Youngest 030
by CristaeEpisode 30
Ahem, ahem! Senior Oberon, repeatedly clearing his throat for no reason, clapped his hands once with a stern expression.
“All right! That’s it for today’s training!”
He was a good lieutenant, always covering for his superior’s shortcomings.
I watched Oberon’s receding figure, then headed for the shade of a tree at the edge of the training grounds.
“Mister. Why are you sleeping out here?”
Snore, snore. The radiant, handsome man lay sleeping.
“Wake up!”
When I shook him, he cracked open one eye. Nearby, a stack of half-finished documents lay scattered.
“Ah, I was working.”
“Liar. You were sleeping.”
No matter what I said, Mister just stretched luxuriously before sitting up straight.
“All done playing?”
“I wasn’t playing!”
That training was hard work.
“Why are you working here, anyway? There’s a perfectly good office inside.”
“It’s hard to see things clearly from there.”
“…?”
“Let’s go get a snack.”
Mister lifted me up in one swoop.
Thanks to eating well and exercising diligently, I had definitely gotten heavier than before. I thought I’d grown a bit taller, too (though Void looked perplexed), but Mister still picked me up as easily as ever.
‘Must be northern water suiting me well.’
I truly felt like I was growing sturdier by the day.
“Oh, I’m going to tour the ramparts tomorrow!”
“Is that really something to be so excited about?”
“Of course it is! I’ve always wanted to go!”
Mister’s steady stride suddenly halted. His violet eyes met mine directly.
“If you wanted to, why didn’t you say so?”
“Eh?”
“How long have you wanted to go? If you’d said something, I would’ve taken you.”
I pursed my lips and blinked.
“Really?”
“Ruby, I told you,” Mister said in a sigh, brushing back my tangled hair.
“If there’s something you want, or something you want to do, don’t hesitate to tell me.”
“But I didn’t want to bother you…”
And I’d already thought of a way to manage it myself, so it felt odd to ask.
“Why would your request bother me…”
Mister trailed off.
His gaze dropped, heavy and searching.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Was it like this in Eosia too…?”
“…”
“Was it the same when you lived in Eosia?”
I fell silent. Mister’s lips moved as if to say more, then, after a pause, he went on.
“With your, uh, parents, I mean.”
“N-no.”
I looked away awkwardly.
Ah, I was lying more and more these days. Again, I felt a small, sharp pain in my chest.
But it was half true.
My parents… that is, the king and queen, I had never asked them for anything.
‘There was nothing I wanted over there.’
And they, too, never once wondered what I wanted. Even from when I was very young…
‘Hm?’
Suddenly, something felt off.
‘Come to think of it… what was it like when I was really little?’
My brow furrowed unconsciously. My body went rigid. When I was little? Very little?
“Ruby?”
Strangely, my memories were not smooth.
I remembered scenes, but the links between them felt awkward. Almost as though someone had forcibly cut and pasted my memories together.
“Rubian!”
“Yeah?!”
I jerked upright. Mister’s worried face filled my vision.
“Stop thinking. I’m sorry.”
He pulled me into a tight embrace. I simply blinked, my head resting on his broad shoulder.
“Huh?”
What had I just been thinking about?
“I made you remember something bad. That’s my fault. I’m sorry.”
But it wasn’t. It wasn’t Mister’s fault…
Still, I had no energy to say more. So I simply buried my face into his shoulder. His big, warm hand stroked my back.
It was an oddly comforting sensation.
The next day, as promised, I went to tour the ramparts.
“Wow! Amazing!”
The endless stretch of grey stone walls. The thickness alone looked sturdy enough to withstand any magical beast’s claws.
“Don’t get too wild, it’s dangerous.”
A gust of chilly wind blew my hood clear off.
Standing behind me, Senior Oberon pulled the hood back over my head.
‘Huh?’
As I looked up at him, a tower caught my eye. Several towers were built along the ramparts, spaced at regular intervals.
“What’s the bell on top of that tower for?”
“The one in the watchtower? If a magical beast attacks—or if anything happens to the wall—they ring it.”
“Oh, it’s like an emergency alarm!”
“Alarm? Well, yes, it’s rung in emergencies.”
Senior Oberon nodded.
“Are those all along the ramparts?”
“Yes. You never know where something might happen.”
Oh ho.
I stroked my chin and chuckled to myself.
‘Found it.’
A place to set the barrier stones. And a tool!
If I set a magic stone in the bell of that watchtower, I could extend a ward along the ramparts. More than that—
‘If an intruder triggers the barrier, it could ring the bell automatically and send an alert!’
And if I linked it to my magic, I’d be the first to know.
Just then, a hand slipped under my knees out of nowhere.
“My, my, what a strange thing to be interested in!”
It was the old lord—Grandfather. He had been shadowing me all morning and, in the end, had come along for the rampart tour.
“Whoa!”
From this new height, the blue sky felt even closer. The wind was fresher up high.
As Grandfather strode along the ramparts, I asked,
“Grandpa, why did you come, though?”
“Hmph! It’s been a while—I came to whip the fortress into shape!”
He pouted his lips.
“Oh, I see.”
“Tsk. I thought you’d put on some weight, but you’re just a wisp again after last night.”
He glanced at me with a grumble.
‘That’s just what Mister said this morning.’
Last night, both Mister and Void had slept in my room.
By now it was obvious.
‘I probably walk in my sleep.’
Why else would they watch over me all night…?
Suddenly, I felt a sense of crisis.
Nothing bad had happened, so they must not have touched me or anything.
‘Wait, what if I blabber nonsense in my sleep?’
A shudder ran through me.
At that moment—
Clang, clang, clang. The bell in the watchtower rang madly.
I covered my ears, the piercing noise threatening to split my eardrums.
“Sir Oberon! It’s a raid. Magical beasts!”
“Tch, I thought it’d be quiet for a while after sweeping them up the other day.”
A subordinate came running from afar. Senior Oberon’s face changed, his hand going to his hip.
“The number?”
“Thirty—no, forty grizzlies!”
“Tch. Lord Balok.”
“I know.”
Grandfather’s eyes flashed with dangerous sharpness.
The very air seemed to harden; I shrank under its weight.
“No need to be afraid. They’re just small fry.”
Grandfather said as he firmly fastened my cloak.
“Okay.”
I wasn’t scared. After all, I knew my grandfather and the knight uncles were all incredibly strong.
The magical beasts’ energy drew closer.
I felt a prickling surge of magic, but I didn’t let it show.
“Send the defensive knights. Has the main keep been informed?”
“A messenger should be there by now.”
“Hmm. Good.”
A subtle tension hung in the air.
Yet, here, even that felt routine. No one panicked or rushed.
They moved with the practiced discipline of habit.
“Ah, Your Grace, it might be a good chance to test out the new arrowheads,” Oberon said to Grandfather.
Balok, heading for the stairs that led down the wall, nodded.
“Yes, test them and report back.”
“Yes, sir! Now, time to get Rubian to safety.”
“Go, go now.”
“Prepare the archery unit! Tell them to keep the beasts from scattering…”
Oberon’s voice ordering the junior knights faded into the distance.
Grandfather held me tight as he headed for the stairs. At the moment he stepped down—
Boom!
A monstrous roar shook the heavens.
“Impossible!”
I whipped my head up.
The magical beasts’ presence had vanished?
“Child! Don’t look up!”
Grandfather’s rough hand pressed my head down. As a result, all I could see was gray smoke rising outside the ramparts—but nothing else.
Grandfather’s gravelly voice thundered.
“What’s going on? An explosion—don’t they know who’s here today?”
“Your Grace! Vice-captain!”
Someone came running frantically.
“What is the meaning of this?”
“Th-the thing is…”
The breathless adjutant spoke quickly.
“The magical beasts were annihilated—suddenly!”
“What?”
Exactly as I’d expected.
“Someone appeared and wiped them out in an instant…”
“Who was it?”
“Well, uh…”
At that moment, Grandfather’s aura cooled dangerously. The sword master’s ki, exceeding human limits, began to leak from his body.
“An enemy? Don’t tell me… a mage?”
Chills ran down my spine at the hostility in his voice.
“I’m not sure. But—”
The adjutant hastily added,
“It looked like… a boy…!”
This time, I couldn’t keep from raising my head.