“Rather, honesty is brave.”

“……Yes?”

Looking at it now, the girl’s speech was curt like a middleaged knight, and her words were in a tone difficult to find in a girl her age.

But more than that, his heart sank at the careless words she spat out.

‘……Could it be, does she know about the incident that day?’

Rion trembled in intense fear.

Among the people at home, there was no one who spoke about that unforgettable day for as long as six years.

Neither the servants, nor the teachers, nor the father. Thus, young Rion’s fear only grew.

He tried to remember every single day, but he couldn’t recall what the terrifying incident was when his loving and caring mother suddenly changed that day.

How angry and disappointed must she have been?

Mother’s disdain for ignorance, nuisance, violence…… perhaps the cruel murder he read about in books.

The dark selfreproach imaginable by a young boy who lost his mother in an instant was endless and rampant.

“Those women gathered together, their breath smells…… they were all around me.”

“……Yes?”

“So I must have felt bad. Mint leaves are essential at a party after all. Will you eat?”

Young Lucia took a step closer.

And handed over a blue leaf with a cup of water in her hand.

Somehow, he had felt refreshed as this girl approached, perhaps thanks to this strong and refreshing mint leaf.

As he sprinkled mint leaves into the water cup, he burst into laughter at her strange tone as she grumbled her dissatisfaction with an indifferent face.

When young Rion shook his shoulder, the girl blinked as if wondering what was so funny.

“I’m sorry. Speaking so casually about it, I guess I needed that.”

“……Well, I said it was a big deal.”

As the boy laughed enough to fall backward, young Lucia who looked at him strangely soon lowered her head and disappeared.

.

.

.

Thinking about it now, perhaps he had fallen for that careless yet affectionate girl on the day they first met.

Was that short time with the girl a fantasy? Or is it still hidden somewhere within her?

The reason he had never seen her before, even though she was right in front of him.

It was because, in less than an hour, the strong and empty woman who arrived at the party and shouted to cut ties with the earl’s family to go to war was the only one there.

“Stand straight.”

Lucia, weighed down by Rion, mercilessly stepped back.

The pitying eyes of the surrounding women poured out, but he didn’t even have the leisure to care about that.

He just longed for the girl who might be somewhere inside her, guarding like this.

“……Ah, I’m sorry. Suddenly grabbing you like that.”

He grinned bitterly, only able to make such a poor excuse again.

Then,

In a faint atmosphere, someone suddenly rushed into the inn.

The middleaged man, without even catching his breath, rushed to the hostess and desperately grabbed her shoulder.

“Uh? Tom, what’s going on? Why are you like this?”

“Huff, huff. Marcy! Listen well! It’s serious! Len and Fin haven’t returned from the forest!”

At his words, the hostess seemed to collapse, sinking to her knees instantly.

Then, saying they must go look for them, she frantically flailed her arms, breathing heavily in shock.

“Oh dear! They must have gone to pick up those stones again! What are we going to do about this!”

The hostess’s friends lamented.

Apparently, the sparkling stones, a local specialty sold at a high price, had lured the children into the forest, and they hadn’t returned.

The disturbance filled the tavern with cries of despair and worry in an instant.

Now it was past evening.

At this time, the demons would wake up to search for prey and roam the forest, so it was indeed a grave matter.

“Could you please think of the most likely place now?”

“Yes? It’s no use calling mercenaries at this time, what……!”

Rion quickly made a blue light in his hand.

It seemed he was casting a spell to extract a memory of the location from the middleaged man.

“Ah, oh! A, a magician! Understood! Is this good enough?”

He closed his eyes, and Rion shone the light.

And when the memory storage was finished, the blue light turned white and flew out through the previously opened window.
“Follow that. Let’s go.”

Lucia, who had been waiting, nodded at his determined words.

The two who entered the dark forest path stopped at a forked road.

The light containing the man’s memory had split in two, as if there were two plausible locations.

“Commander Leon, let’s split up and look.”

“Yes. Please, be careful.”

Lucia unhesitatingly followed the light quickly.

Throughout her run, the forest illuminated by the moonlight appeared as if it was contaminated to the core, the trees were withered like black charcoal, and the rotten ground was mucky like a swamp.

The small monsters rushing in this lifeless place were weak like flies.

There could be no prey here, so even the monsters were starving and didn’t have the strength to fight properly.

However, from experience, such places are much more dangerous.