Then, with a little heave, I pushed myself upright, and our whole view flipped in an instant.

“Really?”

“N-no, that’s not it!”

“I can’t tell whether that means yes or no......”

Khalid muttered as he scratched the back of his head. For some reason, I was suddenly overwhelmed by embarrassment, and I bolted as if I were sprinting across the training ground.

“Come with me! Weren’t you here to see me?”

Fifteen-year-old Khalid had...

become far more shameless than I’d ever imagined!

Thump-thump-thump-thump. My heart was pounding so hard it felt insane.

I ran across the training ground, swallowing a dizzy breath. The hand he’d grabbed was still tingling.

I really, really need to buy a diary with a lock!

Because the secret things I absolutely could not let my family find out about...

were probably only starting now!

*****

Whew, he’d finally caught her.

Khalid sat down with Rubian on a bench in the garden. She had spent so much time running around the training ground lately that she’d gotten pretty quick.

Even so, he was never going to let her get away.

He took the outer side of the bench beside the tree. Naturally, Rubian ended up in the cool patch of shade and kicked off her shoes with a couple of irritated taps.

A quiet grumble followed about how they weren’t meant for running.

“What was it you wanted to ask me?”

Khalid asked as he gathered up the little shoes she had discarded at random and lined them up neatly.

“Here, look at this.”

The notebook suddenly thrust in front of him was familiar.

It was Rubian’s research notebook, after all—full of ancient language, the place names she had interpreted from it, and their modern names, all jotted down in no particular order.

“I still can’t pin down the very last place name.”

Her round cheeks puffed out in a sulk.

Khalid stared blankly at her profile beside him.

“What do you think?”

Her blue eyes came at him like an ambush.

Lately, Khalid had been exhausted.

At night, it was because of growing pains that made it feel as if every joint in his body were being wrung out. During the day, it was because of Rubian.

At some point, whenever he talked with her, his heart would start lurching, and he would feel sick enough to throw up.

Was that part of growing pains too?

He had no idea.

“Uh... I don’t know ancient language.”

“Yeah, I figured.”

“Sorry.”

“No. Why are you apologizing again?”

A breeze brushed over her pale face as she broke into a soft smile.

His eyes were drawn to the silver hair stirring lightly around her chest. After cutting it and growing it out over and over, she seemed to have gotten attached to long hair again ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) lately.

I think she used to hate long hair because there was no one to tie it for her...

But here, there were plenty of people who could cut Rubian’s hair for her, or tie it up nicely.

Rubian, loved by everyone.

Khalid thought he liked the sound of those words very much. Enough to make him feel strangely light for no reason at all.

“From the sound of his letters, Licht still can’t make sense of it either. He says it might be better if I just go to the Imperial Palace archives myself and look.”

“You’re going to the Imperial Palace?”

“Yeah. As it happens, he said they’re throwing his birthday party on a huge scale in a few months. He said that if I want, he can even get me access to the archives!”

“......”

It felt as if muddy water had splashed over the good mood that had just been lifting inside him.

But he shouldn’t show it. He had to sit still. Be good.

“Of course, if I’m going to leave Zelox, I’ll have to get permission from Mom and Dad, but......”

“They’ll worry, but I think they’ll allow it.”

“You think?”

The Magic Kingdom was still nowhere to be found.

But not long ago, several mages trying to secretly infiltrate the Delcan Ruins had been caught. They had blown themselves up the instant they were captured, but it was still proof that the Magic Kingdom was moving in one form or another.

Naturally, the Emperor and Duke Zebbert were also pursuing them ferociously in return.

It couldn’t be easy chasing an enemy with no visible body, but to Khalid, the hunter and the hunted had simply changed places.

Soon enough, they would catch a lead.

“Then I guess I should tell Obron ahead of time too.”

When he added that casually, Rubian blinked once or twice.

“You’re going to the Imperial Palace too?”

“Can’t I?”

“No, that’s not it, but... you haven’t been feeling great lately. It’s not like you absolutely have to go......”

“Ruby.”

Khalid answered calmly. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

“Anywhere you go is somewhere I have to go.”

Because that was the vow he had made from the moment he met her in that cave so long ago.

As if she had understood the meaning of the words he hadn’t said aloud, Rubian pressed her slightly parted lips shut and snapped her head away.

“You... seriously, y-you need to fix that weird habit of yours when you talk......”

What habit?

Khalid was about to ask when he stopped. A familiar figure had come into view in the distance.

“Huh? Isn’t that Uncle Allen?”

Rubian had spotted him too.

“He must’ve found a place with a stele in the area I told him about last time! Unclllle!”

When she looked around in a hurry, Khalid quickly brought over her shoes, and Rubian jammed them on however they fit before springing to her feet and running off.

The man, strolling along with one eye covered by an eyepatch and an easy swagger in his step, turned his head.

“Ah! Princess— no, no, young lady!”

The mercenary company Alpheon had, at some point, come under Duke Zebbert.

No one had bothered to make Allen’s relationship with them public, so no one knew that Allen was carrying out Khalid’s mission alongside his own.

Then, while Allen was greeting Rubian cheerfully, his gaze shifted slightly.

Their eyes met.

Looks like he’s got information for me.

Khalid thought it without much interest.

“Hey, Khalid. If it’s got anything to do with the ancient kingdom, you’d be better off digging around the western continent.”

“The western continent?”

“The land of the heretics. You know, where all those peoples live who worship gods other than our goddess.”

“......”

“I hear that place is a treasure mine of ruins. Makes Delcan look like nothing. Damn, seriously, just thinking about it gets me excited. Bet it’s full of filthy-rich loot nobody’s ever seen before, huh?”

The grimy face laughing to itself rose in Khalid’s mind.

Maybe I’ll go someday.

The land of the heretics.

Once Rubian’s matter is settled. Someday.

His priorities were always clear.

Ignoring Allen, who came running toward him with both arms waving wildly, Khalid turned back toward the training ground.

*****

Some time later, at summer’s end—

“You want to go to the Imperial Palace?”

Leviathan arched a brow as he walked with Rubian.

“Yeah... Is that not okay? There’s only so much I can do just by exchanging letters with Licht. I want to go to the Imperial Palace archives and look for myself. Licht says that would probably be better too.”

Rubian fidgeted with her fingertips, a little nervous.

“And in a few months, they’re apparently throwing his birthday party on a huge scale at the Imperial Palace... He said he’d send me an invitation.”

Leviathan quietly looked down at her, then lightly took her hand.

It was still small and weak. She loved going around boasting that she was growing like crazy, but she was still smaller than other children her age...

I feel like we feed her plenty, so why does she still seem so tiny?

Swallowing down the pang in his chest, Leviathan answered in a low voice.

“If you want to go, then you go. Why wouldn’t it be okay?”

“Really? I thought for sure you’d say it was too dangerous outside Zelox!”

With the Magic Kingdom and the surrounding situation unstable all this time, Rubian had stayed quietly in Zelox. This was the first time in years that she had said she wanted to leave.

So how could he possibly refuse? Besides—

“Do you think your dad’s an idiot?”

“Huh?”

“Your dad’s done a lot of preparing too, you know.”

He had done everything he could to build a wall around her strong enough to protect her.

The herb hill, lush with fresh green herbs, rang with cicadas crying out as if to announce the end of summer.

“So there isn’t anywhere in this Empire you can’t go. Provided you’re healthy, of course.”

“Don’t worry about my magic! Asha and I are going to upgrade the magic tools!”

“Have them checked first.”

“......Dad, you’re not a mage.”

“Do it anyway. Your dad’s smart enough to tell what’s safe for you and what isn’t.”

“Hehe, okay.”

An inspection was nothing.

Brightening at once, Rubian swung their clasped hands back and forth.

“Phewww, I was nervous. Honestly, I thought you were definitely going to say no......”

To be truly honest—

I do want to say no...

But Leviathan knew.

He couldn’t keep raising her in the shelter of his arms forever.

Her time of rest was over. The child was getting ready to run toward the places she wanted for herself, and he had no right to stand in her way.

“But where are we going right now?”

At that moment, Rubian looked around and lifted her head.

“You’re only asking that now?”

“Hehe......”

Leviathan smiled faintly as he looked at the white fence far ahead.

“The memorial garden.”

Rubian’s silver head whipped busily back and forth without pause.

“Hup, hup.”

“No, why are you working so hard again?”

“Don’t stop me. I’m just doing what I can do right now.”

Sweating in little beads, Rubian diligently pulled weeds near the grave.

Not that there were many weeds to begin with. The small garden inside the memorial grounds was kept so carefully by Rosetta and the other adults, who came by so often.

Leviathan quietly ran his hand over the tall black stele that stood there without a single name on it.

“Dad... are you sad?”

At some point, the child had come to his side and asked in a careful voice, lightly catching hold of his hand.

“I am.”

Rubian’s brows drooped.

“It was the one I wanted most to protect, and I couldn’t protect it.”

“Yeah......”

Leviathan gave a short laugh as he looked at the lips twitching as if she were holding something back.

“There’s that ugly pout again.”

“Ugh.”

“I’m actually very happy right now, you know?”

“No, you just said you were sad......”

“Who says you can’t be happy because you’re sad?”

He said it as if it were nothing, then lightly lifted Rubian into his arms.

“Dad, I’m heavy now......”

“You sure are. Ridiculously heavy. My arms are going to break any second.”

“Then I’ll fix them right away.”

So she still wasn’t saying she didn’t want to be carried.

Leviathan laughed inwardly and readjusted her in his arms with an unnecessary little grunt.

“But... why are you happy?”

Rubian asked.

“You really have to ask?”

“If I knew, why would I ask......?”

Thunk. When he bumped his forehead against hers, a small complaint about it hurting slipped out.

“Because what I want most to protect is pressed right up against me.”

“......”

He gazed for a moment at the round forehead turning away shyly, then slowly lifted his eyes to the black stele.

As always, the lone stele standing over that broad stretch of ground stabbed painfully at his eyes.

I’m sorry. For leaving you there alone in the cold.

But right now, I have someone in my arms I need to protect.

So later, when Dad finishes everything and sees you again... when that time comes, will you give me another chance to protect you?

“This winter, shall we spend it in the capital?”

“Yes!”

Leviathan slowly turned away and left the memorial garden. A gentle breeze came rolling over the hill and lightly pushed at their backs.