Leave a comment

I never thought I would encounter Triela when I came to the reference room to do research! That being said, she had been telling me that she came to study here a lot these days, so I should’ve expected this.

“What are you doing here?”
“There’s something I want to know, so I’m doing some research.”
“What is it? …Magic sword?”
“Yeah, I guess you can say that?”
“…No way, are you going to make it?”
“Yeah. Well, I guess I want to try making it?”
“……”

Oh, please don’t look at me like you’re seeing some weird creature.

“…Well, it’s Ren, so I guess I should’ve expected that…”

Huh? Somehow, I felt like she said something awful about me? But if I thought about it normally, making a magic sword at this age was just abnormal. Hmm.

Well, let’s change the topic for now.

“Triela, are you studying as usual?”
“Yeah. I can read letters now. I also taught the other girls and those stupid guys who come with me, but I can’t teach them well like Ren… It’s hard to teach people.”
“You’ll have to get used to that.”
“Yeah, I only have to do my best….”
“So what are you studying today?”

“To be honest, we basically study herbs all the time. If we know the various kinds, it will be useful once we happen to find one. I also want to learn to make a salve with herbs. But the composition? Um, I can’t really find how to make it here.”

“[Dispensing] skill, eh.”

“I found some first-aid treatments using herbs. When I tried it, I was surprised that it worked better than I expected. With this, maybe we can save up some money when something happened, right?”

“I see.”

“But I believe it’s difficult to get the prescription to make medicine without becoming a member of Medic Guild.”
“Yeah. But I think the situations will be quite different just by being able to give first-aid treatment.”
“It’s good to have many choices at a critical moment.”

“I know, right? Ah, speaking of which, I found out that I learned a lot of skills after we parted the day before yesterday! My [Mana Sense] has become LV2, and I just learned [Mana Control] LV1!”

“Ohh.”

“I also learned attribute magic! Fire, water, wind, and earth! Plus, the water attribute is already LV1 from the beginning. But everything else is zero…”

“That’s amazing!”
“Thanks! I tried to see if I could produce water at once! But it was pretty tiring.”
“It’s the same for everyone who’s not used to it. You only have to practice.”

“Right. Oh, I can produce water now, so I don’t have to go and fetch water when I wipe my body at the inn! I can also make hot water when the level goes up, right? Then we don’t have to pay to use hot water, plus I’m sure there are other uses. With this, we can save up! I have to do my best to save money!”

“You worked hard, Triela.”
“I will do my best. After all, you’re also working hard to reach this point, Ren. I can’t lose!”

…Did I work hard? No, I’m working hard, but I felt a strange sense of guilt since she’s praising me this much.

“Ah, here she is. Triela, how to read this character?”
“Oh, Maricle.”

When I was chatting with Triela, someone came. Rather, it’s someone I knew.

“Umm, so it’s this character… ah, who is this?”
“Err, no, this person is… uh…”
“…No way, are you Ren?”
“Yes.”

That boy was Maricle. He was one of the boys who stayed in the same orphanage as us. Of course, he was Cain’s friend. Rather, he was a boy with common-sense who always warned Cain not to do something stupid along with Triela.

By the way, he was one year older than me, so he was 12 years old now? His face looked honest and a bit dull… He looked like he wasn’t good at arguing. But actually, that wasn’t the case at all. He was also tall, one head higher than me.

“…As I thought, you’re still alive, huh? Somehow, I have that feeling.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. Since Triela and Lycoris are acting strange recently, I’ve been wondering if you’re alive. But I never thought that you’re really alive and having a rendezvous here, though.”

What did he mean with rendezvous, geez. I talked to him normally since he was the only boy who had a friendship with me.

Maricle was kind. He helped anyone who was in trouble. That’s why Triela and I admired him so much when we were still very young.

I was grateful to him. He was the only boy who helped me when I was bullied by Cain. The other boys? Some of them were only looking at a distance because they were scared of Cain, and some others were following Cain and laughed at me when I cried. I absolutely wouldn’t forgive them.

I went off tangent again. Well, because of that, both of us were friends.

“So the reason why Triela and Lycoris can read and write is all Ren’s doing?”

Could he stop saying it like I did some bad things?

“It’s more convenient if they can read and write, isn’t it?”
“I guess so. I can read a little after both of them taught me. The other three are… well, you can guess it.”
“They’re still the same?”
“I hope they can learn a little more seriously.”

By the way, the other three he mentioned were the boys out of all of the eight members excluding Maricle. Judging from Maricle’s manner of speaking, the other girls are studying seriously.

“Cain is quick to learn as usual. Then he became nonchalant in the middle of the study. Other than him, Boman is a little understandable, but Ryuu is particularly bad.”

Boman and Ryuu were boys that followed Cain.

Boman was a boy with a medium build, but he had strong power. He was at the same age as me. He would take initiative for physical works. Other than that, he basically skipped everything.

Ryuu was Cain’s number one brother. He was one year younger than me. By the way, he was even worse than Cain. In a silly sense, he was the masterpiece that kept the name of ‘the King of Idiot’ in the orphanage. I hated this guy so much.

Additionally, Cain, Boman, and Ryuu were called as the three fools.

“They are still the three fools even after one year has passed, eh?”
“I’m sorry.”

Maricle had the role to watch those three idiots. You could also say that they forced him to this role because he was gentle. What a hard-working man. Really pitiful.

Suddenly, someone was hugging me from behind. Oh, who was it?

“Ren.”
“Kuro?”
“Ren, Ren. Alive. Ren, alive.”

This little kid who couldn’t speak well was Kuro. She was a beastfolk girl from the black cat family. She was one year younger than me. Considering her race, her hair color is the same as my black hair, but she had bobbed hair. Her eye color was golden, so she looked really similar to me except for our eye color. Thanks to that, people often saw us as sisters when we were together.

“Triela, you haven’t told her?”
“I can’t find the right timing… Sorry, Kuro.”
“Is okay. Ren, here, is good.”
“Have you been well?”
“Yeah. Healthy.”

I stroked her head. Ahh, this was really healing. If Lyco was like my sister, Kuro was like my pet. They really soothed my heart.

“Hey, why are you guys gathering here… Ren!?”
“Arle, you’re noisy. You have to be quiet here.”
“Sorry… eh, that’s not important now, right!? Ren is alive!?”
“Yes, well.”

More people came!

This girl with pink hair was Arle. She’s like… my hero? When I was being bullied by Cain, she was a violent girl who ran out of nowhere and gave Cain a dropkick. Incidentally, she was a tsundere. Every time I thanked her for helping me, she announced her template reply, “I-it’s not like I’m doing this for Ren! Don’t get me wrong!” Ah, unbelievable hair and eye colors were normal in this world.

Eh, wait!? My acquaintances kept coming one after another, but Cain wouldn’t appear after this, right!?

“It’s okay, Ren. Cain didn’t come today.”

As if reading my thoughts, Maricle told me that. These four people were the only ones who came to the reference room this morning. It seemed like four people were studying separately in the morning and afternoon after I told them about the reference room. But recently, Triela and Lyco came to study with each respective group in the morning and the afternoon since they were the only ones who had been able to read and write.

Each of their members was decided by rock-paper-scissors, and today Lyco had to take care of the three fools, leaving her teary-eyed. Those three people would never study seriously… By the way, they were collecting herbs now until two o’clock in the afternoon.

“…So it’s about time for Cain and his friends to come. If you don’t want to see him, you should run away, Ren.”
“Ehh? We finally met, but you’re going home already?” Arle said.
“Ren, no!”

Kuro…

…What should I do? I don’t want to see those idiots, but these two people I just met after a long time didn’t look like they wanted to let me go. Arle was grabbing my cloak and wouldn’t release me, and Kuro still clung on me.

“Hmm…”

I had a good idea.

“Is it okay if you guys don’t meet the four of them?”
“We usually pass each other, so we don’t really have to meet each other first…”
“Then how about going out to collect some herbs together?”
“All five of us? Including Ren?”
“Yes. I’m sure we have many things we want to say to each other too…”
“Yes! Let’s do that! We can do that, right? Triela! Maricle!”

Arle was eager, and Kuro was… clinging to me even tighter. Triela looked bitter.

“Ren, are you okay with it?”

To be frank, I think I would meet Cain one day if I kept staying in touch with them. Even so, that doesn’t mean I wanted to neglect all of them.

“It’s me who proposed it.”

Since we would meet sooner or later, I should be prepared to meet Cain. But for the time being, I wanted to cherish this opportunity since I could meet these three people. Can I, Triela? I looked at Triela’s face.

“…Haa, it can’t be helped. Since we have decided, let’s move quickly! Arle, Kuro, release Ren already! Quick, quick!”
“Are you sure, Triela?”
“It can’t be helped! You have to make sure not to tell the three fools about Ren!”
“…I’ll do my best.”

Still, I wanted Maricle to say ‘yes’ there, okay?