Without seeing what exactly was coming at her, Faye reflexively closed her eyes and covered her head with her hands.
With how fast things were going, Ann didn’t stop to think. Her only objective was to protect Faye at all cost. Nothing else mattered at this point.
Ann agilely chanted a water magic and unleashed her water magic attack towards the shadow that was jumping to Faye.
The mysterious creature seemed to be surprised at the sudden water attack. It wanted to escape, but couldn’t because Ann’s water magic wasn’t weak. She applied quite a pressure that caused the creature to have difficulty in escaping and eventually, it passed out.
Seeing that there was no movement from the creature, Ann stopped her attack and checked Faye first.
“Faye, are you alright?!”
By this time, Faye who was expecting an attack finally realized that she didn’t even feel hurt at all and hearing Ann’s voice, she slowly opened her eyes. In front of her eyes was Ann who had a worried expression on her face.
Ann observed Faye from head to toe and after making sure that she was alright, Ann could finally relax.
Faye stared at her surrounding and noticed what was going on. She smiled and said, “Thank you so much, Arlea-sama!”
Ann hugged Faye tightly, “As long as you’re alright!”
Meanwhile, Allen was the one who was the most surprised.
He was about to help Faye when Ann actually moved faster than him to do that! His surprise didn’t stop there. He was taken aback when he noticed that Ann actually could use her water magic for a combat!
It was something new to him as it was never disclosed that Ann could even use such a strong magic. He only knew that she could use some water magic to play around as she had used it several times in the residence, but that was it. He thought that Ann was completely defenseless.
If this knowledge came to light before all this, Allen would definitely raise his guard against Ann. However, this information was revealed now of all times. By now, Allen’s trust in Ann had already been built. Instead, he felt reassured knowing that the woman he was fond of could actually defend herself. If push comes to shove, at least she could protect herself.
Just how strong is her magic? And what other magic elements can she do?
His curiosity this time was a pure curiosity to get to know her better, not a curiosity based on how he should be guarded against her. How could he, as her husband, not know even a simple thing about her?
The three of them had different things on their minds at first, before they finally cared to look at the creature that was trying to hurt Faye.
Upon a closer look at the fainted monster, they saw a cat-like monster with three eyes and a pair of small wings growing on their back.
As if it was an automated response, Allen quickly explained what the monster was.
“…they like eating chickens and birds…,” As Allen mentioned this fact, Ann had her moment of enlightenment.
“Aha! So that’s why it was trying to target Faye! It thought you were its food!!” Ann said with a bright expression as she tapped on Faye’s shoulders. She looked like she wanted to cheer Faye up, explaining why she was being ambushed.
However, it didn’t cheer Faye up at all. It made her dumbfounded at Ann’s emotional intelligence. Sometimes, her mistress was so bright and clever. But at times, she was unbelievably dumb!!
This was… somehow cute? But somehow it could be irritating when you were the object of her EQ display.
“Thankfully I managed to defeat it using my water gun, hahahaha!!” Ann put both her hands on her waist and laughed heartily.
She was really proud and happy that her learning magic for fun actually could prove to be something useful!!
So much that she overlooked something on her part…
“You can use your water magic for a combat?” Allen asked, putting aside his question of, ‘What the heck is a water gun?!’
Ann was surprised and the first thought on her mind was… ‘I just used it right in front of your eyes. Are you blind or are you stupid?!’
But a second later, she realized that she shouldn’t have revealed that she could use a strong enough water magic in front of Allen, because her only magic was the rare Pure Water magic!
She wasn’t sure if this crucial information about Princess Anne was revealed to Allen and his allies or not…
Either way, it was a very important hint that could pretty much give away her body’s real identity! If this was known sooner than when it should have been, wouldn’t that mean she’d die quickly?
Ann shivered at the sudden realization. However, she knew she had to give Allen an answer.
“Ah… uhm…,” Ann stuttered. She didn’t know what to answer.
If she were to lie saying that she could do all magic elements but badly, it would be bad if Allen asked her to try it all! More importantly, her water gun just now couldn’t even be considered as ‘bad’!! It was decent at least, if she had to rate it.
Think, Ann, think! What can I use to hide the true nature of my magical power?!
In her desperation, Ann could only give out this reason: “Uhm… I can, but not that good. My physique was bad since I was young, you see… And I never got to really learn it…”
In her answer, Ann admitted that she could use magic but didn’t reveal any other information at all.
“Is that so? Then… watch me,” Allen said as he turned to the direction where he noticed another monster’s presence.
The monster realized Allen’s gaze on it and decided to just reveal its whereabout as it flew towards Allen.
Without a delay, Allen extended his hand and from his hand, flew a fire magic ball.
“Khhhiii!!!”
The fire magic ball hit the monster as it cried out in defeat.
Its cry seemed to attract other monsters of the same species nearby to avenge its friend’s downfall as several more monsters appeared and flew towards Allen.
Allen didn’t seem to be surprised at all.
In quick succession, he summoned his fire magic and then wind magic blades to burn and cut through the monsters that came attacking.
“Whoa…,” Ann was genuinely impressed.
She never really saw magic being used in a combat. It was her first time seeing it in action, right in front of her eyes. And quite a strong magic, on top of it. Doing it herself and seeing it right in front of her eyes were different!
Plus, the magic was not an element she could use, so it was totally a marvel to her.
When Allen turned around, wanting to talk to Ann, he was met with the girl’s clear eyes, looking straight at him with its clear and round pupils, plus an admiring gaze.
His heart instantly thumped faster seeing this kind of Ann.
“That’s amazing!” Ann quickly said after she made an eye contact with Allen.
Allen cleared his throat and threw his face aside so that he could calm his heart down as he said, “It’s nothing special, really. There are lots of people better than me.”
“Even so, that’s still great!” Ann genuinely complimented.
Receiving a praise from the woman he was fond of, Allen’s usually cold heart seemed to melt.
“Wanna try?” Allen asked.
“HUH?!” Ann reflexively raised her voice at the unexpected question, as well as the question she never wanted to hear the most.
“Uhm, it’s alright, really. I can’t really use magic—”
“I can teach you, then,” Allen quickly offered.
WHAT?!
What kind of blasphemy is it?!
A-Allen? Earth to the male capture target?
I am the villainess, you know!
You shouldn’t be teaching me how to use magic—you should be trying to prevent me from being able to fight at all!!!
Ann felt like her head was going to explode at this nonsense she was facing.
Either way, she had to refuse!
Ann shook her head strongly as she said, “It’s impossible! My magic is really weak and it’s really by luck I managed to use that magic earlier…”
Hearing Ann’s explanation, Allen frowned.
Her magic is weak?
He considered her magic to not be weak at all. Because of how rapid it happened, he didn’t get to observe clearly. But if she could use the weakest magic element—water—to knock down a small monster that quickly, her magic was in no way weak!
It could be considered strong! Or at the very least, if her power was enhanced due to being in crisis, her power could be considered a magic of moderate strength.
“I don’t think your magic is weak. Are you sure you don’t want to try practicing it with me?” Allen kept asking.
“Ah, uhm…,” Ann’s mind was drawing blank and her head’s CPU worked like a horse. She could feel that her head temperature was rising as a side effect of her using it to think like crazy.
“I really can’t! Look, I’m feeling dizzy now after using that magic earlier. I might faint if I try again, so…,” Ann quickly said.
It was a lie, though.
I was dizzy because I had to think really hard. That amount of magic didn’t even affect me the slightest…
“Really? That’s bad, then. If that’s the case, you shouldn’t use your magic unless it is in an emergency,” Allen said with concern.
“Yes, that’s what I’m thinking of, too!” Ann nodded like a chicken after hearing Allen’s response.
Thank goodness! I’m glad he doesn’t seem like he’s going to pursue this matter any more…
I do feel guilty for tricking him and made him that concerned, though…
To be honest, she didn’t know how far Allen and his allies knew of Princess Anne.
She only knew that Princess Anne’s Pure Water magic was kept hidden to most people. She didn’t like her element and didn’t want anyone to find out about it as she felt that it was so inferior.
She could have bragged about it at least to her husband, since being a female holder of a Pure Water magic meant that she could make her future child to be able to inherit the power of their male parent. The magical power of that child would be equal to the strongest parent or even greater than them.
With this characteristic of Pure Water magic, it was no wonder that Pure Water magic female holders would be well sought.
It was good to be wanted, but…
What she herself and the original owner of the body hated was also that. Because it would mean that people might objectify her and only saw her as a ‘furnace’ or a perfect incubator of a strong child.
Anyway, the original Anne didn’t even want to seek favor with her husband, so why bother?
As for Ann herself… She wouldn’t like it if she were to strike a deal with someone just to stay alive. Rather than being objectified like that, she’d rather just die.
Thus, she kept it for herself and could only pray that the protagonists of this story hadn’t found out her identity yet. She wasn’t ready yet. She would be readying herself when the time was drawing near, but it shouldn’t be now.
Other than that small incident, their vacation that day went without a hitch. Allen, Ann, and Faye didn’t proceed further after more or less finish exploring the Hunting Zone of Verde forest.
They managed to catch a few games and sent them to a nearby restaurant to cook before they left the place.
Eating the prey they had hunted themselves left a special taste. At least, that’s what Ann thought.
Before long, night fell and they had to quickly go to a place where they could rest.
Naturally, it would be the inn.
Allen came here prepared, so they directly went towards a famous inn in the village.
Even during the way towards the inn up until the very last moment before the revelation, Ann never imagined that…
She would be sharing a room with Allen!!!
