Absolutely Do Not Touch Eldmia Egga

Chapter 25: Ties

This where?

The commander’s tent inside the field camp of self-titled ‘Marquis Lavien Escort Group’ set up on Ogwen’s outskirts.

I who?

Scaredy-cat Eldmia who got overwhelmed by the atmosphere and got dragged along without a single squeak at Lagnis’s forceful attitude telling me to follow.

No wait, how did this make any sense? Really, the little girl called Lagnis I knew was nowhere to be found, and she was literally a noble incarnate itself. Did nobles’ early education begin at age 1? It was so unbelievable just how she had managed to hide that kind of an air and lived until now that my heart shrank itself to an incredible degree and hid itself.

The carriage the soldiers were guarding was for escorting Lagnis. I got led by Lagnis, who directly climbed aboard the carriage as if no other word besides the suffocating greeting was needed, and had shivered in fear wondering if I was going to be kidnapped all the way to the capital like this, but that thankfully didn’t happen. According to what they said, apparently we would be staying for about 3 days to get resupplied from the city and also to receive the report about the kidnapping from earlier.

The people who had ridden horses were five, but the people who were riding together with us right now were only two. Sir Ekav and Lagnis’s teacher. Effectively, these two headed the escort group. The other people seemed to be their lieutenants.

They wanted to directly hear from Lagnis about the past events. That meant not only Delt’s kidnapping attempt but all of the footstep that Lagnis had walked past after the marquis’ fief was wrecked, and Lagnis, who had predicted this and had holed up in the room spending the time organizing her story while waiting for the escort group, very neatly and clearly organized up the events she had experienced and conveyed her story.

Only after things got cleared up once like that, words just finally began going back and forth on casual and personal topics.

“I haven’t ever imagined that Lady Marquis would be at Ogwen.”

I, who in that long time sat like an abandoned sack of hay and was even slurping a cup of tea cautiously in fear of even going to the bathroom, couldn’t understand at all just why I had to be here and was distraught, but they talked amongst themselves as if something like the poor Eldmia wasn’t even on their minds. Although I did in truth hear from Lagnis ahead of time in the carriage that it’d become like this, and that she wanted me to be understanding since this was an unavoidable formality when talking with a noble and someone who wasn’t a noble, it was a fact that I didn’t feel comfortable as a newly promoted scaredy cat.

Apparently Ekav Tusin Orgatorph, the King’s 3rd Sword and one of the Knight Captains of the Royal Knight Order, had a tie with the late Marquis Levien since a long time ago. The late Marquis was the very first to warn of the change in the Demon King Army, and Ekav was someone who had properly contemplated the Marquis’ assertion and raised his voice with him. They naturally couldn’t help but meet frequently.

It would be awkward to call it thanks to that, but it seemed that that relationship wasn’t something so light to stop him from unhesitatingly asserting for himself to lead a show like this.

“I ended up here by chance as I recovered myself, Sir Ekav. This is also where Sir Ekav happened to visit 6 years ago, no?”

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6 years ago should be the time my village got wrecked, so could he have visited before to investigate? But there wasn’t particularly anyone who came all the way to the village when I actually thought back over my memories, so he might have simply stayed at Ogwen and gone back after getting briefed about the situation.

Ekav merely affirmed Lagnis’s words with a light nod and no other words. I wondered if she had touched upon something uncomfortable for him, but as if he simply wasn’t very talkative, Lagnis actually didn’t mind it even a bit and turned the conversation to her teacher. They all already knew about each other, and the main focus of the talk was them, so the talk just continued without any particular self-introduction.

As expected, there wasn’t particularly a place for me to squeeze in. I desperately wanted to see Asileye.

“I will make sure to repay over my entire life the goodwill honorable teacher gave in helping this disappointing apprentice.”

“There isn’t something like that in a teacher-apprentice relationship.”

Whitely aged hair and long beard the old man grew at least were the looks of a true natural-born mage itself, but instead of a pointed cone hat and a robe, he wore a leather armor that seemed sturdy just at a glance and a cap with a hood, and had on a sensational look with several bottles, a magic tome, and a one-handed sword that was a bit questionable to call a longsword and a magic staff each on his belt.

Although it was literally a look a mage who fought on battlefields might possibly have fit himself with, it was simply terrifying seeing how a senior with his age vibing off his face was wearing that while maintaining an enormous mountain of muscles like some kind of a macho-bodybuilder. It looked like it’d fit really well if I slipped sunglasses on him.

He, who was exuding an air whose description was written as ‘aged’ and felt like should be read as ‘survived’, was one of the few handful of grandly accomplished battle mages. Although the pressure he gave off was no joke and enough to make most bastards drop their eyes when passing by, and although his speech and tone were also of the same kind, he was an absolutely sensible person.

“Not even the Kingdom’s laws differentiate us as strangers. We are ultimately the same as one family, so how could I do this work while receiving compensation from you? Think only of striving forwards and succeeding the late Marquis.”

To think he personally searched around on his own foot to unearth talented people and was that passionate about raising students despite looking like he’d stress physical education more than theoretical education, I once again realized that, as expected, you cannot judge people based only on their appearances. While I quietly exclaimed to myself like that, the old man looked at me unlike the others and began speaking.

“Rather, I should be repaying my debt to that young man who helped you. It’s rather late for a greeting, but do please understand since the thing called noble brats’ decorum is a bit like that. I’m a mage called Radnellvandes Akrisan. Lagnis’s magic teacher called ‘Rad’ because of my simply complicated name, and the owner of an unremarkable library.”

“I’m Eldmia Egga, sir. You must like books quite a lot.”

“Hm? Ahahahah! Oh I see. You’re a warrior.”

I simultaneously floated up the thoughts ‘was that ‘library’ not the library I know of?’, and ‘seeing how he’s confident that I’m a warrior, was it a code word of mages?’ up in my head and got confused, but Lagnis immediately added on an explanation from the side.

“Mages call their personal research labs ‘libraries’. Because the mage guild building’s name is Magic Library.”

Looked like it wasn’t the magic tower or whatnot type of structure seen only in fictional stories. When I processed that while thinking how it was also the same that the profession called mages lived with books glued to them, Radnellvandes who heartily laughed spoke as if curious.

“By the way… you certainly should be of a young age, but you’re simply astounding. Will you also become an adult this year?”

“I still have 2 years left, sir.”

“Huuh. 14 years old, you say? Isn’t that the same age as your daughter, Ekav?”

“…that is correct, sir.”

Perhaps simply few with words, Ekav began looking over me closely as if I piqued his interest even as he answered shortly. Though, the one actually continuing the conversation was Radnellvandes.

“Just killing that combustible waste of a bastard called Delt in a single strike is surprising, but my world! A fortitude to jump from a drake to another drake without any magical aid?! How did you get up the courage even while seeing the clouds and the grainy scenery spreading beneath your feet?”

“I merely thought that the drake pilot would be able to help me since there actually was some room for falling from the height being especially high, sir.”

“Hahaha! It looks like the Imperial Holy Council picked the wrong hero!”

Really, even his laugh sounded hearty enough to believe him to be a barbarian warrior instead of a mage. Could the mages of this world in truth all be like that? I’d never personally met a mage besides Asileye and the visitor I’d briefly seen when I was young, so it wasn’t like I could tell even a little.

“Of course, that bit is certainly surprising, but killing the 4 lackeys that bastard called Delt brought also can’t be passed aside lightly. They had enough skills to even pass the knight exam according to that guy’s words. Have you already attained aura at that young age?”

“No. I was merely lucky, sir. I relied everything from start to finish on luck, so it would be an embarrassment to call myself skilled.”

Aura users could recognize other aura users. Lagnis also knew of this fact and so showed a really puzzled reaction when I lied like this, but didn’t say anything even as she got even more puzzled when Ekav didn’t say any word.

“You’re humble as well. But even just your tempered body is simply exceptional. Just who did you receive your teachings from?”

“I have as my teacher an elf adventurer whom I met when I was young, sir.”

“An elf? I’m absolutely not trying to look down on elves, but I’ve never seen an elf muscular like you, though?”

“My physical training was, well, it just somehow happened, sir.”

“Huuh. If the knight brats knew that a body that can just somehow become like that exists, they would all bawl their eyes out.”

Either because he wasn’t a noble or because he had that kind of personality from the start, he didn’t mince his words even with someone who was a captain of a knight order right next to him. And Ekav, who was contemplating while paying no mind to it at all as if he was familiar with those unrestrained words of his, threw a question at me.

“I also can’t help but agree with Master Radnellvandes. When did you begin your training?”

“I started it at 8 years old and have consistently continued to the points that wouldn’t negatively affect my growth, sir.”

“8 years old? Are you of a knighted house?”

The moment I was nonchalantly going to answer since it was a thought one could easily think of, Lagnis grabbed my hand and stopped me. When I turned to her wondering why, she looked at my eyes once with a rather serious look, then answered instead of me.

“He is the sole survivor from the Demon King Army’s attack 6 years ago. He has trained himself for the revenge of his dead parents and villagers.”

“What?!”

“There was a…?”

Ekav, who had been showing only reactions at a level of opening his eyes wide unlike Radnellvandes who was jumping with shock, looked at me with a weird expression.

“…the shrine.”

“Eh?”

“The two graves made next to the small collapsed shrine. Corpses of bandits. Five? No, was it six?”

Goosebumps seriously stood. Was this guy not a knight but a shaman? Even though Radnellvandes and my markedly flustered gazes poured down on Ekav, he merely muttered with a disbelieving expression.

“That was you…? No, how could an 8 year-old do that?”

Holy hell. That story before about coming to Ogwen 6 years ago was him personally coming and scouting at my wrecked village?

When I turned my head and looked at Lagnis, her expression was unchanged. It was a look that had already predicted it all.

She merely, without a word, put more strength into her hand holding mine and grasped it.

TL note: I’m a fucking idiot with time management. A fucking idiot. For the time being, please expect about 1 chapter per week. As for the day of the week for the release date, do please excuse me from being unable to tell you because I’m a fucking idiot with time management. I’ll let you guys know the more precise dates when I get the routine down better. Sorry.