Chapter 84: What’s Truly Important

Chapter 84: What’s Truly Important

While I was looking at Zoak who had slowly taken his last breath, I felt a faint presence coming from a nearby bush.

When I turned my eyes in the direction of the familiar presence, the bush rustled and a figure emerged.

「I came to help since I finished on my end, but it looks like it’s all over already?」

Even though she spoke in a lighthearted tone, in her hand there is a man who is being dragged on the ground like luggage.

「Yeah, it’s all over. Flora is safe too」

「……Ah, that’s good to hear」

Kurune exhaled as if she was relieved from the bottom of her heart after she saw that Flora was safe when I pointed her to Flora who is leaning on a tree.

「Alright, I will tend to your injuries now」

I stopped Kurune who was coming closer to me with her staff in hand.

「No, please attend to Flora first. She was slashed in the shoulder by Zoak」

「…What are you talking about? You’re the one who’s seriously injured, right?」

Kurune knitted her brows after she alternated glances between me, who had blood all over my body, and Flora, who had a shallow cut on her shoulder.

「I’m used to injuries of this degree. My life is not in danger, so please quickly go heal Flora’s injuries for me. I can’t stop feeling guilty when I think about how it’s my fault she got hurt and how the injury might leave a scar」

Although I do think that Kurune’s judgment is right, I just won’t feel at ease with that.

It’s because of my past that Flora got dragged into this and ended up getting hurt.

I would never accept something like me getting healed first when I’m the cause for all that.

Even though I know that I’m just trying to make myself feel better.

「Sigh…Fine. I’ll treat Flora first before you! Arguing like this is a waste of time!」

Perhaps Kurune had sensed my firm resolve, she started to walk towards Flora after she raised her voice in a fed-up tone. The man she was holding onto with her left hand was just left on the ground without a care.

「……Sorry」

「I already know that you’re stubborn in strange ways!」

She replied to me without looking back at me.

Just as I’d expect from my adventurer companion. She really understands me.

After that, Kurune began to take a look at Flora who was leaning against the tree.

As someone who is familiar with healing magic, Kurune is much more informed about a person’s body condition compared to ordinary people.

I don’t think it’s at the level of professional doctors and apothecaries, but she does know quite a lot.

…I have a certain level of understanding in that area as well, but I’m still worried when it concerns Flora after all.

「…Is there anything abnormal about Flora’s condition? She was slashed by a poison-covered blade」

「W-wait! Poison!? Idiot! You should’ve told me that sooner!」

Kurune turned her head around vigorously in the middle of her examination and yelled at me when I spoke to her with a concerned tone from behind her.

「Well, but I made her drink the antidote! I was just asking to see if there are any residual effects」

「S-sheesh. So that’s what you meant. I was really panicking because sometimes even my detoxification magic won’t work on certain poisons!」

「Sorry sorry」

I didn’t mean to cause a misunderstanding, but I didn’t explain it enough to her so I almost gave her a heart attack.

After Kurune sighed and calmed down, she started to check Flora’s complexion and pulse.

I watched her do so with feelings mixed with uneasiness and regret.

「Her complexion is a bit off, but it doesn’t look like there’s any problem since it’s getting better. I will cast detoxification magic on her just in case」

「Thank you」

After I thanked her, Kurune readied her staff and started to chant her recovery magic.

Then, her staff glowed dimly, and a warm water-colored light enveloped Flora.

「With this, the detoxification process is complete. Well, since it looks like the antidote worked properly, this will only slightly speed up her recovery process」

If that will make Flora get better faster then that’s plenty good enough for me.

「She doesn’t have any other external injuries, right?」

「Yeahh, I examined her and there doesn’t seem to be any injuries aside from the one on her left shoulder」

I was relieved after I heard those words from Kurune.

After all, Flora’s body is not as resilient as mine.

「Alright then, please treat the injury on her left shoulder」

「I know」

「Make sure you don’t leave any scars on her, okay?」

「…I’m not an incompetent wizard who will leave scars on her from this kind of injury」

Kurune chanted her recovery magic as she mumbled in dissatisfaction.

Then, a jade-colored light from Kurune’s staff enveloped Flora’s entire body this time.

The wound on Flora’s left shoulder started to close as if time was being rewound.

After a few seconds, the wound on her left shoulder turned into smooth white skin as if she had never got cut there.

「…Thank goodness. The wound healed properly」

I rubbed Flora’s healed-up left shoulder as if I was making sure of it.

Her body temperature that is the proof that she’s alive was being transmitted clearly to my hand.

「Alright, you’re up next, Aldo. If Flora sees you covered in blood when she wakes up she’ll be shocked, right?」

「Yeah, that’s true」

◆

After Kurune healed my injuries, I looked down at the man who has been lying on the ground.

「……So Kurune, who is this guy?」

「He was peeping at you and Zoak with a magic tool from outside the forest」

Kurune took out a magic tool that resembled a field glass from her pocket.

It’s a magic tool that allows one to see farther than ordinary field glasses by looking through the glass-like lens.

The magic tool is used in important scouting missions and such, but there are very limited ways to buy them, and the tool itself is very expensive as well.

This person is no doubt a lapdog of a noble who wanted to find us.

「Magical tools like this are handy, but outstanding wizards who are able to sense small traces of mana would be able to detect them easily. They screwed up by underestimating me 」

Kurune spoke proudly while she held onto the magical tool. She had really emphasized the “outstanding” part too.

Well, if the magic tool only had the range of normal field glasses, even I would have noticed their presence.

Unless they’re a top-notch assassin like Zoak, I can easily sense the presence of the other party.

I think they brought out an expensive magic tool like this exactly because they know that, but Kurune who is sensitive to the feeling of mana is here with me. That’s unfortunate for this guy.

「…Anyway, I think we should wake him up for now」

「Yeah yeah, you’re right」

After she said that, Kurune hit the man with her staff while looking a little dissatisfied.

Somehow, I feel like she’s taking her anger out on the guy since I didn’t praise her.

Let’s praise her properly afterward.

「…Uggh! Oww……」

The man who was struck strongly by Kurune’s staff sat up with a painful expression on his face.

When I thrusted my sword towards that man’s throat, he let out a short squeal.

Perhaps he came to understand the situation after seeing the sword by his throat and Kurune who has her staff ready, the man slowly raised his hands up.

Judging by how he’s vigilantly observing us despite having cold sweat dripping down his forehead, he’s probably desperately thinking about a way to escape.

「Who told you to monitor us?」

「…I-I can’t tell you that」

He showed resistance despite being frightened when I questioned him in a lower voice than usual.

「Even if that means you’re going to die?」

「……」

The man gulped and stayed silent this time after I spoke with an even colder voice and pressed my blade on his throat.

He is more loyal to his master than I thought.

An ordinary person would give in to fear and spill everything out at this point.

I stared at him with killing intent for a while.

Then, I determined that I’m not going to be able to force it out of him so I calmed my killing intent and lowered my sword.

After the man let out a sigh of relief upon seeing that, I spoke out to him.

「Your master is Clark Raymond, isn’t it?」

「――?!」

The man showed that he was clearly shaken when I hit him with those words the moment he relaxed.

If he won’t tell me even when I threaten him, I can just change my method of attack.

「……I knew it」

Kurune muttered while knitting her brows after she saw the man’s reaction.

Earl Clark Raymond.

Amongst the nobles of Avalonia, he’s someone who has a particularly strong desire to increase his social status.

He’s a calm and gentle young noble on the surface, but behind the scenes, he’s the type of noble who will employ assassins and do anything to elevate his status. In fact, I’ve heard that he climbed the ranks by thoroughly eliminating his political opponents.

I’ve also heard that he was trying to become Kurune’s fiance.

That is definitely because he’s aiming to be at the top of the kingdom.

Maybe it’s because the man gave up from the answer we arrived at; he opened his mouth as he sweat profusely,

「……Are you going to kill me?」

「If we do that, the same thing will just happen again. It probably won’t take long for people to find out that Zoak and you went missing around here. That’s why we’re going to properly negotiate without running away」

That’s right, even if we dispose of this man, their next lapdogs will come again in no time.

Things are okay this time because it was Zoak who only had an interest in me, but who knows what kind of lunatics and ruthless pursuers might come next time.

I don’t care about who comes after me, but I can’t bear dragging Flora and the people of the village who have nothing to do with the kingdom into this.

「I want you to bring a message to the Earl for me」

「……Aldo, you want to negotiate with the kingdom?」

Kurune let out a perplexed voice; she probably noticed my intentions immediately from what I said.

「Yeahh. So that something like this doesn’t happen again」

「……That’s true. We don’t want to get the people of the village caught up in all this」

It’s clear that Kurune also feels the same way as me.

The fact that she likes it here enough to have thought of the villagers first made me happy.

Since I’m about to smile in the middle of a negotiation right now, I controlled myself to not crack a smile and looked down at the man with a serious expression.

「At the very least, the achievement of bringing me to the negotiation table will belong to you and the Earl. It’s a lot better than dying here, right?」

The man slowly nodded at my cold smile.

◆

After the man’s figure disappeared in front of us, Kurune sat down beside me and looked at me, seemingly worried.

「Are you really okay with that? If you negotiate, the kingdom might impose something on you again, you know?」

「Don’t worry. Because now that I know what’s important to me and what I want to do, I won’t let them take advantage of me」

If it was me from the past when I didn’t have a clear goal, I would compromise with the kingdom in the end as long as what they wanted me to do would make me stronger, richer, or more disciplined.

However, I will now make it clear to them what’s important to me and where the line is. I have no intentions of destroying my current lifestyle even if I’m against the kingdom.

That much alone is certain.

「……Yeah, you’ve changed as well, Aldo]

「Did I?」

「Yup, you have」