CH 49

(Lucia’s pov)

It was evening time at the Devil’s Castle.

An orange sunset was setting in the distance. It was a very beautiful color when combined with the white clouds.

I was enjoying the evening sunset with my eyes, and with my hands I was processing something resembling the color of the sunset.

“What are you doing here, Devil?”

“Ugh.”

But not long after, a cold voice was heard from right behind me.

When I slowly turned my head back, as I had expected, there was a person standing in a crooked posture, looking at me with a terrible expression.

“Shu-Shud. After dinner, you said you were going to rest.”

“Yeah. I went to clean the table before then, but somehow, there weren’t enough plates.”

“Okay? It looks like there are mice living in the Devil’s castle.”

“Mice…”

Shud said, looking down at what was in my hand.

I quickly grabbed the last carrot on the plate and shoved it into Anne’s mouth next to me.

Anne ate the carrot like a rabbit.

“Is it delicious, Anne?”

“Yeah! Delicious!”

After watching Anne’s swollen cheeks with satisfaction, I came to my senses later and hid the white plate in my hand under my skirt.

“…Don’t you think it’s too late to hide it?”

“It’s too late for you to come to me. The special carrot salad you made for me is already in Anne’s mouth.”

I smiled contentedly and triumphantly as I fiddled with Anne’s fluffy bunny ears. That’s why I said I don’t like beans or carrots.

“Is that so?”

“Mhm. I’m sorry. It was a carrot dish that Shud made specially, but I couldn’t try it.”

“Oh, no regrets at all.”

I had a feeling that something wasn’t right.

Shud slowly approached me and pushed what he was hiding behind my eyes.

“This…”

Carrot salad, even doubled in quantity.

I was even dizzy at the feast of orange shimmering in front of me.

“I thought you would regret it, so I made another plate.”

“…Give it to me.”

I hurriedly took the plate from his hand and walked over to Anne.

“Anne, would you like some more of the carrots you like?”

“Hey! No! Anne is now full.”

She said, pounding on her small, bulging belly.

You’re full after eating a plate of carrots, how cute! The rabbit itself is so cute!!

“Devil.”

Afraid to be moved by the cuteness, I heard Shud’s voice from behind, like a death sentence.

Looking back, he was smiling softly as usual.

“I’ll be sure to watch so the mice don’t steal it this time.”

~*~

“Shud, you’re a tough cook…”

I murmured, gripping my nauseous insides.

Following the carrot salad, the crazy chef managed to serve carrot juice and even carrot cake as a snack and carrot sandwich for breakfast. The word carrot almost became traumatic.

“If you don’t eat and give it to Anne secretly, next time it will be a series of beans.”

He said so with a grin on his face.

That’s mean. I’d rather not eat if all the other things were bad. However, the other foods were so delicious that I had no choice but to go eat them.

Thanks to this, I had to keep up with that orange vegetable all day.

“A ruined cook.”

I muttered.

Annoyed, as I opened the door of the village house and walked in, there was Finn, the wizard I saw yesterday, a step ahead of me. I was alone without Jen.

“Oh, hello, Lucia.”

Finn bowed his head towards me. His roughly tied hair ran down his ears. I gazed at his orange hair and spat out words.

“Carrot… it’s carrot-colored here, too.

“What?”

“Sigh. Nothing.”

Finn rolled his eyes around to see if he had done anything wrong. Then he took a small crystal ball out of his arms with an “Ah” sound.

“This is it, Lucia. This is one of the most expensive and incredible pieces of research in our tower, the magic communicator~ Argh!”

“Smile!”

Finn stumbled forward as he tried to hand me the crystal ball.

The crystal ball floated up into the air, but luckily it didn’t break thanks to my proper reception.

“I’m sorry… oh! Is the communicator okay?”

“Why don’t you take care of me before this?”

“But the correspondence is a thousand gold!”

These capitalist wizards are real.

Finn looked everywhere at the crystal ball in my hand.

After a few checks, he took a step back. His face had a very strange look on it.

“Is everything all right?”

“Umm. No, I’ll be fine.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Probably.”

Maybe?

I felt something cold from his words, but I tried to ignore them.

I was touching the crystal ball in my hand, and suddenly the light spread brightly from it. I naturally put my hand on the part of the light. Then suddenly, light was floating in the crystal ball and the shape of the person was seen.

-Hello, Lucia.

“Jen.”

What I saw on the screen was Jen, the green-haired wizard.

– I’m contacting you from the Matop. Did you get the communication device?

“Yes, thank you.”

Jen began to proudly explain the crystal ball. I listened to her, giving her a reasonable answer.

The crystal ball was a communication ball used for the same purposes as the previous world’s video call.

– What’s wrong with the resolution?

Jen, who was continuing her explanation, muttered as if it was strange.

The quality was blurry and the sound glitched a little.

“Well, maybe it’s because the ball flew in the air once.”

Finn next to me flinched noticeably.

From my words and Finn’s reaction, Jen sighed as if she had guessed everything.

– We don’t have anything left in stock right now, so we’ll make a new one and deliver it to you soon. Please use this even if it’s uncomfortable until then.

“Can you make a new one?”

– Yes, it does cost a lot of money to make.

“Well, can you make me one more? I’ll send the cost through Finn.”

– Yes, sir. I’ll take care of it… Wait, Lucia-!

At the end of the remark, the crystal ball’s light went out.

I heard a simple ruse from Finn as I fiddled around with the communicator.

“Huh…?

At that time, Finn, who was next to me, approached with his mouth wide open. Then suddenly he grabbed my arm.

“What’s wrong with you all of a sudden?”

“Lucia, do you happen to…”

Finn hesitated and carefully whispered to me.

“Are you a wizard?”

As soon as I heard Finn, I grabbed him by the shoulder.

“…How did you know?”

“Lu, Lucia. Oh, it hurts…”

“How much do you know? How far did you find out about me?”

“Well, I don’t know anything! It’s just, the mana of the crystal ball naturally charged…!”

“Charged?”

I slowly let go of his shoulder, which was clenched tightly. Finn ran away from me and stuck his little body to one side of the wall.

“Well, the crystal ball is maintained by mana, so once you use it, it needs to be charged, but when Lucia touched it, it was naturally charged! So, just in case… “

“Oh.”

I looked at my hand that had touched the crystal ball. I couldn’t feel anything when I squeezed and opened my palm, but it seemed that mana was flowing out.

I was unfamiliar with mana, so I couldn’t control the flow without realizing it.

I looked up to see Finn leaning against the wall and looking at me with tears in his eyes.

“You are too much! What-what-what did I do wrong…?”

“Sorry. I was sensitive. It’s a very sensitive story for me.”

I approached him slowly and gently patted Finn on the shoulder.

Fortunately, Finn was a little surprised, but he didn’t refuse my touch. He then quickly regained his composure.

“Then why didn’t you attack with magic? If I were you, I think it would have come out reflexively.”

“What if you get hurt and my compensation gets ripped off?”

“Oh, my.”

Finn sniffled.

“By the way, Miss Lucia. You’ve never been trained in mana, have you?”

He took my hand that had been patting his shoulder and fiddled with it.

“Can you feel it?”

“Um. Yes. I think I’ll know for sure when I hold it close. It feels like mana is constantly leaking out of your body. This would be very uncomfortable.”

Finn murmured and fell into contemplation alone, yet he was still fiddling with my hands.

“Can I teach you something? It’s simple, but it would be difficult to learn without having the same wizard teach you.”

“Finn… teaching me?”

Unbeknownst to me, disbelief leaked out of my voice.

It’s good to learn mana. Even if it wasn’t with Finn, I found it quite difficult to study on my own.

It seems that I will use it more often in the future, but I was afraid that Finn would teach me to do something strange again or teach me a strange method.

No, it just wasn’t reliable.

“Do not worry! I’ll let you know!”

Perhaps reading my mind, he held my hands even tighter.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up, causing even more disbelief from me. 

‘It’s a little scary…!’