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YULISSE never hated to work. As a girl, she often helped out in her parents’ store until Baron Merrifield took her in. She did everything from cleaning to sorting merchandise to serving tea and snacks for guests, and while training to learn all the rules and manners of nobility was exhausting, it was more familiar to her than the Academy’s textbooks. That was why she headed to the kitchen first thing to help prepare Raphael’s meal, and when he told her they’d be leaving for “canvassing” right away, she obediently checked the supplies given to her.
Soon, she found herself in a rabbit onesie, hiking along the ridge of a snowcapped mountain. She could barely hold anything because of the fluffy pink mittens on her hands, and floppy ears hung down cutely in front of her exposed face.
“What the heck?!” she cried.
Beside her, Raphael chuckled. “I do love how your eyes gloss over, and you start spouting obscenities.” His face had a distinctly smitten look, and a second pair of fake rabbit ears looked even more ridiculous on his head.
“I-I’m sorry,” Yulisse quickly apologized.
“It’s okay. Feel free to be yourself around me,” he said with a loving stroke of her fake ears. Despite the ears not being physically attached and her inability to even see them on top of her head, a chill ran down her spine. It was a thoroughly trained reaction by now.
She shook her head. “No, I… What are these outfits even for?”
Raphael pursed his lips and withdrew his hand. “Mountaineering equipment. It’s easier to walk in than a dress, isn’t it? They also help hide us from wild animals or monsters. That’s why I have a pair, too,” he added, gesturing to his ears.
He had a point. The suit was warm and surprisingly waterproof, and even her feet remained toasty and dry.
“No, I can’t let this impress me,” Yulisse muttered before turning to the wizard. “There are monsters around here?”
“Of course~! This mountain is practically oozing with mana, meaning monsters are often either born here or mutated from wild animals. That’s why our family is handling it.”
“B-But that’s so dangerous!”
Mana made little sense to her, but she was familiar with monsters—violent beasts that wielded magic.
“Don’t worry, Yulie. I’ll protect you to my dying breath~!” He gave her a thumbs-up and a wink.
“No, nuh-uh, no way! If you die, then I’m dead for sure, out in the middle of nowhere like this!”
“Ahaha! Maybe you would be!” He smirked and patted her head between her ears. There was a more solemn look in his eyes. “I will protect you, though.”
“L-Lord Raphael?”
Something about his tone made her feel he was making a more general statement than just their current situation.
“Oh, it’s nothing!” He grinned before turning away, pointing at the incline ahead and striking a comedic pose. “Just a little further, now. We’re nearly at the summit!”
She followed his gaze to find a steep cliff where no trees or shrubbery grew. Snow whipped by on the wind around it, and the visible rock face was cracked as though the slightest disturbance might send it all crashing down. He was, of course, pointing to the most precarious-looking edge of the whole affair.
Yulisse did very little thinking after that.
The wind whipped about them from all angles—kicking up snowy cyclones here, rattling there, winding every which way until it would suddenly cease. The snow danced upon the silver landscape, indistinguishable from everywhere else they’d been, save the barely visible thread of silver light leading them onwards. According to Raphael, the thread was full of his mana and would lead them to their destination. It was an ephemeral sight, but Yulisse’s indigo eyes were nearly closed from exhaustion.
“Here we are!”
Yulisse barely registered his words as her thoughts drifted to the hike home. Every step to the summit had been laced with the fear that there was ice or loose stones under the snow that could send her to her death. Her legs trembled even when she stood still, half from exhaustion and half from fear.
We have to climb down again? Is that even possible? I’m going to fall to my death for sure, aren’t I? That’s it; he brought me here to kill me.
She gazed at the horizon, preparing to accept her fate, but Raphael stepped in front of her—immediately in front of her.
“Yulie? Are you planning on helping me or not?”
“Gah?! T-Too close!” She struck without thinking, her fluffy mitten hitting him in the face.
“Hmphph!”
Oddly enough, she felt him laughing through her glove, so she hurriedly withdrew her fist.
“M-My apologies! What do you need my help for?” she asked.
“I’m going to investigate the water here,” he said as he pointed at a nearby spring. “You just need to count up all the animals you see!”
“Animals…? If you say so.”
She couldn’t imagine anything living in a place so cold and inhospitable, but as Raphael tended to the water, she dutifully turned to the path they’d just come from. Her expectations were soon upended. Two rabbits hopped up the trail first—perhaps husband and wife. More joined them, however, and she counted eight more soon after. Thinking she was somehow one of them, many rabbits sniffed interestedly at her boots before bounding toward the spring.
Before long, squirrels, foxes, and even boars joined the bunnies, all of whom drank from the spring before rushing back down the mountain. Their pelts seemed somehow glossier on the way down.