After officially joining the Bloodstained Blades, Miroslav came to live at my house. I didn’t want to have to come to her or call her over every time I wanted to eat her soul, so this had been my plan from the beginning. And apparently she’d prepared for it as well, because it took hardly any time for her to move.
With this, however, the dynamic between my clan members would change a little, and I’d been most worried about the relationship between Miroslav and Lunamaria. Well, perhaps it’d be presumptuous of me to say I was “worried,” considering it was my fault things had soured between them. Although she’d only done so on my orders, Miroslav had been my accomplice in enslaving Lunamaria, and naturally, the elf sage had realized as much. I’d expected things to be awkward between them.
But contrary to my expectations, no arguments broke out between them whatsoever. Perhaps now that they were both in the same boat, they shared a sense of kinship instead? Of course, they weren’t as amicable as they had been when we were all in the Falcon Blades together, but I didn’t detect any malice or anger in their tones toward each other, at least.
Regarding Miroslav and Seele, they were generally friendly with each other. The mage regarded Seele reverently, almost like her “clan senior,” and Seele respected Miroslav as her “clan junior” in turn. No problems arose between either of them whatsoever.
Perhaps the most surprising thing of all was how Miroslav and Suzume got along. Surprising in a good way, in fact: Suzume ended up becoming the mage’s disciple. As I’ve said before, demonkin horns were rare magical items that held an abundance of mana. Therefore, as you might expect, demonkin themselves were essentially mana generators and thus possessed a great deal of magical energy. But according to Miroslav, because Suzume had two horns, she had double the mana capacity of the average demonkin. In other words, she’d been born with the potential to become an extremely powerful mage.
As for why I hadn’t steered Suzume in the direction of becoming a mage until now, it was simple: I hadn’t wanted to force her to fight. On top of that, getting her used to living among humans was my top priority for now. When I’d heard that Suzume had started learning magic from Miroslav, I’d been surprised, but even more so when I’d learned that Suzume herself had asked the red-haired mage to teach her. When I’d gone to ask her the reason, puzzled, Miroslav was having her run laps, saying stamina was essential to becoming a mage. When she’d seen me, she’d given me a big grin, dripping with sweat, and explained her reasoning: “I want to be useful to you too, just like Seele and Luna and the others! I don’t like being the only one doted on all the time.”
She’d tied her dark hair up in a ponytail to prevent it from getting in the way while exercising. I could sense her determination. There was no hint of reluctance or obligation in her behavior. This girl was clearly motivated to learn magic from the bottom of her heart. Unconsciously, I covered my mouth with my hand, avoiding her gaze.
Guh! She’s such a good girl! I knew I didn’t make the wrong choice rescuing her back then! As I tried to hide the tears I inwardly shed, however, Suzume’s voice reached my ears once more. This time, she sounded troubled.
“Um...S-Sora?”
“H-Huh?! What is it?!” I cried, snapping back to my senses.
“Was there anything else you wanted to ask me?” If not, I’d like to get back to running, if you don’t mind, she seemed to want to say.
“Oh! No, there’s nothing else!” I said, shaking my head vehemently. “Sorry for bothering you! I’ll let you get back to it!”
“Oh, no! It wasn’t a bother! Honest! If there’s anything I can do to help you, please let me know anytime.” With a bow, she turned away and resumed her laps. If she’d been running around the town, I might have monitored her secretly to make sure she didn’t get into trouble, but she was just running around the grounds, so there was no need. I also considered being her running partner, but...she’d probably get all self-conscious and distracted. Leaving her alone was likely the best choice here. So I went back inside the house and, after thinking it over for a bit, hurried to prepare a bath. The least I could do was have it ready for her by the time her training was over.
Several days after Miroslav added her name to the Bloodstained Blades’ register, an envoy for the Dragonaut family showed up on my doorstep, informing me that Claudia was on her way. At first I was confused by the news. It hadn’t even been half a month since the battle with Jijinbou. Wasn’t it far too soon for the duke to make the bitter decision to part with his beloved daughter?
But surprisingly, it was Miroslav who had an answer to that. Apparently the Sauzaar Company had a branch in the royal capital, and as its scion, she knew what the company did about the word on the street. According to her, while the panic and disarray from the incident had abated within the town itself, the situation inside the royal palace was still tumultuous.
Crown Prince Azaal’s marriage to Princess Sakuya of Ad Astera had been postponed, thanks to vehement opposition from the anti-empire faction. And among that group of nobles, some were looking to have Claudia engaged to the crown prince once more. Miroslav suggested that the duke was trying to get his daughter out of town before she could get wrapped up in their schemes. If they heard that she was going to be living with me, a stray dragon knight, most people would come to the conclusion that I planned to marry her. It was a de facto engagement, really. Of course, if I was just some average adventurer, the nobles wouldn’t buy it, but when they got word that her fiancé was the oft-talked-about dragon knight, they’d probably be more inclined to believe it.
Still, from an outsider’s perspective, it’ll probably look like I’m trying to marry into their family, huh? Well...I mean, that’s just how it looks from the outside! I’m not actually planning to make her my wife. Besides, I ought to consider it an honor that I can use my presence to keep her safe. There isn’t a boy out there who hasn’t dreamed of becoming a princess’s knight, right?
Of course, in the worst case, a radical noble might try to send an assassin my way, but if that happened, I could just eat the assassin’s soul, no problem. It was no cause for concern. Thus, I set about preparing for Claudia’s arrival as much as I could before she arrived, but there was one thing that had me worried. Over the past few days, a number of monsters had been spotted around Ishka’s perimeter. In fact, the Adventurer’s Guild had been so swamped dealing with this threat that they’d passed on a number of quests to our clan to alleviate the burden a little.
As a result, I’d taken Lunamaria, Miroslav, Seele, and Suzume, in order for her to gain some combat experience, along to take a few of those monsters down, but the creatures’ numbers weren’t diminishing. Rather, it seemed like even more were showing up by the day. The rate at which they were appearing was clearly abnormal. Moreover, they were all coming from Titus Forest nearby, so some aberration had probably occurred there. Of course, the most likely candidate would normally be the Sea of Rot, but this time, the timing was too far off for that to be the reason.