Jade snorted loudly in mockery, causing Rigel’s ears to turn bright red. A spasm ran through his thin, gaunt cheeks.

The flush on his pale, still youthful-looking face actually made him more attractive, but he wasn’t her type.

Rigel shouted while panting:

“Even without this, I had many other things to do!”

“I’m sure you did.”

“I was really busy with research. Now I can make it rain on drought-stricken land!”

Then he attacked Jade.

“You can’t do something like this, can you? You’re not even interested, right? Killing monsters in the subjugation squad isn’t the only important thing!”

So what. Jade snorted.

“I saw that research. The one that needs about a hundred water-affinity mages, right? But doesn’t it cause drought elsewhere when you make it rain?”

“Th-that’s.”

“It’s a spell that shouldn’t be used for someone’s convenience, isn’t it? Right?”

Leaving the dejected Rigel behind, Jade rode a bit faster. Her intelligent horse followed her will excellently, and Rigel, who was terrible at horseback riding, fell far behind.

“Haha, Lord Rigel follows Lady Jade tirelessly. Like a newly hatched chick that has just seen its mother bird.”

“Don’t say such disgusting things. Your schedule must be quite relaxed? I don’t understand why he’s picking fights like that. No, he probably doesn’t even realize it’s a fight.”

He’ll sincerely think it’s advice for my sake.

As Jade spoke sarcastically, Bernard laughed heartily.

“Anyway, please consider it. You need to find a fiancé soon, and since Lady Jade is a mage, shouldn’t your fiancé be a knight to form a pair? If you build a relationship like this, you’ll feel more at ease later.”

That was like a custom that had been passed down from ancient times.

The reason this stupid custom came to be was surprisingly simple, yet unexpected.

Strangely, it was very difficult to modify magic for offensive purposes. As if God was insisting that magic should only be used to embrace others.

In the end, the amount of magic power needed was extremely inefficient, to the point where mages would faint trying to catch a single monster.

People suffering from this found a new method: overlaying magic onto a knight’s sword to attack monsters.

Once it penetrated the monster’s skin, the magic was effective, so the combination of sword and magic maximized the effect.

In the past, a great knight king of a country groaning under monsters met a mage and discovered this fact.

When the king swung his sword, the mage would timely envelop it in flames, and when monsters attacked in swarms, he would raise winds to defend. As long as the mage was with him, the knight king feared nothing.

Having gone through countless hardships together, they finally fell in love, and it was so impressive that countless minstrels sang their story.

Until the strange prejudice and custom that a ‘proper’ mage must be paired with a knight was born.

As if it wasn’t enough that Mabel Broen was already forcing her to find a ‘perfect bloodline match’, now she had to satisfy the condition of being a decent knight as well. Damn it.

“It’s tiresome, so tiresome. Having to choose not because you really like someone, or because you’re perfect as a pair, but because you can’t resist people’s pressure.”

As she was grumbling, suddenly a shout mixed in.

“There! There’s a monster in the tree!”

“It’s not a big one. No pack either. Put wind around this spear. I’ll handle it!”

Raising her head, she could see creepy blood-red eyes between the leaves.

The monster, with its round eyeballs fully exposed due to minimal eyelids, was looking down at the people while hiding its body. The sun had almost set, and it was approaching the time when monsters would become active.

The only insignificant weakness of that creepy creature was that it was nocturnal. And even that didn’t apply to all individuals.

“It’s a scout. If we let it escape, a large pack will attack at dawn.”

“If we shoot an arrow−”

The surroundings were noisy.

Ignoring all the commotion, Jade briefly chanted a spell. At that moment, the area around the monster hiding among the leaves, shining its red eyes, began to burn fiercely with flames.

Kyaak, kiyaak!

Needing a knight to defeat monsters? That wasn’t really applicable to Jade.

A black form fell from the tree with a thud. Black ashes scattered around.

“Just one? Simple enough. Let’s just move on. We still have a long way to go.”

If efficiency was low, she just had to apply even stronger power. That was the outstanding point of Jade Broen, the flame mage. It was also the reason the king had chosen her.

And while the subjugation was proceeding well like this, Jade had to urgently visit a nearby mage guild.

But even though it was nearby, it would take a full day’s ride on horseback. As for using magic, teleportation magic was wind-based, a type she couldn’t do properly.

Jade asked for teleportation magic from a mage who was sent to the subjugation squad solely for transportation.

“Thank you.”

“No need for thanks. It’s my job after all.”

The mage, who was selected for his skills, smiled with a kind face.

Just as he was about to activate the wind teleportation magic for Jade after muttering the spell for over three minutes, he suddenly opened his mouth wide.

“Ah−choo!”

The mage made a loud noise, completely blowing away the final pronunciation of the spell, but unfortunately, that sneeze sound seemed similar to some pronunciation.

It’s a guess, but that must have been the case.

Because the magic that should have ended in failure under normal circumstances was activated.

“What−”

Before the surprised Jade could grab Rigel, who was standing blankly beside her, her small body disappeared from the dusty ground, and surprisingly, the place she fell was in mid-air above some lake.

She didn’t know it then, but that was the lake included in the Athanase Forest.

Jade opened her eyes wide. Somehow, it felt like she had been asleep for a very long time.

What she saw in front of her was a fireplace burning red, crackling with firewood inside. She was lying on a long chair placed in front of it.

As she slowly raised her body, the pain tormenting her entire body was still there, but her arms and legs were free. There was only a blanket loosely placed on her stomach.

Unlike earlier when she could barely remember her name, now all her memories were complete.

The lake where the surface was warm from the sunlight, but the inside was like ice. Having no talent for water attribute magic, she could only flounder.

Barely swimming to the shore and crawling up, coughing up water under some tree, then her cheek hitting the ground with a thud.

Her body was cooling in the autumn wind. She thought it would be dangerous to stay like this, but she couldn’t move a muscle. She was a mage, yet she didn’t even have the strength to chant a spell. Such a pitiful state.

The vibration of hooves hitting the ground that she felt on her skin then. The sound of someone dismounting from a horse, trampling the grass.

‘Is this another corpse?’

The large hand and warmth that touched her nape.

That person had brought Jade to their home.

She felt both relief and wariness at the same time. The warmth spreading from the fireplace was comforting, yet her fingertips and toes were cold.

“I’m grateful for bringing me here, but…”

Why was I tied up?

Jade scratched her head.

Should I run away or not?

No, first I should figure out the owner since there doesn’t seem to be anyone in the house.

With firm resolve, she got up, and although she felt a bit dizzy, she could move. Looking around, the surroundings were ordinary. A small living room and kitchen, with a few connected doors.

Among them, what stood out most was the sword leaning against the wall. Jade quickly approached and began to examine the sword first.

The jet-black leather scabbard was rugged and had no patterns engraved on it. It was simple.

But the white handle extending from it drew perfectly designed elegant intersecting lines and was a flawless white.

Even so, it was more modest and simple compared to swords adorned with all sorts of decorations, but strangely, it seemed to exude an overwhelming aura.

It doesn’t seem like an ordinary item. Could there be a family crest hidden somewhere?

But it was difficult to find an engraved pattern in the not-so-bright room.

“−.”

A short syllable popped out, parting her lips. It was a fire magic spell.

Even for the same magic, the length of the spell that needs to be uttered varies greatly depending on proficiency, so such simplicity was a measure of Jade’s skillfulness.

But no fire appeared to light up the darkness.

“What?”

Has my magic power not recovered yet? But my physical condition is much better. I don’t fail fire attribute magic.

Tilting her head in puzzlement, she was about to chant the spell again. Until she remembered the voice she had heard just before passing out.

‘Athanase Forest.’

Right! Oh, no!

Jade hurriedly crossed the small living room and opened the door leading outside. It was to see if the land she was standing on was really the Athanase Forest. She couldn’t believe it just because her magic wasn’t working.

But what appeared before her eyes was someone’s chest instead of dense greenery. She bumped her nose right into it.

“Ugh!”

Ack. A disdainful voice fell at the barely swallowed scream.

“Do you have a hobby of bumping into things?”

Jade looked up, and soon their eyes met.

It felt like the entire background was erased.

As she had felt just before passing out, the man was an extraordinary handsome man who needed no explanation. The strong eyebrow bones that emphasized masculinity, the high bridge of the nose connected to it, the firm jawline.

She didn’t even feel the need to list these additional details. He was just perfect.

Only the ash-gray eyes, which she had noticed even before passing out, were particularly impressive. With pale irises under thick eyebrows at a narrow distance, they looked as piercing as a predator’s.

It was a fierce impression, but also splendid.

So this is what a face that bewitches people looks like. Jade greeted him with a stupid expression.

“Um, hello…?”

At the greeting that seemed both appropriate and inappropriate for the situation, the man raised one eyebrow crookedly.

“Move aside.”

“Yes…”

Jade quickly turned her body sideways. The man took off his gloves and placed them on the windowsill, then carelessly threw his robe-like outer garment onto a chair, revealing that he was wearing a tunic-style shirt with short sleeves underneath.

Isn’t he cold? Jade glanced at him while assessing the situation.

He had a body similar to any other knight Jade had seen, which, to summarize roughly, meant he looked like he was made of stone. However, he seemed taller and bulkier.

Nevertheless, the line from his neck to his broad shoulders was elegant, and perhaps because his arms and legs were long, he didn’t look dull. It felt like watching a magnificent wall move with each quiet step.

Of course, that’s if such a thing as a magnificent wall existed in the world.

The man soon approached the brazier with remaining embers and began to boil water.