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I noticed that opportunity as well, but since Ciel didn’t seem interested, I didn’t bother to point it out.
With Ail’s capabilities, we wouldn’t be able to protect them if monsters ever appeared, and if we started doing charity work just to make acquaintances, there would be no end to it.

I’m sure there will be other opportunities in the future, so I thought this would be good enough for today. However, since Mia looks troubled, I decided to lend a hand.

『Mia thought that if you had aided the examinees, you could have made a few acquaintances.』
『Ahh, I see. Still, I didn’t want to help them out.』
『I think that’s fine. Why don’t you try giving that exact answer to Mia?』
「I didn’t want to help them out.」
「No, pardon me for my lack of consideration.」
「Would it be better if I made a lot of acquaintances?」

Hearing Ciel’s innocent question, Mia silently contemplated for a moment before giving an answer with careful use of words.

「For a noble, it is not undesirable to have many connections. After all, there are many cases where an unexpected connection may help in your situation.
Particularly for the people who wish to enroll in the academy, many of them are talented, so it would be beneficial to at least keep in touch with them.
However, for you, Lady Ail, there is not necessarily any need to force yourself to make connections. Perhaps it’s best to simply befriend those you are interested in.」
『How about you, Ain?』
『I think you should handpick people who won’t cause you stress.』
「In that case, no making acquaintances blindly then. I’ll just get exhausted.」
「Yes, understood.」

While I’d like to see her make friends in the academy, it isn’t rare for people to be burdened by interpersonal relationships they forced themselves to make.
What’s more important, in my opinion, is for Ciel to make even just one friend who she can talk to without restraint.
Whether there will be friend candidates or not at the academy will all be up to luck, though.

While we continued chatting, we arrived at the forest near the capital.
Though I call it a forest, it isn’t the dark, dense, and gloomy kind, but the bright and spacious sort.
There are flowering plants growing everywhere, many of which seem to be medicinal herbs.

Speaking of herbs, I’ve noticed this some time ago, but even the same variety of plants differ in the amount of magic power they possess.
I don’t know what specific difference this makes, but I suspect that it affects the efficacy of the medicine or potions compounded from them. Those that are low in magic power may have less efficacy, but for training, searching for those is preferable.

「For now, how many herb clusters were you able to sense on the way?」
「Umm, around 3 clusters, I believe.」
「I noticed 5 clusters; how about you, Ain?」
『Including the smaller ones, there were 10 in total.』
「Apparently, there’s 10 clusters. I still have long to go.」

The 5 clusters Ciel couldn’t find are quite far away, so she’s doing well if you ask me.
At her current level, she should be able to sense the activation timing of most spells and react to surprise attacks from unconcealed sorcery.
However, Ciel’s end goal appears to be the perception of my most serious barrier, so that considered, I suppose she does still have a long way to go.
After all, when it comes to barriers, I’m confident that I am among the top-class specialists in the world.

『Well then, can I leave the rest to you for a bit, Ain?』
『Understood.』

At Ciel’s request, I switched with her without changing colors.
In truth, I do want to change colors, but I can’t do that right now.
As for why we switched, it’s to give Mia her assignment. I randomly pluck a herb with some amount of magic power and have Mia gather herbs with around the same amount.
This is quite difficult to do… apparently.

「Now then, for today, please collect herbs like this.」
「Understood.」
「Just to be sure, please stay within my… or rather Ailneige’s field of vision.」
「I will keep that in mind.」
「Oh, but I seem to remember someone getting too absorbed, not noticing that an ogre was following her around.」
「W-Well, I’ll be off now.」

After seeing Mia scurry off in embarrassment,『I’m jealous of how excited she is.』I heard a cheery voice in my head.
As I returned control of the body,『Shall we have a long chat then?』 I replied.

『That’s a great idea. Still, there is one thing that I want to ask about; is that fine?』
『What is?』
『Is it fine to leave the people who followed us from the Hunter Guild alone?』
『Would you like to help them or give them a warning?』
『No, not at all.』
『Then feel free to ignore them. There are people watching over them, and they’re not our responsibility.
To begin with, secretly following others is a breach of hunter etiquette.』
『Hmm, then how should I act towards people who do follow the proper etiquette?』
『If they talk to you, then you can reply with a safe and standard response. While it may be bothersome, being inoffensive with anyone at first should prevent problems in the future.』

A big part of socialization, I believe, honestly depends on the other party.
At the same time, it’s important to have an objective view of the overall conversation. Explaining this is… difficult. After all, I am aware that my sensibilities in this regard aren’t the norm.

『In this situation, we expressly refused to take people along, so the responsibility wholly lies on them for following.』
『In the first place, why did they follow us?』
『Maybe they saw the money we earned after selling medical herbs?
We are close in age, so they’re probably dreaming of learning whatever ‘trick’ we’re using to earn the same amount.』
『If it were that simple, it wouldn’t be so troublesome.』
『That’s right. If they can do what we can, then it would be more profitable for them to just hunt monsters instead.』

Once you reach that level of perception, you should be, in Hunter terms, around B-rank in ability.
Harvesting medicinal herbs isn’t really difficult in and of itself, and you can earn a moderate amount of money with due diligence, so they genuinely would be better off gathering herbs at a safe location rather than following us.

After that, I continued my idle chat with Ciel while watching over Mia’s struggle.

And that ends this chapter! Trouble really can’t help being charmed by our princesses, it seems. But thanks to the almighty power of “minding our own business”, it seems like our girls have avoided complications!

It was pretty cute how Ain teased Mia. But not noticing a whole ogre following you around? Well, that explains why Mia prefers training with her ladies around, lol. Still, it would be nice to see Ciel have same age friends.

Now then, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please feel free to comment. Stay healthy, stay safe, and have a nice day~!

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