“Who are you, and why were you following me? Have you been keeping tabs on me the whole time I was in the capital?” I asked.
She laughed. “Who would ever waste their time following someone like you? Our paths crossed by coincidence last night because I just happened to be consulting with the same informant. When I found out that you were digging up dirt on Claus, I thought I ought to get rid of you—just to be on the safe side.”
So, it was just a coincidence that I saw her last night at the bar? I wondered.
That must have meant that she’d eavesdropped on my conversation with the informant, and that she’d followed me out of the city for an opportunity to ambush me, then.
“I see. So, it’s not really me you’re interested in. It’s Claus,” I ventured.
“Exactly. But...you really do look like you’re related, so I guess I can believe you. You know, I’ve never met someone who could see through my disguise magic before. You must have received a pretty impressive blessing too.”
“Nope. My blessing is a farmer’s affinity.”
“Y... You’re a farmer?” she repeated, looking absolutely stunned. Both of her hands immediately flew up to cover her mouth.
“So, the younger brother is a sword god and the older brother is a farmer...? Pfft! Ah hah hah! I-I’m sorry. I don’t mean to make fun of you. Hee... Hee hee hee! Ah hah hah! O-Oh god, my stomach hurts... Pff! Ah hah hah!”
In the quiet stillness of the night, the strangely dressed young woman clutched her stomach as she burst out laughing.
She seemed to be awfully tickled that the sword god Claus’s older brother would be a farmer, of all things.
I couldn’t even be annoyed about it when she was laughing this hard.
I waited with a completely serious expression on my face for her to stop laughing, and finally, she managed to compose herself. As she wiped a tear from her eye, she looked over at me again.
She was still laughing a little bit, but she’d recovered enough to talk, at least. “Hee hee... I’m sorry, really. Heh heh! I promise I’m not laughing at you, it’s just...it’s kind of funny.”
“I don’t mind. I’m used to people laughing at me.”
“No... I’m not, though, really. But wow, that must have been horrific for you at the ceremony. I’m sure you’ve had a tough time of it since then, haven’t you? I mean, when you’re younger brother’s a sword god, people can’t help but compare you to him.”
Things had been tough since the ceremony, but to be honest, they’d been pretty tough even before then too.
A tremble ran through me when I thought about what my life might have looked like now if I’d gotten a seasoned swordsman affinity at the ceremony instead and had never been kicked out of the house.
“I guess I have, yeah... But enough about that. Who’re you? I’ve introduced myself already, so at least give me your name.”
“My name is Mielle Crawford Ettex, and I attend the same school as your brother, Claus. It’s nothing to brag about, but my affinity is sage.”
So, she’s the sage that the informant mentioned yesterday...
Despite her claim that she wasn’t bragging about her affinity, she wore an awfully smug expression.
She looked to be about my age, so I’d already had a hunch that she might be one of Claus’s party members. Now, based on how she was dressed and her motivation for ambushing me, that hunch felt all but confirmed.
“I take it you’re in Claus’s party? I guess it must be your job to make sure he doesn’t attract any unwanted attention.”
“No, I’m not in his party...yet. I put a blade to your throat because I thought he might invite me to join if I could get rid of someone who was sticking their nose in his business. But I think this turned out even better than I could have hoped for, actually. I never thought I’d get to meet his older brother.”
“So that’s what you’re after. Right. I guess Claus gets to pick who’s in his party, huh?” After a moment of thought, I nodded. “All right. I’ll give you a recommendation, then.”
“Huh? Are you sure about that? I just ambushed you.”
“Yeah, but you did it for Claus, right? From my perspective, that makes you pretty trustworthy.”
“Thank you... Truly, thank you. I’m really sorry I laughed at you.”
“Like I said, I don’t mind. But in exchange for my recommendation, I’d like to write him a letter for you to pass along. I’ll write a letter of recommendation to go along with it.”
“Of course!”
It was clear that Mielle was extremely capable, and a sage affinity was hardly something to scoff at...but it was also clear that she was still a kid who’d just barely grown up.
All I had to do was butter her up, and she was eating right out of the palm of my hand.
My plan wouldn’t have worked at all if she’d known about the bad blood between Claus and me, though. I was grateful that she seemed to not have a clue.
I guess Claus can’t exactly make all of that public—which probably explains why he’s using underground organizations to look for me.
I started writing a letter to Claus, using the light of the moon to see.
Mielle seemed eager to put her hopes in me, but my real plan was to write a letter of recommendation that would make Claus want nothing to do with her.
I didn’t know if it would actually work as intended, of course, but I could only hope for the best.
It was impossible to say just how much Mielle knew about me, but she probably had the most information out of everyone in Claus’s school after tonight, so I had to make sure she didn’t have the chance to get close to him.
I did my best to carefully craft my letters so they would seem perfectly normal to a third-party reader, but I was confident that Claus would understand the implications perfectly.
“Once Claus reads this, you’ll be set. He’ll definitely want you in his party,” I said. “Make sure you give him my other letter too, please.”
“Thank you. I’ll never forget the debt I owe you. I’ll be sure to give Claus your regards.”
“Please do.”
With that, I gave Mielle a fake smile as I saw her off. She waved goodbye to me and headed merrily back to the capital with my letters in hand, clutching them carefully, as if they were priceless. She didn’t have a clue in the world what I was scheming.
Once she was gone, I sat back down on my rock and took a sip of water.
Whew... I got lucky this time, but that was a close one, I thought.
If Mielle had known that Claus had tried to kill me, I probably wouldn’t have survived my encounter with her. Now that I knew what it felt like to be ambushed, I’d have to be a lot more careful than I’d been up until now.
Thanks to my run-in with Mielle, Claus would know for certain that I was still alive. Fortunately, I hadn’t breathed a word about which city I was living in, so that should take him some time to figure out, at least.
It was only a matter of time before he narrowed it down, though. There were only so many cities near the capital.
Mielle knew which way I’d been heading, but I was counting on Claus not listening to a word she said after she handed him my letters and my regards.
I worried about Hester and Ralph back in the capital, but I figured it was unlikely anyone would find them within the span of two days.
As I reassured myself, I looked around several times to ensure the coast was clear before I resumed my journey back to Realzahd.