Chapter 12.1

“Kate!”

Running hastily towards me from afar, my dad grabbed my shoulders.

“What are you doing?!”

“Oh, Dad,” I mumbled, feeling my shoulders go numb.

“I had no other choice. We can’t defeat that thing by sword, and I was the only magician here, so…”

“Even still… Haah, Kate.” Still in his pajamas, Dad rubbed his forehead as he sighed.

“Daddy’s old now, so you can’t shock him like this, alright?”

“I get it. Fine. But everything worked out well, didn’t it?” With a rueful smile, I swept my hair back.

But was it really the end, with just this? Since my magical prowess was nothing to speak of, it couldn’t be.

I glanced towards the dark bushes and bit my lips, worried.

“Excuse me, milord.”

“What?!”

Frightened, Dad yanked me behind his back.

Panting, the knight who had attacked the monster stammered, “Please take a look at this.”

The blade of the sword the knight had swung at the monster was corroded in black.

A shiver ran up my spine as I imagined what would’ve happened if that had touched me instead.

Perhaps because my dad had the same thought, his hands on my shoulders were trembling.

A shadow cast on his face, Sir Zion sighed and rubbed his forehead.

“Hurry up please, Tower of Magic…”

My expression darkened too.

I agreed.

***

After that night, I realized that the appearance of monsters was much more serious than I had originally thought. The thought that there was more than one of those things gave me chills up and down my spine.

Wild boars and roe deer were quite the formidable headache, too, but I thought I would prefer to have a hundred of them instead.

“You can stop now.”

At Rita’s words, I looked in the mirror. My disheveled hair was now all tidied up.

I had no idea how many times I’d combed it. Thanks to that, my head of hair that was usually frizzled looked as glossy as a spool of thread.

Since it had been a while since I wore something other than my uniform, I felt awkward, but I was sure I’d be alright soon.

“Yeah, this looks fine.”

Today was the day the subjugation team would arrive from the Tower of Magic.

Standing up hurriedly in case I was late, I ended up hitting my knee against the dressing table. Rubbing at it ferociously, I ran down the hallway.

“They’re not here yet, right?” I asked Dad, rearranging my hair in the meantime in case it got frazzled again.

Chuckling, Dad pulled me in by the shoulder.

“It looks like they’re arriving right now.”

“!”

At the end of the slope, a white carriage was coming towards us.

My heart began pounding again.

Soon, the wagon slid to a stop in front of our estate.

I drummed my hands on my dad’s shoulders, excited.

“They’re getting off, they’re getting off…”

In between the slightly opened carriage doors, a silvery-white ponytail swayed in the air.

Huh, it looked familiar, somehow.

In the next moment, my jaw dropped open.

“… Why, why is he…”

What was he doing here?

But those next words didn’t come out of my mouth.

Noah, who had just gotten off the carriage, made a small smile in our direction.

My stomach felt like it was suddenly in pain.

Two more people followed out after my senior, but there was no way they could catch my attention now.

Why was Noah here? Why?!

Dozens of question marks floated around in my head.

“Kate, is that someone you know?”

I stood there stiffly like a wooden statue, unable to even answer my dad’s question.

I rubbed my eyes multiple times denying reality, but as expected, nothing changed.

“…!”

I hurriedly inspected what I was wearing. It wasn’t dirty or ripped or anything, and it was what I would normally wear at home.

… Curses!

If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve worn better clothes, even if it wasn’t a dress. Was it a relief that I’d brushed my hair recently?

“Hi.”

Before I knew it, Noah had approached us in great strides and was greeting me, making eye contact with me the whole time.

Honey-colored eyes bent into half-moons.

“Long time no see.”

I could only open and close my mouth two or so times, unable to say anything.

I looked around nervously, feeling sick to my stomach.

It felt like a hole was going to rip through it at any moment.

***

The full story was this. As a magical genius, Noah made frequent trips to the Tower of Magic since he was young, and he was also visiting the Tower of Magic during his summer break as well.

And since Noah, who happened to be there, had as much skill as the average magician, and since they thought it would be a good experience for him, they’d brought him along, or so they said…

Master of the Tower of Magic, sir, why did you do that?

“A senior student in the Academy? Haha, what a coincidence!” Sitting at his desk, Dad burst out into chuckles.

To Dad, it might be a marvelous coincidence, but it wasn’t to me.

Especially since Noah’s eyes were boring into me for some reason to the point of his gaze feeling prickly. Trying to keep my posture straight in complete nervousness was making this conversation uncomfortable as heck.