CH 91

[Sword Master’s Childhood Friend]

*Drip, drip* With the feeling of warm drops of water dripping on my cheeks, I feel my lost consciousness gradually returns.

My head is on top of something warm and soft, giving me comfort.

“…Frick-sama, wake up, wake up. I beg you, please wake up! I hate thiiis!? Wake up, please wake up!”

I can hear the voice of a girl crying and screaming with my hearing that has restored slightly.

However, the voice is muffled as if it is submerged in water and is very hard to hear.

Is someone crying…?

Come to think of it, what happened to me?

If I remember correctly… I was fighting against Abyss Walkers that was manipulated by the lot of the mine.

I remembered that I used my magic power and physical strength to the limit, fighting a close battle against a group of Abyss Walkers.

Afterward… I lost consciousness——

“Don’t die… please don’t die. I beg of you, please wake up! Frick-sama, please!”

As the muffled voice gradually becomes clearer, it dawns upon me that the owner of the voice is Noelia.

Eh? Why is Noelia here…

I should have told her to wait in Devon Village though.

I wonder since when did she come here.

I can’t move at all, but I can feel warm things flowing into my body from Noelia’s hands that are touching my cheeks.

This feeling, is Noelia casting healing magic on me?

I had healing magic casted on me before, but this time it feels particularly comfortable.

“I still do not know anything about Frick-sama. That is why, I hate this way of parting. I want to know more… a lot more about Frick-sama.”

My eyesight hasn’t recovered yet, but I think that the warm water droplets falling on my face is the tears overflowing from Noelia’s eyes.

It seems that she hasn’t found out that my consciousness has returned, as she is emotionally pouring out words that she has hidden in her heart.

“I still don’t know what kind of child Frick-sama was, where and how grew up, what are the things he likes, what kind of foods he likes, who… is the woman he likes. I want to know all about Frick-sama and I want to stay with him forever.”

Her words, mixed with her real feelings, reach my ears, and added with the fact that I’ve been facing her while hiding my true identity, hesitation begins to grow in me.

However, at the same time, the complete change of Alfine whom I loved; the days I spent with her who had turned into an existence that despised me spread in my mind, filling up my heart with bitter things.

I’m sorry… as expected, I, have no confidence to accept Noelia’s favor.

I’m truly… sorry.

My old wound, which is aching every time I remember Alfine, and my feelings of wanting to accept Noelia, who is really worried about me, are jumbled together.

After I put on a lid on the feelings that had sprung up in me, the effect of Noelia’s healing magic kicks in, returning the freedom of movement to my body.

Then, after opening my eyes with a *pa*, I smile at the crying Noelia and open my mouth,

“Thank you, Noelia. I’m saved thanks to you!”

“Hyaau!? Frick-sama!? You have woken up!? Uh, uhh, uhhh, uhhhm! D-d-d-d-d-did you hear what I said earlier!?”

The face of Noelia, who is shedding tears from her eyes and is looking at me with surprise, is flushed red from embarrassment.

“What you said earlier? What was it?”

I pretend to be ignorant and lie, but I feel my heart grows heavier as my lies to her increased by one.

“You see, Noelia just confe—— Fuah!? Release me, Dimol! Release meee!”

I see Dimol catch Cinzia in his beak with a lightning-fast movement and flies away.

Noelia, who is watching such figure of Cinzia, mumbles something while wiping her tears, and let out her usual smile.

“N-nothing. There is no problem if you have not heard it! It is okay. Right now, Frick-sama is lacking in magic power, physical strength, and blood, so I would like to suggest you to rest for a while.”

Noelia holds my cheeks down strongly as she said that.

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t intend to do something that reckless at all, but…”

“Truly. To fight against a lot of Abyss Walkers at once, I have never heard of something like that, you know.”

Noelia who is holding down my cheeks swells her cheeks and put on an angry look.

“It was just a little slip-up…”

“Because of a slip-up, you fought against Abyss Walkers, it made my heart beating so fast in nervousness. If something happened to Frick-sama…”

“If something happened to me?”

“I—— w-we will end up losing the trump card against Abyss Walkers. Frick-sama has to realizes the value of his power——”

I feel that the strength of Noelia’s hands that are holding down my cheeks has become a little stronger.

“Ahrigt, ahrigt. I’ll be careful in the future. I won’t be this reckless again.”

“Promise?”

Noelia brings her face closer to mine and looks into my eyes.

“Ahh, I promise.”

“Understood. I will keep those words in my heart. Well then, since Frick-sama’s injuries has not healed yet, please sleep for a while. I will do the clean-up neatly.”

Having said that, Noelia closes my eyes with her hands and starts chanting magic.

Then, I lose consciousness once again.

The next time I woke up, I was at an inn in the city of Inbahanes.

I was told that the white robed people who resided in the mine all committed suicide by taking in poison after Cinzia caught and tried to interrogate them.

It seems that no one survived, we couldn’t find out where those foreigners came from.

They probably were instructed in advance by their leader to take in the poison if the information was likely to be leaked so that everything could be covered-up.

Moreover, they did a very through cover-ups; before the eyes of Noelia who prioritized my treatment, the fort they used as a headquarters exploded on its own, the facility itself caved in and destroyed along with the new Rahaman mine, and it seems the village where the workers lived were wholly buried in a landslide.

The beastmen who helped with digging the crystals had escaped in advance, so the fact that there was no victim was the only saving grace.

And the reason why we, who were at the Rahaman Mine, are now at Inbahanes is because when we returned to Devon village, we were taken in half-forcibly in the name of the joint cause investigation of the Adventurer’s Guild and Inbahanes Magistrate as the only witness to the Rahaman Mine explosion.

It seems that in the place of me, who wasn’t fully healed and still unconscious, Noelia gave a logical explanation even while shading off the involvement of the Radcliffe’s family in the investigation interview, so we weren’t treated as the culprits, and the talk was settled with the conclusion that the mine collapsed due to a dust explosion.

In truth, she could have pull out information about Radcliffe’s family involvement and blame them, but since all the information showing their involvement were just speculation and the beastmen who weren’t here couldn’t possibly give testimonies, Noelia drew back and picked a political settlement—— so I was told.

Therefore, it seems that we were not considered to be the masterminds of the mine explosion and were let go just as its witnesses, and the matter wouldn’t escalate into a conflict between the Frontier Count family Radcliffe family.

However, it is beginning to become apparent that the group of foreigners who use Abyss Walkers and the Radcliffe family are plotting various things under the surface of the kingdom.

I decided to hurry to investigate the eyewitness testimony of Abyss Walker found in other regions in order to obtain definitive evidence that the two are connected.

Currently, we are getting ready to depart for our next destination – Algren in the north where there was a sighting information.

“Really, the Radcliffe family spared nothing to erase all their tracks. To think they would blow up everything that neatly and cleanly…”

Perhaps Suzana gets angry remembering the attitude of the Radcliffe family’s Magistrate at the investigation interview, as she receives Noelia’s clothes with a huff and folds it neatly.

“It cannot be helped. We cannot declare that it was the scheme of the Radcliffe family just based on the information that we have…”

“You’re right… if we at least have the body of an Abyss Walker, we might be able to take a different approach. But they were blown up and completely buried under a large amount of earth and sand. It just means that we’ve been had by those lot.”

“It was so close isn’t it? …But this time, the opponent was one step ahead of us.”

Noelia looks at me with a slightly tired look, but without her, there was a possibility I could have been decapitated as an adventurer who had blown up the mine.

So, for the case this time, I feel extreme gratitude toward her.

“But thanks to Noelia, I managed to get through the crisis, so I’ll definitely do my best to get a lead on Radcliffe family in the next sighting location, Algren.”

Now that the Rahaman mine, which was their research site, has been blown away, it is very dangerous to stay for a long time in Inbahanes, where the influence of the Radcliffe family is strong, so we are rushing to pack up to leave this place as soon as possible.

“That is right. I have also handed letters to the beastmen in the area of Devon village who knew the situation to some extent and were thinking of moving to Youg Hannotes so that they could get assistance from my father, so let us depart to the next destination quickly.”

Noelia herself is aware that the fact we could tide through this time was because a lot of coincidence overlapped, and knows that this is the situation where the enemy might send assassins to kill us at any time, so we have to leave this territory as soon as possible.

“Really, you saved me. I truly feel bad that I was just sleeping as the person concerned.”

“Please don’t be, just by the fact that Frick-sama wiped out the Abyss Walkers that were there and remove the possibility of them scattering throughout the kingdom and cause catastrophes itself is amazing! That is why Frick-sama should be proud!”

“Thanks.”

“Friiick, I’m done preparing the luggage, you know~. Quick, let’s leave.”

Cinzia, whose main body was loading the luggage outside the inn, perches on my shoulder and hurry me to leave early.

Even without being rushed by Cinzia, Noelia and I are almost ready to depart.

“Ahh, we’re ready. Shall we depart? Next is to go to Algren.”

“I understand. Let us get information about the involvement of the Radcliffe family for sure this time.”

“That cold place, huuuh? I think I’ll spend more time in Frick’s cloak.”

“Dimol and Diedur in the garrison must have been waiting eagerly, you know.”

With each holding our own luggage, we leave the inn, get on the carriage, and head in the direction of the garrison to stop by and pick up Diedur and Dimol.

On the way, I can see a large crowd of people in front of the branch of the Royal Guard Knight Order.

I wonder what is up with that crowd.

Is it about an information related to the explosion of the mine?

“Sorry, but I’m a bit curious about that for some reason, so I’ll go take a quick look.”

“Wait, Frick-sama.”

Having gotten curious about the crowd, I jump out of the carriage and push through the crowd; then a bulletin board comes into my view.

After skimming through the content written there, I feel the ground on which I’m standing swaying.

“It seems that the Sword Master Alfine was executed for an attempted assassination on the commander of the Royal Guard Knight Order in the Royal Capital. That Sword Master seems to have cut Gile-sama.”

“Although Gile-sama got a big wound on his back, his life was saved. At that time, many Royal Guard Knights were injured acting to shield him.”

“It seems that she recently had been sick and was ongoing medical treatment, but to cut the commander of the Royal Guard Knight Order, had she gone crazy?”

Every time I heard the voices of the residents who are looking at the bulletin board, the ground swayed so much that it became difficult for me to stand, and I dropped on my knees.

“It’s a joke… right… there’s no way something like that… Alfine was executed… it’s just a bad joke right…”

Reading that Alfine was executed for an assassination attempt in the bulletin board, her figures who had been with me since I was a child disappeared one after another from my mind.

No matter how rash Alfine was, to brandish her sword against a noble…

What the heck is going on!

Really, what did you do! Alfine!

Did you really die… that’s a joke… right? Alfine.

Due to my ragged breathing, my consciousness becomes dim, and the figure of a headless Alfine appears fleetingly in my hazy vision.

“Frick-sama!! How did this happen! I-is this a seizure like before!? I will immediately cast a healing magic!”

Noelia grabs my shoulders and pulls me back out of the delusional world.

“I-I’m fine. I just got a little dizzy. Rather than that, can we take a detour to the Royal Capital? There is something I want to confirm.”

“Royal Capital…!? We will get near there on the planned route toward Algren, so it is fine. Are you really okay? Your face is ghastly pale…”

“Ahh, I’m okay, thanks. Then, let’s change our destination to the Royal Capital.”

I forcibly put strength into my weakened body, and return to the carriage with Noelia’s support.

Alfine… why the heck did you do something like that…

I don’t understand… Alfine.

Having lost my composure due to the news of the execution of the Sword Saint Alfine, I decided to rush the carriage, and headed straight for the Royal Capital.