Chapter 148
“I mean it-! How many times do I have to tell you no?!”
“Aw, come on, don’t be like that and just ask him once, won’t you? The Magic Tower master will surely give us necromancers a chance.”
“If you’re so confident, you can just submit an official document and get permission to use it.”
“That’s because it doesn’t seem to be working out. As the secretary, why don’t you try asking him for a favor? From what I can see, you two seem to be on good terms lately. Of course, I’m not asking you to do it for free…”
A white-haired mage whose hair reached down to his waist held out a small pouch to Arian.
She could tell what it was without him having to say it.
He was handing over a bribe in exchange for granting his request.
Of course, there was no way Arian would accept it.
She had to handle her work cleanly, if only for the sake of the face of the man who had chosen her as his secretary.
“If you keep doing this, it’ll be hard for me to hold back, you know?”
As Arian slowly drew up her mana, a pure white chill began to flow out with her at the center.
It was a simple act of merely imbuing her mana with an attribute, but it was enough to show her firm resolve.
“I-I’m not trying to pick a fight, I just…”
“If you have something to request, write an official document and apply formally.”
“I-I’ll do that.”
In the end, the white-haired mage tucked his tail and left.
Although Arian had become the secretary because of her connection with Franz, it wasn’t as if she lacked the skills.
Rather, she was polishing her magic every single day, worried she might become a burden to Franz.
Juggling the duties of a secretary on top of that, she could truly be said to be living busy days.
Haa-.
Exhausted from wrestling with a nuisance, Arian let out a sigh and took a step forward.
It seemed she would have to have a cup of tea with Franz to relieve this mood.
Arriving in front of the Magic Tower Lord’s Office like that, Arian suddenly remembered a fact she had forgotten.
‘He’s still with the Saintess…’
The fox who came looking for Franz every day under the pretext of studying doctrine did so.
The problem was that since Franz had risen to the position of Saint, she couldn’t bring herself to stop her.
Haa-.
Arian let out another sigh and was about to turn around.
“H-heut?”
Suddenly, a strange sound was heard from beyond the door.
It was a woman’s, or to be exact, Yusti-ah’s heated moan.
‘D-don’t tell me the two of them inside are…’
Strange delusions bloomed wildly in her head, but she lacked the evidence to be certain.
Thus, Arian slowly brought her ear to the door.
“W-wait a minute. Franz…! Control it a bit…! It’s too strong…! Heut…!”
This time, the sound came through a little more clearly.
It confirmed Arian’s suspicions.
“T-they really are inside…”
From a sense of betrayal to sadness, regret, anger, and so on, all sorts of negative emotions tangled chaotically in Arian’s heart.
She didn’t want to listen to this kind of sound anymore.
Right, that should definitely be the case, but…
Arian’s ear had no intention of leaving the door.
‘Maybe I’m just misunderstanding. I have to make sure.’
She was making excuses in her own mind like that, but her body remained as honest as ever.
The way her two legs were strangely rubbing together was proof.
Before long, it seemed a conversation was going back and forth in low voices, and then…
“It’s good that you’re excited, but don’t overdo it. You might collapse at this rate.”
At Yusti-ah’s words, Arian froze stiff.
That meant there had been an action intense enough to make one of them collapse inside.
A single drop of water trickled, flowing down Arian’s thigh.
Following that, another conversation went back and forth between the two.
Wasn’t Franz offering Yusti-ah a proposal to go to Ganiphus together?
He even called it a business trip, but it was the first time Arian, the secretary, was hearing of it.
‘…It’s real.’
She had hoped it was a misunderstanding, but as she looked at how the situation was turning out, it seemed safe to call it a definite fact.
Since when had it been?
When did the talk about making a child come up?
Or was it before that?
Taking her ear off the door, Arian turned and slowly moved away.
“Even though he said we should get married in a year…”
To be exact, it was a promise to do it if neither of them had anyone to marry after a year, but what did it matter, since the promise had already gone awry?
Arian truly hated the world today of all days.
It was then.
“I was planning to go look for you anyway, so this worked out well.”
Suddenly, the door to the Magic Tower Lord’s Office opened, and Yusti-ah’s voice was heard from behind.
She was planning to come looking for her anyway - was she intending to brag?
Arian thought so, but the words that popped out of her mouth were as calm as could be.
“What is the matter?”
At the very least, she couldn’t forget the relationship between the Magic Tower lord and the secretary.
She was excluding her personal feelings and treating her entirely professionally.
“I was going to ask you to take me down to the first floor. As you know, I’m completely ignorant when it comes to magic.”
If so, wouldn’t it have been better to ask Franz?
They were in a relationship where they did even such things.
“Yes, then I will escort you.”
“Hmm-.”
Yusti-ah narrowed her eyes and looked at Arian.
But that was only for a moment.
She soon returned to her usual state and spoke.
“I leave it to you.”
Before long, the two got on the magical conveyance heading to the first floor.
As Arian infused mana into the device, the circuits glowed blue and the device began to operate.
While they were going down to the first floor like that, Yusti-ah spoke.
“Ducal daughter, do you perhaps have some kind of worry?”
“Pardon? What do you…”
“Your expression didn’t look very good earlier. I’m sorry if I misunderstood, though.”
Naturally, Arian had a worry.
Though she never dreamed that the very person involved in that worry would be the one to ask about it.
“Well, even though we’ve fought a lot over this and that, it’s not like we’re on entirely bad terms either… Anyway, if you have any worries, it’s fine to just spill them. I don’t know if I’ll be able to solve them, though.”
At the same time she finished speaking, the two arrived at the first floor.
“Well then, thank you.”
Yusti-ah said so and took a step forward.
Arian, who had been staring blankly at her departing back while continuing to deliberate, soon ran up to her and grabbed her wrist.
“Wait, please listen to me for a moment.”
“Right now?”
A flustered Yusti-ah stared intently at Arian’s expression, then slowly nodded.
“Alright. Let’s go to a nearby teahouse at least.”
The two, having slipped out of the Magic Tower, headed straight for a nearby teahouse.
Arian felt a belated wave of regret, thinking she shouldn’t have grabbed her, but she had come too far to back out now.
So what could she do?
If she couldn’t retreat, she had no choice but to move forward.
The two sat facing each other, with a table set with refreshments and teacups between them.
“So, what worry do you have?”
Yusti-ah asked in a soft tone, just like she usually treated the Followers.
At that, Arian fiddled with her teacup, continuing to hesitate, before speaking very quietly.
“B-by any chance, in the Magic Tower Lord’s Office… With the Magic Tower master…”
“Yes, please speak.”
“D-did you do that…?”
“What do you mean by that?”
Yusti-ah tilted her head, and Arian looked at her before slowly opening her mouth.
About five seconds later, Yusti-ah accidentally spat out the tea she was drinking.
* * *
After Yusti-ah returned, Franz was enjoying a quiet afternoon.
Even if he called it enjoying, he was merely handling the duties of the Magic Tower lord, but since he had enough leeway to drink a cup of hot tea, it wasn’t too bad.
Anyway, where on earth had Arian gone off to…
Usually, she would come in as if she had been waiting for the moment Yusti-ah left, but today she was nowhere to be seen in the secretary’s office, let alone the Magic Tower Lord’s Office, which left him puzzled.
‘She didn’t get tangled up in something bad, did she…?’
As if taking out several of the Seven Great Evils, the main forces of the cult, wasn’t enough; he had also lured away Seri-ah and Zeni-ah.
He couldn’t rule out the possibility that they had figured out his identity and would launch a counterattack.
“The ones targeted would be those close to me who are relatively easy to attack.”
Yusti-ah, the Saintess, was escorted by Paladins so she would be somewhat fine, and Hera and Yuna were strong enough to handle a decent-sized legion of Cultists swarming them.
If so, the one left was naturally…
Just as Franz was continuing his thoughts, a knock was heard, and someone entered the Magic Tower Lord’s Office.
It was none other than Zeni-ah.
She was sucking on a special mana potion candy.
“Zeni-ah? What’s the matter?”
“I was just bored, so I came to bother you.”
Now she was just saying it proudly without even hiding it.
It was so absurd that he couldn’t even let out a hollow laugh.
Come to think of it, maybe…
“Do you happen to know where Arian went? She wasn’t in the secretary’s office.”
“She went out with the Saintess earlier, didn’t she? More importantly, why are you suddenly looking for Arian unni? Don’t tell me you’re trying to call her here right now…?!”
Zeni-ah flinched, shrinking her body.
Just what kind of existence was Arian to them?
He wondered if they perhaps felt she was like a wild beast or a natural enemy.
“If she went out with Yusti-ah, it should be safe.”
At the very least, she hadn’t gotten swept up in anything bad, so Franz could put his mind at ease.
How much time had passed since then?
It was shortly after Zeni-ah, who had been bothering Franz, left the Magic Tower Lord’s Office.
“Magic Tower master, I’m sorry. Did I leave my seat empty for too long?”
Arian came into the Magic Tower Lord’s Office and bowed her head in apology.
Her clothes were different from what he saw in the morning; had something happened?
Franz had that question, but he didn’t bother asking.
She probably had her own reasons, after all.
And right now, there is something more important than that.
“Arian, do you happen to know of Ganiphus?”
“Yes, I know it as a place with the beautiful sea.”
“If it’s alright with you, do you want to go together? We’re not going to play, and there are various circumstances, but there should still be some free time.”
“It bothers me a little that you asked me last, but it’s fine. I’ll go.”
Arian showed a playful smile.
Franz, who hadn’t put any particular meaning into the order, just felt a little wronged.
But he figured that if she liked it, that was enough.