight into the wound.

“It means my instincts weren’t wrong, I guess, so yeah, that part’s true…”

Kururu dropped her shoulders as though tired.

At those words, I remembered what had happened when we drove out Nodon.

I had been told, I’m glad I trusted you, and then hugged.

Remembering that made me suddenly aware of Kururu’s hands.

“What, are you trying to tough it out even though it hurts?”

Apparently she had noticed my arm stiffening up.

Kururu wore a teasing smile. If she ever found out I was a little conscious of her as a woman, she would probably laugh herself sick teasing me about it.

It was actually a relief to see that familiar sort of mood from her, but once she had finished applying the ointment to my wounds, Kururu smacked my arm lightly and said this:

“All right, next it’s my turn.”

“Huh?”

And at what happened in front of me next, I almost fell sideways off the long chest.

“W-w-wha—”

I had no idea how I was even supposed to interpret it.

Because right in front of me, Kururu had taken off her outer garment and exposed her skin.

“What, is this your first time seeing a naked woman?”

Kururu grinned, showing just one canine, with a face that said she had just seized another weakness of mine. But looking more closely, she was covering her front with her clothes, and when she gathered up her silver hair with her free hand, she turned her back to me.

“I want to ask you to do something.”

“Wh—… huh?”

“…Hey, aren’t you a little too startled for a grown man?”

The look of exasperation wounded the pure boyish heart inside me, but it did at least help me regain some composure.

Apparently this was not that kind of situation.

“There are tools in the basket.”

“…”

When I looked as she told me to, I saw there were other things in it besides the shell of ointment.

When I reached in, I found magic stone powder like the kind we had used when making composite magic stones, and fat from a pig or something similar.

“With that, draw a magic circle on my back.”

Even without me saying why? out loud, she probably understood.

Kururu let out an annoyed sigh, and every time she moved, her shoulder blades shifted beneath her slender back, making it so alluring that my face turned red.

“I heard the secret to reducing magical backlash.”

Only then did my own thoughts finally click into place.

“From Gerario-san?”

“Yeah. Apparently it’s thanks for immediately agreeing to the two hundred gold coins.”

I had said two hundred if no one died, which meant he must have confidence that he could keep anyone from dying.

“You smear magic stone powder all over the body. That’s the secret to suppressing the backlash, apparently.”

“You can do that?”

“Apparently it becomes a passage for the flow of magic. I’d heard that magical talent meant the ability to draw out the flow of power from magic stones, but I never imagined it was something like this.”

Maybe it was like the relationship between electricity and a conductor.

“Apparently normally they mix magic stone, charcoal, and oil and make it into a tattoo. If it disappeared in the middle of a fight, that would be a disaster.”

That certainly made sense.

“There’s no time right now. So, come on.”

She wanted me to draw the magic circle on her back.

Still, if all that mattered was smearing magic stone on the body, then I thought her arms or legs or wherever should work just as well, but then I noticed the cold look in Kururu’s eyes.

And only then did I finally understand why, when all she had needed was ointment on my wounds, she had brought me to a place like this.

“I might end up in danger. It’d be lonely to make preparations all by myself, wouldn’t it?”

The sulking look on Kururu’s face made her seem unexpectedly young, and my heart jumped.

The reason she had brought me to this secluded spot deep inside the mansion, away from anyone’s eyes, was because this was Kururu’s own maidenly side.

I hurried a little and took the tool out of the basket.

The iron chisel used for shaving down magic stones felt heavy and insistently present in my hand.

“I-if you use something like this to draw, you’ll get hurt.”

The tip was actually fairly sharp.

“Then that’ll be fine for the tattoo later.”

“Uh—”

I stopped moving, almost choking on my own breath, and Kururu looked back at me.

“When I get the tattoo, I want you to do it.”

“Me?”

“Your arm.”

“My arm?”

I felt like I had turned into a parrot, but since I could not even keep up with the conversation, I was lower than a bird.

“It’ll leave scars, right?”

Certainly, with scratches this bad, unless I were still in the fast-healing days of my teens, there was no doubt scars would remain now.

“Lady Iiria is your master, so think of it as proof of that, I guess. Like a branding iron for a slave.”

Kururu laughed lightly, but the image of being owned by a girl like Iiria almost made me awaken to some strange new taste. Iiria did have a slightly cruel streak, so somehow that kind of image suited her perfectly.

“But we’re comrades. If I’m getting a tattoo, I’d rather it be by a comrade’s hand.”

Kururu smiled over her shoulder, carefree and genuinely cheerful.

Kengo had said that Kururu was the one with the strongest sense of camaraderie.

Maybe having finally found a comrade besides Iiria whom she could trust had made her a little excited.

That said, if she really counted me within that circle, then it was an honor.

“A magic circle, right?”

“Yeah. Apparently any shape works, but a magic circle feels more fitting. And draw it as big as you can. So if my turn comes, I can fire off an enormous one.”

Seeing Kururu grin and bare her fangs, I was once again reminded that being demure simply did not suit her at all.

And the shape had already been decided.

I used my finger to draw a large flame magic circle across Kururu’s beautiful back.

I had thought her skin would be beautiful and smooth, but when I actually touched it, I realized there was a faint softness of body hair there, and it was terribly hard to hide just how much that made my heart race.