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HOW should I act around Edward now?!
Amy had spent many hours worrying about this, but her concern ended up being unnecessary. They both got so busy after that day, there was no spare moment for them to meet.
As they ostensibly continued sending letters back and forth like normal, Amy’s agitation eventually settled down, and her memory of that time in the carriage started to feel more like a dream.
Ed surely must have forgotten about it…right? Yeah, it’ll be fine! I have to focus my efforts elsewhere today, anyway! Amy tried to convince herself as she refocused her priorities.
The athletic tournament was starting today.
This time around, she wouldn’t be there as a spectator—she was participating as a healing magician on the medical staff. Amy had requested and been scheduled for full-time shifts while the tournament was being held.
As she ate breakfast with her family, Harold, who was supposed to participate in the tournament the next day, came up in conversation.
“What?” Amy asked her father in disbelief. “Have Harold and the others really not arrived yet?”
“That’s right. We received word from the guild last night that Harold’s party would be arriving in the royal capital late tonight at the earliest.”
Harold and his party had been hunting along the way as they journeyed toward the Kingdom of Luducia, but it was taking longer to get here than they had planned.
“They’re so late because they got word of a rare magical beast appearing on the other side of the kingdom they were traveling through, so they made a pit-stop,” Joshua continued.
“I can’t say I’d expect anything less from Hal,” said Isabelle. “But they defeated it, so they should make it back in time for their match tomorrow, right?”
“I guess it’s a good thing Harold didn’t have any matches scheduled for today,” said Amy.
The tournament took place over three days. The qualifying matches were completed a few days prior, and today they were holding the individual matches for the finalists.
The team competition was scheduled for tomorrow, and on the last day was an exhibition of sword dances and artistic magical techniques.
The tournament was only held once every three years, so there were always a great number of participants willing to risk it all and throw down the gauntlet. Amy, who had been helping with preparations as Sir Dion’s assistant, had seen many such participants. When she thought about them, she got a little worried about her brother’s lackadaisical attitude.
Amy still felt ill at ease about the situation.
“But forget about that,” said Isabelle, pointing to the plate in front of Amy. “Don’t worry about your brother. You’ve got to focus on more important business today. Here, eat a little more. You’ll be healing a lot of people today, won’t you?”
Using magic drained the reserves from one’s body. Amy’s stomach may have been full, but if she didn’t eat a little more, she’d definitely run out of magic before the day’s end. If that happened, not only would she not be able to perform healing magic, but if she were to collapse, she’d just be adding more work for Sir Dion and the others.
“I am eating!” Amy protested. “D-Dad, you don’t have to do that!”
There was no need for Joshua to silently pass Amy his own dessert!
“Are you sure? Didn’t you say more people would get injured today than yesterday?”
“I did, but it really is fine. I’ve got some cott nut snacks, so I don’t need anyone else’s food.”
As Amy munched on her food, she considered the day ahead.
The matches in the tournament would look like real fights, but there were strict rules in place. Some attacks were banned, and the weapons they used had to have blunted blades to avoid any fatal accidents.
But even in normal sports, injuries were a frequent enough occurrence. And with the participants competing for high stakes with such intensity, unforeseen accidents were almost guaranteed.
As a member of the medical staff, Amy had been stationed in the first-aid room during the qualifying rounds, and she had been incredibly busy with the constant stream of injured people.
There would be fewer people competing during the final stages than at the preliminaries. However, they would be competing at a considerably higher level, and whether they used swords or magic, the blows would be much harder.
With the looming possibility of more severe injuries, Amy and the other healing magicians had to take all possible precautions.
“I really hope no one will get injured at the tournament…”
“That’s quite a big ask, don’t you think? But you’re not the only one stationed in the first-aid room, are you, Amy?”
“No, Sir Dion’s always there, and everyone else is on rotation. Oh! That reminds me…Finn will be there starting today.”
“Finn… Oh! That’s Sir Dion’s apprentice, right?” asked Joshua.
“He’s more of a successor than an apprentice, right, Amy?” Isabelle added.
Amy nodded at her parents, gulping down the thick slice of bacon she had been chewing.
Finneas Hamilton was Sir Dion’s top pupil. He was also, perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the love interest characters from Amy’s otome game.
Out of all the love interests, Amy had figured out the prince, the hidden character, the aristocrat, and the foreign prince—the only two remaining mysteries had been the magician and the knight.
Amy kept going back and forth on the subject, first thinking, “At this point, we’re bound to run into each other, so I might as well get it over with…”, and then thinking, “No way, I’d rather avoid it altogether!”
But in the end, Amy couldn’t stop the meeting from happening.
In the opening screen of her game, the magician had been the only character who had a hood drawn over his head, obscuring half of his face. She could remember that he wore a monocle, had violet eyes, and had long, braided, platinum-blond hair.
Although she couldn’t be sure if Finn had the same facial features, it was quite rare for someone to match those three characteristics exactly.
There he is! Amy had screamed internally when she first saw him. His looks are so striking and distinctive, he has to be one of the characters!
It had been quite some time since Amy had started learning magic from Sir Dion. She’d heard that Sir Dion had an apprentice, but she never actually met him before. This was both because Sir Dion never brought him over to the Northland estate for lessons because Amy was a minor, and because roughly one year ago, Finneas had left Luducia to do magic training abroad.
His return home had coincided with the start of the tournament, but his temporary absence during tournament duty had been the reason Amy had started helping out with the first-aid room at all, so they had only met in person very recently.
He didn’t seem to be a particularly skilled conversationalist, only exchanging greetings and speaking as little as possible.
His instructions, however, were very precise, and he was incredibly accurate in both his work and his magic. He reminded Amy of the club presidents of the after-school clubs who looked out for her in her previous life, so she ended up jokingly calling him “boss” the same way she used to call them.
But Sir Dion’s students actually did end up having a sort of sibling-like mentor-mentee relationship, so the nickname “boss” wasn’t going totally off the mark.
Finn didn’t exactly object to it, either. Whenever she’d call him that, he’d just give her a pat on the head. He surprisingly seemed to have taken a liking to her.
There was a reason why Amy wasn’t extremely wary toward him, even though he was probably one of the love interests.
The fact that he’s connected to Sir Dion is rather comforting, but also…
“I just can’t believe that he’s the father of a young child, with that youthful face!” Isabelle exclaimed.
“I’m sure Finn would insist that you’re calling the kettle black,” said Amy.
But Isabelle wasn’t wrong. Although Finneas looked like he was the same age as Edward, he was actually three years older than Harold and married to boot.
Two years ago, he’d married his childhood friend, and they had recently had a child together when they went abroad for his training.
Even though he was very likely one of the love interests, Amy couldn’t imagine that Finneas, a sincerely devoted husband and famous magician in some parts of the world, would get tangled up with either the heroine of the story or the villainess.
“Amy, isn’t it about time you head out?” asked Joshua.
Amy jumped.
“Oh no!”
“Hold on! Finish your tea first!” cried Isabelle.
Amy quickly finished the rest of her breakfast in preparation for a full day of performing healing magic.