Volume 1 - CH 15

Half a year passed, and spring came.

“Well then, Seika. Did you forget anything?”

Luft, who came to see me off, said.

The luggage has already been loaded onto the carriage.

“I’ll be fine. Still, I can’t believe you’re the only family member willing to see me off.”

“It can’t be helped.”

Luft smiles wryly.

“Father is now in the Imperial Capital, Grey is in the military. Mother is…”

“I was joking. As long as I have my brother, that’s all I need.”

“You’ve gotten better at speaking….Ifa, I know he’s such a worrisome brother, but please help him out.”

“Haa, yes! Luft-sama… Huuh… Ah, I’m sorry.”

Ifa who lets out a yawn gets smaller.

“Seika, have you been studying late again?”

“Of course. You can’t enter the academy without passing the examinations. I’m not too keen on it either.”

“It’s not good to put too much effort in it. But yes, it’s a seven-day coach ride from here to Rodnea, so you’ll have …… to rest during that time.”

“We’ll be studying in the carriage, though.”

“Eh… Se-Seika-kun…”

Ifa wanted to say something, but we didn’t have enough time, so there was nothing we could do.

“But Seika seems to be very much into Ifa, too.”

Luft said with a laugh.

“Huh?”

“You gave her a necklace like that. It wasn’t cheap, was it? Isn’t it going to be rumoured that you’re dressing up your good-looking squire too much?”

“It seems that you’re misunderstanding something, but these jewel-like things are all magic stones. It’s for the sake of school life.”

“…?”

Ifa’s next goal is to ask the spirits to use magic.

For that reason, it would be nice if the spirits were always around, but unfortunately Ifa has almost no magic power, and it seems that the spirits attracted by magical power usually don’t go near her.

Therefore, instead, I decided to lure them in using magic stones, or minerals that have accumulated magical power.

The two of us entered the mountain and wandered around looking for outcrops where spirits gathered.

It was a lot of work, no joke, but thanks to that, I was able to find some reasonably good quality gemstones, so I had them processed in the city and made it into a necklace.

According to Ifa, they seem to be gathering quite a bit. That’s great. All that hard work paid off.

“Hmmm, I still don’t understand how Seika thinks.”

“I’m often told. Well, I’d better get going. Luft nii-san.”

“Be careful. And show up on vacation.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Saying that, I quickly got into the carriage.

Ifa got on after me.

“Ifa. Are you looking forward to it?”

“Yeah, I’m looking forward to it! What about you, Seika-kun?”

“Yeah, I guess so. ……”

I looked out of the carriage window.

I was imagining the otherworldly cityscape that lay far ahead.

“… I’m looking forward to it a little too.”