LP 1.7 The Most Glorious Knight

Of course, at first, he naturally said he couldn’t do it. I can’t, I don’t even know what it is. But Merda was persistent. What do you mean you don’t know? Are you just pretending? You said you couldn’t fix my brother at first, didn’t you?

Merda was definitely a completely different person from Kosha. First of all, she was skilled at threatening people.

“Are you really going to do this? Then I won’t help you even if Beorn bullies you from now on.”

Beorn was the eldest son of the blacksmith and Merda’s brother. He often picked fights with Kosha for no reason, and Merda stopped him once or twice out of ten times. Could that even be considered help? When Kosha hesitated, she changed her strategy.

“I’m not going to use it for anything weird. It’s for my lover.”

The fact that Merda was seeing some man who lived in the castle was an open secret that only her father didn’t know.

Whoever he was, he was said to be quite high-ranking and wealthy, but well, Merda was the most beautiful woman in the village, so it wasn’t strange for her to meet a man with good conditions…

“I want to get married now. But he doesn’t seem to be proposing, so what should I do? Besides, his attitude has been ambiguous lately.”

Then, she even shed tears and tried to evoke sympathy.

So, she was going to feed her lover a Love Potion to get a proposal? That… that’s a bit much, isn’t it? That question flashed through his mind, but Merda was really relentless. She chased him for three days and nights, repeating threats and appeasement, and Kosha was completely exhausted.

“Okay, okay. I’ll try. I can’t guarantee it.”

It was a very defensive acceptance, but Merda didn’t seem to hear the ‘I can’t guarantee it’ part. Anyway, she didn’t come to find him anymore from the next day, so he felt a little better just from that.

The only problem was how to make that potion.

A potion that makes you fall in love with the first person you see when you open your eyes after drinking it? How is that even possible?

No, more than that, what is love anyway?

Love was not a concept suitable for a single-fixed magic potion. That’s because it has no clear substance or standard. Maybe there are a hundred standards of love if there are a hundred people. Or maybe two hundred, or even a thousand.

And Kosha’s short life had much more than love. Most of them were things that would be at odds with love. Of course, he had never had a lover. So he knew nothing about love.

After a long and intense deliberation, he finally thought of Lucian.

It’s already been several years since he started chasing after him whenever he heard news of him after he picked up the apple that day, right? He didn’t seem to get tired or bored. No, rather, he seemed to like him more as the years went by.

That noble man who seemed endlessly brilliant and without a single flaw.

Just thinking of him made Kosha feel excited. On days when he got to see him in person, it felt like things went better that day for some reason.

Even meals that were made roughly to fill his hunger seemed a little more delicious, the geese seemed to listen a little better, and the wounds he got while working seemed to hurt less and heal faster…

Isn’t love something like that? Kosha reasoned rationally. What’s the difference between liking something a lot and loving it? You’re happy, you feel energized, and you want to live a little harder, even in small ways…

In the end, he made the potion using that feeling as a material. There were a few minor difficulties ―

How should I set the conditions to react to the first person you see when you open your eyes after drinking it? What if you drink it with your eyes open? What exactly does drinking mean? When the potion touches the tongue? When it goes down the throat? When it settles in the stomach?

― But then he finally created something.

He added a very small amount, really a small amount, of ‘impulse’ and ‘conviction’ along with the best emotions he knew. But since the potions Kosha made in the first place weren’t very potent, it couldn’t be seen as a very significant degree.

It was just… honestly, he couldn’t guarantee a proposal, but it was a mild potion that wouldn’t hinder Merda’s romance at least.

“Thank you, thank you so much.”

Merda was overjoyed. She even grabbed Kosha’s head and kissed him on the cheek. His long-neglected hair was disheveled, and his bangs were almost down to the bridge of his nose, so her lips were practically pressed on his hair, but Kosha was shocked and jumped back.

“W-what are you doing? You have a lover.”

“What does having a lover have to do with it? It’s just a kiss. You’re funny.”

Is that why Beorn keeps bothering you? Merda giggled, saying something incomprehensible.

“When I become a noble lady and live in the castle, I won’t forget your contribution.”

He asked her not to, so please keep it a secret that he made it, but she didn’t seem to listen very carefully. But by then, Kosha had become a little dull, and he thought loosely that nothing had happened so far, so what could happen this time.

And that was the end. After that, there was no particular reason to meet Merda, and Kosha was sucked back into the tedious vortex of making a living and forgot about it…

“How on earth did Lucian get that…”

Kosha sighed and rubbed his face with his wet hands. At the same time, he thought that he should find Merda right away tomorrow morning. He managed to solve it this time, but it could have been a disaster.

Besides, what about the fact that Kosha being a Mage was exposed to the high-ranking people in the castle? He was released for now, but what will happen in the future? Even if Lucian is merciful, will the other people around him be?

Kosha already knew very well how persistently cruel the ‘high-ranking’ people could be…

I should never use magic again. I’d rather starve.

…But what if something happens that I have to use it again? Like the blacksmith’s youngest son has a high fever again.

His chest felt heavy as if he had indigestion due to anxiety. He poured water on his face as if washing it to clear his mind, but suddenly felt a sense of incongruity. The hand that was rubbing his face stopped and his fingertips slowly groped his cheek.

“……”

A mage’s skin is weaker than a human’s. His cheek, which had been beaten without any protection, should still be stinging when it touched water.

Kosha brushed back his wet hair and reflected his face on the calm surface of the water. His cheek, which should have been swollen, was smooth.

“Uh…”

Kosha looked down at his hand in embarrassment. The water pooled on his palm had a subtly greenish tint. He carefully removed the bandage wrapped around his fingertip. A smooth new nail was neatly in place where the nail had been lifted and tattered.

“Uh, uh?”

When he checked his shin, which had been submerged in the water, the area that should have been mottled with bruises was only white.

“Why, why is this happening.”

Why is this leaking…? He instinctively crouched down and hugged his arms, but his body wasn’t a leaky bucket, and he couldn’t possibly stop the overflowing mana with his palms.

In the meantime, the bathwater was filled with light overflowing from his body and was completely sparkling.

And in it, his body was recovering. The bruised and scraped skin, the inflammation underneath, the swelling in his ankles and knees subsided, and the pain in his neck and back gradually faded.

Kosha had never used magic to heal his body. Healing magic is a lot of work, but it only accelerates the natural healing process of the human body a little. He didn’t have enough mana to begin with, so there was no reason to use it just to heal a few days faster.

And mana is just power, so in principle, it cannot move independently of the owner’s will. But now his mana was overflowing around Kosha like an independent living creature, healing his body and seeping into it at will.

It wasn’t much different from the feeling of his limbs moving on their own.

“Why is this happening all of a sudden?”

But there was no one to answer him even if he asked. In the shining bathtub, Kosha floundered for a long time, not knowing what to do.

---

“You’re participating in the evening banquet starting today?”

Mylotte asked, stopping while checking the pile of letters.

Dealing with the backlog of work during his seclusion made the day pass quite frantically. The sun had long since set when he finally had a moment to breathe.

Lucian nodded lightly. He was wearing a simple shirt with a short dark blue velvet courtyardy over it and a black leather belt. It was an outfit without any accessories. The buckle of the belt had a metal deer antler pattern, but that was it.

“It’s hard to postpone it any further, isn’t it?”

“That’s true, but…”

The servant draped a cloak over his shoulders. The edges of the dark blue cloak, which matched the courtyardy, were embroidered with gold thread in a thorny pattern, but it wasn’t noticeably flashy.

While the servant pinned deer antler-shaped pins on both sides of the cloak’s collar and connected them with a chain, Lucian tied and secured a scabbard to his belt. Then he turned around as if to show off.

“Do I look sick?”

“…You look incredibly healthy.”

Mylotte replied weakly. Lucian laughed.

“Really? That’s a problem.”

He didn’t seem to think it was a big deal at all.

Anyway, he had been secluded for quite a long time. It was to deal with the magic potion incident, but he couldn’t just blurt that out. Lucian’s position was not that stable yet.

He didn’t need to admit that he was caught up in a magic problem in Ostbrahe Castle, where there was a strong aversion to magic, especially since it was his base, Kallot.

So, in the end, he made the excuse of being sick. It was a ridiculous lie that no one would believe. Mylotte, who rarely tolerated such sloppiness, was very distressed, but Lucian was calm.

Who cares about truth and lies here? There are only necessary words and unnecessary words.

And well, strictly speaking, it’s not a lie, is it?

The experience of the past ten days or so has been quite bizarre.

He ate something strange, but in terms of his physical condition, he was at his best. To the point where he had completely eliminated all kinds of poisoning possibilities. Rather, he was too light, so he had to restrain himself, and he achieved excessive results at that hunting gathering.

So, Bastian, that jerk filled with inferiority complex, had already fully anticipated the things he would nitpick and say.

While thinking in his head that the pig was talking too much, he could just smile on the outside and pass it off with something appropriately hypocritical like, ‘I was lucky. I’m still far from being like you, Your Highness.’ That’s what he actually intended to do, and he had never had any difficulty with such things.

So, when things that should have only been in his head popped out of his mouth on their own, it wasn’t just Mylotte and Gosrick who doubted their ears.

To put it bluntly, it was one of the top three most embarrassing moments in his life. It felt like his tongue was moving beyond his will. In the end, he even felt a subtle sense of absurdity.

But funnily enough, that absurdity wasn’t that unpleasant.

Of course, it wasn’t intentional to stab the servant’s hand with a fork. But it was fun after he stabbed it. Yes, that’s right, ‘fun’. ―

I should have done this sooner. Why was I putting up with this?

It was only after he left the scene as he pleased that his mind came back a little… but it wasn’t completely back either. ―

What is it?

―

Oh, this is going to be difficult.

―

So what, it’s fun.

Three kinds of impressions were mixed up in a haphazard way, making it difficult to make an accurate judgment. In other words, he was a bit erratic.

That’s what’s sick, I guess.

“Where’s Bastian?”

“I managed to settle it with compensation that far exceeded the value of the ruined servant, but he’s still strangely quiet. There’s been no reaction since that day.”

He’s not the kind of person who would stay still with such an issue. And no one would believe the ridiculous excuse that he was bitten by a snake during the hunt and had a fever and was talking nonsense.

“Money is good, isn’t it.”

“If it’s good twice, even Kallot will have its finances shaken.”

Mylotte frowned. Lucian laughed again. What, just with that?

“Anyway, it seems like he’s being careful for some reason. He seems to have something up his sleeve. …Do you still think it was Bastian’s doing?”

There was still no clear idea about who was behind this incident. In fact, it would be right to say that there was no time for that.

Immediately after the incident, Lucian had to clean up the ‘accidents’ he had caused, and then, in any case, the first priority was to restore the lord to normal.

And in these kinds of things, the longer the time passes, the more the evidence scatters and the tails are cut off…

“Hmm, maybe?”

Lucian loosely affirmed. In the first place, there are only a few people who have the motive and resources to bother attacking Lucian. Arabella, one of them, was not in the castle now…

“It seemed like he was planning something from the time he held that mediocre hunting gathering at a time when it wasn’t anything.”

Of course, he can move as much as he wants even if he leaves the castle. Using drugs was also a method that Bastian often used, and considering that they had just fought like dogs over the Ordus City tax issue not long ago…

“…Then that Mage too.”

Mylotte, who had been watching him carefully, opened his mouth cautiously. The eyebrows, which were perfectly shaped on his clean face, twitched.

“Ah.”

Mage. Right, there was that.

The moment he thought of that word, he suddenly felt a slight tingling in the back of his neck. It was probably the remnants of the annoyance that had accumulated over the past ten days.

Lucian didn’t really like Mages to begin with. He wasn’t compatible with that arrogant bunch in the first place.

The only thing that was somewhat pleasing was that there were not many Mages left in this land, and that they were the ones who were closed off and lived only among themselves.

Of course, their power is quite useful. No, to express it that way is an excessive understatement. Their power is…

“If Bastian has obtained a Mage, that’s… not something to be taken lightly.”

Mylotte carefully chose his words. Of course, Lucian agreed with him on that point.

Their power is too much to intervene in human society. Their existence itself is unbalanced. Perhaps that is why the number of that species has decreased as it entered the age of humans.

So, the aversion to magic that is prevalent in the human kingdom of Izelant, the center of it being Ostbrahe, is actually closer to awe than contempt or hatred. If not, why would each of the successive kings of Izelant have a Mage attached to them?

“What did they say? If you get a Mage, you get two steps closer to the throne?”

Lucian calmly recited. A saying like a rumor that floats around Ostbrahe Castle. A belief like faith that has accumulated over a long period of time among those who have shared the blood of the king.

Well, if you can get a proper Mage, the throne will be more than just two steps closer.

“But he leaves the Mage he got outside the castle?”

Lucian frowned slightly and sneered. Mylotte retorted a little more uncertainly. In fact, it was his duty to refute his lord’s words.

“There are many eyes watching in the castle? Rather, it’s easier to hide…”

“Bastian was born in the heart of Ostbrahe. There’s no way he can’t find a place to keep a Mage here.”

Anyway, Bastian was the child of the legitimate first queen and also the child born after the current king ascended the throne, so Ostbrahe was like the palm of his hand. Such a person would deliberately keep a Mage outside? No matter how much he had to hide it, there’s no way.

“If that bastard had a Mage, there’s no way he would have just held that kind of hunting gathering.”

Of course, he wouldn’t have been satisfied with using such crude drugs. He wasn’t the kind of person who would test the waters and act, even if it was reckless.

The person behind this incident is definitely that bastard. But was the inclusion of ‘the power of magic’ in this incident something he had planned?

Does he know exactly ‘what’ Lucian ate?

“…That Mage. What is he doing?”

It was a sudden change of topic, but Mylotte was always prepared with an answer.