“Is this something you know?”
“Maybe.”
Lamia ran her fingers along the gold embroidery on her pocket.
"This radial pattern of embroidery is the old style of the Kingdom of Stony. It's like drawing a magic circle. And here..."
Lamia spread her palms wide over her pockets and felt the mana.
“...I use magic to preserve the mana contained in the items in my pockets so that it doesn’t escape.”
She opened her pocket.
Inside the bag were several marbles, like toys children play with.
"The wizards from the Kingdom of Stony often put mana stones in pouches like this. Stones filled with mana."
Lamia picked up the small bead and carefully examined its transparent interior.
Although she never learned magic properly because she left her family at a young age, she was a descendant of the royal family of the Kingdom of Stony, a magical powerhouse.
There were many things related to magic that she was familiar with, even if she didn't know how to use them.
“It’s a well-refined mana stone.”
“Are you saying that it is the property of a wizard from the Kingdom of Stony?”
Just because a kingdom falls doesn't mean its culture disappears.
It's surprising that items from the Kingdom of Stony, located at the southernmost tip of the continent, were discovered in Ronheim, the northernmost city of the continent.
“Anyway, it seems that it is certain that an outsider has visited.”
Callius was looking for outsiders.
It was highly likely that they were related.
Granada hurried back to the castle to report this.
However, Granada and Lamia realized that they had wasted too much time coming down from the cliff.
The sun was setting, and the wind was picking up.
“It’s going to snow.”
Granada clicked her tongue as if it were a disaster.
Ronheim, where snowstorms often occur at dawn even in summer, was currently experiencing a short autumn.
As the sun set, the wind became very fierce.
Although it couldn't compare to the terrifying winter winds that often shatter stone walls, the autumn night winds of Ronheim were no less lenient.
Even in Granada, a human couldn't endure the threatening winds and go through the dark forest where one could not see ahead.
She pointed to a small cave she had discovered as she descended the cliff.
“I guess I’ll have to spend the night there.”
“There was a cave over there! Thank goodness.”
Even though she didn't have a single blanket, Ramia, who had lived as a gypsy for a long time, was not afraid of homelessness.
She just sighed deeply at the unexpected turn of events and urged Granada on.
“Go quickly, quickly. Go quickly and rest quickly.”
“There are fewer complaints than when you ask someone to catch a bear with their bare hands.”
“It was a desperate situation, but in this situation, sleeping in a cave is a matter of survival.”
It was said that there is no complaint about things that are done to make a living.
Granada walked forward, thinking that it seemed like it had taken good care of its disciples.
'By the way, I'm sure Madam is worried.'
The employees of Ronheim Castle were trembling with anxiety in the ominous atmosphere.
The knights were searching Ronheim for Andrew.
Rumors spread by word of mouth that there was a traitor and that war might be waged.
In such an atmosphere, a splendid Miris decoration was placed in the castle's main hall, in the most visible location.
The rich arrangement of red, yellow, and green leaves stood out quite a bit in the stone castle, which was made up entirely of dull gray walls.
The Marchioness's thoughtful efforts to calm the employees' anxiety made them reverently calm their hearts whenever they passed by the Miris decoration.
“As soon as I entered the castle, I saw that, and for a moment I thought the Saintess had returned.”
“That’s right. Saintess Ilya often made flower arrangements with Miris stems...”
The servants passed by the Miris decoration.
“How can she be so good at arranging flowers?”
"That's right. It looks particularly lush. At Arrental, they make flower arrangements that look so lush."
“It could just be Madam's taste.”
The maids passed by, admiring the sight of the long, pointed, colorful leaves of the Miris stems hanging down like the hem of a voluminous dress.
A moment later, another group of hired hands stood before the Miris decoration.
Just then, a breeze blew from somewhere, causing the flexible and light stems of the Miris to flutter, and a golden vase appeared briefly through the cracks, then disappeared.
“That vase looks very familiar.”
“Do you see that?”
"Just now, the stems were blowing, and I felt a slight tinge. Why does it feel familiar? I think we had something like that at home too..."
The maid, who had been tilting her head, seemed to have lost consciousness while talking about the vase and started talking nonchalantly about something else.
“Oh, my mother also heard the story about the traitor, so she arranged Miris flower arrangements on every shelf in the house.”
“Your house too? My house too.”
“No kidding. When I walk into the house, it feels like I’m walking into a forest.”
"It's fortunate that it's a plant that grows all year round. If only mothers could feel at least that reassured..."
Another group passed by the Miris decoration.
So many people came and went in the main hall.
Among them, someone with a keen eye stood in front of the Miris decoration, bent down, and looked carefully at the vase at the bottom of the stem.
“It’s very similar to the Holy Grail...”
It was at this moment that he lifted the stem of the mistletoe a little to take a closer look at the vase.
A passing chef slapped his hand.
"Oh, my. Where are you going to touch it? What if it breaks? We're in big trouble, big trouble."
It was an ominous sign that something meant to bring peace and good fortune was broken.
“No, just a little bit...”
“Oh my! I told you, this is going to be a disaster! What if something goes wrong? What if?”
The chef let out a groan. But she couldn't bring herself to say the worst, thinking that words could be used as a warning.
Still, what she wanted to say was conveyed well enough.
At the chef's unusual persuasion, the servant, who had been particularly interested in the vase, quickly took a step back.
“Yee, yes.”
"Let's go to the kitchen and have some tea. The lady gave us some tea she gave us as a gift."
The servant quickly withdrew his attention from the vase and headed to the kitchen with the chef to get some warm tea.
'I must have seen wrong. How could the Holy Grail, which the Master has been searching for so desperately for so long, be right there?'
That would be like a dream.
No one would have dared to imagine that the Holy Grail, long stolen and lost, would accidentally return.
Even Mainz, which resembles its older sister Granada, has a good sense of humor.
"With the vases resembling the Holy Grail adorned like this, it feels as if the divine protection has descended upon Ronheim. It feels reassuring. As expected, our Lady is a thoughtful woman."
Mainz passed by, smiling proudly.
Granada Villano, the one with the sharpest eye in Ronheim Castle and more familiar with the Holy Grail than Callius, having guarded Saintess Ilya's side.
During her absence, the Miris decoration stood tall in the main hall of Ronheim Castle all day long.
That evening.
“The maid and Lamia are late.”
Leviche kept looking out the window towards the castle gate and said.
I was starting to get worried when Granada and Lamia didn't show up even after the hour they were supposed to return.
“Are you having so much fun hunting that you don’t even realize how time flies?”
Thinking back to the annual hunting competition held at the Arrental Palace, I thought it might be true.
Of course, I've never attended one, nor been near the competition venue, but during the hunting competition season, the entire palace was filled with joyful laughter.
Thinking back on that atmosphere, hunting must have been so much fun that I didn't even realize how much time had passed.
But Leviche, after hearing what I said, shook her head firmly.
"That's not possible. Hunting is so arduous and dangerous. I doubt they wouldn't come because it's fun."
Leviche lamented that one of her younger brothers is a hunter, and that she felt sorry for him as he went out hunting every morning.
Only after listening to her for a while did I realize that the Imperial Hunt was a completely different experience from the hunters risking their lives to survive in Ronheim.
'I'm still so ignorant!'
How fortunate I am that I didn't speak rashly.
My face flushed with shame at my ignorance.
“Besides, the sun has set already. It would have set earlier in the forest...”
Leviche stamped his feet in worry.
I was worried too, but I tried to comfort her.
"Granada and Lamia. They'll definitely be safe. The wild beasts would run away in fear at the mere sight of Granada."
When I imitated Granada's sharp gaze, Leviche burst into laughter.
I appeased her and sent her home from work, then finished getting ready to go to sleep alone.
Now I'm pretty used to washing and changing clothes, so I can do it on my own without anyone helping me.
I was doing my job with such pride.
A gust of wind, which had managed to sneak in through the gap in the window, blew out all three candles that Leviche had left lit in the room.
It happened often, so I wasn't surprised. But it was embarrassing because it never happened when I was alone.
I had no choice but to try to light a fire in the fireplace with a flint, but it didn't work.
'Lamia has already taught me this four times.'
After trying several times, I ended up hitting my hand on a rock.
"Ouch!"
I hit it so hard that blood started flowing from my hand.
Tears welled up in my eyes.
It was painful, but I was also overcome with frustration at not being able to do something, no matter how hard I tried, and a sense of helplessness at not being able to do something that everyone else could do.
Once you become sensitive, everything becomes sensitive to you.
A cold bed, a dark room where I couldn't see anything, worries about Granada and Lamia, sore fingers...
The feeling of depression I hadn't felt in a long time was surprisingly familiar and naturally consumed me.
That was when.
Knock knock.
There was a knock on the door, and someone carefully opened it and came into the bedroom where I was.
I greeted him as if it were natural in the pitch-black darkness.
“Karl, is that you?”
But it wasn't Karl who answered.
“Maybe.”
Lamia ran her fingers along the gold embroidery on her pocket.
"This radial pattern of embroidery is the old style of the Kingdom of Stony. It's like drawing a magic circle. And here..."
Lamia spread her palms wide over her pockets and felt the mana.
“...I use magic to preserve the mana contained in the items in my pockets so that it doesn’t escape.”
She opened her pocket.
Inside the bag were several marbles, like toys children play with.
"The wizards from the Kingdom of Stony often put mana stones in pouches like this. Stones filled with mana."
Lamia picked up the small bead and carefully examined its transparent interior.
Although she never learned magic properly because she left her family at a young age, she was a descendant of the royal family of the Kingdom of Stony, a magical powerhouse.
There were many things related to magic that she was familiar with, even if she didn't know how to use them.
“It’s a well-refined mana stone.”
“Are you saying that it is the property of a wizard from the Kingdom of Stony?”
Just because a kingdom falls doesn't mean its culture disappears.
It's surprising that items from the Kingdom of Stony, located at the southernmost tip of the continent, were discovered in Ronheim, the northernmost city of the continent.
“Anyway, it seems that it is certain that an outsider has visited.”
Callius was looking for outsiders.
It was highly likely that they were related.
Granada hurried back to the castle to report this.
However, Granada and Lamia realized that they had wasted too much time coming down from the cliff.
The sun was setting, and the wind was picking up.
“It’s going to snow.”
Granada clicked her tongue as if it were a disaster.
Ronheim, where snowstorms often occur at dawn even in summer, was currently experiencing a short autumn.
As the sun set, the wind became very fierce.
Although it couldn't compare to the terrifying winter winds that often shatter stone walls, the autumn night winds of Ronheim were no less lenient.
Even in Granada, a human couldn't endure the threatening winds and go through the dark forest where one could not see ahead.
She pointed to a small cave she had discovered as she descended the cliff.
“I guess I’ll have to spend the night there.”
“There was a cave over there! Thank goodness.”
Even though she didn't have a single blanket, Ramia, who had lived as a gypsy for a long time, was not afraid of homelessness.
She just sighed deeply at the unexpected turn of events and urged Granada on.
“Go quickly, quickly. Go quickly and rest quickly.”
“There are fewer complaints than when you ask someone to catch a bear with their bare hands.”
“It was a desperate situation, but in this situation, sleeping in a cave is a matter of survival.”
It was said that there is no complaint about things that are done to make a living.
Granada walked forward, thinking that it seemed like it had taken good care of its disciples.
'By the way, I'm sure Madam is worried.'
***
The employees of Ronheim Castle were trembling with anxiety in the ominous atmosphere.
The knights were searching Ronheim for Andrew.
Rumors spread by word of mouth that there was a traitor and that war might be waged.
In such an atmosphere, a splendid Miris decoration was placed in the castle's main hall, in the most visible location.
The rich arrangement of red, yellow, and green leaves stood out quite a bit in the stone castle, which was made up entirely of dull gray walls.
The Marchioness's thoughtful efforts to calm the employees' anxiety made them reverently calm their hearts whenever they passed by the Miris decoration.
“As soon as I entered the castle, I saw that, and for a moment I thought the Saintess had returned.”
“That’s right. Saintess Ilya often made flower arrangements with Miris stems...”
The servants passed by the Miris decoration.
“How can she be so good at arranging flowers?”
"That's right. It looks particularly lush. At Arrental, they make flower arrangements that look so lush."
“It could just be Madam's taste.”
The maids passed by, admiring the sight of the long, pointed, colorful leaves of the Miris stems hanging down like the hem of a voluminous dress.
A moment later, another group of hired hands stood before the Miris decoration.
Just then, a breeze blew from somewhere, causing the flexible and light stems of the Miris to flutter, and a golden vase appeared briefly through the cracks, then disappeared.
“That vase looks very familiar.”
“Do you see that?”
"Just now, the stems were blowing, and I felt a slight tinge. Why does it feel familiar? I think we had something like that at home too..."
The maid, who had been tilting her head, seemed to have lost consciousness while talking about the vase and started talking nonchalantly about something else.
“Oh, my mother also heard the story about the traitor, so she arranged Miris flower arrangements on every shelf in the house.”
“Your house too? My house too.”
“No kidding. When I walk into the house, it feels like I’m walking into a forest.”
"It's fortunate that it's a plant that grows all year round. If only mothers could feel at least that reassured..."
Another group passed by the Miris decoration.
So many people came and went in the main hall.
Among them, someone with a keen eye stood in front of the Miris decoration, bent down, and looked carefully at the vase at the bottom of the stem.
“It’s very similar to the Holy Grail...”
It was at this moment that he lifted the stem of the mistletoe a little to take a closer look at the vase.
A passing chef slapped his hand.
"Oh, my. Where are you going to touch it? What if it breaks? We're in big trouble, big trouble."
It was an ominous sign that something meant to bring peace and good fortune was broken.
“No, just a little bit...”
“Oh my! I told you, this is going to be a disaster! What if something goes wrong? What if?”
The chef let out a groan. But she couldn't bring herself to say the worst, thinking that words could be used as a warning.
Still, what she wanted to say was conveyed well enough.
At the chef's unusual persuasion, the servant, who had been particularly interested in the vase, quickly took a step back.
“Yee, yes.”
"Let's go to the kitchen and have some tea. The lady gave us some tea she gave us as a gift."
The servant quickly withdrew his attention from the vase and headed to the kitchen with the chef to get some warm tea.
'I must have seen wrong. How could the Holy Grail, which the Master has been searching for so desperately for so long, be right there?'
That would be like a dream.
No one would have dared to imagine that the Holy Grail, long stolen and lost, would accidentally return.
Even Mainz, which resembles its older sister Granada, has a good sense of humor.
"With the vases resembling the Holy Grail adorned like this, it feels as if the divine protection has descended upon Ronheim. It feels reassuring. As expected, our Lady is a thoughtful woman."
Mainz passed by, smiling proudly.
Granada Villano, the one with the sharpest eye in Ronheim Castle and more familiar with the Holy Grail than Callius, having guarded Saintess Ilya's side.
During her absence, the Miris decoration stood tall in the main hall of Ronheim Castle all day long.
***
That evening.
“The maid and Lamia are late.”
Leviche kept looking out the window towards the castle gate and said.
I was starting to get worried when Granada and Lamia didn't show up even after the hour they were supposed to return.
“Are you having so much fun hunting that you don’t even realize how time flies?”
Thinking back to the annual hunting competition held at the Arrental Palace, I thought it might be true.
Of course, I've never attended one, nor been near the competition venue, but during the hunting competition season, the entire palace was filled with joyful laughter.
Thinking back on that atmosphere, hunting must have been so much fun that I didn't even realize how much time had passed.
But Leviche, after hearing what I said, shook her head firmly.
"That's not possible. Hunting is so arduous and dangerous. I doubt they wouldn't come because it's fun."
Leviche lamented that one of her younger brothers is a hunter, and that she felt sorry for him as he went out hunting every morning.
Only after listening to her for a while did I realize that the Imperial Hunt was a completely different experience from the hunters risking their lives to survive in Ronheim.
'I'm still so ignorant!'
How fortunate I am that I didn't speak rashly.
My face flushed with shame at my ignorance.
“Besides, the sun has set already. It would have set earlier in the forest...”
Leviche stamped his feet in worry.
I was worried too, but I tried to comfort her.
"Granada and Lamia. They'll definitely be safe. The wild beasts would run away in fear at the mere sight of Granada."
When I imitated Granada's sharp gaze, Leviche burst into laughter.
I appeased her and sent her home from work, then finished getting ready to go to sleep alone.
Now I'm pretty used to washing and changing clothes, so I can do it on my own without anyone helping me.
I was doing my job with such pride.
A gust of wind, which had managed to sneak in through the gap in the window, blew out all three candles that Leviche had left lit in the room.
It happened often, so I wasn't surprised. But it was embarrassing because it never happened when I was alone.
I had no choice but to try to light a fire in the fireplace with a flint, but it didn't work.
'Lamia has already taught me this four times.'
After trying several times, I ended up hitting my hand on a rock.
"Ouch!"
I hit it so hard that blood started flowing from my hand.
Tears welled up in my eyes.
It was painful, but I was also overcome with frustration at not being able to do something, no matter how hard I tried, and a sense of helplessness at not being able to do something that everyone else could do.
Once you become sensitive, everything becomes sensitive to you.
A cold bed, a dark room where I couldn't see anything, worries about Granada and Lamia, sore fingers...
The feeling of depression I hadn't felt in a long time was surprisingly familiar and naturally consumed me.
That was when.
Knock knock.
There was a knock on the door, and someone carefully opened it and came into the bedroom where I was.
I greeted him as if it were natural in the pitch-black darkness.
“Karl, is that you?”
But it wasn't Karl who answered.
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