Chapter 20: Marina’s Decision

Well, this is awkward…

The two of us ended up sharing the bath, sitting opposite to each other in such a cramped space. Naturally, both of us were completely naked, though most of our bodies were covered by the water. 

And Sherry, well, she had avoided looking at my general direction ever since we both stripped. Understandable. She was a nice and pure-hearted girl after all, unlike me, who’s a perverted bastard. And like the bastard that I was, I couldn’t help but take a peek at her nakedness.

Hmm, less exciting than I thought it would be. After all, she was still covered with mud all over, ruining her smooth white skin. And, conveniently for her, mud also covered her completely flat chest, as well as what was down there.

She was really quite thin, though not to the point that her bones were visible. Hmm, no muscles whatsoever? That’s odd. She had trained that much with Father. Not to mention her own super strength.

Looking at her like this, there were no remnants of her orphan life whatsoever. She looked completely like a normal, well-cared and fed child. In fact, she might even be able to pass as a noble’s child.

“Hey, umm… congratulations… on your victory. You must be happy, huh? Your hard work finally paying off at last?” She was still looking away from me. Really, what’s even the point of inviting me in here if you’re going to be like that? Just look at me if you want. I don’t mind.

“Yeah…” I replied, smiling wistfully. “I can finally protect you, Sherry.”

“Hmph, who needs your protection?” She huffed. “I should be the one to protect you instead. You’re a mage and I’m a swordswoman. I fight on the front while you stay at the back. That’s how it should be.”

“That’s true,” I couldn’t help but chuckle a little. “But still, I don’t want to lose to you, Sherry. It’s just that, well, Marina is already leagues stronger than me. And I don’t want to be the weakest in the family. I guess I feel I don’t want to get left behind.”

“Left behind?” She suddenly turned towards me with an angry look. “Are you an idiot? None of us would ever leave you behind! Marina wouldn’t and I certainly wouldn’t either!”

I sighed, before returning to a smile. “I know, I know. You two are really nice people after all. It’s really more about my ego more than anything. Since we’re going to become an adventuring party in the future, I don’t want to be the weakest chain in the link. And besides…” I paused, my smile disappearing once more.

“Besides what?” Sherry asked impatiently.

“If any of you got hurt or even died because of my weakness, I would never be able to forgive myself.”

I didn’t know how Sherry reacted to my confession. This time, it’s my turn to avert my gaze away.

“… It’s the same with me, you know. If you get hurt while I’m there, I will despise myself forever.”

I looked up, and saw that her eyes had started to water. She folded her knees, resting her chin on them.

“…So don’t just think you’re the only one with that burden, alright?” She looked at me, with a tear trailing down her cheek.

I smiled. Without hesitation, I gave her a pat on the head. “Thank you Sherry. Hearing that makes me really happy.”

“Now, why don’t I be the one to give you a wash instead?” I grinned.

“E-eh? B-but I—”

“No need to be shy! It’s just the back after all! Gotta scrub all the mud of that body of yours, right?”

I didn’t know what came over me at that time. I, being the terribly shy person that I was, should have never been so bold.

And yet, with her telling me that, it was as if a huge boulder had been lifted up from my chest.

I wasn’t alone. I shouldn’t bear the burden to protect all by myself.

Sherry too wanted to protect me, just as I wanted to protect her. And Marina no doubt felt the same way.

We’re family after all. We would lay down our lives to protect each other.

—-

Marina

“Hmm… hmm hmm… gonna take a bath with my cute Hugo~ Gonna wash his back until he’s all clean and nice~”

I was mumbling those words as I strode happily into the changing room, just before the bathroom.

He did it! He beat Sherry! And the way he fought, it was brilliant! I knew he could do it!

And so to celebrate, we’re going to have a good and nice bonding time together in the baths!

…Eh?

He’s not here?

Has he come inside?

Hehe, I’ll just join him then!

I took off my clothes, leaving them in a basket nearby. Hmm, I wonder if I should give him my panties again… This teal pair is pretty cute after all…

Oh well, I’ll think about that later! Now, I’m going to have so much fun teasing my little Hugo! I wonder how he will react if I just barge in completely naked like this. I bet he will turn as red as a tomato! Especially since my boobs have gotten bigger after all!

When I was about to open the door however, I stopped.

I could hear it—laughter coming from inside. Hugo’s laughter.

And another voice. Sherry’s voice.

“See! I can be gentle!”

“I-I really should be the one washing your back, you know…”

E-eehhhh? Hugo and Sherry, they’re already inside, taking their baths together?

Immediately I put my left ear onto the wooden door, wanting to get a better listen on their conversation.

“Nope! Maid Sherry is taking a break today! Young Lady Sherry is on the menu!”

“Y-young Lady? B-but I—”

“And I, Hugo Greenwood, is your loyal butler. So, I ask you, Miss Sherry, are you enjoying my back scrubbing techniques so far?”

“Y-yes… J-just don’t go too close to my armpits, alright? I-I’m quite ticklish there…”

I see… So that’s how it is…

With a bitter smile, I slowly took a few steps backwards away from the door.

If I enter, I would only disturb their own bonding session.

Well, this is good. If Hugo is really going to marry her in the future, this is exactly the kind of thing they should be doing. He’s learning how to be a good husband, all on his own.

There’s no need for me to coddle him anymore.

—-

Hugo

“Father, Mother, I would like to spend this summer doing quests for the Adventurer Guild.”

I nearly spit out my milk when Marina announced that at our dinner table.

“W-what? What comes over you all of a sudden?” 

“YY-yes! Don’t you have your usual magic training with Hugo?” 

Father and Mother were clearly taken by surprise as well, with the former spitting out his water and the latter dropping her fork.

“Oh, he doesn’t need it anymore,” she answered. “You saw it yourself today after all, Father—how he fought and won against Sherry. I feel there’s nothing much for me to teach him anymore.”

“What? But that’s not true!” I immediately protested. “I… I still don’t know how to cast combination magic! Not to mention reaching Master-level stuff!”

“That… you learn on your own,” she replied, looking towards me. Wait, is it just me or does she look a little more irritated than usual?

“I already have my adventurer card by the way. Registered myself in Mira this year. You can gain credits by completing quests there, and I really have nothing else better to do in the weekends, so I thought, why not?”

Oh, that’s right. You only needed to be ten years old to be registered as an adventurer. Marina, who’s already twelve, certainly could register.

She put down what looked like an ordinary card to the table. Curious, I picked it up and read what was written on it.

Those were what was written on the front in big letters, while there were still more words written on the back, in a tiny font, describing a bunch of rights and duties associated with being a member of the guild.

Father then took the card of my hand and gave it a good look as well. Then he gave it to Mother, who also gave it a thorough look.

“I can’t believe it… my little Marina… already an adventurer…” Mother said, covering her mouth in disbelief.

“…Alright. Fine. You can go.” Father took the card from her hands and returned it to her. “Why didn’t you tell us earlier? I don’t believe you ever talked about being an adventurer in your letters.” He crossed his arms, looking all stern.

“I simply do not want to worry you, that’s all,” she replied, as calm as ever. “I only did quests that I believed I could handle. The Academy actually gave us students guidelines and advice on what kind of quests we should take. Really, it’s more like the Academy giving us extra homework on top of the ones we already had.”

Wow, she really is the honor student type, isn’t she?

“Not to mention that I don’t go on the quests alone. I have a friend with me.” She’s most likely referring to the “Alincia” girl she had mentioned in her letters. Two mages are kind of a bad party composition though.

“But you’re going to do it alone now, aren’t you?” Father replied with a concerned look. “Neither Hugo or Sherry is old enough to join the guild after all.”

“That’s fine. I’ll find someone to party with once I’m there.”

“Oh no, definitely not,” Father quickly rebuked her. “Do you know how many bad adventurers out there who would take advantage of new adventurers like you? Not to mention all the other shady folks out there in the city. Aarom might be not that big of a place, but it’s still a dangerous place for a little girl like you to be out on your own.”

Aarom was the nearest city from Karha, the village Father was in charge of protecting (and the one we’re currently living in, though technically we’re at its outskirts, separate from it). You would go down the hill region that we’re in, and right in the middle of the large road that could take you either to the capital or the border towards the Magocracy. If you walked at a casual pace, it would take around an entire day to get there from here. Yeah, still pretty far, isn’t it? It can’t be helped. We’re in the boonies after all.

“Fine. Then I won’t be joining any parties. I’ll just do the quests on my own.”

“That’s even more dangerous!”

At this point, Father was starting to yell at her. But she kept her composure, not showing a single sign of fear on her face. 

Is she getting to that age where a child starts to get all rebellious to the parent? Well, twelve is already pretty close to that teenage age range…

“Father, do I have to prove myself to you first? I’m fine with doing a spar with you if you want,” she said with a cold expression.

W-whoa! Scary!

The two stayed like that for what felt like an eternity, glaring at each other. The tension—I could cut it with a knife! Mother just looked all worried while Sherry continued to glance towards me, as if questioning what we should do. Hey, don’t ask me!

“Fine. You may go.” He let out a defeated sigh, relaxing back on his seat. “Really, you’re just like me when I was young. I started out when I was ten, you know. And I was certainly as stubborn and confident as you.” His frown turned into a proud smile.

“Alan, you can’t—”

“It’s fine, Renee,” he replied to his wife. “She’s grown up after all. And you always say how she’s more mature than she looks.”

“But—”

“It would be a good experience for her,” he added. “There shouldn’t be any terribly dangerous quests in Aarom. The monsters around here are weak, and there are no dungeons around. The quests she’ll get will most likely be just herbs and monster parts gathering quests.”

Eventually, Mother seemed to relent, though her expression clearly said she was still not 100% onboard his decision.

“Thank you Father, Mother. I’ll only be doing it for a month, so don’t you worry. I’ve spent most of the summer teaching Hugo after all.”

I glanced towards Sherry. She nodded. It seemed she had the same idea as I did.

“Sis, take me with you! Me and Sherry! Sure, we’re not old enough to become an official adventurer but we can certainly—”

“No, Hugo.” In an instant, she shot my idea down. “You stay here and take care of Erika, alright? You’re his big brother after all. Give more attention to her, would you? I heard from Mother how she loved being coddled by you. This month, take a break from all your training and go play with her instead. Can you do that, Hugo? For me? And for her?”

That smile. Even if I wanted to refuse, I simply couldn’t.

She was right. I had somewhat neglected her, as I was too focused with my training, not really giving any time for her. I would train from morning to dusk, and afterwards, I would take my bath, eat, and go straight to bed, as I was too tired to do anything else.

Just recently, she could walk on her own. We could take a walk around the house then. Maybe we could even go to the village! If Mother allowed for it, of course.

Though I couldn’t help but wonder if something was wrong. Knowing her, the bro-con wouldn’t miss a chance spending more time with her little brother, especially if she could brag while she was doing so, which I imagined she would do as I knew nothing about being an adventurer while she was already experienced in the matter—relatively speaking, of course.

But now, out of the blue, it’s as if she suddenly wanted to put a distance between us. Did I do something wrong? Or was it just her feeling she was finished with teaching me after I beat Sherry? I wouldn’t blame her. She had spent so much of her own time teaching me that It wouldn’t be odd for her to feel burned out by the whole thing.

“And besides,” she added with a slight smirk. “Let poor Sherry catch up with you a little.”

That’s right. After our bath, she declared that she would one day defeat me again. She would train even harder with Father, and challenge me once she felt she was ready. I accepted her statement with a smile, of course, telling her that I too wouldn’t stop my training. A healthy competition. What’s there to lose?

“Alright, Sis. I’ll do it,” I answered with a slightly sad look. “Aaah, and I was so looking forward to the trip too. I haven’t been to Aarom after all.” I put my hands behind my head, pouting a little.

“It’s… nothing special…” Sherry spoke up with a pensive look.

Oh, right. Her orphanage was there after all. I nearly forgot. Judging by her expression, she probably wasn’t that fond of the city.

“Marina, please be careful of pickpockets, alright? Some of the more unruly kids in my orphanage… they’d like to steal the purses of unassuming travelers just so they could get some coins to buy stuff with.”

That look on her face… she most likely felt a sense of shame from what those kids were doing. And possibly guilt as well. Yep, definitely guilt.

Hold on, she’s not one of those kids, is she?

Hmm, no. She’s too honest of a person to do that. So it’s just guilt by association, which I always found to be a pretty silly concept, if I were to be honest.

“Nicole would always try to stop them, but they would just shove her aside. And if she told on them to the nuns, they would cruelly bully her in retaliation. If not for me, I wouldn’t know how she could survive them…”

I could just imagine Sherry angrily beating up a bunch of kids bigger than her, just to gallantly save her friend. Yep. That’s the kind of person she was, after all. She would do it even if that meant perpetuating her “title” as a Demon Child, ostracizing her even more as a result. Not to mention the punishment she probably got for resorting to raw violence like that.

Oh those poor kids… I would never dare facing against her when she’s angry. Not in a thousand years.

Well, they deserved it anyways. What can I say? I hate bullies with all my might.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Marina returned with a smile. “That’s another reason why having a spatial storage spell is so convenient.”

“Couldn’t they steal your wand though?” I asked. “Don’t you still need it to use that spell?”

“Oh, they certainly could,” She turned to face me. “But how many ways do you think a mage could stop a running pickpocket without her wand?”

“Umm? A lot?”

“Exactly. I’m not one of those beginner mages who could only cast straightforward spells with their long chants after all. I’ve shown it to you, right? How you can manipulate wind to snatch things from a distance?”

Before I realized it, my fork flew right off my left hand, straight into her right. Twirling the utensil on the tip of her finger, she smiled. “Like this.”

That level of finesse… I wasn’t sure if I could do it myself. Not to mention that she did it without her wand.

“So really, there’s nothing to worry about. I won’t be bested by mere pickpockets, especially if they’re just kids like you say.” She looked back at Sherry.

—-

The next morning, right after breakfast, Marina departed. That way, she would arrive at Aarom right before night fell. We all said our goodbyes to her, with Mother giving her a hearty hug and a boxed meal for her to eat on the road. I stood there with little Erika, who was holding onto my left hand. As promised, I would start paying more attention to her, starting from today.

“Be careful, alright, Sis?” I gave her a reassuring smile. Oh, I was definitely worried for sure, but at the same time, I knew how clever of a person she was. For example, she wouldn’t be caught off-guard by an unscrupulous person slipping some sleeping medicine into her drink in a bar to kidnap and sell her as a slave, right?

…Aaaarrghh, I’m worried after all!

I nearly decided to just follow her once she left, stalking her for the entire month without her knowing.

Thankfully, Father told me that he would be the one doing that instead.

Yep, that was the only reason he agreed. After the dinner last night, he immediately told his plan to Mother. If he hadn’t, he probably had to sleep somewhere else that night, hehe.

I, on the other hand, was only told this morning. Damn it, Dad! I spent all night worrying for nothing!

Well, with him on the lookout for her, there’s really nothing to worry about. I could send her off with a genuine smile.

Aah, I can’t wait until I’m old enough to be an adventurer myself! Just three more years!