“Move aside, Aska. You’re startling the young lady.”
Milia stepped forward, nudging Aska out of the way.
Thwap.
When Riersha looked up at her, Milia flinched visibly and began opening and closing her hand in a nervous reflex.
Milia glanced around once, then launched into a quick introduction.
“Lady Riersha, do you happen to remember me?”
“Mm-hm. Milia. I know.”
Riersha answered to confirm she remembered. Just then—
“By any chance, have you considered replacing your personal knight…?”
“Hm?”
Riersha blinked, caught off guard.
Even so, replacing her personal knight was a bit much…
“You’re flustering the young lady. That’s enough.”
Johannes, who had been standing some distance away, stepped in.
Riersha stole a sideways glance at him.
Johannes had a dangerous sort of aura about him — the kind that made it hard to approach him.
“Where’s everybody going?”
Riersha’s curious eyes darted between them, and Aska responded with a soft “Oh” before explaining.
“It’s only Milia and Johannes who are leaving.”
“Where to?”
“Milia has been assigned to the island this time, and Johannes will be away briefly as an examiner for the advanced promotion exam.”
“I see…”
Riersha gave a small nod.
“How many days until they’re back?”
A moment later, her eyebrows tilted ever so slightly crooked as she asked again.
At that, Milia smiled warmly.
Riersha was making no effort to hide how much she minded them leaving the duchy for several days — even though they had only known each other a short while.
“We’ll be back before you know it. Just one week, and we’ll return. Please don’t be too sad, Lady Riersha.”
“Then you have to come back for sure.”
“Of course. I’ll bring you a present too.”
Milia bent her knees and spoke in a soothing tone, and the faint pout on Riersha’s face finally smoothed away.
Then, after a moment of hesitation, she asked carefully.
“…What kind of present from a deserted island?”
The commanders who caught Riersha’s puzzled expression burst into quiet laughter.
⁂
Three days before the Arachrene family’s promotion exam.
Robert Rahin.
He was a man who had spent several years scouting exam sites for the Arachrene family’s advanced promotion test.
…Why on earth did the young lord pair me with someone like this?
Right now, Robert was sweating despite the cold as they moved through a mountain range blanketed in eternal snow.
And for good reason.
“…This one won’t do either.”
Johannes had been behaving strangely for a while now.
He kept muttering to himself, then suddenly crouching down to touch things, holding objects up to the sunlight — repeating the same odd motions over and over.
…What is he even looking for?
No matter how he looked at it, this did not seem like the Johannes he had heard about — the one who had made his name on the borderlands.
The Johannes rumored to possess a terrifying presence that sent even birds fleeing in panic currently looked like a man with a screw loose.
Or maybe he’s just… eccentric?
Robert had spent his entire career handling administrative affairs for the Arachrene family, so this was his first time meeting any of the commanders in person.
In truth, being paired with Johannes for this assignment had felt like a stroke of luck.
The commanders occasionally went on training expeditions together, and those locations were said to be hellish beyond compare. That meant Johannes knew a great many places well-suited to serve as brutal exam grounds.
This particular site had been selected on Johannes’s recommendation.
Robert cleared his throat and deliberately raised his voice, hoping to pull Johannes’s attention back from wherever it had wandered.
“Ahem — the terrain is suitably challenging, and high-grade magical beasts aren’t likely to appear here… I’d say this place is perfect. And with the commanders responsible for safety on exam day, I feel quite reassured.”
“…You intend to finalize this location for the exam?”
“…Is something not to your liking?”
Robert asked flatly.
He recommended it himself, so why that reaction?
“There’s nothing worth taking from here.”
Taking what, exactly?
He had been saying strange things like this for a while now, and none of it made any sense.
Robert finally decided to say what had been on his mind.
“You’ve been muttering to yourself for a while now — is something troubling you?”
“Ah.”
Johannes turned and stared at Robert squarely.
His eyes revealed nothing as they fixed on him.
What is going on…?
Robert flinched and took a small step back.
Johannes clicked his tongue and murmured.
“There’s nothing mysterious enough here to bring back as a gift. This place won’t work.”
“…Pardon?”
“The exam site is too easy. I think that’s the problem.”
Johannes stated this with complete conviction.
Robert stared at him blankly.
Too easy?
Here?
This was one of the most forbidding mountain ranges in all of the Declair Empire.
The Datloma Mountain Range.
It stretched across dozens of peaks, vast enough to extend into the territories of neighboring Tetra Kingdom and Azjeca Kingdom. The portion falling within Declair’s borders was notorious for being the harshest of all, buried year-round beneath unending snow.
And he was calling it easy?
It wasn’t home to the highest-grade magical beasts, no — but it was well known for frequent appearances of mid-grade creatures and above.
“…No matter how I look at it, there’s nothing here worth taking.”
“What are you talking about taking? Are you searching for something?”
Robert beat his chest in frustration.
Johannes glanced at him briefly and answered in a single word.
“A gift.”
…A gift?
“I promised Lady Riersha I would bring one back. I want to find something more special than what Milia will bring.”
Robert was stunned.
He hadn’t known Johannes was capable of speaking at such length.
As Johannes said it, he looked faintly self-conscious — the pale curve of his ear had gone red.
⁂
The day of the Arachrene family’s promotion exam.
The annex was off-limits to anyone who was not sitting the exam.
As a result, every one of Riersha’s lessons for the day had been cancelled.
“What do I do now?”
With time suddenly stretched wide open before her, Riersha sat in her room with nothing to fill it. The entire estate had taken on a solemn, hushed atmosphere, and she couldn’t bring herself to go off and play somewhere.
“Should I go see my brothers?”
Or perhaps…
After deliberating for a moment, Riersha lifted her head with a bright flash of inspiration.
“Right — Isierd!”
How was Isierd doing?
It had already been well over a week since the child had come to live at the duchy.
I hope he’s settled in all right.
Riersha climbed down from her bed.
“Sona, I’m going out for a bit.”
“Where are you going, my lady?”
“Um, well.”
Riersha’s eyes rolled around in thought.
If she said she was going to see Isierd, word might reach Pernoa.
…It wouldn’t really matter if Father found out, but…
She knew Isierd’s existence was meant to be kept quiet, and she worried about what would happen if she ended up being banned from visiting later.
I told him I’d be his friend.
And yet she hadn’t gone to see him even once since then.
The problem was that she didn’t actually know where Isierd was staying.
But Sona might know.
After weighing her options, Riersha chose to be straightforward.
“To see a friend.”
“…A friend?”
“Isierd. Do you know where he is?”
Sona paused.
She clearly hadn’t expected to hear that name.
But she had no authority to stop Riersha unless her safety was at risk, so Sona gave a quiet nod.
“Yes, Lady Riersha. I’ll take you.”
