1. Even Pretty Shoes Can Become Weapons (part 4)
This was a place where villagers frequently came to cut wood and gather mushrooms or food. After all, hadn’t she come to pick mushrooms? If that demon beast remained here, it would be terrible.
“A search would be a waste of time and labor.”
But the boy was firm.
Marcella finally gave up. Though she didn’t like his somewhat high-handed attitude, there was no need to argue about it.
“Thank you anyway.”
When Marcella bowed slightly to express her gratitude, he tilted his head. Though his expression wasn’t clear, she could tell he was puzzled.
Maybe he wasn’t used to being thanked, given his high-handed attitude. Maybe if she was going to thank him, she should offer money instead. Of course, she didn’t have a penny to give right now.
“I mean thank you for saving me.”
“I saved you?”
Apparently he had no awareness of having saved her at all. Marcella felt like she was talking to her six-year-old niece Tela. No, conversations with Tela were much better.
“You saved me from the demon beast and got me out of the fog.”
The boy’s golden eyes slowly rolled from right to left. What kind of reaction was that to someone saying thank you?
She had never felt so awkward expressing gratitude. Marcella regretted bringing it up.
“As a token of gratitude, though it’s too humble.”
When Marcella tried to naturally pull her hand away, the boy’s hand followed.
The boy blinked and looked at Marcella puzzledly. Marcella was also confused and blinked.
“Aren’t you cold anymore?”
“I’m fine now. Thank you.”
The boy let go of Marcella’s hand. When she said thank you for saving her, he was indifferent, but when she thanked him for holding her hand, the boy’s cheeks faintly reddened. Marcella felt embarrassed too.
“This!”
Her voice came out loud from embarrassment.
Marcella held out the lemon mushroom that had miraculously stayed in her basket without falling during all that chaos. Though it was embarrassing that there was only one, it was better than nothing.
She wanted to give him the best thing she had, but he probably wouldn’t want something like a lace handkerchief.
“When you grill it, it smells like lemon and tastes good.”
“…Are you giving this to me?”
“Grill it until it’s golden and you can eat it plain, but with salt or butter— Wait! You’re not going to eat it raw, are you?”
The boy who received the mushroom was about to put it straight into his mouth when he tilted his head at Marcella, wondering why she was stopping him.
Marcella couldn’t believe it. Was he lacking common sense? He was a strange boy.
She snatched the mushroom back from his hand and made a very small fire on the mushroom. It was an application of the candle-lighting magic that was the only thing she could do.
“You’re a mage.”
When the boy said this as if he hadn’t known, Marcella was amazed. Even if he was such a great mage that his mere aura could overwhelm Marcella, he should be able to see that she had magic power, however weak.
Marcella felt hurt but focused on grilling the mushroom. Even this simple magic was difficult for her to do properly without concentrating.
“I’m an Inferior. Unlike a skilled mage like you, this is all I can do.”
A sarcastic tone came out without her realizing it. Still, she didn’t feel like apologizing. She felt like she knew what he was thinking.
No matter how much an Inferior was sarcastic, mages didn’t get offended anyway. They always either ignored Inferiors or pitied them.
“No one grills mushrooms as excellently as I do.”
Marcella spoke more forcefully on purpose and handed him the fully grilled mushroom.
That didn’t make her feel better. Even seeing the excellently grilled mushroom, the boy didn’t look surprised at all.
“You shouldn’t try to eat mushrooms raw. You have to cook them, whether grilling or steaming. How have you survived until now?”
So she kept making sarcastic comments. Marcella snorted.
The boy held the mushroom in his hand, looking down at it quietly to see if it was hot.
“Was it a poisonous mushroom?”
“Of course not. Why would I give a poisonous mushroom to someone who helped me?”
Marcella was shocked and denied it. Why was he suddenly talking about poisonous mushrooms? But for a joke, he had no playful expression at all.
Marcella wanted to snatch the mushroom back from his hand. After she went through the trouble of grilling it!
“…I suppose it doesn’t matter.”
“It’s not a poisonous mushroom!”
It was a perfectly grilled, excellent lemon mushroom in Marcella’s opinion. After treating it as a poisonous mushroom, now he was treating it as something that didn’t matter anyway—that was too much.
Marcella glared at him as he slowly chewed and swallowed the mushroom. But when he tasted it, his eyes would widen and his evaluation would change. When he ate this delicious lemon mushroom!
“It’s a familiar taste.”
His eyes didn’t widen at all.
Marcella was very disappointed. If she had salt or butter, she could have made it much more delicious.
Marcella felt like both the mushroom and herself had been ignored, and she was in a very bad mood.
“You seem to have a talent for cooking. It’s comparable to what a chef would make.”
Was he giving her medicine after the poison? Marcella was confused by his indifferent words. She couldn’t tell if he was trying to compliment or dismiss her.
But Marcella was already in a bad mood, so his words weren’t received well.
“That chef isn’t lacking in skill, is he?”
“At least in Castleid, he was considered skilled, but I don’t know about here.”
Seeing him hold her hand when she was cold and get her out of the fog when she was scared, he wasn’t completely heartless, but he also ignored her for being a mage and now was saying something that seemed like a compliment.
Marcella was confused about whether she should like or dislike him.
Marcella carefully observed the boy who was quietly eating the lemon mushroom without making any chewing sounds. His gray cloak looked worn, but the clothes glimpsed underneath looked too fine for a commoner to wear. He might just be a wealthy demon beast hunter, but that didn’t seem right.
“You said the west, so you came from the capital, I see.”
“You could say that.”
If that’s how you’re going to be. He really wanted to hide his information.
The more he did that, the more Marcella began to speculate about him. His way of speaking and naturally high-handed attitude was definitely not that of an ordinary person.
He seems like a noble living in Castleid.
When her thoughts reached that point, Marcella felt like laughing, as if she had figured out his secret. He was probably a noble hiding his identity and doing demon beast hunter work.
“Is Castleid a nice place? I’ve never been there.”
“It’s similar to here.”
“Liar! No matter how much I’ve never been to the capital, I’m not naive enough to believe that.”
When Marcella laughed in disbelief, the boy tilted his head and looked at her. He still had that serious face that didn’t seem like he was joking.
She had thought he was scary and inhuman, but now that the dangerous aura was gone, Marcella found him quite comfortable. At least it didn’t seem like he would stab her with the sword he had used to mercilessly stab the demon beast.
“Have you ever been to the imperial palace?”
Rather than fearing him, she was more curious. The imperial palace! Marcella was so curious about the imperial palace.
Her sister and brother-in-law always told Marcella that probably all the magnificent things in the world were gathered there.
How wonderful would it be? Marcella wanted to see the imperial palace, just once.
“…You have expectant eyes.”
“If you’ve already noticed that I’m expecting something, then there’s no need to refuse, right? How wonderful is the imperial palace? Is there really the sword that the Dragon Slayer King used to kill dragons? The chandelier decorated with 110 diamonds and the magic stone as big as a person’s head!”
Instead of answering, the boy blinked and looked at Marcella. Marcella waited for his answer with sparkling eyes.
Her sister and brother-in-law often lied to tease her, so she couldn’t tell if it was real or not.
But this serious boy with no sense of humor would tell her the real story without lies.
“Do you want to see such things?”
“Of course! Why do you think I’ve been dreaming of having my debutante ball at the Foundation Day celebration?”
“How peculiar.”
Peculiar! Who was calling whom peculiar! Marcella widened her eyes and blinked. That wasn’t what she wanted to hear from someone who secretly did demon beast hunter work.
“Even if you go to the Foundation Day celebration, those aren’t treasures you’d be able to see. Especially the Dragon Slayer’s sword can’t be taken out of the main palace treasury…”
When Marcella’s face showed obvious disappointment, the boy stopped talking.
He lowered his eyes slightly, then opened his mouth again.
“…I might be able to show you.”
“Show me?”
“What you said you wanted to see.”
Was he a higher-ranking noble than she thought? Could he be the son of some duke?
Thinking that, Marcella began to feel bad about being sarcastic and rude to him.
There was no one with that face in the Dorus ducal family. Since he said he came from the west, maybe he was a western noble? Then Martinez?
“Even if you’re not entertaining unless you see them, if you want it that much.”
“Are you close friends with the imperial family?”
No matter how much of a duke’s son he was, showing the imperial treasury required considerable friendship. An extremely close relationship.
When Marcella doubted his words, he blinked for a moment and then looked away.
“You could say that.”
“Liar!”
“It’s not a lie.”
“Look me in the eyes and say it.”
Marcella put strength in her eyes and looked at the boy. The boy avoided Marcella’s eyes, glanced at her, then turned his head.
“It’s not a lie.”
“How can I believe you when you can’t even look at me?”
“……”
“Will you even be at the Foundation Day party?”
“Probably.”
“Probably?”
When Marcella doubted him, the boy slowly rolled his eyes toward her and raised both hands.
“I don’t seem very trustworthy. Promise me. Promise you’ll definitely show me.”
Marcella held out her pinky finger toward the boy.
The boy blinked and looked at Marcella’s pinky finger, then finally hooked his pinky with hers.
“I promise. I’ll be waiting for you to come to the party.”
“And you’ll show me the treasures too?”
“Yes.”
After unhooking their pinkies, Marcella grabbed his hand firmly.
“No take-backs!”
