Chapter 50

Chapter 50. Something Strange About This Gift (3)

"Cough, cough."

Water burst from my mouth, and only then was I finally able to open my eyes.

The first thing I saw was the female mercenary called the Firebird Hunter.

'So I didn’t die?'

With my mind barely returning, I looked around.

In one corner, I saw the middle-aged knight scratching his head.

So the last thing I saw before losing consciousness had not been an illusion after all.

"What happened?"

At my question, she made an apologetic face, and the knight walked over to me and said,

"My apologies. I misunderstood the situation because you were carrying a sword engraved with the Firebird emblem. I thought you had taken the young lady’s... ah, no, the miss’s belongings and were chasing after her...."

It was a very low, pleasant voice.

But at his words, she covered her face, and I inwardly shook my head.

Did he really not realize that changing it to 'miss' made no difference at all?

There was no way a mercenary would be addressed as 'young lady' by a knight, so she had to be a young noblewoman from some important house, just as his words implied.

No, wait. Had he really looked at me and thought that?

"What? You thought a little brat like me could do that?"

I pointed at myself with an incredulous expression.

At my reaction, she looked at me as though I were ridiculous, but the knight apologized again with a troubled face.

"No, well, there was a time before when an assassin came at us while looking like a child.... In any case, I’m sorry. Let me offer you a formal apology as a knight."

"A formal apology as a knight?"

It seemed he had heard the story from the Firebird Hunter while I was unconscious.

And it looked like he had also learned that I was, one way or another, a noble.

Otherwise, a knight would never have apologized.

But a formal apology as a knight. That was an unexpected stroke of luck.

An apology given as a knight was part of the etiquette of chivalry, something that had nearly vanished by now.

I did not know what rank he held, but he was as rigid in his own way as she was.

Watching the two of them, equally stiff-necked in their own fashion, I got to my feet.

I felt a little dizzy, but once I circulated my mana once, the dizziness vanished immediately. Long live mana.

"But are you acquainted with... no, this isn’t the time for that."

I had been laid down inside the collapsed stone chamber of the tomb, and water was overflowing from the hole that had opened in the center.

Just how far was that water going to rise...?

"Let’s get out of here first."

Perhaps they had remained here because of me, because the moment I said that, they moved at once.

As she left the ruined burial chamber, she kept looking back several times with regret, but in the end she merely stroked the shield and retraced the path we had come through.

Even in that heavy full suit of armor, the knight ran remarkably well.

Thanks to the brief moment I had been unconscious, my mana was full again, and the three of us were able to race quickly through the underground tunnels.

Running alongside the underground creatures fleeing as well, we eventually reached the bottom of the abandoned well where we had first come down.

The dry well floor had begun to grow wet, and we climbed the walls with all our strength and finally emerged back onto the surface.

Fortunately, the water chasing us only filled the well halfway before stopping.

Once above ground, I looked for Juan.

Fortunately, Juan was unharmed.

He was lying beside the well with a huge bruise around one eye, a gag stuffed into his mouth, and rope wound all around him, but aside from that, he seemed otherwise fine.

When he saw the knight emerge from the well, he began thrashing around wildly, but then, when he saw me come out right after, his eyes grew huge.

The knight went to Juan first and untied the rope binding him.

Juan spat out the gag and immediately asked after me.

"Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere?"

At his words, I nodded to show that I was fine.

"There was a misunderstanding. It seems the two of you were on the same side after all."

Instead of apologizing, the knight looked at me and praised Juan instead.

"You have a good soldier."

It was not a proper apology, but it was his own way of showing courtesy as a knight.

After all, I was a noble. He had apologized to me because of that, but there was no way a knight would apologize to a commoner.

Juan seemed satisfied with that much.

But having lived through my previous life, where equality at least existed outwardly, I was dissatisfied.

It was a thought unsuited to this world, but I did not like the fact that Juan had received no apology.

Well, that did not mean I had the slightest intention of running around trying to abolish the class system in this world.

I had died many times because of the class system, and suffered many losses because of it, but I had also profited from it more than a little.

Rather than changing the class system, I wanted to make it so that I, and the people around me, would benefit from it rather than suffer because of it.

Hm. It felt as though my thinking was beginning to shift from how it had been at first....

While I was lost in that thought, she spoke.

"I’m sorry, but something has come up, so I think I need to return immediately."

It was exactly what I had expected.

The knight could not have come looking for her for no reason. He was clearly a messenger sent to retrieve her.

It was strange enough that he had managed to find his way all the way here, but if she had left a note at the inn, then perhaps it was not impossible.

More than that, I did not know what had happened, but judging by her tone, it must have been something quite urgent.

At the very least, urgent enough that they would send a knight who looked like a senior knight of some respectable knightly order as a messenger.

It seemed they had already discussed the matter while I was unconscious, and naturally, she did not appear to have any intention of explaining it to me.

Instead, she brought up a different issue.

"But we can’t just part like this...."

Well, if we had simply found the treasure and divided it according to our contract, there would have been no problem at all, but the situation had turned out completely differently from what the contract had anticipated.

As she stood there thinking it over, any trace of the mercenary air she had once had was gone entirely. She had never really felt like a mercenary to begin with, but now she clearly carried the bearing of a high-ranking noble.

And yet, whether then or now, what she was at heart had not changed.

After thinking for a while, she clapped her hands as though she had found an answer.

Then she asked me,

"At your age, in a few years you should have to attend a proper educational institution, right?"

An educational institution. Did she mean something like a monastery, or the Royal Academy in the capital?

Since people had begun saying that my second brother would soon be sent to the capital to study, it did seem that proper nobles usually left for further education or entered institutions like academies in their early or mid-teens.

Well, my older sister had been sent to a monastery while she was still very young....

But in my case, it did not seem likely.

I had obtained an inherited ability, yes, but I was still only half a noble, so it did not seem likely that they would send me away. With the duchess alive and well, I would probably just remain within the estate like this.

I shook my head with that meaning in mind, but she did not seem to care.

"It may take time, but if I send an invitation in my family’s name, even the duke won’t be able to refuse forever. And there’s no way he’ll just leave a genius like you cast aside."

At her words, the middle-aged knight spoke in a worried tone.

"But in the current situation, perhaps it would be better to think carefully before sending a formal invitation...."

She shook her head.

"We have no choice. He can no longer remain an outsider. There is too much that must be confirmed. No one will oppose it."

At her words, the knight tilted his head. It seemed she had not told him what had happened while I was unconscious. Was it supposed to be a secret?

Still, did she mean to invite me into some laboratory or something? The thought of becoming an experimental guinea pig made a chill run down my spine for a moment.

I shook my head and drove the useless thought away.

More importantly, an invitation even the duke would have to think twice about.

Just what sort of noble was she?

"Um, I don’t think it’ll be that easy. No, more importantly, you’re not planning to send the invitation under the name 'Firebird Hunter,' are you?"

At my question, she nodded.

"Originally, I meant to part from you as no more than a mercenary called the Firebird Hunter. But now that things have turned out like this, I suppose I have to tell you my proper name."

So I was finally going to hear it.

At a glance from the knight, Juan moved some distance away.

Then she spoke.

"My name is Katrine de Ratenhamar. I am the second daughter of House Ratenhamar."

Then she added that I could call her Katrine.

A count’s house. As expected, she really was from high nobility.

And yet I felt strangely puzzled.

The second daughter. As a woman and the second-born child, there was a good chance she was not the heir.

Judging by the things she had said and the way she had acted up until now, I had assumed she occupied an important position within her house....

But perhaps that was not the case after all.

And more than that.

Our duke would actually feel pressured by an invitation from a count’s house? Unless there was some political consideration at work, that would not be easy to explain.

I tilted my head at the mismatch in what she was saying.

But then the name of her house echoed in my mind.

Wait a second. House Ratenhamar? I was certain I had heard that name somewhere before.

And then, one person came to mind.

No, surely not?

I asked in a rush,

"Wait, unless I’m mistaken, I’m fairly sure the Third Queen’s family name is Ratenhamar."

At my words, she answered proudly.

"That’s right. She’s my older sister."

That left my mouth hanging open.

So the Third Queen of our kingdom—the mother of the kingdom’s only princess—was her older sister.

Which meant that the invitation being sent to the ducal house would be coming from the queen’s family.

Of course the duke would not be able to refuse that easily. All right, that part made perfect sense.

No, no, this was no time to lose myself in thought.

The queen’s family? That was absurd. This was not just some powerful house. Why did it have to be the royal in-laws?

At this rate, I could end up getting dragged into the politics of the kingdom!

And how in the world was I supposed to explain all this to the duke?

Then she gave me a warning.

"I’d like what happened down there to remain a secret from anyone else. It was written into the contract, and it’s an important matter for my family."

It was perfectly understandable, but that only made it even harder for me to explain anything!

Even so, she went on speaking regardless of what I thought, and after a few more words, the two of them left the ruined village first.

Once the two of them were gone, Juan, who had been tense the entire time, finally let out a sigh. Then he asked me in a weary voice,

"What in the world happened down there? First a knight came charging in, and then all three of you came back soaked from head to toe."

Up until now, Juan had never asked questions like this, but this time he seemed unable to hold back his curiosity.

If he had known who she really was, he might not have dared ask at all. But there was no way I could tell him that.

Even so, since Juan had stood in front of a knight for my sake, I felt that on the way back I ought to tell him at least part of the story, leaving only a few secrets out.

Before returning, I looked over the village that had been swallowed by the forest. It was a village that had become a ruin after the well ran dry and the people left.

"Now that the well has filled with water again, could this village come back to life too?"

At my words, Juan shook his head.

"I think that would be impossible. Back when this was still a village, the forest hadn’t pushed in this far. Now the village is buried inside the forest, so it would be hard for people to return. Then again, with an underground waterway having formed, the forest may actually grow larger instead."

At Juan’s plausible answer, I found myself nodding naturally.

Even if one corrected something that had gone wrong, it did not mean everything that had already happened would simply return to how it once was.

The only time that was possible was when one truly returned to the past and made the proper choice there.

The proper choice....

Many things had happened, and many things had repeated themselves. There were many matters still left unresolved, and it was certain that many more things would happen in the future.

As we left the forest and made our way back toward the city, I kept wondering whether I was truly making the proper choices now.

Even so, the dagger at my waist and the gold coins filling my pockets were a great comfort.