Chapter 91

“If pursuers from Roran come…send me out. They won’t be too rough…”

After the ship left the harbor, Cole, who could barely even sit up, kept saying things like that again and again, as if delirious.

Perhaps he wanted to show off because Iiria was there, but many merchant ships afraid of being looted had left Roran’s harbor all at once, so it should have been almost impossible for any pursuers to tell which ship was which.

Even after we reached offshore waters, no ships in particular came chasing after us, and the oars that had been rowed like the wings of giant dragonflies slowed their pace somewhat.

Once we reached the point where there was probably no longer any danger of pursuers, Cole’s beastman servant, unable to keep watching, made his master drink a little strong liquor and knocked him unconscious.

The one looking down beside Cole was none other than Iiria.

“I don’t know how I should evaluate him.”

After receiving explanations about Cole from Kururu and Gerario, Iiria looked down at Cole’s face with a tired expression.

His face was bruised and swollen from being beaten up, and there was no trace of the sarcastic noble he had shown himself to be in Jirenu Territory.

But what was there was the face of a man who had fought with everything he had.

Iiria’s face as she looked down at Cole slowly changed into an exasperated smile.

“Well, I can understand, more or less, the feeling of being mean to the girl you like.”

After saying that, Iiria took over from the beastman and volunteered to tend to Cole.

The beastfolk who followed Cole naturally knew about their master’s romantic feelings.

The reason they looked conflicted was probably because, even though he was having his wounds treated by the girl he had feelings for and was even getting a lap pillow from her, they had knocked the man himself unconscious.

With shrugs that seemed to say they hoped he would at least have a good dream, they went down below the deck to help the sailors rowing the oars.

“Iiria-sama, you can just wrap the bandages on a guy like that however you like.”

Perhaps jealous of Iiria, who was carefully treating Cole’s wounds as if tending to a naughty but cute younger brother, Kururu said that.

At that peaceful scene, I finally felt as if the tension had left me.

Wanting to breathe the outside air, I left the distinguished guest room assigned to Iiria and went out onto the deck.

The bright sunlight hurt my eyes.

When that finally settled down, I saw Gerario in a corner of the deck, checking and maintaining his equipment.

“Geh! This is the ‘Grim Reaper’s Mouth,’ isn’t it!”

What Gerario was holding as he shouted was the leather belt used to load the magic stones Cole had used.

“Grim Reaper’s Mouth?”

I approached Gerario and called out to him.

What he held was that annihilation magic stone.

“Huh? That’s another name for this thing. No, its infamous name. As a defense, it’s the best there is, but try using something like this when there’s an allied magician around. Someday, it’ll definitely swallow an ally’s magic at the worst possible timing, and everyone will be wiped out.”

That was why it was called the Grim Reaper’s Mouth.

I remembered that Cole had also warned about a similar situation.

“If word got out on a battlefield that you were carrying one of these, the men in your unit would beat you half to death.”

Gerario was holding it up between his index finger and thumb as if holding something filthy.

“It saved our lives, so that makes me a little sad.”

“Is that so? The only way to win at gambling is to quit the game when you’ve won.”

Since a man who had lived on battlefields for so long said so, that must have been true.

“Still, that might change from now on.”

Gerario said that and picked up the double-cheeseburger-patty part that Cole had kept gripping at the end of the fight against the enemy magician.

“You stuck this fire magic stone to the Grim Reaper’s Mouth and made it into an over-second-grade magic stone, right? If you fill the magic circle part with that clay, it turns into an ordinary magic stone.”

He scraped out the synthetic magic stone clay packed into the magic circle with his finger and lightly activated the magic.

Then, when he packed the clay in again, the magic did not activate.

“I’m sorry for keeping this hidden.”

When I said that, Gerario raised one eyebrow, then laughed with a snort.

“If you were the sort of guy who blabbed about something like this, I’d be scared to keep you anywhere near me.”

Gerario had immediately seen what the existence of these synthetic magic stones meant.

“To be honest, when I heard about it, I almost got hard.”

“Huh?”

Remembering Gerario’s appearance when he had been thrown into the cell naked, I recoiled a little.

“I mean, isn’t that obvious? It means we can test every legendary magic circle in this world, one after another, doesn’t it?”

When I had spoken with Kururu at Gorgon’s hut, we had also talked about legendary magic circles.

There was apparently a kind of magic that every magician who had just learned magic, or every magician who had lost comrades on the battlefield, inevitably dreamed of.

“Gerario-san, you think legendary magic circles are scams, right?”

At that question, Gerario hunched his shoulders.

“Don’t be mean. Since no one could actually test them, the accepted theory was just that after somehow calculating it all out, they wouldn’t activate. But if we try them, we’ll know right away.”

Gerario stared at the magic stone in his hand, then looked at me.

“Are you going to stop me?”

It was hard to think there was absolutely no threat of, “If you think you can stop me,” included in that, because Gerario looked far too savage.

However, I knew that since the dawn of history, once humans obtained technology, no matter how dangerous it was, they had never succeeded even once in sealing that technology away.

There was more than enough possibility that someone else in this world already knew about synthetic magic stones, and there was also the possibility that someone might realize it tomorrow.

And the way decisive technology was used had always been decided by the strongest.

“It’s the opposite.”

At my words, Gerario narrowed his eyes.

“We should use any means necessary to understand magic better than anyone else in the world.”

This world was merciless, and no one could defy the logic of power.

I did not intend to actively spread this fact, but the more our research advanced, the more advantageous we would be in battle.

To protect ourselves, we should secure an overwhelmingly advantageous position.

“Well, I guess that’s what I’d expect from someone who defeated Nodon.”

Gerario grinned and patted my head like I was a child.

“Still, for the time being, we’re probably going to have our hands full settling the trouble with Roran.”

The conversation suddenly turned realistic, and I felt as if even my body had grown heavy.

When Gerario casually turned his gaze toward the stern, the distinguished guest room where Iiria and the others were was there.

“Do you think…it’ll become a war?”

“Who knows. Even if it does become war, if we’re talking advantage or disadvantage, we’re the ones with the advantage. We have four magicians, and an inexhaustible supply of magic stones.”

Kururu, Gerario, Balan, and Cole were included in that count.

“About Cole-san, um, is it all right to count him as an ally?”

We had fought together, but a significant part of the reason must have been because he wanted to show Iiria his good side.

If he woke up in Jirenu Territory, proposed to Iiria, and was rejected…

“Beastfolk can sniff out lies. They say they can tell from the smell of sweat.”

I wondered why he was suddenly talking about that, and Gerario said, while looking at the distant view of Roran across the sea, which had already grown quite small,

“The two beastfolk who obeyed him risked their lives to join the palace raid for his sake.”

Gerario, an adventurer who formed a party with beastfolk, understood very well what that meant.

Cole had not lied to his beastfolk companions, and he had built that good relationship with them.

“At the root, he’s probably a good-natured young master. And even if Iiria-chan rejects him, there should still be plenty of room to fight together for a reason like eradicating the beastfolk slave trade in Roran.”

Indeed, it would be hard for Cole to return to Roran now, and he did not seem like the type to give up easily. Even if he was rejected once, he might not leave the island.

If that happened, then he would be an extremely valuable asset as fighting strength.

After all, being a magician alone was amazing, and on top of that, he had worked at a major trading company. Not only should he be literate, but he should also possess considerable wisdom and knowledge of commerce.

More than anything, because of his position as a noble, we could expect him to be strong in diplomacy as well.

Neither I nor Iiria and the others knew much at all about what lay beyond the sea of Jirenu Territory. If he could supplement that area, he would be worth a hundred men.

In fact, if we gave him a role assisting Iiria’s diplomacy, perhaps he would work himself to death, and as that wicked thought crossed my mind, Gerario said,

“Well, if you and Kururu flirt too much while that young master is rejected and depressed, he might get angry.”

When I looked at Gerario, he returned a broad grin.

It was the face of a knowing uncle, just like when he had watched Kururu cry and cling to me at Crape Myrtle House.

“Before that, I’ll get angry too.”

Gerario hunched his shoulders and snorted.

“Hah. Listen, you. Try making my cute disciple cry. This master will come flying over.”

Gerario had been genuinely hurt when Kururu called him vulgar, and he had completely become like a father with a daughter.

However, I belatedly realized that he had said “if you make her cry,” and not “if you lay a hand on her.”

I recalled what had happened at Crape Myrtle House and suddenly became restless.

Even if I was annoyed by Gerario’s crude teasing, this was something I could only ask Gerario.

“Um, does Kururu-san think of me—”

“Huh?”

A strong wind blew, and Gerario grimaced, perhaps because his hair had gotten into his eyes.

“Sorry, what was that?”

Even though he asked again, I could no longer ask him properly.

Besides, Kururu herself was coming out of the distinguished guest room.

People and beastfolk were also coming up noisily from below deck and beginning to spread the sails.

From here on, they would probably use the wind instead of oars.

“Oh, switching to sails and leisurely leaving it to the wind, huh? And those guys have liquor, don’t they?”

Perhaps completely forgetting his seasickness from when we had headed to Roran, Gerario eagerly walked toward the beastfolk.

Left behind, I sighed lightly and rolled the question that had flown away on the sea breeze around in my mouth.

What did Kururu think of me?

At Crape Myrtle House, the moment she saw my face, she leapt at me and cried that much because I was safe. In fact, she had asked me to give her a tattoo, and though it had been after getting drunk, we had even shared a bed.

Of course, I understood that she did not hate me.

But what kind of emotion was actually there?

As Iiria had said, was it something toward an older brother? Or—

The reason I was thinking such uncharacteristic things was because, in this merciless world, I never knew when something might happen and everything might be lost. I had learned painfully well that it was too late after regretting things.

However, Jirenu Territory was a small land, and from here on we had to clean up the aftermath of the uproar with Roran, and depending on the situation, it could even become a war.

If I said something careless and our relationship became awkward, it was only natural to be cautious.

No, had my previous life been filled with gray days precisely because my thoughts had been full of excuses like this in the first place? As I agonized over such things, a shadow suddenly fell over my body.

When I looked up, Kururu was there.

“Here.”

Kururu, who was holding wooden mugs in both hands, for some reason wore a displeased expression and thrust the one in her left hand toward me.

When I timidly accepted it, Kururu took a sip from her own and plopped down beside me.

“…”

“…”

Kururu said nothing, and because I had been thinking about Kururu until just moments before, I also could not open my mouth.

As I took a sip of the liquor as if fleeing, something bumped my shoulder.

No, to be precise, Kururu had pressed her head against my shoulder.

“I’m glad you’re safe.”

“…”

Kururu did not raise her face and was gripping her mug with both hands.

Her ears were lowered, and her tail was beneath her raised knees.

The Kururu who had burned with determination to rescue Iiria and had her eyes gleaming was not there.

“So am I.”

After answering that, I hesitated, reconsidered, hesitated again, and ultimately resolved myself and put my arm around Kururu’s shoulder.

Kururu made some muffled sound in her throat and pressed her head hard against my shoulder.

Gerario, who noticed us from afar, grinned, and soon Iiria, who came out of the distinguished guest room, also saw us and covered her mouth with her hand as if saying, “Oh my.”

Kururu’s tail swayed nervously right and left with changes in tempo, exactly like the tail movement a cat showed when displeased. She had probably noticed everyone’s gazes.

However, she did not raise her face, and I also did not move my arm from her shoulder.

Anything I said felt like it would be out of place, and like it would ruin this moment, so I stayed still.

The ship advanced across the open sea, and before I knew it, even the seabirds had disappeared.

The waves gently rocked the ship like a cradle.

Overhead, the wind was literally favorable and the sails full.

It was very hard to believe that before noon, we had been thrown into prison, and that until just a short while ago, we had been fighting for our lives.

It would not have been strange at all for us to have reached the worst possible ending.

The moment I thought that, the words naturally slipped out.

“Please make food for me when we reach Jirenu Territory.”

It was the promise we had made at Crape Myrtle House.

Kururu’s cat ears twitched, and she seemed to be smiling a little.

“Of course. It’s a promise.”

Kururu raised her face, looked at me, and said this.

“What do you want to eat?”

Her beautiful green eyes narrowed softly, and she smiled bashfully.

I was clearly moved, and my heart began to pound.

This was it. Now, this was the moment!

“U-um…”

I was more nervous than when I had resolved to defeat Nodon, more nervous than when I had faced the dragon, and more nervous than when I had charged into Crape Myrtle House with a sword ready.

And then—

“Hey! You two flirting over there, food’s ready!”

Gerario’s deep voice flew over, and my body shrank back pathetically.

Kururu also looked toward Gerario, but then she stood up with a “good grief” air, looked down at me, and held out her hand.

I thought I had missed a precious opportunity…but the fact that I also felt relieved with a sense of security that I had not crossed the line made me realize I really was hopeless.

I took Kururu’s hand and stood up.

Gerario was helping the sailors distribute soup from a large pot.

I had been surprised when I rode on this kind of large ship, but ships for ocean voyages carried small stoves.

I thought, so open flames weren’t forbidden, but I was truly grateful to be able to eat something warm.

Although I had wanted to eat Kururu’s cooking if possible, I remembered my hunger and started toward the crowd. Then Kururu tugged on my sleeve.

Then Kururu leaned close, stood on tiptoe, and whispered to me.

“No one will interrupt us in the kitchen.”

Before I could ask, “Huh?” Kururu quickly moved away and trotted off.

Ahead of her, Iiria was trying to take care of Cole, who had apparently awakened again after all and had come out of the distinguished guest room with help from a beastman.

Kururu took Iiria’s hand and separated the two of them.

As I stood there dumbfounded, staring at the lively deck, Kururu’s voice still lingered in my ears.

And alone on the deck, my face turned bright red like a maiden’s.

Even if we managed to reach Jirenu Territory safely like this, problems were piled high. We did not know how matters with Roran would turn out, and it was finally time to face the legendary magic circles head-on as well.

A reality grander than any game I had ever imagined making was surely waiting ahead.

But all of that had been blown away at once.

From within the crowd gathered for the distribution of food, Kururu, who was firmly holding Iiria’s arm, glanced at me.

I felt as if she was telling me to hurry over.

Iiria also looked at me and beckoned with a somewhat mischievous smile.

Gerario, who had been comparing them and me, shrugged in exasperation.

There were few clouds in the sky, and the sea was calm.

Many things had happened, and many things would undoubtedly happen from here on as well.

But at least in this moment, I thought I was allowed to place my hopes in the brightness of the world.