CH 42

Friends in Kroix, While the Young Girl is Away

“Silvia! A letter came from Latina!”

“Oh… Is she well?”

“More or less. It’s Latina anyway, she seems fine”

As soon as she entered her classroom at the 『Yellow God(Asfar’s)』school, that’s how Chloe called out to her friend, Silvia.

Silvia Fal is a friend she made after coming to school. Her father was working in a considerable position as the military police for the mayor’s mansion, and she was someone who lived in the high class residential West District however, her personality isn’t very irritating, getting along nicely with Chloe and Latina who lived in the working parts of town, the East and South Districts. That temperament of hers fit right with Chloe’s and she is as close to her as Latina is.

It has been over half a month since Latina had departed from Kroix.

Not to mention the length of their journey and back but, Latina seems likely to stay a little while even after they reached their destination, so they won’t be able to meet until after the seasons have changed.

When they reach over to Dale’s place, Latina will be able to send out a letter. She wasn’t very good with studies, and her sentences weren’t written out very well but Chloe was little by little composing together the events that had happened in Kroix.

(When Latina comes back, it’ll be bad if only she doesn’t know after all)

Thinks Chloe.

“She says that after the sea is the Beastman’s village”

“Beastmen huh…. I’ve never seen any in Kroix. Are there any Mixed race adventurers?”

“I didn’t see any even when I went over to Latina’s place to play”

“Is that so…. I want to see what they’re like”

Silvia says that and, looked far off into the distance.

When Silvia was born she was endowed with, despite being a weak one, a Divine Protection from the 『Green God(Ahdar)』. To people like her, they hold a quality of being drawn to travels and curiousities.

Going off into an unknown world, and to gather unknown knowledge. The 『Desire to visit the unknown』 is, partially instinctive for possessors of 『Ahdar’s』 Divine Protection.

“Are you going to the 『Shrine』 after you leave school, Silvia?”

“I wonder….”

At Chloe’s question, Silvia folds her arms together and holds up her chin.

“The simplest thing would be if I become a member to a 『Shrine』 huh…. I can have them teach me about magic as well”

“You can use magic?”

“Thanks to Latina, I know the attribute I have affinity with~”

Latina’s friends who had an interest in magic had been learning chants by her side.

As expected, most of them weren’t able to deal with it but, Silvia was able to pronounce it. Not just chants but she also wanted to learn the greetings of the 『Demon Race』 as this was related to Silvia’s dream of one day visiting the country of Demons, Vasrio.

“Speaking of which, what about you Chloe?”

“I’ll succeed my family’s business. It’s pretty fun lately anyway”

“Then, I guess I’ll have to ask Chloe for my clothes when I grow up~….”

“Ask for something expensive ok”

It was when Chloe and Silvia were talking about those sorts of things.

“Chloe”

Pon. Rudi passed over something from underneath his armpits.

Chloe, having sensed that something was coming in that instant, panickedly reached out so that it wouldn’t fall.

“This…. Baka Rudi! What the heck are you doin!”

“What. …I gave one to you right, something that was made well”

At Chloe’s complaints, Rudi tilted his head in confusion.

“Something that was made well, you say…. Oi you”

“W-what do you want…. I needed to practise so, I cut it into two parts. You have a problem?”

When Chloe repeated what he said, thinking that something was up with Rudi’s answer, he looked the other way awkwardly.

“What’s that? An accessory piece?”

When Silvia points at that, which Chloe was gripping, and asks her, Chloe opens up her hand which had been gripped shut.

A black fragment, shining with beauty. Along it were signs of the shape, after being cut and prepared, being diligently polished.

Chloe slightly lifted that small object, which had been carefully and preciously worked on, to take a look.

It shines, glittering as it reflects back the light.

“It’s pretty right. I got it from Latina.”

“From Latina?”

“Yea. When I said I’ll take good care of it so leave it with me, she said that it’ll be fine if it was me and gave it to me”

“And why did you bring it?”

“When I was thinking about how I should cut it a little, I thought, if she was in her own house, she might have a nail file or some kind of tool so, that’s why I brought it”

She was thankful for that but, it seems he was shrewd and tricked her out of half the amount.

Chloe shrugged her shoulders, my my.

“Dishonesty is such a pain in the ass”

“Boys are all children after all”

For girls around this age, having an exchange like this allows them to act beyond their age.

What Chloe received from Latina was the 『Horn』 that she had broken off herself.

From the first time that Chloe saw it, she had thought that Latina’s horn was truly pretty.

There was nothing but regret and sorrow, that Latina had broken off such a beautiful part of herself.

For some reason she couldn’t all for it to merely leave it there and let it gather dust, and thinking so she asked Latina. Saying “Won’t you give your horn to me?”

In the beginning she was thinking that she would be able to somehow do something with it but, she was troubled when she couldn’t process it since that was tougher than she had thought. The one who lent her his help at that time, was Rudi.

At those words, Chloe entrusted Latina’s horn to Rudi, and had it processed.

“Speaking of which, what will you do after leaving school Rudi?”

Even though Chloe had asked him that, she meant nothing of it.

It was because Rudi had come in when she had just been coincidentally talking about itwith Silvia. That was all.

“Noth….It, it’s not like…. It’s related to you ok”

However, at the sight of Rudi acting suspicious and overreacting, Chloe and Silvia look to each other and grin.

“Hmmm. Are you thinking about something….”

“W-whatever, it’s not like it matters right?”

“Well I guess. It doesn’t really matter….”

“Speaking of which, I got a letter from Latina”

“W-w-why are, are, you bringing up Latina all of the sudden!?”

“Eh? Aren’t you interested?”

“-! That’s not what I….”

“If you’re interested then just say so. Right~?”

“Right~”

“…….!!!”

While they were looking at the sight of Rudi stamping his feet in frustration, screaming in a voice that can’t be heard, Marcel and Anthony exchanged a strange smile with each other.

“Since Rudi has already, ended up being forced into a corner by Chloe and Silvia, he should just give up already”

“That is, in itself is an act of understanding Marcel….”

“To a certain degree, it’s important to just accepting how life is”

“Someone like you who states that with a smile might just end up becoming a big-shot….”

With a calm expression, at his friend who stated that, Anthony stiffens up his smile.

“Anthony, you’re advancing to higher education right?”

Going back to Chloe’s conversation, Marcel asks him and, Anthony nodded once.

“Yea”

“So you’ll also be working in the mayor’s mansion?”

“If I could be like my dad that would the best though. I know nothing about any of this as well. It would be fine to work at a firm as well”

Anthony’s father is a low level official are the mayor’s place. Since it isn’t a job which is of the inheritance system, it isn’t acceptable to just give his son Anthony the job. However there were a few things which could be done for him, if it’s things like connections and networking.

“And you’ll probably succeed the bakery I guess?”

“There’s no reason to do something different after all. I like our bread as well”

Marcel calmly responds.

For the majority of kids who live in Kroix, taking over their parent’s business is the norm.

If it’s the second son, third son then it’s not like there aren’t some who look for a different occupation but, especially for children from a trade, there aren’t many who purposely look for a different line of work, training under someone else.

“Rudi has an older brother as well….”

“….But, up till recently he should have been planning to go into his family’s business (Blacksmithing)…. I wonder what happened all of a sudden”

The two of them paused for a moment but then nod to one another with a ‘Un’.

“It might be related to Latina”

“It’s probably related to Latina”

“It’s so easy to understand after all”

“I wonder how Latina hasn’t noticed, you know….”

“Only when he’s in front of Latina does he put up a more than unnecessary cold attitude…. He does this so thoroughly too. In a sense, I think it’s amazing”

“For us, witnessing it from the start, it’s really obvious though”

At that point the two of them once again nodded.

“That’s why he’s an idiot”

“He’s an idiot alright”

“Oi you guuuys! I can hear you, you know!”

The moment Rudi shouts, half in tears, the door to the classroom open up, and their teacher looked at Rudi with a smile.

“Rudolf-san. The classroom isn’t a place to be rowdy, ok”

“-!”

When Rudi, who came to his senses look over to his friends, they were returning back to their seats as if nothing had happened.

Basically he was just bad at grasping the way of the world.

(Author’s note:

In the beginning Chloe’s lines were all typed in Katakana, and I looked over them for a while…. I fixed it so there was a mix of Hiragana as well.

“Baka Rudi” is just…. Something that came up…..

This is how this work is but, thank you for always reading)