CH 75

Silver-haired Maiden, Requesting of the Rose-coloured Princess.

From then on, Rose started living in one of the rooms at the 『Ocelot』. The reason she rarely left her room, was probably because she understood her current position. And even when she would sometimes leave her room, she would be wearing her wig.

Living like that, she couldn’t even go outside to use the bathhouse. Thus, it’s become that she has to use the simple bath at the back of the 『Ocelot』. Wind stood watch on Latina’s command, so that there was some sort of safety insurance.

Rose didn’t show her discomfort for even that, but as expected, due to the discomfort from wearing a wig on top of her wet hair, you could see her show off her long brilliant, rose-pink hair when she was drying it.

Rose tried to be in a place where people couldn’t see her when she would dry her hair. She used to be in the kitchen, but it soon moved over into Dale’s room in the attic because Latina had requested Rose, who was an excellent magician, to teach her.

It seems that Rose was also bored these days, with nothing to do, hiding inside. And if she was to teach, then having a serious student like Latina who responded to that, got her more and more passionate.

In other words, despite her appearances, Rose was Spartan.

In truth, up till now, Latina had never 『learned』 outside of a calm environment. Ever since back when she was in school, the way that people taught her, Dale, the one who taught her magic, and the teachers, from Tisroh and Cornelio-sensei etc, had all been calm.

In comparison to that, Rose was harsh. It wasn’t unreasonably harsh, but as someone with such great 『combative strength』 and magic, she held a disciplinary stance not only to others, but even to herself.

“….Yes. It seems that you’re fine with the basic theory of magic, Latina-san.”

Latina stood up straight, right in front of Rose who was critiquing the report that she had written the day before. It wasn’t that she felt uncomfortable, but there was an atmosphere around that had naturally made her adjust her posture. Normally, Rose gives off an atmosphere of, if one had to say, calm and friendliness to her surroundings. You could probably say that, that was exactly how sincere Rose was towards the thing known as 『magic』.

“Although you’re of the Demon Race, Latina-san, you left your hometown when you were young, right? Despite that, I feel like you have a high understanding towards the difficult words and phrases?”

“Is that so? Maybe it was because…. the adults around me…. Used a lot of difficult words?”

Nevertheless, compared to how she had been initially, Latina’s vocabulary has deteriorated to mostly simpler words.

When it came to it, Rose was tolerant, and Latina had an amicable personality. Rather than friends, they had a sisterly relationship; Latina relied on Rose and, Rose would happily look after Latina.

The absolute difference between Dale and Rose was that, when Rose is serious, she would be nothing less.

Well, because of that, the two of them became fairly friendly.

“On the contrary, it doesn’t seem like you know many offensive magic spells.”

“Un. Dale, you see, said that they’re dangerous so I don’t need to learn them, which is why I didn’t.”

“For people like us, whose pure strength cannot extend to others, magic is our biggest method of self-defense. If we use it wrong it would become a dangerous power, but that’s exactly why it’s important to get a deeper understanding of it, and to understand how to master it.”

The reason why Rose was a great teacher for Latina, was that the two of them possessed the magic attributes of 『Holy』 and 『Dark』, which meant that the magic they could use were the same as well.

“Since your control of magic is excellent as well, don’t you think that if you were to increase the amount of spells you could choose from depending on the situation, you would be able to lessen the amount of danger you face?”

“Yes.”

She looked serious as she tightened up her expressions and answered, but it was probably her innate personality which made her look vaguely charming.

In the midst of that, until Latina had requested it, the only thing she was taught by Rose was 『Purification Magic』 — in order words, a 『Holy』 magic that deals with the Undead.

Since it was something that had scared Latina when she was young, she wasn’t great with undead monsters. It was quite a big trauma.

Since Dale wasn’t suited for the Holy attribute, he couldn’t use 『Purification Magic』. The magic that he can use against the undead, was to enchant his physical attacks with 『Dark』 magic. Which means that whether one can look straight at the undead monsters, close in on them and beat them up, was the problem. It was precisely because she was scared, that Latina had wanted to know how to deal with them, so that was much too difficult for her.

“I think that if you’re the one doing it, Latina-chan, you would be able to expand the scope of this spell by several times after casting it just once.”

“You think? I’ll try my best to learn it.”

For the sake of overcoming her trauma, Latina worked her hardest at practising the spell.

“Say, Latina.”

“Yes~”

Dale, who had been looking at such a Latina, opened his mouth in doubt, sitting at a certain night’s dinner.

“….You’re learning magic with such enthusiasm…. You’re not going to say that you’ll be an adventurer in the future right?”

He thinks anxiously. You couldn’t say that she was a top grade 『magician』 as of yet, but Dale could see that she had more than average ability.

She had more than enough ability if she was really thinking of working as an adventurer.

However, he didn’t want her to work in such an unsteady and dangerous occupation. That was probably the 『heart he had as a parent』.

“Eh? Hmmm… I was thinking that it might be nice, you know, to be an owner of an owner just like the 『Ocelot』. But you know, I think I want to go out on a trip again. I want to go around all over the place, to all those unknown cities…. To see granny and Maaya-chan again.”

With that answer, he was relieved for the moment.

“….A while back, you know, I had wanted to go with you on your jobs.”

“Eh?”

Hearing Latina’s speak of that with a slightly troubled smile on her face, Dale was taken aback.

“I hated staying home…. If I could go together with you on your job then, I probably wouldn’t have to stay at home.”

Latina says that, and laughs. Dale looked troubled, realising that he had made her tolerate this ever since she was young.

“….Sorry.”

“No. I didn’t want to trouble you, Dale.”

After trying to avoid the situation with a smile, Ehehe, Latina unexpectedly made a serious face.

“However, you know, it was only after I grew up that I also realised that it was impossible.”

“Eh?”

“If, I was to go together with you then…. I would only be a hindrance. Which is why, you know, I decided to stay home properly.”

“As a magician, you’re quite splendid, you know, Latina? You don’t have to be humble with yourself….”

Even though he didn’t want her to become an 『adventurer』 or anything, the reason why he had mentioned the opposite was because he didn’t want her to look down on herself too much.

He wanted her to value herself, above all else, as important.

“No. It’s because I understood that Dale was truly amazing. I don’t have that much magic power…. I don’t have enough 『power』 to protect Dale. Besides, I think that, when a truly dangerous moment comes up, Dale would definitely worry more about me than yourself.”

“Well, that’s obvious.”

Dale answered immediately. Seeing her own 『guardian』 being so predictable, Latina smiled.

“See? That’s why, I can’t help you out with your job Dale.”

He had understood that he had made her feel lonely, as well as made her wait.

However, because this child was a clever, understanding child since she was young, he had a tendency to make light of that.

“….I thought that you would understand, Latina.”

“Hm?”

“It made me SUPER happy, when you would welcome me with a 『Welcome home』, you know?”

Latina made a surprised expression at Dale’s words, before forming a gentle, relieved smile.

“Nnh….. that’s true. It’s important to have a 『place』 to say 『Welcome home』, right?.”

“Yeah. That’s why, you’re definitely of『help』 to me….”

Even though he was relieved that Latina had a bright expression on her face, he thought in the corner of his heart.

(This child…. Truly has seen… many things….)

Despite that, ‘Why, is she so 『clueless』 about herself’, he thinks as her 『Parent』 and sighed, half in worry.