CH 117.1

As had been the case lately, Cloud won the duel against Lorraine. The moment he kissed her, he felt the flow of magic targeting him.

‘Attack? Or observation?’

With Cloud’s mana-strident body, he could only feel the flow of magical energy, but he couldn’t figure out his opponent’s intentions.

Still, what he could do, at least, was to trace back the flow of mana to its conjurer.

Cloud parted his lips and propped his head sideways. Just when he touched, grasped onto the mana to reverse the flow of magic.

The magic that was aiming at him suddenly died.

‘Observation it is, then.’

He concluded seeing how quickly the observer had slipped away with their spell.

‘Who is it?’

Wizards, for a matter of fact, were rare creatures.

Not only did it require high intelligence, but it also required an aptitude for mana.

As for the wizards staying in Lupus right now, Leslie, Eri, and the wizard of Lorian’s party were the only three.

So it was very likely that one of those three was the culprit.

In terms of motive, the wizard of Lorian’s party was the most likely. From their point of view, Cloud was the enemy.

“What? Why did you suddenly stop?”

Lorraine was puzzled as he had plucked away his lips no sooner than he had joined them.

Cloud asked her.

“I have a question for you. Does your party’s wizard know how to use observation magic?”

“Wizard? Are you talking about Grace?”

“Grace, Nabal, whatever, can they use observation magic?”

“Uh, we’ll..? Maybe? I’m not sure.”

As Cloud had suddenly asked while clasping her shoulders, Lorraine, embarrassed, answered involuntarily. Soon, she gasped, wondering why she was made to answer.

She was about to say something but Cloud covered her mouth with his index finger.

‘?!’

The touch of his fingertip on her lips startled Lorraine, and she froze.

Either way, Cloud continued with his train of thought.

‘The remaining candidates are Leslie and Eri… As far as I know, Leslie doesn’t know how to use observation magic.’

Conversely, Eri has [Clairvoyance].

All circumstantial evidence pointed at Eri as the culprit.

Except for one question.

‘Why would Eri?’

Why would Eri use [Clairvoyance] on him?

Surely it wasn’t for the purpose of spying on him, had something happened?

Not likely.

If that was the case, there was no reason to erase the magic spell in such a hurry.

When he couldn’t come up with a good reason, Cloud sighed as he caressed his forehead.

Whatever the reason, the important thing was that Eri ended up seeing him and Lorraine kissing.

That meant that a very annoying and difficult situation had been spawned.

‘I guess she won’t tell Katarina right away.’

Eri wasn’t even close with Katarina.

To put it bluntly, she wouldn’t encourage turmoil within the party.

‘Even if she can’t help but curse.’

He had to work something up.

‘But for what excuse?’

He couldn’t talk about his covert plan, so he had had to come up with a plausible excuse…

Which just didn’t worsen the situation more.

While Cloud was struggling, Lorraine’s brows furrowed looking at him frowning.

‘What happened? Why did he go still?’

Not only opted out of kissing on the wee but was also frowning?

‘Could it be that I have bad breath?!’

Still unable to get out of her perplexity, Lorraine forgot what Cloud had just asked her.

She put her mouth closer to the palm of her hand and sniffed her own breath.

‘I don’t think it’s bad…? Not really…’

Come to think of it, she should have brushed her teeth before coming.

‘No, then what’s the problem?’

While Lorraine looked deeply concerned about him, Cloud, having halted his train of thoughts, opened his mouth.

“Let’s end here for today.”

“Huh?”

Lorraine’s fine brow wrinkled.

“What’s wrong with your expression? Wouldn’t it be good for you if I ended it up here?”

“Huh, right. How many times do you think I’ve been harassed by you so far? It has nothing to do with you teasing me, right?”

“For something like that, your response was fresh every time.”

“Ahh, noisy! Anyway, winning you is more important to me. So finish it quickly and duel again!”

“I’m no longer in the mood.”

Cloud shook his head.

“What, what…?”

At that, Lorraine gaped.

Her clenched fists trembled.

“…Am I bothering you, too?”

From Cloud shaking his head, her brother’s face, who shook his head saying he was busy, overlapped. A wave of sadness came and dampened her heart.

‘Why is everyone like this?’

Looking at Lorraine, who suddenly looked hurt, Cloud felt embarrassed.

Did it hurt that much just because he wanted to finish early today?

‘What should I do?’

It would be counterproductive to say he was ready to duel again.

Allow things to go back to normal on their own?

‘Well, that’s being too optimistic.’

As time ticked and Lorraine’s expression did not seem to improve, Cloud scratched at the back of his head and said to her:

“Yeah, I’m not in the mood for that today, so let’s just take a walk.”

“…huh?”

Her downcast face was stained with wonder.

When Cloud confirmed that he couldn’t feel the flow of another mana spike, he grabbed her hand almost as if snatching it.

“Let’s go for a walk. Together.”

He started walking with her in tow.

“Uh… uh??”

Lorraine’s gaze widened, but she was drawn to him, her footstep falling in behind him.