“We’ll make our barriers the same color as Kuntz’s shield.”
When the barriers around Sara and Haruto turned brown, there was a big reaction among the knights. Of course, it seemed Haruto wasn’t very good at tinting his barrier, seeing as it was a slightly different color and seemed to shift between a few different hues.
“I wanted to show them this. A visible demonstration,” Liam said. Even if Trilgaians already used magic, it was easiest for them to understand things they could see with their own eyes.
“Can we allow them to attack you like they did in the Hunter’s Guild?”
“That’s fine, but their attacks will go right back to them, so just make sure no one hits hard enough to get hurt.”
Of course, naturally the knights got more and more serious as this test went on and people did start to get hurt. Was that just the nature of people who made fighting their livelihood?
Glancing to the side at a knight who collapsed to his knees and downed a potion, Allen strolled into Sara’s barrier with a cup.
“You should replenish your fluids a bit, Sara. You’re getting thirsty, aren’t you?”
“Thanks.”
“Gimme some too...” Haruto reached out, maintaining the same barrier next to her.
“If I must.”
Allen was nice enough not to tell Haruto to conjure his own water.
“Hold on a second. How come it reflects our attacks, but Allen can just walk in?” a keen-eyed knight said. The rest of the knights all stared at him and Allen smirked.
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you, Allen?”
Ignoring Haruto’s exasperated comment, Allen explained to the knights, “Sara’s barrier distinguishes between friend and foe. No enemy can get through, but anyone considered an ally is free to enter and leave as they please.”
“That’s why the knights couldn’t get in that one time? We were considered enemies? I can’t believe it...”
The knight who crumpled to his knees again must have been part of the mission to Camellia. Sara felt like she had to explain how she’d felt back then.
“I’m here helping out now, but several years ago, the knights used a paralytic on a person, on Nelly, and I still haven’t forgiven you for that. Back in Camellia, I had the feeling you would be careless using the paralytic against monsters too. My apothecary teacher, Chris, felt the same way. That’s why we had so many antiparalytics prepared back then.”
There were probably several people here who had participated in that mission.
“Just as we expected, it wasn’t just the monsters who were paralyzed during that mission but several Hunters as well. The knights were also the ones who got in my way when I was trying to protect the town. For a long time, the knights were not allies who protected me but people who brought harm to me and the people close to me.”
She didn’t go as far as calling them enemies, but her statement that the knights were not allies to her, an Invited, seemed to shock them greatly.
“It may be right to work toward defeating monsters more efficiently, but is it right to use Hunters like they’re disposable? It’s right to take in children without parents, but if those children are able to support themselves and aren’t asking to be taken in, is it right to take them away by force? Liam, what do you think?”
This was supposed to be a lesson on the Invited’s barrier magic, so how had it come to this? Sara found the feelings she’d been holding on to for all these years finally spilling out of her mouth. It had turned into her grilling Liam in front of everyone, which was awkward for Sara too. She opened her mouth to deflect but received an answer first.
“I don’t think what I did was wrong. I’ll spare no effort to defeat monsters in an efficient way, and if there are people in my reach I can help, I will always reach my hand out to help them.”
Other knights were nodding here and there.
“But after meeting you and running into you several times, I realized that the people I’m meant to protect have their own will, and even if they’re not doing the right thing, as long as they’re happy, it’s probably for the best. Even if they’re not doing the right thing.”
She didn’t think she’d done anything so wrong to merit saying that twice.
“You might not have thought it was right, but it was right for me.” Sara was direct in her response.
“Not many women can talk to the vice commander like that. Well, Sara’s direct with the commander too.”
She was a little annoyed at what had happened, but Haruto’s comment helped to calm her down. Liam shrugged his shoulders and smiled as well.
“We can’t return to the past, but if the same thing happens again, I promise to listen to what the other person says.”
The combative glint in his eyes seemed to say that he would listen, but he wouldn’t necessarily do what they wanted. Sara wasn’t backing down, but Liam wasn’t either. That was a good summary of their relationship, she felt.
“Well? Would you like to try it?” Sara held her hand out to Liam, a combative glint in her eyes as well.
Was he an enemy or an ally?
The field went quiet as Liam took a step forward, then another. Sara’s barrier seemed to sway hesitantly for a moment before letting Liam smoothly through. Liam reached out and firmly grasped the hand Sara held out to him.
“So I’m an ally?”
“Just barely, I’d say.”
Her smile was strained, but the field erupted into cheers anyway.
“Wait, this is supposed to just be a barrier lesson, isn’t it?”
Even Haruto’s comment was drowned out.
If the knights did wrong in the future, Sara would likely continue to repel them, and she didn’t think of them fully as allies yet. Still, she wasn’t going to unilaterally view them as enemies. For the sake of Ann, who was clapping along despite not really understanding the situation, she decided to consider her relationship with the knights more carefully from now on.
Sara didn’t think it was the knights of all people she’d be learning Trilgaia’s history from, nor geography, nor literature. But she was able to understand just how strange her own behavior had been now, given that she didn’t share the same knowledge base as everyone else here.
“I feel like I finally understand why everyone says I have no common sense.”
She was accompanying Noel on his attempt at a mid-level floor in the dungeon on a break from her lessons with the knights. Noel wasn’t strong enough to challenge the deeper floors of the dungeon yet, but he went to the higher floors pretty regularly.
“That’s good. It’s not as if it’s necessarily a bad thing to be without common sense, but everyone’s been worried, since it doesn’t help your reputation much and it means you could get taken advantage of.”
Practicing with his shield beside her, Noel dutifully gave his response to Sara’s muttering.
“I’m kind of surprised you can use that shield, Noel.”
“I am too. It’s thanks to Kuntz showing me how more than a few times.”
Ann was on the same break and wanted to go into the dungeon herself, so Haruto was accompanying her. Sara had promised to gather plants with Noel, and Allen and Kuntz were tagging along as their guards.
“Sara, could you color your barrier again?”
“Sure. I’ll make it green this time.”
Sara colored the barrier that she was currently casting around her and Noel. She left it translucent, of course, so they could still see their surroundings.
“I know it’s dangerous in the dungeon, but it feels a little strange to practice my shield inside your completely safe barrier.”
“You’ve got a lot of mana and you’re good at using it, so I think you’ll be able to put it to practical use pretty soon.”
Noel put all of his talent toward being an apothecary, but if he wanted to gather plants himself like Sara or Chris did, he’d have to get good enough at physical strengthening or magic to protect himself. He fully understood this, so he was putting in the effort to be able to gather on his own.
“The upper floors were a treasure trove of medicinal plants. I wonder about the middle floors.”
“It’s my first time here too, so I’m excited to find out.”
Wham!
They were already getting attacked by horned rabbits, but when Sara crouched down to pick up the rabbit at her feet, she exclaimed at the same time as Noel...
“Mana herbs!”
These grew aboveground as well, of course, but there were fewer of them around than there were healing herbs.
“Dungeons really are treasure troves. Why did apothecaries stay out of them until now?”
“I mean, probably because they’re dangerous.”
As the group chatted about meaningless things, they stopped here and there to gather plants. Allen and Kuntz took turns watching them and hunting horned rabbits and meadow wolves.