“Usato-sama . . . grinned the way Rose does when she is putting her rescue team through their harshest training,” I said. “Perhaps it was intentional, but his actions were almost identical to hers, and to put it lightly . . . it was utterly terrifying.”
“Usato was . . . grinning maniacally?” King Lloyd asked.
“I can scarcely imagine it,” Sergio stated.
I knew how the two men felt. Usato-sama had chased Nack around town with Blurin on his shoulders. He’d skipped basic magic training and thrown Nack right into the deep end, forcing the boy to run while he circulated healing magic through his body. On top of that, he’d thrown balls of healing magic right at his student, and basically gone completely off the rails to make Nack stronger.
What I knew now was that Usato’s magic was anything but ordinary.
“Though I must add that his likeness to Rose wasn’t all bad,” I said. “Usato-sama has also inherited her will and determination.”
He held fast to the ideals of the rescue team. He now shared Rose’s iron will. That he was a spitting image of Rose was, in fact, a sign of his growth.
“I see,” said King Lloyd, nodding with some relief. “Which is to say that he has grown stronger himself, mentally and spiritually.”
“Yes.”
“That is good news indeed. Rose is wild both in terms of action and speech, but there is a deep kindness and generosity in her heart.”
The king let himself relax into his throne.
“Rose’s ability to continue forward so steadfastly is due to the fact that she knows how precious life is and how sad it is to lose it. This led her to founding the rescue team and saving countless lives when we first went to war with the Demon Lord’s army,” he said. “I can barely even stand when I think of what might have happened had she not been there.”
The truth of the matter was that we most certainly would have lost the war if not for her. We would have been overwhelmed by the sheer number of casualties.
“I admit that when I first heard of the rescue team, I doubted that such an organization was even necessary,” I said. “Now, however, I realize that Rose was prescient when she put her group together.”
The rescue team had been assembled before the war began. The team’s entire goal was to heal the injured on the battlefield and save as many lives as possible. But in the beginning, many doubted the point of even having the rescue team. Rose had once been a Lieutenant Colonel, and so most people believed she was better suited to battle. Wasn’t it enough that we had healers? Did we need more? Did we need to build a team around them? Many were skeptical, me included.
But the work of the rescue team was more important than any of us could have imagined at the time. Rose helped people as she sped across the battlefield. Her non-healer team members carried the wounded to waiting healers. It was crazy, but Rose more than proved the worth of her team in that first war with the Demon Lord’s army.
“Perhaps she saw it coming,” muttered the king. “Though I think there was a much simpler reason motivating her desire to assemble such a team.”
“What might that be?” I asked.
I noticed a wave of sorrow flash across the king’s face. I felt suddenly worried, but in an instant the king was once again smiling.
“It is nothing. Little more than a guess, really. If you want to know the truth, you’d best ask Rose yourself.”
“Well, um, perhaps if the opportunity presents itself.”
There was no way I was going to ask Rose directly. I felt myself withering away just thinking about it. There was no way I could muster up that kind of courage. That was when King Lloyd seemed to remember something.
“In any case, what ended up happening with the boy Usato trained?”
“Oh, right. Well . . .”
After his training with Usato, Nack went head-to-head with his tormentor Mina in a sparring match and emerged victorious. I didn’t know anything about the past that the two students shared, but it was clear that Usato and Nack’s training had been especially meaningful. The rescue team was, at its heart, all about treasuring precious life. Rose had passed that to Usato, and Usato, in turn, had passed that to Nack.
“Young Nack will be coming here soon. He wants to be a member of the rescue team.”’
“Oh. Hm. Is that good news?” asked the king. “Will he be alright?”
I paused for a moment.
“I’m certain he’ll be fine,” I replied.
“Why the ominous pause?!”
Suzune-sama and Kazuki-sama had told me that Usato-sama’s training was nothing compared to Rose’s training. The most frightening thing was that Usato-sama said the same thing. He’d experienced the training firsthand, so there was no doubting him. I was more than a little worried about Nack.
“Well, I daresay that Rose wouldn’t put a young boy through the same training she put Usato through,” mused the king.
“Yes, you’re right,” I said. “Rose herself was once a child, after all.”
And yet, I couldn’t help but doubt my own words. A long silence fell between the three of us. We all knew that under ordinary circumstances, Nack would never be put through a merciless training regime. But the rescue team was anything but ordinary. It was a place where anything could happen. A case in point was Usato’s transformation, which I’d now witnessed firsthand.
“I can’t help it! I am worried!” exclaimed King Lloyd. “When Nack does come to the kingdom, we must make sure to visit him to see how he’s doing!”
Sergio and I nodded vigorously.
“I agree that is the best course of action!” I added.
The rescue team, known for the countless lives it saved, was getting a new member. And while we were happy for the fact—as it was thanks to the team we all had the lives we now lived—we couldn’t help but feel a little scared when we thought of the life that soon awaited young Nack.