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The next day…

The school naturally had a holiday, and Cortina was also quite free. Being a teacher, she more often than not had to work even during holidays, so free days like this were quite valuable.

Today, I used a special trait of little girls—the puppy dog eyes¹ that I really didn’t want to do—to their full potential, and finally managed to convince Cortina to accompany me out shopping.

I usually either spent time at the academy, played music as part of my club activity, or went hunting in the forest under the guise of training, so when I suddenly brought up something as girly as shopping, Cortina seemed awfully suspicious.

But due to my exceptional acting skills—like, even I was impressed with myself—Cortina finally gave in, seeing this was a rare appeal from me, and we set out.

“Hehe, don’t these clothes look cute? We should’ve brought Finia with us.”

“We have to keep someone to watch the house.”

“There isn’t a thief crazy enough to sneak into our house. They would be turning not just me but even Maxwell into their enemy!”

Cortina quickly dragged me to a clothing store and decided to turn me into a dress-up doll. I was quite indifferent to clothes so she had almost no opportunities to dress me up. I could feel a strange motivation in her, adamant on making the most out of it.

However, there was a reason why I took her out today. I planned to show her Reid’s appearance. According to Maxwell, it was only a matter of time until she started questioning the present situation.

Before her doubts reached me, I had to create a situation where she could see both of us at the same time to convince her that we were different people. So for that, I lent my illusion ring to Maxwell while I myself brought her out like this.

“Cortina, those clothes look quite hard to move in.”

“What’s wrong with not moving that much!”

“That’s just unreasonable…”

My wish was to become a vanguard fighter. A heavy warrior that could wield swords and shields of the myths may have been impossible, but I had no intention to abandon becoming a warrior that could bravely stand before the foes.

These frilly and sparkly clothes were too far apart from my ideal impression. Those made me look more like those magician girls from the children’s fables.

Also, there was a bit of time left until the appointment with Maxwell. If we spent more time outside, it would be easier to dress the encounter as a coincidence. In other words, I had to loiter around the streets with Cortina for the next two hours.

“We are going to eat out today, right? I can’t eat if I wear those clothes.”

“Mggh, yeah, I suppose staining them would be a waste. Okay, then I’ll give up on making you wear it on the way. But I’m still buying it!”

“Huh, you are?”

“I’d feel bad for Finia if I was the only one to enjoy. Thus, we’ll be having a fashion show once we are home.”

“Ehh, gimme a break.”

Like that, I spent the next two years² being dragged around by Cortina. While I was the one who planned all this, it ended up wearing me out.

After she had her way by dressing me up in all kinds of clothes, even getting a matching hat, shoes and bag, I was left totally exhausted, but the appointed time finally arrived. Well, I reaped what I sowed, I guess…?

What happened before we had lunch at the terrace was uncalled for, but it was already established that we would go to the park now to rest post-meal.

Raum’s capital didn’t have that many parks in its interior. This was a forest country where all the towns were entirely surrounded by forest, so there was hardly a meaning in making parks.

If you wanted to surround yourself with nature, all you had to do was to step out of the town a bit and the vast Mother Nature would greet you.

For that reason, there were hardly any parks made inside the urban areas. The fountain square in the main street was more than enough.

That said, it’s not like they were nonexistent at all either. The nature outside the city was too wild and full of animals. You couldn’t relax among nature that way.

For that reason, there were a few squares inside the city where one could relax outdoors. And one of those squares—that you could even call a park—was situated close to Cortina’s house. That place was most certainly where we would go to rest.

“Or so Maxwell said, anyway.”

“Hm, what’s the matter?”

“Nothing.”

Cortina held my hand as she led me through the Park’s promenade. The temperature was gradually rising, so the wind blowing through the trees felt very pleasant. There were numerous citizens around us, also enjoying their stroll.

We planned to make a hired adventurer act like a burglar where Maxwell would appear in Reid’s appearance and beat them. Of course, it was necessary to prove that it was truly me, so he had to use threads to accomplish it, but I could do that part myself from distance. I was confident in my skill to do that much without Cortina noticing it

It’s about to begin—Just as I thought that, Cortina strongly pulled on my hand.

“Nicole, shall we go the other way?”

“Huh? Eh?”

“Yeah, I suddenly feel like going there.”

“Huh, but… Huh?”

Wait, we are about to begin, why did you suddenly want to change your direction?

But then it finally hit me. Ambushes and traps were her fields of expertise. Putting it the other way, she could easily guess where the traps were laid.

In other words… there was a high possibility that she sensed that ambush.

“Why, what’s wrong with walking straight?”

“Well, there’s a bit of a problem.”

I asked back, but she answered vaguely and dodged it. It seemed that she really did sense the enemy. But pressing for questions here would instead put me in a bad spot. She should’ve been well aware of how good my enemy detection skill was. It was too unnatural that I failed to sense the enemy’s approach.

I extended my thread towards the adventurer without Cortina noticing it and conveyed a message.

“You were noticed. Move to the southwestern side of the promenade.”

I could sense that my sudden voice made the hidden individuals jump in surprise. After that, one of the two individuals started to act on it at once. It was most likely Maxwell.

Thus, we changed our direction and arrived at the junction of the southern promenade, and then, one man appeared before us.

Looks like the adventurer that played thief managed to catch up to us. He jumped in front of us, but this was the right call on his part because we could sense his ambush anyway. That said, running all this way had left him panting severely, so he looked quite pitiable.

Either way, now we had to turn this into a scene where “Reid and I are present at the same time”.

Thus came the critical moment.

1. Wide, upturned eyes – imagine a puppy begging.
2. Probably a typo, but left in for the umor of 2 hours becoming 2 years.