By Zephyria 
When was I found out?
I had been planning to send the child back to the capital for some time. I thought Ruben’s place was in a grand, perfumed banquet hall, or a study where fierce debates took place. I wished for Ruben to be able to fully utilize his abilities without getting hurt.
I intended to kill the zombies, slay the Thousand-Faced Devil, and defeat the Ninth God alone. This was partly because I wanted Ruben to be safer, but also because I didn’t want to show him my ugly side.
How could I, standing covered in blood from head to toe, appear as someone he could love? I was afraid that if he repeatedly saw my terrible appearance, he would naturally lose the affection he held for me.
So today, I… I thought that by showing my dreadful self, Ruben’s affection had finally cooled. To win back the child’s heart, I decided to abandon my usual caution and embrace Ruben, holding his hand and trying to win him over with my body.
That wasn’t it.
He was already hurt because he had seen through my true intentions.
It was a situation that would make ghosts weep. I stiffened, unable to utter a word. Ruben remained seated rigidly, not leaning on me. My blood ran cold, and I broke out in a cold sweat. I held my breath, waiting for his next words.
“…Haa.”
“Ruben, I…”
“No, wait a moment. Don’t say anything.”
“….”
Ruben ran a hand over his face, catching his breath.
When did the child start acting suspiciously? White ash flaked off my chest, which had burned black. Yes, until we crossed the bridge, it was fine. When I had reconnected the broken bridge, Ruben, with a look of deep sorrow, had clung to me. After I had soothed him and had him cross the bridge… and caught the Wyvern… and then.
….
Just moments ago, I had only felt hurt and upset, thinking Ruben feared me. Now, my heart pounded wildly, terrified of what action of mine might have displeached him. The thumping sound echoed chaotically in my ears. The thought that Ruben could hear this pulse made me dizzy. My tongue felt like it was curling back, unsure how to explain myself.
Ruben skillfully pulled the reins, stopping the horse. Only then did I regain my senses and look beside me.
A dark hole sat roundly on the ground. It was a circle no more than three spans wide. Though I didn’t know what it was, Ivan, recognizing it as Black Magic, blocked the workers from approaching further.
The goblin, tied beside Boulder’s horse and guiding us, contorted its face and stretched out its fingers with a yelp. Boulder turned back and shouted loudly.
“It’s been buried for four days!”
Then Ruben smiled wryly and gestured.
“That’s right, Aventa Bump.”
“….”
“Let’s purify it first. With that… Finger Projectile Skill? Like before.”
“Yes.”
We immediately prevented the Aventa Bump from detonating, but we didn’t dig into it to collect any relics. Instead, we brought several stone fragments and left markers around the area where the black circle had been. Seeing my confusion, Ruben explained in a calm voice.
“We can’t stay here for long. It’s better to do this much for now, and when more soldiers… when more manpower is available, and the Aventa Bump has fully detonated and is no longer dangerous, we can mark each location and figure out the pattern.”
“…Mm.”
“For now… we decided to go to the Lake of Memories, so we should head there.”
“What about this goblin?”
Boulder interjected. Ruben narrowed his brow for a moment, looked at the goblin, then at me, let out a deep sigh, and commanded.
“It would be better to tie it up and hang it from the side of the horse than to make it walk. Gag it too, in case it tries anything suspicious after hearing a new Divine Revelation.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll take care of it. Come on, Kkokko.”
“Kkieek.”
The next time I rode on the same horse as Ruben, I hesitated slightly.
But I didn’t want to run away. If Ruben made a choice I disliked, I wanted to stay by his side, even just a little, before that happened. I wrapped my arms around the child’s waist again, and Ruben didn’t push me away.
Ruben still said nothing. I followed the child’s gaze to the distant field ahead.
Beyond it, where a thick fog of Mana hung oppressively.
❖ ❖ ❖
Wednesday of the first week of March. We arrived at the Lake of Memories.
The scent of winter pierced my nostrils, cold and sharp.
Bivan was a kingdom located relatively south compared to the capital of Sierren. With fewer mountains, it received more sunlight, and the geothermal heat from the Shatun Desert contributed to year-round harvests.
Summers were hot and winters were not cold. They had to be.
But the scene before my eyes was different.
Ice, blooming like flowers across the vast lake, clinked against each other, and the surrounding vegetation had shed its broad leaves, leaving only bare branches. The leaves, which hadn’t even turned color, had frozen before they could dry, and they crunched with every step my horse took.
This lake, also called Lake Bivan and the Lake of Memories, was said to be the water source that sustained the entire Bivan plains. Indeed, to my eyes, accustomed to the vast ocean, its width and breadth were immense.
If the weather had been clear, I could have enjoyed a more beautiful sight, but the thick fog persisted, making distant objects mere shadows of trees and even nearby things appear hazy.
It was here that I was supposed to meet the party coming from Felix.
We had chosen this vast lake as our meeting spot, as it was said to offer a clear view of the surroundings on a clear day, no matter how large its circumference. But as it was now, it was proving difficult to see anything. Mage Boulder tried his best to push away the dense fog using various Wind Magic spells, but it was in vain.
Ruben stayed by Boulder’s side, asking and answering questions.
“You’re saying no Mediums have been buried near this lake?”
“Yes. At least, that’s what the goblins claim. And, from my perspective, it’s true.”
“What is?”
“It seems to have started from here. That Magic Circle. The one that… what was it. The one that sliced Makabi Cliff from top to bottom. It’s a kind of… Seal? It feels like something is trapped within this lake, but I have no idea what it is right now.”
“Are you saying your skills can’t retrieve it?”
“No, it’s more that I’m afraid of losing my life if I try to retrieve it…? Releasing a Magic Circle isn’t that difficult; it’s just a matter of reversing the spell formula. But Mana, like this… the area around here is currently at 40 mp. It’s almost on par with the Yuil Mountains. I don’t know what could be sealed by a sealing magic circle spread over such a vast area.”
“…Ah.”
“Aventa Bump is a magic that draws and detonates Mana, so it can’t create the kind of scene we saw at the cliff. I wondered why they would bind Mana so tightly and prevent it from moving, but now that I’m here…”
“It’s definitely a seal? Can you pinpoint the center of the Magic Circle?”
“Of course, if I get closer. But they’ve made it difficult to approach. Look.”
Boulder dipped his toe onto the lake, stepping onto the ice. Crackle. Even a simple movement was too much, and the ice shards broke immediately. He watched them silently.
“All of this is a hindrance. If it were a lake of pure water, I could create an ice bridge with magic and cross, or if it were frozen solid enough to bear a person’s weight like the upper reaches of the Saras River, I could just walk across. But for some reason, they’ve intertwined Contaminated Mana, creating slush ice in between. If I try to freeze the lake, these parts will break and shatter. The only way is to fly… but as I mentioned before…”
“…Hmm.”
“Besides, arbitrarily freezing another country’s lake is a bit… This is agricultural water, so I have to be careful. It could become an international issue…”
“Right, I’ll handle that.”
Ruben stopped Boulder’s grumbling with a simple gesture. Then he asked another question.
Meanwhile, I was agonizing, unable to catch Ruben’s eye.
If I could, I would have whisked Ruben away and demanded to know why he was treating me so sorrowfully.
But the dozens of people we had with us were mostly civilians who hadn’t learned martial arts, and only a few were young men at the level of third-rate warriors. How could I leave them in such a suspicious place and disappear?
As I craned my neck, looking at Ruben with longing, Ivan tapped my shoulder.
“What in the world is going on? It’s been nearly a week like this.”
“…That’s…”
Ruben was also a martial artist. He couldn’t possibly not hear our conversation from this distance. I wanted to confess, but I couldn’t say a word, so I ran a hand over my face and only sighed.
“No, it’s nothing. Nothing at all…”
“It doesn’t seem like nothing.”
“…Even if it isn’t, it is.”
Then, after a moment of thought, Ivan spoke to me with a hint of grievance.
“It would be better to listen to Your Highness. After all, Your Highness is smarter than Michael.”
“…You have to tell me for me to listen.”
“Then does Michael speak his mind? He’s just standing there, looking nervous and saying nothing.”
“…What am I supposed to say?”
“Anything. That you’re upset, or that you want to know what to do.”
Just then, Ruben raised his voice, as if giving a lecture to the entire party, and commanded with a clear tone.
“Then, for now… until we find the other party, let’s head towards a nearby village. It would be best to escort Bikoff and the Eldos Merchant Guild personnel to a safe village and then handle the rest ourselves.”
“Yeeees.”
“If you notice anything unusual on the way, report it immediately.”
“Yes, sir.”
Answers came from all around. I hurried to fetch the horse that Ruben and I would share. Ruben hesitated for a brief moment, then accepted my service and mounted the horse first. I then leaped up behind him and gently held his waist.
Ruben’s neck still smelled of dahlia. Before I had walked five paces, a surge of sorrow welled up, and I rested my forehead against his neck. I took a deep breath, and he stiffened his shoulders and straightened his back.
Ivan hadn’t told me to do this. My own heart compelled me, and sad words spilled out.
“…Ruben.”
“…Uh, huh?”
“Are you going to keep this up?”
“…Keep what up?”
“You’re being cold to me.”
Yes, he had been like that for the past six days.
Ruben didn’t follow me with his eyes, and when he occasionally held my hand, he stopped giving me playful little nips at the fingertips. Instead of looking me in the eye, he scanned the distant fields or the towering trees with a serious expression.
I hadn’t even spoken my thoughts aloud, only worried about Ruben’s safety in my heart, yet I was treated like this. If the child wished it, my own anxieties were nothing. I felt like I could even jump into a fiery inferno if he commanded it.
Then Ruben shook his head.
“…No.”
“No, it’s true that I did something wrong, but…”
“This isn’t your fault.”
“…Huh?”
Ruben covered his face with both hands. I unconsciously pulled the reins and stopped. The entire party following behind stopped in confusion, and feeling terribly embarrassed, I urged the horse forward again. Ruben, with shoulders weary after a week, leaned against my chest.
Instantly, my distressed heart melted away.
Now Ruben would explain. Greatly relieved, I nuzzled his neck with my nose. I thought I was acting like a spoiled child, but I didn’t want to pull away, thinking Ruben wouldn’t push me away now, even for such behavior.